The War on Younglings

When Anikin Skywalker finally went full dark-side, his first targets were the up and coming Jedi younglings. The order “66” was in full effect causing mass chaos across the galaxy. He walks into the classroom where the young Padawans were training and is met by one babe Jedi asking, “What are we going to do Master Anakin?” The youngling was met with the famous sound of the awakening lightsaber from the Sith’s now Darth Vader.

We think of this scene with a mouth opened gasp. Anakin was making sure his reign of terror would not have usurpers now or near future. He would vanquish his foes completely and devastate all opposition no matter how young. He destroyed the hope of future Jedi.

I cannot remember exactly which movie this scene was from, perhaps Episode 3, but that doesn’t matter. That’s not the point here. The point is our younglings are under attack but the dark lord of this world has much more sinister plans in mind than the just sudden slaughter Anakin dealt. Satan would have your child inculcated with the lies he is father of, believe them, and go to do likewise. He wants your kids to be as he is; a devil.

Children can understand a lot more than we give them credit. If they can navigate an online world, build online worlds within video games, then they can take some good ole fashioned godly inculcation. It’s not whether but which when it comes to the shaping of the next generation. Will we as parents teach our own children the things of God which are the way things really are in the world, or will we allow the world to brainwash them into a fairytale land where they are the star of their own show pining for all the adoration the world can throw at them? The secular world is having children at an extremely low rate which means that secular world is better at recruiting our children than we are at training them in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4). We are simply giving them soldiers we ought to keep in training for the kingdom of God.

I believe we are mandated by God to train our children all the live long day. As we rise up, as we lay down, and as we walk along the way of life (Deut. 6:7). We must be attentive to what they are learning, hearing, reading, watching, and following. We as parents need to be proactive in our teaching and not just simply reactionary. We cannot be appalled at what they are learning in school or from peers when we ourselves are not being the primary voice of instruction to them. This takes work and sacrifice. You do not have to send your child to the secular school down the road. There are other options and it is high time we start considering them. Despite what the world may be telling us concerning our children, we have to be the voice of instruction to them because we are ultimately responsible before God for them. This must be at the forefront of our minds (Deut 6:8-9).

Do not believe the lies of the world. We have the authority to raise our children how God instructs us to raise them. We are mandated by our Creator to train our children in such a way that will disrupt the cultural norms by calling the world to repentance toward God. Allowing our children to be discipled by the world will ultimately mean they will become just like the world because a disciple is not greater than its master (Luke 6:40; Matt. 10:24; Jn. 13:16, 15:20). As I write this, Disney has basically declared a war on the minds of our children by sharing their desire to jam sexually deviant characters and ideologies into their movies. They would have your child be their disciple and not Christ’s. The battle is not just outside the home, its streaming right into our living rooms.

Jesus said to suffer the little children to come to me for such is the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:14). We are to not only allow our children to come to Christ, but encourage it. If we are to disciple the nations and teach them all the Lord has commanded, we must being at home (Matt. 28:18-20). We as parents are responsible to keep, protect, teach, discipline, and disciple our children. Do not let the world take the younglings.

March 28, 2022 0

Should Christians Keep Their Mouths Shut?

Proverbs 21:23 says, “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles” (KJV). This is a general truth which we should heed. It could be that this proverb is much deeper than we may realize if we give ourselves a moment to ponder it. If we keep our mouths shut, we will avoid a heap of trouble in this life to be certain, and if we keep out mouths from speaking falsely, keep it from gossip, keep it from slander, keep it from vows we do not intend to keep, and if we keep it from blasphemy; we will keep our souls from trouble with God.

But the question arises from this is: whom are we concerned the trouble comes from? Do we fear God? If yes, then we will keep our mouths from the list of things just mentioned, but if we fear man, we will keep our mouths from speaking the truths of God. Therefore, the attempt to avoid trouble is with man. In other words, if we want to stay away from adversity or trouble with friends, family, work, and unbelievers in general then we will keep our mouths from speaking the things of God to them. Yet, the problem now is we are in trouble with God because he would have his truth proclaimed (Romans 10:17).

What Should We Do?

