There are a number of passages that clearly teach that God commands his people to be a holy people, e.g. 1 Peter 1:16. There are many ways to describe holiness. One of the most basic is to understand that being holy means being different. Holiness is being distinct from the world. If we are to love God we must be constantly aware that he is holy. He is different. This is what we are to model for our children as we bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Today, the prevailing mood of our political leaders is that we should not be defined by our differences, we should be strengthened by them. A Christian has a […]
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Before anyone misunderstands me—let me say that this post is not about pre-marital instructions for children, at least not explicitly. Neither is this post about arranged marriages! No, this post is about friendship and its connection to marriage. In Tim Keller’s excellent book, The Meaning of Marriage, he draws out the importance of friendship in marriage. I believe Keller has made an important observation, both for those interested in becoming married and for parents seeking to train their children to live for God. Christians are not to think or act as the world does. We are to be transformed, not conformed, in our thinking. We are to take thoughts captive, not be taken captive! But that’s a bit tricky, isn’t […]
Your eight-year-old hears things. Your son hears wild stories. Your daughter sees the constant allure of commercials. He hears the taunts of the schoolyard. She feels an inner dread growing out of her many fears. How do you help your eight-year-old child with such difficult issues? What is needed most is the news of the gospel; specifically, the good news of the grace of God. The word gospel means “good news.” Matthew speaks of the Jesus proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. That is, the good news of the kingdom where Jesus is King. This good news means that people can be rescued from darkness. Your eight-year-old already knows something of this darkness. He knows the darkness personally from the […]
A recent Rasmussen poll found that fifty-three percent (53%) of Americans say they are more thankful this Thanksgiving than they were last year at this time. Digging a little deeper into the contents of the poll, I found a question about religion and thankfulness. The poll found that the plurality (41%) of adults say their religious faith is what they are most thankful for, after family and health. In other words, the thing that most adults are thankful for after their family and health is their religious faith. These findings in the poll point to a sharp distinction between religious faith and biblical Christianity. The first commandment says that there shall be no other gods before the one true God. […]
We are returning to a series that we began several weeks ago. The series is based upon on a radio interview I did with Tedd Tripp earlier this year. I asked Tedd to list four important truths that he believes parents should weave into their parenting, based upon his interaction and experience in teaching families all over the world. Tedd listed these four themes: Understanding the importance of formative instruction Establishing a biblical view of authority Maintaining biblical communication Contrasting the wisdom of a fool with the wisdom of God We covered formative Instruction in the initial post and now we turn to Tedd’s next vital truth – a biblical view of authority. Authority is something that our post-modern culture […]
In the last post in this series, Joshua’s mom responded to his complaining attitude with a careful, thoughtful response that seems almost unrealistic. How could a mother respond this carefully in the middle of a busy afternoon? Obviously, this was a response that she had planned for. The communication between Mom and Dad was good. He was the one who remembered how hard it had been for him when one of his good friends moved away, when he was about the same age as Joshua. They had both noticed Joshua being more moody and complaining. The parents had been talking about this for a few days. They planned ahead to have family worship that focused on Philippians 2:14-16. They agreed […]
The news is filled with outrage about bonuses paid to employees of the government-bailed -out insurance giant AIG. Every day we hear cries of unfairness, greed and shock. Even the President has said that he is stunned by these bonuses. We seem to be caught in an unending series of outrageous events. Have you noticed the underlying conviction that is driving the outrage? This conviction has to do with fairness and what we deserve. We don’t deserve to have out of control spending and increased taxes. We don’t deserve to have business executives who are greedy. We don’t deserve to have government leaders who are incompetent. We don’t deserve to have a bad economy and its resulting complications. And the […]
This Monday, February 2nd, I have the privilege of doing a live radio interview with Rick Horne, author of Get Outta My Face. You can listen live on the Internet at 1 pm, at this location: http://www.christiantalk660.com Just click on the listen button. It is a call-in program, so call 1-888-660-9535 if you would like to join in. I would love to hear from you. This book is a needed and helpful addition to the field of dealing with teenagers. Sadly, too many Christian families are plagued by intense and disturbing relations between parents and their teenage children. Rick Horne takes these issues head on and offers targeted help from the rich resources of biblical wisdom literature. Here is an […]
I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. Psalm 135:5&6 The last two weeks have seen wild swings in the financial markets; unsettled, even panicked, responses from government leaders; and anxiety regarding personal finances. As far as the public media is concerned, uncertainty rules. What’s next? The media answer is that no one knows. The Bible’s answer is that God knows. Nothing that has happened these last few weeks with the global financial markets has been a surprise to God. The God of the Bible does not take coffee breaks. […]
…if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" Daniel 3:15b If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:17&18 How has the crisis in the financial markets affected your mood? This current situation […]