Joshua 24: The Altar of the Home

Scripture
Joshua 24:15

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Scripture Reflection

Joshua’s bold declaration still rings true today: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The altar of the home is built on this kind of resolve — a choice to make Jesus the central organizing principle of our lives together.

Jon Tyson has challenged followers of Jesus to consider what their homes truly orbit around. Many homes orbit around sports, school schedules, careers, hobbies, or even screens — all good gifts, but terrible gods. The altar of the home is established when a family, household, or friend group determines that Jesus will be at the center, shaping rhythms of prayer, hospitality, worship, and love.

This can look different in every home — a nuclear family, a shared apartment with friends, a multigenerational household — but the principle is the same: Jesus at the center. In a culture of hurry and distraction, building the altar of the home requires intentionality, courage, and a daily return to first love.

As homes become places of prayer, places of worship, places where the presence of God is honored, they become powerful outposts of revival. Movements of God have always been carried by ordinary homes consecrated to His glory.

May we choose today to build the altar of our homes, so that generations after us will know and worship the Lord.

Praying it UP / IN / OUT

UP: Worship Jesus as the Lord of your household, worthy of being the center and focus of every family and every home.

IN: Pray for courage to reorder your home’s rhythms and priorities so that they honor God above all else, creating an altar where His presence is welcomed.

OUT: Intercede for homes across New England — traditional families, friend groups, and households of every kind — that they would be rebuilt around Jesus and become places of worship, prayer, and revival.

Closing Prayer

Lord of our homes,

We praise You as the One who is worthy to shape every part of our lives together. You are worthy to be at the very center.

Forgive us for letting our homes orbit around lesser things. Teach us to build the altar of the home — a place of prayer, worship, hospitality, and love.

Empower us to reorder our rhythms, to put You first, to declare with courage and conviction: “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Let every home in New England become a place where Your presence is honored and Your Kingdom advances.

Amen.