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Matthew 19:13, Mark 10:13, Luke 18:15

Jesus and the Children

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 21, 2013

Children had a special place in Christ’s ministry and He frequently referred to childlike characteristics when referring to the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus always had time for children and made special note of that. (Matthew 19:13, Mark 10:13, Luke 18:15). They were so special that Jesus made it clear that their protective angels had God’s ear in some sort of a special way. Matthew 18:10 tells us, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” This seems to be a remarkable statement considering that Moses only observed the “backside shadow” of God when he asked to see Him. In 1st John we read that “no man has seen God at any time.” Yet, here Jesus makes it clear that the protective angels of children not only see him but have his undivided attention which seems to be the focus of “seeing the face” of someone. The addition of the adverb “always” in the verse emphasizes the immediacy and focus of God’s care for these little ones.

Children were so important to Jesus that He made it clear that to receive one of these was to receive him. Matthew 18:65 Jesus says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” See also Mark 9:36 and Luke 9:48. To neglect our responsibility to children is a dangerous prospect. Jesus also taught that any adult who causes a little one to sin will face God’s wrath. Again, all three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew 18:6f, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2) make it clear that it would be better for a man to have a great millstone hung around his neck and be drowned than to cause a child to stumble.

D. L. Moody was one of the greatest evangelists in American History. I’ve often quoted his answer to an adult who questioned him about the effectiveness of a particular evangelistic event. He said that two and a half people had received Christ and had been saved during this event. When the adult asked, “do you mean two adults and one child?” Moody answered, “no, no, two children and one adult.” The life and ministry of the children lie before them while the adult’s life had already been spent. Another commentator writes about the foolishness of thinking adult ministry as more important than ministry to children. He writes, “There are more years of ministry in front of a child than any other age group. Children are not an inconvenience; they are the future church. In fact, statistics indicate that most people who have a relationship with God establish it before they leave home for college.” I especially liked is closing comment: “If Jesus can take them into his arms, so can and should we.”

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Matthew 18:2-4

Children And The Gospel

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 20, 2013

The first church I pastored back in the 80’s, was Hillside Bible Chapel in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In its facility we housed the offices for CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship). A very reliable reference work on Christian ministries tells us: Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) is an international organization founded in 1937 by Jesse Irvin Overholtzer (1877–1955). Told as a boy that he was too young to understand religion, Overholtzer did not put his faith and trust in Christ until he was in college. He became a pastor, and after reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) on children’s ability to understand and truly believe the gospel, was inspired to start Child Evangelism Fellowship. The heart of the organization’s efforts revolve around preaching the gospel to children and providing them a foundation to grow up in a local church fellowship. The ministry became the world’s largest organization evangelizing children. With more than twelve hundred workers and approximately forty thousand volunteers, CEF is active in every state in the U.S. and in more than one hundred fifty countries.

Dennis Rainey, founder of Family Life Ministries, must have read Spurgeon’s work also. He says, “Throughout church history believers have debated how old a child must be to receive Christ as Savior. I appreciate what Charles Spurgeon said, ‘He who knowingly sins can savingly believe.’ Regardless of how young a child may be to be saved, parents are responsible to be the shepherds and guardians of their children and to be sure they understand God’s plan of salvation. Presenting the gospel to children begins by explaining that when they disobey or are defiant, or when they break any of God’s laws, that is sin. This sinfulness is a part of their nature and is why they do wrong things.” Children are often much more open and receptive to spiritual truth than adults. This is why Jesus always made time for ministry to them even when opposed by His disciples.

Like many of the modern theologians of our day, Jesus’ disciples argued about who was the greatest. They each had their own opinions and perspectives and probably disagreed on issues. They spent way too much time on comparative theology than on ministry itself. It was in this context that Jesus called a child to Himself and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Another writer, in an article in a theological journal explains this. He writes, “Becoming as a little child was a natural way of saying two things: children are important in the kingdom, and adult faith must bear the marks of childlike simplicity. The child was not to imitate adult belief; instead the adult was to discover the simplicity of trust” (Matthew 18:2-4).

