I love reading old sermons and booklets. Sometimes it is tempting to just stand up on Sunday morning and read the words of these wise saints from long ago. After reading Calvin, Spurgeon, Pink and many others from bygone eras, it crosses my mind that I really have little to share. Before you write me concerned about my psyche, I fully realize that God uses various people in multiple ways to speak to their generation, so no fears; I am not suffering from some inferiority complex. However, I do wonder if we have lost something over the centuries in the depth of what we share.

This morning while reading a J. C. Ryle’s (1816-1900) excerpt from a sermon entitled, What it costs to be a Christian, I came across these thoughts:

“There must be no separate truce with any special sin that he loves.”

“He and his sin must quarrel if he and God are to be friends.”

Just soak in those two sentences for a while. How many times have we made a special truce with our favorite sin? We are willing to expose, repent of, and even confess to others some of our sins, but we hold back on that one sin we really enjoy. We proclaim that we want to be totally free, yet in our hearts, we know we are still stroking that one sin we cling to. We have made a special truce with it. We boldly shout, “Death to all of my sin,” yet we have made a back room deal with that one no one knows about.

We will not be completely free until we declare war on every sin. Making a secret agreement with our self will not do. We really are only fooling an audience of one. In fact, we really are not even fooling our self. We know, and we know that God knows, what really is going on behind the veil of our words. We have made a truce with a foe we should be battling. Defeat is guaranteed when we shake hands with our sin instead of crucifying it.

How about the second quote? It seems that we are destined to fight with someone or something. Ryle states it clearly, yet powerfully. If we refuse to fight with our sin, we will fight against God. Our friendship with God cannot grow if we harbor a friendship with our sin. We must choose for we cannot serve two masters. Friendship with the world means hostility to God, so says James, and it seems we really cannot be friends with sin and God at the same time either. I pray we choose wisely.

In the same short message, Ryle adds this jewel while discussing the cost of discipleship:

“In attending to these things, (guarding one’s behavior) he may come far short of perfection; but there is none of them that he can safely neglect.”

Another excellent thought to ponder. Just because we will not achieve perfection does not mean we gain a license to neglect or fail. I wonder how many modern believers understand this, beginning with me. It seems that we sometimes act like since we cannot achieve perfection, we might as well not even try to live a holy, pure, godly life. Can we safely neglect the disciplines of Christianity because we are not perfect and live under grace? I do not believe Ryle would say so, nor many other older, wiser saints. Grace is not an excuse to sin but includes the empowerment for holy living. When we confuse these two points, we are close to abusing the best gift we ever received.

Let me stop today with this thought – In our busy world we still must allow time for contemplation. I am not sure if there is a smart phone app for this yet, but there probably will be shortly. “Download this free app to think deeply in less time than you ever imagined.” (For all you entrepreneur types out there, that is a gold mine waiting to be developed.) We know we should spend more time thinking, praying, contemplating before the Lord, but we want an easier way to do so. To paraphrase Ryle, we may come short of perfection but we cannot safely ignore or neglect these matters for long.

Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

I do not believe the prophet is referring to my physical heart here, but something deeper.

Ezekiel 11:19 – And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

In this verse, we are promised a new heart, one that is tender and not hard like a rock. Salvation brings this promise to reality. After we are born again, our dead, hard heart is replaced with one that is tender towards the Lord.

Our hearts can grow cold, however, due to sin and unbelief:

Hebrews 3:10 – Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

In addition, we can lose something through trials, heartaches, and sickness if we are not careful.

2 Corinthians 4:16 – So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Every day, moment by moment our hearts are working both physically, and in the sense described in these passages of Scripture. What direction are we heading in our hearts? Are we becoming tender or hard? Are we moving towards a firmer belief or growing colder in our faith? Are we losing part of our heart through the cares of this life, or are we being renewed? All excellent questions to ponder.

There is a battle raging for our hearts. I am not talking about clogged arteries, but a war to dull our hearts. The warfare is real and the goal is to wear out the saints. Part of the enemies plan is to make us give up, give in, and simply grow lukewarm or cold. We must resist.

