Tuesday, April 3, 2012

"Can You and those who come behind you see the Lamb?"

On Sunday, I joked about it, but I was very serious that the Biblical truth I knew I needed to deliver would be received with offense and resistance. However, God has again shown me how incredibly open you are to letting God change us with His truth even when it is hard to swallow.

The truth I am referring to is that every generation is to take direct and intentional responsibility for the generations that come behind them. I used this example, "When parents say, 'I cannot force my child to engage in the things of Christ,' they are buying into a lie of our culture which is a lie of hell that says that we parents should give up our role of influence on our child's lives and further that as a church family we should not assume direct responsibility for the spiritual influence of the children of Living Hope. Not only is this a lie, but it is hypocritical to say we cannot force our children to engage in the things of Christ. We "force" our children to take a bath, go to the doctor, go to school, do their homework, follow through with their commitments to sports and band and yet for some reason when it comes to that which is most important we think we should leave their spiritual formation completely up to them. I encourage every adult in our church to be free of these hypocritical lies and take responsibility for the faith of the next generation. Just imagine what God could do through a generation that was raised to believe that God has a purpose for their lives that is so meaningful and powerful that it will transform them and transform the world through them!

On Monday night, as I waited for the "hate emails and calls" to begin to come in form the above mentioned statements on Sunday, instead, I received the following:

The first was a call from a Grandmother. She brings her grandchild to worship every Sunday with the blessing of the parents, but without their presence. She said, "Yesterday, after worship, we went to lunch my two good friends, a couple from LH.

The man said to my granddaughter, 'I Love you.'

My Granddaughter lit up an said, "I know you do because you have a cross in your heart."

"A cross in his heart? What does that mean?," I asked.

Her granddaughter pulled out a picture she had colored in the 4yr.-K class. It was a heart with a picture drawn in the middle.

"What does it mean?," they asked her.

She said, "Jesus died on the cross so we can have God in our heart and that helps us love other people."

The grandmother said she is so thankful that we have age-appropriate classes led by multiple adults who help her granddaughter see that the things of God matter and mean something to every day life.

Next, I received an email from a Life group in our church family that has several folks 55 and older. The 55+ of that group shared that they are now intentionally praying about and will be seeking out a way to encourage the parents with young children in our church family. How powerful will that be?! Those who have walked the way will now be helping those who are presently walking the path of parenting be encouraged and supported along the way.

I praise God for you!

You are church that is allowing us to learn more and more what it means to live out Deuteronomy 6:4-7, "Hear, O, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 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." In other words, make sure that while our children our under our influence we make them notice God in what we say and do and every where we go. As you do that you and they will see the LAMB in both the "spotless" and in the "suffering" as we talked about Sunday.

To that end I hope every parent and grandparent will consider bringing the children in their lives with them to the Good Friday service at 7 PM. It has been designed to to help you and your children to see the LAMB together.

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