These won’t be going out of style anytime soon.

A few weeks ago, my wife attended a training session at the hospital where she works.  She showed me the fancy new pen she had been given at the training session.  The training session was for the new paperless documentation system the nurses and doctors would be using.  The irony of giving pens to employees who were being trained on a new paperless system was not lost on her.

In our fast-paced technology filled world, there are some things that will never go away.  Pens, pencils and paper will always be a powerful tool.  When you go into any office supply store, there is a section of the store dedicated completely to pens, markers, pencils and writing utensils of all sorts.  As much as we strive to de-clutter, streamline and simplify with paperless technology, there will always be a need for the faithful and dependable pen and paper.

We live in a world that sometimes appears to have moved beyond God too.  The term ‘post-Christian era’ gets thrown around a lot in the things that I read.  We live busy lives, filled with distractions, no time to really worry about God or teaching our children about Him.  Our boss wants our time, the bank wants our money and there is a hot new show on TV.  There is a constant flow of emergencies and distractions.

A professor in the graduate program I attended once suggested that we put up a fence around our church building.  He suggested placing a ticket booth at one of the entrances.  He said, “Jon, you should charge admission to your church for people to come and see how church used to be done.”  I politely accepted his criticism and have thought about whether he was right or not.

In a world of mega-churches that are the ‘paperless’ equivalent in the church world, I believe there is still a need for a church that is reliable, trusted and Bible focused.  A place where brothers and sisters in Christ can come and know that there is a body of people who support them and are there to encourage and build them up.  A place where visitors can see people who are active in their faith and belief in God.  A body of believers who come together to help build faithful homes and families.  A place where we can know each other and be a part of each others lives.  I believe our church is as useful and relevant in today’s world as it has ever been.

Click image to download family worship material.

The God that I know is not an antiquity relegated to obscurity in today’s modern world.  The God of today is the same God that Abram believed in when he was told, “Look up at the sky and count the stars -if indeed you can count them.”  Then God said to Abram, “So shall your offspring be.”  Genesis 15:6 then tells us, “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

For faith and belief in God to be relevant today, we must know the God that so actively worked in establishing His covenant with Israel.  We must see the foreshadowing of Christ throughout the Old Testament.  We must learn about God’s son Jesus who came to establish a new covenant with God’s people.  We can do all these things by spending time together as a family worshiping God at church, in our homes, wherever and whenever we can.  Father and mother, living a life filled with the example of prayer, meditation and reliance on God.  I encourage you to continue your time of study and worship with your family >>> Week 7 – Faith of Abraham part 4