What can clog our spiritual hearts quicker than a greasy hamburger? Sin, worry, fear, ego, drifting, long term trials, disappointments, dashed expectations, harsh words, unfaithful friends, a steady diet of the news, placing our hopes in sports, politics, or people, and taking our eyes off of the Lord, to name just a few. We need to guard our hearts or we lose something of real value.

Our hearts must remain tender to the Lord. We have to take care lest we drift and find ourselves moving towards unbelief. Trials can strengthen us or ruin us, and it depends on our heart choices. A marketing guru friend of mine likes to state, “We are bombarded with 20,000 marketing messages every day.” I think he is probably low in his estimate. Many of those messages we receive from TV, radio, internet, billboards, books, magazines and our smartphones, are not directing us towards Christ, but away from Him. There is a battle for control of our heart.

We must guard our hearts and minds. We must renew them in the Word of God, through prayer and walking in fellowship with like-minded people. Our heart needs help to remain tender. Our natural heart needs exercise to keep it working well. Do we really believe that our spiritual heart will be fine if we just ignore it or live on spiritual junk food?

Our lives are busy, and we have many voices screaming for attention. Our time is limited, and frankly, there are many things in this life that are discouraging. As I sat looking over an extensive prayer list last night, it was easy to become overwhelmed. So many real people with real pain that never seems to end. It is a temptation to lose heart, as Paul stated above, but we must not.

The battle is real and so is the victory. Jeremiah cried about the deceitfulness of our hearts and the frustration of trying to figure it out. “Who can know it?” cries the prophet. Fortunately, we are not left there for the next verse (Jeremiah 17:10) gives the answer:

“I the LORD search the heart and test the mind”

As we draw near to the Lord He will show us our hearts. God will not only show us them, He will redeem them for His glory. God will pour in the healing necessary for us to endure. God will give us the strength to carry on. We will not lose heart because we know that God began a good work in us and He will complete it. The battle for our hearts may rage daily, but we know Who wins. We may be knocked down, but we will get up and overcome through God’s enabling grace. Do not give in our up saints, keep on walking, our hearts need the exercise.

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3:17

Serving as a pastor for more than thirty years, I have had the opportunity to walk alongside a wide variety of personality types. There have been the aggressive and passive, the compliant and argumentative, the don’t rock the boat, to let’s sink it. Some are sensitive, and some are harsh. Some cares deeply about what others think, and some don’t really care at all. My way or the highway to why can’t we all just get along. People are interesting. Leaders even more so. 

While we all have a personality, with all of its inherent strengths and weaknesses, we do not have to be dominated or controlled by it. We should have the desire to walk in godly wisdom within our personalities. I admit, sometimes walking in godly wisdom is in spite of mine.

James defines wisdom from above in contrast to that from below. In the verses preceding the one above, James says, if we are bitter, jealous, or have selfish ambition in our lives, we are not walking in godly wisdom. In fact, these sinful traits will lead to disorder and every vile practice. Just like in so many other places in Scripture, the contrast begins with the three letter word, “but.”

Godly wisdom is not focused on self, jealously, or ambition. This heavenly wisdom is outward focused and leads to a harvest of righteousness. James states that godly wisdom is pure. At least part of the understanding is that this wisdom is free of personal motives.

Godly wisdom seeks peace and is gentle in nature. Those of us that have strong opinions that state them strongly need to guard against running over people. Our passion and intensity can intimidate others and silence them through our strong presentation.

Godly wisdom is open to reason. Other translations read – Willing to yield, reasonable, considerate, easy to be entreated, and accommodating. Since we are living in community with others, it is essential that we learn how to get along. This is true in the family, our jobs and the church. Godly wisdom teaches us how to relate to, and bear with those that see the world through different eyes.

There are times when we must not bend. These should be relatively few in number, and chosen carefully. Godly leaders disagree at times. Husbands and wives do also. Learning how to be open to reason, yield, and reasonable is a sign of godly wisdom. None of us contains all of the truth. We need others to help us see from a different viewpoint to make the best possible decisions. Stubbornness is not a fruit of the Spirit but a work of the flesh.

