Lonely Spiritual person vs Family Spiritual person

For the past couple of months as I was going through the bible, one aspect that has been constantly reminding me is being spiritual as a family.

Many church going Christians are good in bible reading(quote verses), prayers(anytime,anywhere can pray),
have their quite time, good in evangelism. But when it comes to the family life, a lot of  Christians have issues in various aspects.
example:
1) Although both Husband and wife are individually good born again Christians, they can have problems in dealing things together as a family ( money aspects,family relationships).
2) Sometimes either parent (husband/wife)/child is a believer and comes to Church , but struggles in bring their family to the church.

I started looking at various families in bible both who are successful and also who failed.
Looked at some successful families and whats their success.
Looked at some families that failed and whats are the main reasons that they failed as family.

I will share the things that I learned.

Owning up the responsibility:
if you are the head of the family, ( you could be father, or if father is not there then mother is the head of the fmaily), then own the responsibility of the family.
Many times we try to throw the blame on wife. See how others wives are behaving. See how others children are behaving. we try to compare. But we fail to own the responsibility of spouse or children.
if our children are not behaving, then we may not realize that they might have learnt these qualities from  us, while we argue with our spouse. these are everyday issues. we got these qualities from Adam.

See how Cain responds when God asks where is Cain

Genesis 3:12,13 - Eve blamed it on serpent, Adam blamed it on Eve.
Genesis 4:9 "Am I my brothers keeper"

i know of a brother who is very good in scriptures and preaches, but his wife and kids are not behaving so he keeps blaming his wife for his children.

We see wife and husband blaming on others and Cain learned from it, the son went one step ahead and question God if i am my brothers keeper. we see a total disaster in the first family of mankind.
If Adam or Eve or Cain have confessed their mistake, God would have forgiven them and would have been a different story altogether. If we dont accept our mistakes in leading the family, that reveals our pride and would never see the grace. Because God gives grace to the humble who accepts their mistakes.

2 chronicles 33:10-13 On the other side , we can see Manasseh the king of Judah who was more evil but when God humbled him, he repented and turned to God and we can see how God blessed Manasseh's lineage, his grandson Josiah was one of the best kings of Judah.

Desire for the family to be saved and Work for family to be saved.

Noah, Rahab.

Eli.
Eli was a priest, and he judged people. He even prophesied about Samuel. His sons were acting wickedly, He just told them not to do it.
1 Samuel 3:17 - He is God , let Him do whatever it is.
He could have confessed it before God and repent about it and could have fasted and prayed. but he simply left it and the family vanished.
Donot get too occupied with work or ministry that you dont have time for family.

Rahab:
Joshua 2:12 - longing for family to be saved - father mother,brothers,sisters and their families.
Joshua 6:22 - and they are all saved. its very less time from the day the spies went out and jericho got attacked, but she made sure everybody came into that house. some may not have listened or rebelled, but she worked it out and everybody got saved. you might face challenge from your family, but work it out and get them under the house of salvation.

what adifference between Eli( who knows God) and Rahab( who belives God)

Bonding as a family.
although both everyone in the family might be good christian(husband,wife,kids), many Christians suffer in family lives because they don't have bonding.

David.- individually, David was man after His own heart, great worship,wrote many songs, but as a family, there is no one along with him, only at the end of Davids reign, we saw Solomon taking up the mantle.
Psalm 102:7
Psalm 142:4
Forget about others, but his own blood relationship with him.

Noah. -
Genesis 6:18,19,20
On the other hand we see Noah and his family working together to get saved.
it would be impossible for Noah to do all these things alone. he needs his wife,sons and DIL to work with him.  how do they believe their father when the whole world around them did not believe.
they knew their father was a godly man and they knew that He hears from God and directs them.
they might be praying and worshiping as a family.He commands that respect from kids. do your kids know that you are a godly person and you hear from God. do they respect you.

Noah's wife name is not mentioned, but what a woman that she supported her husband in all that he does apart from raising 3 young boys. for all the women on phone line, you can take great inspiration of godly life from Noah's wife.

Teach like Joshua. Declare like Joshua.


whats your desire for your family.

Lot:
Genesis 13:8-11
When Abraham said let us get separated, he looked around and saw the whole plain was well watered.where you can have plenty of crops, no lack of food,shelter. v12 says he went and pitched the tent near Sodom. People around Sodom might have heard about their sins and even Lot might have heard about it, but he went near them in search of prosperity and we know the rest of the story. Lot with good intentions about his family, children went to greener pastures and lost his family. Even when Lot was with Abraham,he had plenty. where do you desire to be, where do you want your kids to be? do you take them close to sin and leave them to be destroyed. or keep them in the company of righteous.

having prosperity is not wrong, but compromising godliness is wrong.

