Category: Bruce’s Newsletter Articles

In 2 Timothy 3:15, the apostle Paul reminded Timothy of “how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Paul says that the Bible makes us wise so that we can be saved, and Timothy learned this since he was a young child.

Where did Timothy learn the Scriptures from infancy? From his mother and his grandmother. Timothy learned the foundations of salvation from his family. It’s easy to read that, nod, and move on; it makes sense, but it’s not always the case. Even among Christians, it seems that Christian parents have delegated Bible teaching to the church. This was not God’s plan.

Deuteronomy 6:6, 7 say: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 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.” God’s original plan for teaching the Scriptures, which make us “wise for salvation,” was for families to teach God’s commands through everyday life.

Family life, then, becomes “Bible school.” Every morning brings new opportunities to tell about God’s promises. Every chore is a chance to describe God’s power and tell about God’s plan—and how each of us has a part in that plan. Every evening should lead us to look back over God’s blessings throughout the day and thank him.

Parents, you are responsible for teaching Scriptures to your children, but you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or professional educator, you just have to tell your children what you do know and do it through your everyday experiences. However, your responsibility to teach your kids should encourage you to build up your own faith and knowledge of Jesus, and you can do that through personal and smaller group Bible study. Get involved in a smaller group or start one yourself. Be sure to catch the September sermon series as we get back to the Bible together.

I come from a long line of farmers and gardeners. My grandmother would save every seed from every tomato that she ate and start what would become a jungle of tomato plants every season. My dad has kept at least one major garden and sometimes even three at different locations around our community. I have clear, sometimes traumatic, childhood memories of planting, tending, and harvesting potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and corn. It wasn’t always fun, and it was rarely easy, but we worked as a family to make the garden grow.

Growing the church is the responsibility of the whole family, as well. In Hebrews 3:12, 13 we read: “See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” The writer encourages us, as a family, to make sure that we continue to grow and not turn away.

The early church surely faced the same kinds of daily temptations that we face; in fact, they faced outright persecution, which we can only imagine. Yet they were called to encourage each other daily so that they would not become hardened by the sin that they faced.

Tending a garden is not a weekly chore; it is a daily chore. Just as there is always something to do in a garden, there is always something to do in the church; so we cannot be content with interacting with each other only once a week. As the extended family in Christ, we must always be on the lookout for times when our brothers and sisters need encouragement. We have families who are facing temptations and struggles daily, and we must always be ready to encourage and help them however we can. It isn’t always going to be easy, but let’s keep working together as a family, so that none may turn away and so that we may continue to grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus.

You have probably heard the phrase “Charity begins at home.” This Fathers Day weekend, I had an opportunity to see that in action. On the third Saturday of each month, we have the serve our community by distributing food to people who need it. This month, our whole family worked together to help set up and distribute food. It was an amazing thing for me to see all my kids working with other kids and adults from the church to live out the second greatest commandment and love people in a tangible way.

The thought that “charity begins at home” is an excellent starting point for helping Christians, particularly young Christians, to grow up in their faith and knowledge of the Lord. It is not a bad thing for family to take care of family. In fact, the apostle Paul commands it in 1 Timothy 5:8: “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

But the command is not intended to make us focus on ourselves. it’s a matter of growing closer to God and serving God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:46-48: “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Paul tells us that we need to take care of our own families, and if we don’t, we’re worse than people who don’t know God at all. Jesus said that it’s a matter of becoming like God. Ultimately, it’s about sharing the Good News of God’s love and forgiveness. If we cannot learn to take care of our own families, and our own church family, our message of God’s love will fall short because our personal lives won’t reflect it. If we truly want people to know the God who loves us enough to forgive our sins, we have to show that love through our own families.

Throughout the long winter we have been dreaming about how we will get away from it all. Whether it’s kids dreaming about a two-month summer break or families planning a week or even a weekend away, we long for a change of pace. But with all the changes of summer, we find ourselves altering not only our schedules but the way we think and the way we behave.

