Study from Deuteronomy 4: 44 – 5: 8: 20; Passage for Reflection: Deut. 6: 6 – 7 … NIV 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
My Journal for Today: During my discipleship after I came to know Christ as my Lord and Savior, my mentor and my teachers and the leaders of my Christian education [remember this is occurring after I was 39 years old] taught me one practical principle involving my study of God’s truth from His word, the Bible. And this truth was that when I would read God’s word, through whatever author, book, or passage where God was repeating Himself over and over again, I was alerted to PAY ATTENTION and assimilate that truth, whatever it was, if it was pertinent to my life (which it often was).
And in today’s passages from Deut., Chapters 4 – 8, we read Moses repeating something we had heard God say through him a number of times during the first five books of the Bible, often referred to as “THE LAW” by orthodox Jews. And here today we have something emphasized in the highlight passage for today, a principle of diligence which we find being challenged greatly among those of us who believe that it is the responsibility of Godly parents to impart Godly principles into our kids and grandkids.
How often do we need to read from God’s word or hear from God’s messengers (i.e., His church leaders, preachers, and Christian educators) that we should teach our kids to obey God’s truth? BUT … [and it’s another BIG BUT in our world today] … how often do we find this instruction concerning what Christian parents need to be doing for their children ignored and often mocked by today’s believers who call themselves “christian.”
When my wife and I had children in their formative years of learning (i.e., in their pre-teen and teen years), we were agnostics; and I even flaunted my desire to put down Christianity and the Christians around me. But apparently with time enough to turn things around in the minds of our two daughters, Elly and I became Christians back then; and we began teaching our daughters the truth of God’s word; and now our daughters are about the age we were when we became Christians; and they, along with their husbands, are doing all they can to pass along God’s truth from the Bible to their kids, … our grandchildren.
And thus far what God instructs Godly parents to do in Deut. 6: 6-7, we see them doing on even a daily basis. And Elly and I are doing all we can to support and back up this discipleship process, taking every opportunity we can to pass along the essence of God’s truth which is conveyed by the Bible.
We want our children to understand and apply what Moses was trying to impart to the children of God, … that obedience to God’s truth from His Law was/is essential to our being the benefactors of God’s promises. And just prior to the statement of today’s highlight passage, there is a truth lain out for all God’s people to read and incorporate into our lives. It is called “The Great Shama,” which is the core Hebrew prayer, to which all believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and most certainly all Christians, must adhere. It is stated primarily in Deut. 6: 4 – 5 … “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” And Jesus became the fulfillment of this prayer on earth; and we, who call our selves by His Name, must live this out and teach it to our children and grandchildren.
To ignore this prayer and truth is to ignore the very God Who spoke it and commanded that His children pass it along to their children and their children’s children. The question first becomes, “Are we living it?” And then are we should be teaching it by example and principle to our children? I will leave that to be the application question for our lives from today’s study. And my friend, we simply cannot afford to be lax, or worse, to snub God by ignoring our responsibilities to convey this principle to our children and grandchildren.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, may I live to see the day when our grandchildren exhibit this truth of The Shama in their lives. Amen
Showing posts with label Christian parenting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian parenting. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Thursday, December 24, 2009
2009 – Day 357.Dec 24 – Disintegrating Families
Passage for Study: 1st Samuel 3: 1 – 18 … 1st Samuel 3 linked for study and context …
My Journal for Today: The lessons we parents can learn from Priest Eli’s failure as a daddy should be quite obvious; but they may not be to a parent who, like Eli, was locked into a long standing pattern of inactivity, passivity, and denial when it came to his kids. He could not – or would not – see that he was not there for his boys while they were growing up in the home of a prominent religious figure of that day.
I can just imagine how difficult it must’ve been for Billy Graham to raise his kids; and we now know that Billy and Ruth Graham had five children, all of whom became dedicated Christians, involved in Christian ministry in some way, … two of them Anne and Franklin becoming very prominent in international Christian ministries. But Franklin was an example of a prodigal child, who questioned why his dad was not around all that much when he was growing up; and he rebelled, going through a period of questioning, and even being expelled from his Christian college, not coming to Christ until he was 22. But as it is said in Prov. 22: 6, he was raised by loving parents who set clear boundaries and provided their boy with time and affirmation. He was also mentored by Christian leaders in Graham’s ministry, two men who helped give the rebelling Franklin clear guidance. And now, we know that Franklin Graham, returned to the faith as promised in that Proverb, having founded and leading Samaritan’s Purse and becoming very active in preaching in the Bill Graham crusades, now taking the reigns of that ministry now that Billy is aging.