Zebedees sons mother:
Matthew 27:55,556
Matthew 20:20
Although this request looks selfish, but you see the desire and intention of a mother . she is not asking for something earthly. she is longing for something that is heavenly. and you can see how great apostles are John and James. She is one of the woman who closely follwed Jesus to take care of his needs during Crucifixion,and not only that she wants them to be always in the company of Jesus

Lot desiring his family to be soaked in prosperity even when sin is nearby and we see Zabedess sons mother wanting their sons to be in the company of Jesus.

what you desire for your family makes difference

Many of us might be good believers, but God has placed us in our families with purpose. He wants us to serve Him as a family. Our ministry starts with our families.
if you are husband, take responsibility of your household and if things are not going well first confess your part and ask Gods intervention. He gives grace to the humble.
if you are a wife, support your husband , pray for him, if he is looking to ministry works, extend your support. Don't be nagging wives, your nagging will bring down your family.
as a family, pray together, worship the lord together. Long for heavenly things for your family. and if you find your kids are near danger sin zone, bring them out before it gets too late.

As Joshua declared, Let us declare
"But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

Amen.

Lukewarmness

Revelation 3:15-16

¹⁵ I know your deeds,that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

This is written to the Church.
In Laodicea, the people know very well what is Lukewarm water.
Jesus is the best preacher that the world ever heard of. You see His parables, the examples, how He relates to the people. Mountain Waters coldness and Hot Springs warmness become lukewarm by the time it reaches for the people to drink.
Jesus says you are neither cold nor hot.
cold - against the gospel.
hot - fiery for Christ.
lukewarm - want to be called as christian, but there is no inner fire for Christ. Lives just like the world, but still want to be called as Christian. Jesus say I know your deeds. How are our deeds today?
Question for each one of us today?  Am I Hot,Fiery Christian or Am I Lukewarm Christian.

Acts 5:3,4
³ Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? ⁴ Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

Here we see Ananias and Sapphira are in a Church where Peter is like the pastor and all the apostles and all the disciples where Church is vibrant. miracles are taking place. Shadows and HandKerchiefs bringin healings. disciples are selling everything and bringing to their feet. In the midst of all these wonderful things, there is a couple who saw everything and liked it very much and want to be among the group, and want to be called as christians, but inside their heart, they still have past life, their desire for money. their desire for name to be called as christian. they want to show that are the money givers.
Lukewarmness - cause 1: Hyprocrasy is one of the worst enemies of mankind. It kills people. You want to show off to be something when you are not. You want to show off in Church that you are super spiritual but when you go home and in your personal life you are just like the world. you quarrel with your wife, you want all the worst stuff on internet. but in Church people see you and say this brother or sister is very spiritual.

Hypocrasy brings luke warmness - Jesus was so harsh on pharisess because He hated hypocrasy in them. buy whoever comes just like the tax collector that Lord I am sinner He forgave. but whoever acted then He rebuked.
What is our condition today? Are we acting in Church on sundays and go back live the rest of the week like everybody in the world.

Jesus I wish you be cold not luke warm.
At the time of Ananis and Sapphira, there is another man called Saul of Tarsus, who was a cold man fervently opposing gospel. and Jesus liked his honesty and showed grace and saved Saul who became biggest preacher. but on the other hand we see this couple coming to Church,giving offering and still died.

This teaches us to live  lives of honesty. Never talk/boast off  about your own spirituality, but let it displayed through the deeds. Jesus says I knew your deeds.

-I have a friend who liked the fellowship and people and wanted to be like one among us and soon after he fell out and entered yoga.

Lukewarmness - cause 2:  Prosperity
Jesus you are rich. acquired wealth, good car and you think you are well off.
Most of the luke warmness is because of the prosperity.
For Christians here in America, all the worldly blessing is more important than God. Blessing for house, blessing for car, blessing for health. the word blessing is completely changed and suited to the world.
You can call yourselves as  blessed if you have true faith in Christ. how is our faith when we have 5000$ in account and how is our faith when we have only 500$ in account;
You can call yourselves as  blessed if you are able to overcome sexual lust, if you can overcome anger, then you are truly blessed. Dont look at a person who has big house and say he is blessed.
Prosperity has brought down the spiritual level of Christians - We cannot server two masters - 

Is Christ the more valuable to you than any other thing. Prosperity is one of the biggest problems for us.