There are issues to hold fast too and to even walk away from relationships over. I like to say, hold tightly to the things that are very clear in Scripture and hold loosely to those that are not. Godly people have disagreed over many topics down through church history. Learning how to disagree agreeable is a sign of wisdom and maturity.

James further states that godly wisdom is full of mercy and good fruits. A wise elderly gentlemen told me years ago to learn to err on the side of mercy. When in doubt, give mercy. Treat others how you want to be treated. Give mercy and you will receive it. Good advice.

I have had the pain of walking through two horrible church splits. In addition, I have participated in referring several others. A great deal of needless pain and heartache were endured because the leadership was unable to walk in godly wisdom. I have seen many relationships destroyed over issues in the Scripture that are unclear. Our best friends walked away from our long-term relationship over an unclear issue. The fruit of choosing to not walk in godly wisdom is painfully obvious. On the other hand, walking in James’ wisdom produces excellent fruit. Unity, service, acts of mercy, outreach, etc. all follow after leaders who are willing to work together.

Finally, James says that godly wisdom is impartial and sincere (without hypocrisy). This probably refers to not showing partiality to the rich or living in fear of man, or walking in pretense. We must make decisions based on what we believe and not on the consequences or opinions of others. Each of us will live with our conscience. We must walk in integrity, sincerity, and with, as best as we can tell, pure motives.

Putting all of this together leads to walking in godly wisdom. Godly wisdom I believe leads to excellent decisions and strong relationships. Walking in my flesh, demanding my own way, and being unwilling to yield leads to death. In Scripture, we are strongly encouraged to choose life and choosing to walk in godly wisdom is certainly part of that choice.

I am surrounded by godly men that desire to walk in godly wisdom. We recently navigated a potentially disastrous discussion by following the above verse. Each of us is strong and feel passionately about our viewpoints. However, we value something even more than being right or winning the debate. We value each other. We can disagree over policy and positions, but we will not forsake godly wisdom in the process. We must not, and for that I thank my God daily.

1. God
2. Family
3. Job/Ministry

I wonder what our schedules would actually reveal. Do we really give God the most time and attention? How about our family, do they come in second over other pressing matters? As men, or as the provider for the home, do we really place the source of our income as lower? How many of us pastor types give more attention to ministry than to either God or our family? Not accusing here, I am just asking questions.

The family in the book was upper middle class folks living in a great neighborhood. God calls them to sell everything and move to the other side of the globe. During the yearlong process of selling off everything, a revelation hits. All the stuff* they possessed, was just that, stuff. The amount of time and energy that went into buying it seemed like such a waste as they sold it. (*Stuff is a technical term meaning, bits and pieces, things, possessions, or whatever else I want it to mean in this blog.)

Garage/estate sales will provide a reality check like little else. The items we just had to have or our life would be ruined, are now being sold for a quarter. Tools, books, pictures, toys, gadgets, and just about anything else can be purchased at these sales for pennies. Makes you think doesn’t it? 

What should we be investing our time and energy into then? I think the order above is correct. We must do whatever we can to reorder our lives to have time to spend with our Heavenly Father. We must make time in our lives to read and enjoy His Word. We must seek to know Him, and grow in our love of Him. This is our first primary goal for all else pales in comparison. Loving God is the great and first commandment, and we demonstrate our love with time.The important items in our lives are not composed of our stuff, but our relationships. We have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our spouse, children and grandchildren are people that we know and love. Even at our job or ministry, most times it is very relationship centric. We work with people, interact with them, sell to them, buy from them, and in general, are never very far away from someone. Stuff on the other hand, is just that, impersonal, maybe pretty, comfy, high tech, shiny and nice, but still just something we use and eventually dispose of the stuff.

Our families should be next. If we are married, our spouse should be a top priority. If children come along, we must invest time and effort into developing a relationship. These primary relationships are going to last a lifetime. They deserve time and effort. The same is true with our church families. We have the same Dad. We are brothers and sisters, and we will spend all of eternity together. We must learn how to get along and to live in unity. Like most families, arguing and fussing will take place. We are family though, and we will work through it. We must, for those outside of the Family are observing our behavior.