The short answer is to speak. But the tongue is a vile little thing that can bring death just as swift as it can bring life (James 3). We must have wisdom in our approach but we must at least have an approach. There must be a foundation from which we speak in order to rightly aim at who we are speaking to. Upon what authority do we tell the people we come in contact with about Jesus? Upon the authority of Jesus himself. He is the sender and his aim is at the nations of the world. Consider this from Matthew 28:18-20 (KJV):

¹⁸And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. ¹⁹Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ²⁰Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus said go and speak because he has all authority in heaven and in earth. He is ruling and sending his heralds to the nations to let them know he is ruling. He wants the nations know they have a king they answer to and must bow the knee. If we are in Christ then we are the heralds. We speak, we open our mouths to tell the things of God to the world God created. If we do not speak, we will avoid issues with those around us, but we are disobeying Jesus. Christian, open your mouth and speak! SDG!

March 11, 2022 0

Bible Study Life Hack

Who doesn’t want another life hack? Not everything comes easy in life which makes us appreciate anything that makes life a little bit easier. Let me introduce a simple one that has helped me in the realm of personal Bible study.

The idea is to add additional reading to your Bible reading time. This could be a concise commentary to help you understand what you just read from the scriptures or a small book that outlines the book you are currently reading in the Scriptures. I once did a deep read of the book of Joshua aided by another book written by Rhett Dodson entitled Every Promise of Your Word published by The Banner of Truth Trust. It opened up the book to me like never before.

Perhaps you are wanting to getting a little more theological knowledge under your belt, but the thought of taking on a thousand page systematic theology book seems a little much. I suggest J. I. Packers little systematic entitled A Concise Theology. In this work, Packer gives each core doctrine one chapter consisting of two to four pages. An easy addition to your daily Bible reading.

Make the most of your Bible study by taking the extra time to add some helpful reading post Bible reading. Not only will you gain personal depth from the word of God, but you get to peek inside the minds of many others who have spent time in the word as well. SDG!

March 10, 2022 0

How to Begin Family Devotions

Bible Recommendation

The Bible we use during our devotions has changed over the years. I once used my ESV Reformation Study Bible by Ligonier Ministries and often times my Cambridge Wide-Margin Bible, but I have found a children’s bible that caters to the imagination of the children while not compromising fidelity to the text of scripture. There are embellishments but not in the sense the story line or key doctrines become distorted or neglected. Banner of Truth supplies this Bible called, The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos. I encourage you to get this Bible if you still have younger children as I do. I encourage this because of the clarity and story. It is a twenty thousand foot level read, but allows the child to see the whole Bible and the message of Jesus Christ. If you cannot get The Child’s Story Bible, any Bible will do.

Overview

Keep the Bible study/devotion time simple. If it is not simple, you will not remain consistent. I have fallen into this trap before by wanting it to be grandiose while forgetting I have little ones who have an attention span of about ten minutes. I now try to keep it to around ten to fifteen minuets depending on the material, but they do extend if the kids are asking questions. Keep the moving parts minimal. We usually do a prayer, Bible reading, short explanation, Bible verse, catechism, song, and lastly ending prayer. That may seem like a lot, but really it is simple and effective.

If you keep it simple, the kids will look forward to it, remind you of it, and be proud to tell you of what you talked about on the last devotion. It is a good cycle of compounding returns. Also, keep in mind the goal is to not have a goal exactly. You should rather have a consistent simple outline like that above that will be a mainstay in your family’s rhythm of life. The action should be as familiar as brushing teeth or having lunch each day. Of course the goal is to see your kids come to Christ and follow him in discipleship, but this system will ensure they remain acquainted with the things of God while trusting God will take care of the afore mentioned goals.

Devotional Breakdown

We begin our devotions with a simple prayer of asking God to help us understand what we are about to learn. This orients the beginning of the devotion godward. We need the help of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the scriptures to us. We also pray for forgiveness and end the prayer in thankfulness in order to encourage our children to include these in their daily action of prayer. So the big three to begin is to ask for help, forgiveness, and to be thankful to God for all he has done.

Next, we move to Bible reading. I usually take a chapter from The Children’s Story Bible and preface it with what we learned from the last time. Currently we are going through the book cover to cover. We are in chapter nineteen which is divided into two parts. I will read just one part of that chapter and that will be all I read for that time. Each chapter is short and simple. I have had my oldest son read the chapters when we used the regular Bible. I have yet, to get him to read these chapters. But a good practice would be to allow the kids to be involved where they can so to take active part in the family devotion time.

