Preparing Our Children Dr. Jobe Martin www.biblicaldiscipleship.org www.evolutionofacreationist.com www.creationproclaims.com www.slideshare.net (Jobe Martin) The modern university is a hostile environment for Biblical Christians.
Download ReportTranscript Preparing Our Children Dr. Jobe Martin www.biblicaldiscipleship.org www.evolutionofacreationist.com www.creationproclaims.com www.slideshare.net (Jobe Martin) The modern university is a hostile environment for Biblical Christians.
Preparing Our Children Dr. Jobe Martin www.biblicaldiscipleship.org www.evolutionofacreationist.com www.creationproclaims.com www.slideshare.net (Jobe Martin) The modern university is a hostile environment for Biblical Christians. It is imperative that our children know and be able to defend and live the foundational Biblical Lifeview (worldview). We will address the importance of relationship as a basis for imparting truth about God and life. We parents should be equipped to approach this aspect of our task by preparing our child to have a Biblical goal, plan, and focus as he/she seeks to fulfill 1 Peter 3:15 and Colossians 1:10 upon leaving the protection of our homes. Are we sending our children out as missionaries or as mission fields? • For Christian home school families teaching must be centered around our Lord Jesus—He is the inventor and author of science, true religion, ethics, law, history, economics, etc…. • Our Children must be taught who they are as saved, Bible-believing Christians. JUDE 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 1 PETER 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. COLOSSIANS 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. HOSEA 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. PROVERBS 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 2 CORINTHIANS 11:3 3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety [craftiness], so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 CORINTHIANS 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. MATTHEW 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 1 PETER 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Lions attack the weakest, the slowest, the youngest and the ones that are grazing alone. Mountain lions can spring-leap ahead 24 feet from a stand still position. Lions can leap off a cliff down onto a prey from 65 feet up! • Satan goes about like a roaring lion looking for human prey to devour! Our kids are the youngest, the weakest, often the sickest, and many times grazing far away from the flock! EPHESIANS 6:10-13 10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. We must teach our children to stand up in and contend for our Bible-based Christian faith! We must equip our children for the spiritual battle that is intensifying in their generation! One of the first steps that we must take is to decide who it is that determines what is true. Who determines truth: Is it man or Is it God? If it is the God of the Bible Who determines what is True, then we must examine everything through the filter of His Word! And we must teach our children to do the same! 1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Colossians 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God • Let’s keep a few things in mind…. I Chronicles 12:32: And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment In general children do not rebel against rules. Children in rebellion are, for the most part, rebelling against a lack of relationship with the rule maker/enforcer/giver. Created to Live by the Rules • Why do our children love to play games like Monopoly, card games, yard games, etc…? • Why do people worship sports and make all kinds of sacrifices of time and money to be involved with sports?! • We are designed to love rules. Our Creator made us to desire boundaries. • Rules and boundaries grant us freedom. • Limits give us peace! Why Am I Home Schooling? “Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” Charles Francis Potter Humanism: A New Religion, (New York: Simon and Schuster), 1930, p. 16 Potter was a Unitarian minister, theologian and author who changed, over half a century, from an evangelical Baptist to a radical Humanist. John Dunphy: “A RELIGION FOR A NEW AGE” “The battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. . . . These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level—preschool day care or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new—the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with all its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent in its promise of a world in which the never realized Christian ideal of “love thy neighbor” will finally be achieved….humanism will emerge triumphant. It must if the family of humankind is to survive.” ~John Dunphy, The Humanist, (Jan. 1983, pp. 23-26) THE BATTLE OF CREATION VS EVOLUTION IS REALLY THE BATTLE FOR THE GOSPEL. • G. Richard Bozarth writes (“The Meaning of Evolution”, American