Unfortunately, it seems that those breaks from everyday life give us more opportunities to lose our focus on God. One way we do that is to go away over a weekend and not go to church. I don’t mean to be harsh, but even though it’s healthy to get away from the daily grind, it’s unhealthy to take a break from God, even for a weekend. It’s especially bad for families because it gives children the idea that taking a break is more important than worshipping the One who has given us everything. So, if you’re planning to be gone over a weekend, visit the church office and look at the “Directory of the Ministry,” which lists our sister churches all across the country; then you can plan to worship with the extended family of Christ wherever you go.

Another way we lose our focus on God occurs when we travel. I have to admit that travelling at 70 mph for several hours in a small metal box is not a family builder. Not only that, but many vacation activities have a way of stirring up our sinful nature: waiting in lines, paying for meals, wanting this or that from gift shops; it seems that vacations are also havens for temptation. Many of these temptations get the best of us, and we lose our focus on God.

Regardless of how it might happen, we must remember that we are still examples to the world. So when it’s time to go “up north” or when the kids start getting the gimmes and wants at the next tourist trap, remember Paul’s words in Philippians 2:14, 15: “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.

It is fairly easy to teach children to give, especially when we provide the gifts they give. First, there’s excitement when they receive the gift, usually followed by disappointment when they learn they can’t keep it. The excitement grows when they learn that the gift will help feed people; it grows when they learn they can help people learn about Jesus.

The excitement of giving quickly becomes a habit, and kids become keenly aware of the needs around them. That’s where families begin to grow together. My own giving has been challenged when my kids have asked for money for various missions needs. Some of their requests have been met with challenges to do extra chores or to give up a portion of their birthday money, which is usually followed by a discussion about the value of personal sacrifice.

But giving isn’t merely a matter of collecting money; our giving should always be a matter of connecting people to God and helping them to grow in their faith and encouraging them to serve as well. We can see this pattern in the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10. Verse 2 tells us that Cornelius “and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.”

Cornelius and his family were Gentiles who were beginning to connect with God, and they were beginning to serve by giving to those who were in need. Then God sent Peter to preach to them. Acts 10:24 says, “Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.” Cornelius continued “giving” by introducing his relatives and friends to the Gospel message, which led to them being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:48).

Let’s continue the pattern in our own families and within the church by giving generously to people in need. Families can also give together by serving together, at the third-Saturday food distribution, for example. Let’s continue giving together so we can all grow and serve together.

Our culture has trained us to be self-reliant. This becomes painfully obvious when other people begin to get involved in our personal lives; then we bristle. However, I was recently encouraged by several young men and women who said that they want to find some older men and women who would be willing to give them insight into marriage, work, and leadership issues.

This should encourage us to understand that the church is a family and that families teach each other. In Titus 2:1-6, Paul encourages us to do that: “You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.”

Early on in my Christian life, I was taught that each of us should have a Paul, a Barnabas, and a Timothy. In other words, each of us should have a person in our life, like Paul, who teaches us how to become a Christian and how to live as a Christian. Each of us should also have a person, like Barnabas, who encourages us to live according to sound doctrine, to hold us accountable. Each of us should also have a Timothy, someone whom we can teach and encourage.

Whether you are young or old, take the time to get to know your family. Find someone who can teach you what you need to know. Find someone who can encourage you. Then find someone whom you can teach and encourage so that this family can continue to connect people to God and other people, to grow in our faith and knowledge of Jesus, and to serve like Jesus.

Forgive me, but one of my favorite memories of Easter is our family’s annual egg hunt. For me, the only thing better than searching for eggs was getting old enough to be allowed to hide the eggs. One of the most exciting things for me as a kid was to know that my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older cousins were so good at hiding eggs that it would a long time to find the eggs. Because of their skill (which led to finding eggs weeks and months later) I always looked forward to the day that I could hide the eggs; I wanted to be as good as they were.

That kind of imitation is key to our understanding of the Easter message. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the ultimate expression of God’s love for us, and we ought to imitate that love. Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 5:1, 2: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

When we are immature in our faith, it’s easy for us to focus on what Jesus’ death and resurrection means for us as individuals. We are forgiven. We have the promise of eternal life. We have a relationship with God that we didn’t have before. Those are great things, and they are certainly reasons for us to celebrate, not just on Resurrection Sunday but on every Sunday, even every day.

