Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Excellence”
Our Bible verse for today: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “A life of excellence must involve passing the faith on to the next generation.”
As the people of God we have a God-given responsibility to pass the faith on to our children, grandchildren, and to the children around us. Yesterday I wrote about living a simple and quiet life of faithfulness and of how such a life is pleasing to God. Today I want to emphasize that that must include passing the faith on to the next generation.
The most important thing a parent can do for a child is to instruct them in the ways of God. Grandparents are often some of the most convincing and inspirational examples in a child’s life. And when a child is consistently around other mature Christians, such as when they faithfully attend a good church, the examples of those faithful Christians will have a profound impact on that child’s development.
But let me be quick to point out that just talking to them about faith and just reading the Bible to them is not enough. As important as those things are, the children in your life will be impacted much more deeply and more profoundly by what they see you do rather than by what they hear you say.
If the children in your world don’t actually see you faithfully practicing the faith you tell them about, then your words will ring hollow and empty. Eventually they will realize that you talk a good game but you don’t walk it out, and they themselves will be much more likely to follow your example rather than your instructions.
Over the years I’ve heard many Christians say something like “I can worship God just as well on the golf course on Sunday morning as I can in a church.” Well, I’m sorry but that is just a lame and flimsy excuse for not doing the thing God has clearly commanded you to do. Read Hebrews 10:24-25. God does not give us the option of skipping church. He simply tells us to be there.
Tying this back to our theme of living a life of excellence and of our responsibility for passing the faith on to the next generation, there are a couple of key points that need to be made. First, if you do not faithfully attend church then you are not living a life of excellence according to God’s measure of excellence. You can’t be because you are living in direct defiance to His clearly communicated command.
Second, if you do not faithfully attend and participate in the life of a good church then you are setting a bad example for the children in your life. So-much-so that your example could convince them that they don’t need to be in church either. Remember, they will be influenced much more deeply and more profoundly by what they see you do rather than what they hear you say.
A life of excellence must involve passing the faith on to the next generation. The most important and effective way of doing that is by your example.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 