I am a first generation follower of Christ. Basically, what that means is that I am the first of my family, on either my mom’s side or my dad’s side, to be a Christian. It means that I have the responsibility to start construction on a road for my children to follow as a guide for their lives. It is a road which must be built on Biblical grounds, and it is a road which must be carefully laid out so that they may know the proper way as they journey through life, and that they also know the proper direction on where to continue building this road after the Lord takes me home, so that my grandchildren, and great grandchildren, and subsequent generations may also pass on its construction (if The Lord wills). Such a road is built, though, not by my wife and I, but by Christ, who provides us with a blue print:
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules —that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Now, I am not an Old Testament Jew. I am not an Israelite. But, I am a citizen of Spiritual Israel because of what Christ accomplished on the cross. Therefore, I have a duty to make sure, as the spiritual leader of my family, that the following is carried out:
1) fear the Lord my God
2) also my children, and my children’s children, by keeping all His statutes and His commandments (continued repentance and trust in Christ), all the days of my life, so that my days may be long (if The Lord wills)
3) I must be careful to do them (repent when I don’t, and realize that I am washed in Christ’s blood, and trust in Him), that it may go well with me and that I may multiply greatly (as The Lord sees fit), as the Lord, my God has promised (at the very least, in the eternal)
4) again, I shall love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my might, and these words that were commanded by God shall be on my heart
5) I shall teach them diligently to my children
6) I shall talk of them when I sit in my house
7) when I walk by the way (in the car, wherever)
8) when I lie down
9) when I rise
10) I shall bind them as a sign on my hand (my behavior and deed should exemplify Christ)
11) they shall be as frontlets between my eyes (my thoughts should exemplify Christ)
12) I shall write them on the doorposts of my house and on my gates (it should be apparent that my family honors Christ)
Will this guarantee that subsequent generations will travel on or even continue construction on this road? Nope.
Will this guarantee that my children will travel on or continue construction on this road? Nope, again.
Then why bother?
Because God commands that my wife and I glorify God. The road will not be finished until God says it is.
My prayer is that the roads we Christians have been called to build, will be long and straight.
Godspeed, to the brethren!
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