A Homeschooling Parents' Advantage

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. ~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (NIV)

Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, the God who commanded these words to his people in the Old Testament is the same God that we worship and serve today. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, this God has become our God. And by faith in him, we become His people.

So these words are his commands for us. And the essence of God's command is this: Since the LORD is our God - and we ought not to have any other gods - and since we belong to him by virtue of saving us and loving us in our Lord Jesus Christ, God wants us to love him wholeheartedly. God wants us to be loyal to him as his own people.

One way of showing our love and loyalty to him is to love the children he has given us. Fellow parents, our children are inheritance from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). Our children belong to God first and foremost. He entrusted them to us in order to raise them up and nurture them the way He would nurture them. Children, you belong to God first and foremost.

Do you understand the implication of this truth? God is saying, "You are mine. Your children are mine. I love you and I want you to love me with all your life. Love me by loving the children that I gave you."

And how do we show our love for the children that God has given us to nurture? By teaching them everything that he has commanded us to do. When and where do we teach our children God's commandments? When we sit comfortably in our home. While we walk on the street. While we lie down on our bed. At the dining table. While we drive our car. While shopping or doing our grocery. While on vacation. In the morning or in the evening. At noon time. All day long and all the time.

So godly instruction begins in the home but does not end there. It also flows over into a life under the Lordship of Christ in every aspect and sphere of life. In the home the children are taught the basic principles of how to seek the will of the Lord and how to please him.

Someone rightly said, "History proves when the family is sound, both Church and society flourish. The family is the foundation of human society. Give us thus [faithful Christian] families and the Church [and society] will prosper. Otherwise we will certainly face a dark future."

As homeschoolers, we are on the best position to obey this command of the Lord. We really are. Why? We have our kids with us at home most of the time. We see them always. And that's a wonderful blessing that homeschooling brings us. And we thank the Lord for that!

Do we always have the opportunity to teach them? Opportunity? Yes! But do we always take those opportunities? I doubt it! I always fail with my responsibility to teach them. There are times that Facebook is more appealing to me than teaching or spending time with my children. Now you know that I'm an ordinary parent like you. I have my own weaknesses. We all have and we don't pretend. We learn to admit and confess them.

But the thing is, we don't give up teaching our children in spite of our failures. We also admit our sin and weakness and ask for the Lord's forgiveness. And by the way, since failures and frustrations are pretty much part of our life here on earth, we teach ourselves, and our children as well, to accept them and deal with them in a godly way.

We tell our children that even if they fail once, twice, or many times, they don't give up. Rather, we turn to God again and again through our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who humble themselves before God, no matter how many times they fail or fall, are pardoned and accepted by God because of what Christ has done in our behalf.

Today and tomorrow are opportunities to show our children and our brothers and sisters in Christ the love of God in us. Right here. If we truly love God the way Christ loved us by giving up his life for us, we will also be willing to love others, even to give up our comforts and rights, for our children, for our fellow homeschoolers, for our friends and neighbors, and most of all, for the sake of God's kingdom and for the glory of God.

Remember: the Lord is our God. And we belong to him. Let us give others the opportunity to see our Lord Jesus Christ in our lives today, tomorrow, and the rest of our lives.

(A devotional talk given at the opening of our "Yes! You Can Homeschool" Conference at the NCCC Mall Davao on November 19-20, 2016).

Fulfilling the Great Commission as Ordinary Christians

When we think of the Great Commission we usually have in mind career missionaries going overseas or cross-culturally. Definitely that's an important part of the Great Commission. But not all will become full-time missionaries. Some will be stuck in the home taking care of their children or to some their aging parents. Some will be managing family business. A few might even do both. Still some will probably stay in their local churches serving for the rest of their lives. Does that mean that they can't fulfill the Great Commission?

Let's look at it this way. Yes, the Great Commission takes place cross-culturally and in faraway places as missionaries are sent out to preach the gospel, make disciples of Christ, and start a church. However, ordinarily it happens in our homes, our workplaces, in the church, at school, even in some unexpected places.

The Great Commission begins at home where Christian parents are patiently teaching and disciplining their children in the ways of the Lord, including doing cheerfully simple house chores. Disciple-making takes place at home where husbands and fathers lead their families in reading the Bible, in teaching their families the precious doctrines of the Christian faith, and in leading their wives and children in prayer. Remember that as believers our children also belong to the Lord. We consider them disciples also. They also need to be taught of the teachings of Christ until they, too, would profess faith in him.

Proper understanding of the Great Commission would also lead Christian single men and single women to seriously consider marriage with a fellow believer in the Lord in order to build a home where Christ is honored as Lord, where his Word is taught and obeyed, and where children are nurtured to believe and serve God.

The Great Commission also happens in the workplace where Christian professionals and employees bear witness to the grace of God in their words (evangelism) and their good deeds to their fellow workers. They are the light of Christ in the workplace bearing good works as testimonies to the power and presence of God in their lives.

The Great Commission is also being fulfilled in Christian schools where children are taught in every subject the truth about God not only as the great Creator and Lord of the universe but also as the Redeemer and Savior in the person and work of His Son Jesus Christ. So Christian teachers are also fulfilling the Great Commission in the workplace.

And of course, in the church, where everyone is being taught of the gospel and its implications in personal lives and in the life of the whole community of faith, the Great Commission also takes place. Our Reformed churches must always proclaim the gospel in the pulpit, in Sunday school classrooms, in catechism classes, and in the nursery. Every member of the church must be captured and saturated by the same good news of salvation so that each one and the whole body naturally bear the gospel-fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control. We need the gospel not only to fulfill the Great Commission but also to live daily the Christian life bearing witness for Christ.