Daniel – Researching the Past
I just started preaching through Daniel at my church and I thought I would share some of the more interesting historical and cultural information I have learned while researching this series.
First, there is a lot of debate about the year in which Daniel was written, but I will save that debate for future blog as I 
teach through the book.
Surprisingly, there is a TON of archeological information that is relevant to the book of Daniel, because the city of Babylon has some ruins that have been investigated and can be seen today. One of them is the famous Ishtar Gate, one of the gates that lead into the inner, fortified city of Babylon. It was through this gate that Daniel would have probably come many times during his life.
One of the main characters of the book of Daniel is the figure of Nebuchadnezzar. He was an ancient king that exerted tremendous power and was a dominating individual. In the year 605 BC or thereabouts, God used Nebuchadnezzar to attack and conquer the entire Middle-East.
A coin found bearing the image of Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar himself is a well-known historical figure. Technically he is Nebuchadnezzar II and exists as the preeminent king of the Babylonian dynasty, which was brief, albeit very powerful during his day. At its height, it controlled virtually the entire middle eastern region.
He began this particular conquest at the head of his father Nabopolassar’s, army. Nabopolassar was a Chaldean prince who rebelled against the Assyrian army with the help of some allies. He eventually secured his own kingdom centered in Babylon. After he consolidated power, he reigned in Babylon for 20 years. After some time, Nebuchadnezzar, his son, was sent out to crush the Syrian opposition and move down to Egypt where Egypt was trying to fill the void left by the recent fall of the Assyrian empire. Nebuchadnezzar did just that. He conquered Egypt overwhelmingly in battle, but soon after the battle received word
Territory conquered by the Babylonians.
that his father had died and so he returned to Babylon with a small contingent of warriors. It was during series of conquests that he conquered the Judean realm.
Daniel 1:2 mentions how Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and carried off the sacred items used in the Hebrew’s temple worship. This was a common thing to do in the ancient middle-east, but it would have been strange for an
Israelite to read this because what it signified back then was that the gods of whoever won were stronger than the gods of whoever they conquered. So, to an ancient reader, this would seem like Nebuchadnezzar was the stronger person and Babylon was the stronger land. The text tells us that it was God that gave Judah into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand. In Israel, nothing was more sacred than the objects used to worship the Lord in the very temple itself. No one was allowed to touch them except the Levites and the priests themselves. Incense burners, menorahs, cups, plates and other instruments. These things were used in the very worship of Yahweh himself. They never left the temple area. They were the epitome of what was holy. And now, they are going to reside in a pagan temple, a temple where people bowed down and worshiped idols.
So, now the story will shift to the land of Babylon. Babylon itself later became somewhat of a by word among religious people of many faiths in that it signified the “WORLD” and it’s systems. This is directly the result of how the Jews were deported in this story to the land of Babylon. It signified their defeat at the hands of the world and their longing to return home to their own promised land. Babylon itself however at this time was the very height of education, military might, engineering and prestige. By this time the Babylonians had measure the hour into sixty minutes, they had measured the circle into 360 degrees.
The City of Babylon
The city itself is near the Persian Gulf and lies about 30 miles outside of the modern city of Baghdad. It lay right next to
A stylized rendering of how magnificent Babylon must have seemed back then.
the Euphrates river and indeed there were sections of the city on both sides of the river. Nebuchadnezzar greatly fortified the city, erecting larger city walls on both sides of the river so that it could not be attacked. There was an inner fortified city which was about 500 acres in all in which lay their most sacred temple and the king’s palace. Outside of this was the regular city, which was still strongly fortified and was about 3,000 acres total. The outer wall of this city was so large that a four house chariot could ride on the top with room. The city itself was laid out in a square so that the streets intersected each other in ninety degree angles.
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
This was also the place where Nebuchadnezzar built the famous hanging gardens of Babylon, which were considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. He built them for one of his wives who was homesick for her native land. During this period, Babylon was probably the most impressive city in the entire ancient world.
