AMEN Australia 2019 Conference: Witnesses Unto Me

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network Australia

Edwin Nebblett

Witnesses Unto Me: In the Home

The hardest part of being a witness is being a witness amongst those who you live with on a daily basis because they see everything.

And it is difficult to be a witness 24 hours a day, 6 days a week.

As our text that we have been using, Acts 1, verse 8, but ye shall receive power.

After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

Judea, our church, and we've spoken about that this morning.

Samaria, our community, and unto the uttermost parts of the world would be our workplace and the world.

So what I would like to share with you today briefly is the impact specifically in our home.

The question before us today is very simple.

What kind of a witness are we called to be in our homes?

Parents, for those of us who are parents, your own home is the first field in which you are called to labor.

The precious plants in the home garden demand your first care.

To you, it is appointed to watch for souls that you must give account.

Carefully consider your work, its nature, its bearing, and its results.

I made reference yesterday to a time in my early years of my marriage and parenting where I was so busy doing good works in my church and in my community, I had no time for communion with God.

I had no time for my wife or for my children as we began to have them.

Well conviction led me to some life-changing decisions that my wife and I made that I want to take a little bit of time and share with you.

We first of all changed the priorities of our lives so that the busyness of life did not crowd out time that we spent with the Lord.

It was 1 of the reasons why in the early morning I read a passage from Sons and Daughters of God under the title, True Missionary Effort Begins in the Home.

In forming a relationship with Christ, The renewed man is but coming back to his appointed relationship with God.

His first duty is to his children and his nearest relatives.

Nothing can excuse him from neglecting the inner circle for the larger circle outside.

I tell you, this hit me like a blow between the eyes.

In the day of final reckoning, fathers and mothers will be asked what they did and said to secure the salvation of the souls, they took upon themselves the responsibility of bringing into the world.

So we began to seriously think about how I could answer the question when I believe 1 day I will be called to account for the choices that I have made, when the question would be asked of me, where is that flock, that beautiful flock I gave you?

So reordering our priorities to give myself to my wife and to nurture our marriage and to be a godly father to our children in the spirit of Malachi 4, 4 through 6, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers to prepare for the coming of the Lord, this is what we had to do.

Now, we know that Satan has so arranged life today that parents don't often have the time to give themselves to their children to win their affections and to nurture them spiritually, according to the instruction that is given to us in Deuteronomy 6.

So we began to set aside an hour every evening for what we call enjoyable family time.

And the intent of us doing this was to bind our hearts to our children.

We cultivated a love for things that they enjoyed doing.

My wife was the leader in this effort because she spent a lot of time with them and she understood what they enjoy doing and so we spent a lot of time outdoors hiking in the forest around our home, looking for wildlife.

Once in the winter, you have to understand, I grew up in the Caribbean.

My idea of paradise is no shoes on, barefoot, in the ocean all day, coming in eventually for food and then going back out again.

So, living in Michigan, where we were at the time, and there was white precipitation from time to time, and children who enjoyed being out of doors got it into their minds to build an igloo.

So we built an igloo and then slept in it.

On another long winter evening, we went for a bike ride in the moonlight.

Often we spent the majority of the time reading.

I read to the whole family, family character-building stories, mission stories, biographies, that made them all develop a love for our family reading time.

We were following inspired counsel in Adventist home to make the evening a pleasant social setting, a family reunion after the day's duties.

Now, I'm going to come back to this last passage.

And I'm going to come back to this because this to me is what it's all about being a witness in the home.

The third decision that we made was to move to the country.

See, parents were counseled to take their families away from the distractions and the noise of the city where they can give their children companionship with the assurance that it will be found easier to bring home to their hearts the truth of the word of God.

So we learned the importance of home atmosphere and as they grew, they began to appreciate and begin to incorporate these principles.

This picture, which is the last family reunion picture that we have, was before we added to the 3 that you see in the photo here.

This past year, each of these young people added 1 more.

So we went from 3 to 7 at the end of the year.

We lived in a remote area where there was, there is a lot of quiet.

Our Home is the little roof that you see at the very bottom, but this is the setting in which we live.

Around 8, 000 feet, and in some communities they understand meters better, so I just simply say around 2, 800 meters high.

We learned lessons that, for example, a orderly home is a setting where affection and thoughtfulness can be freely shown, which makes Christianity attractive.

And we created an atmosphere whereby we eliminated a lot of the things that create for, how shall I put this, disharmony in the home.

And we deliberately found opportunity to foster what we called an atmosphere fragrant with tender thoughtfulness.

We became intentional at showing love and kindness to 1 another.

I remember years before when I was a young lad in my early 20s, my father setting a great example of this.

I was in my early 20s, still living at home, And I was working at a factory from 10 p.m.

I would come home, take a shower, and then I would go to class until 3 p.m.

And then I would do my work that I needed to do to get a little bit of sleep before I went to work at 10 p.m.

Well, I had taken my suit to the dry cleaners for Sabbath, and I had left the ticket on my dresser.

But I did not have time to go and get my suit.

And so I came home 1 morning after work, yes, and my suit was lying on my bed.

I was confused and surprised as to how it got there.

My father was preparing his sermon for church in his study and so he being the only 1 at home, I went into the study and I said, Dad, did you get my suit?

Because I couldn't figure out who else would have done it.

I remember just standing there, looking at him, because I realized that I would not have thought to do that.

And I just thanked him with this quizzical expression on my face, like, why would you do that?

Even today, I really enjoy doing something for someone, not expecting or needing to be thanked.

Today, I am intentional about thinking of things that I can do for someone because someone did that to me.

The thing about greenhouses is that because of where we live, you want to extend the growing season as best you can.

In the middle of summer, we can get a hail storm that will wipe out the entire garden.

So a greenhouse helps to protect at least some part of your crop.

Well, in addition to growing green things, we grow mice, who really appreciate what we are doing for them, providing for them.

So I know that my dear bride has a different viewpoint than the mice do.

And so I tend to try to enter the greenhouse before she does, find who I have trapped, and before she sees them, dispose of them because I know she really dislikes doing that.

She likewise show me tender thoughtfulness when it's very hot outside and I'm weeding or doing some kind of work.

My wife thoughtfully brings me cold water to drink without my asking her to do it.

The home that is beautified by love, sympathy, and tenderness is a place that angels love to visit and where God has glorified the influence of a carefully guarded Christian home.

In the years of childhood and youth is the surest safeguard against the corruptions of the world.

In this kind of an atmosphere, children learn to love both their earthly parents and their heavenly father.

Well, there's a little, there's more happiness in giving, as you well recognize, than there is in receiving.

And it's the little things that mean the most.

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Witnesses Unto Me: In the Home

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