October 13 - Inside Out

 Read today’s texts first: Nehemiah 9,10; Acts 2

MAXIMize YOUR DAY
Teach your children to be influencers, not influencees. 

Israel was intended to be a witness to the other nations (Exodus 19:5,6), but instead of being an influence on them, the surrounding nations too often influenced Israel.  We see the same problem in the church today.  One obvious example is the current popularity of Christian schools, as parents, threatened by the influence of “worldly” kids, choose to separate their children for their own protection.  The problem is – who’s left in the public schools to introduce the other kids to Jesus?

It was fascinating today to read of an Old Testament revival in Nehemiah’s day and compare it with the New Testament revival in the book of Acts.  The people of Israel confessed their compromises with the nations around them and then covenanted with God to completely separate themselves.  For them that was wise - if you can’t be the influencer, don’t become the influencee!

But as the Spirit of God is poured out and into the New Testament (new covenant) church we see them becoming the influencers of the nations who had gathered together for Pentecost, and thousands found faith in Jesus. When we realize that the very Spirit of God now lives in us, we can again take up the offensive and invade every corner of our world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We can teach the same things to our children at a very young age so they can become leaders early on.  We just came through Thanksgiving weekend. As I read through my journal from a past year I remembered how we prepared our three young grandkids, who were staying with us that weekend, for our big family dinner. We focused on being polite, generous and grateful, especially around the dinner table.  Because it was Thanksgiving weekend we had several opportunities to talk about those things, while gathering leaves outside, decorating inside, making name plates, baking cookies, getting ready for the extended family coming the next day.  By the time we tucked the kids into bed we could notice they were already living from the inside out (they have excellent parents so we can’t quite take all the credit!).

The point is, the promise of the Holy Spirit living through us extends to all of us today, and to our children, and to theirs too (2:39)!  “Thank You Lord that we don’t have to be influenced from the outside in but we can become the influencers from the inside out!”