What Do We Do With The Children?

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One of the biggest questions for many in the Western Church is "What do we do with the children?" Most of those believe that shipping them off to Sunday School to hear Jonah and the Whale 2000 times before they're 18 years old isn't the answer. Most of those also know that it's wrong at its core that they're trying to determine how to best "incorporate children into church," when Jesus simply said "Let them come to Me." What Do We Do With The Children, then?

The Eastern and Third World Church, by and large, practice the simplicity in this matter that Jesus commanded. The Eastern and Third World Church generally don't separate the concept of church and life, and they approach raising children in the faith in the same manner. Just as parents do not abdicate responsibility for their children's education when they send them to school, neither does "the church" bear the primary responsibility for our children's spiritual upbringing. That rests with the parents. Daunting as that challenge may sometimes be, it holds the promise of a shared journey in which child and parent alike become a mutual blessing in truly learning from God through one another.

Our friend Hamo from Perth, Australia, vividly shares this simplicity in a recent post, telling about a revelatory experience with his daughter, Ellie. Hamo writes:

"It was a short time ago that it dawned on me just how vital our input and role modeling is to the children we raise. On a Monday morning after making the kids breakfast I let them know I was going to spend some time in my study ‘talking to Jesus’. They have seen me do this each day and it is just part our routine now.

My 6 year old daughter Ellie, asked ‘Daddy can I talk to Jesus with you some day?’

‘Sure honey’ I answered. ‘Finish your breakfast, grab your Bible and come in!’

I began wondering what to do and how to teach my 6 year old daughter to speak to Jesus..."

A quiet smile and a nod of the head to Hamo for this post and to Terry for making us aware of the beautiful song in the video below, entitled My Father's Chair by David Meece.

Read the rest of Hamo's wonderful post.







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To Our Dear Friend

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Hello, my dear friend,

I just wanted you to know how special you are in God's sight and how special you are to our family.

I wanted you to know how blessed my wife and I feel to have had our Lord bring someone like you into the lives of our children; someone whom they can and should look to as a genuine, realistic example of the Christian faith.

I wanted you to know how much I appreciate someone like you who says that they care about me and my family, and then lives out the truth of that claim in ways that touch us deeply.

I wanted you to know that you are so special in God's sight that those who can see that in you will go farther to be around you; being around you is a blessing from God, my friend.

I wanted you to know that it's not a sin to be hurt. I didn't always know that. People that have hearts that God has made especially compassionate toward others get hurt very easily. But that's not a sin.

I wanted you to know that I've learned that the sin happens when I don't go to Jesus when I've been hurt, and ask to Him heal my heart from that pain and restore my heart to the compassion that He birthed in it.

I've learned that I can tell Him anything, and He understands.

I've learned that He's gone before us and has experienced every single thing that we ever will, and yet He did so without sin.

And because of this understanding, I've learned that there is a better prayer for me to pray than "Jesus, what should I do?"

I've learned to pray, "Jesus, what did you do?"

I've learned that if I do what He did, I will get the same results.

I've learned that when I have prayed that prayer, I don't always want to do what He tells me that He did. Sometimes, I have thought the price to be too high, and sought to do it another way. It's never worked, though, and I find myself back at His feet, asking for forgiveness and another chance to do it the way He did.

I've learned that He desperately wants to give that second - and third, and fourth..... - chance.

I have learned to admire people who experience a great hurt, pause to prayerfully contemplate that experience and allow God’s Spirit to put it in its proper place, and then move on in their journey with Christ.

I have learned that people like that are like precious jewels, sparkling because they have allowed themselves to be cut by the faithful, trustworthy hand of the Master Jeweler.

I have learned that it should be my utmost priority to have a pure heart, and I have learned that I cannot accomplish this without His constant, merciful, gracious help.

I have learned that spiritual maturity does not mean achieving spiritual perfection. It means submitting to God and seeking to obey Him even when the price seems very high to do so. It means humbly acknowledging all that remains for Christ to change in my heart and life, while rejoicing in what He has already accomplished within me.

I have learned that we should want to be like weaned children toward our Heavenly Father; still completely dependent, but no longer demanding.

I wanted you to know that I have seen a glimmer of all these things in your heart and life, my friend. You inspire me and my family. We stand proudly shoulder to shoulder with you in the faith, and that will never change.

