CONTENTS

• JUST VISITING
• SHARING THE LORD WITH OUR FAMILIES
  Part One: How Spiritual Values Were Taught in Israel
• CONFRONTING DEATH IS NEVER EASY
• PERCEPTIONS - "The Second Coming - Louisiana Style"

I want to tell you about a new feature on our website called "Perceptions." Our goal with perceptions is to provide thoughtful commentary on life in the light of the scriptures. Generally it will focus on matters other than family, since this newsletter is devoted to that purpose. "Perceptions" will be changed weekly (we hope) and will feature various authors. The articles will be reasonably short (3-500 words in case you are itching to write for perceptions). If you want to write be sure to check out our writer's guidelines at

http://www.allaboutfamilies.org/fm38.html

We will announce the featured article each week in the newsletter, to give you an idea of the subject matter. Perceptions appears on the home page of the Southern Hills Church of Christ, sponsors of this ministry and our home congregation. We also have some serious Bible studies posted at the Southern Hills site.

Today I'm beginning a short series based on some thoughts I recently shared with the Southern Hills church concerning "Sharing the Lord with the Family." I hope you'll find it helpful.

Our guest article was written by Dennis Randall, one of my dearest friends and fellow minister in the city where I live. Dennis works with the Airline Church of Christ in Bossier City, Louisiana (just across the Red River from us). He has some thoughts about the way death affects a church family as well as our own personal families. It was written on the occasion of a death that produced a deep emotional response in the church where he ministers. With his permission I have removed the portions that are personal and specific to the Airline church.

Norman

SHARING THE LORD WITH OUR FAMILIES # 1

By Norman Bales

Virtually everyone wants to have a loving, caring and supportive family. Someone ran a survey among Fortune 500 chief executive officers and asked them what they wanted more than anything else. They said they wanted "strong family relationships." An article appeared in Readers' Digest a couple of years ago which suggests that it's a good idea to write out a list of "50 Things You Would Like to Do Before You Die." Admittedly I wrote down some selfish things like my desire to own a pickup truck before I die. When I looked at the list, however, I soon realized that most of the things I want to do involve my family. Over the next few weeks, I want to share some insights concerning the role of families in communicating the things of God.

PART ONE: HOW SPIRITUAL VALUES WERE TAUGHT IN ISRAEL

Perhaps the most important text one encounters in reviewing the nature of Hebrew education is Deuteronomy 6:4-8

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

That text briefly outlines God's educational plan for the nation of Israel. Spiritual education was a family responsibility. The people of Israel did not go to the tabernacle to receive religious instruction. They didn't tack on a group of classrooms off to the side of the main tabernacle, so they could instruct Hebrew children at various age levels. Moses didn't call together a curriculum committee to devise instructional objectives and write literature for the education of young Hebrew minds. Later on, the children of Israel would develop formal education. Apparently Samuel was tutored by Eli at Shiloh. Even later on in 1 Samuel 19, David fled from Saul and went to Samuel at Ramah and a group of prophets were there with Samuel. Perhaps they studied under him. Much later, the synagogue developed. The synagogue was clearly a place of instruction.

But basically and fundamentally, the teaching of spiritual values was the responsibility of the home. Home schooling is as old as Deuteronomy and probably older. Instruction took place in the natural flow of living. It was as common as eating meals and sleeping. It was a constant activity. The Deuteronomy passage says, they were to teach when they sat at home. There was no television to distract and compete with the learning process. When they walked along the road. It took a long time just to go the market place. There were no cars, no CD's blasting at such a loud level as to make conversation impossible. Parents were to teach when they lay down at night. Father's weren't out bowling and mothers weren't talking on the telephone. When they got up in the morning. Dad didn't have to get up an hour before the rest of the family in order to drive through freeway traffic to reach the workplace. Actually the family worked tegether. Life was structured around the business of sharing the Lord with the family.

The children of Israel took the responsibility of sharing the Lord with the family very seriously. In Deuteronomy 4, Moses talked with the people about how they were to conduct themselves upon their entry into the promised land. In verse 9, he said, " Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them." Family instruction went on throughout the Old Testament period. The writer of Proverbs advised the young man this way in 1:8 "Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching." Family education about God was so deeply ingrained into the lives of the Hebrew people, that one of the old Rabbis said, "a father might as well bury his child as neglect his instruction."

CONFRONTING DEATH IS NEVER EASY

By Dennis Randall

airline@shreve.net

Despite one's age or health condition, losing a loved one always brings sadness. Assuredly, we "do not sorrow as those who have no hope," but at the same time, we sorely miss those who have been so important to us in life.

Confronting death is never easy. We may fully recognize life's frailties, acknowledge that leaving a life of pain and suffering is better than remaining here, and yet because of love, we just can't find it within us to let go. Ultimately, we know we must, but we hold on tenaciously. We even know that love supersedes death, and we've watched love sustain others around us, and still death comes to us as the grim reaper and we want life to continue, holding on to even faint reminders of the loved one who lived in and animated the body we have known.

It's not just life . . . it's love. We cannot bear love as we have known it, coming to an end. Love is powerful. In our loss of love, there is even greater love present in our lives. It is a love which gives us hope . . . even beyond life. It is a love that gives us confidence and assurance. It is a love that enables us to see beyond the cessation of a hearbeat, and a love that prods us toward our own eternity. It is God's love. It is love seen on the cross. It is love heard in the words of Jesus when he said, "He who believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

So there is sadness in the air . . .but there is also hope. We live because of Jesus. He knows our hearts, understands our pain and sorrow, and in a very special way ministers to us by reminding us that death is not the end. Life has been our prelude to eternal life with the Father, the Son and all who believed in Him and have gone on before us. And so, for us, life goes on. With faith, hope and love, we move into our own futures and ultimately our own death believing that "God gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

The church exists to bring this hope and victory to our community that does not know and has not obeyed Jesus Christ. Father, motivate us by your love, to share your message of hope with those who are lost. Help us as we realize our own weaknesses, to be sensitive to the weaknesses and struggles of others. Help us to share our hope in Christ with them. We pray this prayer through Jesus who is our life. Amen.

YOU ARE WONDERFULLY LOVED

Dennis

Are we so tied to the events and happenings of this world that we view temporal and mundane things as if they were "religious events" ? Read

If you have questions about marriage and family relationships, you can "ASK THE COUNSELOR." Address your questions to Mikal Frazier. Her address is mikalfraz@aol.com

Norman's e-mail address: nlbales@allaboutfamilies.org