I apologize for the late post today. School has begun here and that means time for me to take up again my role as teacher to my children. I don't wish for this blog to go to the 'wayside' however. So, I decided why 'reinvent the wheel' and spend all my time writing articles when there are wonderful articles already out there on the topics I wish to teach you about. Please take the time to read this article. Feel free to ask questions or discuss in the comments here. If you wish to see other posts on this topic, click on 'Church history' in the sidebar on the right.
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Looking for more than just a Bible reading? With this website, read through the entire Bible in 3 years (the NT twice) and complete the accompaning study questions as well. A great way to study the Bible!
Today, I'd like to share with you a couple of articles that may be helpful to you.
Recently I was helping some teenagers who were struggling with a difficult home life. I wanted to share with them a verse that helped me when I was growing up to draw strength from my heavenly Father. When I looked up the verse, I happened to see the following verse which I had never considered before. Here are the verses: "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies." (Psalms 27:10-11) My mother and father had never forsaken me, of course, but as a teen I often felt as if they were against me. I took comfort in knowing that God was always there for me. But what hit me recently upon reading those two verses together was that the Psalmist says to 'Teach me your way.' In order to live in this life we must know His way. In order to deal with our enemies we must know His way. Dear reader and mother, we must learn the way of the Lord to be able to instill it in our children's lives. Our children need to learn and we are their best teacher. We need to teach by example, by our words and our deeds. In this case, more is caught than taught. What we envision our children being when they are grown, we need to be for an example. Read the Word daily and live it daily.
Psalm 8
"O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen-- Even the beasts of the field, The birds of the air, And the fish of the sea That pass through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!" What a humbling realization it is that God, the Creator of all things, has entrusted us with the care of His awesome creation. Even more, He made it all for us! More humbling still is the fact the same Almighty God sent His only Son to bleed and die so that we may obtain salvation. Just who are we that He is so mindful of us? Let us always be mindful of His unfathomable love and favor. Who Am I? When I think of how He came so far from Glory, Came to dwell among the lowly such as I; To suffer shame and such disgrace, On Mount Calvary take my place, Then I ask myself a question, Who am I? Refrain Who am I that a King would bleed and die for? Who am I that He would pray, "Not my will, Thine," for? The answer I may never know, Why He ever loved me so; That to an old rugged cross He'd go For who am I? Then I'm reminded of His words, "I'll leave thee never, Just be true, I'll give to you a life forever," I wonder what I could have done To deserve God's only Son, Fight my battles 'til they're won, Who am I? Refrain -CA This blog and website is called "Build Your Wall", and is based on the idea from Nehemiah that the city of Jerusalem needed a wall to protect the inhabitants of the city. Some would say, "The Lord should have been their wall and they should have trusted Him." While it is certainly true that we should trust the Lord and that ultimately He should be our wall, He expects us as fathers to build walls to protect our families as well. As a father it is our responsibility to do what we can for our families. The Lord is able to go far beyond what we can, but we should go as far as we can. The old saying that 'the Lord helps those who help themselves' has some truth to it. The fact is that if we neglect our duty, the Lord is not obligated to pick up all of our slack.
It is tempting to try to throw everything in God's lap and make him responsible. God will not accept responsibility for something that is not His responsibility. Some of us have never had a serious crisis in our lives and think we never will, others have had emergencies that could have been avoided if we were building walls for our families. There are some emergencies that can't be avoided, but that can be ameliorated with the right preparation. It is sad how many Christians don't plan for the future and just 'live today' and even misuse and abuse scripture to do so. It has been said that the Lord provides food for the birds, but He doesn't drop it in their mouths, and the same is true for us. When James condemns those who were saying 'we will go to such a city and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain' (4:13). Sometimes Christians use this passage to say that we shouldn't make plans, but what James was teaching about boasting, attitude, and not making God's will part of the plan. Others pick the passages where Jesus warned us not to worry about tomorrow or as the KJV unfortunately translates it 'give no thought for the morrow' (Matthew 6:25-34) and teach that we should not think about what we are going to eat or wear or anything else about the future. The problem with this philosophy is that if you actually give no thought to what you will wear or eat tomorrow you will find that you have literally nothing to wear or eat, eventually. We have to balance that with passages where Jesus said things like, 'if you are going to build a tower sit down and count the cost' (Luke 14:28-30) to see if you have enough to finish it. That sounds suspiciously like thinking about tomorrow. The truth is that planning helps to keep us from worrying. This is true in most areas of our lives. I have found that by having life insurance I do not worry about what would happen financially to my family if I died. By being a Christian and have a plan for eternity, I don't worry about death. By having an emergency fund, I don't worry about what will happen if the van breaks down. By working, I don't worry about how I will have food next month. Having health insurance can help alleviate the worries of illness. Most of these are financial and they are not the only things people worry about, but the fact is that it is one of the most common. One area where people really don't build walls and plan for the future is in the spiritual arena. God puts the responsibility to bring children up 'in the nurture and admonition of the Lord' (Ephesians 6:4) squarely on the father's shoulders. The problem is that most fathers either ignore this mandate or try to push it off on the mother or worse the church. It is not the church's