Family Worship Resources

This page is dedicated to being an encouragement and help to the church as she worships God in the home during the week. We publish a weekly “Family Worship

Family Worship Guide January 3 – January 10

To recite January 9-10:

Matt 5:3-6: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Scripture Reading

DATE	FAMILY	FAMILY	SECRET	SECRET
4/12	Lev 16	Psa 19	Prov 30	1 Tim 1
4/13	Lev 17	Psa 20, 21	Prov 31	1 Tim 2
4/14	Lev 18	Psa 22	Eccles 1	1 Tim 3
4/15	Lev 19	Psa 23, 24	Eccles 2	1 Tim 4
4/16	Lev 20	Psa 25	Eccles 3	1 Tim 5
4/17	Lev 21	Psa 26, 27	Eccles 4	1 Tim 6
4/18	Lev 22	Psa 28, 29	Eccles 5	2 Tim 1
4/19	Lev 23	Psa 30	Eccles 6	2 Tim 2

DATE	FAMILY	FAMILY	SECRET	SECRET
1/03	Genesis 3	Matthew 3	Ezra 3	Acts 3
1/04	Genesis 4	Matthew 4	Ezra 4	Acts 4
1/05	Genesis 5	Matthew 5	Ezra 5	Acts 5
1/06	Genesis 6	Matthew 6	Ezra 6	Acts 6
1/07	Genesis 7	Matthew 7	Ezra 7	Acts 7
1/08	Genesis 8	Matthew 8	Ezra 8	Acts 8
1/09	Genesis 9, 10	Matthew 9	Ezra 9	Acts 9
1/10	Genesis 11	Matthew 10	Ezra 10	Acts 10

Shorter Catechism

Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united in Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.

Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

Children’s Catechism

Q. 110. What is the first petition?
A. “Hallowed be thy name.”

Q. 111. What do we pray for in the first petition?
A. That God’s name may be honored by us and all men.

Psalm of the Month

PSALM 127     McKEE

¹ Unless the LORD builds up the house,

its builders toil in vain;

Unless he keeps the city safe,

they vainly watch maintain.

² In vain you rise before the dawn

and late hours vainly keep

That you may toil for food to eat-

he gives his loved ones sleep.

³ Sons are a precious heritage,

a blessing from the LORD;

The children that are born to us

are truly his reward.

⁴ Like arrows in a warrior’s hand

are children of one’s youth,

⁵ the man whose quiver’s full of them

is blessed by God in truth.

Such men will not be put to shame-

that will not be their fate-

When they contend against their foes

who face them in the gate.

An Encouragement for Family Worship from the Pastor

“Every christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace. If these fail, all other means are likely to prove in effectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be sucessful.” – Jonathan Edwards

Experiential religion, in the way of family worship, is beneficial to everyone who walks faithfully with Christ for his glory in the earth. Men will disapprove of such a discipline as to binding in a time of such independence. I would argue that this teaching is grace and the neglect and disparaging of such instruction is to bring misery to a home and the churches those homes fill. We must enjoin ourselves for the spread of the glory of God’s name in the earth through worship in our homes.

I encourage all who call themselves the children of the living God to enjoin themselves daily to God’s means of grace through family worship. I have briefly outlined our practice for your help as you seek to walk with God in this discipline for his glory and the good of those who come after you.

In the evenings: The singing of the Psalms is a good way to begin family worship. Each week we sing a particular Psalm during our times of family worship. We choose those Psalms from the Trinity Psalter or Sing Psalms edition. The Psalm we are singing each week we have read publicly in worship on Sunday morning and sung together as a congregation on Sunday evening. After the word is sung we take up and read the word. We ask God to open our eyes to see wonderful things concerning him in his word and to bend our hearts to him through his word. We read through the Robert Murray McCheyene evening readings each year. In an even year we are reading the “Secret” readings in family worship and in the odd years we are reading the “Family” readings together. As I read I stop and give the sense of what we are reading asking questions for application. At the close of our reading I will answer questions the family may have concerning the passage. We then enter into a time of prayer. We seek to pray with the word we have read and from other portions of God’s word as a family. We close our time with the singing of a hymn or the Doxology. This is typical of our evening worship as a family. We are not able to do this every night but it is our aim to do so as often as we are home in the evenings together. This usually takes place 4 or 5 nights during the week.

In the mornings: We begin this time around the table with a prayer of thanksgiving. We recite a verse or more of Scripture that we are learning each week. We then recite together catechism questions that we are learning for that we week. We take up the word and read our morning reading from McCheyene’s reading plan (same as above). And then we close our time in prayer committing our lives together to the Lord for his glory in the earth.

Our morning times together are shorter than our evening times but we are usually more consistent during the week in the mornings. I have six children who range from 6 to 18. All of these participate in every element. We use a children’s catechism for our younger and the Shorter Catechism for our older children and Bethlehem Baptist Church’s Fighter Verse Memory system for scripture memory.

I pray that the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon us as we return with our families to the worship of his name around his word as the body of Christ in our homes and in our churches.

2 Chron 6:12ff