FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Street Hero”

Have you ever thought about how many decisions you make in a single day?  We’re talking everything from what to wear to school to who to eat lunch with to whether or not you go to the gym this afternoon and many, many more.  How may would you guess?  Hundreds?  Thousands?  My quick internet search pulled up a study in USA Today that said adults make an average of 35,000 conscious decisions each day, and children make about 3,000.

That’s a LOT.

Of course, most of them are pretty meaningless.  I mean, no one’s really going to impacted by your choice to have cereal for breakfast instead of french toast.  In fact, most people won’t even know…unless you spill syrup on your shirt.  The general public won’t notice that you chose to wear a ponytail, or that you decided to pay a little extra on your mortgage this month to help reduce your debt, or that you switched from ground beef to ground turkey to help your family get healthier.  (Ok, your family may realize that one, but no one else will.)  

Even the big decisions go unnoticed.  You bought a new car.  The cute guy in your science class asked you to go to prom.  You decided to start working out and get healthy.  No one will know any of that unless you tell them or they see you in the car, with the cute guy, or at the gym.  

It’s almost sad that some things that can change our lives so much are so unobservable.  Jesus thought so, too.  When a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to talk with Jesus late one night, the Savior tried to open Nicodemus’s eyes to what a relationship with God would really be like.  Have a family member read John 3:1-15 to see what He had to say.  

We must be born again to have a relationship with God.  Hmmm…that’s a little strange.  Or is it?

Have you ever seen a newborn?  They look noticeably different from anything else, right?  I mean, you would never confuse a six-month old and a six-day old.  Newborns are small, even the “big” ones.  Their skin is wrinkly and pink, and their eyes are kind of squinty.  They only make two sounds, one when they eat and one when they cry.  And they have that awesome new baby smell.  It doesn’t matter the nationality or gender or economic status—you can tell a newborn.

Jesus says that if we want to have a relationship with God, we need an experience that is like being born all over again.  Thankfully He’s not talking about diapers and bottles; He’s talking about starting life all over again, this time with hearts wiped clean from sin.  The decision to have a relationship with God, to ask Jesus to be your Savior is HUGE!  It’s one of those things that people should notice in you.  Just like you tell a newborn baby when you see one, your friends and family should be able to tell you’re a newborn—a newly born child of the one true King.  Making the choice to follow Jesus means you should talk differently than you did.  Your words will be kinder and more encouraging.  It means you should act differently.  Your deeds will serve others and show a love you didn’t have before.  It means you will think differently, no longer focused on what you want and what’s best for you, but instead thinking about what will bless God and others.  Being a child of God is a noticeable thing!

Do your friends and family know that you are a Christian?  Can they tell that you’ve been “born again” and restarted your life with Jesus in the lead?  Or are you living pretty much the same as you always did?  What kind of changes do you need to make so that others can see the new life growing inside you?  How can your family help you make those changes?

Maybe the thing you need to do is be born again.  Maybe you haven’t asked Jesus to be your personal Savior.  If not, talk with your family about your desire to have Jesus wipe your heart clean from sin.  Pray together, confessing your sins, asking for forgiveness, and claiming Jesus as your Lord.  Then talk about new decisions you can make to put Jesus first in your life. 

FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “Street Hero”

I am a firm believer in chores.  Not that I enjoy them particularly—I’m not that kind of crazy.  It’s just that I realize that it takes a lot of work to keep a household or business running, and chores are a necessary part of that process.  And in my opinion, if you are a part of that group, then you have some kind of responsibility to help with the process.  So I’m willing to push up my sleeves and do what needs to be done: dishes, laundry, dusting, etc.  All that being said, there are certainly some chores I prefer waaaaaaaaaay more than others, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one.

Some chores are just mentally or physically overwhelming.  I’m not sure why, but it just seems like certain tasks are extra-taxing.  For example, I don’t mind washing dishes, but I despise putting them away.  I can scrub plates all day long, even crusty baked-on lasagna pans, but when I see a dishwasher or sink full of clean dishes that need putting away, my heart sinks and all of my will to live escapes me.  Can I get an “Amen”?

Other to-do’s are just too gross.  Perhaps the thought of pulling hair out of the drain makes yours stand on end.  Or maybe you’d rather clean the whole house than have to clean up after the dog…or cat…or baby.  Doo-doo to-do’s are universally undesirable, right? 

Back when I was single, I woke up one morning to discover an opossum had died in my yard overnight.  (It was the swarm of flies that tipped me off.)  Realize, that was at least 15 years ago, but even as I type this I can feel my shoulders creeping up to my ears in disgust.  I had no idea how to dispose of the corpse, and I didn’t even want to try to figure it out.  Praise God for friendly neighbors who come bearing shovels and black trash bags!  Isn’t it a blessing when someone is willing to do that nasty task for you?

