Homosexuality pt. 2: The Devastation of Sin

In part 1, we took a look at God’s original created order for all things and the seriousness and affects of sin on this. My hope is that by seriously studying this people will understand and realize how serious sin actually is. It is not just ‘bad stuff.’

In this post we are going to look at Romans 1 to see the devastation of sin and the utter fall of humans away from God and into ourselves. As I stated at the beginning of part 1, attacking language will not be tolerated. And I will not make apologies for what God has said. So, to quote Paul in Romans 1:16-17:

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

In Romans 1 the writer, Paul, is pointing back to Genesis 1-3. But instead of just overviewing the fall of man, he is showing the degeneration of humanity and the progressive turning away from God and towards ourselves.

Romans 1:18-20
We all know that there is something wrong with the world we live in. The people in it are messed up. Global wars and uprisings, pollution, government corruption, murder, greed, general selfishness and laziness. The most popular section in the bookstore is the Self-Help section. Whether the latest diet, exercise regimen, or positive living book, these people are telling us that there is something wrong with us and they know the answer.

Romans 1:21-23
This is that initial fracturing of Creation and of Worship. Humanity gave up worshiping the Creator for worshiping his creation. This is baseline idolatry–giving up God for his stuff. This is where it all begins. We do not recognize that all things come from God, but instead only recognize our own hands and the things that are in them.

Romans 1:24-25
“God gave them over” does not mean that God forced us into sin, therefore making us innocent and him completely guilty for our current situation. It means that God said, “Go ahead. Chase it. See how it works out for you.” When we turn away from all that God has planned for us and turn to our own desires the greatest of these is our lustful, sexual passions. We want to fulfill ourselves. Look at tv and music. Women are treated as objects for the fulfillment of men’s sexual desires. And in this is proof that we think we know better than God. It is different for everyone, but we each–if we were completely honest–have something in the Bible that we have a hard time agreeing with and submitting to God on. And in this, we exchange our experiences for the Word of God. Experience has more sway than the Bible. But whose experience do we go with? The rapist? The sluggard? The guy with anger issues?

Romans 1:26-27
Again, God allowed humanity to have its way.
Genesis 1: God created Creation for man enjoy. But we have twisted it and worship the created rather than the Creator.
Genesis 2: God gave man and woman to one another; not for selfish fulfillment, but as companions to love, serve, and protect. But we have twisted it. Instead of worshiping God through service to one another, we worship ourselves through service to ourselves.
But just because we have desires do not mean we are excused to act on them. I find women attractive; God has given me desires for the opposite sex. But that does not make it okay to go and have sex with every woman I meet. No one (in their right mind) would find this okay.
This is the full perversion of humanity. Not just because it is homosexuality. Not because God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. But because God created man and woman for one another, to rule over all creation and to multiply and fill it.
In Ephesians 5, Paul compares marriage between a man and a woman to God’s pursuit and love for us. To say, “Forget you God. I’ll take myself–or one like me,” is perversion and direct rebellion against God. I really can’t say much more than that. God is very clear is Romans 1 that relations between 2 men or 2 women is indecent, dishonorable, shameless, and unnatural.

So what does this mean for someone struggling with this? Are they forever condemned to live celibate lives while being consumed with these sinful, unnatural passions? Many would have you believe that. But God can make all things new. He can transform a person. But this isn’t just a behavioral thing as many others would have you believe. You don’t just stop thinking about the same sex and start thinking about the opposite sex. God wants to change your heart, not your actions. Some might end up living single lives, but there are many stories of people being transformed and getting married and having kids and being completely happy and fulfilled.

