The Family Influence Good or Bad
Proverbs 22:6 tells us, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." What a great responsibility this places on parents. Records of royal lineage (1 Kings 15-16) illustrate that one's level of submission to God is often mirrored in the offspring's life.
Now, it's true that children eventually grow and make their own decisions. There are godly parents who are heartbroken by their kids' poor choices. Similarly, some from backgrounds full of sinful bondage become righteous people of integrity.
As mothers and fathers, we are given a momentous task: to model and teach how to live according to God's Word. Thankfully, we don't have to rely on ourselves for wisdom. Good parenting involves prayerful self-evaluation, godly counsel, and thoughtful course corrections.
Start by considering how you'd answer the following questions if your children were to walk in your way: What place will Jesus, the Word of God, and the church have in their lives? Will they seek God's direction as the ultimate guide for decisions? Will they develop strong godly relationships? Will they know how to handle money wisely? Will they do their best in their vocation? As you seek answers, ask God to reveal truth, since self-examination can be difficult.
In prayerfully considering your impact as a parent, expect to see positives and negatives. The goal isn't self-condemnation, so keep in mind 1) there's no perfect parent and 2) it's never too late. Even if the kids are grown, you can ask forgiveness, share what you've learned, and model a godly life starting now.
~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~
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The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. (1 Corinthians 2:15 ESV)
We have to continually ask the question: "Is Christ everything in this matter, or am I wanting my own way? Am I allowing my own feelings, desires and likes to dominate or is Christ everything? Is Christ in all here, so far as it is within my power, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, for it to be so?" That has to be reduced to the minutia of daily life. We have to get away when we are upset, annoyed, provoked, irritated, and fight that battle out and say: "Lord, You have to be everything in this matter: it does not matter how my interests are affected." And from those details of everyday life and experience out to the wider ranges, and up to the place where we may be the Lord’s responsible servant, the Word and the Spirit have to govern; and the Word and the Spirit have one object: Christ – everything and in all.
Recognizing that, we see that this further thing is necessary, that we are a truly spiritual people. It is very often difficult to define what is meant by spirituality, or a spiritual people. It is one of those things better experienced than explained. But for the moment it can be put quite simply and quite safely and soundly in this way, that a spiritual people is a people who are governed by the Word and the Holy Spirit to this end: that in everything within and without, Christ is All and in all. That is true spirituality.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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We live on an enchanted ground, and are surrounded with snares!
(John Newton's Letters)
My dear Madam,
We all hope, by-and-bye, to have new bodies which are not subject to illness. In the mean time, if the Lord is pleased to sanctify the infirmities to which our present mortal frame is subject--we shall have cause to praise Him, no less for the bitter than the sweet.
I am convinced in my judgment, that a cross or a pinch somewhere or other, is so necessary to us--that we cannot go on well for a considerable time without one. We live on an enchanted ground, and are surrounded with snares! If we are not quickened by trials--we are very prone to sink into spiritual formality or carelessness. It is a shame it should be so--but so it is, that a long course of prosperity always makes us spiritually drowsy!
Trials therefore are medicines--which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes, because we need them. He proportions thefrequency and the weight of them--to what our case requires.
Many of His people are sharply exercised by poverty, which is a continual trial every day, and all the year round. Others have trials in their families. Those who have comfortable firesides, and a competence for this world--often suffer by sickness, either in their own persons, or in the persons of those they love.
But any, or all of these crosses, are mercies--if the Lord works by them to prevent us from cleaving to the world, from backsliding in heart or life, and to keep us nearer to Himself.
Let us trust our Physician--as He will surely do us good. And let us thank Him for all His prescriptions, for without them our soul-sickness would quickly grow upon us!
I sympathize with Miss K. in her trials--yet I know she will profit by them. I hope her illness will find relief--but it is better to have astiff neck with the grace of God--than to be stiff-necked in the sense in which many young people are, who can move their heads freely enough. I hope it is a mercy that she bears the yoke awhile in her youth. When the affliction has answered the good end for which it was sent--the Lord can easily remove it.
(John Newton's Letters)
My dear Madam,
We all hope, by-and-bye, to have new bodies which are not subject to illness. In the mean time, if the Lord is pleased to sanctify the infirmities to which our present mortal frame is subject--we shall have cause to praise Him, no less for the bitter than the sweet.
I am convinced in my judgment, that a cross or a pinch somewhere or other, is so necessary to us--that we cannot go on well for a considerable time without one. We live on an enchanted ground, and are surrounded with snares! If we are not quickened by trials--we are very prone to sink into spiritual formality or carelessness. It is a shame it should be so--but so it is, that a long course of prosperity always makes us spiritually drowsy!
Trials therefore are medicines--which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes, because we need them. He proportions thefrequency and the weight of them--to what our case requires.
Many of His people are sharply exercised by poverty, which is a continual trial every day, and all the year round. Others have trials in their families. Those who have comfortable firesides, and a competence for this world--often suffer by sickness, either in their own persons, or in the persons of those they love.
But any, or all of these crosses, are mercies--if the Lord works by them to prevent us from cleaving to the world, from backsliding in heart or life, and to keep us nearer to Himself.