I wanted you to know that God has placed each of us specifically where we are for a specific purpose. There are needs around us that we were born to meet.

I wanted you to know that there is a hole, a lack, a need - in your family, your school, your job and in the Church - that you have been born to fulfill, my friend. It will be painful to do so at times, but with Him, you can do anything.

On the days when you feel that the price is too high, remember that you have desired in your heart to be used by Him in a mighty way. Remember that His maturity calls us to love in ways so sacrificial and inconvenient and painful that we never imagined them. Remember that Jesus told Peter, When you were young you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted to go. But when you become mature, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and lead you places that you don’t want to go.
John 21:18

Jesus told His disciples, “Get in the boat. We’re going to the other side.”

Then there came a storm so big that all of the disciples thought they were going to die. They forgot that Jesus said, “We’re going to the other side.” They didn’t notice that, because He had heard this from God, He was at peace. They didn’t notice that His peace was so great that He was asleep in the back of the boat while they were desperately trying to save their own lives.

But when they went to Him and awoke Him and asked Him for help, they realized it all. When they purposed to stretch out their hands toward Jesus, to let Him dress them with the storm in which they found themselves, to follow Him to a place where they did not want to go, they finally beheld the magnitude of the peace that He had.

It was a peace from God that could still a storm.

I wanted to remind you on this day, this hour, this season, and at the moment of this hurt that you‘ve experienced, that we have that peace available to us right now.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27

I am thankful for you this day, my friend. My family may not have known it, but there was a hole, a lack, a need in our lives. It was a hole, a lack, a need that was shaped just like you.

We are thankful for you. You are an answer to prayer. You are a gift to us from God.

Nothing Left Unsaid

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My Dad passed away in 1994, but left an indelible impression upon everyone he met. I remember that he spoke of Christ in a way that I hadn't heard others speak of Him. He was familiar with Him. He had a living, breathing, growing relationship with Jesus.


Many other people that I met as a boy had religion or church, but my Dad had been given a new life about which he was thrilled, and he would tell you so.

My Dad was strong, yet gentle. He was easy-going, but deep. He was simple, but profoundly wise.

My Dad and I were aware of it when we had our last conversation before his passing. He had told me that it was imminent, and so we shared our love with one another one more time.

I remember that at one point during the conversation there was a pause, and I had a dramatic revelation. There was a pause because my Dad and I had spoken all the words that we were supposed to speak to each other in this life.

What a gift I was given in that regard. There was nothing left unsaid or undone between my Dad and I. It was all out there, spoken, shared, experienced. I miss him. But I have never felt that there was something that I wish I could go back and say to him. And I realize that this is a tremendous blessing from God.

So we paused, knowing that the end of the words had come, and our parting was at hand. And then he spoke his last words to me. I knew they would be the last words of a life unrivaled in my eyes, words with which he specifically wanted to leave me.

"Son?," he said.

"Yes, Dad?"

"Walk with Jesus, son."

"I will, Dad."

"I'll see you there, son."

And so concluded all the words.

My Dad had told me while he was still living that if I was to ever wonder how I could best honor his memory, that it would be by seeking to live the things that he had taught me.

I'm giving it my best, Dad.

I'll see you there.


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When I was spiritually weak, and lost, and afraid and unable, my Dad carried me, just like the Dad in this video.

Inconvenient Love

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Well, today is Valentine's Day, and mine started before the sun was even up in the sky this morning.

Yesterday, we had a blizzard where I live and we got a lot of snow, so I needed to dig my wife's car out this morning so that she could make it to work.

At 6:00 am, it was cold and still snowing. My lungs hurt as I shoveled for almost two hours to free her vehicle from the grips of the snow and ice. In some places, the snow was almost 3 feet deep, and I had to stop every few minutes to catch my breath.

There were a lot of other things that I would've rather been doing right then, but - in a way - it was exactly what I wanted to be doing.

All that time shoveling gave me a lot of time to think. Today, I will send flowers to my wife with a heartfelt message again declaring my abiding love for her. But you know what? It's pretty easy to do that. It doesn't take much effort. It's convenient.

Shoveling that snow this morning wasn't convenient. I had to get up well before my wife did to make sure that her needs were taken care of. It took a long time. It hurt. It was inconvenient.