Any person questioning and wondering what to do, I would encourage to go read the book of John. But here’s what I would have you know right now. God loves his creation so much that he personally came to earth as Jesus Christ to personally pay the penalty due to us for our rebellion against him. He took his own wrath upon himself. He died as the ultimate sacrifice for you and for me to wash our sins away. But he didn’t just stay dead. He physically rose from the dead 3 days later, and in so doing he conquered death–the same death that came into being in the Genesis. I know; that sounds kinda crazy. But remember, God’s ways are not our ways. And anyone who would believe this truth can be saved. Jesus says to repent and believe. Confess your sins to God, admit your need of him, and believe that he really will do what he says he will do.

I want to end with a word of hope from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

“16Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Paul is writing to a church. He tells them that some of them fit into these categories. Notice what he says at the end: this is what some of them were. But they have been washed (sins removed), sanctified (made new, transformed from fallen humanity to holy children of God), and justified (no longer guilty of sins committed). And this is all done through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is hope. God wants you to come to him just as you are, and to let him transform you.

Homosexuality pt. 1: Understanding Sin

[I want to first make it clear that attacking language will not be tolerated. I know this is a sensitive issue. I believe that God's Word (aka, the Bible) is true, and I will not make apologies for what God has said. He knows better than we do.]

Two weeks ago I spoke to our students on homosexuality. I will attempt here to give a brief overview of the message. My desire is that this will give parents and anyone else who reads this a better understanding of what the biblical narrative has to say about homosexuality. This is going to be a 2 parter, because I see this post being way too long if I attempt to write it all here. I have never been one for brevity. The first part will deal with the introduction of sin, and the second will address the affects and progression of sin.

We must first understand that homosexuality is a sin, just like lying, cheating, stealing, dancing (just kidding!), drunkenness, adultery, gluttony, gossip, etc. Yes, there are punishments for different sins under the Law. And yes, sexual sins have some of the worst punishments. And yes, this does give us commentary on how God views sins. But my point is that all sin separates us from God. Homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin.

We also must understand that the Bible is the authoritative, complete, no-questions-asked Word of God. (Go read 2 Peter 1:16-21 for more on this).

Here are all the verses in the Bible that address homosexuality:
Lev. 18:22; Lev. 20:13; Judges 19:22-23; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:9-10; Jude 7
We did not discuss all of these verses, but I gave them to the students so that they would at least have them and be able to read them for themselves.

Genesis 1:26-31
God made man and woman in his own image. He gave them all of his creation to rule over, to take care of. It was not given simply for our own benefit, to be used however we wanted. God gave it to us so that we would take care of it and honor and worship him through it, recognizing that all of it is from God.

Genesis 2:4-17
A retelling of the creation account, with the focus being on the creation of man and woman, rather than all of creation. The focus here is on verses 16-17. This is God’s one rule in all of creation. “All of this is yours. You can have anything you want. Just don’t touch this one tree. Because if you do, you will most definitely die” (my paraphrase).
I wanted the students to see that God’s desire was for man and woman’s pleasure. But, just like parents make rules to protect their children, God also made ONE rule to protect his children.

Genesis 2:18-25
God creates woman and presents her to man. Man is so taken aback and amazed by her that he pens the first song in the Bible. It is in praise to her as his partner, but is directed toward God in worship to this great gift. (*side note: ‘woman’ simply means ‘from man’ or ‘of man.’ Nothing fancy going on here)
So, in Genesis 1, God gives man and woman all of creation to take care of; not for their own selfish desires, but in honor and worship to God. In Genesis 2, God gives man and woman to one another; not for their own selfish desires, but in honor and worship to God.
And they were naked and felt no shame.
This is the end of the innocence of man. Everything is downhill from here. Chapter 3 is the Fall, and the rest of the Bible is God calling his people back to himself.

