Motives for managing our families well

Here are more notes from Richard Baxter on what should motivate us to manage our families well and train them up in Christ.
1. When we govern our families well, this is a major part of God's government of the world.  If families are controlled, reverent and trained in godliness, then we are participating in God's plan for the world.
2. An ungoverned, ungodly family is a powerful means to the damnation of all the members of it." In a godly family there are continual motivations and inducements to live as Christ and love as God loves, while in an ungoverned family, no such models, motivations or inducements exist.
3. A well governed family creates safety and ease and pleasure for its members.  This is because sin is being nipped in the bud and love is being nurtured.
4. A well governed family prepares its members for  a well governed church.  This allows ministers to continue to train up the people of God and move them from milk to true food, as well as preparing the way for spiritual discipline and admonition as needed.

Family prayer Times

Should families pray together?  Of course, we answer, but why?  Simply stated, because all churches ought to pray to God and praise him and

a Christian family is a church...a society of Christians gathered for the worshipping and serving of God (Baxter. p83).

This is the call of the family, to gather and worship and serve God in life by discipling new and young believers, modeling Christian living and faith, praising God for his answers to pray and requesting of him the necessities of life.  This is our call as Christians generically and as churches corporately.  Maybe the lack of church prayer stems from a lack of family prayer and a misuderstanding of the nature and purpose of family.

Families don't exist to make us feel good, though that is a by product of true family.  And Families don't exist to meet our needs, thought this too happens.  Rather families exist to glorify God - and glorifying God happens through worship and service, of which prayer is a part.  Let us, as families, commit to praying and teaching our members how to pray that God may be glorified in the present and future generations.

On missionary dating

We have all heard this before:

I know they will be converted.  God can call them if he will;  if i just love them and share God with them we can marry and he or she will become a believer later.

Listen to Richard Baxter's response over 300 years ago,

"First, then, it seems because you love an ungodly person, you will be easily turned to be ungodly.  If so, you are not much better already.  If love will not draw you to their mind to be ungodly, why should you thing love will draw them to your mind to be godly?  Are you stronger in grace than they are in sin?  Second, if you know well what grace is and what a sinful, unrenewed soul is, you would not think it so easy a matter to convert a soul.  Why are so few converted if it is so easy a thing?  You cannot make yourselves better by adding higher degrees to the grace you have; much less can you make others better by giving them the grace that they do not have.  Third, it is true that God is able to convert them when he will; and it is true that for aught I know it may be done.  What of it?  Will you, in so weighty a case, take up with a mere possibility?  God can make a beggar rich, and for aught you know the contrary, he will do it; and yet you will not, therefore, marry a beggar; nor will you marry a leper because God can heal him.  Why then should you marry an ungodly person because God can convert him?  See it done first, if you love your peace and safety." p44-45

On Choosing a Spouse

I promised to share more gems from Baxter's The Godly Family.  Here is one for all the singles to consider, and for the parents to pass on to their children:

If you fear God, your chief end in marriage will be to have one who will be a helper to your soul and further you in the way to heaven. p42

Going on Baxter gives some advice in evaluating potential prospects,

1. "Judge them by their love...If they love the Word and the servants and worship of God and love a holy life and hate the contrary, you may embrace such, though their knowledge is small and abilities weak.  But is they have no love to these and live a common, careless, sensual life, you may avoid them as ungodly."p43-44
2. Be able to identify why you love them.  "To say you love but that you do not know why is more beseeming children or the insane than those who are soberly entering upon a change of life of so great importance to them.  A blind love that makes you think a person excellent and amiable who, in the eyes of the wisest who are impartial, is nothing so or that make you overvalue the person whom you fancy who in the eyes of others is next to contemptible - this is but the index and evidence of your folly." p 39-40
3. Pay attention to their nature and disposition.  Make sure you can stand it.  Are they easy to please?  Can they match wits and intellect with you?  Are they humble?  Can they be quiet?  Will they speak?  Each of these is important.

If Christians were to pay attention to these guidelines from the 1700's, marriages would have such a better foundation and success rate.  particularly #1, for if one hates being around god's people, or says they love the Bible but refuses to ever read it with you and pray with you, this is a sure sign to be concerned.