And as I was shoveling and thinking, it struck me that one of the hallmarks of true love is that true love isn't convenient. It's inconvenient.

It is easy to think within ourselves that we love someone. And because that feeling within us is always there, we come to believe that that love is very strong and that those whom we love should find it obvious that we love them. But that's not necessarily true.

Just because we tell ourselves over and over again that we love someone doesn't mean that we love them. Love isn't merely an emotion that we feel. It is a heart-born action that brings that which is within us to the surface.

I can think silently and unbeknownst to someone about how I love them any time I want to. But that's convenient, and that's not true love. True love speaks to us from within us that we must unwrap what we feel within us and declare it to the one we love, to demonstrate it even when - and perhaps most importantly when - it is inconvenient for us to do so.

I'm sure my wife appreciated the fact that I shoveled her car out of the snow this morning. And when she receives her flowers today, that may for a few moments fill up her vision and warm her heart. I hope it does, because I love my wife very much.

But when it is all said and done, I have realized that it is not just the special days and special things that matter to her most. What matters to her most is knowing that I love her because I show it to her even when it hurts me to do so.

G. K. Chesterton once wrote "an inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." What an adventure true love can be when we consider it so.

My Daughter's Peace

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Some time ago, our Lord placed it upon my heart to share a scripture with my then 6 year-old daughter:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

Universal Challenges
I explained to my daughter that, whether we're a child or an adult, we all face problems that can get the best of us at times. All of us succumb to “being anxious” now and again. “It's not a kid thing,” I shared with my daughter, “it's a people thing.”

My daughter was comforted to know that she wasn't the only one who sometimes faces these things. Funny how satan works that way - telling us that we're the only ones who are challenged by this or that. God says different, though. God makes it clear to us that there is one adversary - satan - there is one Saviour - Christ Jesus - and there is one kind of person - people like us.

1 + 1 + 1 = Peace
I asked my daughter what 1 + 2 equaled. "Three, Dad," she replied proudly. "Will the answer ever be four....or five.....or two?" I asked her, and she replied to each question with a smile and a confident "No!"

I then explained to my daughter that God's Word is much the same way; it adds up to the same answer every time, if we'll only practice it as God says.

"When we look at this scripture we find out that 1 + 1 + 1 = peace, my daughter," I said. With her eyes wide and her interest piqued, she asked "How Dad?"

God's Sure Equation for Peace
When it comes to Philippians 4:6-7, 1 + 1 + 1 = peace.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

If we:

(1) Refuse to be anxious about a certain thing
+
(1) pray to God, giving Him thanks from our hearts for the things He's already done in our hearts and lives
+
(1) make our request for His help
=
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Sounds good, right? But does it work?

God's Promises Put To The Test
My daughter and I had a 3-step plan from God for peace in the midst of any situation, and we were ready to put it to the test. Once my daughter had memorized the 3 parts to God's equation for peace, she put it into action.

The next time my daughter was upset, I reminded her of the scripture. She stopped and said, "Can you help me remember, Dad?" I simply asked her to tell me what the scripture said, and she repeated it to me, and then prayed to God.

I listened as she tearfully prayed, "Father, I don't want to be sad or angry. Thank you for my new bike. Please help me not to be sad or angry."

Then she leaned up against me and was quiet for a some time. "Do you feel the peace?," I asked. "I feel it, Dad," she said quietly as though she was somewhat amazed that it had actually worked. "I'm not upset anymore."

Like You're Getting Tired.....
After a few days of successfully using this scripture in her life, my daughter came to me with a wonderful revelation.

"Dad," she said, "Every time when I pray to God to help me, it's like I get tired at the end." I didn't understand at first, but then I watched as she illustrated for me.

My daughter lowered her shoulders and deeply exhaled. "Like that, Dad," she said. The light bulb came on inside of me, and I smiled and said "Do you know what that feeling is, my daughter?"

"It’s the peace, isn‘t it, Daddy?," she asked, and I nodded with a lump in my throat.

Simplicity
It's funny how easy it is for us humans to complicate the simplicity of God's Word. In our well-intentioned efforts to greater understand what His Word is saying, we sometimes miss that its greatest power is in its simplicity.