Genesis 3
We all know how Genesis 3 goes. If you do not know, I encourage you to go read it. It is the first of the two most important moments in all of the Bible.
Remember the one rule that God gave back in chapter 2? Do not eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for if you do you will surely die. When man and woman go against God, when they rebel, they are going against his created order for all things. And by doing this, the universe is fractured at every level. Everything God set into motion is shattered at its core. Everything—as God created it to be—is off. They broke his created order for all things. A very simplified illustration of this would be a line of dominoes. You can’t knock over just one.
But God does something amazing. He let’s them live! He says they will surely die–which in its context suggests immediate death. Because of sin death and decay enter the world, but it is not an immediate death. And they deserve death. This might seem harsh, but it is God’s justice. We live in a country where we want justice served. That’s why crime dramas are so popular, and why we get sucked in by cases such as Casey Anthony and Michael Jackson. And in America, justice is served. You break the law, you get punished.
Man and woman have broken the law of God. They have traded allegiance to God for allegiance to themselves. They have committed outright treason. We must understand this before we can understand anything else. Sin isn’t just doing bad things. It isn’t just being a morally good person. It is outright rebellion against God’s rule and treason against his kingdom.
But God doesn’t kill them! He shows them grace and mercy and clothes them. They feel shame for being naked, so he takes it away.
But sin has its affects: Work, which was once enjoyable, will now be labor and toil. All of creation has been fractured, so thorns and thistles will grow where they were once not meant to be. Child birth will be painful. There will be tension between man and woman. Instead of serving one another in worship to God, man and woman will seek their own selfish desires in worship to themselves.
Creation is fractured. Worship is fractured. We have turned from God towards ourselves. And the rest of the Old Testament is God calling his people back to himself. Showing them his great love.

Be on the lookout for part 2……

Coffee w/ Jesus

I figure it is about time I resurrect this blog….for the third or fourth time. Luckily, Jesus only had to be resurrected once. If he were anything like this blog, we would all be in trouble!

So here’s where we are headed. I am going to use this blog to post thoughts from my personal studies, as well as information for the parents of my students. I want to keep you all informed of what is being taught on Sundays and Wednesdays so that you can (hopefully) be discussing these topics at home throughout the week. I don’t want what happens at the church to just stay at the church.

Last Wednesday we began a new series titled, “Coffee w/ Jesus.” There are many places in the Bible where Jesus is preaching. There are also places where he is being attacked by the religious authorities. But there are also several occasions where Jesus is just having a conversation with someone. We are taking a look at these conversations as they occur in the book of John to see how Jesus handled the situation. The goal of this series is to give the students some practical advice for when they are with their friends. So here’s a basic outline of each week, along with some challenges for the home:

Sept. 28: Making the most of every conversation (John 3:1-11)
There is a lot that can be talked about from John chapter 3. But our goal is to see how Jesus handled the conversation. Focusing on verses 2-3, we see that Nicodemus came to Jesus with all sorts of compliments, trying to get on his good side. But Jesus saw right through this and let Nicodemus know that it’s not who you know, but what you know that saves you. The goal of this week is for students to be aware of the conversations going on around them, and to try to find ways to relate things to God and the Bible. The students were told that everyone is looking for something greater, and that something greater is right in front of them…God! They just need someone to point it out.
Challenge your child by asking what sorts of things were talked about during lunch, and how does the Bible or God relate? It could also be a good idea to come up with topics of conversation and then work through them together to find ways that aren’t totally awkward to bring up Jesus. Also, if students aren’t reading their Bibles, then they won’t know what the Bible says about anything. Challenge your child to read the Bible! Maybe set aside a time that the entire family stops to read their Bibles.

Oct. 5: Getting uncomfortable (John 4:1-26)
This is the story of the woman at the well. Again, there is a lot that goes on in this passage that could be talked about, but we will be looking at how Jesus addressed the situation. Three quick ways Jesus pushed towards the uncomfortable: The woman was a Samaritan (half-breed dogs to the Jews). The woman was–well–a woman (men and women didn’t casually interact in social settings). The woman was an outcast (she came in the heat of the day when no one else would be around (v. 6), and she’d had 5 husbands and a live-in boyfriend (v. 17-18)). But Jesus still takes the time to sit and talk to her, and give her hope in the midst of her hopelessness. Because her hope is sitting right in front of her! The goal of this week is for students to begin noticing the hurt and emptiness that goes on in the lives of everyone around them, and to share with them God’s hope and love.
Challenge your child to find that one person whom nobody likes (you may even know of someone). Or maybe it’s someone that no one would ever think could get saved. Or maybe it’s the boy or girl who constantly jumps from relationship to relationship, seeking happiness. Encourage your child to befriend him/her, to be encouraging, to say ‘hi’, to find a reason to begin a conversation.

