The Routine of a Father

I guess some of us like schedules and some of us don't.  It really depends on our personality, right?

Some of us, if given the choice could sleep in to 10AM or later every day.  
Some of us couldn't think of sleeping past 6 o'clock.
Some of us have no problem letting our lawns grow a foot before we cut them.
Some of us couldn't imagine having anything but a "golf course" for our back yard.


Choices.
Regular choices.
It's those choices that weave us through each day from start to finish.  When I was a child, I chose things that were young.  Now that I am older, I am hopefully making wiser choices.


Being married and having kids, I have had to learn to make wise choices.  Not just for myself, but for my family as well.  I have not just had to make those choices, but I had to choose to put myself into a routine of making right choices.


For my family, those choices look something like this:

1. Wake up early.
2. Talk with Mary.  Now this is a conditional one.  Sometimes Mary wants to talk and sometimes she doesn't.  I want her to have her time to wake up.  She doesn't need me telling her what to do at 5:45 in the AM.
3. Exercise.  This too is conditional.  There was a period in my life that I couldn't exercise.  Not because I was lazy, but because there were other priorities that needed to take place.  I must confess though, that for a long time, I did exercise and leave Mary to do so much work alone.  I was completely selfish during that time.  So look at your time to work out only if you have the time for it.
4. Personal quiet time.  Not in some book, but in THE BOOK.  The enemy hates us.  Hates me.  Hates you.  Hates all of our relationships.  Hates our marriages.  Hates our children.  He has three goals in mind - to kill, steal and destroy.  The only way to withstand the fiery arrows of the devil is to be in the Bible.  David said, "Your Word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against You."  I take that as saying that to keep from sinning, I must be in the Word.  
5. Get myself ready for the day.
6. Breakfast with the family.
7. Devotions with the family.  Take the time for this.  We have the ability to set the tone for the whole day with this action.  It doesn't take much time, but you just have to do it.  Your wife will be reminded of what is important.  Your kids will be reminded of what's important to you as well.
8. Work.  While at work take time to pray.  Short prayers are still prayers.
9. Home from work, lovingly set the leadership role in your home.  Take the time to listen.  See what needs to be done and who needs to be served.  Don't just become a kid again and start rolling on the floor waiting for dinner to be served.  Take the time to listen to your wife.  She, more than likely, needs to talk to another adult.  So just shut up and listen to her.  She will love you for it.  Keep in mind that you are not your wife's "helper" you are the leader of your home.
10. Dinner.  Converse with your family.  Ask them questions about their day.  Enjoy each other.  Eat. Laugh. Love.
11. Devotions the family.  This is how we do it in our family.  For breakfast and dinner.  Again, it helps to remind the whole family what is truly important. 
12. Clean up.  Men - that's our job.  Let your wife have a break.  She has been "cleaning up" all day.  She will be grateful.
13. Play and interact with the kids.  They will think you are amazing!
14. Put the kids to bed.  Men - again our job.  Spend some more time thinking about the Lord or singing worship songs with your kids.  They will now what is in your heart.
15. Love your wife well.  Serve her by making sure that all the responsible things are taking care of.  Laundry, bills, groceries, house maintenance (honey-do-list)...

Now this is how it's done in our home, and your home may look completely different.   That is OK.  As the head of the household, I had to realize that I needed to get into a routine as a husband, as a father, as a leader.  If I didn't, what would be the alternative?

Have you figured out your routine?  If so, what is it?  I would love to see how you manage your family and your day.

Family Worship Guide for Easter

 

From Ministry to Children


Here is a simple devotional guide to help families worship Christ together during Easter time. It might be ideal for Saturday evening before Resurrection Sunday. Family Worship is the regular and intentional assembling as a family unit to worship God by reading scripture, praying and singing praise. This brief worksheet will help you lead your family in a short time of devotion on Saturday. Children should be involved as much as their age allows. This devotions should last between 15-25 minutes.

Step 1: Gather the family

If this is a new experience for your family, keep it very simple. Have the whole family gather in the living room together. Even the very young children should participate. Turn off any radios or televisions that might be distractions.

Step 2: Read scripture

If your children are confident readers, ask them to read portions of scripture from their bibles. Prepare in advance to explain any difficult words.