Atheist, Sept. 20, 1979, p. 30): • “Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the [S]on of [G]od. … If Jesus was not the [R]edeemer that died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing.” G. Richard Bozarth Atheist Bozarth understands this issue much better than the average Christian! • The Family Unit is the basic foundational aspect of the Creation to accomplish God’s purposes in this world. If God created the family, then HE can make it work! We cannot turn our children over to the Canaanite Schools and not suffer varying degrees of consequences. We must be responsible stewards of the “gifts” God has entrusted to us. WE DON’T KNOW OUR HISTORY • Since 1859: Darwinian Evolution----Feminism---Humanistic Psychology--- Organized Sports and Public Education have all exploded. John Dewey, a founder of the modern government school system, said, "Children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming where everyone is interdependent.” http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/John.Dewey.Quote.579A WE DON’T KNOW OUR HISTORY • Dewey's philosophy was called instrumentalism (related to pragmatism—what is practical). • Instrumentalism believes that truth is an instrument used by human beings to solve their problems. • Since problems change, then so must truth. [Living Constitution] • Since problems change, truth changes, and therefore there can be no eternal reality. • Ultimately: the Bible means what it means to you=no eternal truth! • With this idea of no absolute Truth=“I have my truth and you have your truth” Secular Humanism has dropped into postmodernism. POSTMODERNISTS CLAIM: There are no “truths” which apply to all of us. There are no absolute moral standards. There are no absolute ethical concerns. There is no God. There are personal opinions. There are personal perspectives. See the writings of Nietzsche, Derrida, Lyotard, Ricouer, Foucault, Rorty, Baudrillard, etc. Most Postmodernist thinkers are/were disillusioned Marxists. • Disillusioned Marxists became PostModernists and now gain strength through Multiculturalism and its stepchild, Political Correctness, which is rightly labeled, “Cultural Marxism”. • Marx and Lenin taught that, given the chance, European workers would overthrow capitalist governments and replace them with communism. • But after the Russian revolution of 1917 the Western European workers did not support the Communist revolution or ideas. • Why not? • Christianity and its moral and ethical absolutes was the roadblock to the expansion of Marxism in Europe. • This roadblock was noticed by two Marxist theorists in 1919: Italian, Antonio Gramsci and Hungarian, Georg Lukacs. • These two men decided that the spread of Communism could only be accomplished if Western Christian culture was destroyed. Gramsci • So Lukacs introduced sex education into the public schools of Hungary,1919, believing that if children knew more about sex their lust for it would overpower their Christian morals! • So Gramsci and Lukacs laid the groundwork to change communism from economic terms (ownership of private property is evil) into cultural terms. (tolerance, sex ed, drug ed, Havenots vs Haves, etc.) • Then in 1923 at Frankfurt University in Germany the Institute for Social Research was established=The Frankfurt School. • The Frankfurt School moved to New York City in 1933 when Hitler came to power. • Theorists like Wilhelm Reich, Eric Fromm, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, etc. • The Frankfurt School invented “Critical Theory” which had the goal of demonizing all traditional institutions such as family, fatherhood, patriotism, Bible-believing churches, etc. • The Frankfurt School published “Studies in Prejudice” which taught that anyone who believes in traditional Western Christian culture is prejudiced, a “racist” or “sexist” or “fascist” or is mentally unstable. • Mixing Freud with Marx, they perfected the technique of psychological conditioning—thus, for example, TV=homosexuality=normal. • TV=Christians are crazy, intolerant fools • Herbert Marcuse, working with Hollywood friends, became a leading “evangelist” of Cultural Marxism (Political Correctness) especially on the university campuses of USA. • “In his book Eros and Civilization, he argued that by freeing sex from any restraints, we could elevate the pleasure principle over the reality principle and create a society with no work, only play (Marcuse coined the phrase, “Make love, not war”). Marcuse also argued for what he called “liberating tolerance,” which he defined as tolerance for all ideas coming from the Left and intolerance for any ideas coming from the Right. In the late 1960’s Marcuse became the chief “guru” of the New Left, and he injected the cultural Marxism (PC) of the Frankfurt School into the baby boom generation, to the point where it is now America’s state ideology. • The next conservatism should unmask multiculturalism and Political Correctness and tell