Editorial
July/August, 2011
Volume 46, Number 4
It brings joy to parents to see their children trust Christ as Saviour and Lord and begin the Christian journey. At times, though, there is heartbreak as some children go off on their own way, and apparently reject the convictions of their parents. Some of that comes from the children’s own choices, and some reflects the lack of passing on convictions by the parents themselves.
This theme arises repeatedly through the Scriptures. In the Psalms, Asaph exhorts us to tell of the Lord’s mighty works. “He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments” (Psalms 78:5-7).
How can we encourage our children to adopt Biblical standards and strong personal convictions?
We must have Biblical, godly convictions to pass on. Some parents teach their children some moral values, because their parents before them taught them. However, those values often are held merely because that is what they were taught. There seems to be little personal attachment to understanding and applying Biblical principles for living today.
Having convictions, means that we ourselves study the Bible as teachable persons, with a willingness to allow the Holy Spirit to use the Scriptures to correct us at times, and to build us up further in the faith. How many parents fill their heads with content of questionable worth, while ignoring the dust covered Bible on the corner table? We will pre-educate, educate, and credential our children in the world’s ways of success, then wonder how it was that they became more interested in the world than in the things of God. We must study the Word of God for ourselves, and then pass that knowledge and understanding on to our children.
We must also believe what the Bible teaches, and hold to the New Testament beliefs and practices. If we ourselves have a superficial view of New Testament distinctive doctrines and practices, then our children will likely have a skeptical approach to the same, and their children will not believe at all. To know the truth is one thing; to do the truth is another step altogether! This means that parents will hold to the truth in spite of its unpopularity among some professing Christians and neglect by others. Beliefs and practices will be held wherever we find ourselves, in church or at school, in the home, and while at work and at play.
We teach those beliefs and practices in both an active and a passive way. We teach them actively by studying the Bible together, participating in the life of the church, by engaging in its ordinances, and reaching out to the unsaved with the gospel message. We teach passively by having our children see how we live, hear what we say, and understand what is important to us by how we use our time.
Passing on convictions also requires perseverance. We keep at it, even though it may appear that our children are not listening. We continue to teach, although it does not take hold in our children’s lives at the first instruction. The Bible says that we are to teach the truth continually (Deuteronomy 6:7). We take no vacations from teaching the truth to our children, nor will we ever be retired from doing so. We will teach with diligence. This means a determination to continue teaching as much of the truth as possible as often as possible.
This is an age where there are many schools of unbelief which are more than happy to teach their doctrines to our children. If we make the excuse that we are going to let our children “make up their own minds” about what to believe and whether to go to church, then we have already made a big part of that decision for them. We should know this: if truth is not taught, error will replace it.
Read Brother Luke Bucher’s message, and boldly seek to develop and pass on godly convictions to the succeeding generations. Read Deuteronomy 6:6-7.
—Craig Alan Myers
Instilling and Passing on Godly Convictions
By Luke B. Bucher
When America was expanding its frontiers into the western areas of the continent, five young men from Pennsylvania left their homes as pioneers. After many years, one returned to visit his parents. He had become a strong, radiant Christian.
When asked why he had not followed in the footsteps of his four companions who had chosen sinful ways, he replied, “Because I carried in my heart a picture of my Christian home. As we sat down to breakfast the last morning we were together, my father and mother were keenly aware that the intimate ties between us would soon be broken. Conversation was therefore at a minimum. After our meal, father took down the Bible (as he did every morning), and started to read a favorite passage. He did not get far—for tears soon blinded his eyes. Mother finally finished the chapter, but she too had to stop from time to time as a lump kept forming in her throat.
“Then we all knelt for prayer. My father began to weep again. Mother reached over, put a loving hand on my shoulder, and in trembling tones asked the Lord to keep me in His care. The vision of that morning in my godly home and the memory of that tender petition has steered me right all these years. I could not bear the thought of breaking the hearts of my Christian parents and dishonoring the Saviour they had taught me to love and obey.”
This true experience is an example of the results of godly convictions. Those convictions are a belief system that we, as parents, have found to be true, tried, and proven, by example and experience. They are taught in the Bible, and will lead on to Heaven, when put into practice faithfully every day, under every and all circumstances!
Evidence all around us clearly shows that society is on the brink of collapse. No other generation in history has been as plagued by sex, drugs, alcohol, greed, dishonesty, and murder at all ages—as is the case today.
Crime and violence have become so common that many school buildings and school buses have metal detectors and surveillance cameras to monitor what goes on.
Our public educational system itself has become vile and perverted. Teachers are introducing students to atheism, evolution, homosexual lifestyles, permissive sexual attitudes, and anti-religious bigotry. Cultural programs and art exhibits have become filthy and vulgar, making profanity commonplace. Leaders in government and business use vile language freely.
