The Influence Of God's Words In Our Homes

by Toms, A. F. | Category: Family Life | Aug 1992

One of the two walking home to Emmaus in the evening of the resurrection day was Cleopas, and possibly his wife was one of the women who stood by the Cross. So it has been suggested it may have been Cleopas and his wife who were joined by the Stranger on that memorable walk.

That does not really matter, but what does matter is the lesson they learned in their home that night as their Guest became the Host, and taking the bread into His hands He blessed it and gave it to them (Luke 24:30). And that is the place that must be given to Him in all our homes if we are to receive the blessing they received as He communed with them in the way.

In Mark chapter 9 we read of another occasion when the Lord Jesus was in a home; this time in Capernaum. We are not told whose home it was, but they had a young family, for He took a little child into His arms, and He used him as an object lesson to teach His disciples a lesson in humility. They had been arguing along the way who was the greatest, and as they sat in that home the Master gently rebuked them for their pride of heart. We might well ask ourselves, would we be willing for the Lord Jesus to come into our home, to accept His rebuke and receive His correction? Does the Word of God have such an honoured place in our home that we willingly accept the instruction, and if need be the correction that God gives through it?

Abraham was a great family man. God said of him, "I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgement" (Gen. 18:19). That was high commendation. He not only trained his own family, but his household too, and that involved a lot of men. There were 318 trained men, all born in his house, at the time of the battle of the kings. How did he train them? What did he do from which we can take an example as Christian parents, to bring up our children in the fear of the Lord? Clearly he achieved much by the example of his own life. God called him "My friend", so it is evident that God and Abraham were on very close terms.

Abraham was a travelling man and he lived in tents. He denied himself the more stable life of a city dweller in order to live as a pilgrim and follow where God led the way. The book of Genesis tells of the journeys he made and it is instructive to notice that wherever he pitched his tent in the land of Canaan there he also built an altar. When be moved on he took his tent with him, but of course the altar remained. Those altars marked the course a man of God had taken. Arriving at a new place with his family and his household he would erect his tents and build his altar. The tent and the altar: Abraham kept them together. And there is no doubt that was a significant factor in the training of his young men. We might well ask ourselves, Is Christ given His place in the homes of God's people today?

God gave very clear instructions to Israel about their family life. The words in Deuteronomy 6 deserve our careful attention:

Hear, 0 Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God will all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thy houses and upon thy gates (vv. 4-9).

We can clearly see that the Word of God had a very prominent place in their homes, if they obeyed God's instruction. They were to love it themselves and teach it to their children. God's instruction began with a word to the parents that they were to love the Lord with all their hearts. It was a call to total commitment. Our words will have little effect unless they are backed up by a good example of genuine love for the Lord. Then they were to teach their children what they themselves had learned, and they were to do so diligently when they sat in their home, walked by the way, when they retired to bed at night and when they rose in the morning. God pin-pointed the times in their day which lent themselves to the sharing of God's Word, and surely God's Word to Israel has a voice for us today. Are we faithfully discharging our responsibility to our children? Are we putting God's Word into their hearts while they are young and impressionable? Timothy had a mother and grandmother who started teaching him the sacred writings when he was still a babe. They took their responsibility seriously and it paid dividends. Timothy grew to be a man of God and the apostle Paul indicates that his early training was partly responsible for this outcome.

Our children need the influence of God's Word. There are strong influences for evil operating against them and we need to protect them through prayer and by putting the living Word into their hearts. "My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother" (Prov. 1:8 RVM), showing that they speak with one voice. And when that voice is uttering what we as parents have learned we are laying a strong foundation for our families.

And let our instruction be backed up by believing prayer. Peter speaks of husbands and wives as "joint-heirs of the grace of life", a lovely contemplation, and at the end of his instruction he adds, "that their prayers be not hindered". That is the husband and wife praying privately together. It is a sacred time when they kneel together and bring to the Lord thanksgiving for family blessings and supplication for family needs, and many other burdens

also, of course. This is vital in family life, so vital that I urge any believing couple who have not made it their habit to consider doing so without delay. Our great enemy is intent or disrupting family life and we must bt on our knees that the Spirit of the Lord will set up a standard against him (Is. 59:19 RVM). And God will use these times of communion with Him to draw us closer to Himself and to one another. There is no doubt that families which have parents who pray together in the secret place have an obvious advantage.

Toms, A. F. | Aug 1992
Family Life