On Sunday, November 8th we started a new series called, “A Divine Dining Experience.” In this series, we are looking at four meals Jesus had with people and the teaching He gave during those meals. The overriding theme of the series is that Discipleship starts at home and the challenge for the month was to have a sit-down meal every day with your family and ask three questions.
- “What God sightings did you observe today?”
- “If Jesus were here at the table, what would you want to ask Him?”
- “How can we serve someone today?”
So my question today is this, “How are you doing with the challenge?”
Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old he won’t depart from it.” Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
In the Morning Dive this morning, we were reading Acts chapter two. After hearing Peter preach at Pentecost and being “cut to the heart,” the people present asked Peter and the Disciples, “What shall we do?” Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The response people had was to give their lives to Christ (3,000 of them) and then to meet together, devote themselves to the instruction about Jesus, pray together, fellowship together, and break bread together.
Our response to knowing Jesus and now being home more hours than we have ever been should be to fall in love with the things of God all over again. Here are some things I would advise:
- Read a few verses (maybe a parable a day) and pray with your children every night as you tuck them in.
- Ask the three questions above at dinner time or when driving home from school, practice, church, etc. Get the kids comfortable dialoguing about spiritual things.
- Teach your kids to pray and have them lead the prayer at meals and when you tuck them in.
- During parent/teacher conferences, ask how their heart is toward other kids in the classroom.
- For adults, find one or two other people you can confide in and study God’s Word together and pray together. Hold each other accountable. The get together on Zoom, facetime, or face to face doesn’t have to be daily or weekly, but be in each other’s lives so you can keep each other on a journey with Jesus and not apart from Him.
- Come up with a question for the week you can email or text dialogue about during the week. Challenge each other to find answers in the Bible.
- For spouses, pray together daily. Less than 1% of couples who pray regularly together get divorced.
These are just a few suggestions. This is the greatest time in recent history to focus our attention on small-group, family, and spousal discipleship. As soon as a vaccine is dispensed or we see cases fall, the calendar will be filled up just like before. Let’s not miss our opportunity.