The world’s entertainment industry today appears to be demon-controlled. Music videos have become nothing more than lewd pornography with wicked, demoralizing lyrics. In advertising, sex sells everything. No sexual act is considered sinful anymore. Anything goes, so that America is sinking deeper and deeper into debauchery.
Many compromising churches and denominations are bringing this worldly filth into God’s house. Many pastors now routinely deny the existence of Heaven, Hell, and do not accept the virgin birth of Christ. The absolute need for repentance and confession of sin, and the necessity of the new birth, no longer are heard in many churches.
Many praise and worship leaders have replaced the soul-stirring hymns with MTV-style rock music. Instead of offering holy worship, churches now stage body-slamming punk-rock concerts, where menacing, tattooed, body- pierced band members gyrate wildly, polluting God’s house with the music of angry rebellion.
Today we live in a culture that promotes indulgence, the best, the latest, the biggest, and the finest. Everything is about finding ways to escape hardship, avoid pain, and dodge duty.
The pressure that many homes of today face, against being successful in passing on godly convictions, is very heavy and unrelenting. Exposure to television, the news media, and secular education fosters conditions described in 2 Timothy 3:1-7. The Apostle Paul uses nineteen descriptive words to express the world of the last days! The moral breakdown and desire to be entertained blinds the minds of fathers who otherwise would be effective in helping their families to turn out right. The erosion of enjoyable, satisfying home life undermines proper church life, and corrupts society in general.
Yet, there is a brighter side! The most valuable legacy a father and mother can leave to a family, centers on the spiritual values communicated through the normal routines of life. Parenting children for God is a tremendous work. The task can only be done with the wisdom, the help, and the blessings of God our heavenly Father.
There are numerous examples in Scripture from which we could draw lessons. We will consider Abraham. We know that Abraham was not perfect. Neither was his life always easy. He encountered some of the most heart-rending situations a father could face. Yet this is what God has to say about Abraham in Genesis 18: 19/KJV: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”
God has the same great calling and purpose for parents today! We probably think first of Abraham being commanded by God to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22). Abraham and Sarah had been childless for many years. Their age was such that when God had promised them a child, Sarah laughed. Isaac was a miracle-child. Naturally, he was extra special and was loved very much.
The objections must have come to Abraham and Sarah very quickly. What a test! Abraham faced a hard choice. Yet we sense no faltering, no resistance, no resentment—only obedience. We are told nothing about the struggle, pain, or grief—only about his obedience. That obedience moved him forward to carry out what he was told to do. It is said that crisis never makes a person; rather, the crisis exposes what a person really is. What persons are, and what convictions they live by, affect and determine their response in times of trial.
We get a glimpse, in Scripture, into the character of Abraham’s life. Character is not what a person appears to be, but what he actually is at heart. Character is what he has become by way of personal conviction and practice. It is the sum total of the values he lives by. It is forged by responses to everyday struggles and common experiences. For Abraham, that meant:
1. A ready responsiveness to God
In Genesis 12 God gave Abraham specific instructions to leave his homeland, leave his relatives, and go where he had not yet been told. So what did he do? “So, Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him” (Genesis 12:4).
The same ready response to God is repeated in Genesis 17 when God initiated a covenant with him. The condition of the covenant for Abraham was twofold: one was long-term, and one was immediate. In the long-term, Abraham was to walk before God properly. He was 99 years old, and God again promised him a son, and Abraham would have many descendants.
Then, immediately, God commanded Abraham to circumcise all the males of his household as a symbol of being in a covenant with God. The Bible tells us that Abraham did this on the very same day, as God had spoke to him (Genesis 17:23).
Abraham again demonstrated his response to God when he was told to go and offer up lssac. The verse following the instruction shows how responsive Abraham was. Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and he went to the place about which God had told him (Genesis 22:3).
2. A high reverence for God
This trait showed itself early in Abraham’s life. After God had instructed him to leave his country and he arrived at Bethel, the first thing he did was to build an altar to the Lord, and he called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 12: 8). Worship was one of the cornerstones of Abraham’s life. Through these experiences, he came to know God better and better. In these times, God revealed Himself to Abraham. The two became very close; in fact, the Bible says repeatedly that Abraham was the friend of God. What a relationship!
That reverence is displayed today by having regular times of family worship, honoring the Lord’s name, and keeping the Lord’s Day holy.
3. Peaceableness
We learn more about Abraham’s character by observing his peaceful relationship with his family in general and with his nephew Lot in particular. Human relationships test and expose what people are. Lot’s father, Haran, had died; so his grandfather Terah took care of him. When Terah died, Abraham took over the care of Lot. Years passed in the new land, and Abraham became rich. So did Lot. They both had prospered—in herds and flocks—to the point where the land could not support them both (Genesis 13). Abraham offered to Lot the choice of lands so that their animals and herdsmen could keep from conflict.
Certainly, Abraham had the right to make the choice. There is no evidence that Abraham put any pressure on Lot. Abraham simply said, “You choose, and I will take what is left.” This might have been easy if the two options had been perfectly equal. However, apparently Lot’s choice was the more desirable one.