One of the things that surprises people about Daniel is the journey he had to take even to reach Babylon as a captive. Since the actual mileage is not listed in scripture, we are dependent on historical records of the routes that people traveled on back then. In being transported as a refugee from Jerusalem to Babylon, the Babylonian army would have
Daniel's route to Babylon
traveled through the well-known trade routes of the middle east, moving north through Judea before crossing over and moving down along the routes of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is only one piece of the story that suggests what great trials Daniel went through in his life of service to God. We are sometimes tempted to believe that the characters in scripture had epic moments of faith, without realizing what trials and struggles they also must have had to go through. Thinking through the life situation and possible trials of the heroes of our faith makes their stands of faith and ministry more incredible as we learn more about the things that actually happened to them. In Daniel’s case, he was forced to make this 500 mile journey after having experienced the siege and destruction of all those things he held dearest. He may have lost family members in the war against Nebuchadnezzar’s army. His faith surely took a hit when it was learned that Nebuchadnezzar had raided the very temple itself. In addition to this, the word used to describe Daniel and his friends in Daniel chapter one is the Hebrew word yeled, which is the word for “young man” usually denoting a male between the ages of 15-20. So Daniel was probably only 16-17 when these events took place. It is an incredible beginning to a remarkable life of faith and dependence of the Lord.
A day in the life of Mary in Ancient Nazareth
Sometimes we forget that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was really just a Jewish girl between the ages of 13-16 years old when she gave birth to Jesus. Yep, that’s right, somewhere between 13-16. It was during this age in the first century BC when girls were usually betrothed to their husbands. The betrothal would last about a year, and then the couple would be officially married. I know our Nativity sets maker her out to look in her mid to late twenties, but realistically, that never would have been the case in the ancient world. Additionally, we sort of implicitly brush up their lives to make them seem a little more glamorous than they really were. Here is what a probable day would have looked like for Mary in her village of Nazareth before she became pregnant with Jesus.
Nazareth itself was a village of somewhere between 400-800 people, no bigger.
As the day begins:
-She gets up in the cold.
-She helps her mom or dad begin the fire.
-She begins her day. (she doesn’t brush her teeth.)
-She begins helping her mother prepare a small meal for the men who will go out to work.
-Once they eat and leave, she begins her daily projects.
-She milks the family goats and takes the milk inside to the small kitchen area where her mother takes it from her and they begin to make it into cheese and give a little milk to her youngest brother.
-She helps her mother with the younger children.
-She begins drying fruit or baking bread, kneading the dough and then walking it to one of the open village ovens nearer the center of the village. While she waits for it to bake, she gets to talk to one of her friends, another girl in the village, as they both watch their young siblings.
-She brings the bread back to her home, wrapped in clothes.
-She starts the daily mending of the men’s clothes. After this she sits down at a family loom and helps her mother weave.
-She prepares food to take to the men in the fields who are harvesting grapes or grain or olives.
-She takes the food to her father and her brothers and they sit and talk while she waits on them for 20 to 30 minutes.
-She lugs back all the leftovers, water and anything else they needed to bring to the house.
-She puts all those things away, ready for the next time they will be needed.
-As the little children take a mid day nap after lunch, she is allowed to sit and rest, or walk out to overlook the valley and perhaps spend another fifteen minutes with her friend again.
-She moves back to begin helping her mother with the preparations for her cousin’s wedding, a village feast or perhaps making something useful for the home.
-She begins the preparations for the nightly meal and the men coming home from the fields.
-She goes to the village well to draw water for the entire family for the entire evening. Her two younger sisters come with her and it takes them a half an hour to complete because other women and children are there. But they don’t mind because this is when she can catch up with what has gone on in her village of about five hundred people during the day. Then they carry the heavy stone pots back to their home.
-The men arrive from the fields. If they are eating as a family, perhaps they will eat together. If family relatives are eating with them, the men sit down to eat first, where she will again wait on them for perhaps thirty minutes, and then she and the other females eat together quickly.
-the younger children are laid to bed.
-She is allowed to stay up around the fire just outside the house as her grandfather tells stories with some of the other men of the village.
-She goes in the house and takes her place in the raised corner of the room, where the entire family sleeps. The goats also move in the house because this is the cold season of the year. They all lay down, and they go to sleep.
-End of day. Tomorrow, repeat.
This is the village, and this is the type of family that Jesus, the son of God was born into. this picture of a day in the life of Mary shows us how a life of significance is not found in being rich or powerful or famous, but simply in doing the things that God has set before us and in being obedient to what he wants for our lives. There was NOTHING significant about Mary in the world’s eyes. She was just a young girl who went about doing what the majority of women have had to do throughout world history. She believed in God and was submissive to his will for her life. For that, the angel Gabriel calls her “Highly Favored!”
