Are We Guilty of a Messianic View of the Christian Family? Let me answer this question by answering several related questions.
Who am I talking to? I am not talking just to the family-integrated folks [NCFIC]. I am talking to all of us who are trying to build a family on biblical principles and making tons of sacrifices to do so. I was one of the pastors of a church for 24 years whose families were basically homeschoolers. I was proud of them. I was proud of the sacrifices they made to have a biblical family. I was proud of how hard the moms worked for their principles. I was proud of the leadership our fathers provided to their families. I was proud of how relatively well our kids behaved and did compared to most others I knew. I was proud of our families. I was proud of what we believed about the family and related biblical and social issues. Many hard and sad experiences since then have taught me that I was perhaps too proud. I was placing hope in the wrong thing. I fear I had to some degree a messianic view of the family.
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Tags: Sam Waldron
“And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job.” (Job 1:8)
How very uncertain are all terrestrial things! How foolish would that believer be who should lay up his treasure anywhere, except in heaven! Job’s prosperity promised as much stability as anything can do beneath the moon. The man had round about him a large household of, doubtless, devoted and attached servants. He had accumulated wealth of a kind which does not suddenly depreciate in value. He had oxen, and asses, and cattle. He had not to go to markets, and fairs, and trade with his goods to procure food and clothing, for he carried on the processes of agriculture on a very large scale round about his own homestead, and probably grew within his own territory everything that his establishment required. His children were numerous enough to promise a long line of descendants. His prosperity wanted nothing for its consolidation. It had come to its flood-tide: where was the cause which could make it ebb?
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Tags: C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon
IV. Application of what we have learned.
I will now speak a word or two of application, and so conclude with, First, A word of wisdom; Second, A word of encouragement; Third, A word of rebuke.
Application #1 – A word of wisdom.
First be wise and know; that prayer is the duty of every one of the children of God, and carried on by the Spirit of Christ in the soul; so every one that prays to the Lord, needs to be very careful, and be sure to pray in his heart with a fear of God, as well as with hopes of the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.
Prayer is a command of God, in which a man draws very near to God; and therefore it especially calls for the assistance of the grace of God to help the soul to pray as is fitting for one that is in the very presence of the Almighty God. It is a shame for a man to behave irreverently before a king, but it is a sin to do so before God. And just as an earthly king is not pleased with an speech made up with inappropriate words and gestures, so God takes no pleasure in the sacrifice of fools (Ecclesiastes 5:1, 4). It is not long discourses, nor eloquent tongues, that are the things which are pleasing to the ears of the Lord; rather it is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, that is pleasing to the heavenly Majesty (Psalm 51:17; Isaiah 57:15). Therefore, be wise and know that there are four things that are obstructions to prayer, and even make void the requests of the creature:
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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan
Adoniram Judson was an American Baptist missionary, who served in Burma for almost forty years.
Adoniram Judson (1788-1850) was one of the most remarkable men of his age. Described by one of his biographers as the “Christian Hero of the Nineteenth Century,” he was truly the “Pioneer of American Missions.” Like the apostle Paul, it could be said of Judson that in labors he was “more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft.”
Judson’s Early Infidelity
Although he was the son of a congregational preacher, Judson was an unbeliever as a youth, graduating from Brown University in 1807 as a confirmed infidel. While commencing a tour of the United States, however, he began to have serious doubts about his deistic concepts and returned home for the express purpose of examining thoroughly the claims of the Christian religion.
His Conversion Experience
While browsing through a private library in Boston one day, he took from the shelf a book entitled HUMAN NATURE, ITS FOURFOLD STATE by the noted deceased Scottish minister Thomas Boston, (a valuable addition to any preacher’s library!). Becoming convinced both of the divine inspiration of Scripture and his lost condition, he earnestly began seeking the truth.
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Tags: Missions
Mother Teresa (known also as Mother Teresa of Calcutta) was born in what is now called Yugoslavia/Bosnia in 1910. Born to Albanian parents she was at that time known as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. The labor for which she became renowned began on January 6, 1929 when she arrived in Calcutta, India to work with the poor and needy. When she died in September of 1997 she was the director of a worldwide missions organization known as the “Missionaries of Charity.” There are currently over 500 missions in more than 100 countries around the world. She was the recipient of numerous awards including the most prestigious of all awards, the Nobel Peace Prize. She was revered around the world as an example of Christian love and charity and as someone who dedicated her life to the noble cause of advancing the gospel to the poor and needy of the world while caring for their physical needs. Her legacy will doubtless be as one of history’s great humanitarians.
Upon examination, though, the Mother Teresa portrayed by the media and popularized in our culture is glorified (soon to be beatified) and almost deified. A close examination of her beliefs and the work she did shows that her legacy may be little more than fiction.
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Tags: Tim Challies
As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There maybe here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and makes them to know, that they are but dust. Knowing by most painful experience what deep depression of spirit means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to some of my brethren if I gave my thoughts thereon, that younger men might not fancy that some strange thing had happened to them when they became for a season possessed by melancholy; and that sadder men might know that one upon whom the sun has shone right joyously did not always walk in the light.
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Tags: C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon
III. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH MY SPIRIT, AND WITH MY MIND.
The apostle makes a clear distinction between praying with our spirit, and praying with our minds: therefore when he said, “I will pray with my spirit,” he also adds, but I will also pray with my mind.” This distinction was made because the Corinthians did not realize that it was their duty, when they spoke in tongues, to edify others and not to simply edify themselves. It appears that many of them had extraordinary gifts, one being the ability to speak in different known languages, but they focused on these mighty gifts, edifying themselves, rather than edifying the church; which caused Paul to write to them, to make them understand, that though extraordinary gifts were excellent, yet it was more important to edify the church.
For, the apostle said, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind [and the minds of those listening] is unfruitful” (1 Corinthians 14:3, 4, 12, 19, 24, 25. Read the scope of the whole chapter). Therefore, “What shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind” (1 Corinthians 14:15).
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Tags: Bunyan, John Bunyan
“And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job.” (Job 1:8)