What about you?  What are your least favorite chores?  What grosses you out or seems too much to handle?  Who steps in to help you out when it’s your turn to do that too-tough, too-yucky task?

I can only imagine the things you’re sharing right now.  Some of them are probably more disgusting than I care to imagine.  I’d wager that none of you included this on your list: die for your sins.  (If you did mention it, I hope you dropped the mic, because that is the worst of the worst as far as chores are concerned.)  We don’t really think about, but according to the Bible, this is something we all have to do.  I mean, you could skip making your bed or brushing your teeth (please don’t), but dying for our sins is a requirement.  “[F]or all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,…[and] the wages of sin is death,…” (Romans 3:23; 6:23)  What a horrible, depressing, overwhelming, yucky task!  Death!!  (Unless, of course, you haven’t sinned?  Yeah…didn’t think so.)

Aren’t we blessed that we have someone who stepped in to handle that chore for us!  Read what John the Baptist said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)  That’s exactly what Easter is all about, right?  We celebrate that through His death on the cross, Jesus died for ALL of our sins.  That’s ALL of the sins for ALL of us. That means, if we have a relationship with Jesus, we can permanently cross “die for sins” off our to-do lists. Hallelujah! 

Take time together as a family praying and praising Jesus for doing the horrible task of dying for your sins.    Mom and Dad, if your kids have not prayed and asked Jesus to save them from their sins, now is the perfect time.  Ask them if they would like to invite Jesus to come into their hearts and forgive them of their sins.  Guide them as they pray.  They celebrate!!  Share the news with friends, family, and church leaders so they can celebrate, too!

FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “99+1”

So here’s a question: do you remember the last time you questioned God?  Now, I didn’t say, “When was the last time you had questions for God?”  I mean when’s the last time you struggled with who God is.  Do you remember having real doubts?  Was there a time you wrestled with whether or not this whole “Jesus thing” was really worth it?  Have you ever fallen into a pattern of thinking that life may just be easier if you called your own shots and got to do whatever you wanted to without needing “guidance” from the Father?  

That’s exactly what happens to the main character in our story today.  Jesus wraps up His “lost-and-found” trilogy with one of the most well-known parables in scripture.  Grab a Bible and read Luke 15:11-14.

I love scripture.  Really, I do.  But there are times I wish it was written in the last century, because then it would include some of the emotional details that make the stories so powerful.  This son disgraced his father.  By taking his inheritance early, he basically told Dad he wished he were dead.  Then he ran away from home and did the young adult version of blowing it all in Toys R Us.  Great plan!  Only after he was scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel, homeless and hungry, did he finally realize what he’d had in his relationship with his father.  And the cool part of this story is that, even with all of the hurt and stupid decisions, it’s the father who comes running down the road to meet his thankless son.  It’s the father who glosses over his son’s apology and goes straight into party-planning mode.  

This is the ultimate reconciliation story.  We love those!  But we don’t always know when we’re in one…or when we need to be in one.  Do you remember your own “prodigal” story?  Do you remember when you were living your own life, far away from the Father?  Do you remember when you decided to “go back” into relationship with him?  How he opened his arms of forgiveness and brought you into the family? 

Maybe this isn’t a story from your past but something you’re going through right now.  Are you wrestling with who God is: is he real, is he worth it, is he someone I should really choose to follow?  Maybe you’re living by your own rules, questioning whether you even need “the Father.”  It’s amazing how quickly we can slip into that kind of thinking, either because life seems to be going fine without a lot of holy help, or because we’re frustrated with the help we are getting.

I remember a conversation I had back when I was a youth pastor.  One of my teens very candidly shared that he fully intended to be the prodigal son.  “I want to be able to have my fun now when I’m young.  There will be plenty of time for God when I’m older.”  It’s been over 10 years, and that thought still weighs on me.  First of all, I’m older, I love God, and I still have fun.  But more importantly, this young man chose a life of sin, chose to turn his back on God…and he’s still wandering around all these years later, lost.

It took him a bit, but the prodigal son realized that the fun he so desperately wanted only lasted for a short while.  Then he was stuck in a life he wanted no part in.  He recognized that life with father, a life of being loved and cared for, was way better than anything else he could get for himself.  Do you know that today?  There are a lot of things tempting us out there, lots of different ideas about the right way to live.  But nothing—NOTHING—is better than being loved and cared for by the Creator himself.  It doesn’t matter what choices you’ve made, God is looking for you.  You could be questioning and doubting, or you could be flat-out running away—God is looking for you.  Maybe frustration has started to set in, or maybe you’ve been living with some sins for years—God is looking for you.  There is absolutely nothing you could do that will keep him from reaching out to you.  I guarantee that if you start walking back to God right now, he will come bolting to meet you and, according to verse 10, throw a welcome home party like you’ve never seen before.