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Romans 5:8, Mark 12:30-31

Some Parenting Goals

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 19, 2013

One of the first priorities as parents in training our children is to communicate to them who they really are. As a child created by God they are people who have great worth and are deeply valued and loved by God. At the right age, children need to be invited and encouraged to confess that they are, like all human beings, sinners. They need to acknowledge this and then come to personal faith in Jesus Christ as God’s provision for dealing with our sins. It’s in our sin that we see the true depth of God’s love for us: “God demonstrated His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

The second thing children should be taught is that importance of love. In response to God’s love, we should love Him back. Jesus made it clear that this is the first and greatest commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength” (Mark 12:30). The process goes: God first loves us. He demonstrated that on the Cross. We return that love in worship. Then next because of God’s great love for us and our love for him we are taught by Jesus that the second greatest commandment is “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus added in the Mark passage, “There is no other commandment greater than these.”

First it’s identity in Christ, and then it’s our relationship with Christ and others followed by character formation. All children need boundaries. We often think that boundaries fence in children and they become restricted and confined but the truth is without boundaries they become fearful and withdrawn. Parents must set established boundaries and help them clearly understand them as well as the discipline associated with those boundaries, the penalties, corrections and then forgiveness and encouragement when the boundaries are violated. The goal, as God’s discipline with us, is to develop Christ-likeness in our children. Finally, we need to communicate to our children their divine calling and mission from heaven. All believers, even children, are called to share the Gospel with others. We should prepare them in the home for such opportunities. These four qualities, identity, relationships, character, and mission will become the foundation stones not just for our children’s lives, but for his or her Christian marriage and family.

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1 Timothy 5:8

INFIDEL!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 18, 2013

As parents we’re called on by God to develop the spiritual lives of our children, the emotional lives and also the physical lives. God calls us to take responsibility for our family as well as their physical needs when we need to. Paul tells Timothy “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).  Many commentators attempt to restrict the application of this passage to just widows since the context is speaking about that. Yet, as Kent Hughes says, “Today I believe the application of this passage should be wider, because modern American culture has produced a category of women virtually unknown in the first century—Christian women and children who have been abandoned by their spouses and left without family support.”

Those deserting their families in Paul’s day, received a special cursing.  He used the word “infidel” in his description in 1 Timothy 5:8.  That’s the meaning of the word that was translated “unbelievers.” Throughout history the term has had some very derogatory connotations associated with it. It referred to those outside the acceptable behavior patterns of a culture. Moslem’s use it derogatorily to refer to Christians today in a negative sense. We don’t pray five times a day! We don’t worship Allah and Mohamed as his prophet. We are often viewed as something less than human.  It’s probably one of the worse names you could call a person in some cultures. Paul did not call them infidels as such. Instead he said they were “worse than infidels.” The seriousness of providing for those under our roofs could not be expressed more forcefully.

My Dad believed his greatest responsibility in life was to put food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. This sounds so basic that it isn’t worth commenting on. Yet in a society that tolerates and sometimes even fosters dead-beat fathers who neglect this basic responsibility we cannot overlook it. Dad grew up in the depression and was part of the rail riders who went from town to town looking for work. He helped build some roads while working with the Roosevelt WPA. After the war he began his own stucco, stone and plastering business like his father before him. He worked hard from sun up to sun down, especially through the summer months when the weather was conducive to outdoor work. He would hire laborers from the meat-market downtown Omaha or anywhere he could find them. The laborers were often not the best workers and always had drinking problems and many had deserted their families. To him, the worse thing a man could do was to not care for people who lived under his roof. He would often ridicule them and tried to make sure the money they earned got to the women and children they were supposed to support.  He would refer to them as “dead beats” and other terms that I don’t want to mention.  He never called the infidels,  but  in a way, deadbeats like that are the true  American infidel!

