Tuesday, May 26, 2015

5/25/15

Deuteronomy 6:4-10 and Ephesians 6:1-4 clearly exhort parents to teach, disciple, and train their own children.  Regardless of what’s happening in the youth groups, pulpit, and Bible study groups of a strong local church, the primary responsibility for ministry to our kids has never been removed from the parents.  It’s time to pick that ball up and jump back into the game.  James Rutz, in his thought-provoking book, The Open Church: How to Bring Back the Exciting Life of the First Century Church, writes:  “God’s plan for religious education is Dad.  It’s a 4000-year-old plan that has consistently worked, when applied, since the days of Abraham.”
 
I understand what the author is saying, but I would say it is actually at least a 6,000-year-old plan, going back to the first dad, Adam.  So, if your parents shirked their God-given responsibility for training you spiritually, you will need to break the chain of biblical illiteracy and spiritual neglect in your family tree.   All of us parents and grandparents and great-grandparents must realign our priorities to include, above all else, seeing Christ formed in our children.  Don’t delegate this responsibility to professionals, experts or specialists.  It is too important.  It is easily the most rewarding and gratifying aspects of being a parent.  And do it right now.  There’s no time to waste.
 
Pray with me…Father God, we pray that You will help us with the discipline to make the hard day-to-day decisions to realign our priorities, restructure our time and reinvest our energy to rise up and meet the challenge of discipling our children.  We know that they are the most important disciples we will ever make in our lifetime.  We want our family circle to be unbroken in the greater life.  Keep this vision before us that, in our families, we may all walk together with you one day in paradise.   In Jesus’ name, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

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