the American people what they really are: cultural Marxism. Its goal remains that Lukacs and Gramsci set in 1919: destroying Western culture and the Christian religion. [see: Wm. Lind, “Cultural Marxism” The Schwarz Report, vol. 46, No. 4, p 4. www.schwarzreport.org] Marxists: “THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS OUT!” Harvard Professor Richard Lewontin: “It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but on the contrary, that we are forced by an a priori [up front] adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated, Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a divine foot in the door.” Dr. Richard Lewontin, “Billions and Billions of Demons,” The New York Review, Jan. 9, 1997, p. 31 Total intolerance for even the idea of God the Creator. The issue is GOD! ROMANS 1:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient [not proper]; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. POSTMODERNIST RICHARD RORTY: “I might have written an account of how even atheists like myself are impressed, improved and morally instructed by reading Pilgrim’s Progress.” Postmodernist Professor Richard Rorty as quoted in World magazine September, 2008: “The fundamentalist parents of our fundamentalist students think that the entire ‘American liberal establishment’ is engaged in a conspiracy….The parents have a point. Their point is that we liberal teachers no more feel in a symmetrical communication situation when we talk with bigots than do kindergarten teachers talking with their students.” Rorty said to parents: • “We are going to go right on trying to discredit you in the eyes of your children, trying to strip your fundamentalist religious community of dignity, trying to make your views seem silly rather than discussable.” Rorty said to parents: “I think those students are lucky to find themselves under…people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents.” “Not all university professors are so contemptuous of students, parents , and religious belief, but quite a few share Rorty’s attitude. Most students at secular colleges and universities will have to deal with professors like this.” World, p. 31 Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death Proverbs 23:7a For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: • How are we raising our children to think in their hearts? • Hearts full of God’s words and works in righteousness • Or • Hearts full of man’s and culture’s words and works of wickedness and rebellion? • Hearts of entitlement, social networking addiction? • Where is your heart as a parent? • Are we showing our families that God is real through His Word? **Preparation: • Ideally we should start at the cradle with a Biblical purpose, plan, and focus. Did we? Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it Are we raising our children with an attitude of “entitlement.” (I get whatever I want!) or Are we raising our children with an excitement about living in the center of our Lord’s will as we pursue godly righteousness and unselfish servanthood. (I die to myself.) • Are we, dads especially, living and teaching our Lord’s word, the Bible, from the earliest ages of our children? • Are we memorizing chapters of Scripture with our children and reciting them for our churches, families, dinner guests, etc…? Where you are right now in the process of raising your children is part of the process of preparing them for college or when they leave home for jobs or marriage? Are we training our kids and exercising with them in sacrificial, godly servanthood to equip them for future life in this wicked and perverse world system? We cannot lead anyone (children included) further than we are---God’s grace can, but what are we doing NOW? How REAL is our God to our children right now? Is our Lord Jesus real enough to them to enable them to withstand this present darkness and shine the light of God’s glory in the midst of it? • God was NOT real to Jenna Dee and me as we were growing up, so we asked ourselves “How can we make God real to our children?” When they were babies we started reading the Bible daily, praying together, memorizing chapters as well as selected verses of Scripture and then we tried to think of ways to apply God’s Word in our everyday lives. Do we know what to do in our heart of hearts, but are not doing it? Peer pressure affects parents as well as children. What peer pressures do we face as parents that rob our children of our time, treasure and talents? Is it time to say, “Enough is enough! I am losing my kids (and my country)! It is time for me to deal with some things in my life that are distracting and detouring me from my God-given responsibilities as a citizen and parent!” • Are we parents sacrificing the authentic for the artificial? • Are we in our actions and hearts more interested in investing in the temporal than the eternal? The momentary or the lasting? • Our children are watching! • Where are we really investing our time, talents, and treasures? • Is it the things of the world: –HARRY POTTER (Lev. 19:31; Deut 18:10) –FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, TWITTER…. –TEXTING (24/7) –SPORTS –SOAPS –CSI • Preparing our children to leave home begins when they are in the womb (read the Bible out loud and sing hymns). Do they know Scriptures from an early age? II Tim. 