WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN HOME?

A Christian home is not defined by just these two words: Christian and Home. There’s more to it…

A Christian home is also not just a home where everybody is a Christian (ie born again- yes, because you have to have Christ in you to be like Christ, which is what the word “Christian” means).

In a deeper sense, a Christian home is;

.           A CRUCIBLE OF POWER AND CHARACTER

a home that raises Christians (ie men and women who are like Christ in every way, living the same way Christ did when he was here on earth; men and woman who live a life of power and character as husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, presidents, governors, senators, pastors, civil servants, bankers, teachers, etc).

Oh, how we need Christian homes! There are many homes run by mere Church-goers claiming to be Christians. If they truly are Christian homes, their products should be making the world a better and safer place to live in.

Many of the kidnappers, armed robbers, money launderers, and thieves in high places, homosexuals and lesbians, prostitutes, etc. are all products of so-called Christian Homes.

.           THE TREE AND THE FRUITS

A Christian home is known by its products, not the name.  Jesus said in Matthew 7:16-18, “you can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit… Different kinds of fruit-trees can quickly be identified by examining their fruit.”

The New King James version puts verse 18 this way:

“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit…

And verse 20 concludes:

“Therefore by their fruits you will know them”

So here, the home is the tree, and the quality of men and women that come from it are the fruits. Therefore, if we want a change in the quality of men and women in the society, something needs to be done about the quality of the homes. A true Christian home will naturally produce Christ-like men and women for the Church and the society.

Let’s look at another analogy in the parable of the Sower in Mark Chapter four.

.           THE GOOD GROUND

Jesus talked about the sower that went out to sow seeds (same quality of seeds), and the seeds fell on four different kind of grounds (which I liken to four different kinds of homes; and the seeds are the children born into each of the four types of homes).

The first ground is the “wayside” kind of home, where the devil didn’t even give the seed the opportunity to grow into what it was supposed to be. Just like some homes that provide nothing but a demonic atmosphere that begins to shape the child for the devil’s use from the day he/she is born. Such homes are atmospheres created by occultic parents, parents under generational, ancestral and family curses or parents with such wicked hearts and attitudes. So from day one, the child born into such a home is shaped into a “useful” material that Satan can use to continue his wicked acts in his generation (after his parents). Isn’t that horrifying! And the vicious cycle continues from generation to generation! (Except the boy/girl, man/woman runs into Christ in any of the generations).

The second ground represents the “stony” kind of home into which a child is born, that provides a half-baked kind of Christianity, a form of religion that does not have the equivalent power required to sustain that child in this world of all manner of corruption and perversion.

So, the child grows up, seems to be a good girl/boy, but lacking the power to resist evil. Such end up joining bad boys/girls in school, or becoming fraudsters later in life.

The third ground is the “thorns” kind of home, generating an atmosphere that makes it impossible for the child to grow into his/her full potential as an adult. The atmosphere of constant strife, quarrelling, fighting, cursing and confusion in the home (created by the poor marital relationship between the parents-especially) chokes the child’s intelligence and perspective of life. From never-do-well in school, the child grows up with a poor self-image that limits success in academics, marriage, business and career later in life. Those are the kind of men and women that get into stupid vices and addictions to enhance their confidence and self-esteem. Huh, homes!

The fourth ground is the “good” kind of home, which is the true Christian home that creates a godly, peaceful  atmosphere of love, understanding and fear of God in which the child grows up into “a godly seed” (which according to Malachi 2:15, is exactly God’s expectation of every child he sends to the earth). He is the Sower; the children are the seed, which he “plants” in the ground (the home). God expects every home to be a good ground that produces for him (on earth here) men and women that he (not the devil) can use to fulfill his diverse purposes/plans for the world of humanity – children he can use to accomplish definite missions like he used Jesus, Moses, David, Abraham, Solomon, Peter, Paul, etc.

It’s all about God and his plans.

That’s why he seeks godly seed. Godly seed is a child that God can use on this earth to make the world a better place. So, a godly seed is a child that the home has raised and empowered to fulfill divine purpose – not the parent’s dreams and ambitions.

A Christian home, therefore, is a home created by parents who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (not the things of this world), and consequently walk in such wisdom and spiritual understanding that trains up the child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6), fully equipping him (spiritually, especially) for God’s use anywhere he/she finds himself when he/she grows up. This is a great responsibility for parents in every generation.

HOUSE OR HOME?

Children will always end up being reproductions of the stuff their parents are made of; because that is what determines the quality of the home.

Note that the house is not the same as the home. The home is the atmosphere in the house, in which the family members dwell. It is that atmosphere (created basically by the relationship between the parents) that shapes the child/children into whatever they will be in future to God, the society and the world of humanity at large.

I dare say, therefore, that no school (no matter how expensive or how Christian) can take the place of the home in the making of any child. Training up a child in the way he/she should go is primarily the responsibility of parents, and it is in THE HOME! So, absentee fathers and mothers, take note!

Yes, you have made provisions for all the comfort, clothes, cars and everything else they need, but please, be there! God pays well for quality parenting, I tell you (Exodus 2:9; Job 36:11; Isaiah 66:20-22).

Praise God.

By:Pastor Ada Ezeka

E-mail:pstezeka@yahoo.com

08038732018