The Directory for Private (Family) Worship #12

It’s Tuesday, so we take a look at the next direction in the Directory for Private worship.

XII Seeing the word of God requireth that we should consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works; therefore, at all times, and specially in this time, wherein profanity abounds, and mockers, walking after their own lusts, think it strange that others run not with them to the same excess of riot; every member of this kirk ought to stir up themselves, and one another, to the duties of mutual edification, by instruction, admonition, rebuke; exhorting one another to manifest the grace of God in denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and in living godly, soberly and righteously in this present world; by comforting the feeble-minded, and praying with or for one another. Which duties respectively are to be performed upon special occasions offered by Divine Providence; as, namely, when under any calamity, cross, or great difficulty, counsel or comfort is sought; or when an offender is to be reclaimed by private admonition, and if that be not effectual, by joining one or two more in the admonition, according to the rule of Christ, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

We are first reminded of the truth that God requires believers to encourage each other toward love and good deeds. This requirement is especially important in times where the culture at large provides many examples of people who ignore God and live contrary to God’s law and expect others to join them in their rebellion. I am reminded of the situation we Christians find ourselves in here in New Zealand in the 21st century. Many weaker Christians are being sucked into the vortex of rebellion. Many have been incapacitated by the secular worldview that surrounds them. Consequently, we need Christian brothers to spur us on in these times, to help prevent us from either taking on the world’s opinions and ideas, or falling into its sin. This should start in the Christian nuclear family, but extend throughout the Church body.

The creators of the directory desire that every member of the church should see it as their duty through instruction, admonition and rebuke to exhort others to show the grace of God and reject ungodliness and worldly lusts. It’s not something I have seen a lot of in recent years. Culturally, we modern Westerners are individualists, and it comes as a shock to us if someone has the temerity to rebuke us or instruct us. Part of the issue here is that our churches are not as strong as they should be, because we have not developed the kind of community and fellowship that ought to be seen. We don’t want to get too close to each other precisely because people might see our flaws and that could get quite uncomfortable. Rightly, we also want to avoid legalise. Nevertheless, this aspect of the directory was certainly a challenge to me. Sometimes it is hard enough to rebuke or take a rebuke from someone in our immediate family. Taking this out into the community of believers we belong to seems even more daunting. Yet it is a command of Scripture.

The rule continues by highlighting the positive side of encouragement and admonition. Not only do we help our brothers and sisters avoid ungodliness and worldly lusts, we exhort them into godly and sober living. I think an element of this is the older and more mature Christians modeling Christian living as well as promoting a Christian view of the world. We should not only critique pagan approaches to living, for example, the unnecessary putting off of marriage and family for the sake of a career, but we should also encourage a Christian culture – one of marriage, family and lots of children! Again, unfortunately, the promotion of such Christian ideas is something that can be difficult, because much of the church is individualistic and has imbibed the pluralism of the age. We are brought up to believe that we just have to choose the best path for us. An approach to Christian living that highlights some paths as godly and others as ungodly runs counter to this. Furthermore, the promotion of what is a good and right Christian norm can be seen as a rebuke to those who for whatever reason do not fit the norm. When was the last time you heard a sermon on a Christian approach to child-raising that decried the scourge of daycare and instead promoted mothers…well…being mothers? It’s hard for pastors to encourage a godly lifestyle when they are afraid of the pushback from congregations. It takes courage to promote godly Christian approaches to life.

We conclude our brief look at the twelfth direction, by noting the way it highlights comforting the faint-hearted and praying both with and for each other. We live in perilous times, and courage is needed to live as Christians. There will be times where we are the faint-hearted and we need the community of believers to comfort us, and there will be times where we have to comfort those who are faint-hearted. Prayer is going to be a necessary part of this. In such time as these, it is clear that nothing we can do on our own will change anything. We need God’s Holy Spirit to be at work in and through us and our Christian communities.

