Thursday, April 23 — As For Me And My House

You have probably seen the verse on a wooden sign at somebody's front door. "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." It's a lovely sentiment tacked up in a hallway. But the day Joshua said it, it wasn't decor — it was a line in the dirt.

Joshua 24:15-21 — KJV 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. 16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; 17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: 18 And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. 19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. 21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.

Joshua 24:15-21 — WEB 15 If it seems evil to you to serve Yahweh, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh." 16 The people answered, "Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh, to serve other gods; 17 for it is Yahweh our God who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way in which we went, and among all the peoples through the middle of whom we passed. 18 Yahweh drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve Yahweh; for he is our God." 19 Joshua said to the people, "You can't serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins. 20 If you forsake Yahweh, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good." 21 The people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve Yahweh."

Explanation

Joshua is old. He has led Israel across the Jordan, around the walls of Jericho, and into the land God promised their ancestors. Now, gathered at Shechem — a site heavy with covenant memory, the place where Abraham first built an altar when he entered the land — Joshua calls the tribes together for a farewell address. And the speech he gives isn't a victory lap. It's a question. Who are you going to serve now that the dust has settled?

He names the competition honestly. There are the old gods their fathers worshiped on the other side of the Euphrates, back in the Mesopotamian world Abraham left behind. There are the new gods of the Amorites, the familiar local deities of the land they just moved into. Neither one of those choices has been erased simply because Israel is finally home. Joshua doesn't pretend those pulls aren't real. He lays them out on the table and then speaks for the only household he can speak for — his own. "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

Notice that he doesn't say "as for me." He says "me and my house." In the ancient Near East, the head of a household was responsible for the spiritual direction of everyone under his roof — wife, children, servants, extended family. Joshua is not coercing them. He's leading them. He is putting his own family's allegiance on public record before he invites anyone else to do the same. That order matters. It is much easier to tell a nation what to worship than to go home and live it in your own kitchen.

The people respond well — "God forbid that we should forsake the Lord" — and they recite the salvation history. They remember Egypt. They remember the signs. They remember being preserved. Good theology. But Joshua doesn't let them off easy. "Ye cannot serve the Lord," he warns, "for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God." He is pressing them to count the cost. The God of Israel is not a casual commitment, a hobby, or a cultural habit. To serve him is to serve him alone.

For the Christian home in a modern world, this passage does two hard things. First, it names the competing gods. We have them too, and they are not usually made of wood. Career. Comfort. Screens. Approval. The quiet gods we bow to without realizing we've knelt. Second, it asks whoever leads the household to put their own allegiance on the table first. You can't legislate the faith of the people under your roof. But you can go first. You can make it plain what your house serves — by where your money goes, where your time goes, where your attention goes, who you pray for at the dinner table, whether a Bible ever gets opened on a weeknight. A Christian home is not an inherited label. It is a decision that keeps getting made.

Thought for the Day: "As for me and my house" is not a slogan for the wall. It's a line in the dirt for the week.

Reflection: If somebody watched your household for seven days — your calendar, your spending, your conversations — what would they say you actually serve? What's one thing you can put down this week to make your answer clearer?

Prayer: God of Joshua, you asked our ancestors to choose, and you are still asking us. We confess we have knelt quietly before smaller gods — comfort, career, image, distraction — without meaning to. Forgive us. Give us the courage to lead our own houses first, not by lecturing but by showing. Let our calendars and our checkbooks and our dinner tables say what our lips say: that we will serve you. Amen.

This week we walk toward Sunday's lesson: The Christian Home in a Modern World.

Wednesday, April 22 — Love That Washes Feet

If you have ever read Ephesians 5 and braced yourself before turning the page, you're not alone. Today we lean in instead of flinching — because when this passage is read slowly, with Jesus in the center of it, what it actually teaches about marriage is stronger and sweeter than the cultural shouting match usually allows.

Ephesians 5:21-33 — KJV 21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Ephesians 5:21-33 — WEB 21 subjecting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body. 24 But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it, 26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without defect. 28 Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. 29 For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly, 30 because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. 31 "For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh." 32 This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the assembly. 33 Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Explanation

Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus, a city soaked in Greco-Roman household codes that told everybody exactly where they belonged — and kept women, children, and enslaved people at the bottom of the ladder. What Paul does in this chapter is not rubber-stamp the culture. It's quietly subvert it. Read verse 21 first, because it is the roof over everything that follows: "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Mutual submission is the governing principle. Every instruction that follows lives underneath that one. That is a revolutionary sentence in a Roman household code.

