I'll Need You Dad

After the sermon one dad told me he asked his teenager, "What would you say is the most important thing in my life?"  What a great question to ask.  That was exactly the response I was hoping for from dads.

Passing on faith to the next generation will never happen by accident.  It must be done intentionally.   Our faith must be Lived and Taught.  Our children need to See and Hear the message of Christ.  Godly parenting is not about perfection but direction.  What direction are we pointing our children?  What would they say is the direction our lives are moving? 

As one who now has all three children grown and on their own; I can personally testify that there is no greater joy than knowing that my children are walking in the truth.  I love that they are stable financially and successful in their chosen fields of work; but the most heartwarming satisfaction I have is knowing that at the core of their being they want to be faithful to Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we dedicated all those babies to the Lord this past Sunday my prayer for them is that their parents and the church might take the vows they made seriously.  May all of us work together to see that our children Know the Lord, Love the Lord and Obey the Lord!

I am second

The comment of the day was spoken to me right after our assembly ended. The person said something like, "After today's service I'm not worried about what will happen to the church after we're dead and gone." For those of you who were not with us, today's service was planned and conducted by our youth ministry. All of their planning and practice came together in a beautifully organized and meaningful time of praise and worship.

The theme, "I am second" reminded me of a book written decades ago by former Chicago Bear's star running back, Gale Sayers, "I am third". Gale told us that in his life God was first, others were second and he was in third place. Liz reminded me of the JOY acrostic that was popular in the 70's: Jesus, Others, Yourself. The phrase "I am second", however, seems to put priority on what is of first importance. If you are interested in learning more check out Iamsecond.com.

In reflecting on the service I initially thought there had been no scripture. We didn't open our Bibles once. Upon closer observation, however, I realized that the entire service had been structured around the passage that the Jews call the Shema and what Jesus said was the greatest of all commands: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5). What a powerful reminder that assembly was that God must always have first place in our hearts.

So, I'm not too worried either about the future of the church; as long as we continually put God first and remember that "I am second." Thanks Jeremy, Donna, Lauren, and all the others who put so much effort into making today's worship service the blessing that it was.