Oct. 12: Getting beyond entertainment (John 6:25-26)
This story occurs right after Jesus feeds the 5,000. His boat lands on the other side of the lake, and the people come running up to him looking for him to do something for them. They simply want to be entertained and have their fill. They don’t really want any part of what Jesus is trying to tell them. So they ask him for a miracle. Jesus’ reply? I am the miracle! I am it! There’s nothing more beyond me! Many of our students come to simply hear good stories–to get their fill. Many bring friends who don’t know what to do with what they have heard. The goal of this week is for students to carry what they learn beyond the walls of the church, and to push their friends to think about what they hear in church.
Challenge your child this week by asking them what they learned–in Sunday School and in Youth Group–and how they can apply it. Encourage them to bring friends to church with them, and then model for them how to take the teaching further–”what was talked about tonight?” “How can you apply that in your own life?” “So, what did you think about what was said about Jesus/God?” These are the types of questions that should be asked every week after church so that you can continue the teaching at home that is started at church.

Oct. 19: Doing your part (John 12:20-26)
Our focus in this story will be on verses 20-22. Some Greeks want to see and hear Jesus. This event signals the beginning of the end of Jesus’ time on earth. His ministry has now reached its culmination, because Greeks (i.e. Gentiles) are desiring him. It is reaching beyond the Jews. But notice what happens: the Greeks go to Philip, Philip goes to Andrew, and Philip and Andrew both go to Jesus. These guys are simply doing their part in bringing people to Jesus. The great thing is that Jesus is always right in front of us, all the time! He’s never hard to find! The goal for this week is for students to begin doing their part. To bring their friends to church; to reach out to those who are hurting; to challenge people to think about what they hear at church; and, ultimately, to bring their friends to Jesus.
Challenge your child to make a short list of people they can be praying for, and pray with your child for these students every day. Remind them to be inviting people to church.

Next week (Oct. 26) I will be speaking on homosexuality. I know. Not exactly an easy topic. But it is something that our students face every day and they need to know what the Bible says about it. They need to know more than just the fact that it’s a sin. Why is it a sin? What does the Bible say about it being a sin? Challenge your students to invite a gay person to church. Again, I know. Awkward! Do we really want those types of people in our churches around our kids? YES WE DO! Jesus loves them too! The Gospel will be given. Pray for these students, that they will hear it and receive it. Also, pray for me that I can be filled and overflowing with grace and mercy.

The Counsel of God

I recently received 2 emails from a friend of a friend with a prayer request concerning his daughter. I have edited them a little, taking out unnecessary details, and have changed the girl’s name to simply ‘T’ so as to protect her identity. Read the first email, then think about what you think might be the problem before reading the second:

Email 1:

My 9 year-old daughter has been on ADHD for around 2 years now, she is doing amazing in her academics currently, her latest report card came home with straight A’s. But recently her mother has been observing some very disturbing behavior from our daughter. Her mother took her to be evaluated by some doctors.It was discovered that T may be showing early signs of bi-polar/manic depression. T has grandmothers on both sides of her family that have been diagnosed with bi-polar/manic depression. T was placed on new medication roughly 3 weeks ago to combat this. It is not apparent if the medication is having the desired effect because disturbing behaviors persist. Here is what we are up against. T is having suicidal thoughts, displaying no compassion for those who have lost loved ones (laughed about the loss of loved ones in the Japan disaster)... biting and sucking on her body to produce bruises, repeated lying...withdrawal from playing with other children and extreme bouts with depression. There is another very dark component that has been recently discovered. T has an ipod touch. There are children’s applications that are similar to Facebook but are geared toward children where they make up user names (she named her's iwanttokillmyself) and use little fuzzy animals as avatars...T has been found taking provocative and sexual pictures of herself with her Ipod touch (mind you again that T is 9 years old). Once her mother discovered this she and her husband began investigating into T’s ipod touch and computer use...she has secret email accounts and conversations with who knows who on these “children” chat rooms/applications. We do not know the full picture of what is going on here yet...our 9 year old baby could be into dark internet child related pornography is almost too crazy to bear.