responsibility to raise your children or train them. If the only Christian teaching children receive is at church, even if they came every time the doors were opened, it would take them over 90 years to get the equivalent of a high school education. Wake up fathers and learn to do what the fathers in the Old Testament were told to do. Deuteronomy 6:7 says, "...teach them diligently unto thy children... when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Quit coming home from work and crashing in front of the TV for the rest of the night. I recently heard someone say it so appropriately, "We need fathers who will go to work so they can come home and do their job." Don't be confused providing financially is a part, but only a small part of the father's responsibility. God has given us our children's souls as our first priority, and we need to match our priorities to His. Church History is a fascinating subject to me - specifically the restoration movement era here in America. One day I hope to take a college class on it. If you are interested, there is a video up at thebible.net that you can watch. I plan to watch it one day, probably soon. For today's post, let's look at scriptures which discuss deviations from God's word even before the apostles died. This subject could fill a whole book, but for today let's just look at a few. 1. Apollos was teaching the baptism of John (Acts 18:25). In this case, there wasn't really a departure from what the apostles taught. Apollos simply hadn't been taught about Jesus. After bringing him aside, Aquila and Priscilla taught him 'more perfectly'. I mention this one because Apollos had the right attitude. He, evidently, listened to their teaching with an open mind and accepted it. So many people aren't willing to be open to learning something new. They are so set on teaching what they think they know. We better be sure we are teaching what God wants us to teach and not simply what we think is right. 2. Some were using charming words to deceive. "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Romans 16:17-18) Some were being swayed by every 'wind of doctrine' (Ephesians 4:14). We should be rooted in the solid ground of the Word where it is difficult to be deceived. 3. Divisions by name. In Corinth they were dividing themselves into groups. Some were thinking themselves better than others since they were taught by Paul or Peter. Here's what Paul has to say about using different names: "Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:12-13) It was prophesied that we would be called a new name (Isaiah 62:2) and we were given the name Christian at Antioch (Acts 11:26). Why would we wear another name when Christ bought us with His own blood (Romans 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 1 John 4:10)? 4. Some taught that Christ didn't actually come to earth. I was fortunate to do an in-depth study of 1 John for a Bible bowl. The first chapter is packed with wonderful tidbits of information. John is directly teaching against Gnostics. There were many things that Gnostics were teaching - claiming that they had 'extra revelations' from God. They were very disorganized. What one group taught in one town directly contradicted what another group taught nearby. What John was teaching against here is the teaching that Christ didn't really come to earth in the flesh. John says not only that they had heard Jesus and saw Him, but that they even touched Him. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;" (1 John 1:1) We must remember that even though these people were taught by apostles, some of them left the faith (1 Timothy 1:20). We need to study diligently to build our strong foundation and fortify our walls that we know the truth and cannot be swayed by any 'wind of doctrine' other than God's.
I decided to do something different than 'Website Wednesday' today. I hope it is edifying to you wives out there! I like to think that my marriage relationship is near perfect. The fact is, when I take a critical look at it, there is at least one area that needs a lot of work on my part. I have a serious problem with asking my husband questions and not paying any attention to the answer. It can cause some serious problems. The other day I asked him if I should pay something with cash (something we are trying to do more of) or use the debit card. I totally didn't pay any attention to the answer, which was to pay cash. So I get there and couldn't remember how he said to pay. Well, not having the cash, I paid with the debit card. Thankfully, that $10 won't break the bank, but what if it did? I realized that something was going to have to change in me before there were serious problems - financial being only one of them. The Bible says to husbands: "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (1 Peter 3:7) This is speaking to husbands, but let's think about this for a minute. The phrase 'dwell with them according to knowledge' has been said to mean 'know your wife'. How can they know? Can they read our minds? We have to talk to them and tell them what we want them to know. On the other hand, we need to know them and talk to them. How can we know unless we listen? "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." (James 1:19-20) What are your thoughts on communication in marriage? Comment and discuss.
Do you want to memorize scripture with your kids, but have a hard time finding the time? Do you find they learn well by singing song? Most children I know learn the books of the Bible with singing, so why not scripture as well? Hannah's Hundred was born through this need to help little children learn the Word. These songs are great! Arranged and sung beautifully by the Colley family - a cappella of course - these are wonderful to 'pop' into the CD player in the van on even short trips or while fixing supper. You'll be amazed how these songs work their way into little hearts! Not long after listening, my son began to whisper the entire verse to me when just a part was mentioned in a sermon. I find the verses spilling out of me during ladies Bible classes or teaching teens or children as well. Each CD focuses on a different set of 100 songs. If you'd like, you may request a list of the scriptures in each CD, from the Colley's, so that you can have a paper copy of them. They are so easy to sing along with! Even the least of the musically inclined can join along fairly quickly. Number 4 is probably my favorite! It takes you through the entire book of James! Our family started this and made it through the first chapter before life took us other directions. It is my plan to return and finish one day. These CDs are such a blessing! No home striving for heaven would be complete without them! You can find them at the Colley's website, Colley Books.
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