God does not see like we see. He is not impressed by the things that impress us. Remember that this Christmas.
Thoughts on Adoption and Christmas
About ten days ago, my wife and I stood in a courtroom holding our two-year old son. The court clerk asked us to swear that what we were about to say was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us God…just like you see on TV. We said yes. Then we sat down and the judge asked us a series of six questions. I honestly don’t remember the exact wording of any of them. I was too choked up and unprepared for the situation. In our previous adoption, a judge from another county just brought us in and had us sign on the dotted line, posed for a few pictures with us and handed our girls a teddy bear each. But this time it was different. The judge in this case wanted to impress upon us the seriousness of what we were doing, and he did, in a big way. We left the courtroom feeling like we had just been involved in a marriage ceremony. We swore to be faithful to our little son Jacobi. We swore we would protect him and allow him to enter into the inheritance of our family and the full rights of what it means to be adopted. Having already had him for six months, we knew we were ready to enter in to this covenant. Since Jacobi is so little, I don’t think he will remember that day. But it was very important for him too. It changed the cycle of everything his past generations have been involved in and created a new path by which he will be allowed to walk in freedom and truth. For me, It was one of the most meaningful days of my entire life. My wife and I were joyful AND exhausted after it was over. And the Tague family now has one more member. Jacobi Ellis Tague.
And then I thought about God. How He adopted us with a solemn oath, with a covenant written in blood and with the sacrifice of his own son. How he allowed us to enter into his own family through freely giving to us a member of his real family, Jesus Christ the righteous one. That is what Christmas really is. The giving of one person, Jesus, for the adoption of many sons and daughters. Christmas is the day we remember what has been given, so that we can receive.
Questions about Christianity -If God planned for Jesus to die for us, why did the Ten Commandments and sacrifice come first?
God used the Ten Commandments to show us our sin. It was necessary to help us understand how bad we really are. Otherwise, we wouldn’t understand our need for a savior in any way. The Ten Commandments constantly point us towards the fact that we do not live consistently under God’s law. We always want to do things our own way. Paul tells us in Romans 7:7-8 that it was only because of the law that he understood how sinful he really was. The law is just one of God’s ways to help us realize our need for a Savior. It shows us that we cannot save ourselves because we cannot properly follow God’s directions.
God gave the Israelites the system of sacrifice in order to point to something greater that was coming, the sacrifice of his own dear son. In the ancient world, anything important in the way of a promise or covenant involved the shedding of blood and the killing of an animal. God used this in order to point to the shedding of blood that would be required for the forgiveness of our sins in Christ. Jesus came and died on a cross in order to show us how greatly God loves us. All the sacrifices that came before Jesus were pointing us to the great sacrifice that Jesus would perform for us. In theological terms, this is called a “foreshadowing”, something that points toward something else in the future. The sacrificial system was pointing toward the coming of Jesus and the once and for all sacrifice that God was giving us in Jesus. This is why, in John 1:29, John the Baptist can look at Jesus and say, “Look, the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!” John realized that Jesus was going to be a sacrifice for the sins of humanity.
Questions about Christianity – Will we know if our loved ones aren’t in heaven when we are there?
This is a great question and one that hits close to home for all of us. There are a lot of people we love that don’t follow 
Jesus. When we think about this, it causes sadness. Sometimes we wonder if we will still be sad in heaven when we think about them. It is natural to think and feel this way now.
The Bible does not give a direct answer to this question, but it does give us clues. One of them is found in I Corinthians 13:9-10 “Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.” These verses seem to indicate that when we get to heaven we will know much more than we know now. Some great Christians have speculated that perhaps our knowledge in heaven will so closely resemble God’s view of things that we will feel as he feels. God loves everyone who has ever lived. He loves even those people who reject him. That is the message of John 3:16. However, even though God loves those people, he understands that they have freely rejected his gracious and loving offer of salvation. Therefore, he is able to enter into loving those that have accepted him with his full love with the understanding that this is not what everyone chooses. Because of his greatness and glory, God is not drawn into depression or anxiety over the decisions of those that reject Jesus. Knowing that when I get to heaven I will be like Jesus comforts me and helps me remember that I will someday think, act and feel just like Jesus. I don’t know how, but he will make heaven a place of greater knowledge for me, greater love, greater understanding and greater fellowship than anything I have experienced here on earth.
