God given ability to excuse and accuse – Romans 2:15
Keep Clean -
1 Corinthians 4:4
2 Corinthians 1:12
Acts 24:16
1 Timothy 1:19
Hebrews 13:18

Don’t reject a good conscience – 1 Timothy 1:19
Don’t sear (cauterize) your conscience – 1 Timothy 4:2
Conscience is not infallible – 1 Corinthians 4:4

Introduction to Family Devotions
7 Principles to Guide Family Devotions
10 Suggestions on What to Do for Family Devotions
4 Practical Suggestions for Family Devotions
When NOT to Have Family Devotions
4 Questions to Ask When Reading Your Bible

While you are here, you might also check out the verse lists for topical studies if you have older children and our booklet for training your family in public worship.

A couple of paragraphs stand out in particular:

Many professing Christians give little evidence of valuing Jesus more than the latest movie they have seen. Or the latest clothing they bought. Or the latest app they downloaded. Or the latest game they watched. Something is amiss.

He suggests asking:

“I love your enthusiasm for the things you get excited about. You’re so free and expressive about good movies and nice clothes and cool apps. It seems odd to me that you don’t seem to be as expressive about the way you feel about Jesus and what he’s done for us. Have you thought about why that might be?”

The point of this query is to help them see that the problem is not joyfully loving good created things. The problem is the apparent absence of similar affections for Christ.

As parents, we need to shepherd our children young and old through these temptations. Watch this space for more writing on this soon.

Read the whole article.

Before we get to what she has to say, let’s start with the Scriptural references. Scripture commands that Christians can only marry “in the Lord” that is to say, to another Christian (1 Corinthians 7:39). We are not to be unequally yoked (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). In the Old Testament we see that intermarriage was forbidden because the hearts of the people would be stolen away from God. See Deuteronomy 7:3-4,6; Joshua 23:12-13; 1 Kings 11:1-8; Ezra 9, particularly 12-14).

Now Kathy’s very practical words:

There are really only three outcomes of being unequally yoked:

1. In order to be more in sync with your spouse, the Christian will have to push Christ to the margins of his or her life. This may not involve actually repudiating the faith, but in matters such as devotional life, hospitality to believers (small group meetings, emergency hosting of people in need), missionary support, tithing, raising children in the faith, fellowship with other believers—those things will have to be minimized or avoided in order to preserve peace in the home.
2. Alternatively, if the believer in the marriage holds on to a robust Christian life and practice, the non-believing PARTNER will have to be marginalized. If he or she can’t understand the point of Bible study and prayer, or missions trips, or hospitality, then he or she can’t or won’t participate alongside the believing spouse in those activities. The deep unity and oneness of a marriage cannot flourish when one partner cannot fully participate in the other person’s most important commitments.
3. So either the marriage experiences stress and breaks up; or it experiences stress and stays together, achieving some kind of truce that involves one spouse or the other capitulating in some areas, but which leaves both parties feeling lonely and unhappy.

Does this sound like the kind of marriage you want? One that strangles your growth in Christ or strangles your growth as a couple, or does both? Think back to that off-cited passage in 2 Corinthians 6:14 about being “unequally yoked.” Most of us no longer live in an agrarian culture, but try to visualize what would happen if a farmer yoked together, say, an ox and a donkey. The heavy wooden yoke, designed to harness the strength of the team, would be askew, as the animals are of different heights, weights, walk at different speeds and with different gaits. The yoke, instead of harnessing the power of the team to complete the task, would rub and chafe BOTH animals, since the load would be distributed unequally. An unequal marriage is not just unwise for the Christian, it is also unfair to the non-Christian, and will end up being a trial for them both.

And then a final devastating line:“If you think you are lonely before you get married, it’s nothing compared to how lonely you can be AFTER you are married!”

Talk with your older children about this today. Read the whole article.

Our family has homeschooled in the past and continues so this year. However homeschooling is not for everyone. I am a strong supporter of school choice. Monopolies always are wasteful. Competition always drives excellence. Give parents many options when it comes to education and watch our academic achievement as a nation soar. If we give parents lots of options, good teachers and adminstrators will be rewarded and the bad ones canned. If we are given options, the cost of education will go down.

It’s time to end the monopolies that government schools have on our lives and wallet. Here is a website to check out.

It should be on our agenda. One of the best things that can happen to our children is for them to lose some competition.

Shocking?  

Losing and suffering are part of life. Can we (and our children) praise the Lord in the valley as well as the mountain top?

Tim Tebow provided an excellent example Saturday night of honoring the Lord even in the crushing 45-10 defeat.He was asked:

There’s been a lot of talk this year about faith and winning. As Solomon said, ‘Victory belongs to the Lord.’ What about losing? How do you make sense of what’s the end of your season?

Tim responds in a God honoring way:

Well, something I pray before games, during games, and after games is regardless whether I win, whether I lose, whether I’m the hero or the goat — it doesn’t matter — that I still honor the Lord and give Him the glory because He’s deserving of it. And just like my effort shouldn’t change, neither should that. So that’s how I try to approach it. Sometimes even in a loss you can honor Him more. And so, for me I just pray that my character and who I am doesn’t change. Even though you can be dejected, you can still feel hurt, you can be disappointed; but you can still honor the Lord with how you handle things. (my emphasis in bold)

That is a powerful, God-honoring answer. Our children want to win in competitions. . Are we thankful for defeats as a chance to teach them character lessons like this?

May my children and your children honor the Lord in handling victory and handling defeat!

Read the whole thing.

Tim’s mother chose life. And now we have Tim Tebow. How many other “superstars” have been aborted on the doctor’s advice?

And, as Randy Alcorn makes the point, even if Tim had been a special needs child, aren’t they all precious in God’s sight?

Read Randy’s whole article! 

And since I live in New England, whoever wins on Saturday will make me happy.

Delighting in the Lord Together

Well it turns out that New Covenant was way ahead of its time.

“In their new book, Sticky Faith, Kara Powell (hey great first name) and Chap Clark (hey really great first name!!!) cite a six-year-long research project that discovered that out of 13 youth-group variables, intergenerational worship and discipleship correlated the strongest with mature faith among students in high school and college.” (CT, December, p.15) my editorial comments in the parentheses.

Did you see that? Intergenerational worship is important!

You can find an electronic copy of the booklet or order paperback copies from our resource center.

Maybe you are asking why start again when I know that I will slack off? Did you know that an airplane is offcourse 90% of the time? How then does it arrive at its destination? By making constant corrections. You too can arrive at your destination by making constant corrections.

I need the challenge to restart this great means of grace? Do you?

Read some of these articles for encouragement.
Introduction to Family Devotions
7 Principles to Guide Family Devotions
10 Suggestions on What to Do for Family Devotions
4 Practical Suggestions for Family Devotions
When NOT to Have Family Devotions
4 Questions to Ask When Reading Your Bible

What to read? Depending on the ages of your children you might:

• Read through a Bible Story Book.
• Read through a gospel – Why not start with Matthew
• Read through Proverbs.

You can do it! Let’s get back to honoring the Lord and acting as priests in our homes. Let me know what you are doing.

Thus, we are glad when certain overwrought statistics are debunked. In this article, Dr. Timothy Jones debunks the statistic that 9 out of 10 children walk away from their faith.