Then Paul gets specific. To wives: honor your husband the way the church honors Christ. To husbands: love your wife the way Christ loved the church — and Christ loved the church by giving himself up for her. Paul isn't handing husbands a crown. He's handing them a towel and a basin. The head of the church is the one who washed feet and hung on a cross. "Headship" in this passage doesn't mean "in charge of." It means "responsible for laying your life down first." If you strip the word of Christ's self-giving example, you've got something Paul didn't write.

And to wives, the word translated "reverence" or "respect" in verse 33 isn't cowering. It's the kind of honor you give somebody whose character you can trust. In a world that told a woman her worth was attached to her husband's status, Paul tells husbands their first job is to treasure her — to nourish and cherish her, the same verbs a mother uses over a baby she loves. "He that loveth his wife loveth himself." A husband who diminishes his wife is wounding his own body. Paul cannot imagine it.

This is the scripture that the modern world most often reads cynically, and the church most often reads poorly. But when it's read rightly, it paints a picture of the Christian marriage that our moment is starving for: two people yoked together, each one tending to the other, neither one dominating, neither one disappearing. A home where a husband's strength is spent protecting his wife's flourishing. A home where a wife's trust is earned by a husband's Christlike love, not demanded by his position. In our Sunday school walk toward the Christian home in a modern world, this is a non-negotiable cornerstone. Marriage in the household of faith is not a power contest. It is a shared cross and a shared crown.

Some of us are reading this inside a marriage that has drifted a long way from this picture. Some of us are reading it single, or widowed, or divorced, wondering where we fit. Hear the good news anyway: the model Paul draws is first about Christ and his people. Every Christian home — with one spouse, two, children, no children — sits inside that larger marriage. Jesus has already loved us that way. Our homes are meant to echo it.

Thought for the Day: The head of a Christian home is not the one at the top of the table. It's the one with a towel over the shoulder.

Reflection: What would change this week if you stopped asking what your spouse (or your people) owe you, and started asking what Christ is calling you to lay down for them?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you loved your bride by giving yourself up for her. Teach us to love like that — in our marriages, our families, our friendships, our church. Heal the homes where your name has been used as a weapon instead of a blessing. Where there is fear, bring honor. Where there is dominance, bring tenderness. Where there is quiet resentment, bring a fresh start. Make our homes echo the way you love us. Amen.

This week we walk toward Sunday's lesson: The Christian Home in a Modern World.

Tuesday, April 21 — The Boy Who Grew Up

Any parent who has ever turned around in a crowded store and panicked because they can't spot their child for ten seconds knows a little bit about what Mary and Joseph went through — except theirs lasted three days. Today's passage is one of the most honest family stories in the Bible, and it's hiding in plain sight.

Luke 2:40-52 — KJV 40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. 41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. 43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. 44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. 46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. 47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. 48 And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. 49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? 50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. 51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Luke 2:40-52 — WEB 40 The child was growing, and was becoming strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. 41 His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, 43 and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother didn't know it, 44 but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day's journey, and they looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances. 45 When they didn't find him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the middle of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. 47 All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you." 49 He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I must be in my Father's house?" 50 They didn't understand the saying which he spoke to them. 51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Explanation

Luke is the only Gospel writer who slips us a story from Jesus' boyhood, and it's a doozy. Twelve years old is a threshold age in the Jewish world — the shoulder between childhood and the beginning of religious responsibility. Mary and Joseph had traveled to Jerusalem for Passover, probably with a caravan of relatives and neighbors from Nazareth, as pilgrims did every year. On the way home, Jesus wasn't in the group. They assumed he was with cousins or friends. He wasn't. Three days of frantic searching later, they found him in the temple, asking questions and holding his own with the teachers.

Notice how honest Luke is about the parents. Mary's words aren't composed or pious — they are what any mama would say: "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?" There's relief and frustration tangled together. And then Jesus' answer — his first recorded words in the Gospel — is startling: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Even at twelve, he knew something about himself and about God that Mary and Joseph were still catching up to. Luke tells us plainly: "They understood not." This is a real family. There are missed assumptions, worry, silence on the ride home, and a mother who doesn't yet get it but stores every word in her heart to chew on later.

Here is what's quietly beautiful about this passage. After that moment in the temple, Jesus went home. "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." The Son of God — the one who just claimed the temple as his Father's house — got back in the wagon, did his chores, respected his parents, and grew up inside an ordinary Galilean household. Luke closes with one of the most underrated verses in scripture: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." He grew in four directions at once — mentally, physically, spiritually, socially. That kind of whole-person growth doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happened in a home.