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. BIBLICAL TARGETS • Do we consider our children to be a legal bequeathment from God (an assigned gift=Hebrew Psalm127:3)? • Do we think of them as arrows and us parents as the mighty warriors that are aiming those arrows at specific Biblical targets (127:4)? • Can you tell me what Bible verses (targets) you are aiming your children at and DO THEY KNOW WHAT SCRIPTURES YOU ARE AIMING THEM AT? Our children, our arrows, can only hit the bull’s eye on Biblical Targets by our dear Lord’s grace, but they must know what targets we parents (the mighty warriors) are aiming them at! DO THEY KNOW THE BIBLE PASSAGE TARGETS? • Are we and our children being influenced and affected by the cultures of Satan’s world system, or are we penetrating the cultures with godliness and the Gospel? We have choices— there are costs and consequences! Choices for us dads and moms and choices for our children • The peer pressure and desire to conform to the world’s ways is constant and unrelenting! • Our Lord says (Romans 12:1-2): I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Proverbs 14:12 • There will always be a way that seems so right, many times it is the way of most convenience or that best protects my personal peace and affluence, but the end thereof are the ways of death. • What must I sacrifice to best serve my family for the praise and glory of my dear Lord? What comes to mind? • Our ideas about preparing our children for life have certain consequences. • Our assumptions about harm or help to and for our children determine our conclusions • We might assume that The Simpsons, Harry Potter, R-rated movies, etc…will not interfere with the spiritual growth of our children, so we come to the conclusion—let them watch! • My kids are good kids, I can trust them! • A few years ago we had a missionary family stay in our guest house. The missionary said that his kids needed to check e-mails and would I give them the password to our computer. I did. After they left I turned on the computer and it immediately went to a pornography web page. • The missionary said that his kids were great kids—we could trust them! I assume that my kids can be trusted, so I conclude that they are not doing anything wrong—but they end up on drugs, or pregnant (it takes a boy and a girl!), or running with the wrong crowd, etc…. Could I be doing more to develop a loving, trusting relationship with my child? I don’t want to influence my child in my beliefs---I want them to find out what “truth” is for them. “We messed up with raising our child, but he will be out of here in four years. I’m not willing to do what it takes at this point to humble myself and be UNSELFISH in order to salvage my child. Man, I can’t wait for them to get out on their own!” “I assume that since we have our children in church and we are good people, our children will turn out to be godly young adults. They will do just fine. I am not at all worried.” The recent statistics are not encouraging. Are we making the God of the Bible and true Christianity real to our children? • In our homeschools are we stressing academics over godly Christian spirituality and character? • What we see: • Trends in home schooling toward emphasis on academics with lessening emphasis on Scriptural Truth and godly living. • Bad manners---disrespect---video games--Face Book---immodest dress---lack of knowledge of Scripture, no thankfulness…. • A very obvious trend toward secular change and love of the world, a great decrease in godliness. This is what we see in USA! PREPARATION OF OUR CHILDREN • PRAYER FOUNDATIONAL—(Nehemiah pray first) • Foundational Preparation/attitude: we as parents must become desperately dependent on God. John 15:5---II Cor. 3:5----Jerm. 10:23---Jerm. 17:5 John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God. Jeremiah 10:23-24 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. 