Values are Timeless, not Temporary

“And these words , which I commanded thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7a).
As parents, we need to see our kids at the age of the twenty- or thirty-year-olds they will one day become. This is not trying to grow them up before their time. But it is a vision that says to the world and to the culture that your children will not be had by them. We are talking about placing before them and within them the vision of training them into adulthood, growing them into disciples.
One of the values of Scripture, for instance, that has always been before us is this matter of being not “yoked together with unbelievers” (2 Cor. 6:14), especially in the terms of the marriage relationship. Of course, this wasn’t an issue when they are only ten, twelve, and fourteen. But since this issue would arise in their lives in a short period of time, as Christians who love our God, we as parents place these values of the sanctity of Christian marital vows before them as they grow.
It is imperative that Christian parents know their core values and express them along the way. Before you know it the child has grown before you in a manner that is faster than a speeding bullet. God has taught us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto His wisdom. Don’t start tomorrow. Begin today to make those choices that will change and bend the hearts of your children toward Christ and His Word.

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  • The Christian Faith Entrusted to Us

    “As for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).

    Biblical knowledge is meant to be both intellectual and experiential. There are two sides to the same coin and it is meant to be enjoyed together. Knowledge without response is like an incomplete sentence or a song without a chorus. We have to go beyond merely quoting the truth….to obeying it.

    Why are we to contend for the faith? Because there are false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, counterfeits, apostates in our pulpits across the church scene.  Theology was important to Jude and Paul. God takes the truth seriously. We must know what and why we believe. That is God’s call on every believer.

    Our faith is not primarily a feeling. It is belief based on fact. It is more about a grounded assurance than personal philosophy. We can not simply make up facts or imagine things about God and then base our lives on those thoughts.

    Faith fads, theological trends, popular contemporary thinking, is carrying an unthinking church away from strong historical beliefs and Scripture. Just believing something doesn’t make it true. It’s either true or not, independent of our belief in it. Everything that is not Scriptural and experientially defended in our daily lives sets up misrepresentation of the God of doctrine and truth. Just ask the woman at the well in John’s gospel chapter four.

    It may feel as if the Word of God is rocking back and forth, swaying to the fads of Christianity, but it is not…for the Word of God is stable, it is not changing, progressing, or emerging. We are called to stand for and proclaim what is true, and even when necessary to expose false teaching and heresy. Always ask, “What does the Bible say? And not “Does it make me feel good, happy, or accepted by others?”

     

     

     

     

  • God Does Not Budge

    “Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me. My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth” (Jeremiah 15:1).

    One would think that God would hear the prayer of His servant Moses and Samuel in any circumstance. But here we learn that the people of God were resilient in their behavior unfavorably before God. They were recalcitrant and rebellious.

    Jeremiah is heavy in heart. He is running out of steam. He has prayed, prayed, and prayed some more and yet he is not seeing the God of Israel move. God doesn’t even seem to care about saving them out of their upcoming judgment and Jeremiah is also caught in the judgment.

    What do we do when America doesn’t seem to understand? What do we do when our children and grandchildren do not understand and we don’t seem to get our prayers answered? We have to be taught like Jeremiah to run with the footmen, and to contend with the horses. Don’t wear out where you are but look up to where God is.

    Our source of grace is found in the Lord. Our strength is found in Him. Things are going to get worse but we need to get better. Don’t run from your assignments because it doesn’t matter where you are God has you there to train you, to form you, and to fill you.

    Though the world loves to wander away from God, nor restrain their feet from living in pleasure, don’t you do it? Keep on the line with God. Let God toughen you! Things are going to get worse but let God make you the man or woman of God you need to be.

  • Not A Skirmish But Warfare

    Warren Wiersbe, one of my favorite speakers and commentators, told of the time he was pastoring in Chicago, “I met weekly with three pastor friends, and together we united in “warfare praying.” We claimed God’s promise to cast down the wrong thinking that was keeping people from surrendering to God; and God did great things in the lives of many people for who we interceded.”

    While you and I pray for others, once the strongholds in the minds of others have been torn down, the door to the heart can be opened. When the Jews obeyed God at the walls of Jericho while marching around them, God gave the victory and the walls came down. Once this took place then they were able to go in and defeat the enemy.

    Let us pray for the walls to be torn down so that God can gain the victory. We are not depending upon man’s wisdom and strength. We are not dependent upon our personality, human abilities, or even the authority we have in name of a Christian, but we are dependent upon our weapons of prayer, love, faith, and righteousness to bring the walls down. God is able to save to the uttermost.

  • Are You “THERE”?

    “And the word of the Lord came unto him {Elijah}, saying, Get thee hence and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee THERE…” (I Kings 17:2-4).
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    God has a “THERE” for you and me. There is somewhere He wants us to be, something He wants us to do. True joy and happiness has to be where He wants you. We can not please God anywhere but “there.”

    We can do many lovely things and become a “success,” but always there will be the haunting sense of having chosen life’s second best. If we miss the approval of God, the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we shall feel at the close of the day the attitude of giving all of our earthly awards and crowns for the one we missed.

    “THERE” is the place of God’s abundant power and marvelous provision. Are we “THERE”?

  • Don’t Build A Golden Calf

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    –Exodus 32:9The children of Israel were too fast to blame Moses and easily became critical. Out of bondage they were led from a life that was not fulfilling nor appealing. God sent them a deliverer and his name was Moses. Moses led them under God’s discipline and direction and yet the children of Israel were not mature in their feelings and thoughts. They always gave this man a hard time but Moses loved them.The Word of God gives us the illustrations (I Cor. 10) so the 21st century church can learn. The rebels came to Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him” (Exodus 32:1). So quick to blame Moses and in their state of impatience and lack of faith they wanted something to see, to feel, and to quench their flesh’s desire.

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  • Only Grace Can Accomplish

    “If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17).

    Remember, that the greatest danger to your child is not the evil outside them; it’s the sin inside them that is the greatest of all threats to their well-being. We have noticed that much of parenting today, especially in the church community, centers around a perimeter of human wisdom. Rigidity along with ritual brings about a conformity that does not help conform that child to the image of Christ. In the end that child runs and we wonder what happened to that training?

    The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus would not have been necessary if all we needed were a bunch of rules, ingenuity, and insight. Jesus came to solve the dilemma of sin. It is only through Him that a parent can supervise a child in the way he or she should go. We are losing children to this culture because many kids are conformed to a parent’s wishes instead of the power of God.

    Some parents don’t seem to care, while others who are in the minority do, but both sets of parenting will fall short of the glory of God when the functionality of doing is used more than receiving the mystery life-giving breath of God. The most dangerous thing in a young person’s life is his blindness to the depth of his own spiritual need. Only the Spirit of God can open the eyes of that child, and it is only the Spirit of God who will lead the dad and mom to an open field of parenting in freedom.