One of our most important roles as parents is to offer our children a consistent picture of God. When we become conflicted in what we value we offer a grossly inconsistent view of God to our children. On Sunday we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” and on Tuesday our song may be more consistent with “I did it My Way.” One trap we easily fall into is thinking we have all the time we need to pursue our various interests and pleasures. It is a ploy of the enemy to encourage us to think there will be plenty of time to get back to being serious about God. We forget that our lives are in God’s hands. God looks at […]
Worldview
586 posts
Parents often ask how can they make God real to their toddlers. Living Deuteronomy 6:5-7 is a start. This passage provides a mandate to talk to all of your children about God all the time. The common emphasis given to this passage focuses on the beginning of verse seven: “Impress them on your children.” or “teach them diligently.” But verse seven is the outcome of the directions from verses five and six. These words urge that God is to be loved so passionately that his commands will be on the hearts of his people. Once this heart infusion of the love of God takes place the result will be that the love for God’s commands will overflow from the mouth […]
Tomorrow is a day of uncertainty. You don’t know what it will bring. You can’t even make a good prediction about tomorrow. You can plan for tomorrow, and that is a good thing. But tomorrow may not go according to your plan. Or you may find out that your plan was not really what was needed to make tomorrow go well. Sometimes you are certain that tomorrow will bring bad things and you have no idea how you will survive the day. One thing that you can be certain of is that your kids will see how tomorrow colors your outlook. I don’t have any special knowledge about tomorrow that can minimize the concerns that you face. But I […]
Contentment is being satisfied because God is working everything together for my good and for his glory. Prayer for contentment: Father, you give me everything that I need, and you have given me what I need most – forgiveness for my sin. Please help me to be content. Sometimes I struggle with being angry and feeling sorry for myself when I don’t get what I want. Please help me to be satisfied with your love and to rest in your perfect care. In Jesus name, Amen. Ruth Younts – from Get Wisdom! Parents this is a definition and a prayer that must be woven into your life before you can bring this truth to your children. No, none of us […]
Take a deep breath, its November. It is time, once again, for America to attempt to celebrate a season meant to show gratitude to God and joy remembering the birth of Jesus Christ by ignoring them. We have “matured” to the point where we now thank ourselves and our retirement plans. Our reason for joy is based upon how much we can give to each other. God? Jesus Christ? The Holy Spirit? They are unconstitutional. The idea of one God to whom all are accountable – embarrassing! This is reality in America and in many other countries. How do you lead your children to honor God during the coming weeks? First – Remind your children that just because others are […]
Many things qualify as “good” for you and your children. As parents we want to show love and kindness to our kids. We tend to invest heavily with our time and or money in the “good” things. Which of these good things would survive if life was suddenly turned upside down by a catastrophic event? The question is, have we invested the most in the good things that will endure the sudden, violent storms of life? But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works. Psalm 73:28
From time to time I will post some brief thoughts about the last 3 ½ years of my wife’s life. As many of you know, my wife, Ruth, was diagnosed with the most lethal form of brain cancer on April 1, 2010. Since that day, God has proven himself faithful beyond all that Ruth and I could ask or imagine. She went home at her Father’s call October 19th. Ruth immediately turned to Psalm 139:16 as one of her anchors: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Some quick thoughts: Ruth did not […]
Let’s evaluate the strategies of enlisting recruits of the two opposing forces involved in spiritual warfare. We will start with the plan of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a straightforward approach and could be stated like this: Life is to be lived for the glory and honor of God. Man has rebelled against that reality and is in need of rescue. Strictly on his own initiative, through the sacrificial death of his son, God rescues people from darkness and brings them into the kingdom of light for all eternity. That is the strategy of one side. Here is the strategy of the other side, the kingdom of this world. It is also straightforward. Satan hates mankind […]
If we are to live a life that is wise, it is imperative that we understand we have an Enemy who attempts to discredit the wonders of God with counterfeit musings. This discrediting can take the form of misinterpreting the good things that God does. For example, as magnificent as a sunset may be, it is not the ultimate that God does. That ultimate is reserved for heaven and the new earth. But the enemy wants you to think that what you see now is all there is. Also, we have grown accustomed to seeing breathtaking imagery on the big screen. But even these images pale in comparison to the reality of the world that remains unseen to us. […]
Clint Eastwood may not be your first choice for understanding truth. But there is one quote of his that does resonate with biblical truth. Eastwood says “a man has got to understand his limitations.” Proverbs 3:7 says “don’t be wise in your own eyes.” In other words if you think your own understanding is something you can rely on, you are headed for trouble. The structure of Hebrew wisdom literature, of which Proverbs is a part, uses a literary device called parallelism to highlight important truths. In this case, being wise in your own eyes is contrasted exercising the fear of the Lord and turning from evil. If you think you can trust yourself, you will not exhibit a […]