24O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. Are we parents in the Word of God every day, showing the child the importance of God’s Word: Deuteronomy 32:46-47: And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it. • *Initiating and participating in prayer in the family. Deep and meaningful prayer, not “gimme” prayers. • *Memorizing Scripture: Chapters, verses of specific focus and intent. • *A desire to be sensible, attentive, and sensitive to our child to receive the Lord at earliest possible age. • *Speaking God’s Word into the fabric of life: Col. 3:9, James 4:17, Col. 3:1, Rom. 12:1, 2. Colossians 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Colossians 3:1-2 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God • *Testing the spirits via God’s Word: what is right, what is wrong: Does the end justify the means? • *Experiencing limitations: what we as a family stand for, believe in, practice, pay the COST for • *Dealing with strong willed children, slothful children---nip it in the bud!, break will, not spirit Ecclesiastes 8:11 • Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. *Living life by the fruit of the spirit: Galatians 5:22-26, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. • ARE WE PRACTICING TRUTH:, But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:21 • Pleasing our Heavenly Father: And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. John 8:29 • * Are we using examples of behavior observed in others to teach and instruct: “What can we learn from this?” • *Are we dealing with anger problems: Ecclesiastes 7:9: “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.” Proverbs 19:11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression. *Scriptures to implant in our children: 1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:1-3 *Scriptures to implant in our children: The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Psalm 1:4-6 • Proverbs 15:3: The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. • Hebrews 4:13: Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. • James 4:17: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. • Numbers 32:23b: Be sure your sin will find you out. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.98Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. 99I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. 100I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. 101I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. Psalm 119:97-101 *Teaching of manners and appropriateness: We are exporting Christianity to the world: Colossians 1:27: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: • *Are we living and teaching the veracity and infallibility of Scriptures? • *Are we modeling the COST of the Christian life: “What will I die for?” • *Are we raising children that are saying, “Lord Jesus, yet not my will, but Thine be done?” Luke 22:42b • *Do we have a Family Doctrinal Statement? It should deal with: The Creation, Sin, Salvation, Conduct, Trinity, Evangelism, Reliability of the Bible, etc…. • Do we have a family definition of success composed totally of Scripture? *Have we established Life Verses, Desert Island chapters, Key Evangelism verses, Biblical defenses of areas under fire (deity of Christ, Creation, Absolute Truth, etc.) “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” John 14:21 Do we see evidence that our children (and us for that matter) are loving our Lord? He says if we are obeying His commandments it is proof that we love Him. Are we all obeying His commandments starting right at home? *Emphasis on discipleship with the time left: The Teenage Years of Jesus Christ (Why aren’t Fathers discipling their sons? EX: young men whom I have discipled---Fathers won’t do it!) *Do we know what our sons and daughters really believe? Our children’s behavior shows what they really believe! • *We need EVEN MORE PRAYER and humbling of ourselves as our children prepare to leave home. • *Building a relationship with our child through the Word of God. • *Restoration and soul searching, forgiveness, openness and reconciliation . . . death to self! I Corinthians 15:31b = “I die daily.” • EX: Father won’t reconcile with sons and ask forgiveness . . . “I’ve been wrong, will you forgive me?” • Pride and selfishness only will inhibit this. We need to teach children to be critical thinkers, to put mens’ words up against God’s Word. We must teach them discernment, to test the spirits and question everything, rather than blind belief and total acceptance without any discernment as I was in my first class, Organic Evolution which convinced me that evolution was true and true science. Let us teach our children how to use the four deadly questions: (Worldview Academy, Bill Jack) • • • • What do you mean by ________? How do you know that to be true? Where do you get your information? What happens if you are wrong and you die? • There are 3 basic questions that all must answer: • (1) The metaphysical question: what is the meaning and purpose of your life? • (2) The epistemological question: how do I know what you are telling me is true? • (3) The ethical question: who are you to tell me how to live my life? What is your moral authority? • The answers you get to these 3 questions will tell you what the true belief system is of your child • We need to teach our children how to answer these questions with the Bible. • Our children are perhaps the ONE incredible commodity that God has given us to make a difference in this world for His glory. What are we doing with the gift/gifts on loan from Him to bring Him glory? • *Jim