Thursday, April 17, 2014

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col. 3:16-17 (ESV)
I have been reading a fair amount recently. One of the problems that I keep coming across is that I want to share everything that I read to everyone of you. Reading seems to be a lost art in a world of high speed technology, instant gratification, and social media. Why would we read for 20 minutes the account of a biblical story when we can go and watch a 2 hour movie? Ok maybe a bad example, but for example a Christian research firm called Barna Research Group has recently followed this trend so much so that they are catering to this seeming epidemic in our culture today. People don’t feel as though they have enough time to sit down and read anymore. We are so busy that reading doesn’t seem to be a productive enough use of our time these days. Barna Research has started producing books that are no more than 100 pages in length so that people are not intimidated by the premise of completing a book. The purpose of saying all this is simply to say there are some valuable things to be gained by reading today. 
A book that has garnered great attention to me today that I would recommend for every believer in Christ is called, ”Everyday Talk; Talking with your children about God.” by John Younts. You may say but I don’t have children, that may be true, but this is a very practical guide to making God conversations out of everyday life to everyday people. I can’t make you read a book and promise your life will be more fulfilled as a result of it. One of the things that I would say is that there are a ton of resources that good Godly men and women have written that could be excellent tools in your toolbox. One of the key principles in family ministry and it’s future effectiveness at Faith, is our ability to train ourselves and others how to turn everyday ordinary situations into God moments. In essence, every word that we speak, every action that we take should be consumed with speech, emotions, and actions toward God. Hence the scripture reference at the onset of this writing. Sometimes people ask and legitimately so, do you really think we should do this? Does everything we do have to be pointing to God? It is my desire that, fathers in particular, parents especially, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces and church members especially, as representatives of Christ on this Earth, all that we do point to God. Whether we are teaching, admonishing, worshipping, corporately or at home, or really whatever we do, we would do in order to bring God glory. 
How can we do that? Reading resources that equip us to practically turn everyday conversations to God. Seeing God in situations, or circumstances that we ascribe to normal life and turning them around to give credit to God (who rightfully deserves the credit anyway). I would like for us to call these God sightings, and to pursue them in every aspect of our families at Faith, equip students and singles to see them now and highlight them in their future families, and to have our seasoned saints and empty nesters to adopt spiritual orphans (those who have no spiritual influences at home) and teach them to see God in spite of circumstances.
Thanks and God Bless, 

Bro. Grant