The Problem With “Progressives”

The battle line between good and evil runs through every human heart, said Solzhenitsyn. Those who attempt to bleach the world of sin are sinners themselves, and the more ambitious they are, the more swaddled up in pride and ignorance they become. People who want to bring heaven up on earth have turned the earth into hell and made rivers run red with blood, because the first thing they must do is the something they cannot do, which is to cure themselves. If we are to be healed, we must walk the way of the Cross. the progressive cannot diagnose his own disease. But that does not mean that he rejects the way of the Cross entirely. He makes everyone else walk it. It is the rule of what the Catholic anthropologist René Girard tabs as the default position of mankind. Do not give up your lusts. Do not sacrifice yourself. Sacrifice the other. Other people must be to blame.

Anthony Esolen in Out of the Ashes

The Directory for Private (Family) Worship #11

For some time we have been working our way through the Directory of Private Worship. What put me on this track was a sermon where this directory was mentioned, along with the concept that family worship was taken so seriously by the Church that fathers who did not ensure their family engaged in it could be admonished and even debarred from the Lord’s supper. Today we move to the eleventh stipulation.

XI. Besides the ordinary duties in families, which are above mentioned, extraordinary duties, both of humiliation and thanksgiving, are to be carefully performed in families, when the Lord, by extraordinary occasions, (private or publick,) calleth for them.

Though the language is somewhat archaic, I think the general idea is likely clear to most readers. From time to time, it is important for families to go above and beyond normal Bible reading and prayer in their family worship. There are special occasions where it may be necessary for families to humble themselves before God, perhaps in repentance over sin, or even in sorrow over a nation’s sin. Recent laws and proposed laws in New Zealand might be examples of such occasions. At other times, when God works mightily on behalf of his people, special thanksgiving might be appropriate. I’m not sure whether the framers of this directory would have held to special traditions of thanksgiving around the celebration of Christmas and Easter, but I think these are a great way opportunity for both humiliation and celebration in family worship. Both my wife and I were not brought up in ritual following families. Sure there were some traditions, but we have tried to extend this a bit as we raise our children. One that has become a helpful tradition is a celebration of the last supper / Passover meal where we eat roast lamb, drink wine (or grape juice for the children!), wash each other’s feet and read the Passion story.

Shepherds! Protect the Lambs

One of the most frustrating things I have found in over two decades of working with youth in both a church and Christian school context has been the response of Christian pastors to Christian education. It ranges from apathy to antipathy. Few have the courage to call their congregations to obedience to Christ in this area. This despite the very real danger state education presents to the little lambs in their flock.

My experience has been that many young adults from Christian homes are either incapacitated and rendered impotent by the secular worldview they imbibe during their 17-year secular discipleship programme, or they leave the faith. And a lot of them do leave the faith.

Just this week, I was chatting with a friend who spoke of two young people he knew, both attending secular schools. One no longer attends youth group or church and has decided he is not a Christian any longer. The other, a young woman, has been so indoctrinated by feminism and humanism that she looks up to feminist icons who are responsible for the liberalisation of abortion.

Can pastors continue to look the other way? A pastor is a shepherd. When a lion or a bear came to attack and kill David’s sheep, he would seize them by the hair and kill them ( I Samuel 17:35). That takes manly courage and the ability to face risk and danger. This is the need of our hour. We need pastors who are willing to be courageous men. They must stand between the lambs and the wild animals out to devour them.

Jesus himself warned of the danger posed to little ones. After calling a child to himself and showing his disciples that they must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven, he gave one of his starkest warnings. He said, with this little child and perhaps others next to him, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

We know, without a shadow of a doubt that the 17-year anti-Christian state discipleship programme is in a large part responsible for many little lambs being torn to pieces. Any Christian leader worth their salt should be aware of this. Teaching a child that God is irrelevant to the world he has made by never mentioning him in 17 years of education is likely to cause him to stumble. Teaching a child that Christ is Lord of his heart, but that he isn’t too interested in the rest of life is causing our children to stumble. Flawed teaching on gender and sexuality is causing our children to sin.

So about that millstone…Does it belong to our secular officials who desire to control the future by discipling our children into their faith? Does it belong to the teachers who abuse their positions to poison the minds of children with depravity? Does it belong to parents who fail to follow God’s law to impress God’s laws on their children day and night (Deuteronomy 6:6-9), or does it belong to the shepherds who see the children in their flock falling away from the faith but say nothing?

