As For Me & My House, We Will Serve The Lord

Home Alone.

You know you're now a different person.

A pound of blueberries & cherries. It now took me a week to finish. When my boys were there, they were done in 15 minutes.

When you have kids, life will be different. When kids are gone, life can't return to what's before, cause they leave in your heart a hole. Maybe only our grandsons can fill!

Here I am. Home alone.

Only "when will you come to us daddy... I miss you daddy..." can warm my missing heart.

Let's talk about kids in simple/house church. Why not start with this:

4 days ago, when I was driving somewhere near Westminster Hwy & Lynas. A Chinese family of 4 crossing road. The father was very happy with his little girl & far left behind. The mom walked with her boy, aged about 5. He walked 4-5 feet ahead of mom. While they crossed, the light was already red. One car turned left. Mom rushed to grab his hand, while the second car got real close to him. Luckily nothing bad happened. So familiar in Richmond. With a scenario like this, do we expect a pedestrian come out from nowhere & grab the little boy's hand? Who has such responsibility? Too easy, ah?!

Of course the mom! The boy is too small. They need parent to guide him on crossroad. I think no one will disagree on this. Now when come to faith, not many christian parents guide & teach their children's walk of faith. They simply ask a pedestrian to hold their little hands on the parents' behalf. The pedestrian is called "church." Strange enough, not many think there is a problem. What do the parents do? They don't walk, wishing this kind pedestrian to do the good job of bringing their kids to the other side. Ironic. Yet a reality.

Parents don't walk the faith, & follow Jesus. Just consign their kids to church & expect church can teach their kids in a godly manner. Unrealistic. Kids are the best detectives to find out religiousness & hypocrisies. When they do, faith becomes a game. They drop out! There ain't right with churches as well. We create program after program to attract children, hoping we then get their parents' membership. Pragmatic church growth.

However the biblical mandate is to start from parents(Deut6:1-9). We have to be trained to follow Jesus ourselves first. And we bring our kids to Christ. With our modeling & parental guidance, we then can bring them up as Jesus follower. There is no short cut, no consignment. In fact, whether people were qualified as leaders in early house churches depends not so much on gifts but on the family education of their kids (1 Tim 3:4, 5, 12). So much off track nowadays.

What to do with kids in simple/house church?

Parental apprenticeship.

A parent should have the primary responsibility to train kids spiritually. No short cut, no consignment, no more pedestrian. We train parent, everyone, to follow & obey Jesus, be His disciples, model our faith, and then our kids have the focus to follow. No more dependence on program. Tackle the core - parent.

Inter-generational meeting.

"They (kids) have the same Holy Spirit, and they are as much a part of the meeting as the adults. If they can read, they'll read some Scriptures, or they may pray with someone or choose a song... We may have the younger ones in a separate room with someone older supervising them during Bible discussion time. But as soon as they are old enough - to comprehend, they participate. Once they are old enough to read, they can participate (with adults)." - Felicity Dale.

Don't underestimate kids.

I was praying overnight. Caleb woke up to piss. OK, he found me praying & I told him why: "I prayed for the world." From then on, he urged me to let him in. "Come on! How can he stay overnight? He will ruin my night..." I thought. But when I realized it is wrong to put out his passion to pray, I let him pray with me for one hour at mid-night. I never lead other to pray for an hour. I don't know how... But somehow the Spirit led us, as we sang, praised, prayed for Africa, our communities, his friends, his school... One hour done.

Joshua was so excited to know Caleb doing this with dad. He wanted to join me. So this time with Joshua. Amazingly, this guy really is a pray warrior. He followed me to raised up both hands to sing, to praise and to pray for Asian countries... he even bind Satan in the name of Jesus - the next day his nose was hit by a tennis ball & bleed a lot, he now knows being a warrior one has to pay a price to fight Satan! Kids are just wonderful!

From time to time, we as a family including Philip prayer walk our community & bless our neighborhood. A friend of mine after she herself was trained in street evangelism, she even brought her daughter (7) to go with her. Though the first time was not intentional, the little girl is fired up & wants to share gospel with friends.

This is parental apprenticeship. This is kids-in-simple-church. Kids will catch fish for Jesus. Kids could be the star-reachers for His Kingdom. (see the starfish in the photo). We value kids.

In fact we have a lot to learn from kids when coming together. They humble us.

I can hold myself pretty nicely. I am a pastor. Speak well, talk well, present well... well well well well well. People naturally think I am spiritual. My true spirituality reveals at home. In fact I was scared when knowing I am going to open my house as a simple church soon. My weakness will then be exposed. No place to hide.

When Caleb is not sitting well or not focus in Bible time, very often I will be upset. I raise my voice & he cries. When he cries, I am even more upset. In fact one time the Spirit warned me that I was too strict in teaching them Bible. This would make them lost interest in God. I simply repented. I felt so sorry. I felt so bad.

How many times, kids help me see I am so impatient, so self-seeking, so rude... The place where I find myself desperate for grace is my family, with my kids. So much to learn. But this is how we grow. Kids expose our real self. Kids humble us to the grace of Jesus.

In a house church, adults & kids learn together from our success & failures in following Jesus. We are only His disciples.

I love Caleb, Joshua, Philip. My sons. I really do. They are my life.

I am so sorry for the mistakes I made as a father, but I am learning.

"Dad not one you love me. You love me just like God love me" - Love Joshua.

"...I know that you will love me forever" - Love Caleb.

Thanks God it is still not too late.

Thanks Jesus for your grace.

Help me to love my kids in the way you love them...

Help me to bring them up as your followers...

Let our house serve you...

We will serve you, Lord. My sons will serve you. My sons' sons will serve you... Amen.