"As for me and my house....."

Joshua 24:15(KJV 1900) — 15And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Certainly this is a message that has transcended the ages.....I personally have heard this passage in several sermons and songs and Sunday School and Bible School lessons and Christians Broadcasts on the radio as well.....and why not?? It has a simple yet profound message within it: "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"......Joshua told the people of God to make up their minds which gods they will serve..... But Joshua says, as for me AND MY HOUSE, we will serve the Lord [Jehovah].....this simple passage teaches us something about order in a family, in a family unit....Joshua implied there is no division in his house....Joshua implied that his household would follow his lead as a position of authority in his home....not a dictatorship, just that God gave the husband this responsibility in spiritual matters.....He also implied there were no divisions in his house...... why do/would we allow divisions??  It would seem to be common sense that we would all want to be on the same page.....I teach our Church family and young couples who are to marry that their number 1 priority as husband and wife is to make their home a sanctuary......the world has enough chaos in it, so please don't allow it in the house!

In my 20 years of pastoring I've heard a lot of reasons why people can no longer attend church....probably my favorite one is that they can't get their kids to want to come.......hmmm.....I wonder if they can get their kids to want to go to school?? I know this is nothing more than an excuse but it's amusing nonetheless.....many times parents raise their children as equals.....Sometimes I'll be at Walmart and be forced to listen to children arguing with their parents and its hard for me to figure out who the child is in that particular parent/child relationship.....why would we want division in our homes?? The family unit is the foundation of society......God wants us to love and nurture and encourage one another and for the home to be a shield against the rest of the ills of society.....

I often think about my Grandma and Grandpa Williams.....they raised 8 children on the sand of Posey county and the watermelons and cantaloupes they grew.....they were pretty poor in the worlds eyes....but they had plenty of food, and, most importantly, all kinds of love.....even though their house wasn't anything to look at, nothing fancy inside of it.....there was Grandma and her love for the Lord and her love for her family......and all of us Grandkids, great Grandkids looked forward to our visits there.....her home was a sanctuary....

Joshua's home was a sanctuary.....it had no division in it....he spoke for his family when he said as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord......I remember Bobby Knights famous quote from years ago, when asked what its like to coach kids in this era since kids have changed so much....he said, "kids haven't changed one bit over the years....its the parents that have changed" .... yep, I'm afraid he's right

​SW