This answer does not satisfy our heartfelt feelings for those people who reject Jesus, but we must remember that we will think and feel much differently in heaven than we feel right now. Also, as you feel hurt or sad regarding those in your life that do not know Jesus, take time to do two things. 1) Pray for them to be saved. the prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much. 2) Share the gospel with them again. Give them another chance at coming to know the love of God in Jesus. this type of heartfelt love and action pleases God.
The Life of William Borden
A friend of mine sent me this information on a man who completely gave his life to Christ, no reserves, no retreats, no regrets. I would like to share it with you. It comes from the web site: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/regret.htm
“Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:19
William Borden’s life
Quotations taken from Borden of Yale, by Mrs. Howard Taylor, Moody Press, Chicago
In 1904 William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school. As heir to the Borden family fortune, he was already wealthy. For his high school graduation present, his parents gave 16-year-old Borden a trip around the world. As the young man traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for the world’s hurting people. Finally, Bill Borden wrote home about his “desire to be a missionary.”
One friend expressed disbelief that Bill was “throwing himself away as a missionary.”
In response, Borden wrote two words in the back of his Bible: “No reserves.”
Even though young Borden was wealthy, he arrived on the campus of Yale University in 1905 trying to look like just one more freshman. Very quickly, however, Borden’s classmates noticed something unusual about him and it wasn’t that he had lots of money. One of them wrote: “He came to college far ahead, spiritually, of any of us. He had already given his heart in full surrender to Christ and had really done it. We who were his classmates learned to lean on him and find in him a strength that was solid as a rock, just because of this settled purpose and consecration.”
During his college years, Bill Borden made an entry in his personal journal that defined what his classmates were seeing in him. That entry said simply: “Say ‘no’ to self and ‘yes’ to Jesus every time.”
Borden’s first disappointment at Yale came when the university president spoke in a convocation about the students’ need of “having a fixed purpose.” After that speech, Borden wrote: “He neglected to say what our purpose should be, and where we should get the ability to persevere and the strength to resist temptations.” Surveying the Yale faculty and much of the student body, Borden lamented what he saw as the end result of an empty, humanistic philosophy: moral weakness and sin-ruined lives.
During his first semester at Yale, Borden started something that would transform campus life. One of his friends described how it began: “It was well on in the first term when Bill and I began to pray together in the morning before breakfast. I cannot say positively whose suggestion it was, but I feel sure it must have originated with Bill. We had been meeting only a short time when a third student joined us and soon after a fourth. The time was spent in prayer after a brief reading of Scripture. Bill’s handling of Scripture was helpful. . . . He would read to us from the Bible, show us something that God had promised and then proceed to claim the promise with assurance.”
Borden’s small morning prayer group gave birth to a movement that soon spread across the campus. By the end of his first year, 150 freshman were meeting weekly for Bible study and prayer. By the time Bill Borden was a senior, one thousand of Yale’s 1,300 students were meeting in such groups.
Borden made it his habit to seek out the most “incorrigible” students and try to bring them to salvation. “In his sophomore year we organized Bible study groups and divided up the class of 300 or more, each man interested taking a certain number, so that all might, if possible, be reached. The names were gone over one by one, and the question asked, ‘Who will take this person?’ When it came to someone thought to be a hard proposition, there would be an ominous pause. Nobody wanted the responsibility. Then Bill’s voice would be heard, ‘Put him down to me.’”
Borden’s outreach ministry was not confined to the Yale campus. He cared about widows and orphans and the disabled. He rescued drunks from the streets of New Haven. To try to rehabilitate them, he founded the Yale Hope Mission. One of Bill Borden’s friends wrote that he “might often be found in the lower parts of the city at night, on the street, in a cheap lodging house or some restaurant to which he had taken a poor hungry fellow to feed him, seeking to lead men to Christ.”
Borden’s missionary call narrowed to the Muslim Kansu people in China. Once he fixed his eyes on that goal, Borden never wavered. He also challenged his classmates to consider missionary service. One of them said of him: “He certainly was one of the strongest characters I have ever known, and he put backbone into the rest of us at college. There was real iron in him, and I always felt he was of the stuff martyrs were made of, and heroic missionaries of more modern times.”
