“The Christian household is not just a place to eat, sleep, and watch TV, but a place to worship, serve, and grow together as disciples of Jesus Christ. It’s not just a private refuge from the world, but a public witness to the world. It’s not just a family unit, but a mission outpost.” – Dr. John A Causey III
Our world needs a refuge – safe from all the pressures of comparison, political polarization, pushiness of technology, and personal identity and confidence issues that can steal the joy and power from even the strongest amongst us. True Christians know that this kind of protection can only be fully provided in God’s Kingdom, but how to hold firmly to such a powerful hope is oftentimes elusive. Thankfully, Dr. John Causey has written a book highlighting God’s ancient way for us to build this exact refuge! The House To House Effect takes the reader on a joyous journey through God’s Word from the Old to the New Testament and up through the present day, revealing the majesty and miracle of the godly household. Causey also shares many practical stories from his own life and the ministries that he and his lovely wife Emma have built for over 40 years that inspire the reader that it is quite possible to live out that old hymn “I’m Building Me a Home”!
The Hebrew writer knew that not only was God not far from each disciple but that He also built His house on the foundation of Jesus Christ and wanted this truth to be lived out and passed along from home to home:
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory. (Hebrews 3:1-6)
Dr. Causey quotes this amazing passage in the second chapter: “Jesus is the leader of God’s Household, and we live by the standard and hope He has set! He modeled the ‘household way’ by developing and maintaining the spiritual family.” This book is the quintessential blueprint of Jesus’ ministry that will focus and equip the leaders of the church at every level on the essentials of how to live out the gospel in this spiritual, household way. I personally believe this book will have a profound spiritual impact on disciples young and old and will help people appreciate God’s household; this gratitude will have a fortifying impact on all disciples who “go home” not just to take a break with their physical families during the holidays, but now much more powerfully to bring the light of the gospel into their households! What a gift God has given us in His grace and in the Causeys’ spiritual leadership; and now, by reading this book during these critical times, let each of us be inspired to say, “and His grace to me was not without [a house to house] effect!” (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Happy reading, family!
The House to House Effect: Reviving Christian Households In This Generation
