Mutual Edification

One of the elders at my church and I were talking about the benefits of family worship in our kids lives--the little roots that my kids are putting down and some hopeful signs of buds, and the fruit that his kids are showing, and the like. We talked about desires, hopes, and plans for us to be able to do what the Directory of Family Worship had in mind. That it should "be pressed and set up; that, with national reformation, the profession and power of godliness, both personal and domestick, be advanced." Some of the ends of that desire are well put (again) by the Directory "for cherishing piety, for maintaining unity, and avoiding schism and division." My guess is that schism is both intra-family as well as intra-church.

What a plague we've brought on our homes, our marriages and our churches because we don't give a rip about family worship! I know it can't be proved, but I'd be willing to wager some serious money that the degrading and ignoring of family worship is directly tied to the pathetic state of the Church and Christian family today.

Anyhow, last night we were doing our bit to advance the national reformation, and as we were wrapping up, I asked, "What great miracle does the Holy Spirit perform in the hearts of God's people?" Frodo jumps up with, "Turning Stone into Flesh?"

"And what do we call that?"

"Regeneration." And we people think we have spent too much time in the OT with him. Ha. Gimme that over a vanilla "being born again" any day. (not that the incredible doctrine of the spirit bringing new life is anything to sneeze at, just the phrase is pretty much emptied of meaning nowadays).

As I thought about that later (and I spent a lot of time coming back to it), I thought of one more reason for Dads to make family worship a priority. Stuff like that is a great encouragement for Dads! 8-D Not sure it's precisely the "Mutual Edification" the Directory had in mind...but it's close, and good enough for me.