Email 2:
It turns out that a child predator that has been in contact with my daughter. The authorities have been called and her IPod touch has been taken into custody for evidence. What they have found is leading us to believe that this could have been the start of her downward spiral. What started out as an innocent child loading an application onto her IPod touch turned into a window for a child predator to invade the mind of a small and impressionable child. It looks as if a relationship was started on Ipet and then moved to another application called Nimbud (this is a free texting, chatting and internet phone calling application). This person has been telling my young daughter that he loves her, he asked for inappropriate pictures to be taken and that all of this remain a secrete. This person even tried to call 3 times using the Nimbud application. It is my belief that the hidden things of my daughter’s life, the confusion and the shame she was feeling without a real way of being able to get the truth out, led her to act out with cries for help. These disturbing cries for help led to a misdiagnosing of being bi polar/manic depression. Which in return led to more medication and more confusion and more problems. After learning the truth of the situation the bipolar medication has been taken out of her life. My daughter is now very happy that all of this has come out into the open, she wasn’t even upset when the Ipod touch was taken away (forever), as well as unsupervised computer time (she is now only allowed to talk with me on Skype, with adult supervision). T seems to be rather happy and is playing in the neighborhood with the other children. This has also been a huge wake up call for our family. Unsupervised internet time, even in the form of an innocent children’s application on an ipod touch can open the window to the darkest of the dark in this world.

Two lessons: One, be aware of what your child is doing. Do not assume that he/she is safe or doing the right thing. There is evil in the world and your child is not immune to it. None of us are. And your child is not the first to succumb to evil either. So do not be ashamed or fear seeking help.

Lesson two: Do not be so quick to jump to medication. It seems as if almost all of the world is on some type of medication. Yes, there are times when medication is needed. But most of the time we put people on a drug to simply fix the immediate problem. Remember, drugs mess with your body’s chemical balance, and most times the drug companies aren’t 100% what all the drug does to you. The surface issue that we try to address is never the real issue. There is always something lying underneath. Sometimes it is the result of someone else’s sin (as in the story above). But many times it is a result of a person’s own sin. For example, most people who take medication for depression are either lazy or selfish (or a combination of the two). Laziness makes your body lethargic. I don’t necessarily enjoy exercising, but I know that I feel better when I do. In just the same way, when we lay around and do nothing, we physically, mentally, and emotionally will start feeling gross, down, negative. Laziness is a sin. Paul says at the end of 2 Thessalonians that if a person won’t work, then he doesn’t eat.

Selfishness is connected to laziness in many ways. A person is usually lazy because he is selfish. ‘I don’t want to do anything, so I’m not going to do anything; and hopefully someone else will pick up my slack.’ But selfishness goes much deeper than this. Selfishness is simply turning one’s gaze off of God and putting it on the self—hence SELF-ish. When we are selfish all we care about is what we want and aren’t concerned with others. How does this relate to depression? Well, when you’re selfish, you’re looking at the world through your own eyes instead of God’s eyes. When things don’t go your way (and let’s be honest, things rarely go our way exactly how we expect), we start in with the ‘woe is me’ attitude. But if we are looking at the world through God’s eyes, we will see the bigger picture. We will see that this one little incident matters none in light of eternity. We will understand that the Bible guarantees bad things will happen to us. We will know that suffering produces perseverance, which produces character, which produces hope (Rom. 5). And where should our hope be? In ourselves or in God?