What will it take for Christian leaders to wake up, grab their weapons and start protecting the flock? When will we hear a sermon about the importance of training our children in the Christian faith and protecting them from the evil one? When will we hear our pastors calling all families to remove their children from the perils of secular education?

Will the recent news of the proposed Conversion Therapy ban wake our pastors up from their slumber? Will pulpits throughout the land warn parents that they are in danger of losing their children? Kris Faafoi on Newstalk ZB was asked whether it was ‘cool with him’ for parents to tell their children they can’t go on hormone blockers. He said, “No it’s not.” Of this law, Family First writes, “Shockingly, parents would be criminalised and potentially liable up to five years in jail simply for affirming that their sons are boys and their daughters are girls. These bans will lock children into transgenderism.” As a teacher with knowledge of the school system in New Zealand, I can assure my readers that this degeneracy is already being promoted by many schools and teachers. Too many naive parents think secular schools are only there to teach Maths and English. Unfortunately, that is about the only thing they are not getting. These must make way for the all-important secular indoctrination programme you see. A law like this is only going to make things worse. Godless teachers will turn children against parents and make them aware of their ‘rights’. The only protection will be removing our children from these godless pagans. Will pastors protect their sheep by saying this? That remains to be seen. If not, God help us.

The Directory for Private (Family) Worship #10

In recent months, I had a young man come to our house and we got talking on some of the spiritual disciplines that took place in our household. I mentioned to him that our family eats breakfast together and there I read the Word to our children and pray as we begin our daily labours. In the evening, after dinner, while we are still at the dinner table we do the same thing. He was surprised at this activity. Despite growing up in a Christian family, this had never been a habit in his family. Today’s direction from the directory for private worship is helpful in this regard.

X. These exercises ought to be performed in great sincerity, without delay, laying aside all exercises of worldly business or hinderances, not withstanding the mockings of atheists and profane men; in respect of the great mercies of God to this land, and of his severe corrections wherewith lately he hath exercised us. And, to this effect, persons of eminency (and all elders of the kirk) not only ought to stir up themselves and families to diligence herein, but also to concur effectually, that in all other families, where they have power and charge, the said exercises be conscionably performed.

In simple English, we are charged to regularly perform the duties expressed in the previous directions and ensure that the day to day busyness of life nor the mocking of those who do not love God do not put us off from fulfilling these duties. The writers of the directory mention both the mercy of God, and recent corrections from God as factors highlighting the importance of private worship. They complete this direction by arguing for the elders or spiritual leaders of the church to ensure they are diligent in exercising themselves in the fulfilment of the rules previously cited, and additionally that they encourage other families to perform them too.

Of great encouragement to me is the fact that in visiting a church recently the pastor made a big deal about the importance of family worship and even provided free books for families seeking to develop in this discipline. Let us encourage each other as brothers and sisters to be faithful in this all important spiritual discipline.

A Culture of Life vs A Culture of Death

One of the fascinating but predictable things about rebellion against the true and living God is the way it always devolves into lies and death. Since Satan is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning, this should not surprise us. We see the rebellion of our father Adam was founded on Satan’s lies and ultimately caused the slow murder of Adam and all his progeny. Those in Satan’s kingdom employ his methods. Thus very early on we have Cain murdering his brother in envy and Lamech murdering a young man for insulting him. Yet Satan’s influence is not limited to individuals. Cultures that embrace rebellion against the living God grow more and more like their father the devil. They too embrace lies and death. The Pharaoh of Moses’ day embraced the lie of his own divinity and murdered countless young Hebrew boys. The Canaanites embraced Molech and sacrificed their own children to their ultimate ruin.

Our secular culture in its haste towards the abyss more and more manifests its diabolical nature. Its language is full of lies. We have transwomen, marriage equality, antiracism, gender affirmation, social justice and economic equality. A transwoman is a man. Marriage equality? A homosexual union can never be a true marriage. Anti-racism is actual racism. Gender affirmation is the attempted destruction of the image of God in an individual as male or female. Social justice is injustice. Economic equality is stealing. You get the idea. Our secular culture only lies when it speaks.

