Our Precious Children
— 09/24/08
I was sent this article below and found it very needful information for our homes & families. I felt burdened to share it with all who read my blog.
My home is no longer full of littles but our children are now growing up with over half of them already adults.
My life's goal has been to bring honor and glory to God and then to see each one of my children spend eternity with me praising and glorifying our Saviour. The older I become the more I realize how very very short life is!
We have only one life and it will soon be past!!!!
I have the verse marked in my own Bible - Hebrews 2:13 "And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." Years ago, under this verse I penned in eleven 'X' marks to represent each child God gave to Roger and I. As I watch them grow and mature and see them in their day to day lives and see the fruits of repentance and changed life (all of them have grown up hearing the gospel day by day and have made professions) - but I want that assurance that they have truly have become 'new creatures' and it isn't just in their head. That becomes very evident as the article mentions in their early teen years and beyond! When I see fruits and growth in their life, I mark their 'X' with a circle as I gain confidence from their daily walk and changed life that I can know that I will enjoy eternity with them in the presence of God.
My heart is heavy and throbs with sorrow that all of these 'X' marks in my Bible representing my dear and precious children are not all yet encircled. I also feel so feeble in my attempts to pray for them...but I know the Lord hears my every feeble attempt and is not willing that any should perish.
I hope this article gives you food for thought too. From my heart,
Marmee
GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS:
TEMPTATIONS YOUNG PEOPLE FACE GROWING UP IN THE CHURCH
The following is by Dave Crowe, an Australian missionary to Papua New
Guinea. It was sent to us by Buddy Smith, pastor of Grace Baptist
Church, Malanda, Queensland, Australia smiletex@bigpond.net.au.
“Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the
LORD yet revealed unto him” (1 Samuel 3:7).
“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD” (1
Samuel 2:12).
The 23rd of March this year was the 25th anniversary of my Salvation.
As far as I know, I was the first of a long line of unbelieving
ancestors to call upon the name of the Lord. I am a first generation
believer. As such, some might not consider me qualified to deal with
the subject matter of this article. That could quite well be so, if it
were not for the fact that over the course of the last 15 years my
wife and I have had the privilege of rearing five reasonably normal
and healthy children, all of whom profess to be Christians, second-
generation Christians.
Through an amazing work of Providence, on the 23rd of March this year
our son Samuel who is now 15, was also saved. Samuel was not saved
from a life of drugs, drunkenness, and debauchery as were his parents,
but rather from a life of religiosity and ritual, a life of outward
appearances and conformity to a creed he knew well, but loved little.
This is the issue upon which this short article is based.
Samuel is a Home Schooled MK (Missionary Kid). Samuel arrived on the
mission field at seven months old (in his mother’s womb). Samuel was
born early Thursday Morning on the 17th December 1992, and was in
church on Sunday, not yet three days old. Probably the first time
Samuel ever heard his father’s voice loud enough to be recognised was
from the pulpit in the local Baptist Church.
We could count, probably, on one hand the number of Sundays Samuel has
missed since that day. Samuel will be 16 in December this year. At a
conservative estimate, Samuel has been in church well over 3,000 times
since he was born. If you count up Sundays, morning and evening, for
15 years, that brings you up to a total of 1,560 sermons, add to that
the weekly prayer meetings, 780 of them, not to mention Sunday
Schools, 780 of them as well.
A text from 2 Timothy 3:15 comes to mind when I think of my son
Samuel. “And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.”
Samuel, like thousands of other kids growing up in Christian homes,
has from a child been immersed in the Word of God. Besides his regular
church attendance, Samuel has been home schooled from day one. He has
memorised hundreds of Bible verses; he knows most of the major stories
by heart, as do his four sisters, the youngest of whom is Hadassah,
who is now 8. Hadassah can recite numerous lengthy portions of
Scripture almost word perfect. All of our children are the same. They
all attend church and youth group weekly; we have family devotions
most days. If the Lord tarries, Hadassah, like Samuel, would have
heard over 3,000 sermons by the time she is 15.