I do not condemn the parents in the story above for putting their child on medication. This sudden change in behavior scared them and did all that they knew to do. But let us be careful to seek to understand an issue before we address only a symptom.

For more information, check out:

Competent to Counsel, by Jay Adams

How Can I Change, by CJ Mahaney

Death By Love, by Mark Driscoll

Growing up slutty

Yeah. I said it. Slutty.

But seriously. Parents need to be aware of what they are letting their kids wear, whether the child buys it or the parents do. Read this article from CNN. A secular, liberal news organization. If they see a problem with it, shouldn’t we?

Here we go again

I must first give a warning that I have not thought out what I want to say before writing this. It is more free thought. So if it doesn’t seem to flow very well, or seem disconnected at times, that’s why. I’m kinda putting 3 or 4 thoughts into one post.

I recently finished reading Rob Bell’s latest book, “Love Wins.” Let me first make some comments about Rob Bell and the emergent church and then I will get to the point of the post. I feel some comments are in order, because a lot of people are saying some pretty harsh things as of late that are causing people to draw up lines–it’s us versus them. I do not want to say that everyone in the emergent church is evil. There are some genuinely god-fearing people there. But there are many who have taken things a little too far.

You see, the emergent church came out of a series of gatherings of individuals who were tired of the way the church was going. They began questioning why it is we do things the way that we do. Why is it that we have to have a fish fry on the third Sunday of each month? Or why is it that a committee has to be formed in order to change the color of the carpet? This might be a little silly, and most of their questions were much larger and more serious than this, but you get the point. What are the unnecessaries of church? This created some great conversation and has led to a lot of really good change in a lot of churches. The problem is that a group of these people started questioning everything about the church: should we really believe in the Trinity? Are other religions really wrong, and who am I to tell them (among many others)? And, most recently, does hell really exist? I believe that it is good to question these things; we should never go through life simply believing things because that’s what we’ve been told. Know why you believe what you believe.

But here’s the problem. Scripture is very clear about these issues. No, the Trinity didn’t become an official church doctrine until the 3rd century, but it has always been understood because of how interchangeably God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are talked about in the Bible. God and Jesus being one in the same became a big issue and that’s why they had to write it down. (Just to give you an example).

So here’s what I’m getting at. The emergent church is just another rehashing of the old Protestant Liberalism that came about at the end of the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s, and eventually died out as it became universalism. J. Gresham Machen, who taught at Princeton Seminary and then left when he was one of a few who still believed in the inerrancy of the Bible, has an excellent book chronicling this called, “Christianity and Liberalism.” Rob Bell argues in his recent book that there’s no way that there can be an eternal hell because how could a loving god be so unloving. He argues his point very well, but he fails to defend against any counterarguments, as if there are none. This is the same thing that was argued by the old liberals. But if there’s no hell, then everyone goes to heaven, then why do we even need Jesus over someone or something else? Hence universalism.

We must remember that the writer of Ecclesiastes pointed out that there is nothing new under the sun. Things might come in a different color, shape, size, or design, but there is nothing new. As Kevin DeYoung has put it, “old liberalism accommodated modernity and the new liberlism accommodates postmodernity” (Why We’re Not Emergent). Their arguments are nothing new, just told with different language. So even what I’m saying is not new; it is just a rehashing of old arguments against liberalism.

Okay, now for the purpose of this post (sorry it has taken so long). There are two sentences in the book of Judges that very well describe our current culture:

Judges 2:10: “And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.”

Judges 21:25 (the second half): “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Near the beginning of the book of Judges we learn about the Israelites going into the Promised Land to take over, yet they did not completely wipe out or drive out the people who were already living there as God had told them to do. And then those people died and the following generation grew up not knowing God. Why did they not know about God? The only possible explanation is because the previous generation forgot to tell them. This new generation was not alive during the exodus, so they wouldn’t have seen all of the great miracles that God performed. The previous generation took for granted the fact that they saw it all and simply failed to tell their children and grandchildren.