• Read Mark 15:33-47: Discuss v.35 where Jesus says to God “why have you forsaken me?” Explain this was Jesus quoting Psalm 22, which foretold what would happen to the Christ. As Jesus took on our sins, he suffered the great punishment in our place. He became our substitute and took what we deserved.
• Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-8: Discuss the central elements to the Easter story. (Died, buried, raised, appeared to witnesses).  Discuss the importance of the phrase “according to the scriptures.” Explain that Jesus’ death was predicted and promised in the Hebrew Bible. Discuss the importance of Jesus appearing to many witnesses. Explain this was a real historical event, not something imaginary. Many real people saw it.

Step 3: Pray

Lead the family in a time of prayer. Include elements of Praise, Thanksgiving, Confession and Requests. The pray time should focus on the passages you have just read and be a response of worship to God.

Step 4: Sing

Select a song that is familiar to your family. Using a worship CD may be helpful. Many families prefer to sing without background music. Choose songs that remind you of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  Sojourn Kids has posted some wonderful original music you can use. “The Cross Is Not The End” and “God’s Love Goes On Forever

St Patrick Breast Plate - A Hymn

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,

Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,

Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,

Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today

Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In the service of archangels,

In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In prayers of patriarchs,

In predictions of prophets,

In preaching of apostles,

In faith of confessors,

In innocence of holy virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven:

Light of sun,

Radiance of moon,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of wind,

Depth of sea,

Stability of earth,

Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me:

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

Sons and Daughters

C.J. Mahaney on the new Sovereign Grace album, Sons and Daughters:

I highly recommend this album. This album is a means of preaching the gospel to yourself. It is a tool to remind yourself of God’s adopting grace. It will help convince you of God’s passionate and personal love for you. Listening to the truths of these songs will help clear away any suspicions you have of God, and help you to contemplate his love for you, evidenced nowhere more clearly than in the death of his beloved Son.

You can download for free the song “Completely Done.”

How To Weaken Pride and Cultivate Humility

C.J. Mahaney:

ALWAYS:
1. Reflect on the wonder of the cross of Christ.

AS EACH DAY BEGINS:
2. Being your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.
3. Begin your day by expressing gratefulness to God.
4. Practice the spiritual disciplines - prayer, study of God's Word, worship. Do this consistently each day and at the day's outset, if possible.
5. Seize your commute time to memorize and meditate on Scripture.
6. Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.

AS EACH DAY ENDS:
7. At the end of the day, transfer the glory to God.
8. Before going to sleep, receive this gift of sleep from God and acknowledge His purpose for sleep.

FOR SPECIAL FOCUS:
9. Study the attributes of God.
10. Study the doctrines of grace.
11. Study the doctrine of sin.
12. Play golf as much as possible - ("I don't think there is a more difficult or humbling sport.")
13. Laugh often, and laugh at yourself.

THROUGHOUT YOUR DAYS AND WEEKS:
14. Identify evidences of grace in others.
15. Encourage and serve others each and every day.
16. Invite and pursue correction.
17. Respond humbly to trials.

(HT: Trinity Church Blog)

Growing in Christ

There are a bunch of "how to" books, seminars, conventions, pamphlets, etc. out there that deal with almost every topic under the sun. In fact there is even a great web site that shows one how to do most of everything. Click here to see for yourself.

Now I am one that doesn't know a lot of information about much. In fact I know very little information about a lot of stuff. Which pretty much makes me dangerous. Don't ask me to come to your house to fix your plumbing, sew a hem on your pants, or help you train your dog to do tricks. I guarantee you, it would end up in a mess. I do know to how do the dishes though... (please don't ask me to help you with that)

OK - I feel like I am rambling now. Back to the "how to's."

In my head, I am always thinking on how to grow in Christ. So for fun, I thought I would check out the site to see if it could give me some good advice. Not really. Religious listing can be found here (with over 4,500 entries), but I wasn't satisfied. The closest thing I could get to actually growing in my Christian walk was found in this article on how to convert to Christianity.

It's not what I was looking for.

I guess, I should have known. The internet is good for a lot of things, but certainly not everything.

Here are some basic principles that I have gathered through the years that, perhaps, would help you in your pursuit of Christ.

1. The Word. First and formost be in the Bible. Read the Bible. Pray the Bible. Share the Bible. Teach the Bible. Listen to the Bible. If you want to see Jesus, you must read the Word. I would suggest that most of us say that we are "lovers of the Word," but few of us actually live that out well. I don't want to guilt you into reading your Bible, but I do want to say that you will miss out on so much joy if you don't get into the Word.
   