We are working together as families to reach the +1’s God has placed in our schools, our neighborhoods, and our work places.  Before we do that, let’s reach out to the +1’s in our homes.  See if anyone sitting with you wants to pray right now and leave that sin-filled life, leave the frustrations and the doubts, and ask God to welcome them back home.  Then gather together and pray.  There are no magic words.  Just ask God to forgive you and be your Father.  Then end your family time with a little party…just like the angels!

FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “There Was an Old Lady Who Believed in Jesus”

Supplies: Bible

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Do you remember the children’s song “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly?”  I know an old lady who swallowed a fly.  I don’t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she’ll die.  I taught preschool for a few years, and my four- and five-year olds always loved that song.  If you have young children…or if you’re young at heart…take a few minutes and have a fun family sing-along.  (In case you need a reminder, here’s the progression: fly, spider, bird, cat, dog, goat, cow, horse.)  

READ

Read Romans 10:1-17 together.

THINK

The song selection may seem weird, but whenever I read these verses in Romans, something triggers a memory from kindergarten of watching a flannel graph version of this bizarre lady ingesting the entire barnyard.  I think it’s the pattern of connecting one thing to another, only instead of tracking animals through her digestive track, Paul tracks the steps through salvation.  Let me elaborate…

First off, I love these verses!  How great is it to read that everyone—EVERYONE—who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!  In this passage, we learn the key.  Paul shares the not-so-secret steps to eternal life.  If we want to know the joy of forgiveness, the power of grace, we just need to do two things.  1) We need to believe, to fully and completely accept the truth of what Jesus accomplished on the cross with His resurrection.  And 2), we need to tell other people that Jesus is our Lord.  That’s it.  That’s amazing!  And like we already said, it’s available to every single person on the planet.

So what’s the problem then?  If it really is that simple, and if everybody qualifies, why isn’t the whole world heaven-bound?  Specifically, why aren’t some of our friends and family members?  This is where Paul’s steps come in.  He helps us see some of the missing links, the short-circuited points that may be keeping some people from connecting with Jesus.  You see, everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.  But to call on the Lord, you have to believe in Jesus.  And to believe in Jesus, you have to hear about Him.  And to hear about Him, you have to have someone tell you about Him.  And to have someone tell you about Him, that someone has to be sent out to share.  You could almost sing the song…”They sent the person to preach the good news; she preached the good news so you could hear; you heard about Jesus so you could believe; you believed in Jesus so you could call on the Lord; you called on the Lord so you could be saved. Oh, praise His name, now you can be saved!  You’ll never die.”

It’s true that salvation requires a person believe in their own heart and confess with their own mouth.  That step can only be accomplished through the call of the Holy Spirit and the obedience and surrender of the person being called.  However, Paul reminds us that we have roles in this process.  We are links in the chain to salvation.  The love of Jesus is rarely experienced in a vacuum.  He uses us—our voice, our lives, our stories and experiences—to “preach” the good news to the people around us.  Each day He sends us out into our neighborhoods, our schools, our work places, our community…even our own homes.  Are we going to be the links that connect others to Jesus?  If we don’t, perhaps they’ll die…

APPLY

Moms and dads, now is a perfect time to talk to your kids about their relationship with Jesus.  You are the perfect person to “preach” the good news to them and walk them through the steps of believing and confessing Jesus as their Savior!  They may not be ready, but if they are, remember that there are no magic words.  All they need to do is talk with Jesus about where they’re at.  If your child does invite Jesus to be his or her Savior, would you please share with our staff?  We’d really like to celebrate with you!

It could be everyone in your house has already taken that awesome step of faith. Yay!  Now, start asking God who he’s sending you out to connect with.  Are there a few people you’re already thinking of, people you want to see get connected with Jesus?  Begin praying that the Holy Spirit will help you “preach” the love of Jesus in ways that these people will hear and embrace.  Ask for strength, courage, and wisdom to know when to begin conversations that will help people believer.  Then cover these people in prayer that they once they hear, they will believe and call on His name.  Glory to God!

PRAY

Heavenly Father, through your unending love you have made a way for us to be saved.  We don’t deserve it and yet there it is—available to anyone who calls on your name.  Thank you, Lord!  Help us be the voices that others can hear, so that they can also believe and call on your name. In Your Name we pray, Amen.

REPLY

Did you and your family enjoy this devotional blog?  We'd love to know about it!  Our hope is to continue providing this weekly opportunity for families to do a devotion together.  If your family did this devotion, please shoot us an email, text or just post a comment to this blog.