As we walk toward Sunday's lesson on the Christian home in a modern world, this passage hands us a gift. Christ himself honored his human family. He didn't skip childhood. He didn't skip obedience. He didn't skip the slow work of growing up under a mother's watchful eye and a father's trade. The home is not a pit stop on the way to the spiritual life — the home is where the spiritual life is often formed. Your kitchen table, your evening routines, your hard conversations in the car, your Sunday morning rush — these ordinary moments are the soil where whole people grow. God didn't think that work was beneath him. He sanctified it by living inside it.

Thought for the Day: Jesus was perfect and still chose to grow up slowly, inside a real family. Your home is holier than you think.

Reflection: Where in your family life are you tempted to rush past the ordinary — and how could you let God meet you in the slow work of growing up, or raising someone who is?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you didn't float above the household — you grew up inside one. Thank you for honoring the ordinary. Help us to see the dinner table, the bedtime story, the hard question in the car, and the long ride home as places where you are still quietly at work. Give parents patience. Give children honor. Give all of us the grace to grow in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and each other. Amen.

This week we walk toward Sunday's lesson: The Christian Home in a Modern World.

Monday, April 20 — The Blueprint Starts With Wisdom

There's a humbling moment anybody who has tried to hang a heavy picture knows well — you pound the nail in, step back proud, and three days later the whole thing is on the floor. What looked solid wasn't. This week's readings start by asking a sharper version of that question: what is your house really built on?

Proverbs 24:1-6 — KJV 1 Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. 2 For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. 3 Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: 4 And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. 5 A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. 6 For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Proverbs 24:1-6 — WEB 1 Don't be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them; 2 for their hearts plot violence and their lips talk about mischief. 3 Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established; 4 by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure. 5 A wise man has great power, and a knowledgeable man increases strength, 6 for by wise guidance you wage your war, and victory is in many advisors.

Explanation

Proverbs is Israel's wisdom literature — not abstract theology, but practical sayings about how life actually works. This passage sits inside a section scholars call "The Sayings of the Wise," gathered for ordinary people learning how to live well under God. The writer hands us something like a blueprint. But before he draws a single wall, he makes us look up from the page and check who we're envying while we build.

"Be not thou envious against evil men." That's not a random opening — it's a hinge. The temptation he names is looking over the fence at somebody who cut every corner and came out with what looks like the better house. Shady money, shady relationships, shady shortcuts. And you're tired, and their driveway is nicer, and your flesh whispers, I want that. Right on the heels of that warning, the promise arrives: "Through wisdom is an house builded." The Hebrew word for house, bayit, is bigger than walls and a roof. It means household, family, lineage, legacy — the kind of house that outlasts you. Wisdom builds it. Understanding establishes it. Knowledge fills its rooms with something more valuable than furniture — "precious and pleasant riches." That's the whole economy turned on its head. The real wealth of a home isn't what you can see when you walk in the door. It's what's quietly holding the walls up.

This week we're walking toward a lesson about the Christian home in a modern world, and the first thing scripture wants us to hear is this: your home is not built by the money coming in, the zip code you live in, or the furniture in the Instagram post. It's built by wisdom — God's wisdom — quietly woven into the bones of daily life. A Christian home in 2026 doesn't need a bigger mortgage. It needs a stronger foundation.

So ask yourself what your house is actually built on. Ambition? Fear? Comparison? The exhausting need to keep up with the couple across the street? Proverbs 24 calls us back to something simpler and harder: wise counsel. "In multitude of counsellors there is safety." Who do you invite into your decisions? Who prays over your marriage, your kids, your money, your health? If the honest answer is "nobody, really," that's where the rebuild starts. You don't build a house alone, and you don't rebuild one alone either. The wisest move this week might be to pull up a chair for somebody who loves God, loves you, and will tell you the truth.

Thought for the Day: The strongest house on the block is the one built on wisdom you can't see from the street.

Reflection: What is one corner of your home life right now that you're trying to build without wisdom — and who could you invite in as a trusted counselor?

Prayer: Lord, we have all tried to build something that looked right from the outside but wobbled from the inside. Teach us to start again with your wisdom as the foundation. Fill the rooms of our lives with what actually lasts — honesty, patience, love, and the fear of you. When we are tempted to envy the shortcuts of others, remind us that your way is slower and stronger. Put wise voices around us, and give us the humility to listen. In Jesus' name, amen.

This week we walk toward Sunday's lesson: The Christian Home in a Modern World.