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John 3:16, Romans 5:8

Love is the Greatest!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 15, 2013

God entrusts the development of children into the hands of their parents. Proverbs 22:6 exhorts us to “train up our children.” Both the Old and New Testament charge children with the responsibility of obeying and submitting to their parents. Upon entering the Promised Land, God instructed His people (and us) to be sure to take charge of the development of our children spiritually. Speaking of Exodus and Leviticus with a special focus on the 10 commandments, God charges parents, and says, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:7).

We are also charged with developing our children emotionally. It’s often easy for us to dismiss our emotional lives as something inconsequential. The truth is, and God acknowledges it, our emotions are the very seat of our security with Him and with our families. Emotions become solid and stable only under the best of loving conditions. We all must be loved and we all must feel love. It was important for God to communicate His love for us. The famous verse, John 3:16, informs us of the depths of God’s love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten son, so that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” Isn’t it obvious that God wants us to know how much he loves us? Why would he tell us this so often. Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It’s unmistakable that God wants us to know He loves us. We must pass that along to our children. But notice that expressing love, God’s kind of love, requires sacrificial commitment. “God demonstrates His own love for us…”

Love is the most stabilizing force in the world. It grips us in a way nothing else can, and impacts us, changes us, directs us, moves us, and motivates us. Everyone needs it, but no one more than our children if they are to become solid, stable, and secure in an uncertain world. One writer observed, “Several years ago when I was visiting my mother, an elderly widow living alone in her house in the mountains, I noticed that an old cat had showed up on the back doorstep. It was a wild cat, and to my surprise she was putting food out for it. Now, my mother was never much for having a pet. But I noticed that when she sat down on the back porch, the old cat came up and rubbed against her leg and she reached down and petted it. She looked up at me and simply said, ‘Every living thing in this world needs to be loved.’ I’ve never forgotten that. We need all kinds of love connections in our lives. Babies need love. Children need love. Teenagers need love. Adults need love. The elderly need love.” Being Christ like with our families is to tell them that we love them and to show them by our actions. This will help develop our children into solid, healthy, wholesome citizens.

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Proverbs 22:6, Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Without God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 14, 2013

God has not just entrusted the spiritual development of our children to us, he had charged us with the responsibility for it. Although I’m sure there are many complicated explanations associated with the carnage that has taken place at Sandy Hook, Columbine, Paducah, and other places (Just listen to the talk shows!), I’m still convinced that if parents took the responsibility of training their children spiritually and living up to God’s charge to “teach them diligently to observe all that I (God) have commanded you…” (See Deuteronomy 6), it would have an impact.

Truly, our society today makes a mockery out of God’s commandments. They are what the passage on Deuteronomy is talking about. Nearly every sitcom on TV today idolizes sexuality outside of marriage and outside of heterosexual relationships. Where is the instruction in that media of “Thou shalt not commit adultery?” One commentator said that in one evening of prime time television 12 murders took place, 4 of which were by the protagonists in the story line. The video games are produced in such a way that each player is rated by how many “kills” he has. What ever happened to “thou should not kill?” Materialism is the theme of numerous shows on TV with increasingly intense subject matter. What ever happened to “thou shalt not covet?” Parents are treated in many shows, especially the fathers, as bumbling idiots. It’s the children who always seem to know best today. Whatever happened to “honor your mother and father” because this is right in God’s eyes? I could continue with each commandment about idolatry, lying, stealing, and keeping the Sabbath. When was the last time you saw a TV sitcom family in Church? Truly, all the forces of our culture are aligned against us “training up our children in the way they should go.”

When we eliminate God from our cultural milieu we allow our own depravity to shine through. We raise children who have no respect, no self-discipline, and completely focused on self-gratification. R. C. Sproul put it this way, “…when a man’s thoughts are devoid of God, his life is characterized by not just a touch of unrighteousness but a fullness of unrighteousness that touches every part of his life. …The greedy person is self-centered, seeking to amass for himself things that he would rob from other people. Such a person has a hostile attitude to his fellow man, for he will stop at nothing for his own private gain. The greedy man’s thoughts are void of God. When we take God out of the mind, there is nothing to restrain the human heart and the human spirit in their lust for power and for greed.”