But that’s just the starting point. Just as children grow up and take on new responsibilities, Christians must grow up and start imitating God and live a life of love. Perhaps the reason that we hesitate to live that life of love is because Jesus’ love is a sacrificial love. God, as our heavenly Father, loves us in such a way that he sacrificed his only Son Jesus, who gave his life willingly, to forgive us and to give us eternal life. As God’s children and Jesus’ brothers and sisters, we are called to imitate that love. Let us love sacrificially.

As a parent, I can honestly say that there isn’t much higher praise than to be recognized when my kids say and do the right things. So, family, I want to thank you for reflecting your Father in heaven.

From March 6 – 13, we hosted a group of students from His House at Central Michigan University, which was here to minister to the homeless and others in downtown Detroit. The morning they left, their leader simply gushed about how well this body of believers welcomed them into our family and helped with their ministry.

Here are some examples. Melanie Govan brought extra blankets so the students would be warm as they slept in our building. Cathy Andrews and Liz Garofali washed some of their clothes and towels. Debbie Green made a meal for the team one night. They thanked Sue Duncan for the ice cream. They also thanked everyone who gave them their cell phone numbers, just in case they needed anything. While I’m sure that those who offered some help wouldn’t think much of what they had done, the CMU students praised God because of their care.

This has to be the same kind of pride that Paul felt when he wrote 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” Even though our church family members would consider their contributions to be small, the students praised God. Even more than that, while the students felt that their contributions to the homeless in Detroit were small, they reported that the people they helped praised God for their help. I praise God for you, as well, because you have responded to God’s mercy in your lives by sharing some comfort with others who then showed God’s mercy to people who desperately need it.

While it’s clearly biblical to consider the whole body of believers within the church as our extended family, many times we seem to be missing a real sense of family roles within the church. Most times we are content to think of God as our Father and everyone else as our brother or sister. But the church’s identity as the family of God goes beyond the understanding that all Christians are siblings.

The Bible shows us that there are other ways that we must relate to each other within the church. In 1 Timothy 5:1, 2, Paul writes: “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” Paul tells us that there are generational roles within the family of Christ.

These roles are more than positions of authority; they are a matter of mutual respect and healthy growth within the family of God. While we might blame the generation gaps for the perennial conflicts within the church over issues such as worship preferences and the adoption of various forms of technology, the differences in age and spiritual maturity among God’s children should lead us toward growth, rather than division.

The familial roles within the church help us to grow as a church. Younger generations are going to become the leaders of the church; so they must look to the older generations, who must model Christ-like servant-leadership. Young men and women are facing the attacks of culture that older Christians have already faced, and the older generations must help the younger ones survive. Our culture continually devalues the aged, but younger Christians must take a stand to protect older Christians and care for them. Ultimately all Christians must love each other as family, guiding, protecting, and encouraging each other as we grow together.

I think it’s strange that so many people in the church, and not just this church, believe that “ministry” is what happens at church. Many also believe that only people who are called “ministers” are the ones who do “ministry.” That can’t be further from the truth.

The “family” is probably one of the biggest mission fields that we have, and parents, then, are front-line missionaries. While the church helps missionary-parents be trained, to be encouraged, and to be equipped.

We can see this throughout the Scriptures. In Deuteronomy 6, we read how all of Israel was called to train up children at home. In Acts 10, Cornelius, the first Gentile Christian, invited his whole family and his friends to his home to hear Peter preach, and they were all baptized. In Acts 16, we read how Lydia and her household and how the Philippian jailer and his household all believed and were baptized.

Jesus recognized the influence of family as well. In Mark 5 we read about how Jesus had cast out a legion of demons from a man and into a herd of pigs. Because Jesus delivered him, the man begged to go with Jesus, but in Mark 5:19, Jesus said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” Verse 19 says that he went home and told everyone what Jesus had done for him and that “all the people were amazed.” One life was changed directly by Jesus, but many others were influenced back home.

Back home, with the family, that’s where life happens. That’s also where lives can be changed. Considering that parents spend far more time with their children—and grandparents with grandchildren and aunts and uncles with nieces and nephews, etc.—than all of them spend at church, it should be clear how much the family of Christ must minister to the family and with the family so they can be ministers at home.