In middleeast, muslim countries, china, where there is persecution, then Christ is everything to them. In persecuted countries, there is fire in them to live for Christ. For everything they depend on Christ. they are always in constant danger of their life and for them every day is a new life and for the new day they are always on their knees. I have a habit of reading persecution.com, In China there is a pastor who was arrested and he turned the jail into a church, by the time he was released after many years there is big church inside the jail.  there is brother named Boun, he spent so many years in jail for preaching Christ and for many initial days, when jail authorities asked if he want to request anything  from family member, he said,"Please tell my wife, ‘Would you please help me? Bring me a Bible. I cannot live without the Bible. I have to read the Bible."

Here we have many versions available on phone, tablets, books, how much time we spend.

But here in America, we have TV to watch, we have to watch laptop/ipad/iphone, we have NBA, football to watch. There is so comfort so much we have to plan for long weekends, where we will be going long weekends.

So much of prosperity, so little of spirituality. 

The problem of Sodom and Gomorrah is they have too much prosperity. Ezekiel 16:49

Everybody knows about what Iphone is , but few people know about who the Great IAM is.

Mark 10:23-24

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴ The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is^[e] to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

How big camel is? How small an ant is?

Lukewarmness - cause 3 -Broad way - 

Matthew 7: 13,14

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

In my engineering, i have a classmate . he was not very intelligent. but an average guy. and there are many other people who are more intelligent than him, but at the end of four years, this guy became the topper of the class. When everybody was sleeping in the morning, he used to get up at 4 and read the chapters in text book, and have bunch of long white pages and used to write every quesiton 20 , 30 times on those white pages. by the time he writes an exam, he wont even forget a single word, when everybody is going for movies, he used to sit and study. when everybody is making fun, he silently goes to library and reads.

When all people are walking on the broad way, he chose the narrow thing, getting up in early morning, leaving small small fun things like entertainement for becoming class topper, how much more narrow way we should be walking.

Not only the gate is small, but the road is narrow.

The broadway indicates the long road where you can walk freely, you can live freely without caring about godliness. broadway is where you can talk any trash, you can dressup like anything, broadway is just the way to hell.

Donot judge, or you will be judged.
liars will goto hell
forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors
Galatians 5:19 - Will not inherit the kingdom of God,
 sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like


we claim to be born again but are walking in the narrow way every moment of our life. Let us check for ouselves,if every walk of our life is a narrow way. 

Overnight we wont become perfect, but is there a struggle within us to overcome sin.are we sensitive to sin, sensitive not to hurt Holy Spirit. sensitive not to hurt the Father. When we sin, is there a deep repentance in us.

Proverbs 29:1 

Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy.

If there is any area in our  life thats not  pleasing to God, HolySpirit speaks to our heart continously.disciplines us, rebukes us that too many times.But let us never ever get into  a position where Holy Spirit gives up.

Romans says God gave them over to their lusts.

Matthew 7:21 

Not Everyone who says Lord,Lord - but only who does the Will of the Lord.

Luke 13:23,24 - not be able to enter 

I never knew you?

Doing the Will of the Lord is practicing the Law of the Spirit. getting away from every lawlessness.

Does Jesus knew you? Did you walk with him during your life? Is Jesus reality in your life? 

Can a anyone see us and say Yes he is like Christ in everything he is. Can Jesus see us and say Yes I knew him/her.

Church, its time get away from Lukewarmness and live  a life guided by Holy Spirit and have passion for Jesus Christ.

Altar

We all know that  Christian life is a life of sacrifice. we know many great men of God how they lived a sacrificial life to build the kingdom of God. There are pastors,preachers,missionaries who went to different parts of the world and preached gospel. Everyone has their own calling. Although we may not be going like them as missionaries to other parts of the world,  But as a christian, born again believer Do we live a sacrificial life.

Genesis 12: 6,7,8

⁶ Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Morehat Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷ The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring^[c] I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

⁸ From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent,with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lordand called on the name of the Lord.

Genesis 13:18

¹⁸ So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.

Here one common thing that we see  in all these verses is Abraham built an altar to the Lord. Wherever Abraham goes, he build an altar to the Lord. 

So when we think of Altar, It is BaliPeet. Where sacrifices are offered.
what are the things that come to our mind when we think of altar-  place, wood, livestock(animal - sheep,goats),resources,energy.time.
For Abraham it had cost him to build an altar to do the sacrifice.

How does this Altar applies to our lives today - Do we have altar in our lives.

In this New Covenant life, Altar is not about sacrificing an animal on the wood, but Altar is about presenting ourselves as pleasing sacrifice to God.

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship

Here it says to offer ourselves as living sacrifice.

When we say ourselves - it involves our time, our energy, our habits, our thoughts, our words, our works. Offering all these as sacrifices.

Do we have a Personal Altar?

Personally,

Do we Sacrifice our pride - 

When we become a christian, as we know more about God we try to become more legalistic and try to judge others. you try to look down on others who are not so spiritual like you. there is a danger of becoming self righteous people. Recognize that we ourselves are like that before knowing Christ.

do we look down on others who are not so spiritual like you. 

do we look down on others because of pride because of their social status, or health condition. 

