If our children are going to remain faithful to God in a time of trials and persecution there are some things we have to do to prepare them for something we have never faced before. One of those things is . . .

Making Christian Connections

There is something encouraging about knowing you are not alone. In 1 Peter 5:9 we are encouraged to resist Satan and the encouragement given is knowing that others are facing the same afflictions and temptations. Sometimes we suffer from the Elijah syndrome which occurs when we think we are the only ones in the whole world who are faithful. Other than the days of Noah that has never been the case. God has children throughout the world and we would do well to remember that.

I know we are busy with our lives and many churches are busy with their own activities, fellowship time, Bible studies, outreach, evangelism, benevolence programs, etc.(and they may be great things to be involved in), but we have to make time to make contact with other Christians beyond our own congregation as well. Do we connect with a church when we are traveling? Do we visit area congregations when they have a meeting, ladies’ day, or even VBS? Do we interact with other Christians by phone, email or snail mail, or even social media?

During the first century there were certain places with more persecution than other places. At one point all of the Jews were forced to leave Rome, in some towns Paul stayed and preached for a long time while in others he was attacked, Jesus even told the disciples at one point that if they were persecuted in one city they should flee to another. He was not encouraging cowardice, but prudence; live to fight another day. I believe that the same clustering of persecution will be true in our modern times as well. Just as certain things have been pushed and promoted more in some states than others, it seems likely that before there is a national persecution there would be some in certain cities or states. If they become severe enough it might be advisable for Christians to leave one place and go to another. Would you have any contacts under those circumstances? Where could you go? Who could you call? Who could call on you?

I think about the Christians who got out of Jerusalem before the destruction or the Jews who left Germany and later Austria to escape Hitler. Some thought it was foolish and unnecessary and that nothing bad would happen, but looking back we see those leaving were wise. I certainly am not saying that we should all be scared and running for our lives. We are not there yet and I still hope that we can turn things around, but I am saying that just as with a fire, tornado or hurricane it is good to have a plan in case of emergency. Once the house is on fire is too late to plan. Some probably think that I am being silly to even bring any of this up, but that is what many thought before the destruction of Jerusalem and before WWII as well. It is better to be prepared for something that never occurs than to be caught flat footed when it does happen.

Our country is currently on a trajectory away from religious freedom. If you don’t believe it consider what is going on in the military which has always had a strong religious foundation. 
* An Air Force officer was told to remove a Bible from his desk because it might give the impression he was endorsing a religion.
*The Air Force censored a video created by a chaplain because it include the word “God.” The Air Force feared the word might offend Muslims and atheists.
*A service member received a “severe and possibly career-ending reprimand” for expressing his faith’s religious position about homosexuality in a personal religious blog.
*A senior military official at Fort Campbell sent out a lengthy email officially instructing officers to recognize “the religious right in America” as a “domestic hate group” akin to the KKK and Neo-Nazis because of its opposition to homosexual behavior.
*A chaplain was relieved of his command over a military chapel because, consistent with DOMA’s definition of marriage, he could not allow same-sex weddings to take place in the chapel.
*The VA has banned the use of “God” in military funerals.
These are actual events, not some fictional storyline. Add to that the fact that this very week the Supreme Court heard a case about whether a town council can say a prayer before they start their meeting. Can you imagine that happening 50 or 100 years ago. The founding fathers said prayers when they had meetings, but some think it should not be allowed anymore. We are definitely headed toward persecution of Christians if we don’t make a course correction.

In the meantime having fellowship with other Christians near and far will help us grow stronger and help them grow stronger. Studies have been done showing that the number of Christian friendships a person has is directly related to how likely they are to remain faithful. We are a family and even though we don’t see all of our family every week we still love those family members that live far away from us. I know in my family there are some family members who have never met one another, but we still know they are family if we need them or they need us. We will not meet all of our Christian family on this side of Heaven, but we need to know they are family if we need them or they need us. - jp

If our children are going to remain faithful to God in a time of trials and persecution there are some things we have to do to prepare them for something we have never faced before. One of those things is . . .
Build Boundaries