We must also do a good job working and serving, for the Scripture tells us to work as unto the Lord. Work is not our Lord, and it is a lower priority than the others are, but we still must work. We are made in the image of God and God is not lazy. He calls each of us to work to further the Kingdom of His Beloved Son. We work to serve and work to eat. We do not worship work or destroy the higher relationships for the sake of work. Work is a means to an end and not the end. Relationships are the end.

For the record, I am not opposed to stuff. I like stuff. Nice stuff is, well, nice, but it still is just stuff. We all know that stuff is all going to burn. Even if we die before the end of the earth, we know that all the stuff we accumulate will eventually end up in a garage or estate sale, and someone else will buy our stuff for pennies.

So, what we should we live for then? What should we invest in with our time and money? What should be the priority? Well, not stuff, but God and people would be my answer. What would you say?

Read John 19:17-42

Here is some of what happened on Good Friday. Jesus gave His life for us on the cross of Calvary, and all of history came into glorious focus.

Jesus’ fulfilled all of the over 300 prophesies recorded in the Old Testament, many of which focused on His Sacrificial death. Here is a link for a listing of some of them.

 (http://www.accordingtothescriptures.org/prophecy/353prophecies.html)

Jesus crossed all social lines in His ministry. Rich and poor, male and female, religious and non-religious. Some stayed true until the end while others ran away. John, Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene stayed all the way to the cross, Peter, and all the rest of the disciples, fled and denied. Joseph of Arimathea, was a disciple, though in secret for fear of the Jews, however, he stepped up when it mattered. So did old Nicodemus.

 How we start, does not matter so much as how we end.

We often fail and fall on our journey, but God is loving and gracious and always gives us another chance. He will keep giving us the same tests until we pass. By the way, the tests are always open Book, and you can ask your neighbor for help!

 We can also be surrounded by our enemies, seem to be totally helpless and defeated, yet God reigns. God is sovereign, has a plan, and will not be thwarted. Consider this section of Scripture:

 Read Romans 8:31-39

Jesus defeated sin and death by His sacrifice on the cross. The tombs were open, and death lost its sting for the believer.

 Read 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Yes, we mourn our loss of a saved loved one, but not their location. In fact, we are often envious. They are now free of pain, heartache, tears, sorrow, sickness, their earthly, death-filled life is over and they have stepped into glory. They are now free and we long to join them. Why, because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Jesus initiated the new covenant on the cross.

Hebrews 9:14-16 – “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.  For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.”

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 – “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,  and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”  In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”  For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Read Hebrews 8:6-13

Sometimes we read the crucifixion story and overlook much of what took place. The whole universe changed that day. What was messed up since the time of Adam, was restored. When Jesus shouted, IT IS FINISHED, it was. The sacrifice was offered. The price was paid. Man was saved. We can never grasp all that happened, but we know enough, and it should move us to worship.

 2 Corinthians 5:21-”For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The Greatest Exchange in History

 Hebrews 4:14-16 - “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Because of the Blood of Jesus shed on the cross, we can now enter into the Holy of Holies and be received as if we are Jesus. We are forgiven our sin, and commissioned as ambassadors for Christ’s Kingdom. We are adopted into the Family of God. We can now call God almighty our Father. Both Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6 tell us of our new relationship – Abba Father, which means – daddy, papa.

The cross opened the new and living way to an eternal relationship and unending life.

We read the story of the cross and we should be moved to worship. We are now family, safe, protected, destined for Glory, in service of the King, more than that, children of Him. Amen. The cross was the sacrifice, next week the acceptance proven by the Resurrection!

“And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:12

In life, work, play, and just about everywhere, two are better than one. Most of us like some alone time, but in general terms, hardly anyone likes to be alone all the time. I know, there are hermits, but most people reading a blog are not one. I also wonder if the hermit types began that way, or ended up choosing the lifestyle after living with other people, but that thought is for another time.