Does all of that make my children Christians? No, sadly not. In fact,
despite all those sermons, my children can remain hardened sinners,
too proud to see their real need to repent. Not even fifteen years on
the mission field and 3000 sermons can make a child acceptable to God
and ready for Heaven. No, according to John 3:3, they, like everyone
else in the world, “must be born again.”
As we have found out by personal experience within our own family
circle, it is possible for children to sit through, and endure
thousands of hours of religious instruction, and still be none the
better for it. “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any
thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Until such a time as a
child is truly and powerfully saved by a miracle of God’s Grace, even
something as wholesome as sound Biblical preaching and the fellowship
of the local church can become a source of temptation and a snare to
him.
Boredom, Unthankfulness, Apathy, Indifference, Cynicism, Scepticism,
Duplicity, Hypocrisy, Hardness of heart, even outright Atheism and
Rebellion are only a few of the nasty and eternally destructive fruits
that can grow almost undetected, right on the front row of our Sunday
School Classes. How can that be?
Though my children are privileged and certainly blessed to have been
raised in a Christian home, taught by their own loving mother, and
exposed to sound and wholesome Bible preaching all of their lives,
they are not exempt from temptation. Far from it! In fact, they are
actually subject to some very serious and destructive religious
temptations children from unsaved homes never face.
Temptation for my children is quite different than it was (and is) for
me. I have struggled in my life with the seedier side of the flesh; my
children face more subtle temptations, like Nicodemus or young Samuel
in the Old Testament. I was an irreligious and naughty child; my
children are mostly moral and good. I was corrupted very early in
life; and to my great detriment and lasting regret, I became wise
concerning the things that are evil. My children, on the other hand,
are mostly innocent and, thankfully, quite naïve concerning evil, but
they face a host of temptations that in some ways are just as
dangerous and harder to discern and much more subtle.
It is important for us here to understand a very important Biblical
precept.
THE NATURAL MAN OR A NEW CREATURE?
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all
things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Corinthians 2:14-15).
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians
5:17).
There is a great difference between being religious and good and being
a new creature in Christ. Nicodemus was a good man, but he certainly
wasn’t a new man. Samuel in the Old Testament was a religious lad, a
very polite and respectful boy, “but he didn’t yet know the Lord” (1
Samuel 3:7). Eli's sons served the Tabernacle but they were “sons of
Belial; they knew not the LORD.”
God recognised something about Samuel and the sons of Eli that few
Christian parents discern today. They were in the right place, but not
in a right spirit. Nicodemus in the New Testament was a good man, but
a natural man still. His religion was based solely on the natural
light of his ritual and outward form of religion, but there was no
illumination. Samuel was the same.
Nicodemus knew the Scriptures by heart; he was a Doctor of the law, a
ruler of the Jews, but he was unregenerate. The things of the spirit
were foolishness unto him, and “he could not know them because they
are spiritually discerned.”
Young Samuel heard the voice of the Lord three times and thought it
was Eli; he hadn't yet had his heart opened by the Spirit of God.
So it is, I believe, with many of our children. They hear the voice of
God and think it is the preacher or only their parents.
Most children in Christian homes profess faith at an early age. Our
Samuel called on the Lord the first time when he was about six. We did
our utmost to encourage his walk with the Lord, but over the course of
the years it became quite evident to us that though Samuel was a good
lad, he wasn’t a “new creature.” Like Samuel of old, “he didn't yet
know the Lord.”
As he entered into his teenage years we began to detect a definite
resistance to and disliking of spiritual truth. This greatly concerned
us and because of that we challenged him a number of times concerning
his salvation.
I have been impressed more and more over the years that the phrase “if
any man be in Christ” in 2 Corinthians 5:17 also applies to children.