Although he was a millionaire, Bill seemed to “realize always that he must be about his Father’s business, and not wasting time in the pursuit of amusement.” Although Borden refused to join a fraternity, “he did more with his classmates in his senior year than ever before.” He presided over the huge student missionary conference held at Yale and served as president of the honor society Phi Beta Kappa.
Upon graduation from Yale, Borden turned down some high-paying job offers. In his Bible, he wrote two more words: “No retreats.”
William Borden went on to do graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. When he finished his studies at Princeton, he sailed for China. Because he was hoping to work with Muslims, he stopped first in Egypt to study Arabic. While there, he contracted spinal meningitis. Within a month, 25-year-old William Borden was dead.
When the news of William Whiting Borden’s death was cabled back to the U.S., the story was carried by nearly every American newspaper. “A wave of sorrow went round the world . . . Borden not only gave (away) his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and natural that it (seemed) a privilege rather than a sacrifice” wrote Mary Taylor in her introduction to his biography.
Was Borden’s untimely death a waste? Not in God’s perspective. Prior to his death, Borden had written two more words in his Bible. Underneath the words “No reserves” and “No retreats,” he had written: “No regrets.”
Portions based on material in Daily Bread, December 31, 1988, and The Yale Standard, Fall 1970 edition.
Questions about Christianity – Does God know who will accept him and who won’t?
The short answer is yes. God knows. God possesses all knowledge about every event and possibility, past, present and future. There is nothing that he does not know and nothing that he could not know. All knowledge is his. However, the question usually lurking behind today’s question is “if God knows who will accept him and who won’t, then why does it matter what I do since God already knows?” Implicit in this is a sort of determinism that leaks into our thoughts because it seems like everything is already determined.
Without going into a lot of philosophy and theology about God and predestination, let me just say this: Just because God knows does not make you less accountable for what you do. The Biblical worldview is one in which God knows everything AND one in which the Bible calls us to make decisions that honor God, beginning with submitting to Christ as Lord and Savior. the Bible has not given us the information as to how to put together the fact that God knows what will happen and our responsibility to respond to the Gospel message. But what God has given us is the knowledge that we are to respond to it. That should be enough for us. Standing on the sideline and questioning God about it isn’t going to get you anywhere. The better response is to submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior and allow God to lead and guide your life, since, he knows…right? 
How to do family devotions
Beginning to read God’s word together is one of the best things a family can do. Yet, many families do not take time to participate in this time-honored practice because they believe that they lack either the time or the biblical knowledge. As we shall see, neither of these serve as a sufficient reason to avoid engaging in reading the Word together.
Before we dive into the specifics of the excuses given by many families, let’s investigate why and how we should be reading the word with our family.
Why read the Bible together?
When we think of the education of our children, we think of school or teaching them good manners or social graces. However, few families today realize that spiritually training your children is more important and should consume more time than teaching them etiquette or sports. Many of us dads spend a half an hour playing catch with their sons three times a week? Yet, how many dads take seriously the encouragement in scripture to spiritually train their children? Look at the following scriptures.
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bid them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” Deuteronomy 11:18-21
“…Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you-they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 32:46-47
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6
“The living, the living-they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.” Isaiah 38:19
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” II Timothy 3:14
The Bible verses above place a great priority on “training your children” in the way of the Lord. This is obviously more than just reading the Bible to them or taking them to youth group or church, but definitely not less than that. Reading the Bible to your children gives them a context through which you live your lives corporately as a Christian family. Even before your children can read, they can be enthralled by a Bible story or even by the message behind a Bible story. You don’t have to wait until your children are “old enough to understand.” I began reading the Bible to my oldest daughter Marli when she was born two months prematurely, lying in a hospital islet, all two pounds fourteen ounces of her. Could she understand my words at that time? You may be tempted to say no, but she could hear my soothing voice, and what better things to be entering her mind, even at that age, than the word of God? There are many scriptures that speak clearly about a child’s understanding of God’s presence with them,
“I have known from my earliest days that your decrees never change.” Psalm 119:152 (NLT),
“Yet you brought me safely from my mothers womb and led me to trust you when I was a nursing infant. I was thrust upon you at my birth. You have been my God from the moment I was born.” Psalm 22:9-10 (NLT)
“You have taught children and nursing infants to give you praise” Psalm 8:2
Some people might look at that story as extreme. And to that I say “absolutely!” I want my children to know that the Word of God was the absolute, unquestioned priority of my life and of our household. Of course, if I am not living as good example of a Christian man, then my witness will be lost to my hypocrisy. But as a father, I must accept the challenge presented to me and by the grace of God, live like a man possessed by the Holy Spirit. Will I always live up to the standard? No. Will I always model Jesus correctly? No. But do I give up reading the scriptures to my children and living accordingly because I will not reach 100% in this life? No. As my children grow toward maturity, they will see my mistakes. They will also begin to understand the Scriptures in deeper ways and will understand the struggle of all Christians to “live as Jesus lived.” And hopefully, my reading the scriptures to them will help that process along.