2. Exalt Christ. Many of you are probably saying, "Of course John. Duh." Let me must just say from my own personal experience that the draw of the things of this earth are so extreme it is very hard to keep a focus on exalting Christ. Of of life is about Christ and our goal should be to lift His name higher than any other name. When we do, it seems that the things of this earth are easier to deal with. Problems are easier. Life is easier. It's mainly because we aren't keeping our eyes focused on ourselves, but on Christ. Worship Him today. It will make your heart glad.
3. Worship God in Every Area of Your Life. This is very different from item #2. Worshiping God in every area of our lives means to live doxologically. You know the hymn, work the lyrics of that song into your soul. Living doxological means to worship God in every moment of your life. When you are kissing your best friend - worship God. When you are riding your bike - worship God. When you are washing the dishes (did I say I wash dishes well?) - worship God. You get the picture here.
4. Pray. Pray for everyone and everything. Bring it all to the Father. He hears and He cares. Bring every question, every thought, every concern, every tiff to your Father. Pray because we are at war. The devil prowls around ready to pounce. Have a stance of constant prayer puts us in the right mindset. Pray for your neighbors. Pray for your family. Pray for your school. Pray for your job. Pray for your spouse, or future spouse. To borrow the Nike phrase, "Just do it."
5. Serve. Serving others helps us get our minds off of our own circumstances. As I have already noted, we get so bogged down by the stuff of earth. So do others. When we are serving someone else we quickly loose site of our own problems. We often forget to serve others. It's one of the hardest things to do, but once we do, we find that it actually was very easy. Serve someone today. If you need ideas, check out Conspiracy of Kindness.
6. Fellowship. Get together with your church family. Get together with someone's heart. Get to know me. I need to get to know you. Have people over for a meal, or dessert, or coffee, or a game night. It doesn't matter. Spend time together encouraging one another in a pursuit of Christ.

Phil. 3:8 says "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ"

So there are some thoughts on growing in Christ. Let me also say that growing or sanctification is not just your doing. The Holy Spirit is doing a lot "behind the scenes" in your life as well. Trust Him and He will lead you.

Now - I need to figure out to change the coolant in my car...

Family Worship/Devotions

For years, Mary and I have struggled (struggled may be too harsh of a word here) with how to lead our family in worship. At home. Together. The eight of us.

Some families have designated time together, perhaps at the breakfast table, dinner table, in the late evening when all are in the house. I don't believe the time nor the setting is important, as much as just doing it is.

I think some families really try to utilize Sunday morning as a time for this as well. Sometimes that just doesn't work. It's hard enough trying to get everyone's hair combed, braided, brushed; teeth brushed; matching socks; cereal inhaled; coffee drunk--who has time for family devotions/worship on a Sunday morning.

Again the goal is to not be ridged, but to really enjoy your family as you talk about God. Seek His presence. Magnify His name. Pray.

With that in mind, I would like to make a few suggestions that may help you get a start on the right foot.

1. Start with the Bible. It's the one primary source for family worship/devotions. You may use other resources, but let me tell you, all other items must point you and your family back to the Bible. We are supposed to be people of the Word and without the Word in our lives on a regular basis, we will find ourselves empty.
2. Some recent books have been written that deal with family worship/devotions. I have utilized some of these and would highly recommend them to you. First one is Training Hearts, Teaching Minds, by Starr Meade. Mary and I have used this book for a number of years. It was well written and good for families with smaller children. A few other books on raising Godly children are: Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp, Stand Fast by Doug Bond, Standing on the Promises and Future Men both by Doug Wilson.
3. One of the hardest to find is music. We all like different styles, tempos, arrangements. So rather than saying what I use, I will just list some web sites that would be great resources for family worship. In fact some of these I even use in my private worship times. In no particular order -- Sovereign Grace Music - great contemporary music with a heart for the exalted Christ at it's core. Indelible Grace - hymns with the melody rewritten in more of a singer/songwriter style. Birthed out of the RUF ministry these songs have been making great strides on university campus' world wide. Red Mountain Music - worship music featured from Red Mountain Church in Birmingham Alabama. PAGE CXVI - ancient words with modern music, all of them being hymns. Seeds Family Worship - these guys have been putting music to Scripture for a few years now Sojourn Music - This is one resource that I have just discovered and have thoroughly enjoyed. Even my kids have loved it. Basic concept of Sojourn Music is that they take various lyrics from hymns and utilizing their themes rewriting the music. Great stuff as I have posted before.

In closing, I would like to bring a reminder from Proverbs 22:6 --
"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

Happy Birthday Isaac Watts

Do you know who Mr. Watts is? Well, for starters he has penned over 500 hymns. Songs that most of us know quite well. Songs include:
Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed
Am I a Soldier of the Cross?
How Sweet and Awesome Is This Place
Marching to Zion
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
the list can go on and on...
For a full list of his songs, click here.