The advantages of being with others outweigh the disadvantages, at least most of the time. Being alone makes us vulnerable to deception. We need others to bring a perspective that we do not have. I do not really think any two people process everything alike in every possible situation no matter how close they align with someone else. We all have a perspective, and we all need others to help balance us out. Jesus did not need balancing out because He was perfect. We are not Jesus.

We will learn a great deal about ourselves by being with others. If we are alone all the time we may think we are wonderful people. However, if we spend time with others, they may not share our opinion. By our self, we do not possess enough facts to see the picture we present to others. As we learn how to interact with those around us, clarity comes.

Our flesh sometimes reacts to another’s flesh. “Why are they so self-focused?” we ask. Of course, what prompted that thought was that they were getting the attention we wanted, but we will not go there. “Why do they think they are always right?” we whine. Here is a news flash, they probably do not, and we are not always right either. They might just disagree with us, and that rubs us wrong.

On the positive side, if we learn how to embrace the differences we will grow and be stronger. Not everyone thinks like we do, and that is a good thing because we are not always correct. We need others. We need someone that is different to help us see the situation from another point of view. Together we will see clearer and make a better decision than alone. This is Biblical:

Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.                                               Proverbs 15:22

Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.                                                   Proverbs 20:18

When the early church was struggling, a council was called. Acts 15 gives us some insight into how the meeting proceeded. Through discussion, prayer, acceptance of something totally outside of the current understanding, God’s will came into view. Godly men listened to other godly men and a great victory was achieved.

Most churches and businesses have some sort of plurality of leadership structure. Why? Because we all know that someone by themselves, will not make as good of decisions, as someone making them in agreement with others. None of us possess all the wisdom or experience to assure that we are correct all the time.

In order for this concept to work, it takes humility and an environment for freedom of expression of opinions. Husbands that refuse to listen to their wives are cutting off a huge supply of God-given wisdom. Pastors that will not accept advice or insights from the other leaders are destined to have an audience of one. Business owners that will not adapt, or allow their employees to have input rarely keep them.

I believe it is by Design that we are meant to live in community and in personal relationships. The hermit is the one that is outside of the norm, not the person that wants to be around others. God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” He met that need through a companion. We are created with the need for others. Pride, arrogance, and ego often keep us from learning how much we need one another.

Solomon knew this principle. By our self, we will be overcome easily. If we join with another, it is much harder to take us down. If we tie ourselves with many others we will have what we call the Church, and the gates of hell will not overpower us. That is a promise from Her Builder.

Both of those questions are in my mind on a regular basis and prompt many more questions. Why do I do what I do? Why did I do what I did? Whom am I really thinking about when I did what I did or do what I do? Am I as noble minded and selfless as I have deceived myself into believing? Do I really not care what someone thinks about me or is that lie? How much of my self worth is tied up in other’s opinion of me? The list could on for a while, but I will spare you the pain of having to run though my thought life.

In every relational type situation I encounter, there are multiple wills playing out. There is of course my will. There is someone else involved and they have a will. There is our enemy’s will and there is God’s will. I know we are to seek God’s will in everything, but do I? Yet another question I ask.

It seems to me that many times I want what I want when I want it and God’s will, or anyone else’s for that matter means very little to me. Shocking isn’t it? Why do I do the things I do and say the things I say? Is God’s will really at the forefront of my words and actions. That question makes me squirm.

After almost forty years of walking with God and thirty years of being a pastor, I still struggle with my motives; daily. Dictionaries define motives as the reason we do what we do. Here is another question – do my motives line up with these words of Scripture?

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Philippians 2:3

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:1-3

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Colossians 3:12-13

To be honest, no. The desire is often there but my flesh is not always in agreement with my brain. So, what do we do, quit? Of course not. We see where we fall short, ask and receive grace and we walk on with our Lord. We learn from our mistakes and failures, and we walk on. We repent of our sin, and we walk on. We fall, get back up, and we walk on. If we have hurt someone, we ask for forgiveness, and walk on. If we need to make restitution, we do so, and we walk on.