These scriptures make it clear from both the Old and the New Testaments that training a child to obey the Scriptures is a priority that parents should embrace. If we examine our hearts, we would find that the obstacles we place in the path of fulfilling this duty do not relieve us of this responsibility. Rather they only delay the guilt we feel for not making the lifestyle change necessary to complete this task. It is easy to say, “We don’t have the time.” Or “I don’t know the Bible well enough to teach my kids.” Or “I’m not a pastor.” But just using those excuses does not take away the mandate from God for parents to train their children spiritually. As we will see, it takes less time and biblical knowledge than one might guess to begin to train children in the scriptures.
Now that we have looked at the scriptural mandates to train our children spiritually, let’s look at one of the “how to’s” to train our children, reading the scriptures together as a family.
How to train your children spiritually: read the Bible together
All children are great lovers of stories. Whether it is a bedtime story told by mom or dad or a book of children’s stories, children throughout history and around the world love good stories. It is not a coincidence that God chose to put so much of his word to us in story form. With younger children below age 10, it isn’t feasible to productively read through the entire bible from beginning to end if you want to engage their mind and imagination. However, it is still very possible to read the historical portions of the bible from beginning to end and give them a good feel for the flow and plot of biblical history and salvation. Of course the goal of all spiritual training is the salvation and discipleship of the child. It is understood that reading the Bible does not automatically achieve this goal, yet it is an integral part of moving in the
direction of drawing the child’s mind to think on the things of God.
If you desire to begin reading devotions with your family, there are a couple of basic principles that will make it enjoyable and productive for both you and them.
1. Make sure you set aside the proper time. Personally, I have chosen the 15-20 minutes after breakfast to lead my family in devotions. In some families the father works an early shift, so reading in the morning is not a possibility. Whatever the case, there should be a consistent time during the day when the family is together as a unit. If your family does not have consistent time each day together, then other factors are at work separating your unity and you should evaluate why that is happening. Some families feel too busy in the mornings with school beginning early and too busy at night with sports or extra-curricular activities. They feel it is not practical to read together from the Scriptures. At this point I would again address the basic premise they are setting in their family that extra curricular activities are more important than reading God’s word together. Let’s face it, at the end of the day, is my son’s expertise in soccer more important than his knowledge of God’s Word?
In regards to time, you do not want to bore your children with an elongated time of reading, but neither do you want to make it seem as if this period is just 3-4 minutes tacked on at the end of something else. Therefore, try to schedule out 15-20 minutes to read, think and talk about the story you are reading from God’s Word.
2. Read through the stories of the Bible. History reads like a story, and indeed history is God’s great story. Below is a breakdown of the major sections of the Bible that can be read with children. You don’t necessarily need to start with Genesis and read all the way through these stories, in fact, if you tried, when you got to the New Testament, you would get all four gospels at once, one after another. Rather, begin by reading a Gospel and then Acts, then go to the Old Testament book of Genesis and read through the Exodus, and then read Jonah or Daniel. The point is that there is no divine way of reading. You want your children to learn the historical flow of Genesis through the New Testament, so you might want to create a simple outline that helps them identify the major characters and sections, but if you are constantly in God’s word, both you and they will eventually get the flow of Biblical history.
Sections of the Bible in Story Form
-Genesis
-Exodus 1-20, 32-34
-Numbers 11-14, 16-17:12, 20-25, 31-32
-Deuteronomy 1-11, 34
-Joshua
-Judges
-Ruth
-I & II Samuel
-I & II Kings
-I Chronicles 10-22, 28-29
-II Chronicles 1, 5-36
-Ezra 1, 3-10:17
-Nehemiah 1-7:5, 8-9, 12:27-13
-Esther
-Job 1-2, 38-42
-Psalms (In small doses, as they are able to handle them)
-Proverbs (In small doses as they can be digested)
-Daniel 1-6
-Jonah
-Matthew
-Mark
-Luke
-John
-Acts
3. Choose a modern translation that is not hard to read. It is important, especially when reading a story that you not get bogged down with difficult language. Therefore pick a translation with words that your children will be able to understand. I recommend the New Living Translation – NLT. Remember, the goal is not verse by verse discipleship yet, but getting your children to understand and be excited about the wonderful things God did for His people throughout history.
