Being a Good Father is Worth the Effort

Dads,

We work hard.  We have a lot of priorities in our lives and a lot of things pulling us in various directions, competing for our attention.  We have the same 24 hours in everyday that the rest of humanity has.  What we do with those hours is of vital importance to God.  He gives us each and every heartbeat.  Yes, the ones we take for granted everyday.  We only have a handful of those heartbeats to take advantage of in the grand scheme of time.  I urge you to give your family some of those heartbeats.  Make your children a priority (number 3 on my list after my relationship with my Lord, and my wife).  Please enjoy the always humorous J. Mark Fox on his blog at the Council for Family Integrated Churches as he shares how to obey God's commands in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ 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. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."

Being a Good Father is Worth the Effort



  

Family Reformation

Take a look at these two links . . .

The first one is a great resource to help “jump start” family devotions in your home . . . Men, this will help you to make a “first down” with your family, starting tonight!

“Splink”—a practical online tool for facilitating family talks

Splink

The second link helps to pain the picture of the Faith Path we’d like all of our children to follow. We have already embraced these steps for some time now, but it was wonderful to see it organized so effectively into one unified picture!

Faith Path resource—

Faith Path

Finally, take a look at this vision below shared by our friend Dr. Carlton McLeod recently at the end of one of his sermons . . . May God let this vision come to pass in homes all across America . . . starting with our OWN homes!

From: Carlton C. McLeod [mailto:bishop@crcchesapeake.org]  

Imagine a well-ordered home according to God’s Word….

Imagine a man or husband or father who loves God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength.  Imagine him working hard, with a long-term vision of where he and his family might be by God’s grace.  Imagine his priestly pursuit of holiness, refusing to hurt himself and his family through his own unrighteousness, and his willingness to repent quickly when he fails.  Imagine how he lovingly, tenderly, but firmly declares God’s Word in his home and in the community.  If married, imagine how he loves his wife with his whole heart, how he thinks and says she’s beautiful, how he covers her, provides for her, protects her, and is literally willing to die for her.  Imagine how he counts it an honor to lead her, disciple her, and work so that she always feels safe and secure.  If a father, imagine a man who teaches and disciples his children.  Imagine how he protects them from ungodly influences, instructs them, and casts great vision for who they could be.  Imagine how he prays with them and prepares them for adulthood, marriage, and family!

Also, imagine a woman or wife or mother who loves God with all her heart, mind, soul, and strength.  Imagine her working hard many times outside the house, but certainly at home.  Imagine how she pursues God’s long-term vision for her life! (Prov 31:10-31)  Imagine how chaste she is, how virtuous, how modest!  Imagine how she lovingly and tenderly instructs her children and others in the Word, much like Timothy’s mother and grandmother! (2 Tim 1:5)  If married, imagine how she loves and submits to her own husband as to the Lord (Eph 5:22).  Imagine how she supports him, lifts him up with her words and actions, cares for him, and is willing to sacrifice her agenda to pursue his, seeing her role as a “helper” or a “helpmeet” as a honor bestowed upon her by God Himself!  If a mother, imagine her tender care for her children, teaching them, loving them, and caring for them, casting great vision before them about who they could be in the Lord, praying for and preparing them for adulthood, marriage, and family!

May Christ help us have the faith to reform family, for His glory alone.

Radical - David Platt

Is the American Dream what we are supposed to be pursuing?  Let the thoughts on this video sink in...

Is the Bible REALLY enough?

So . . . is the Bible REALLY enough? Is it really all we need to guide us in our lives in the 21^st Century? As you ponder this, allow David Platt in Radical Together to add his thoughts to your reflections . . .

            As a result of this lack of confidence, churches may begin to minimize God’s Word. It’s not necessarily that we think Bible teaching is unimportant. We just don’t believe it’s enough. Members of the church want something else, and so those of us who lead the church give something else. In our small groups and from the pulpit, we read a verse or two, maybe a story, and then we supplement it with our own motivational thoughts, moving stories, creative ideas, and personal opinions. We glean help from the latest Christian books, the most promising leadership fads, the newest recovery advice, the sharpest financial counsel, and the best opinions on marriage and family. [Ouch!]

            Our motives, of course, are admirable. We want to serve people in need far better than a sermon the Israelites and Moabites could. Still, in the words of Walter Kaiser, “Pastors have decided that using the Bible is a handicap for meeting the needs of the [different] generations; therefore they have gone to drawing their sermons from the plethora of recovery and pop-psychology books that fill our Christian bookstores. The market-forces demand that we give them what they want to hear if we wish them to return and pay for the megasanctuaries that we have built.” [Ouch again! By the way, this quote was from an article written in 1995!]

            Do you see the problem that can result from our good intentions? We can soon find ourselves scaling the heights of arrogance. For at this point we are assuming that God has not given us enough in His Word, and we are acting as if He needs us to supplement His communication to His people with our own talks and thoughts every week. [Ouch squared!]