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Proverbs 22:6, Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Train up!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 13, 2013

Proverbs, Chapter 22 and verse 6 tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” The welfare, health, and socialization of children was entrusted by God to the parents. They were responsible for the child’s development in all areas of life. The scriptures truly make it clear that we’re responsible for diligent efforts to develop our children spiritually, emotionally, and physically. As far as the spiritual development of our children is concerned, it’s the primary focus of biblical instruction. One commentator observed that, “The root meaning for the term “train up” is ‘palate or roof of the mouth.’ The Arab midwife would take olive oil or crushed dates on her finger and rub the palate of a newborn baby to create in the infant a desire to suck. A real meaning of ‘training’ is to create a taste or desire. Our task is to develop in our children a hunger or desire for spiritual things, to cultivate an urge to follow God.”

This most serious responsibility is sometimes dreadfully neglected. I’ve heard parents say that they want to let their children grow up and choose for themselves whether to believe in God or not! God instructed the children of Israel of the importance of teaching their children about Him and His laws. As they were preparing to enter into the Promised Land, God said, “… these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).

Another commentator rightly observed, “The Scriptures reveal that from the earliest days of God’s people the family has had more than simply physiological (procreative) and sociological (integrative) purposes. A key element in the biblical purpose of family is educational (communicative), an element through which the child is brought to grips with the reality of God and His Son Jesus Christ, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The child learns about God primarily in the context of family, and how he may know God through faith. In addition, the child learns how he should behave in society as a representative of God and God’s people. Parents enjoy the greatest privilege and, at the same time, bear the greatest responsibility for the spiritual education and development of their children.”

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Genesis 1:28, Malachi 2:15

Be Fruitful and Multiply!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
February 12, 2013

After God created Adam and Eve He blessed them. The blessing is recorded for us in Genesis 1:28. It says, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” In the blessing God laid the foundation for the biblical family: “Be Fruitful and multiply.” It’s God’s desire that we reproduce. Most of the protestant community sees reproduction as a “procreation stewardship” and supports the idea of planning our families and limiting the number according to our means and desires. It primarily bases this on the “dominion” phrase of the verse quoted. Although I’ve often said as much to people in keeping with the tradition, I’m not so convinced. Having been raised Catholic I’ve seen firsthand the joys and pleasures of large families. My mother was the oldest of 9 children. The aunts and uncles often made our lives richer and more exciting.

One of the most profound regrets that Kathy and I share is that we didn’t have more children. If we had it to do again, knowing what we know now in our 60’s, we would have had all the children God would have allowed us. That’s an easy thing for me to say, but Kathy agrees completely! The pain and discomfort of bearing children are most forgettable with the new life that is the result. I agree with the female commentator who said, “…a married couple should recognize that fruitful marriage is a biblical norm, and they would do well to consider the heritage God may have planned for them in ushering in and rearing the generation to come.” I understand that no one should attempt to decide such things for others. It’s one of those issues between a man and a wife and God Himself. Yet, I must say to those in the productive years that Kathy and I would surely have done it differently. We both look back at this with regret.

The primary purpose of marriage is companionship. Yet God seems to expect children to be the product of that companionship. It’s in the miraculous process God chose to create people in His own image. The process is a divine process that God knows intimately. He’s aware of our conception and he weaves us together in our mother’s wombs and in the conception of life comes the indwelling of God’s image. This miraculous process is one of the expressed purposes of God’s designing men and women. When Malachi focuses on the importance of faithfulness between husbands and wives, he clearly expresses God’s purpose as procreation. He says, “Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth” (Malachi 2:15). God puts us in families. Families are God’s idea and he has lots of lessons for us regarding them.

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