Then we have secular culture’s embrace of death. Abortion is our euphemistic term for child sacrifice. In New Zealand, 18% of known pregnancies in 2019 ended in an abortion. We’ve also introduced euthanasia. And our suicide rate amongst youth is horrendous, but surely given the culture of death celebrated, and our nihilistic outlook, unsurprising. Secular culture is killing itself off. They see children as a threat to the environment. Recently Meghan and Harry won an award for their decision to have only two children. Environment worshipping secularists even promise to have no children for the sake of the planet. In this, the secularists plant the seeds of their own destruction.

The secularist trumpets their rebellion with slogans such as ‘a woman’s right to choose’, and ‘I was born in the wrong body’, but their embrace of this culture of lies and death is actually evidence of God handing them over to wrath and judgment. They will not be fruitful. Their culture will dwindle and decline. In contrast, this world will be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Fruitfulness and blessing come to those who love the Lord their God. They will inherit the earth. Those who love God, for whom Christ is king produce a culture of life. Having children for us is part of the calling to dominion under Christ. That is why faithful Christians tend to have more children than nihilistic secularists. We are hopeful. This world belongs to our Lord. It will be restored and we will reign with him over his creation.

Wasted Potential

Recently I read an article by Don Brash on benefit numbers. The numbers were shocking. As of June 2021, there were 354,744 receiving a main benefit from the government. This represents 11.3% of the working-age population. Part of this (2.1%) is made up of people receiving sole-parent support. A massive 6.1% are people receiving jobseeker support. These are people (supposedly) looking for work, or temporarily unable to work due to a health condition or injury. There are just over 190,000 or 6.1% of the working-age population in this category. As Brash rightly points out, this number has not reduced in any significant way despite the fact that employers are screaming out for even unskilled workers. He writes, “Clearly having more than a third of a million adults dependent on a benefit at a time when employers are desperate for staff shows that there is something fundamentally wrong.“

Brash goes on to make some interesting points, and I’d encourage you to read the full article. What I wanted to do was reflect very briefly on the way that the religion of Statism gets things wrong. Forcibly taking other people’s money and giving it to unproductive members of society might seem like a nice thing to do. After all, none of us wants another person to starve. Yet the problem is that in providing assistance like this, and then in the creation of perverse incentives not to work (like minimum wage laws), the State actually causes a percentage of the population to be unable or unwilling to work. This is not good for them, and it is not good for society. Once again we see that the mercies of the wicked are cruel. For a country to have a full 6.1% of people who could work not working is an incredible waste of a society’s potential. Furthermore, the encouragement of family breakup through rampant sexual immorality has led to more sole-parent (i.e. economically unviable) family structures that require government (read unwilling other people) to support.

Paul’s rule with the Thessalonians was “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” It’s a good rule, and if charity was more personalised, it would force those who should be working to actually work to their own benefit, and the benefit of the community around them. God’s law is good and brings blessing to society. Statism pretends kindness but causes a spiral of societal degeneracy and destruction, which it then uses to argue for more of its ‘kindness’. Stop voting for it.

The Directory for Private (Family) Worship #9

Over the last couple of months we have reviewed the directory for private worship point by point. One of the great encouragements has been to see the importance our ancestors placed on family worship. May this focus stir us up to be faithful to develop healthy spiritual patterns in our own families. Today we are looking at the ninth direction which pertains to prayer.

IX. So many as can conceive prayer, ought to make use of that gift of God; albeit those who are rude and weaker may begin at a set form of prayer, but so as they be not sluggish in stirring up in themselves (according to their daily necessities) the spirit of prayer, which is given to all the children of God in some measure: to which effect, they ought to be more fervent and frequent in secret prayer to God, for enabling of their hearts to conceive, and their tongues to express, convenient desires to God for their family. And, in the meantime, for their greater encouragement, let these materials of prayer be meditated upon, and made use of, as followeth.

Essentially the framers of this directory urge every person who can pray to pray, since it is a gift from God. Those who are not so used to praying perhaps because they are young may use set forms of prayer, but at the same time should develop their prayer so that they will more and more be able to express what they ought to in prayer for their family. Then the directory goes on to give some set pointers on what should be included in family prayer.

