KEEPING VOWS

Posted on by BETH

Some say that keeping vows is “not that big of a deal.” We can see by the recent statistics on marriage and divorce that the marriage vows count for little in today’s society. And what about our commitment to Christ when we were immersed in the waters of baptism? Did we promise to lose our lives for Christ and the gospel? Did we agree that Jesus is our king and Lord? If He truly is our Lord, we must do the things He says (Luke 6:46). I keep hearing from those who claim to be members of the church that the reason they became Christians was to escape pain and suffering and to go to heaven instead of hell. Their mind (attitude) seems to focus on what they can get from God rather than how they can serve Him. They seem to have forgotten they did not create themselves, but that He created them (Psa 100:3; Rom 1:21; Mark 8:36-37).

Judas Iscariot sold his soul for 30 pieces of silver (Mat 26:15). Some today seem quite willing to sell their souls for a high paying job, a new house, a new car, or even prestige or power. Both partners in a household will frequently work seven days a week to lay up treasure here on earth (Luke 12:16-21; Mat 6:26), but they rarely will spend more than an hour on Sunday to “serve the Lord.” Would spending that much time each week make any other commitment prosper? Certainly not, so why do people think it would please their Creator?

Others, claiming to be church brethren, cite family ties or commitments to explain why they have no time to assemble for study or worship or to work for Christ during the week. Maybe they believe they have to spend hours upon hours educating their children or helping them with homework. Perhaps they find it necessary to care for aging or invalid parents, which really should not have to be a choice we are forced to make. Provided we do not let these things stand in the way of our service to the Lord, we can do them with His blessing. Nevertheless, some follow these duties because of their great love for family or because of social pressures put on them. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mat 10:37). “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

The Scriptures above appear to discourage Christians at times and cause them to want to explain them away rather than to believe and trust them. However, they also need to consider the promises given to those who do trust and obey. “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life” (Mat 19:29).

Christians should remember the account of Hannah in the Old Testament who made a vow to God and kept it. Hannah promised that if God would give her a son, she would lend him to the service of God forever. God heard her prayer, gave her little Samuel and she faithfully kept her promise. Not only did God bless her with a son, but later He gave her three more sons and two daughters (1 Sam 2:20-21). There can be no doubt that the “mother heart” in Hannah made her ponder her choice many times. We know she never forgot Samuel because she made a little coat to give him at the annual feast every year (1 Samuel 2:19). She must have had great joy in remembering Samuel as she stitched.

Dennis and I went home for a brief visit at the end of April and I made a shirt or dress to take to each of our children and grandchildren. Stitching and remembering our times together was my consolation for giving them up to serve in a foreign land, but at the same time I missed the ones left here whom the Lord has given me to take the place of my family (Mat 19:29).

NEAR THE FATHER

Posted on by BETH

When our children were small, they used to love to be near their daddy no matter where he was or what he was doing.  If he had some outside job to do, they were right behind him, following his every step.  If he went somewhere in the car they would gladly stand next to him with their arms around his neck while he drove.  (Those were the days before seat belts and car seats.)  When he came home late from Bible studies, they would sit by him while he ate his evening meal-just watching and waiting for any sign of affection.  As they grew a little older they loved to accompany their dad on those evening studies.  Road trips were the best.  Sometimes they curled up in the back well of the car floor board as the thump, thump, thump of the tires on a cement road lulled them into slumber.  They were content just to be wherever he was.

Rocking ChairWhen I was a child, I remember seeing my mother sit for hours reading her Bible.  Because I was a very active little girl, the concept of sitting in a chair seemed untenable to me, but surely my mother knew what it was like to be near her Heavenly Father.  On her death bed, her continual request was that I sing the hymn “Be with Me Lord.”  Just the idea of being near her Heavenly Father gave her great comfort.