Reflections on Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning

I completed Wilson's Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning a few moments ago.  By and large, I enjoyed the book however I don't agree with everything Wilson wrote.  Then again, I don't agree with everything anyone writes, I guess that makes me human and an induvidualist - a true product of the American West.  And that is one of Wilson's main arguments in the book, education has duped us in to thinking we are really thinking when in fact we are just parroting out the same things that others believe, just like I think I am unique, but when everyone is unique, unique is just another name for "the same."

Should you get married?

I started reading "The Godly Home" today by Richard Baxter.  Baxter was a 1700's puritan pastor in England and he wrote a tome on Christian living which is being republished in 4 parts.  I have read the volume on being a pastor, and when I saw this I had to read it.

Today I learned about the first direction that he gives to families and potential families.
1. Before rushing into marriage, each person must understand God's will for their life and whether He approves of them marrying or not.  Let me quote him directly,

"First, it is God whom you must serve in your married state, and therefore it is proper that you take his counsel before you rush upon it, for he knows best what belongs to his service."

In order to determine God's will and counsel on the issue, Baxter outlines a series of things to consider carefully:

1. Are your parents commanding you to marry, if so, that is God's will for you.
2. Are you unable to control your body and have you tried every means available in order to your sexual urges, including medical treatments (Yes, Baxter says that).  If the answer is yes to both questions, then you are probably called to marriage.
3. Will marriage allow you to be the most use to God and the public in glorifying him and working to save the souls of others?  If so, marry; if not, abstain.
4. Are you already married?  Then stay married, God has ordained it for you once you enter into the marriage covenant.

Then there are a few other guidelines he gives for those whose parents forbid them from marriage, those who have eloped, those who have promised themselves to others, etc. It was a very engaging section and one which our world would do well to consider carefully, especially since more marriages end in divorce than manage to last.

I look forward to sharing more of Baxter's thoughts as time progresses.

Thoughts on Goodness

Goodness: Again, the reader should be aware that this is the third post in a series related to the Fruit of the Spirit written by Stephen Winward.

"The holy God, who is perfect goodness, requires his people to be holy; 'You shall be holy, for I am holy' (1 Pet. 1:16).  It is in order that we may meet this requirement that he gives to us the Holy Spirit, who produces in us the goodness of Christ.  And so it is from God, from the Holy Trinity, from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that all human goodness is derived.  Goodness is gift, grace, fruit." (pg. 148).

Just think on that for some time.  Without the Holy Spirit, without God alive in us, we will not be able to do anything which God will ever deem "good".  It is only his actions that are good, Jesus said so when he responded to the rich young ruler - "Why do you call me good?  There is only one who is good - God." 

Thoughts on Kindness

Kindness: This first thing to catch my interest in this chapter of Winward's Fruit of the Spirit was a quote from Quaker Stephen Grellet,

"I expect to pas through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."(pg. 136)

The words show a great amount of wisdom and ring a warning to us about our temporal lives.  We may not live until tomorrow to do that next act of kindness that has been put off.  We need to act now.  But what was more striking to me was how he connected Christian conversion with kindness.  Using the story of Paul and Silas in Philippi he tells us they had been beaten and the jailer had fastened them in the stocks, without any concern for their pain and suffering, but when he was converted the text tells us, 

"He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds." (Acts 16:33)

Kindness is part of being a Christian and it is a radically different way of interacting with society than the non-Christian way.  The actual word used in Gal 5:22 is chrestotes and means

"goodness toward the evil and ungrateful, it is beneficience towards enemies." 

In the case of Paul, Silas and the Jailer, they were his enemies, but now his friends.  Paul and Silas showed not anger, rather they showed patience and kindness to the Jailer, he in turn, after conversion, showed kindness and love.

Thoughts on Patience

I promised more comments on Winward's Fruit of the Spirit.  Here they are.  Overall the book is excellent, a wonderful source for devotional reading and reflection on my life.  I have been reading through the 3 chapters on patience, kindness and goodness this week.  Each of them contained a wonderful nugget worth pondering.  I will post something from each chapter over the next 3 days.

