Family matters

We live in an age where the idea of “family” is becoming old fashioned. When I write “family”, I mean one man and one woman getting married and raising children together. Families matter! They matter to God because He is the creator of the idea of family. They should matter to us today. Our society seems to be on a parallel path with the destruction of the nuclear family. As the wise man Solomon once wrote, “there is nothing new under the sun“, since we do not seem to want to learn from history, we are doomed to repeat its mistakes generation after generation. Is there hope for the present and the future? Yes! There is hope but that hope is intertwined with the eternal Word of God.

Jesus on Divorce

Over past 2 weeks, I have had an opportunity to teach Matthew 19 several different times. I wanted to share some of the insights with you here. Many people have questions about divorce. Many others have their own opinions on the subject of divorce. In order to find answers, we need to go to the source of wisdom, Jesus Christ, Himself. Jesus teaches on the subject of divorce in Matthew 19. I would like to examine this teaching here in this article.

Choosing a marriage partner

Last night, I was blessed to listen to a sermon preached by my mentor, Vasile Filat. I first heard this message about 11 years ago when I was living in Moldova, learning how to be a missionary. He preached it again a few days ago at a church in Bucharest Romania. Someone was gracious enough to film it and put it online. As I listened last night, I was blessed once again by the message and I was also blessed with memories from my time in Moldova. I would like to share the message with you here and I hope that you will be as blessed as I was.

Choosing a marriage partner is one of the major choices that we all want to make in this life. We generally go through years of schooling to get trained for life yet, this aspect is often neglected. Is there a plan laid out in the Word of God for choosing a marriage partner? Do I just need to hope that I get “lucky” and pick the right one? Am I at the whims and desires of my deceitfully, wicked heart? We say things like, “the heart wants what it wants and I cannot stop it. Besides, you cannot control who you fall in love with”. Let’s take a look at a love story in Genesis 24, the story of Isaac and Rebecka. There are 10 principles that we can learn from this passage about choosing a marriage partner.

Finding your worth in Christ

What do you look to in order to find your self-worth? What is that one thing, if you were to attain it, do you feel would bring you genuine satisfaction? Is it good looks? Maybe you believe that it is a certain guy or girl? Could it be a big family? Maybe you feel that wealth would do the trick? What are you searching for that you do not have?

In Genesis chapters 29-30, we find an interesting story about a group of people who were seeking happiness. They all had their different desires yet, at the end of the day, when those desires were satisfied, they were left unsatisfied. Why is it that when we finally acquire that which we have dreamed that would make us truly happy, we usually end up disappointed and frustrated? Is there anything that can satisfy us fully? The answer to that final question is a resounding YES!!! But, before we examine the source of true satisfaction, we have to examine the things that do not satisfy.

Baby Dedication

This Sunday I have the honor and privilege of leading a Baby dedication service at Hoffmantown. Other than weddings and baptisms, this is one of my favorite activities as a pastor. I love what Baby dedications represent.

In some denominations, babies are baptized into the “faith”, a practice that has no foundation in Scripture. On the other hand, baby dedications are called for, directly by God. If we open up the Old Testament to the book of Numbers, a book rarely studied these days, we find a command from the Lord to bless babies. 

Marriage without Regrets L1

I am excited to be able to teach the PUP (Precept upon Precept) Bible study, Marriage without Regrets. We met 2 weeks ago and began filling out the first lesson. After a 2 week pause for our Missions Conference, we will meet tonight to discuss lesson 1. We have a great class of people who want to learn how to serve God with their marriages. God has blessed us so far and we pray for his blessings to continue as we diligently study His Word and seek to apply what He teaches us.

Jesus and His family

As I have previously written, during the month of March, we are focusing on godly families. We began the month looking at Moses and his family. God teaches us some awesome truths about families based on Moses and his family. Next week, we are going to focus on the importance of the family in society. Our main passage with be Deuteronomy 4. Since I have already written on this passage, I will just link to it. The week after next, we will focus on Ruth and Naomi. There will be a lesson on Elisha and the widow’s family and then we will reach the lesson on Jesus and His family. I would like to write about what I want to teach, even though it is a little down the road, the end of the month will be here before we realize it.

Our passage is Luke 2:41-52. God has much to teach us here about families.

Moses’ family

During the month of March, Big City Clubhouse is focusing on families. We want to encourage all of the children that God knows their situation, that He created the family to be a positive influence in society, and that He can intervene in any familial situation and use it for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. During the month of February, we focused on knowing God and how that impacts our daily lives, especially the way that we treat others. Here are some of the lessons that we covered.

Mentoring your own children

Today, I am preparing to teach my staff the last lesson on mentoring. It has been a great ride. We have learned how to be mentored, the need for it, and how to mentor others. This final lesson covers the most important mentor/disciple relationship, parents and children. The number one influences and teachers in a child’s life are his parents. This is God’s design. The good thing about our God is that when He asks us to do something, He always teaches us how to do it in His Word. Our job is to discover those teachings, learn them, live by them, and apply them. Here are the passages where these teachings come from.

Serve God as a happy family

I would like to write about God, family, and serving the Lord. The Bible sets an example before us in Priscilla and Aquila. God uses this example to teach us about serving Him in the midst of our daily lives, especially when we are preoccupied with the cares of daily life. Many people serve the Lord while they are young and single yet once they get married, they seem to lose their zeal and their direction. They get busy with taking care of themselves, their homes, their kids etc. In order to know what to do and how to serve the Lord as a family, I would like to walk through the Scriptures and see what God teaches about this wonderful family.