The Spiritual Importance of the Family (Part II of II)
Deuteronomy 4:9; Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep your soul lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. And teach them to your children and your grandchildren.
I offer this comment from the 1830's by Adam Clark concerning this verse in Deuteronomy: "It is not sufficient for parents to lay up divine things in the memory of their children, they must be laid up in their hearts. King David wrote, ‘Thy word have I written in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.’
The life of God in the heart of man can alone preserve the soul to life ever-lasting; and this grace must be retained all the days of our lives. Those who let the grace of God depart from their hearts, lose that grace, and those who lose the grace, fall from grace, and as some have fallen and risen no more, so may others, therefore ‘take heed to yourself’; or watch our for sin slipping into your life."
Clark concludes his comment declaring, “If a man knows the worth of his own soul, he will feel the importance of the salvation of the souls of his family. Those who neglect family religion, neglect personal religion; if more attention were paid to family religion, even among those called religious people, we should soon have a better state of civil society. On family religion God lays much importance, and no head of a family can neglect family religion without endangering the final salvation of his own soul.”
Proverbs 22:6 (Solomon writing), Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Parents — your most critical responsibility in your life is the salvation of your family. When the parents, especially the father, lead the family to church, the family goes to church. Fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers have a God ordained responsibility for the souls of their children and grandchildren. Do not let them forget God. Remind them as often as you possibly can of God’s blessings in their lives and Christ’s sacrifice for their sins.
America needs fathers and grandfathers like the men in Sword of the Lord by Raymond P. Murray:
The great want of this age is men; Men who are not for sale.
Men who are not for sale. Men who will condemn wrong
Men who will condemn wrong In friend or foe
In friend or foe
In themselves as well as others.
Men whose consciences
Are as steady as the needle to the pole. Men who will stand for right
Men who will stand for right
Though the heavens totter And the earth reels.
And the earth reels.
Men who can tell the truth
And look the world right in the eye.
Men who neither brag nor run
Men who neither flag nor flinch.
Men who can have courage
Without shouting it.
Men in whom the hope of everlasting life Still runs deep and strong.
Still runs deep and strong. Men who know their message
Men who know their message And tell it.
And tell it.
Men who know their business
And attend to it.
Men who are not too lazy to work
Nor too proud to be poor.
Men who are willing to eat
What they have earned
And to wear
What they have paid for.
Men who are not ashamed
To say NO
With emphasis.
May our great and gracious Lord bless each and every father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, as they guide their children and grandchildren toward spiritual wisdom, and therefore eternal life in heaven. Like us at Facebook: firstchristianchurchdonnatexas.
Like us at Facebook: firstchristianchurchdonnatexas.
Chris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.