Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

We are handing out a short book – “The Missionary Fellowship of William Carey” – to every family. It is timely, since it involves a group of Christian friends who bonded themselves together to send/take the gospel to the massively unreached in India. It was William Carey who said to these friends, “I will venture to go… but remember that you must hold the ropes.” He did go, and they did hold the rope.

Quote from the preface (pgs 9, 10):

“With no friends in high places and virtually no financial reserves, this small group of men, believing God that their Christian faith was not meant for Westerners alone, committed itself to sending Carey (and later others) to India… It is my hope that Carey will also be a model for us in this regard, for our culture is not one that provides great encouragement for the nurture and development of deep, long-lasting, and satisfying friendships. True friendships take time and sacrifice, and Western culture in the early twenty-first century is a busy world that as a rule is far more interested in receiving and possession than sacrificing and giving.”

May our children and grandchildren find that we were the same: having been saved by grace, we bonded ourselves together in lasting Christian friendship to send and take the gospel to a place where this grace is virtually unknown.

Your brother,

Jason

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

This is a fantastic message Jeff Pollard delivered at a recent marriage conference sponsored by the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches (NCFIC).

We hope you enjoy it!

Your brothers,

Jason and James

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

From J.C. Ryle’s book, “Holiness,” Chapter 18, titled “Unsearchable Riches”:

“Last of all, what do you think of Christ himself? Is he great or little in your eyes? Does he come first or second in your estimation? Is he before or behind his church, his ministers, his sacraments, his ordinances? Where is he in your heart and your mind’s eye? After all, this is the question of questions! Pardon, peace, rest of conscience, hope in death, heaven itself – all hinge upon our answer. To know Christ is life eternal. To be without Christ is to be without God. ‘He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life’ (1 John 5:12). The friends of purely secular education, the enthusiastic advocates of reform and progress, the worshippers of reason, and intellect, and mind, and science, may say what they please, and do all they can to mend the world. But they will find their labour in vain if they do not make allowance for the fall of man, if there is no place for Christ in their schemes. There is a sore disease at the heart of mankind, which will baffle all their efforts, and defeat all their plans, and that disease is sin. Oh, that people would only see and recognize the corruption of human nature, and the uselessness of all efforts to improve man which are not based on the remedial system of the gospel! Yes: the plague of sin is in the world, and no waters will ever heal that plague except those which flow from the fountain for all sin – a crucified Christ.”

Isn’t this what we are witnessing all around us – secular systems of reform which ignore the foundational element of any true reform, a Christ crucified for sinners? Those systems of reform can never do anything other than fail, making the gospel of Jesus Christ as valuable today as it has been in any age, and maybe even more so as we drift away from our historic mores.

If you are interested in a summary of “Holiness,” you can listen to one here.

Your brother,

Jason

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

I want to coin a new term: “The Ruby Rule”. And what is The Ruby Rule? It is a rule for Christian husbands. Everyone knows The Golden Rule. Our Moms taught it to most of us as soon as we were big enough to mistreat a sibling yet resent similar treatment. “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” (Matthew 7:12). That is a great standard for measuring conduct, bringing so many of our blind spots into view. “Would I want to be treated that way?” In a way, The Ruby Rule is a corollary. Here it is:

The Ruby Rule: Do unto your wife as the Lord Jesus Christ has done, is doing, and forever will do unto you.

What’s behind the name? Proverbs 31:10, “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.” The daughters of Zion are precious, and the King insists that they be treated accordingly. Cared for accordingly. Sons of Zion, have you considered just how much you have received, are receiving, and will forever receive the lavish care of the ruby-rule Husband? (Ephesians 5). As we have freely received, we are to freely give.

Christian husband: How are you doing?

Your brother,

Jason

Dear Sovereign Redeemer and other friends,

I occasionally field an inquiry from a father with young children about getting started with family worship. Here are some thoughts that I invariably pass along.

– Starting now is a great idea. As in today. Young ones pick up more than we think, so waiting just delays a lot of benefit. Just be careful to start with a reasonable schedule (not too long, grow into longer times), so that it isn’t needlessly exasperating for Mom and child. These should be tender, wonderful times that shape your children’s memories of family life, not a chore that they come to dread.

– Nothing is better than the Bible itself, and nothing communicates your trust in the Bible more than just sequentially working through different books of the Bible, slowly and patiently. It makes sense to have a study Bible or commentary (or both) close by for when you hit difficulties or hard questions, but just refer to these when necessary, don’t rely on them.

– It couldn’t be simpler: sing a song together that is theologically rich, you (Dad) open in prayer, take turns reading verses of the Scripture text, talk together about what you read, then all pray together. In the early years, this might be 10 or 15 minutes. Much later it might be 30 to 45. At first, just read a few verses, maybe 6-10. I have older children (ages 10-21), so we try to tackle something like half a chapter to a chapter per day. My children all learned to read early because they wanted to be able to take their turn at reading aloud. That made them eager to learn.

– Make it worship of the living God! I have seen the same basic format done by some passionately and with a real heart of worship, and by others mechanically and lifelessly. Same routine, radically different results. This requires, of course, that you actually have a vigorous spiritual life yourself, and that you are continually repenting and dealing with your own areas of hypocrisy. This will prove to be one great blessings of your life. Don’t cheat it by settling for less than real worship.

There is more that could be said, of course, but I hope this is helpful to fathers who are just getting started.

If this is an area of interest, here is a post about my own journey to establishing family worship.

Your brother,

Jason