It wasn’t only the Apostle Paul who used that phrase, The Lord Jesus
also said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
In actual fact, if you will look closely, you will notice that the
word “man” in Luke 9:23 is not in the original. Jesus said, “If any
will come after me let him deny himself...” That certainly includes
children born into Christian homes. Why do we expect others to
manifest a new life, but not our own children?
We ought not to be congratulating ourselves that our children are good
kids and that at least they are in church. No, that position comes far
short of Bible salvation. We ought to search out the matter and make
diligent inquiry as to whether our precious children are truly born
again; are they regenerate? Can we see Biblical evidence of a New
Creature? Or are they just, going through the motions?
Children are creatures of habit. They can very easily adapt to their
environment, especially if it’s the only one they have ever known.
“Christian” children become experts at duplicity; they know all the
right words to say at the most appropriate times. They can say their
verses and get their awards. They know how to dot all their i's and
cross all their spiritual t's, and all the while many of them are
complete strangers to the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Often it’s not all their fault. Many Christian parents, even pastors
and teachers, take much too much for granted when it comes to the
souls of their children. There seems to me to be a great lack of
discernment in hanging all of our hopes for our children’s eternal
destiny upon some long gone profession of faith that has absolutely no
bearing or impact on the general course of their present day lives.
Salvation is a today issue.
Don’t ever forget that our children’s sinful natures will only be
restrained for a time under the heavy yoke of the Christian home and
church culture. Many Christian children in church are just doing what
kids do naturally, conforming to the majority mindset around them.
They are just going through the motions. That’s all fine and well
whilst they are youngsters, but once the hormones begin to kick in and
old Adam begins to assert his authority, Mum and Dad look out!
If children continually chafe, complain, and defy and even despise and
rebel against the authority of the Scriptures and their parents, it is
quite as likely as not that we are dealing with unregenerate
offspring. This ought to challenge us, as it is quite obvious in
Scripture that the Biblical criterion for salvation is not an empty
profession of faith, but rather a new creature. If you doubt that read
again Galatians 6:15, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”
If we take the Scriptures seriously we will understand that our
children, just like adults, are sinners that need repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is genuine
repentance, there ought to be genuine fruit. If after a Biblical
evaluation of our children’s lives and testimonies we fail to see the
evidences of a new creature overcoming the old, we need not despair.
No, we need to go to prayer.
We prayed for Samuel his whole life, but we never really took up the
matter of his salvation seriously, even unto fasting, until a few
years ago. As I mentioned, as Samuel began to enter his early teenage
years, old Adam began to make his presence known and it wasn't pleasant.
This was not the normal flesh/spirit conflict of the true Christian
mentioned in Romans 7 and Galatians 5:17. We saw this very different
spiritual conflict in our daughter Lydia, who was very clearly saved
in the year 2000 whilst we were on furlough. She was only six at the
time, but we have had no cause since then to doubt her decision, again
because we have very clearly seen the “new creature.”
In Samuel we hadn't seen the new creature until just recently. Since
Samuel was saved on the 23rd of March this year (he had no idea at the
time that it was my spiritual birthday as well), we have seen a
definite change. He himself has confessed Christ openly on a number of
occasions; he has told me he now understands and gets fed from what he
reads in Scripture. He is also experiencing the conflict with his old
nature. He desires to be baptised and has expressed a very clear
desire to go back to the mission field.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature...”
Don’t settle for less. By making excuses for worldly-minded,
unspiritual children, we are giving place to the devil and also
encouraging deceit and hypocrisy. Look for the tell tale signs of dead
religious observance, and pray against it for all your worth. Your
child’s eternal well being could well depend on you being discerning
enough to see it for what it is, unregenerate flesh.
“He that is spiritual judgeth (discerns) all things” (1 Corinthians
2:15).
Copied here on my blog with permission from D. Cloud
Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist Information Service
Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box
610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
My home is no longer full of littles but our children are now growing up with over half of them already adults.
My life's goal has been to bring honor and glory to God and then to see each one of my children spend eternity with me praising and glorifying our Saviour. The older I become the more I realize how very very short life is!