Abraham’s response shows that he loved peace and harmony more than his own welfare. He was satisfied to do with less rather than see someone else take less. He knew the truth of the Beatitude in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God.” Was God pleased with Abraham’s choice (Genesis 13:14-15)? God promised it all back to Abraham! He received his choice and then some!
Lot’s selfish choice caused him tremendous grief. Not long after, neighboring kings invaded the area, kidnapped Lot, and took his goods. Only one person escaped and came to Abraham. Many people would have said, “He made his bed; this is what he wanted; let him lie in it.”
But that’s not what Abraham said. Instead of doing what most people likely would have done, Abraham risked his life and the lives of his servants to rescue his nephew Lot. Abraham did this because he was a merciful person. Regardless of how Lot had treated him, he still cared. Even though he may have been wronged, he was still touched with the plight of others.
4. Mercy
Being merciful is a mark of Christian character. Jesus said those who are merciful will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). Mercy does not try to “even the score.” It does not take revenge. It does not even rejoice in the hardships of others. Instead, it reaches out in compassion to help. Rather than take pleasure in the pain of others, mercy does what it can to heal the hurt.
Apparently, Lot headed back to Sodom again, because he was there when the angels came to tell Abraham that Sodom would be destroyed. Did Abraham decide to turn his back on Lot’s peril because he had saved Lot once and Lot still had not learned? No!
Immediately Abraham began to plead with God for Lot’s sake. Would God spare the city if there were fifty righteous people in it? Forty- five? Forty? Thirty? Twenty? Ten? Abraham risked wearing out God’s patience with his persistent intercession for Lot and the city (Genesis 18:23-33). Nevertheless, there were still not enough righteous people for God to spare the city. So God sent angels to rescue Lot. God spared Lot, because “God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” (Genesis 19:29).
5. Vision
This character trait shows Abraham’s concern for his family’s future. In Genesis 24, we read that Abraham knew that his time on earth was drawing to a close. He had already given all that he had to his son Issac, and so as was the custom, Abraham saw to it that Isaac would have a wife. But not just any woman would do. Abraham would not have an unbeliever to marry Isaac, but a woman who knew about the true God of Heaven.
Isaac, in Genesis 22, remembered well the experience at Mount Moriah, of how his father Abraham had surrendered him to the God of Heaven. Abraham’s concern for his family was a chief passion of his soul!
Our application for today
Parents, what is our vision for the future of our children? As parents, we need daily to realize that God used, and is using us, to bring children into this world! Our children are gifts from God. They have a potential for both good and evil. Moreover, just as we adults are accountable for our actions, we need to hold our children accountable for their actions. See Proverbs 1:8-9; 6:20-26; and Deuteronomy 6:6-7.
Parents need to recognize the following:
—We are not equal to the situation in our own strength and ability.
—We must realize that we are in the leaders’ role—the father in particular.
–We must have a right attitude toward success and failure; in all things we are required to be faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2).
—We need to model the benefits of advice and correction from others.
–As husband and wife, and as the father and mother in the home, we need to demonstrate to our children the intimacy and interdependency between us that God has designed. When God made Eve, Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” God called the woman a “help meet,” that is, a help suitable for the man. Jesus taught that in a marriage, two actually become one.
Paul writes in Ephesians 5:25-28, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.”
These verses show us that parents are to model to their children:
—sacrificial love, as they give up personal preferences and give a hand in the everyday chores and responsibilities of life (Ephesians
5:25);
—sanctifying love, as they seek to bring out the best in the other, saying no when necessary, and doing what seems best (verse 26);
—selfless love, as they give, but not to simply get in return (verse 27);
—enduring love, as they show that it is an act of the will, and not merely an emotional response.
In addition, parents need to demonstrate these attributes at home, in front of their children, by saying and meaning phrases such as “Thank you,” “I love you,” “I’m sorry,” “I was wrong; will you forgive me?”
Homes are places where people live in close quarters. Sometimes we fail and disappoint each other. There are times when there must be forgiveness, not bookkeeping! A husband said that when he and his wife have a disagreement, “She gets hysterical, then ‘historical,’ and recalls every wrong I ever did!” There is trouble ahead in that kind of marriage.
The Apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 3:7, wrote, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” Husbands have a great responsibility to exemplify leadership in the home in doing the hard work, lending helping hand, and helping to make the decisions. A husband and wife are heirs together. If a man wants his prayers answered, he must love and respect his wife!
We can and must, instill and pass on, godly convictions to our children. The Apostle Paul wrote, “And, ye fathers … bring them [your children] up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Who can know the far- reaching results of doing so?
Luke B. Bucher is one of the ministers on the plural ministry team of the Heidelberg Church of the Brethren in the Atlantic Northeast District. This message was preached at the Church of the Brethren Rhodes Grove Camp Meeting on September 5, 2010.