4. Get excited about the story. There is practically nothing more important than the reader of the story making the story enjoyable to hear. This will mean that you will have to have a passion to teach your children the wonders of God and his work. You don’t have to read the Bible in a monotone voice with no inflection. Read the story as if you were in a play and wanted to get each part you read. I just finished reading the first six chapters of Daniel to my children. As we read Daniel 3:13-14 I raised my voice and shouted because the text says “Nebuchadnezzer, furious with rage, summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego….and said to them ‘Is it true Shadrach Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?’” It is important that we “put our feelings into it” as they say. But more important, where applicable, we put the Bible characters feelings into it. Do we always know what the biblical characters were feeling when we read what happened to them? No we don’t, but many times we can get a good idea of how they felt by simply reading the story and thinking about how we would have felt if a similar situation came upon us. By now my children are used to their dad doing this type of thing for them when we read stories. You may have an introverted personality and think, “Well I just can’t be outspoken or outrageous like that.” I would respond by telling you to remember that our children see our passion. Is there anything in your life that you are passionate about? Just make sure your children see your passion for God like they see your passion for the other things you love. This is not an introverted vs. extraverted parenting choice but a lifestyle of passion that will find avenues of expression one way or another.
5. Don’t think you have to know it all. I am a pastor by profession and there are times when my children ask questions that I don’t know the answer to. It is ok to tell them, “Honey, I don’t know the answer to that, but what a good question.” At the very least it will promote further discussion for the family as you try to figure out the answer. Remember, your role is not that of a theologian or Bible Answer Man. Our role during this time in our children’s life in this area is more akin to someone who kindles a fire than one who discusses the nature of what makes a fire. You are there to kindle your children’s passion for God and his work. As your children grow in the Lord their questions will become more complex, but don’t let that stop you from engaging them in God’s word. As you grow in Bible study and discipleship, your knowledge of God’s word will also increase and you will feel more capable of answering your children’s questions. When you come up to an issue that neither of you feel capable of addressing, talk to one of the pastors at your church. If they do not know the answer, they should be able to point you in the right direction of a ministry that can.
These suggestions should help you as you seek to lead your family in devotions. There is one thing to remember above all these suggestions and that is cultivating a vibrant personal relationship with Jesus must be the focus of your life if it is to be the focus of your family’s time together. You could use this information and carry out a well-regulated, daily time together in the Bible, but if you are not seeking God with all your heart, if you are not growing actively in your faith, then over time your children will see that this is a dead ritual instead of a living Word from God every morning. It can be a lifeless ritual or one of the most exciting times of the day together. Pray that God would make you the person He wants you to be, so that your children will be influenced by your life of faith and your passion for Jesus. Then as Jesus Christ leads you, you will lead your family.
Halloween
I read an interesting article today from the Resurgence on the history behind Halloween. Read it here and let me know what you think!
About
Matt was born and raised in Carlsbad, Calif. Although he grew up in a devout Christian home, he struggled and rebelled against the Lord as a teenager. However, at eighteen, Matt gave in to God’s love and submitted to Jesus. Soon after, he met and married his wife Kelli. They now have six children and love the role that God has given them as parents.
In 1998, Matt graduated from Vanguard University with a degree in Ministry and Leadership. For the last fifteen years, he has worked for a variety of Christian ministries including Horizon Christian Fellowship, the Christian Research Institute, and Carlsbad Community Church.
In 2005, the Lord called Matt to plant Rancho del Rey Christian Church in Carlsbad, California. Matt’s heart desire is to help people see Jesus in all his glory. He and his wife are passionate about parenting, adoption, The Bible, missions, discipleship and helping people see Jesus in every aspect of life. His life’s calling is to present the Jesus of the Bible to people who don’t yet believe, and to encourage fellow Christ-followers to live in complete, life-altering obedience to God. He recently authored his first book, Read the Word: The Bible was written for you.
