Category: A father’s job

What about the rest of the family?


You know, in church and mostly in scriptures such as the New Testament, we only hear about Jesus but Mary and Joseph had other children too. Two of them in particular are highlighted in the New Testament and they are James and Jude. Both are half-brothers to Jesus and they became believers in Him as well as leaders in the church.

It is hard for us to realize that even though He was the firstborn son of Mary, that she actually had some other children too. James was the leader of the church in Jerusalem before his death and he wrote the book of James too. I a preaching this Sunday, tomorrow, from the first chapter of James and he has some interesting advice for us as Christians. Particularly about how we exercise our faith in Jesus and learn to be more like Him.

Even though he is referred to as the half-brother of our Lord, they were raised together just like any other children. To the community, they were brothers since few people knew about the Parentage of Jesus being the Son of God. Only his parents who raised him and Elizabeth and Zachariah and John knew Who He was prior to His resurrection. In spite of some of the “books” which were written about His life as a boy, which were false by the way, Jesus did not create small animals and bring them to life to play with. These books are nonsense and fantasy, nothing more.

James teaches us today that we must bear up under persecution and testing in our life to prove our faith in Him. Just as gold is purified when it is in the fire, we are brought to our best when we use our faith to strengthen our walk with Him, especially when we are under stress because of the world we live in. We are expected to exercise our faith just as we exercise our muscles, making it stronger and more durable in times of trial. Therefore, when trials do come we will be able to bear up in faith and lean on Jesus and His strength for our support.

Jesus did not say that we wouldn’t have trials in this life, He said when trials come and when you fast, be of good cheer because He has overcome the world and its troubles. We are to have faith in Him and lean on His strength and the wisdom from God’s Word, not on our own strength and wisdom. Jesus will give us the strength and the ability to get through our trials, whatever they may be, as long as we have faith in Him.

Dad, do you know God?


This is a question that some children likely ask at some point, many others probably wonder about it but don’t ask. My question is this: if your child asks this of you, what will your answer be?

The miracle of birth, whether it is a boy or a girl, is amazing. God takes a little from both of you and makes a new person who is not you or your wife but is entirely a person with a real personality, some more than others! This fact alone should push you in the direction of getting to know God more personally than any other.

I mean, before your first child is born there was just you and your spouse. You loved each other and lived your life, but when that first child comes along, boy does everything change! There are diapers, and formula, and worry about what is in this food, reading labels, making sure of their sleeping environment, the list could go on and on.

My point is this: if you didn’t know God before, then you NEED Him in every situation now! Not that raising children is bad but you do need His strength and guidance in any and all situations while raising them. They need to see God reflected in you every day, not the frustrated dad or mom coming home from work.

God created each of us for a purpose, sometimes it is being an example to our children. Actually, if God has gifted you with children, then being an example for them IS your purpose, everything else fades into the background. Your example to them and to the world is important because even if you don’t make an impact in the world, your child or children may have more of an impact than you could. So, make your example a good one.realsalvation

About Dad and Father’s Day


My father died in 2001 from a heart attack. My grandfather died in 1995 due to untreated COPD, although he never smoked as far as I know. I think it was due to his hobby of woodworking and breathing sawdust for many years. These were the two father figures in my life. One who was with me while growing up and one that wasn’t.

fathers-day-002I spent many hours, days even, being angry and hurt while I was growing up. Especially during my teen years. I felt betrayed and tossed aside by my dad, and my grandfather as good as he was didn’t know how to help me. I now realize that I wasn’t tossed aside by my dad, and my grandfather was at a loss about how to handle my feelings.

My real problem was that I got conflicting stories about our relationships. Sometimes it went one way and everything was OK. Then, later it would change and there would be frustration and bitterness mixed in with other feelings and being a teenager didn’t help. We would go to church and I would hear about the love of God and how we are supposed to emulate Him in our lives.

Then we would get home and things were…different. Nothing like what I had heard in church. There was no abuse or anything like that, but God’s Word wasn’t spoken of or read in our house until my grandfather was over 80. I would find him reading and studying the Bible then, but that didn’t happen while I was younger.

In many ways I would like to thank my father and grandfather for showing me what NOT to do in this life. So that when I became a father myself I would tell my son that I love him and I began reading the Bible when he was small. When he was 12 I became the pastor of a small church, so he got to see me preparing for sermons, praying and studying God’s Word.