“Let them confess to God how unworthy they are to come in his presence, and how unfit to worship his Majesty; and therefore earnestly ask of God the spirit of prayer.

“They are to confess their sins, and the sins of the family; accusing, judging, and condemning themselves for them, till they bring their souls to some measure of true humiliation.

“They are to pour out their souls to God, in the name of Christ, by the Spirit, for forgiveness of sins; for grace to repent, to believe, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly; and that they may serve God with joy and delight, walking before him.

“They are to give thanks to God for his many mercies to his people, and to themselves, and especially for his love in Christ, and for the light of the gospel.

“They are to pray for such particular benefits, spiritual and temporal, as they stand in need of for the time, (whether it be morning or evening,) as anent health or sickness, prosperity or adversity.

“They ought to pray for the kirk of Christ in general, for all the reformed kirks, and for this kirk in particular, and for all that suffer for the name of Christ; for all our superiors, the king’s majesty, the queen, and their children; for the magistrates, ministers, and whole body of the congregation whereof they are members, as well for their neighbours absent in their lawful affairs, as for those that are at home.

“The prayer may be closed with an earnest desire that God may be glorified in the coming of the kingdom of his Son, and in doing of his will, and with assurance that themselves are accepted, and what they have asked according to his will shall be done.”

For modern readers, this prayer outline seems pretty serious, and many of us could wish for regular prayer of this nature in our own lives. Having a set outline that you teach your children is a helpful way to approach family prayer. At times we have used the ACTS acronym, which stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. This has encouraged me to think more carefully about training my children in prayer.

The Directory for Private (Family) Worship #8

Today we continue our walkthrough of the Directory for Private Worship. The eighth direction focuses on the use of the Lord’s day (Sunday). The authors of the directory are, I think Sabbatarians, and so have a very high view of this day and how it is to be used. Not all Christians have the same understanding of the Lord’s day, but there is certainly wisdom in the following directions for its use.

On the Lord’s day, after every one of the family apart, and the whole family together, have sought the Lord (in whose hands the preparation of men’s hearts are) to fit them for the publick worship, and to bless to them the publick ordinances, the master of the family ought to take care that all within his charge repair to the publick worship, that he and they may join with the rest of the congregation: and the publick worship being finished, after prayer, he should take an account what they have heard; and thereafter, to spend the rest of the time which they may spare in catechising, and in spiritual conferences upon the word of God: or else (going apart) they ought to apply themselves to reading, meditation, and secret prayer, that they may confirm and increase their communion with God: that so the profit which they found in the publick ordinances may be cherished and promoved, and they more edified unto eternal life.

Here they hold the ‘master of the family’ responsible for ensuring the family prepares for public worship on the Lord’s day, and then that all attend public worship. After this, the authors of the directory require that he prays with the family and questions them as to what they have learnt in the service. Then he is to ensure the rest of the day, as far as possible, is spent in catechising (questions and answers on doctrinal truths), and talking about the Scriptures together, or in individual reading, meditation and personal prayer for the purpose. Ultimately, the desire for this manner of spending a Sunday is to ensure that the public worship has the utmost impact and effect on the spiritual lives of those who attend.

How important is this? It certainly seems there is some helpful truth to glean from this approach. I want to focus on the impact of the father on his home and the spiritual lives of his children. Fathers are essential to the health of the Christian faith. This should come as no surprise, but in an age that denigrates masculinity, many in the feminised church will be surprised by statistics like the ones I am about to share from an article by Robbie Low on men and the church. Low shares research that shows the impact fathers have on whether their children will continue in the faith. “In short, if a father does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions, only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, regardless of the practice of the mother, between two-thirds and three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers (regular and irregular).” The authors of the directory would not have been surprised by this. The face we are is an indication of our denigration of fatherhood.

Fathers intimately involved in the spiritual lives of their children and wife will have an impact. God will see that this faithfulness bears fruit. So this is an encouragement to those of us who are fathers to sow liberally. Let us ensure we take our family to worship, even when we do not feel like it. Let us ensure that we mark out regular time in family life to reflect on what we learn in sermons and in Scripture. Let us encourage our children to develop daily habits of reading and reflecting on Scripture. And let us pray that God in his grace and mercy blesses these efforts.