I can’t draw boundary lines for your family and you can’t draw them for mine. That is hard for us because we wouldn’t believe what we do if we didn’t think it was right, but there must be room for the authority God has given fathers and mothers to decide what is best for their children. We need to support each other’s right to draw lines for our own families and defend those who are persecuted for drawing lines in their lives even if we do not draw the same line. There are some things that are a matter of conscience and for someone to violate his conscience the Bible calls sin (1 Corinthians 8:10-12; 1 Peter 2:19). We must study Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 and realize that God has given certain authority to the father of the family and not the church to decide some things. For example: I have decided with my wife that our children will not be allowed to spend the night with friends where we are not present. Based on our own experiences and other dangers that we know exist we are not willing to allow that. You may not agree or even understand why we have made that decision, but that doesn’t matter, you should respect the right of our family to decide that. There are other things that do not always make sense to others looking in from outside, but that are an important part of one families rules. When I was young I would go to a friend’s house and when we came in the door his mother would tell us to take off our shoes. My family never did that, but at their house I did because it was their rule. It never made much sense to me at the time, but looking back I realize that since they lived on a farm there were probably some pretty nasty things on those shoes that they did not want tracked all through the house.

God never gives a responsibility to someone and makes them accountable to Him unless He has also given that person the authority and power to fulfill the responsibility. When God tells husbands and fathers that they are the head of the house they have the power, authority, and information necessary to fulfill that responsibility and will be held accountable with what has been entrusted to them. If fathers (or mothers for that matter) shirk their responsibility they will have to answer to God for that. What are you doing to lead your family in the right direction?

So where will your family draw the lines? Only you can answer that, but let me give you some questions to consider. 

1. Has your family drawn lines regarding use of language (Cursing, lying, using God’s name in vain, etc.) that are not to be crossed?
2. Has your family made boundaries in the sexual arena (dating, premarital sex, flirting, sexting, etc.) for your self, spouse, children maturing into adulthood?
3. Has your family set guidelines for time usage (things that are a waste of time and shouldn’t be done, things that must be done before others, activities with time limits, etc.) that help everyone in the family be productive?
4. Has your family determined out of bounds markers on money matters (amounts to save, give and spend, discussion between husband and wife before spending, budgeting, kids’ spending, what kinds of things should never be bought, etc.) to avoid materialism, affluenza, poverty, greed, government dependence, etc?
5. Has your family fenced off negative entertainment and fenced in positive entertainment to keep minds pure and attitudes positive?
6. Has your family defined proper and improper behaviors in your home and in public?
7. Has your family determined what is a sufficient reason to miss worship or other spiritually beneficial activities?
8. Has your family decided what teachings or practices would cause you to leave one church for another?
9. Has your family outlined priorities based on principles you believe are most important?
10. Has your family clearly marked the limit of government interference, intrusion, coercion, etc. that you will allow before saying we must obey God rather than man? 
11. Has your family drawn a line in education (safety, things taught, private school cost, home schooling, etc.) about what you will or won’t allow for your children?

There may be other areas that you need to consider, and if so, consider them and make a decision. As in many other areas of life, so in the area of drawing boundary lines: not deciding is deciding not to. If you don’t build the walls and draw the lines someone else will do it for you and you may not like the results. Remember that there may be new information that could change some things for your family, so the things you have put down need to be reviewed an a regular basis to make sure they are still in line with your family culture and values as well as your knowledge and understanding of the Bible. For example: as you learn and grow as a Christian some things that you once allowed you may realize should not have been allowed, but other things that you were dogmatic about you may realize were family traditions and not Biblical principles and you may want to go a different direction from the way your parents or grandparents or siblings went. - jp

If our children are going to remain faithful to God in a time of trials and persecution there are some things we have to do to prepare them for something we have never faced before. One of those things is . . .
Get that Government is not God

It seems like we as a people are becoming more and more dependent on the government to be there for us, especially the Federal government. I suppose that I honestly lean increasingly toward the libertarian view of things even though there are moral issues involved that I disagree with strongly. The fact is that our government has been growing at an alarming rate and has become truly unsustainable at this point. If something is not done soon the weight of it will fall on the American people and crush them, but this is not even about fiscal problems or bloated programs, or bureaucracy, or the things that people generally talk about when they discuss the problems of government. We are following a path that has led to problems for others in the past. Read one woman’s account of what happened in Austria during WWII.