Patience:  The reader should understand that the word used in this particular instance in Galatians 5:22 that has been translated patience is the Greek word makrothymia.  With that in mind read on,

"As the word makrothymia indicates, patience operates in the context of anger.  Makros means long, and thymos means anger.  Patience is the prologed restraint of anger...There is a tendency nowadays to assume that anger is always bad...Anger can be excellent; it is a characteristic of God himself.  It's true that God is 'slow to anger', but he does become angry. There is a divine impatience with evil. God doesn't always restrain his anger, and the servants of God should not always restrain theirs." (pg. 126)

After thinking on that for awhile, the author then helps the reader to distinguish between good and bad anger.  These are two kinds of anger that exist in our world. "Good anger is other-people centered; bad anger is self-centered."

My only complaint, with the chapter is the digression he takes into discussing patience in relation to waiting for things.  While I think our culture needs to hear his words, the Greek for patient waiting is a totally different and unrelated word, which the author acknowledges, but which he moves on and covers anyway.

Completed Brand's The First American

I finished HW Brands The First American on the life of Benjamin Franklin.  What a wonderful book on a singularly amazing persona of the American Independence Movement. Brands gives a wonderful sketch of Franklin's life from childhood through his death, taken year by year.  Full of stories, wit, autobiographical input as well as other first person accounts of interactions, the book gives compelling case not only for Franklin as the most important American that lived, but also for the inevitability of the Revolutionary War.  I hope you will peruse it at your leisure.  I learned much about the man and the times which I don't recall ever having been taught in school.

Book Recommendation

The fruit which a person bears, whether good or bad, is of three main kinds. Jesus said that the words of a man are the fruit of what that person is. (Matthew 12:33-35). Jesus also taught that deeds are fruit. (Matthew 7:15-23). ...But fruit is more than words or deeds; it includes the qualities of character from which those words and deeds issue, 'for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true' (Eph. 5:9). Outstanding among the truly good qualities' of Christian character are the nine fruits of the Spirit. The include all three, words, deeds and virtues. For love, joy, peace and all the fruits of the Spirit are revealed in what we say, in what we do and in what we are. [page 16]

I just started reading Fruit of the Spirit by Stephen Winward. The preface and opening chapter are so wonderful that I am going to jump out on a limb and recommend it to you before even finishing it. The book is out of print, but there are a number of used bookstores on line with copies at very reasonable prices. Winward is a Baptist pastor from England who wrote this in the 1981. He takes a very Christocentric approach to the fruit stating that they are a character sketch of Jesus and that we need to understand Christ before we can understand the fruit he wishes to produce in us.

Wonderfuly written and extremely full of devotional thoughts, I highly recommend it.  In the opening chapter, Winward goes on to discuss how we can cooperate with the Holy Spirit so all the fruit is born in our life. He recommends 4 ways:

1. Attention - paying attention to God and directing our eyes upon Christ at all times, or returning our gaze to him when we wander.
2. Devotion - praying, reading the word and worshipping
3. Restraint - refusing and denying those impulses and desires which are not in accordance with God's word
4. Practice - doing those things which are in accordance with his word

From here he states,

For since the love of God in Christ includes all the virtues, in responding to that love he recieves all the virtues. If, let's say, I am deficient in joy then I shall not become joyful by concentrating on becoming joyful. For joy is the fruit of a relatinship from which all the other virtues likewise spring. If I lack patience I shall be sadly misguided if I focus my attention on becoming patient: it should be focused on the one source of all the graces, patience included...It is in the context of a continuing and ever-deepening response to the love of God in Christ that all the virtues develop, indirectly, naturally, spontaneously. Within those who abide in Chrsit the Spirit produces the fruit, the love which includes all the virtues. [page 27]

I hope you have found these few thoughts stimulating and that you find the book wonderfully beneficial to your walk.  I will make occasional posts as I read the other chapters and share some of his insights and mine.

Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Christian Life

I just finished Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain. For those who are unfamiliar with the story here is a brief synopsis: Thomas a Becket Driscoll and Valet de Chambre are switched in the crib when Roxy, a slave woman, 1/32 negro, realizes that nobody will ever notice. She gives her son, Chambre, the leg up in society. Unfortunately he turns on her many times, even selling her down the river to pay a gambling debt, though she holds over him the spectre of turning him in as the fraudulent heir that he is.

Eventually he kills his uncle and Pudd'nhead Wilson, the town lawyer and also sleuth and finger print collector uncovers the whole thing on the final morning of the trial. The murderer is exposed and shipped down the river and the "slave boy" but true heir takes his position. Only problem, he is the heir, but he still lives, talks and acts like the negro he was raised to be.

As I reflect on the story, this passage of Scripture comes to mind.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God — or rather are known by God — how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? Galatians 4:8-9

What a commentary on the Christian life and how we continue in what we were even when we are free. Even though the true heir is restored to his rightful place, he continues to long for and live like a slave. Isn't that the Christian's struggle? Though we are rightful children, we long for the slop of this world, its riches, its rewards and its entrapments, but we are free. We have every right to a real life grounded in Christ, but we live like slaves. Oh that each of us recognized this reality and began enjoying the glorious freedom of Christ - growing, learning and living like men and women freed from sin and death so that we can really love God and our neighbors.

Book Review of A Man in Christ

After finishing Stewart's A Man in Christ, I was unimpressed. While his main thesis is admirable and even worth deep pondering - Paul was more interested in union with Christ than justification by faith - the book left me feeling like there was not a lot there.  Maybe my troubles started with statements like,

The first century mission Churches in Asia and Europe made headway precisely because they confronted the world with a way of life, and not with a speculative system. (pg 6)

which sounds wonderful and which I agree with until you read a passage like,

Orthodoxy varies from age to age, and each age has read back its own particular brand of orthodoxy into the apostle. (pg. 13)

This sounds an awful lot like the initial underpinnings of relativism and the social gospel.  Action is more important than belief and belief can change and you never know the truth.  Well, I am not sure the apostles would agree with both statements.  I am convinced that they believed the truth of a way of life, but I am equally convinced that that way of life was grounded in a very specific, non-accomodating view of truth.  In fact, it was the truth that formed their way of life, not the other way around.

I may have totally misunderstood the book, but that is my core problem and when the cores are out of focus, I have a hard time dealing with the rest of the text.  That said, there are many good snippets in the book.  Thoughts that will stay with me, but in the end, I have read much better books as a whole.

The Grunch of Giants by Buckminster Fuller

GRoss Universal Cash Heist = GRUNCH.  Fuller believed that corporations exist in order to slowly or quickly, it matters not the speed, although fastest is best, transfer wealth from workers to the corporate owners.  Although, this is not the shareholder, they benefit a little, but it is the owners of the corporation who hide behind swiss bank accounts and who manage to control one another's boards and steal our money through inflation and price hikes.

His thesis continues with the belief that money always follows military, it is the military that is constantly innovating new technology on tax payer backs and then the GRUNCH comes along and convinces government to hand over all the rights to the technology in order for them to sell it to the public as well, effectively placing all R&D costs on the backs of the public who cannot enjoy the break throughs without paying for it a second time.  (Velcro, Satellites, cell phones...)  All of this limits the risk to the corporation by infintely extending their production capacity.  Their only cost is making the article now that we, the people, have paid for its research.

Furthermore, Fuller believed that there were two kinds of people: those out to make money and those out to help humanity.  He firmly believed the two couldn't go hand in hand for making money requires paying attention to certain social conditions and mores, but helping humanity steps beyond that and does what it can to help without concern for profit.

After thinking on his book for a few days, I am impressed with his insight.  Particularly with this thoughts about R&D, Military, Government and profitability.  They seem to me to be right on.  One other point of interest he raised was related to the last round of bailouts the US government performed in the 80's for Lockhead Martin (missile trigger maker) and Chrylser (Tank manufacturer).  Looking at our current bailouts, we have GM (Hummers), AIG (Insurer of Military Contractors and Subcontractors) and I would guess that the deeper we look, some of the other banking institutions have tight military connections and are therefore unloseable for national security purposes.