            But God is not in heaven thinking, “Man, if only I would have known or thought about this struggle or that situation my people would walk through in the twenty-first century, I would have addressed it. I am so thankful for wise leaders who are helping Me in areas I left out!” Obviously this is the not the case. God has given us everything we need in the Word we have.

            May the Lord convict us all! And . . . may we return to the foundation and sufficiency of His Word with renewed energy, commitment, and hunger . . . starting today!!

(from Pastor Brad Shedd- www.harvestva.org)

Dads,

It is with great pleasure that I recommend this interview with Rusty and Rusty Martin Jr..  Rusty Martin Jr. played the teenage son in the movie Courageous and his Dad Rusty Sr. played the plant manager.  The Martin's have been friends of ours for years and it is a true blessing to see how God has been using them to further His kingdom.  This interview conveys the heart of these men and it is a great testimony to the value of committed fatherhood.  Click the link below to read:

Courageous: Rusty Martin family interview

Overruled: Government Invasion of your Parental Rights

The following movie was produced by Parental Rights.org (www.parentalrights.org) exposing the egregious actions of some in authority in our country.  Please watch it and share it.  We all need to support the Parental Rights Amendment to our constitution.  Go to the website to learn how you can become involved.

Til Debt Do Us Part: Chuck Bentley

This is a fantastic article on our current national debt.  It puts it into perspective comparing it to a family's budget....great food for thought.

It has been said that the best way to please everyone is to believe nothing, say nothing and do nothing. Since launching this column, I have certainly succeeded in not pleasing everyone!

On Monday, one of my articles was featured in The Washington Times, one of the few major daily newspapers that takes a conservative view of the political world. You may want to see my article here. It was subsequently reposted at FoxNation.com.

On the day it was published, it ranked as one of the most read articles on The Washington Times website. While I cringed at the editor’s choice of “BENTLEY: Don’t Feed the Lazy,” for a title, I was pleased that the Bible verse I cited, II Thessalonians 3:10, was included. Needless to say, the polarized responses to the article indicate a significant national divide.

As Christians, we need to take an ardent stand for our economic freedom that was granted to us by God’s grace and kindness. If we stand passively on the sidelines trying to please everyone, I believe we will become enslaved without a shot ever being fired on our soil.

A primary area where our policies are deviating from biblical truth is in the management of our national debt. Let’s take a look at a simplified analysis of the financial problems we currently face in the U.S.:

U.S tax revenue: $ 2.15 trillion1
Federal budget: $ 3.8 trillion2
New debt: $ 1.65 trillion3
National debt: $ 15 trillion4
Recent budget cut: $ 38 billion5
Now let’s remove some zeros and pretend it’s your budget…

Your annual income: $ 21,500
Your household spending: $ 38,000
New debt this year: $ 16,500
Your credit card debt: $ 150,000
Recent budget cut: $ 385
In a household budget, whenever unsecured debt approaches a 1 to 1 ratio with annual income, the borrower is in serious trouble. When this ratio reaches a 2 to 1 level the problem intensifies to out-of-control trouble. If you are somehow able to borrow to a 7 to 1 ratio, the problem becomes a runaway crisis. It screams for immediate action to reverse the trend.

The Federal Government has become the caretaker of first and last resort. This philosophy is simply unsustainable. Our deviation from God’s principles is rapidly becoming our downfall.

So our elected officials have now recognized that a 7 to 1 ratio is unsustainable. Thus, we have a special deficit-reduction “Super Committee,” charged with cutting at least $1.2 trillion in government red ink over the coming decade. Note: This is not to reduce the $15 trillion in existing debt, but only an attempt to reduce deficit spending each year!

Even with these hoped for cuts, we’ll still be trillions of dollars more in the hole by 2021.

Does it sound like anyone on that committee is aware of Proverbs 22:7: “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”?

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Super Committee can find no common ground for agreement. Just as European leaders find themselves unable to reach a meaningful solution to their problems while teetering on the verge of insolvency—so does America.

This political gridlock has divided the nation into two camps—one wants to tax the rich to close the deficit gap while the other would be satisfied to simply reduce our deficit spending. Neither side, it seems, is willing to admit that we are standing on the edge of a cliff, looking into an abyss of debt.

Rancorous partisan fighting among lawmakers in Washington continues to produce more confusion than solutions. Perhaps they should consult the wisdom of the Old Testament for clarity:

“If you fully obey the Lord your God…you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail…you will always be at the top, never the bottom….However, if you do not obey the Lord your God… The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.” 6

When our national budget reflected our obedience to God’s ways, we were the largest lending nation in the world. Tragically, we have given up our once high position as the “head” to become the “tail” –the largest debtor nation in the history of the world.

Debt has divided us. Only a return to God and His principles will unite us again and move us from being the tail back to being the head.

I pray you will stand with us as we seek to influence our nation back to honoring God in all our ways and to protect our priceless freedoms.

Chuck Bentley  http://blog.crown.org/