Seeing this kind of affection in our family has often made me wonder why children in God’s family don’t have more desire to be near their Heavenly Father. Why would God’s children not continually seek the Father in his Word, just to be near him? How often do we draw close to our Father in study?  Are we searching the scriptures daily (Acts 17:11)?  Do we go to the Father in prayer just to be near Him, or do we wait until some crisis arises when we must have his help? Are we praying without ceasing (1 The. 5:17)? Like children of a physical family, if we abide in close fellowship with our Father through prayer and study, we will be greatly blest.  What comfort and love we are missing if we are not near to Him.

HERE A LITTLE, AND THERE A LITTLE

Posted on by BETH

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little (Isaiah 28:9-10).

We all need to teach and teach and teach our children and grandchildren at every opportunity. Lessons must be seen as well as heard daily. They must be illustrated and reinforced time after time–facilitating learning by rote memory at first, even by unconscious assimilation because it is lived daily in their homes, and finally by understanding.

One mother told about her experience with a person who did not comprehend how and why we teach our children at every opportunity. She said, “The other day I was in the grocery store checkout line, and the lady behind me asked why I was getting little kid bicycle helmets so soon after Christmas, as if the only time we can get our children anything special is Dec. 25! I just told her that my four year old twins were learning the meaning of the word covenant, and that we had discussed about Abraham’s covenant with God that morning. I further explained that this was my end of a covenant that I’d made with them to show them what a covenant was, and that they had to keep up their end in order to get the reward.”

The mother went on to say, “The lady in the check-out line rather sarcastically commented, ‘I bet they’ll remember that for all of two minutes!'”

Responding more to herself than to the worldly lady, the Christian mother said, “Not if they understand what we teach them and we live it and use it and talk about it all the time.”

Obviously, the lady in the grocery line did not care what that mother had to say at that point, but then she was not trying to please people of the world; she had a Lord to glorify and her children’s souls to save.

Perhaps we might all better understand the principle by reading Deut. 6:7-9 and analyzing it part by part to be sure we apply it correctly.

  • And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children,
  • and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house,
  • and when thou walkest by the way,
  • and when thou liest down,
  • and when thou risest up.
  • And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand,
  • and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
  • And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house,
  • and on thy gates.

As a final shocking illustration of how children learn little by little, I want to share this short video clip.

http://viewpure.com/gXjE68-_jBs

Are your children and grandchildren learning good or evil?  What about how you spend your time?  Let me not apply the lesson.  That is for you to do.

Video Clip DISCLAIMER:

My intent is to teach, encourage and promote Christian behavior that glorifies the Lord and the church.

TEACHING OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN

Posted on by BETH

Many have asked the question: Should grandparents as well as parents teach the children in the home? Let us listen to the Lord as He describes His will for these matters.

There is no doubt whether parents were to teach their children even under the Old Law. “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.” (Deut. 6:6-8)

In his Psalms, the Lord used King David to give counsel for teaching future generations. “Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.” (Psa. 78:1-8)

Every aspect of the Law was to be taught to the children and grandchildren. “Thou shalt not eat it (blood or any unclean thing-BJ); that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. Only thy holy things which thou hast, and thy vows, thou shalt take, and go unto the place which the LORD shall choose: And thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, upon the altar of the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices shall be poured out upon the altar of the LORD thy God, and thou shalt eat the flesh. Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the LORD thy God.” (Deut. 12:25-28)

The Israelites were to constantly affirm the things they had seen and heard so that their children and grandchildren would have true witnesses to God’s work. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” (Deut. 4:9)

Continuing the tradition of teaching children and grandchildren, we see that Timothy was the product of a faithful mother and grandmother. If they were justified in teaching Timothy, and if his faith came from them, then who could question their authorization to teach him? If Lois and Eunice could instill their faith in Timothy, who would question grandparents today following the scripturally approved example? Was there anyone superior to Timothy among Paul’s fellow workers? We need more men like Timothy, but we also need more grandmothers and mothers who have faith and will teach the children.

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” (2 Tim. 1:1-5)

A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. (Prov. 13:22)

THE INFLUENCE OF AN EVIL FATHER

Posted on by BETH

Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin: For he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the LORD God of Israel, according to all that his father had done (1 Kings 22:51-53).

What kind of example had Ahab been for his son?

Continue reading THE INFLUENCE OF AN EVIL FATHER