TLP 181: The All-Bible Family

Truth.Love.Parent.

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:03

My point is simple. Christ honoring ambassador parenting becomes even more valuable as you're able to more accurately be an ambassador for even more of God's truth.

00:15

Welcome to Truth. Love. Parent. Where we use God's Word to become intentional premeditated parents.

00:24

Here's your host, A .M. Brewster. Happy Family Day. Well, actually, National Family Day is on the first Sunday of August, but I offer my best wishes nonetheless.

00:33

Team TLP and I are all about the family. Whether it's just you and your spouse, whether your child has not yet been born, whether you have one child or 10, and whether your kids are out of the house or not, we celebrate your family and everything

00:47

God wants for it. We think Family Day is a great thing to celebrate, but like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, we don't think it should be relegated to a single day of the year, but it never hurts to celebrate either.

00:58

So today we're going to talk about how to have the best family possible. But before I do that, let me remind you that I wrote a free parenting course called 25

01:06

Days to Becoming a Premeditated Parent. You can sign up for that course for free at truthloveparent .com

01:11

under our Parenting Tools tab, or you can click the link below. It's a great course and it's significantly more robust than most imagine.

01:19

By the way, if you've taken the course, but haven't yet filled out the survey at the end of the course, I'd love for you to do that.

01:25

You can also email teamtlp at truthloveparent .com to give us your feedback on the course.

01:31

We have plans for many more 25 -day parenting courses, but we need your feedback so we can make them as helpful as possible for you.

01:38

So if you haven't taken the course, for what are you waiting? And if you have, please give us your feedback.

01:43

Seriously, even if you hated it, we need to know. We want it to be a beneficial experience.

01:49

Okay, so what's this whole all -Bible family thing? Well, first let me encourage you to further this celebration by listening to episode 78.

01:57

That was the first episode we ever did in honor of National Family Day. It's called, What's a Family Anyway?

02:03

It's amazing what people think a family is, and it's vital to know what God says it is. All right, so what is an all -Bible family?

02:10

Let me start by telling you what it's not. There are people who believe that basically nothing in the

02:15

Old Testament applies to Christians today. There are those who believe that certain parts of the

02:21

Bible were polluted or messed up by men over the years. There are those who believe that certain concepts in the

02:26

Bible are strictly cultural and have no impact on the modern family. There are those who believe that it's good to know the

02:32

Bible, but it's not worth spending a ton of time studying. And there are those who believe that many parts of the

02:37

Bible are exaggeration or allegory. Now, let me be fair. Some of the things I just said could be potentially true depending on how you mean them.

02:46

Dispensationalism is a biblical reality that keeps modern Christians from being required to keep all the

02:52

Levitical laws. There are some uniquely cultural practices that we don't have to continue today, but the practices that were commanded and never recanted should not be conveniently swept under the cultural rug.

03:04

There are allegories and figurative language in the Bible, but it's always grammatically and linguistically clear when those devices are being used.

03:11

Not everything that sounds supernatural is allegory, like the creation of the world or the resurrection of Christ.

03:18

All of those incorrect beliefs and others like them all have the same thing in common. They each deny that part or all of the

03:25

Bible is God's perfect truth. Whether it's been messed up by man or it's no longer culturally relevant, those parts of the

03:31

Bible just no longer have value. And my friends, that could not be further from the truth. Every word from in the beginning to amen and everything in between is there because it has value for the child of God.

03:44

Not all of it may be prescriptive, and not all of it may be as easy to interpret or apply, but it all has value.

03:50

Imagine it this way. Every part of the Scripture that your family doesn't know or chooses to ignore is like a missing limb from a body.

03:58

To deny the importance of the arm or an ear or one of those toes or the stomach would be hazardous, if not deadly.

04:06

Can someone survive if they don't have ears that work? Of course. Can a person survive with no limbs? Yep. But is that the kind of life you would choose for your children?

04:14

Just because they could survive, are you going to opt for an amputation? Well, we do the exact same thing.

04:20

We choose to ignore certain truths of Scripture or portions of the Bible. We need it all. If you want a spiritually healthy and vibrant family, you need to be an all -Bible family.