Elliott: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” • *Let the footsteps that we leave lead men to believe and the lives we live inspire them to obey. May all who come behind us find us faithful! • Pastor Jerry Ross makes several lists in his little book about discipleship of teenagers: The Teenage Years of Jesus Christ: The Ultimate Pattern for Teenagers Today, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 2000). The best little book we have found for discipling a teenager. We teach our children wisdom • • • • • • • • • 1. The fear of the Lord 2. Be teachable 3. Pray for wisdom 4. Study the Scriptures 5. Receive instruction 6. Seek counsel 7. Accept rebuke 8. Go soul winning 9. Choose wise companions Identify the foolish by how he/she acts • A foolish person ignores reproof • A foolish person defies instruction • A foolish person perceives himself/herself as always right • A foolish person sees mischief as sport • A foolish person makes a mockery of sin • A foolish person is quick-tempered • A foolish person meddles in the affairs of others Identify the foolish by how he/she acts • • • • • • • • A foolish person despises his/her parents A foolish person slanders others A foolish person is double-tongued A foolish person has perverse lips A foolish person quickly speaks his/her mind A foolish person’s tongue holds forth a rod of pride A foolish person talks a lot of foolishness A foolish person is contentious We must integrate Biblical Truth into every area of the fabric of life at the earliest age. Daniel, Timothy, John the Baptist LUKE 2:52 • • • • ”And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Wisdom = Intellectual (Biblical knowledge applied) Stature = Physical (Maturity) Favor with God = Spiritual Favor with man = Social • This verse in its context is when Jesus is about 12 years old! PASTOR JERRY ROSS ASKS: In what are you AND your family known to be “increasing?” • • • • Football, basketball, baseball, track, etc.? Boys, hairstyles, boys, shopping, boys, etc.? Mathematics, Chess, Science club, computers? Soul winning, academics, after-school-job, piano, sewing, Bible study, church, etc.? • Sports, fast-food, car, girl-friend, TV, money, “My Space,” “Facebook,” Twitter, computer games, etc.? • Which of these pursuits best describes you? • There is now a generation of young parents who were raised with Dungeons and Dragons. • D and D led to Masters of the Universe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Pokemon, and now Harry Potter with all of its witchcraft and wizardry and occultism. Also, it is now: My Space, Facebook, The Shack, The Secret, A Course in Miracles, Conversations with God, etc.. Where is the Biblical discernment? IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES! WHAT IS A “FOOLISH” YOUTH? “[He] may be a teenager who has attended church for years. He is there because his parents make him come. He will daydream during most of the lesson, and the part that he does hear, he has already made up his mind to ignore. He is foolish.” Jerry L. Ross, The Teenage Years of Jesus Christ, (ISBN 0-87398-8981) p. 8 Nowhere is safe! Our safety is in our Lord Jesus! DADS, MOMS, GRANDPARENTS: Question: Are we making The God of The Bible REAL to our children AND grandchildren? As they observe and evaluate our attitudes, responses, reactions, interests, etc…. What are they observing and evaluating—what do they see and hear? Are we giving our children an excuse to depart the Faith? DADS, MOMS, GRANDPARENTS: Question: Are we distracted by the world, the flesh and/or the devil even around our children and grandchildren? In front of our children are we displaying a love for Satan’s world system and the things of it, or for our dear Lord Jesus and His Word, the Bible and the things of it? In general children do not rebel against rules. Children in rebellion are, for the most part, rebelling against a lack of relationship with the rule maker/enforcer. ONE MORE TIME: In general children do not rebel against rules. Children in rebellion are, for the most part, rebelling against a lack of relationship with the rule maker/enforcer. • We parents and grandparents must develop a loving, trusting relationship with our children and grandchildren! • We must die to our personal selfish interests. • We are losing a percentage even of our homeschooled kids! We parents must make drastic sacrifices in our own personal lives (sports, unnecessary shopping, individual hobbies, absorbed in reading fiction, hours of watching the soaps, CSI,etc.). See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16). 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 80 1 1 1 1 1 1 100 The Making of a Disaster 60 70 40 20 30 0 Lesser shades of darkness do not expose the darkness! 2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. Ephesians 5:1; 1 Peter 2:21 “Be ye therefore followers [imitators] of God, as dear children;…” “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.”