After reading the chapter, I will explain briefly what we read. I make this as simple as repeating a few key points noticed while reading. As a side note, I do not prepare for the devotion before hand. I speak extemporaneously each and every time, but I will say this is an overflow from my own Bible reading which I encourage all Christians to engage.

Once we have explained the text in a short two or three main points, I then move to a simple Bible verse memorization. We used John 3:16 many times before. For this very famous verse, I have created a fun song my kids can learn, sing and repeat back. I venture to say my children could find themselves reciting this song when older just as they would have to recite the alphabet song to remember if the letter “O” comes before or after the letter “L”. Its catchy and sticks. I don’t always do songs with the verses, but I try. We will repeat this a couple times, I may ask one kid to recite it to me by themselves and then that portion is finished.

The memory verse is followed by what I would think could be the most daunting for parents. We move to a time of catechism. Catechism is simply a question and answer method of teaching. I now use Spurgeon’s Catechism: Revised and Updated by Roger McReynolds. I will take one question in the book at a time. First I will ask it, see what the kids say, and then answer it with the answer from the book. I will also draw their attention to the Bible verses from which the answer is derived. In this volume from Spurgeon, each question is given its own page which makes for an easy way of going though the book. This section of the devotional time seems to spark the most questions. The time of explaining the Bible reading does some, but this time seems more free for the kids to express their lingering questions. Try to make room for the questions and do not be afraid to tell your kids you do not know the answer to something. You’ll find the catechism will benefit the whole family.

After the question and answer time, we sing a song. We usually sing the Doxology. We have sang other songs, but this one is short and sweet. The kids love it.

Lastly, just as we opened in prayer, we close in prayer. We thank God for his word and message. We ask him to help us apply what we learned and to remind us of it through the day. At this time we also may take prayer requests and pray for specific needs the family are facing together. I often will ask one of the kids to close us in prayer.

Conclusion

That’s it! It is not that hard, and it will give huge spiritual dividends as time goes on. Sure it could be difficult when you have little ones, but just like anything that is worth doing it comes with difficulty. I have a feeling your children will be grateful not only that you took the time to tell them about the things of God, but also that you took the time with them. I have found the most precious of gifts to give your children is time spent with them and this allows you to do just that. It is a wonderful thing to see them grow in the understanding of the Lord. We as parents have an obligation to raise our Children in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). We do this so when they are old they will not depart from the things of God (Proverbs 22:6). Keep the faith and teach them as you wake up, walk along the way, and when you lay down (Deuteronomy 6:7); for in this they will learn the fear of the Lord which is wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Proverbs 9:10).

March 9, 2022 0

Let Me Say it Again: Children Are A Blessing

I wanted to do a quick reaction post to something my wife showed me on an Instagram Reel. The video consisted of a lady giving a plate of food to her toddler who was about three years old. Upon the plate the food was cautiously placed in one of those divider food trays kids need when first beginning to eat while not wanting anything to touch. If you have children, you understand what I am saying. But the particularly troubling thing was where the alphabet shaped food lay in the largest section of the plate. The mother who knew her child could not read, had spelled out on the plate, “You piss me off” as some gleeful music played in the background of the video. She placed the tray right in front of the smiling playful little girl and the video ended there.

I wanted to cry.

Without a doubt there is a toxic parenting culture that simply portrays children as a dread and a burden. I cannot imagine how this baby is treated or spoken to on a daily basis. If the mother is brazen enough to share this type of behavior to the world via a viral social media outlet, I can’t help but wonder how much she shares her vitriol towards her baby to her friends and family concerning her blessing from God. And that is indeed what children are, a blessing from the Lord; a heritage from the Holy One (Psalm 127:3).

I am saddened this kind of attitude is so pervasive in the world we live in today. I have had countless people say offhanded comments to my wife and I about our four blessings. I am proud to say I am developing a robust set of sarcastic comebacks and crack them off with jovial consistency. I am proud of my children and my wife. I am more careful now more than before to make sure I speak favorably about my children around others. I defend them now in more ways than just physically; they need protection emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, and so forth.

How we treat and speak of our children says a lot about us as parents. We can honor God by becoming the kind of parents our children will want to honor (Exodus 20:12). SDG!

March 8, 2022 1