The fact is that there are many people, including some Christians, who have been duped into believing that the government has the right to make laws that it actually does not have the right to make either constitutionally, or according to God’s law. When I asked once, in a Bible class, what we would do if they passed a law that said we couldn’t get together to study the Bible or worship one woman actually said she guessed we would have to quit doing it. Let’s make this clear, no government, not the United States government, not any state or local government, not the United Nations, not a husband, not an eldership, nor any other government is God. Government has no authority except what is given from above, Jesus said as much while on trial with Pilate - John 19:11. In Romans 13:1 Paul reminds us that the government is ordained and authorized by God, not the other way around. Peter and John made it clear that we are to obey God rather than man - Acts 5:29. When discussing Obamacare and the mandate to provide funding for the abortion pill, at least one Christian said since it didn’t affect churches it didn’t matter to us and that businesses had to do what the government said, even non-profit religious charities and Christian colleges. That is not true, and I for one am glad that there are some companies like Hobby Lobby that are fighting it and refusing to obey it.  Understand that just because they didn’t try to force it on churches this time does not mean they won’t soon, speak up while you can. I am often reminded of the quote that is attributed in various forms to Martin Niemoeller. 

There is also a growing percentage of our population that depends on government for day to day existence rather than on God. Money is a tool the government has used effectively in only one way – to get people addicted to the next handout. What if the government completely shut down tomorrow? There would be chaos, theft, murder, and rioting in the streets next week when half the people in the U.S. who get a monthly check and/or other benefits didn’t receive them. What about you? Are you depending on the government or God? Even those in private business might have some serious cutbacks if those on welfare and social security did not get their money to spend. There would be a massive ripple, a tsunami, throughout the economy. Someone took the 23rd Psalm and changed it to reflect the thinking of many who believe “The Government Is My Shepherd”. It has been around for years and there are several variations, this is a recently updated version of it.

There is an increasing ignorance about the role of government and the history of our government. People today have completely perverted the founders’ intentions with their talk of the separation of church and state. Originally, the idea was to protect the church, religion, and Christians from the federal government. Read the amendment in the Bill of Rights and you will see that it clearly says that congress(federal government) shall make no law establishing a religion or prohibiting the free practice of religion. There was actually nothing about local laws regarding religion, in fact several of the states had recognized churches. The point was not to allow the entire nation to have only one church as had been done in England. 

Consider the way that worked in the past, the Mormons were not welcome in many of the established states, so they went west and established their own in what is today Utah. That state is still strongly Mormon, but their laws have changed as others moved into the area, voted, ran for office, etc. There was a time when in Missouri a city was established for atheists. It was named Liberal and the goal was that no church building would be built there. Eventually the founder of the city became a Christian himself according to Wikipedia. Now there are at least 7 religious groups there. You can read more about this failed experiment in an article by Apologetics Press. That is what freedom is about and to some degree what was intended (although the founders had no use for atheism or any religion other than Christianity - for more on these views consider the videos The Silencing of God and America’s Most Pressing Concern available from World Video Bible School). Those kind of things could not happen today. If a group of religious people of one stripe or another decided to have a town of their own and not allow others, it would be attacked in the courts as soon as it was known. It has gotten to the point that if one person doesn’t like it he can scream about it and get any religious thing thrown out of town. You see, the truth is not afraid to stand toe to toe with a lie because it can win, but the lie can’t win in honest debate so it must resort to other means to silence truth and win the day. Today the founders' original plan has been twisted and perverted to protect government and society from religion. 

