The Clock is Ticking..tick, tock...tick, tock...

My tribe in LA, CA

I write this blog from the west coast. Carol and I have traveled to California to see our daughters. Each time we come to California we suffer from culture shock. The crowds, the traffic, the prices are excessive. But these things aren’t what stand out as most shocking. What shocks us most is an undefined cosmopolitan complexity, a secular worldliness that exists and makes us miss home.
Wednesday night, at dinner we discovered our waiter was a Christ follower. He mentioned how refreshing it was to be with other believers and how he rarely got to experience Christian fellowship. After hearing about his struggles, part of me (the father of my girls part of me) wants my daughters to come back home to Oklahoma. The other part of me (the pastor, disciple, missionary part of me) is proud that they are building God’s Kingdom in an area where Christian faith requires a tough-minded pioneer missionary spirit.
I must admit, Christian faith is becoming increasingly difficult, if not dangerous in American culture. Families are under siege. Public schools identify people who hold to Christian faith as ignorant, stupid, insane, and wicked. Although we parents may want to take our children out of this increasingly hostile world,” we must raise our children to be godly disciples through which God will demonstrate His power to help them not only stand firm in it but convincingly impact it for the gospel. NBFamilies calls this God’s Faith Mission.
New Beginnings NBFamilies dreams of becoming a church family that partners with parents to disciple their children but never elevates the family above the churches mission in furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Can you imagine your own family knowing and experiencing the Gospel of Jesus?
• What would change for your family if we began to recognize your responsibility to spread the good news of Jesus Christ?
• How would your family change and grow if you planned and went on a family mission trip instead of a family vacation?
• What could God do through your family to reach your neighbors, your kid’s ball teams, your kid’s school classes or clubs, or your extended family for Jesus?

God can use His people to make a difference in the world if they are willing and will seize the opportunities He gives them.

Do you remember Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? Maybe you remember them by their Babylonian names: Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego. Read Daniel 1:1 - 3:30.

Make the most of the time you have left with your children.

Ephesian 5:13-17 Everything exposed by the light is made clear, 14 for what makes everything clear is light. Therefore it is said: Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead, and the Messiah will shine on you.15 Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

In Ephesians 5:16, Paul uses the Greek word “kairos”, for time. Paul is describing “an opportune or right season.” Kairos = time is a specific, opportune time. NBFamilies parents are discovering that there’s no greater kairos moment then childhood for faith development. Now is the time! NBFamilies parents ensure that their homes are places filled with opportunities that nurture their families faith and elevate God’s mission.