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For Me And My House
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Joshua had taken
the Israelites as far as he could go. He confessed that he was
“old, advanced in years” (Josh. 23:2) and “going the way
of all the earth” (23:14). He had served his time and
purpose, leading God’s people across the Jordan into the
land sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joshua knew his end
was near.
One of his last acts of service to a people whom he had led
and loved was to gather them at Shechem for a farewell address
(24:1). This was the same site where God promised Abraham the
land of Canaan (Gen. 12:6-7), where Jacob put away the foreign
gods of his family (Gen. 35:1-4), where Jacob’s bones were
later buried after the exodus from Egypt (Josh. 24:32). How
appropriate that on this same stage, Joshua made the statement
that ought to be written in every heart and home, “As for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord” (24:15).
Good homes are not a matter of chance; they are a matter of
choice. “Choose for yourselves” indicates that if you want
a godly family, you’re going to have to make some decisions
along the way. A household that takes the approach of
“let’s just try this out for a little while and see if it
works” is building on a foundation of sand.
We certainly have no trouble making decisions for the wedding
ceremony. We choose the right place, the right colors, the
right flowers, the right music. But all too often, we do so
with little or no thought as to what kind of home we will have
once the honeymoon is over. If the marriage fails, what good
does a beautiful wedding do?
“Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve...but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” What choices
will you make concerning you and your house?
Will you decide to let the Lord in? It amazes me how
people try to divorce God from the home. A friend of mine was
once asked by a family member who was not a Christian to
perform their wedding ceremony. Their only request: “we
don’t want you to say anything about God during the
service.” For obvious reasons, he refused.
God is the creator of the home. It is not a human invention.
It is not a secular creation. It is a divine relationship
crafted in the mind of man’s Creator (Gen. 2:18-25). It was
God who saw that it was not good for man to dwell alone. It
was God who fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken
out of Adam. It was God who joined them together to become one
flesh. Rightly the Psalmist said, “Unless the Lord builds
the house, they labor in vain who build it” (127:1).
Regardless of what culture decides, choose to invite the Lord
into your home. It won’t happen by chance.
Will you decide to value family values? Some choices
we make are on the individual level; “as for me.”
And some effect the whole family; “as for me and my
house.” Joshua, the military leader of a nation, did
not neglect his primary responsibility as a husband and
father. He neither sent his family on ahead without him nor
left them behind, but he vowed that they would serve the Lord
together.
When you don’t value the owner’s manual for the home, you
leave behind the important and necessary roles given to the
family (Eph. 5:22–6:4). Each member has their own decisions
that must be made.
Husbands are to see the worthiness of their wives and choose
to love them as Christ loved His church. Wives are to
recognize the authority of their husbands and submit to them
as the spiritual head of the house. Children are to appreciate
the wisdom and experience of their parents and decide to honor
and obey them. Fathers are to treasure the young souls
entrusted to them and show them the way home to the Father.
We serve the Lord when we serve in the place we have been
assigned. When each person values their part, it makes for a
happy home. You can’t put a price tag on that.
Will you decide to make home improvement a priority?
“Choose for yourselves today.” Joshua certainly
knew that time was of the essence in his own situation. But
that same urgency extends to every home of every generation.
Making the home what it ought to be takes time and hard work.
And it comes by first choosing to place family matters over
every other household chore. If the time to do that is not
right now, when will the moment come? When there is no
communication left in the marriage? When the kids are out of
the house and raising their own families?
If you keep waiting for a good time to bring it up, you might
miss the door of opportunity. Choose today. No one will do it
for you.
What legacy will you leave your family when you go the way of
all the earth? Let it be your decision to serve the Lord, with
hopes that they will make the same choice for them and for
their house.
Bubba Garner
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Copyright (C)
2009
Southside Church of Christ
All rights reserved.
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