04:31

So, what's the best way to do that? Here are some suggestions. Number one, for your family members who can read,

04:37

I recommend they read as much of the Bible as often as possible. Listen, my kids can read books for hours.

04:43

It's not that most children don't like reading. It's that they'd rather read something else. That shows the strength of their relationship with God and the state of their heart.

04:52

Number two, for those who can't read, I recommend reading it to them. You can even go onto YouTube and listen to people narrate the entire

04:59

Scripture from nearly any translation you can imagine. Instead of Sesame Street droning in the background, why not have a portion of each day dedicated to the playing of Scripture?

05:08

There are New Testament books that can be read through in less than 15 minutes. Proverbs can be read through in about an hour and a half.

05:15

And even if people aren't actively paying attention to it, if you play Proverbs once every couple of days during quiet time,

05:22

God's Word will not return void. Number three, have a time of family focus on God.

05:28

Call it devotions or family worship or whatever you want, but take time to make a big deal out of God.

05:34

Number four, make church a priority. That shouldn't surprise you coming out of your family needs to go to church series.

05:40

Number five, increase your parenting Bible. In episode 17, The Sufficiency of Scripture and Parenting, I introduced the concept of a parenting

05:48

Bible and how you can make yours bigger. Make sure you listen to that episode if you missed it. Number six, in line with the parenting

05:54

Bible, just make it a habit to find your answers for life in Scripture and don't only ever turn to the

06:00

Gospels or Proverbs or Psalms for the answers. Are those amazing books full of powerful truth from God?

06:06

Yes, but have you ever considered the amazing book of Jude? Right now in church we're doing a six -week study on the 24 verses in Jude and let me tell you, we could have taken more time on it.

06:16

It's amazing. How about the book of Micah? What about numbers? I know that sounds exciting, but amidst the genealogies which are powerful in their own right, there are necessary anecdotes and truths that can have powerful impact on your family.

06:30

Are your kids struggling with their responses to authority? Try turning to Numbers 12 or 16 for some lessons to live by.

06:36

My point is simple, Christ honoring ambassador parenting becomes even more valuable as you're able to more accurately be an ambassador for even more of God's truth.

06:46

The more accurately you can represent Him to your family, the better it'll be for everyone and the more God will be glorified in your home.

06:53

And number seven, enjoy Bible -centered entertainment like Patch the Pirate. I love

06:59

Patch the Pirate adventures. I know they're mostly for younger children, but because I grew up with them, I still enjoyed listening to them as a teen and even now as an adult when my kids are listening to them.

07:09

Now it wasn't my goal today to take a whole chunk of time. I want you to go and spend as much time with your family as you can, but remember this, what does it profit a man if he has all the time in the world with his family, but doesn't give his family the most important thing they need?

07:24

Now please do me the great honor of sharing this episode and please join us next time as we ask the question, what are you sowing?

07:31

Many of our families are daily reaping consternation, annoyance, anger, disrespect, and sadness.

07:37

How does that happen? Wouldn't it be wonderful if you spent more time reaping joy and gratitude and love? Next time we're going to talk about one of the reasons there are so many struggles in our homes.

07:47

And I'd also like to invite you to consider accepting Ray and Carolyn's invitation to click the Five Ways to Support TLP link below.

07:54

Ray and Carolyn were TLP's first patrons. It's due in large part to their faithful giving that we can do what we do.

08:01

Truth Love Parent is a listener supported ministry and every gift helps, so please consider what part God may have you play in that process.

08:07

And as part of that ministry, you can always get our free episode notes on our blog, Taking Back the

08:13

Family. You can also get free counsel from our counseling team. Just send an email to counselor at truthloveparent .com

08:20

and we will do our best to shine as much of God's word as we can on your unique situation at no charge to you.

08:26

Your family is special and it's unique and they have so much potential, but that potential can only be truly realized as it's empowered and instructed by the entirety of scripture.

08:38

Don't hold anything back from your kids. Don't amputate your family. See you next time.

08:45

Truth Love Parents is part of the Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you become an intentional premeditated parent.

08:56

Join us next time as we search God's word for the truth your family needs today.