Here is some great bio info on this prolific father of the faith (all found here):

Watts’ fa­ther was Non­con­form­ist im­pris­oned twice for his re­li­gious views. Isaac learned Greek, Latin, and He­brew un­der Mr. Pin­horn, Rec­tor of All Saints, and head­mas­ter of the Gram­mar School in South­amp­ton. Isaac’s taste for verse showed it­self in ear­ly child­hood, and his prom­ise caused a lo­cal doc­tor and other friends to of­fer him a un­i­ver­si­ty ed­u­ca­tion, as­sum­ing he would be or­dained in the Church of Eng­land. How­ev­er, Isaac de­clined and in­stead en­tered a Non­con­for­mist Acad­e­my at Stoke New­ing­ton in 1690, un­der the care of Thom­as Rowe, pas­tor of the In­de­pen­dent cong­re­ga­tion at Gir­dlers’ Hall; Isaac joined this con­gre­ga­tion in 1693.

Watts left the Acad­e­my at age 20 and spent two years at home; it was dur­ing this per­i­od that he wrote the bulk of his Hymns and Spir­it­u­al Songs. They were sung from man­uscripts in the South­amp­ton Cha­pel, and pub­lished 1707-1709.

The next six years of his life were again spent at Stoke New­ing­ton, work­ing as tu­tor to the son of em­i­nent Pur­i­tan John Har­topp. The in­tense stu­dy of these years is re­flect­ed in the the­o­log­ic­al and phil­o­soph­ic­al ma­ter­i­al he sub­se­quent­ly pub­lished.

Watts preached his first ser­mon at age 24. In the next three years, he preached fre­quent­ly, and in 1702 was or­dained as pas­tor of the In­de­pen­dent con­gre­ga­tion in Mark Lane. At that time he moved in­to the house of a Mr. Hollis in the Mi­nor­ies. His health be­gan to fail the next year, and Sam­u­el Price was ap­point­ed as his as­sist­ant in the min­is­try. In 1712, a fe­ver shat­tered his con­sti­tu­tion, and Price be­came co-pas­tor of the con­gre­ga­tion, which had moved to a new cha­pel in Bu­ry Street. It was at this time that Isaac be­came the guest of Sir Thom­as Ab­ney. He lived with Ab­ney (and lat­er Abney’s wi­dow) the rest of his life, main­ly at The­o­balds in Hert­ford­shire, then for 13 years at Stoke New­ing­ton.

In 1728, the Un­i­ver­si­ty of Ed­in­burgh award­ed Watts a Doc­tor of Di­vin­i­ty de­gree. Watts’ works in­clude:

• Specula­tions on the Hu­man Na­ture of the Lo­gos
• Horæ Lyr­i­cae, 1706-1709
• Hymns and Spir­it­u­al Songs, 1707-9
• The Di­vine and Mor­al Songs for the Use of Child­ren, 1715
• The Psalms of Da­vid Im­i­tat­ed in the Lan­guage of the New Tes­ta­ment (Lon­don: J. Clark, 1719)
• Sermons, 1721-1727
• Reliquiae Ju­ve­niles: Mis­cel­lan­e­ous Thoughts in Prose and Verse, on Na­tur­al, Mor­al, and Di­vine Sub­jects (Lon­don: 1734)
• Remnants of Time (Lon­don: 1736)
• The Im­prove­ment of the Mind, 1741
• Logic
• The World to Come, 1745
• Catechisms, Scrip­ture His­to­ry, 1732

beFriended

from Ray Ortlund:

I cannot listen to "My Song Is Love Unknown" . . . without being moved to the depths of my being that I have such a Friend. If you have him too, you know what I mean. If you don't have him, you can. Are you willing to be beFriended?

Willingness is all he asks.


posted by JT at Thursday, July 16, 2009

How Sweet the Sound

Did someone say free music?

I did.

I am not sure if you noticed on the blog here, but there is a widget posted from Covenant Life Church in Maryland. They have put together a collection of hymns for their congregation to learn. They are taking 10 hymns and spreading them across 10 months - one per month. They all want to learn them so that they can sing them together.

I encourage you do download these songs. You may pay if you would like (any amount) or download them for free. Then share these songs with your family. Sing them at the breakfast table, at the dinner table. As you work together. Take the time to be in worship together.

I have attached the widget in this post as well.