In this post I want to explore "household faith". It is something that I feel I would like to understand more fully. If anyone reading this post has some understanding or further insights of this topic I invite you to leave your thoughts in the comment section.
Recently I wrote a post about my Dad's final message to our family where he quoted Joshua 24:15 where it says .. choose you this day whom ye will serve; ...and.... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Link to that post here Dad's Final Message to the Family I believe coming to faith is an individual personal experience but I am also wondering if it is possible for a father or the parents of the household to claim the family for the Lord and that somehow it would put a hedge of protection around the family that Satan then would not be able to easily penetrate? Another way of saying it, would be to have a "roof" of protection over the entire family. I think it is very possible that this is true but perhaps many times not something that we see happening in our families today. God has placed responsibility on the shoulders of the parents and even more solidly on the shoulder of the father in the home as to what happens in a household. God has given each of us responsibility and requires us to do our part in the family unit.
As I look in my Bible and ponder what it says, I think there must be something there - the idea of "household" faith. Please allow me to quote some passages :
(1) The first one is in Genesis 48: 5-6 where Jacob claims the two sons of Joseph namely Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons to be in the clan of 12. -Genesis 48: 5-6 says :
And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
(2) In John 4 Jesus heals a nobleman's son and after the healing it says in verse 53: So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
(3) Acts 10 describes a man by the name of Cornelius, a centurian of the Italian band and it says in verse 2 that he was "A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway."
(4) Acts 16 tells of a woman named Lydia whose heart the Lord touched and in verse 15 it says : And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
(5) In the latter part of Acts 16, Paul and Silas land up in prison. There in prison they pray and sing praises to God and the other prisoners hear them. Then when the prison doors are opened up by an earthquake, the jailor is frightened and about to kill himself, but Paul and Silas lead him to the Lord to salvation and in verses 33 and 34 it says:
And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
(6) And one final example would be in Acts 18:8 where a man named Crispus is saved: And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.
What a wonderful blessing indeed to have an entire household saved and living for the LORD!
Again I would invite comments if anyone out there has some insights into the topic of "household faith".
Recently I wrote a post about my Dad's final message to our family where he quoted Joshua 24:15 where it says .. choose you this day whom ye will serve; ...and.... but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Link to that post here Dad's Final Message to the Family I believe coming to faith is an individual personal experience but I am also wondering if it is possible for a father or the parents of the household to claim the family for the Lord and that somehow it would put a hedge of protection around the family that Satan then would not be able to easily penetrate? Another way of saying it, would be to have a "roof" of protection over the entire family. I think it is very possible that this is true but perhaps many times not something that we see happening in our families today. God has placed responsibility on the shoulders of the parents and even more solidly on the shoulder of the father in the home as to what happens in a household. God has given each of us responsibility and requires us to do our part in the family unit.
As I look in my Bible and ponder what it says, I think there must be something there - the idea of "household" faith. Please allow me to quote some passages :
(1) The first one is in Genesis 48: 5-6 where Jacob claims the two sons of Joseph namely Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons to be in the clan of 12. -Genesis 48: 5-6 says :
And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine.
And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
(2) In John 4 Jesus heals a nobleman's son and after the healing it says in verse 53: So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.
(3) Acts 10 describes a man by the name of Cornelius, a centurian of the Italian band and it says in verse 2 that he was "A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway."
(4) Acts 16 tells of a woman named Lydia whose heart the Lord touched and in verse 15 it says : And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
(5) In the latter part of Acts 16, Paul and Silas land up in prison. There in prison they pray and sing praises to God and the other prisoners hear them. Then when the prison doors are opened up by an earthquake, the jailor is frightened and about to kill himself, but Paul and Silas lead him to the Lord to salvation and in verses 33 and 34 it says:
And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.
And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.
(6) And one final example would be in Acts 18:8 where a man named Crispus is saved: And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.
What a wonderful blessing indeed to have an entire household saved and living for the LORD!
Again I would invite comments if anyone out there has some insights into the topic of "household faith".
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