Category: Family

Not as Children

Silva

Ahh…the Kingdom of Christ.  I’ve had the opportunity to interact with children who consider themselves kings.  (They live in our homes, attend our churches, play soccer together – you get the picture.)  They may know about discipline, authority and obedience; maybe even that those things come from God and return to Him in worship.  Yet, inevitably (when a sibling perpetrates a self-defined no-no) the real views of the little regents become clear: my rules, my judgments, and my kingdom.  So much of their experience of joy in this life is wrapped up in their comforts, their peace, and their prosperity.  Of course, they are just like the rest of us only it’s usually easier to see in them.

What makes them childish in their thinking is they lack the vision to see how temporal joys and discomforts fit into the bigger picture.  I find grown-ups who think this way.  The John 10:10 Life is the here-and-now life.  We’ve seen how this thinking extends to our parenting: our efforts and goals with our children do not extend beyond the planes of the here-and-now-plus-maybe-high-school-graduation.

The gospel directly affects kingdoms.  It brings one that we didn’t know anything about right into the throne rooms of our kingdoms – it swims the moats and scales the walls subduing all the guards.  Its presence there is beautifully crushing: over time, all the vestiges of our former reign melt under the weight of the glory of the kingdom of God.  Its effects transcend time and space unlike our own pitiful realms.  Whereas its approach was unexpected and unknown, in Christ, we have been given this kingdom via the indwelling Holy Spirit.  In Christ, it is as much yours as your two lips!

I was reading in John Calvin’s Institutes about Christ as King (book 2, chapter 14, paragraph 4).   Here’s a sample of what he wrote:

…the whole course of our lives [is] to war under the cross, our condition here is bitter and wretched. What then would it avail us to be ranged under the government of a heavenly King, if its benefits were not realised beyond the present earthly life? We must, therefore, know that the happiness which is promised to us in Christ does not consist in external advantages—such as leading a joyful and tranquil life, abounding in wealth, being secure against all injury, and having an affluence of delights, such as the flesh is wont to long for—but properly belongs to the heavenly life. As in the world the prosperous and desirable condition of a people consists partly in the abundance of temporal good and domestic peace, and partly in the strong protection which gives security against external violence; so Christ also enriches his people with all things necessary to the eternal salvation of their souls and fortifies them with courage to stand unassailable by all the attacks of spiritual foes.

We should not be child-like in thinking that this new realm’s reach is only as small as our own peace, comfort and affluence; that the keys are no worry, no pain and no effort.  While in this life trouble might be a large portion of our lot, it will always be mingled with the grace of God in the face of Christ.  And beyond?  Trouble we will leave behind and all that we longed for here and now (that make terrible gods) will be ours because He will manifestly be ours.  Praise God for His steadfast and enduring love!

You with Us, We with You

Silva

I continue to be provoked by a discussion about parenting in light of eternity.  The affect it has had on me as a parent has been to clarify the things of parenting.  I will (and do!) still struggle in making mountains out of molehills and vice versa, but I definitely believe that the picture of my destination as a parent is clearer – under the specter of eternal judgment, all things are clearer.  Interestingly, Paul wrote this way in his letter to the Thessalonians (1:9, 2:16, 3:13, 4:13-17, chapter 5).

Just the other day, I found out that one of my children had been participating in mean-spiritedness against another child from our church: covenant children victimizing others, who’d have thought?  Nonetheless, once I found out I was surprised by how much more quickly we moved to handle this (Judgment day still fresh in our minds).  I whipped out the church directory, found the relevant phone number, made the call, connected with the parent and passed the phone along to my child who asked for forgiveness from the other.  The mom told me that my child had acted courageously.  I responded, “It takes courage to do the right thing.”  I might’ve said it differently, “It takes a Judgment-Day perspective to do the right thing.”

In a resource designed to help parents bring the gospel to their covenant children, I read a quote from Richard Mather, English-born American congregationalist preacher (c. 1600) in answer to the question, “What might covenant children on their way to hell say to their parents?”

All this that we here suffer is through you.  You should have taught us the things of God and did not.  You should have restrained us from sin and corrected us and you did not.  You were the means of our original corruption and guiltiness, and yet you never showed any competent care that we might be delivered from it.  Woe unto us that we had such carnal and careless parents.  And woe unto you that you had no more compassion and pity to prevent the everlasting misery of your own children.

I have said in class before that even among those of you who do not have children, your commitment to your covenantal vows at the many baptisms you witnessed in our worship obligate you to help parents with children in their tasks of parenting for Judgment Day.  I pray that in and through our faithful covenant parenting (you with us and we with you) in light of eternity, our children will have no opportunity to speak words like these.  May God grant us the grace and strength.

Pastor Gabe

Do you know?

Silva

In our knowing, do we know?

A problem may arise if we are not careful. It’s about “gospel.”  I’m afraid that in our knowing we might not know it.  This will look different for different people – at least initially.  Maybe some among us are not converted and that’s serious.  You may not ever have repented of your independence and rebellion against God.  You’d never considered Isaiah’s words when he said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).  Think about that: if that’s true, then now is the time to turn to Jesus Christ and plead with God that He would credit Jesus’ perfection to you – and save your soul from the wrath of God.  If your parenting was changed because your heart was changed then Hallelujah!

For the rest, my fear is that familiarity with the gospel will breed contempt for it.  Maybe contempt is too strong; how about a passive kind of ho-hum attitude?  Do we believe that the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ was what we needed to be converted but, beyond that, we’re talking about something fundamentally different to actually live?  The Galatians did: 3:2-3.  If we hold this view, we may, in fact, not understand the gospel’s place in our lives.  If we misunderstand what it means to live in the gospel as converted Christians, then we risk living for the glory of something else.  The stakes are high!

We need to ask ourselves why we are interested in studying the Bible; say parenting, for example.  Let me oversimplify to make a point: are we more concerned about being equipped to parent or is our interest more about God?  Think about it.  I mean, clearly, parents need help parenting; no parent knows what in the world he’s doing while he’s doing it!  (The sheer number of parenting books published in the last decade (75K??) proves the hunger for help.)  But God apparently doesn’t believe that parenting-ignorance is our biggest issue (I know there are times when it feels like it!).  The fact that the Bible contains so few verses about such a significant subject proves that.

At the same time, it’s not as if God isn’t concerned about it either!  His message is different, even strange to us.  Paul preached this message to his churches.  We should take note because they were like us with pressing needs in every area of life: they were parents, employers, employees, children, friends, soldiers and artisans.  They all needed to know how and what to do.  They looked to Paul to provide help.  Yet, his message was:

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2)

Ask the Lord to reveal your interests here.  Do you want to know Him as Paul prayed for his Ephesians brothers (1:15-19)?  Or do you just want to know how to better parent?  Desire to be a better parent less than you desire to know Jesus Christ; that the details of His life, the gospel, become your preoccupation – and that in which you bathe your family.