The Apostle Paul urges us to remember and remain in the simplicity that is in Christ. He also tells us that when we believe that Word of God, it works. My daughter's peace has put an exclamation point on those truths for me. She's learning the Word, believing it, applying in her life, and it's working just like God said it would.

How to describe the sweetness of the peace she receives from Him when she prays?

Well, it transcends all understanding.

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Matthew 11:25

Bart Starr and The Dimes

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This post is short and sweet. Simple. Powerful. It's a story about legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr and a tradition that he established with his children.

He probably understood that the tradition was an investment in the confidence, self-esteem and very core of his children's lives. But I wonder if he knew before this incident that it was an investment in his own life, as well.

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap.
Luke 6:38 (NLT)

Read. Consider. Live for Him.

When a considerably older Bart Starr was quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, he had a way of letting his kids know how much he appreciated it whenever they did something well. He’d give them a dime. If they did something extra well, he’d give them two dimes. That doesn’t seem like a lot of money in terms of today’s values, but you have to remember that Starr retired over 30 years ago.

One day, when the Packers were playing the Bears in Chicago, he had a terrible game - one of the worst he’d ever had. He couldn’t seem to find his receivers, he got mixed up on a couple of plays, and, in reality, he probably lost the game for the Packers. To make matters worse, the game was televised, and the commentators were unmerciful. They began to say very uncomplimentary things about him - mostly having to do with speculation that he was getting too old to play anymore.

So, when the team flew back to Green Bay that night, he was about as low as he could get. He was even beginning to believe, himself, that maybe they were right. Maybe he should stop playing. But then something happened that changed his feelings completely.

He arrived home at about 3:00 a.m., long after everyone had gone to bed and was asleep. When he started to go bed, he spotted something on his pillow. Lifting it up and taking it to the light, he saw a note from his son. It read, “Dear Dad. I think you’re the greatest quarterback who’s ever been, and the greatest dad too!”

Down at the bottom of the note, carefully taped in place, there was not just one dime, and not just two dimes, but three shiny dimes.

The Miracle Of One More Day

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The following post is from a dear Brother in Christ from the East Coast. Recently, he stood with his good friend in prayer, praying for his friend's mother who was diagnosed with cancer.

This dear mother, a believer, eventually passed away, but the experience left a marked impression upon my dear Brother in Christ from the East Coast. Some of those impressions have been recorded by him in this post, entitled "The Miracle Of One More Day."

Be blessed, my dear friends.

One of the greatest pearls in life is knowing that you have no promise of tomorrow. You only have today – the miracle of one more day.

It is only by God's grace we are blissfully ignorant when our day will come - when we pass from this life into the next. It is only by God's grace we have this precious gift called time. I was reminded of this fact when a close friend recently lost his mom to cancer.

We went to war as brothers, fighting the good fight in prayer, believing by faith for a miracle but in the end the Lord wanted her to come home. There is no doubt my friend's mom died with the most precious relationship of all - with Jesus himself. Everything else flowed from that and it is because of that blessed assurance my brother could celebrate a life that was lived to its fullest.

You see, my friend's mom understood the miracle of one more day, not because of her cancer, but because of the amazing love in heart.

There are times and events in life when we've had our close calls and for a moment, an instant, or perhaps a season, we understand and appreciate the perspective the Lord has given us. Then, in time, in the natural, in the "fleshiness" of our lives, we again allow the "spirit of busyness" to overtake our eternal perspective.

But I believe there can be a defining moment in life, a personal resolve that says, "I have the miracle of one more day…Lord, I give you this day…I surrender everything I have to you. I give you my life for this one day…take my life and do with it what you will…not my will but your will."

It is the absolute ultimate surrender of your life that says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It is the radical idea that says "I love you Jesus…I am totally yours…yours and yours alone, no matter the cost." It is the clear understanding that you have no promise of tomorrow. You only have today – the miracle of one more day.

You see, our spiritual urgency is not born of activity of doing things that do not produce fruit, but born of the realization that every thing I do is measured against the light of eternity.

Think about that….what if we were to live for Jesus, each day, like it was our last day on earth? What if we were to measure life, events, time, situations, and relationships against the litmus test of eternity? What if there was a sense of urgency each day that said, I live for Jesus and Jesus alone. Can I honestly say that I have lived my life in light of eternity? Do I have the Christ confidence to stand before God and hear, "Well done, my good and faithful servant…"?