I hate to say it, but this is the world that we live in today. My generation and those after (late 70s forward) were, for the most part not taught who God is and what he requires of us. We were encouraged to figure it out for ourselves. Sure, we went to church and Sunday School, but we were given too much freedom in deciding who God is or what religion fit us best. Our parents took it for granted that they grew up in a Christian society, and we are now paying for it. Growing up in a culture that is predominantly anything but Christian, many of my peers have formed their own gods by blending other religions or by going with what seems best for them or “works” for them. There was no one to remind us that Jesus said he was the only way (John 14:6), and that by doing this he was drawing a line in the sand and saying that if you’re not with him then you’re against him (Matt. 12:30).

And my generation now does what is right in their own eyes. We interpret the Bible based on what is going on in the world around us, rather than interpret the world around us based on what the Bible says. Culture should never dictate God. And neither should emotion. I’m tired of people trying to tug at my heart strings in order to make a theological point. Please use the Bible, because I really don’t care about your grandma or how things that are said in the Bible make someone feel. How do you think the Pharisees felt when John called them sons of Satan (that’s basically what he’s saying in Luke 3:7)? Why didn’t someone let John know that that’s not very nice and he shouldn’t be condemning people like that since God loves us all? No, John drew a line.

So, parents, know your Bible. Why do you believe what you believe? And then tell your children why you believe what you believe.

Thy rod and thy staff

“Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”   -Psalm 23:4

A parent shared this with me a few years ago. And with the recent birth of our son I have been thinking about it and wanted to share it with the two or three who read this.

Throughout the Bible–Old and New Testaments–the writers describe God (and Jesus) as a Shepherd. God is the Shepherd of Israel. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The rebellious nation of Israel is like a sheep without its shepherd–lost and not knowing which way to turn.

God, as head over us, is to be our shepherd. And parents (namely fathers), as head over their families, are to be their shepherd. There is a very important tool that a shepherd always has with him–his staff. Usually when we think of the staff–or rod–we think of punishment. We think of such sayings as “spare the rod, spoil the child,” which is a slight misquote of Proverbs 13:24. But the staff is actually an instrument of love. First, the staff is used to ward off enemies. A shepherd out in a field has very little with him. But one of these things–the staff–could be used as a weapon if a wolf or some other animal attacks. The second way it is used is to keep the sheep in line. Most people don’t realize, but sheep are one of the dumbest animals on the planet (which makes me wonder why we want to decorate baby rooms with them). If the shepherd does not pay attention, sheep will wander off while eating and have no idea where they came from or where they are to go. They will even wander off a cliff if given the opportunity. So if a sheep is wandering off track, the shepherd can use his staff to give them a tap in order to get them back in line.

How does this apply to parenting? Parents are to protect their children from the evils of the world. Whether this be wrong friends, wrong beliefs, or simply wrong actions, parents are to guard their children. Like sheep, kids are pretty dumb–let’s be honest. Not in the same sense that sheep are dumb, but they have not experienced much of life and usually have no idea what is best. They only know what is in front of them right now, and many times need to be corrected and protected from such things. This leads into the second way that a shepherd’s staff is used. Some times children need correction. When they get out of line, wander away from, or rebel against their parents, they need to be corrected. This does not mean beating; but it also does not mean simply giving them time to think about what they have done and to come up with their own punishment. A little tap of correction with the rod is needed at times.

As the proverb referenced above points out, parents who let their children make up their minds about things for themselves or who do not believe in punishment are not loving their children, but actually hating them. They are abandoning them to make decisions for themselves about things that they do not know. To correct your child’s footsteps, to set them on the right path, to keep them from the evils of this world is to show great love for them now and for their futures.