A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original article appears below. Esther Mcllveen is a free-lance writer living in Richmond, B.C.
Richard Baxter was a great man of God who has been described as the greatest preacher in England during the 1600’s. He was also a prolific writer, using a quill pen. It is reported that he sometimes wrote as he rode his horse from one preaching point to another. He took a very wealthy and sophisticated parish in England and pastored over 800 families. For three years he preached with all the passion of his heart without any visible response. “Finally one day,” he wrote, “I threw myself across the floor in my study and cried out to God, ‘God, you must do something with these people, or I’ll die.’” And he said, “It was as if God spoke to me audibly and said, ‘Baxter, you’re working in the wrong place. You’re expecting revival to come through the church. Try the home.’”
And Richard Baxter went out and called on home after home. He’d spend an entire evening in a home helping people in family devotions. He was convinced that, “The catechising of families in private is the most likely means to promote the conversion of souls.” He moved from one home to another until finally the Spirit of God started to light fires all over the congregation, until they swept through the church and made it the great church that it became.
We hear a lot about revival these days. Revival means to “bring back to life – to restore.” Usually revival is mentioned in connection with the church. I wonder if God is not saying to us, “Your emphasis is in the wrong place.” For a family to be revived in the Christian sense would be:
- – for God to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children;
- – for children to honour their parents;
- – for husbands to love their wives (so their prayers will not be hindered);
- – for wives to respect and reverence their husbands, so their hearts can trust in them.
Children, like sheep, need to have an environment in which they can safely graze. As Gene Paul Richter says:
“The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.”
Homes need to be nurturing and nourishing places where families play and pray together. Where the discussion of current events and the scriptures are as natural as eating three meals a day. Creative energy can flow when relationships are peaceful and woven together with love, and anchored in a strong faith. The home is where we daily lay down our lives for each other. In doing so, we get a glimpse of the heavenly kingdom, as Marguerite Harmon Bro says:
“It is one thing to feel chained to the dishpan, and another to feel that we have an important part in making a house a home. We can’t hoax ourselves into feeling jolly about dishwater, but when a morning comes that we find ourselves singing over the sink and stacking the dishes with genuine indifference – or even a kind of tenderness – then we know that we have stumbled upon the meaning of small tasks in the heavenly economy.”
Our homes are where the lonely, solitary ones can find love and acceptance through hospitality. Children at an early age can be introduced to a global awareness through correspondence and prayer for people working abroad or in different philanthropic agencies.
Women are so absorbed by mothering, that often they can talk about little else. We need to be careful that we don’t over-invest in our children and under-invest in our marriages – keeping in mind, that parenting is temporary, but marriage is permanent.
Parenting is arduous and steady work. One day when I was weary of the task, I poured out my heart to the Lord and felt him say, “Delight in your children.” He was encouraging me to enjoy and have fun with my children. Another day he said, “Only when children are not loved properly, do they form stone in their hearts.” Love is what keeps our hearts fleshy, so that he can imprint imprint his laws in them – parents and children alike.
The way our homes are run will be a good indication of how the church will be run. Let us pray much as families and for our families and watch God work in our churches and throughout our dominion.