Children Learn The Way They Live

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” Proverbs 22:6,15

The subject of these two verses is the same — children advance only to the degree of what is required of them. So often frustration exists because a parent expects something of their child on a special occasion, that they do not require of them on a regular basis. Training is a matter of requiring a child to be all the time what you expect them to be at some given time. While training requires work, discipline, and consistency, yet it is far less effort than having to deal with the problems associated with immature and irresponsible conduct.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” 1 Timothy 6:6,8. The opposite of this is something like: people would rather stay home and watch TV than they would go to God’s House, and they are bored with what they have and they are always wanting something else. This raises the issue of how important it is to train up our children to be thankful to God for what they have. The all important lesson to teach our children is for them to learn that whatsoever state they are in, therewith to be content — Philippians 4:11.

Having a thankful heart doesn’t change the events of our lives; rather it alters the way we look at and feel about them. “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” Job 1:21. As children are taught to see blessings in the midst of uncertainty and difficulty, they learn that problems can be conquered, that difficulties can be solved, and that God is the true source of one’s joy.

Human nature is prone to be selfish and lustful. Thus, because gratitude does not come naturally to our children, we as parents must make a conscious effort to example and teach thankful behavior. Godly characteristics do not spontaneously grow within our children — they must be instilled in them. A child must be taught how to think right if they are going to act right. Proper thinking comes by way of proper teaching, proper exampleship and careful correction.

A person appreciates what they have labored for, more than what is just handed to them. This attribute must be cultivated in children. Spoiling our children rather than teaching them to work for life’s blessings and rewards only makes them selfish and insatiable.

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Discerning Different Strengths

“…wait for the promise of the Father, which , saith he, ye have heard of me. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:4b,8

One of the great blessings of Christian service is to come to understand the difference between our human sufficiency and the strength that comes only from the Lord. “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” 1 Corinthians 3:5

All during the earthly ministry of Christ, the disciples had drawn their strength from being with the Lord. At that point, they were functioning as followers and learners (disciples), being nurtured and sustained by Him. Jesus corrected, inspired, and assigned them in their ministries. And when things got tough, they could just flee to Him and lean upon Him.

While He was with them, Jesus taught them that after he would leave them, He would send the Comforter, the new role of the Holy Spirit: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.” John 16:13

Things went so well for the disciples as they were in the company of Christ’s ministry unto them, that they really didn’t grasp the difference between human sufficiency and being empowered by the Lord. And when the time came for Christ to leave them to go to the cross of Calvary, they were so confident of their own sufficiency to stand, that they did not heed the admonition to watch and pray in order to be delivered by God’s power from the coming temptations. And, with their own strengths being insufficient, they were all offended and forsook Christ and fled.

The message of Acts 1:4-8 by Christ unto them, implies: “Don’t repeat that mistake of just relying on your own sufficiency. But see the absolute necessity of waiting on and relying upon the strength that comes only from the Holy Spirit to go forth and serve.”

All through the book of Acts, the Apostles exercised great caution not to go forth on a declaration of their own sufficiency, but rather prayed unto being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word…And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.” Acts 4:29,33

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What If?

~What if God couldn’t take the time to bless us today because we couldn’t take the time to thank Him yesterday?

~What if He decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we didn’t follow Him today?

~What if we never saw another flower bloom because we grumbled when God sent the rain?

~What if God didn’t walk with us today because we failed to recognize it as His day?

~What if God took away the Bible tomorrow because we wouldn’t read it today?

~What if God took away his message because we failed to listen to the messenger?

~What if God didn’t send His only begotten Son because He wanted us to be prepared to pay the price for sin?

~What if the door of the church was closed because we didn’t open the door of our heart?

~What if God stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and care for others?

~What if God would not hear us today because we wouldn’t listen to Him?

~What if God answered our prayers the way we answer His call to service?

~What if God met our needs the way we give Him our lives?

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Man’s Religious Motivation

(Compliments the November 14, 2010, Sunday Morning sermon, “The Enmity Of Sin”)

Just casual consideration of the opposition of religious men to Christ while He was here on earth, should alert us to a problem that needs to be identified. Man has always accepted religion of, and for the flesh, while finding it against his grain to accept that which is of God.

The root cause lies in the enmity between man’s sinful nature and God. The world never hated Christ for a fault, but due to the enmity of man’s sinful nature against Christ’s Divine, righteous nature. From His birth on, there was nothing of this world that stood up with Christ, but it all came down on the side against Him. And in the forefront, leading the charge against Christ, was the religion of men, with all its sects and diversities, uniting in one common cause to oppose Him.

In the very beginning, the nature of sin was manifested as being that which does not submit to God, but rather presumes upon God (Genesis 3). Sin exalts itself to be the authority on God and the things of God. Thus it is sin in man that produces the desire to presume upon the things of God. This presumption is the strong motivation for man to express himself in being religious, not in honor of God in spirit and in truth, but according to the pride and presumption of man to present himself to God on his own terms.

There was a fundamental difference between the religious sects of Judaism and true Christianity in New Testament times. The difference was not in those who professed to believe in God and those who didn’t. Rather, the difference was between that which was of God, and that which was according to the pride of man in presuming upon the things of God.

This fundamental difference is the reason man argues against salvation by grace through faith only, without works. Man is opposed to trusting in Christ to be made the righteousness of God in Him, because man does not accept the conviction that he, as a sinner, at enmity with God, has no righteousness before God. Man rather promotes the presumptuous belief that Christ will save him because of the goodness and righteousness of man’s own person (eternal life in prospect of man’s own way of living.)

Thus anywhere, anytime, religion is a matter of the flesh and for the flesh and by the flesh, man will naturally respond to it for his own pride’s sake. He will promote it, because of how it exalts him for what he is and does. And at the same time, these same religious motivations will stir him up to not endure sound doctrine and that which is not of the flesh, but rather is wholly for the worship of God in spirit and in truth. The personal motivation that moved Cain to offer his own pride and self esteem offering, is the same motivation that caused him to be angry when God accepted not his offering, and was the same motivation that resulted in him rising up and slaying his brother, Abel. John 16:2 “…yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”

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Others May, You Cannot

By George Douglas Watson, 1845-1924
(public domain)

If God has called you to be really like Jesus, He will draw you to a life of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience, that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, and in many ways, He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans, but you cannot do it; and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others many boast of themselves, of their work, of their success, of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, or may have a legacy left to them, but it is likely God will keep you poor, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, namely, a helpless dependence on Him, that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hidden in obscurity, because He wants you to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade. He may let others be great, but keep you small. He may let others do a work for Him and get the credit of it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious, He may let others get the credit for the work which you have done, and thus make your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over. So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do as He pleases with His own.

He may not explain to you a thousand things which puzzle your reason in His dealings with you. But if you absolutely sell yourself to be His…slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you many blessings which come only to those who are in the inner circle.

Settle it forever, then, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that He does not seem to use with others. Now when you are so possessed with the living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of Heaven.

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