Today's devotion is by LENTIKILE MASHOKO who serves the Mabopane congregation.
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Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD. Joshua24:14-15
The book of Joshua is a story of how God led and protected the children of Israel who were surrounded by hostile nations. The book is totally Theocratic, in the midst of Monarchy, Aristocracy, Anarchy and so-called Democracy. It is the kingdom of God in its fullness: people depending on and trusting in His power to demonstrate his Love and Mercy. All the battles of Israel, were Yahweh's business, they had a mission to fulfil and God saw them through. It is a story of a commander of the army of Israel (Joshua) taking a role of a political, spiritual and moral leadership.
Joshua trusted in the power beyond himself. He allowed God to use him in His mission (Missio Dei), and he took his family with him.
It is indeed true to say "a family that prays together, stays together". The truth of the matter is that worship is not only a Sunday thing: it continues throughout the week, in our households. A Christian family carries a light, to lighten the world and to make it a better place throughout the week.
Joshua was a leader of the nation but he was also led his family. When he gave the nation a choice, he already knew that his family was with him in serving the Lord. It is obvious there were no debates in his family about this matter, God was the choice of Joshua's family. It is never easy to serve the people of God if our (family) devotional life is not in order.
How can we bring our families to be a family of prayer and devotion to God? The answer might be "we need to serve together as a family to touch lives, so that God will change lives". How do we introduce this? It is not simple, but we may begin to have family devotions and prayers together. This will lead us to serving in our church and community as a family.
My wife, Tumi, and I struggled for a long time with our devotional life together. I always go to bed early and and wake up and Tumi is the opposite of that. She has her devotions at night, I have mine in the morning. So we decided to have Saturday evenings as family devotion time. We read the Word, share and pray together. This time has become the most important in the family, and has brought our family close together, for we grow spiritually and can serve God better. In Mission, our devotional life as a family must be a driving force to serve others. Otherwise we become so busy serving the kingdom and forgetting about the Master.
God has a Mission and He wants us and our families in this Mission.
The question is, Are you ready?
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