Why am I writing this? What is my motive behind it? As far as I can tell, it is to help myself, and anyone who reads it, to think deeper. But really, only God knows the deep recesses of our hearts. Jeremiah stated centuries ago that the heart is desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9) but thankfully he didn’t stop there, in verse 10 he also states that the Lord searches and knows our hearts and mind, and for that I am very grateful. My Lord loves me, accepts me, empowers me, and is changing me for His glory and purposes. If my motives need changing, my Lord will see to it that they are changed. I can, and do, rest in that truth.

• If you want to be great in the Kingdom of God, learn to be a servant of all.
• We are saved by grace alone and not by works, yet our faith is proven by our works.
• God is the Sovereign Lord of the Universe yet we are told to act in certain ways and given a choice to obey or not.
• God knows all things yet we are told to pray in order to make a difference.
• We are told to love the sinner yet hate the sin.
• The devil is a defeated foe yet we are told to resist and overcome him.
• We are free in Christ yet we limit our freedom for the sake of love.

Those seven are enough to make my point and I am sure you can think of many more. In fact, I found one today during my reading time:

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. Matthew 24:12

Interesting. One wing that is often exalted is love, grace and freedom in Christ. We are saved by grace, live in grace, and are under grace, God is love, we are free from guilt, and any mention of obedience, works, or human effort invites a verbal beating. Those on the other side (wing) shout, “Lawlessness” as the danger of over emphasis on grace and God’s love. They continue, “What about obedience, grieving the Holy Spirit, holiness, and overcoming temptation and sin?” Picking either wing at the expense of the other will result in erratic flight patterns.

Over the last 39 years or so, I have observed many that have shouted, “grace, I’m free in Christ!” They are of course correct. However, many times this revelation has resulted in sinful excesses because of that truth. We are warned by Peter:

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 1 Peter 2:16

Jesus said that because of lawlessness love would grow cold. Interesting. Most people that use grace as a cover for all manner of sin do end up despising anyone that asks for deference or holiness. Perhaps Jesus was right after all. Lawlessness eventually turns love cold.

On the other wing, those that go down the path of law, endless rules and man-made standards of holiness will end up despising everyone that disagrees with them. Sounds like Pharisee thinking to me and Jesus never accused those guys of demonstrating love.

If love is our calling card to the world, and it is, we must learn how to fly with both wings intact. We need grace without lawlessness and obedience without bondage. In other words, we need to be people who know and obey all of the Scriptures, and not just our favorite doctrines.

If you add to that the commands to love your friends and your enemies, do not return evil for evil but bless instead, feed the hungry, clothe those without, give freely to those that ask, and redeem the time for the days are evil, our days are pretty much full. And, we are destined to fail. What are we to do?

We walk in grace. Moment by moment we live, move and have our being in Christ. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life fully pleasing to His heavenly Father. We are not Jesus and so we will never arrive at total perfection this side of eternity. On our best day, we still fall woefully short of perfection. Even if we did everything we should have, countless things were left undone. We fail but we are not failures. We are works in progress.

When we fall, and we all fall, we fall in the right direction. We are called to walk on the Highway of Holiness following our Lord and Master, but that does not mean we do not slip and fall. We walk in His footsteps but we are often entangled and we stumble. We are not perfect, we are recipients of grace from the One that is. If we could be perfect then Jesus did not need to come and live a sinless life. One of the wisest humans outside of Jesus wrote:

for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity. Proverbs 24:16

We fall but we get back up. We fall multiple times, but we get up and keep on walking by the grace given by our Lord. We are not perfect but we are heading somewhere and it is perfect. We are not yet clothed with immortality and perfection but we will be someday soon. We do not yet look like Jesus but we shall in eternity. What a glorious day that will be!

In the meantime we walk. We fall, get up and keep on walking. We cry, repent, forgive others, ourselves, and we walk. We have a cloud of witnesses that if we could see and hear them, would be shouting out encouragement to us! “Keep it up, your almost there.” Don’t quit now, you are so close.” Come on, get up, shake off the dirt and filth, be cleansed in the blood of Jesus, and keep on walking.”

How do I know they are saying such things? Consider whom the writer of Hebrews was probably referring to when he wrote that famous passage in 12:1. If we were to go back and study each of the lives of the people in chapter 11, we would see a direction, not perfection. None of those mentioned were perfect. In fact, most of them were people that failed and fell. But, they got back up and kept on walking. So must we. These people looked to God for forgiveness, strength, and direction, and so must we.