Fathers have a lot on their shoulders, sometimes grandfathers do too. The only One Who can help the ENTIRE family to muddle through the teen years and come out still smiling and being a family is Jesus. Having that foundation in my life and my family’s life has helped me so much while raising my son. Since my family was broken before I even knew what a family was, I had no idea how to be a dad.

Thankfully, my wife and I had given our lives to Jesus before our son was born, although we were busy with work and I had gone back to school before I knew we were even having a child. Our life with Jesus suffered because of our work during this time because while I was in school, I worked in the lab at the hospital on the weekends. Sunday was my wife’s only day off, so many weekends during that time neither of us went to church. I do regret that, but it can’t be changed now.

God loves all of us and He doesn’t want us to live our lives without Him, but there are so many who choose to do this. Why? Because, love can’t be forced upon someone. God knows us better than we know ourselves because He has known us since before we were born, even from the beginning of creation. Just as any father on Earth, God wants a relationship with us. Seek to learn more about Him by reading His Word and praying for Him to reveal its wisdom to you for your life.

Have a wonderful Father’s Day!

Education and indoctrination


These two words should not go together but in our time and the system that our children are taught in, from high school on through college, they are almost synonymous. Which is truly sad. One of the most famous philosophers of the last century, Bertrand Russell, said this: “Education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished” (The Impact of Science on Society)

Today, there are many in government who think this way as well. That we don’t know how to raise our children and it is the community or the government’s responsibility to teach them what they should know. Poppycock!! God gave parents the responsibility to teach our children from His Word, the Bible, so that they will know Who He is and what He expects of them! The government, city, federal or state, has no right to tell your child how to think or what to think!!

Even the teachers and supposed “educators” in secondary schools are not supposed to indoctrinate your child to the point of making an automaton out of them. God loves each person, boy or girl, and He knows exactly what they can accomplish and what they will accomplish with His strength and His Word in their hearts. Why do I say this? Because it needs to be said!! It seems that few people are willing to say anything against education or the institutions which we pay for by sending our children to them.

God’s Word should be the primary Book of knowledge and wisdom in education and if the atheists don’t like it, then they can send their children somewhere else! I am tired of the political correct police knocking down parents and teachers for trying to teach children about their Creator. If they were teaching from the Koran or any other religious book, nobody would bat an eye or even care at all. But, if you try to bring Christianity into education and there is one child whose parents aren’t believers, then the whole school is taken to court and this is WRONG!!

Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Bible was the beginning book, the one that was used to teach reading and history and morality. For proof see this link. Until 1948, time set aside for prayer in schools was OK. Then the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to do so. From that point on prayer and Bible reading in public schools was doomed, until 1963 when this decision was made in the Supreme Court:

Supreme Court bans individual school prayer (Murry v. Curlett) and Bible reading in public schools (Abington Township School District v. Schempp). 

Just a few years after that, the number of pregnancies in school began to increase and the SAT scores of our youth began to decrease. If you look at the history of America from 1963 on to present day it seems that much of our problems in society could be traced back to that moment in time.

 

If my people….


14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

What would really happen if Christians, not just in America but all over the world, took this to heart? Could a change happen? Would we be determined in our worship enough to keep on being humble in His presence until something..everything began to change? I would hope so.

The world sorely needs this to happen everywhere, in all countries, even those who don’t follow God nor believe in Jesus as the Savior! Especially in those countries! The church, the body of believers in countries where persecution is a daily practice, is growing just as it did in the early centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Some would ask, “Why?”, and the answer to that is this: when persecution comes the church leans on and depends upon God more than ever before.

So, why can’t we depend on Him when we aren’t being persecuted? We should be thanking Him and praising Him for living in a country where persecution is not so bad yet! We should be getting out into the streets and telling people about Him, so why aren’t we? Because we are afraid.

We are afraid that the people will see us as freaks or religious nuts. I would rather be a nut in God’s basket than a huge rock in Satan’s fortress!

Yes, we are afraid to let people see that we actually believe in something or Someone! Why? Because we don’t want to be lumped in with all of those “deplorables”! What is so bad about being seen as a true believer in Christ? Many seem to be afraid of being seen as a fanatic. The disciples were fanatics! The early church would be considered fanatical in their beliefs, so much so until they were killed and tortured in ways that are hard to imagine today.