These are a few of my thoughts so far, more may come, then again, they might not.  I recommend the book highly.

Born to Die - Book Review

Have you ever wondered what the book of Leviticus has to do with Christ?  I mean all those sacrifices - the burnt offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the grain offering, the peace offering? I have just started a series of posts entitled "Where's Jesus" to address such questions as they relate to the narratives of the Old Testament, but I would like to recommend a book to you by Doug Stringer entitled Born to Die that we may live: The work of the Cross and the Power of the Resurrection.

In this short, 125 pages the author explores these 5 sacrifices and how they relate to Jesus Christ.  While some of his interpretations see like long stretches, for example, comparing the female goat to be offered by the commoner for his Sin offering to Mary the mother of Jesus (pg 93).  The vast majority of the book is very encouraging and edifying, particularly for taking a book like Leviticus and pointing to Jesus.

What is the purpose of Christian parenting?

According to an Amazon.com there are 119, 188 books on parenting.  With such a wealth of experts on the subject, one can only guess that there are an equally numerous number of opinions about how to parent, the purpose of parenting and the goals to which parents should strive.  In fact, the predominant view of most parenting resources is to shepherd our children into productive members of society by the time they reach emancipation.  But is such a view, really the purpose of Christian parenting?  Is that all we are called to as believers, or is there a greater goal than merely productivity?


I believe there is a greater goal!

God's Love and Worldly erotica

Voddie Baucham has a great chapter entitled "Learn to Love" in Family Driven Faith.  In it he explores the differences between sexual love, aka the Cupid syndrome, and true Christian love which can span any and all relationships.

One of the most helpful thoughts he communicates is related to being a father:

"Like most men, I went through a difficult season when my daughter began to walk into womanhood.  how do I express love to this young woman if I believe that love is a sensual force?  Is it best for me to stop hugging my daughter?...I had to learn how to be appropriate with my daughter without ceasing to be affectionate.  The first step was to get over the Greco-Roman myth of romantic love.  I had to view love biblically if I was going to be able to translate it from one relationship to another." (pg. 55-56)

Mohler on The Economist's Falling Birthrate Article

Here is a quote from Albert Mohler's editorial on the recent article in The Economist:

The bad news is that the girls who will give birth to the coming, larger generations have already been born. The good news is that they will want far fewer children than their mothers or grandmothers did.

Do they really mean what they say here? The fact that these girls have already been born is "bad news." The good news is that they are likely to want fewer children, offers the essay.

...In the end, the economic calculations and forecasts are less important than the moral concerns raised by this cover story. The assumption of the article seems to be that human beings are primarily economic agents, who should be moved into the workplace as soon as possible. This is a sadly deficient understanding of human nature and what it means to be human. The depreciation of family life (and specifically of motherhood) found in this essay reveal a great deal.

A society that celebrates a falling fertility rate is a society that is trading maternity wards for nursing homes. There is something very troubling and very sad about that exchange. Not least among the troubling questions is this: Just who will come visit and care for the aged when the aged outnumber all the rest?

Read the full article here.

Doug Stringer and relational equity

"The seed is always sown for the a future harvest...and the degree of return you get is based on the level of investment you make..."  This sounds like an economics lecture, but in truth I just returned from a wonderful gospel presentation by Doug Stringer, President of Turning Point Ministries, at Western Washington University's Faculty Forum.  

Wrestling with Leadership

I am reading Barna's newest book, Master Leaders because I wrestle with being a leader.  What I mean is that I really struggle with what it means to be a leader, a good leader who serves the Lord well.  I struggle with my own belief that leadership necessitates charisma, being a great motivational speaker and somehow magically being able to get others to go where you want them to go - all of which I know I am lacking or unable to do.  I struggle with believing that leadership is militaristic - top down and positional, and since I am a pastor of a church, people should follow me by default.  In short, I am a mess in terms of leadership.  I know it and I pray for God to guide me and lead me, change me and conform me, even that he would give me the spiritual gift of leadership.  I am reading about leadership because I am truly in need of help, and while I understand Jesus' ideas of servant leadership, I don't know what that practically looks like since I have never served under a servant leader.