Let us trust our Physician--as He will surely do us good. And let us thank Him for all His prescriptions, for without them our soul-sickness would quickly grow upon us!
I sympathize with Miss K. in her trials--yet I know she will profit by them. I hope her illness will find relief--but it is better to have astiff neck with the grace of God--than to be stiff-necked in the sense in which many young people are, who can move their heads freely enough. I hope it is a mercy that she bears the yoke awhile in her youth. When the affliction has answered the good end for which it was sent--the Lord can easily remove it.
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...The Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. (Colossians 2:19)
What is the believer? In God's sight the believer is one in whom Christ is implanted, and God never looks at Christ in a limited way. He always looks at Him in an absolute way, and when Christ is implanted at the beginning of our life it is not as though God implanted Him in a fragmentary way. God's thought was that the end should be bound up with the beginning, and that Christ should be All and in all. That is why conversion is never an end in itself. It is only the first step toward the full end of God. It defines the nature of the believer in God's sight, that it is of Christ. You cannot make that. No decision cards can accomplish that. You can never make men and women Christians by inviting them to make certain decisions, to assent mentally to certain propositions of Christian doctrine, though perfectly true as to the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. There has to be something which constitutes in that individual, right at the very center of the being, a living union with Christ, and a deposit of Christ. Anything other than that is a false conversion. It is the depositing of Christ at the very center of the being, with a view to His spreading to the very circumference, that is the nature of a believer....
You see the pathetic hopelessness of trying to propagate anything by organized means and methods which really is all of God. It simply has to grow, it simply has to be. Ah, but when it is so it is mighty, it is indestructible, it is incorruptible. Nothing can stand in the way of Christ. It is that which rouses hell and the energies of the Devil. He does not mind all the other: doctrine, work, profession. That may often serve his ends as a great deception and misrepresentation; but bring Christ in, bring Christ through, realize Christ, and then you meet every force in this universe which is antagonistic to Christ.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
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Do not be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings!
(J.C. Ryle)
"Do not be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings!" Hebrews 13:9
Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine peculiarly dangerous.
There is an undeniable zeal in some of the teachers of error--and their 'earnestness' makes many think they must be right.
There is a great appearance of learning and theological knowledge--and many imagine that such clever and intellectual men must surely be safe guides.
There is a general tendency to free thought in these latter days--many like to prove their independence of judgment, by believing novelties.
There is a wide-spread desire to appear tolerant and liberal-minded--many seem half ashamed of saying that anybody can be in the wrong.
There is a quantity of half-truth taught by the modern false teachers--they are incessantly using Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense.
There is a morbid craving in the public mind for the more sensational and showy--men are impatient of inward, invisible heart-work.
There is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks cleverly and earnestly--and a determination to forget that Satan is often "transformed into an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 2:14
There is a wide-spread 'gullibility' among professing Christians--every heretic who tells his story plausibly, is sure to be believed. Anyone who questions him, is called a bigot and a narrow-minded man.
All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times. I defy any observing man to deny them. They tend to make the assaults of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous. They make it more than ever needful to cry aloud, "Do not be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings!"
An ignorant laity will always be the bane of a Church! A Bible-reading laity may save a Church from ruin.
Let us read the Bible regularly, daily, and with fervent prayer, and become familiar with its contents.
Let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing--which is not in the Bible, nor can be proved by the Bible.
Let our rule of faith, our touchstone of all teaching--be the written Word of God!
"Do not be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings!" Hebrews 13:9
Many things combine to make the present inroad of false doctrine peculiarly dangerous.
There is an undeniable zeal in some of the teachers of error--and their 'earnestness' makes many think they must be right.
There is a great appearance of learning and theological knowledge--and many imagine that such clever and intellectual men must surely be safe guides.
There is a general tendency to free thought in these latter days--many like to prove their independence of judgment, by believing novelties.
There is a wide-spread desire to appear tolerant and liberal-minded--many seem half ashamed of saying that anybody can be in the wrong.
There is a quantity of half-truth taught by the modern false teachers--they are incessantly using Scriptural terms and phrases in an unscriptural sense.
There is a morbid craving in the public mind for the more sensational and showy--men are impatient of inward, invisible heart-work.
There is a silly readiness in every direction to believe everybody who talks cleverly and earnestly--and a determination to forget that Satan is often "transformed into an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 2:14
There is a wide-spread 'gullibility' among professing Christians--every heretic who tells his story plausibly, is sure to be believed. Anyone who questions him, is called a bigot and a narrow-minded man.
All these things are peculiar symptoms of our times. I defy any observing man to deny them. They tend to make the assaults of false doctrine in our day peculiarly dangerous. They make it more than ever needful to cry aloud, "Do not be led astray by all kinds of strange teachings!"
An ignorant laity will always be the bane of a Church! A Bible-reading laity may save a Church from ruin.
Let us read the Bible regularly, daily, and with fervent prayer, and become familiar with its contents.
Let us receive nothing, believe nothing, follow nothing--which is not in the Bible, nor can be proved by the Bible.
Let our rule of faith, our touchstone of all teaching--be the written Word of God!
"To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word--it is because there is no light in them!" Isaiah 8:20
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