My friend's mom understood that she had no promise of tomorrow…she understood the miracle of one more day.

Will we do the same?

To Recognize The Rabbit

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For a 6 year old child, 30 minutes can seem like an eternity. Nonetheless, the promise of spending time with my Dad down by the river in the woods was too lucrative a prospect to pass up. So I left my toys, and my daydreams, and my busyness and walked down the Big Hill behind the Brown House toward the woods.

When we arrived there, Dad began to move slowly and speak quietly, and though I didn’t know why, I mimicked him. Dad motioned for me to slowly sit down beside him on a log just inside the tree line of the woods. In front of us, about 40 feet away, was a big wood pile comprised of branches and old pulled-up stumps and the like.

My Dad slowly pointed to the wood pile, and spoke to me in hushed tones. “Son,” he whispered, “look at the bottom of that wood pile, right in the middle next to the ground, and tell me when you see the rabbit.” “OK, Dad,” I whispered, and turned with anticipation to see the rabbit in the wood pile.

My anticipation quickly faded, however, as I stared at a wood pile that obviously had no rabbit in it. “Dad,” I whispered respectfully, “I don’t think there’s rabbit in that wood pile.” “Keep looking at that wood pile, son,” he replied, “at the bottom, right in the middle next to the ground, and tell me when you see the rabbit.”

Time after time we repeated our dance, with me claiming there was no rabbit and my Dad encouraging me to just keep looking. And then, after 30 minutes, it happened.
Before my eyes, in precisely the same spot at which I’d been staring for half an hour, a rabbit appeared. It was as though that rabbit leaped into my vision. Hidden amongst the dead branches and brittle leaves of his surroundings, he crouched as though frozen stiff, unmoving, knowing that I had been watching him the whole time.

I was, for perhaps the first time in my life, speechless. My Dad smiled silently, allowing me to soak in the magnitude of the experience without hindering it with words. After a few minutes, he spoke quietly and said, “Son, sometimes you need to keep looking at something for a while to see what’s really there.” That was the lesson, but it was 25 years before I would truly recognize what that meant.

You see, Jesus Himself used to go to the mountain to pray. It seems clear that he did it because that’s the only place that He could be alone. He had to climb to so high a place that other people wouldn’t follow, a place arrived at through greater labor and with a higher price of ascent.

It was in this place, high above the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, that He found vision. From this lofty vantage point, He could look down upon the issues of life and godliness and see them clearly, even as He was looking above to His Heavenly Father. Our Lord Jesus found clear vision on the mountain of solitude and prayer.

He did not make that climb just once. Again and again, He would climb to the mountain to pray. Time and time again, He would leave the people and problems and distractions of this life to look solely and completely upon His Father.

As we make this same trek, we will receive something vital to our lives. By going to the mountain and looking upon the things of God again and again, the clear vision we experience there will be transformed - sometimes in an instant and before our eyes - into the recognition of what we’ve been staring at (and praying for) the whole time. It is as though the understanding leaps into our vision in its appointed time.

Our Father is drawing us to the mountain, if we’re listening. Not to a place of casual, hastily blurted requests to a vending machine God. God is drawing us to a place where we remove the shoes from our feet because the place whereon we stand is holy ground. He is drawing us to a place so remote, and yet more intimate than we have ever known.

I would like to think that, at times, our Father does as my Dad did; that, as we bask in the wonder of learning from Him, He stands quietly smiling at a child so beloved. Oh, how He adores His precious children.

Have you been praying for a while without an answer? Perhaps it is time you discovered the mountain. Perhaps you used to visit the mountain, and now it is time for you to return. Perhaps you are on the mountain and it is time to make that higher climb with a greater price but a greater blessing.

Then again, perhaps you are already there, and it is time to just keep looking “at the bottom, right in the middle next to the ground” until you see the rabbit.

“Son, sometimes you need to keep looking at something for a while to see what’s really there.”

Amen, Daddy, amen.

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[So I went with Him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved Shepherd said to me] O My dove, [while you are here] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff, let Me see your face, let Me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
Song of Solomon 2:14 (AMP)

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