We must be those that lay aside the sin that so easily entangles us and look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. As we consider Him, we renew our minds, regain our strength and we walk on towards the prize. We are not perfect, but we know Who is and we are those following Him. Someday soon, we shall see Him and be like Him. In that day we will only fall at His feet, and that is the proper direction to fall.

For over forty years this man, and his bride, have been deeply involved in trying to help families engraft Scripture into their hearts and minds through the Awana ministry. The Awana program is an internationally known ministry that features many innovative ideas for accomplishing this task.

What struck me during this conversation was a statement that this dear saint made. He quoted a study conducted by the group to see how many of their young people are actually staying in the faith after graduation. Many church wide studies point to a dismal failure, but not theirs. If a child will stay in the program, and their parents are involved with them, they are experiencing over a 90% success rate. Here is the actual quote from the Awana website:

“For years leaders have recognized that kids who do the best in Awana programs have help at home. A recent Awana® alumni study shows not only that, but also over 90 percent of those Awana kids still attend church at least once a week as adults!”

Awana, for the first time, is now offering their program for home school families because they see the direct correlation between parental involvement and the successful transference of faith from one generation to the next.

My Ph.D. dissertation was entitled, “A Biblical Analysis of the Roles of the Family and the Church Regarding Faith Impartation.” One has to have a long title when writing these things. My hypothesis was that the more the parents are involved the better chance you have to be successful in imparting faith generationally. The Awana study seems to confirm this.

Part of my research included studies by Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. Dr. Ray has interview over nine thousand home educated children that are now adults living on their own. His conclusions were similar to what the Awana study found. While many in the traditional church are losing 70-90% of their young people in the first year of college, this group was retaining their parent’s faith system in over 90% of the cases. Hmmm.

Many years ago, I was having a discussion along these lines with a Christian school administrator. This man had dedicated his life to helping students and as we chatted, he said something very insightful. While the direct quote eludes me it went along the lines of – it really does not matter what method of education someone chooses for their children, what matters is parental involvement. Are we seeing a pattern here?

I know there are families that are messed up and there are children that do not have their parents intact. However, for those that do, parental involvement seems to be critical to faith impartation. Christian marriages are falling apart and the next generation pays a huge price tag when they do. Perhaps that is why the enemy of our soul works so hard to destroy the basic family structure. If parental involvement is a key to faith transference it is not a huge jump to state the other side – parental neglect impedes it.

Even our world system seems to understand the principle. “Parents, the anti-drug,” and “Do you know where your children are right now” campaigns have flooded the TV airwaves paid for by our tax dollars. Why? Homework is given by teachers and students are encouraged to enlist their parents to help them. Why? In extreme school cases, parents are even brought into the classroom to help the teacher. Why?

Maybe what the Awana group, Dr. Ray and even our humanistic society realizes is that God was correct all along. The family unit is the best possible place to reach the children. The family structure, when intact, presents the highest and best opportunity to shape the future generation. God put it this way:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9

As parents, we have a wonderful opportunity to shape the next generation. Will we seize it or will we squander it away? As a father of adult children, I can testify to the fact that the time of direct influence we have is fleeting. The children grow up quickly and soon just come over once and awhile to visit with their own children in tow. We can still influence but not like when they were living in our home. We must seize the time we still have to make a difference.

Whatever you choose to do with your time I pray that your family will take large amounts of it. Invest wisely for you only are allowed to spend the time once. God will redeem and He will forgive but God does not recreate time for us. I pray that we will invest in the things that matter the most.

If your home is already broken and you are a single parent the job remains the same. Invest whatever time you have left with your children to help them deal with the pain and heartache they endure. Divorce is not the unpardonable sin but the consequences of it impact the children in deep ways. The children need the parent’s time even more after the trauma of divorce, not less. God will give you grace and strength to walk through these days. Draw near to Him and He promises to draw near to you. God loves you and your children. Spend time with them and make sure they know that as well.