Probably you may know more scriptures, or you may be prayer warrior or you can sing well. but lets not look down on other brother or sister.

Do we boast anytime -  about the way we sing, about our giving, about our job, about our knowledge in scriptures.

Do we judge people because of our pride--

See this verse John 12: 47

⁴⁷ “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. ⁴⁸ There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.

Lay down your heart on the altar and say , Lord keep me humble all the time of my life.

Without humbleness you can never grow as a christian.

Humbleness is the first step in building a personal altar.

For Abraham , It cost him his time,money,energy - you know the bible says 318 trained men were born in his household. Today in our houses at max 5 or 6 people in house, and we say we are very busy. Inspite of so many people and so many issues to take care, Abraham's first priority is building an Altar and doing sacrifice.

do we sacrificing our time for God    -  We find time for all the things of the world. when football matches or cricket matches, people will stop all other things and watch the game. It is the priorities that we make matters.
Is God the main priority in our lives. We can learn from Jesus, even though there were many disciples and many tasks to do, he never missed His prayer time. Remember if our children never come to us to spend time with us, but are always there in the house what a sad thing it is.

Abraham did not order his servants to build the altar, but he himself built the altar. - this is a world where we delegate tasks to others ( in offices, houses wherever we are ,we try to delegate tasks).

Many times when a situation comes in our life, we ask others to pray for us or we ask pastor to pray for us.(true Pastor will pray for us, because he is our shepherd), But God brings a situation in our lives so that we come to His feet and cry unto Him and seek Him. when it comes to Godly matters, do not delegate the tasks.

do we sacrifice our tongue  for God - we have itching for our tongue to speak bad at others. some people who call themselves as believers , says Praise the Lord in church  and after going from church, they will go home and talk bad about pastor saying pastor is not good. or talk bad about other believers.  Can we sacrifice our mouth and say that my mouth and my tongue will only speak words of Grace. Can we lay our tongue, our mouth and say this tongue is for God. This tongue will speak only words of goodness, words of grace, not words of gossip but words of gospel.

James 3:6

 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

do we sacrifice our mind to God -  our mind is place where lot of thinking goes inside. It could be bad or good.

Philippians 4:8

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things

when was the last time that we think of an excellent or praiseworthy thing. Anything related to God or godly matters is excellent. If a brother or sister is need and in your mind you think that you want to go and help its an excellent thing. because Jesus says if you give a cup of cold water to one of my disciples you have given it to me.

what do we think in our minds. Do we spend time to think why this person is like this, why my relatives are behaving like that, why all bad things happen to me. why things does not workout for me.  
Decision: I will sacrifice my mind to God and say my mind will think of excellent things of God. 

Family Altar

Do we have a family Altar?

some christian families, either only husband  prays or only wife  prays. They never pray together. If there is one thing missing in today's Christianity in America it is family prayer. Because of lack of family prayer there are so many divorces we see even in christian families.
last week i called my christian friend who lives in Hyderabad and was talking to him.He said I have all problems, job problems, family problems. I asked him do you pray as a family. He said with 2 kids its so difficult mama. I did not tell him that he can manage kids,otherwise i would be hypocrite. but I asked him one thing do you watch TV? max 1hr mama. then he got what i meant to say , so i did not go further.

There is preacher called  Leonard Ravenhill - after their kids go to sleep,He and his wife used to pray for hours together as a family. you know what is the result, they kids ended in the best jobs of the world. all three kids became pastors.
Its time for us to build our family altars.
Decision: I will sacrifice my demands,lay down my arguments, and  say whatever is best for family i will do it. I will build a family Altar, Like Joshua me and my family will server only the Lord.

Do we have a professional Altar?

There will come situations in office where your personal ego gets hurt.Do we try to do Tit for Tat and do we entrust the matter to God.
Do we indulge in cracking jokes on others in offices. Do we work in our office as we work unto the Lord.
Decision: I will not let my ego take over others, will not hurt other people, I will work as if I work unto the Lord.

Continuous sacrifice on the Altar:  Abraham also needs maintenance,protection, and keep sacrificing. 

Altar Call in Churches:   our pastor gives altar call after every sermon. This is not a routine thing to do. but there is a purpose. It is to sacrifice.and present ourselves as a pleasing sacrifice to God.

For Abraham, it is not a choice to build an Altar. But it is his way of life.

Church, Do we have personal altar, a family altar, a professional altar. just like Abraham , how he built altar wherever he went , let us build Altar in our lives.

Egg and Bacon Story

The Worship team sings this song When I survey the wondrous cross.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.