Family Worship Guide: Week of February 13th, 2022
Memory Verse: John 4:24 “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Catechism 16: Who were our first parents? Answer: Adam & Eve
Catechism 17: Of what were our first parents made? Answer: God made the body of Adam out of the ground, and formed Eve from the body of Adam.
Monday
Scripture: 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)
Point of Focus: Like our memory verse for the month, the preacher to the Hebraic church is concerned with right worship. Our God who is an all-consuming fire—holy and just— is to be worshipped in a way that he alone prescribes. Worship is on God’s terms, not ours. We are to worship God acceptably. No one is up to this task on their own. But God in Christ has made it possible for us to worship him acceptably because Christ was offered up acceptably to God as a most acceptable sacrifice. Now we worship the Lord through Christ, our all-sufficient sacrifice.
Pray
Sing
Tuesday
Scripture: 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. (Matthew 27:50-51)
Point of Focus: Christ opened up our access to God. When Jesus died, the holy of holies (where God’s presence resided) in the temple was torn from the top to the bottom. This means that Jesus is both our high priest and our sacrifice. We do not have to go through a priest to gain access to God. We do not have to atone for our sins. Christ has taken care of everything, and all that is left for us to do is to respond in worship and adoration to our Triune God.
Pray
Sing
Wednesday
Scripture: 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. (Romans 5:15)
Point of Focus: Adam was our representative. The catechism question says that he was our parent. And as our parent, he did not represent us well. He sinned against God. And because of that, we are all born into sin and commit our own sins on a daily basis. In Adam, we all sin. In Adam we all inherit death. But that is not all that has happened. In the New Testament, we see that Jesus is considered the “second Adam”. And just like the first Adam, he represents us. Unlike the first Adam, Jesus represents us well. He obeyed and upheld the Law of the Lord perfectly. He is perfectly righteous. Not only that, but Christ took sin upon himself. He took our sin upon himself, and he took the punishment our sin deserved— God’s wrath. And because of this, he brought forgiveness and reconciliation between us and God. So, the first Adam’s sin led to death. The second Adam (Christ) obedience led to grace and everlasting life.
Pray
Sing
Thursday
Scripture: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
Point of Focus: Paul is speaking of Jesus in this passage of Scripture. He is saying that Jesus was active in creation along with the Father and Spirit. This means that Jesus was there, fashioning us—male and female in the beginning. And not only is he our Creator, but he is our Sustainer. He is the very one who holds all things together.
Pray
Sing
Friday
Scripture: 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, (Ephesians 5:22-26)
Point of Focus: Here, Paul directs our attention to the created order. Our catechism says that Adam was formed first and that Eve was made from Adam’s body. Here, we see Paul give a charge to both of them based on how God created them distinct. The husband is to image Jesus to his wife. And he is to lead her in such a way that it sanctifies her—adorns her—makes her more and more beautiful. A man’s love for his wife should prepare her for eternity. This can only happen when a man is dependent upon Christ.
Pray
Sing
Saturday
Scripture: 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, (Ephesians 5:22-26)
Point of Focus: We also see that wives are to submit to their husbands as worship unto the Lord. This word has become ugly in our culture because of its abuses and because our world degrades God’s beautiful, glorious design for men and women. Yet here we have that word submission that takes us back to the garden when God saw fit to make Adam a helper suitable to partner with him in his God-given charge to exercise dominion over the earth to the glory of God. A wife should join her husband in that most important mission.
Pray
Sing