God loves you and He doesn’t require you or me to be a fanatic with our faith, but He will give you the strength and the words to go with it if you will. You don’t have to walk around carrying a cross or stand on a corner yelling about the end of the world being near, but in the world that we live in people still need to hear the message. Many don’t come to church, so the only way they will find the message is to put it out on the web or be a nuisance enough to get your message on the news.

Jesus told His disciples to go and tell the whole world about the gospel and they did. It seems that the church has drawn back from being the voice of Jesus in our world. We will shine the light in our community, but taking it with us into our workplace or into the city and the towns nearby is another thing. We are supposed to be the feet of Jesus too! By taking His gospel with us at work, at school, at home, into restaurants (fast food or otherwise), people will see our faith, if they don’t want to see it they don’t have to look or listen.

We should turn our lives and our hearts back to belief in Jesus and serve Him in every way that we can, especially at home teaching our children Who and why we believe in Him! Because as soon as they leave home for college, their minds will be open to many things and if Christ isn’t in their hearts and minds, then something or someone else will get in there.

What can I say?


We don’t get along, but we try. Some days are better than others, so I pray about the rest of them. God, I need your strength today and everyday. I know you love me and care for me, but sometimes it feels distant or false. Why do fathers and sons have problems like these? I think it is because we are too much alike in so many ways that we grate on each other’s nerves, like rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together. God, please help us to get along better. Amen.

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I don’t like to air my own problems on this page, but I need some prayer warriors to lift me and my family up. I don’t want this to tear our family to shreds. God, please send your Spirit to heal this rift soon.

Think before you act..


In many ways I feel that I have failed my son. He has seen and heard me raise my voice far too many times and there is no real fix for this. The damage is done already. So now, he will do the same thing later in life.

Your tongue can get you into more trouble than it will ever get you out of, the problem is that you usually don’t figure this out until it is too late. The title says “think before you act”, which is true but it also means before you speak too. Sometimes, that is hard to do. Some of us tend to let our tongue get more use than our brains and that is a very bad thing, especially for a pastor.

Which is why I blog a lot here. Sometimes these posts are for my benefit more than anyone else. Although, I do hope that those of you who read these posts get something from them. If there is any consolation through this site it is that I read all of your comments and if there is a prayer request in them, I do honor it in my prayers.

I pray that this next year or two will bring a revival in our country and hopefully in the world. We must get back to faith in Jesus.Strength

Understanding…


I have read many books, scientific and novels, books to waste time with and books which help you in ways that you need help with. I have come to understand much of the Bible itself but I am still studying it and will be until my death. I won’t understand all of it even then.

Yet, I am a father to a teenage son who is very much like me in so many ways, and I can’t understand him. I suppose it is because I have never fully understood myself. Which is something that I doubt that very many people in the world can claim truthfully. Why am I writing this on my blog? I suppose to vent a little, but more to the point I am doing it because I need to.

Most of the words which I have written here I don’t believe were entirely my own, but were inspired by the Spirit of God. I have never been very eloquent or well spoken, especially in public, but I seem to be able to write things that people have told me seem to be inspired wisdom. Surely the wisdom that I have written here is from God because I don’t consider myself to be a wise man. Yes, I am a preacher and I do preach on Sunday morning every week but most of that is reading from God’s Word and then trying to explain it in the best way that I can. The wisdom that is there in those sermons comes from God, not from me. It comes from the Holy Spirit guiding me in my sermons and I believe that He does that here as well.

So, the reason that I am writing this is to help me understand myself and my son and possibly to help others who may be going through the same issues in their lives. God knows each of us far more intimately than we know ourselves and He can reveal things in your life and mine that we didn’t know, even pertaining to ourselves. So, what can I find out about myself from God today? I am not sure if He will reveal much to me that I don’t already know.

I am stubborn, and I have a temper which I pray that He will help me with every day. Some days it is hard to focus on the project at hand and stay focused until it is done, so I likely have a bit of ADD but that is okay too. God still uses me in ways that I never thought possible, as for understanding myself and my son that is going to take a lot more time and effort than just writing an entry here. God will help me with that as well.