As Chuck Swindoll points out today, by using the case of Eli and his sons, even if you’re dedicated and prominent as a religious or business leader or public figure, you cannot abandon the role which God considers every parent’s primary mission field, and that is the family, with the priesthood being the co-roles of parenting. Every man should be the Priest of his home; and his wife becomes the minister’s help-mate in the role of parenting. And so, when priority decisions come as we parents must decide between time spent in parenting and the home as opposed to the church, business, or the public life, the priority decision for time investment should always come back home first.
Such was obviously not the case with Eli; and we read of the result of his parenting decisions. His two boys grew up as deviants and drags upon Eli’s ministry and society; and the Priest may have been a Priest to God’s people; but he certainly was not THE priest in his home and for his boys. Oh, how I hope that all who read this have been the parents we should have been for our kids. For me, it came close to being a disaster. For the formative years our girls were being raised, I was an athieist and an AWOL parent, deeply into a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde double life. But praise God, He brought me to brokenness just in time; and coming to know Christ when our girls were pre-teens, both my wife and I became break-through Christian parents in time for God’s Spirit to get a hold of our daughters and to help us become the parents they needed when they were going through those tough teen years. Now our girls are dynamic Christian mothers, who have had their own children and are doing their best to raise them in Christian homes, where their dads are Christian fathers. I can only praise God for His intervention and redirection in our family life so that our girls could be raised by spiritually growing Christian parents, who learned, from God’s word and from the example of the church, what parenting should be like in God’s scheme of living.
I can only pray for all of us that we take the role and ministry of Christian parenting very seriously; and for those who have been blessed with the stewardship of having children to raise for God’s glory, may we acknowledge the blessing and do all we can to prioritize that mission field as being the pre-eminent ministry of our lives.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, our daughters are Yours. Our grandchildren are Yours. Help us to parent and grandparent them as Yours, … for Your glory. Amen
My Journal for Today: The lessons we parents can learn from Priest Eli’s failure as a daddy should be quite obvious; but they may not be to a parent who, like Eli, was locked into a long standing pattern of inactivity, passivity, and denial when it came to his kids. He could not – or would not – see that he was not there for his boys while they were growing up in the home of a prominent religious figure of that day.
I can just imagine how difficult it must’ve been for Billy Graham to raise his kids; and we now know that Billy and Ruth Graham had five children, all of whom became dedicated Christians, involved in Christian ministry in some way, … two of them Anne and Franklin becoming very prominent in international Christian ministries. But Franklin was an example of a prodigal child, who questioned why his dad was not around all that much when he was growing up; and he rebelled, going through a period of questioning, and even being expelled from his Christian college, not coming to Christ until he was 22. But as it is said in Prov. 22: 6, he was raised by loving parents who set clear boundaries and provided their boy with time and affirmation. He was also mentored by Christian leaders in Graham’s ministry, two men who helped give the rebelling Franklin clear guidance. And now, we know that Franklin Graham, returned to the faith as promised in that Proverb, having founded and leading Samaritan’s Purse and becoming very active in preaching in the Bill Graham crusades, now taking the reigns of that ministry now that Billy is aging.
As Chuck Swindoll points out today, by using the case of Eli and his sons, even if you’re dedicated and prominent as a religious or business leader or public figure, you cannot abandon the role which God considers every parent’s primary mission field, and that is the family, with the priesthood being the co-roles of parenting. Every man should be the Priest of his home; and his wife becomes the minister’s help-mate in the role of parenting. And so, when priority decisions come as we parents must decide between time spent in parenting and the home as opposed to the church, business, or the public life, the priority decision for time investment should always come back home first.
Such was obviously not the case with Eli; and we read of the result of his parenting decisions. His two boys grew up as deviants and drags upon Eli’s ministry and society; and the Priest may have been a Priest to God’s people; but he certainly was not THE priest in his home and for his boys. Oh, how I hope that all who read this have been the parents we should have been for our kids. For me, it came close to being a disaster. For the formative years our girls were being raised, I was an athieist and an AWOL parent, deeply into a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde double life. But praise God, He brought me to brokenness just in time; and coming to know Christ when our girls were pre-teens, both my wife and I became break-through Christian parents in time for God’s Spirit to get a hold of our daughters and to help us become the parents they needed when they were going through those tough teen years. Now our girls are dynamic Christian mothers, who have had their own children and are doing their best to raise them in Christian homes, where their dads are Christian fathers. I can only praise God for His intervention and redirection in our family life so that our girls could be raised by spiritually growing Christian parents, who learned, from God’s word and from the example of the church, what parenting should be like in God’s scheme of living.
I can only pray for all of us that we take the role and ministry of Christian parenting very seriously; and for those who have been blessed with the stewardship of having children to raise for God’s glory, may we acknowledge the blessing and do all we can to prioritize that mission field as being the pre-eminent ministry of our lives.
My Prayer for Today: Lord, our daughters are Yours. Our grandchildren are Yours. Help us to parent and grandparent them as Yours, … for Your glory. Amen
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