Fathers, have you considered the following passage of scripture, especially verse 12?
2 Timothy 3:10-13  But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,  (11)  Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.  (12)  Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.  (13)  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
      Now that you have read it, are you wondering why you are not suffering persecution? Are you living godly in Christ Jesus? Are you preparing your children to face persecution? Take a look at the series we have started entitled “Behind Enemy Lines” to learn more about what to do to get ready for persecution. As a father, you are the captain of your ship, you are responsible for those on board, and you have to do everything you can to make sure they are up to the challenge.
     We need to understand a few things about the persecution Paul speaks of in this passage. 
          1. Not all will suffer the same persecution or the same amount of persecution and certainly not at the same time.
          2. No one, not even Paul, faced continual persecution. We may just be in the calm before the storm. Even Paul had times where he was able to stay and teach and preach for a period of months or even years without problems. When we read the book of Acts and see all the persecution he did face we sometimes forget that it was over a period of years, not a matter of days. We think of it all like a movie or TV show where the hero is out of the frying pan into the fire constantly. There certainly were some sequences in Paul’s life that were one after the other, but we also need to remember that God specifically chose him and actually said that he would have to suffer much for the name of Christ, Acts 9:16.
          3. Some will try to avoid persecution by sacrificing faithfulness to Christ in one way or another. They will not admit such, but rationalize (rational lies) it. Galatians 6:12  As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
          4. The righteous have escaped a large amount of persecution up to now in America for two reasons: 
                a) There has been an atmosphere of desiring to follow God in the history of this country. That has changed. Wicked men are generally cowards and will not strike out when they are in the minority, Proverbs 28:1. They like to get mobs, or do things in secret, through legal trickery, deceit, etc. We are entering that stage in America. The president is doing background checks to make sure that no preacher who leads a prayer at his inauguration has ever preached that homosexuality is a sin! How long before the consequences of speaking the truth on this issue will be life threatening.
                 b) There is a proliferation of denominationalism (many churches) - the more targets there are the less likely you are to be hit - statistically, the centralization of many churches(a headquarters that can be attacked) - the autonomous nature of the Lord's church makes it harder to attack, the increase in using government laws and courts - things are pushed "legally" and many simply capitulate without ever putting up a fight (consider the health care mandate hundreds of businesses owned by those claiming Christianity and hundreds of 'Christian' nonprofit groups are not even objecting to having to pay for the abortion pill), the watering down of the teaching of many churches losing the idea of absolute right and wrong even to the point of not saying Jesus is the only way to heaven (others assume that we are like those churches) we have not yet been targeted in an organized way.

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

2 Timothy 3:10-13 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, (11) Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. (12) Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. (13) But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Verse 12 is one of the toughest verses to think about that I know of in the New Testament. I think of myself as having tried to live godly in Christ Jesus, yet I cannot think of a time in my life when I suffered persecution because of it. I know the scripture is true, so, that makes me wonder whether I am truly living a godly life. In fact, most of the Christians I know have never suffered for their faith. I know that there are certainly different levels of persecution, and I know that it does not say that Christians will suffer every day. Even Paul had some days that he didn't suffer, but the promise is there that "all", "godly", "shall suffer persecution". Maybe my time is coming. Maybe yours is coming, too. I know verse 13 certainly describes the climate of our society. We are never taught to go out and seek to be persecuted, rather we are to live at peace with all men as much as it is possible without compromising the truth. 
    If persecution is coming your way in the near future, are you ready? Take a look back at yesterday's post and follow as we try to prepare for what the inspired apostle, Paul, promised would happen. Ready or not here it comes.

jp

    If you have missed the past Father Fridays just select fathers in the categories and they should all come up.
    As we have looked at Cain and God's dealing with him, we have noticed that God had expressed his will clearly to Cain, even though we don't read of it, and got involved in Cain's life including invading his privacy. Today let's notice how God warned Cain of the dangers ahead. I believe this is one area where well-meaning godly fathers have a tendency to fall short. I know that I wish my father had done more to prepare me in this area, and often feel woefully inadequate in knowing how best to prepare my own children. People usually lean one way or the other, either they allow their chidren to experience too much of the world before they are ready causing them to become worldly, or they shelter them so much that they can't handle living in the world when the time comes. I don't know where the perfect balance between those two is, but I do know that we have to aim for it. We are to live in the world, but not be of the world. 
    How do you prepare someone for what they will face without exposing them to sin in the process? One story I have heard regards those who are hunting counterfeiters. They are trained by focusing on the legitimate bills and what is distinctive about them. They are told what areas of the bill will be most likely to show differences if it is a counterfeit. They are not shown any counterfeit bills during their training! They have become so familiar with what the real thing is that they can immediately spot the fake. When we teach our children right behaviors, speech and attitudes, but at the same time explain to them at a level they can understand that not everyone will do what is right; then, we will find that they will be capable of knowing wrong when they see it and properly handling the situation. The key is the warning and explanation of the wrong coupled with honesty. For example: one girl was told by her parents that unmarried girls couldn't have babies (not that they shouldn't, but they couldn't). What a confused girl they had when a teen from their church got pregnant. The girl was unable to cope with the situation because she had not been prepared. Obviously, the teen was the other end of the spectrum.
    We must warn our children of the dangers they are personally headed for. Each child will have different struggles and strengths. God saw where the anger Cain had was leading him and He tried to stop the chain of events from unfolding. Unfortunately, probably because of Adam's failures as a father Cain continued down the path that led to Abel's murder and his own destruction. If we have any experience in life we should be able to see where certain attitudes, actions, reactions, and character traits will lead. A child that becomes angry, like Cain, may end up killing another or himself, or becoming abusive toward others. It is a father's responsibility to reign in the natural male (or even female) aggression to keep it from becoming destructive. I can't believe this was the first time Cain ever got angry. If Adam had been able to stop the  temper-tantrums of the 3 year-old, the story might have had a happy ending. 
    How are you doing at recognizing Satan's counterfeit character traits in your children and getting rid of them? How are you doing at helping them to face the temptations of the world? Will they have the know-how and the "know-why" to defend their faith when attacks come? They won't just accidentally make it, they have to be prepared. Let's get busy preparing children to be godly men and women.