As Bible believers, we know that God does not call us to go live in isolation with only other believers, we are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Both light and salt are more clearly evident in circumstances where there is not much. Turn on a spotlight out in the sunshine and it would barely be noticed 10 feet away, but light a match in the darkness of a cave and everyone there can see it. Put some salt in a salt shaker and you may not notice, but put some on bland vegetables and it makes them edible. Because our country has been one that taught morality and had many religious people of various denominations who were living basically good lives but were confused on certain doctrinal issues, the contrast has often not been that great. We are used to agreeing with our neighbors on 90-95% and debating issues of worship, a doctrine about the second coming, etc. That is not the case anymore. If we will truly live for Christ, not just worship Him on Sunday but truly live as He would live, we will stand out from the crowd, we will shine as stars in a crooked and perverse generation - Philippians 2:15.

Think about how different the Amish seem to us. Will we as Christians ever seem that different to our neighbors or will we keep doing what the media and government tell us is normal. Normal is being on the road toward Hell, I don’t want to be normal. I want people to think I am strange, the Christians in the New Testament had people thinking they were strange, not because of hair styles or not having electricity, but because they did not get involved in sinful things. Just because it is legal doesn’t mean it is moral. Government approval is not God’s approval.

There can be no doubt in our minds or our children's minds that tempts us to believe that government is benevolent, our provider, all-powerful, or our friend. The government that is at odds with and enemies with God and His Law is an enemy to His people as well. We need to know that wherever we live in this world we are living behind enemy lines and in hostile territory among citizens of the kingdom of our greatest enemy, Satan.

So what do we do with a hostile government that looks on us as a danger and that we have finally recognized as a danger? How do we react? We’ll consider that further in the next installment.

jp

    What if...? Consider the school where a child you care about attends. Now, imagine there is a substitute teacher who gives that child some advice. The teacher tells the student "Do not dwell in the past." Imagine what that teacher might say when the same child asks "Who said that?" The teacher tells this youngster that it was Buddha. What if the child continued to inquire about who Buddha was and what he said and so forth? What if the teacher helped the child find a book about Buddha at the library? What if the teacher gave his own copy of a book to the child? Would you be upset? Would you be pleased? Would it matter to you? Would you think that was an appropriate thing for the teacher to do? Would you want the teacher suspended or fired?
    After you think about that for a while, ask yourself what if I were a substitute and said something like "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". What would you say if a child asked you who said it and what book was it in and who was this Jesus guy? What if he told you he didn't have a Bible, would you offer to give him one? If you did do you think it would be worthy of being fired? Do you think that is something some other people should be angry about?
    Now, if you said you would give the kid the Bible in that situation, does thinking about that and how others would feel about it make you think any differently about the first situation? Where does answering a question become indoctrination? What is appropriate or inappropriate discussion for people of different religious beliefs to have not only with each other as adults, but also with children. Do we think that we should be able to freely talk about Jesus, but expect that people of other religions will not think that they should have the same right. 
    The truth is never scared to be out in the mix. It can stand on its own feet and go toe to toe with any other belief system. The problem is others are scared of the truth because they can't stand up to it, so, they try to shut it out and shut it up. Notice the following story about a scenario like the ones above that actually happened. http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/teacher-faces-suspension-for-sharing-bible-verse.html
    jp

    I keep an eye out for news stories that give insight into the culture war between the humanistic atheistic, secular side of our society and the religious, Judeo-Christian side of our society. I saw a story about an on-going struggle between these two groups at Vanderbilt University and thought you might be interested. You can read the whole story and look at some older stories on the subject at http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/vanderbilt-tells-group-leaders-can%e2%80%99t-be-followers-of-christ.html and you may even want to check in with Todd Starnes occasionally to see news of this kind if it interests you. 
    The gist of the story is that there was a religious group on campus that had, as many religious groups would, in their rules that someone who was a leader in their organization had to believe in certain things. In this particular case they had to have a "personal commitment to Jesus Christ". The university said that they had to change that to allow anyone to be a leader. The insanity of these things is obvious to anyone with any common sense. A Christian would not be a good leader in the Atheist group, a Democrat would not be a good leader in the Libertarian group, a Catholic would not be a good leader in the Jewish group, and a Muslim would not be a good leader in a Christian group. 
    The freedom to choose with whom we associate and for an organization to set its own rules for membership and association has been a fundamental right in our society that is now under attack. I wonder if they apply these same kind of rules to the liberal groups on their campus.