[Biblemat] Losing our families and our children....Thou wast as one of them

Fri Sep 21 16:51:38 CDT 2007

Thou wast as one of them. 

Obadiah 1:11

Jerry Blount to the list

Image:PetraTreasury.JPG 

Today's article will notice a principle that comes to us from approximately
586 BC (late date).  Obadiah lived in a time when distinguishing brethren
from pagans was difficult.  The particular passage is a rebuke to Edom
(Esau's descendants).  

They were brethren and should have stood by one another. but such was not
the case.  These brethren were virtually indistinguishable from the world
around them.  Today in churches we find a similar situation.  The churches
seem to have forgotten their spiritual mandate.  Their modern appeal is to
social appetites.  

So, what is the punch line? Our children are overjoyed to be entertained,
wined and dined.  But when they need their faith . . . it will not hold up
and they fall away. Why?  They have not been taught to tell the difference
between the ways of the world and the ways of God.  In practice today's
churches have begun teaching the opposite.  They often purposely blur the
lines between godliness and ungodliness. 

Consequently our children loose their faith when they need it most! 

Or.

Our families fall apart because they are foundationless. 

Today all that remains of Edom (Petra) is the ruin you see above.  It is a
beautiful ruin, but a ruin is still a ruin! 

Regardless of the rhetoric, we cannot afford for our children or our
families to become beautiful ruins.

" Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not 

the unclean thing; and I will receive you."  II Corinthians 6:17

This isn't rocket science. it should be common sense.  Jesus spent a lot of
time advising us on this very subject. 

Look at Jesus' explanation of His most famous parable (the parable of the
Sower. ) 

Matthew 13

"18.  "Hear then the parable of the Sower.

 19.  "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it,
the evil {one} comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This
is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

 20.  "The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man
who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;

 21.  yet he has no {firm} root in himself, but is {only} temporary, and
when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he
falls away.

 22.  "And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man
who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

 23.  "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man
who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings
forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."

Note how the focus of the church is to take people into the word of God.
Most churches today talk about the Bible but when it comes to aggressively
taking people into the Bible so that they really can understand it. It just
doesn't happen.  

Too much time is spent raising money, and entertaining.  Let's take a pop
test. I will assume that you have been around the church for many years.  

Can you? ? ?

1) Turn to someplace in your Bible and build a credible case to prove that
the    Bible is the word of God? 

2) Show in prophecy the dying thoughts of Jesus? 

3)  Turn to someplace in the Bible and show the reason (purpose) for the
church? 

4) Show a passage in scripture that gives you a mental diagram of Baptism? 

            (Note: Jesus commanded all to be baptized. do you really know
what             baptism is?) 

5) Turn to one place (of the many) in scripture where God actually tutors us
on how to determine right and         wrong? 

6)  Turn to someplace in scripture that tells us God's actual attitude
towards "skipping church?"

Now as you add up the answers to very basic questions ask yourself the most
important question of all.

Can your kids answer these questions? 

If they cannot. they will use their own reasoning to answer for what is
right and wrong.  When they do, whose fault is it?  Deep down we all know
they can't learn these things at pizza parties, games, dances and concerts.
God's people have lived through this situation many times. "In those days
there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own
eyes."  Judges 21:25  . . . It leads to chaos.

Have your children been taught to follow the word of God even when they
don't understand all of God's reasoning?  The normal response is. I know the
Bible says but this is today!  Today it is different! 

All is not lost. you can make a difference! 

There is hope for the next generation. They are far more conservative than
their parents.  Our young adults have recognized that their own parents have
gone too far.  Many of them are reacting and demanding answers for "why."  

For example. 

Here's an article that delves into the dramatic turnaround in the young
adults' attitude towards abortion.
<http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200707/CUL2007
0710b.html>
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200707/CUL20070
710b.html

Click on it or copy and paste . then you will be able to see in real terms
how this next generation is likely to completely reverse this country's laws
on abortion.  Why? The most likely explanation has been the focus on the
reality of a partial birth abortion.  

No smoke, no mirrors, no rhetoric. sonograms that show reality.

So. Let's consider a legitimate question for parents to ask themselves as
they consider the influence of the "church of their choice."  

As you look at your church overall.

Take a mental sonogram of your current church home.

Is your child going to view it as a place to play, or a place to learn and
worship their Creator?

There are several lesser questions that will be answered by this one
question let's consider them.

1) Is your child going to come out of his/her childhood with an unfettered
faith in marriage?  

            Cohabitation, fornication and "just say yes" is the rule of the
day.  Does your church focus on the things that will actually protect your
children when they need it most? Handing out free hamburgers is no
substitute for feasting on the Word of God. 

2) Is your child going to come out of his/her childhood with the ability to
apply the Bible's warnings on alcohol? 

             Do you know where the Bible literally addresses social
drinking?  Did you know that the Bible really does address not only
drunkenness but drinking?  Handing out free soda pop and pizza is no
substitute for teaching your children how to use the Word of God in the
areas of life they need it most.   

3) Is your child able to tell the difference between "going to church" and
Sesame street?  Many churches have substituted puppet shows and children's
church for preaching the gospel.  Funny, God seemed to think that it was
through preaching that we are to appeal to the world and. our young people. 

Did you know that Bible not only addresses these related subjects directly
but explains why?

"For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."  I
Corinthians 1:21

Did you realize that the NT actually addresses this entire group of subjects
directly?

If your church is doing it's job. you should know! 

The church at Corinth was coming out of paganism and trying to continue to
be just like everyone else.  Paul considered an OT example and demanded they
make their choice.  I Corinthians 10

6.  Now these things happened as examples for us, so that we would not crave
evil things as they also craved.

 7.  Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, "THE
PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY."

Let me recommend that you read the entire chapter so you see the flow of it
in it's context. 

Note: If you cannot do these things. can you expect your children to?

If you are not hearing sermons on these subjects. do you expect your
children to "just know?"

Psalms 44: 1. 

 O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us the work that
You did in their days, In the days of old.

Now as a follow up to this article, let me recommend that you sit down and
read the little book of Obadiah.   He lived in a time very like our own.
You might enjoy meeting him. 

Here is a flyer I worked up some time back..  Jerry 

Losing the Children?

Thou wast as one of them. 

Obadiah 1:11

Do the children in your church seem to have missed the point?  Don't they
take anything seriously? What example have they had to distinguish us from
the denominations and the rest of the world?   What do they see? 

The ladies' annual garage sale will be this Wednesday.  No Bible study this
week. 

You can make a difference!  You can raise up children to be Christians and
marry Christians. 

Your choices affect the stability of your family and your children in
particular! 

Consider Moses' dying mandate to his people. He was actually advising them
on how to achieve

 true prosperity on earth! Your success on this earth is also one of the
Bible's gifts to you! 

Deuteronomy 6

1.  "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the
LORD your God has commanded {me} to teach you, that you might do {them} in
the land where you are going over to possess it,

2.  so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God,
to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the
days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

3.  "O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do {it,} that it may be
well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God
of your fathers, has promised you, {in} a land flowing with milk and honey.

4.  "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

5.  "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your might.

6.  "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.

7.  "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them
when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie
down and when you rise up.

Yours in Christ 

Jerry Blount

Minister for 

Pleasant Valley church of Christ

3317 Amidon rd. 

Wichita Kansas, 67204

3163204321

WWW.letJesusleadus.org

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