We all need to understand each other and ourselves just in order to get along better. The problem is that we are never taught any of this in school and very rarely at home. The understanding part only comes from God and He only hands that out to those who ask for it. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive. Please don’t ask God for patience though, your learning about that may be entertaining for Him but you won’t like it at all! Patience comes through reading the Psalms and prayer. Learning about God and His ways gives you the understanding that you need in all situations. See, God gave me my answer just as I knew He would!

Applying it to a teenager is a different story altogether, so I will try to learn more about God’s understanding so I can cultivate some of my own. I pray that all of you who read this will be safe and secure in God’s love and know that He does love you no matter what! I am also praying for the families and friends of those killed in France. There will be a victory in the fight against evil one day, just make sure which side you are on!

Amen

 

We have a lot to do….


There are many young people and some older ones who have lived their lives without Christ. WE, as Christians, have to tell them about Him. This is not a request, but it is a command from Jesus written in the gospels. Christians have turned the other cheek and been quiet long enough and the only way that they will know, that many more will find out about their Savior is if we do our part and get the message out to them! I know that today, even in the USA, Christians are being targeted as hate groups because of our beliefs which come from the Bible. This treatment will likely get worse in the near future, but we must push our fear aside and tell others that the Hope that they are looking for can only be found in Jesus.

Why should we do this? Because of God’s love for us, because He gave His Son up to be the Lamb, perfect and unblemished, as the atonement for all who have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, because all of us fall under that category! There is no one on the Earth now nor has there ever been anyone like Christ! Failing Him and His command is not an option in my being. Like the one who blows the trumpet on the wall to let everyone know about an enemy outside the gate, I want others who follow Jesus to begin to let your friends know, let your family know about Him! We are held accountable for the Truth that we have heard and read in the Bible, therefore we can’t be silent and we shouldn’t be.

If you could save your friend from certain death, wouldn’t you do it if it were in your power? If it were your child or your parent, you certainly would if possible! We are coming to the end of the age of grace, which we have been under for almost two thousand years. Evil is spreading in the world, anti-Christian speech and laws are being passed and reported on around our country and in other parts of the world. The world that most of us grew up in has changed so much in character until it is barely recognizable as the same anymore. It’s not the same as it was, it is much worse!

Television shows and talk shows are bringing up subjects that are occult in nature, much of what is on TV does not fall into the “wholesome” family category anymore. It seems that just in the past fifteen years that it has become harder to find entertainment that is good for the family to watch together anymore. The Internet itself is a place where kids can find anything that they want online, even if mom and dad don’t approve of it. They can bring it up on their phones or their tablet or any connected device available to them.

Even many of the books and games offered on Amazon and other “toy” stores are occult oriented as are many of the games on the Internet. Children don’t think anything is wrong with tarot cards or other occult and witchcraft oriented games or books. Some are innocent to an extent, but if the door to the occult gets opened a crack, many things which you don’t want in your house will have access to your home and to your children.

Read God’s Word and ask for Him to help you understand the wisdom contained in it. Give your heart to Jesus and lead your family in prayer and study of the Bible. The strength and protection that He can give you and your family is needed in these times.

Freedom of choice


It is what God gave to all of us who have it, angels and mankind, and we must use it for the right reasons. Not to choose to be evil or sinful or a killer, but to make a choice to be a follower of Christ! It is by God’s grace that we have our being in this world and to reject His gift of life and the atonement of His Son’s death on the cross is the truly unforgivable sin.

Why many people choose to do this and think that they can live their lives without Him in a world full of sin and death and corruption is something that I will never understand. Yes, I was a sinner once and I still consider myself a sinner saved by His grace. I remember going out and partying and getting drunk as a teenager, I also remember that the results of that behavior usually weren’t very enjoyable the next day either.

Even after I thought that I had become a Christian, I still fell in with the wrong crowd and went down the wrong path for a long time. It wasn’t until I became a father that I realized that if I wanted my son to grow up to know Jesus, then I was going to have to be a true follower of Jesus so that he could see me doing it. I began to seek Him out in the Bible and learn of Him more and when I did that I finally “got it” and realized that the voice which had been there all along, was His.

I had ignored it for a long time, but I remembered it being there telling me things weren’t right. I had just thought that it was my own conscience or my own thoughts, I didn’t recognize it as the Spirit speaking to me until I got to know Him better. We have the freedom to choose, even after we become Christians, but we should choose to follow Christ every day. That is the part about “pick up your cross and follow me” that Jesus was talking about.