We have only one life and it will soon be past!!!!
I have the verse marked in my own Bible - Hebrews 2:13 "And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." Years ago, under this verse I penned in eleven 'X' marks to represent each child God gave to Roger and I. As I watch them grow and mature and see them in their day to day lives and see the fruits of repentance and changed life (all of them have grown up hearing the gospel day by day and have made professions) - but I want that assurance that they have truly have become 'new creatures' and it isn't just in their head. That becomes very evident as the article mentions in their early teen years and beyond! When I see fruits and growth in their life, I mark their 'X' with a circle as I gain confidence from their daily walk and changed life that I can know that I will enjoy eternity with them in the presence of God.
My heart is heavy and throbs with sorrow that all of these 'X' marks in my Bible representing my dear and precious children are not all yet encircled. I also feel so feeble in my attempts to pray for them...but I know the Lord hears my every feeble attempt and is not willing that any should perish.
I hope this article gives you food for thought too. From my heart,
Marmee
GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS:
TEMPTATIONS YOUNG PEOPLE FACE GROWING UP IN THE CHURCH
The following is by Dave Crowe, an Australian missionary to Papua New
Guinea. It was sent to us by Buddy Smith, pastor of Grace Baptist
Church, Malanda, Queensland, Australia smiletex@bigpond.net.au.
“Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the
LORD yet revealed unto him” (1 Samuel 3:7).
“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD” (1
Samuel 2:12).
The 23rd of March this year was the 25th anniversary of my Salvation.
As far as I know, I was the first of a long line of unbelieving
ancestors to call upon the name of the Lord. I am a first generation
believer. As such, some might not consider me qualified to deal with
the subject matter of this article. That could quite well be so, if it
were not for the fact that over the course of the last 15 years my
wife and I have had the privilege of rearing five reasonably normal
and healthy children, all of whom profess to be Christians, second-
generation Christians.
Through an amazing work of Providence, on the 23rd of March this year
our son Samuel who is now 15, was also saved. Samuel was not saved
from a life of drugs, drunkenness, and debauchery as were his parents,
but rather from a life of religiosity and ritual, a life of outward
appearances and conformity to a creed he knew well, but loved little.
This is the issue upon which this short article is based.
Samuel is a Home Schooled MK (Missionary Kid). Samuel arrived on the
mission field at seven months old (in his mother’s womb). Samuel was
born early Thursday Morning on the 17th December 1992, and was in
church on Sunday, not yet three days old. Probably the first time
Samuel ever heard his father’s voice loud enough to be recognised was
from the pulpit in the local Baptist Church.
We could count, probably, on one hand the number of Sundays Samuel has
missed since that day. Samuel will be 16 in December this year. At a
conservative estimate, Samuel has been in church well over 3,000 times
since he was born. If you count up Sundays, morning and evening, for
15 years, that brings you up to a total of 1,560 sermons, add to that
the weekly prayer meetings, 780 of them, not to mention Sunday
Schools, 780 of them as well.
A text from 2 Timothy 3:15 comes to mind when I think of my son
Samuel. “And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.”
Samuel, like thousands of other kids growing up in Christian homes,
has from a child been immersed in the Word of God. Besides his regular
church attendance, Samuel has been home schooled from day one. He has
memorised hundreds of Bible verses; he knows most of the major stories
by heart, as do his four sisters, the youngest of whom is Hadassah,
who is now 8. Hadassah can recite numerous lengthy portions of
Scripture almost word perfect. All of our children are the same. They
all attend church and youth group weekly; we have family devotions
most days. If the Lord tarries, Hadassah, like Samuel, would have
heard over 3,000 sermons by the time she is 15.
Does all of that make my children Christians? No, sadly not. In fact,
despite all those sermons, my children can remain hardened sinners,
too proud to see their real need to repent. Not even fifteen years on
the mission field and 3000 sermons can make a child acceptable to God
and ready for Heaven. No, according to John 3:3, they, like everyone
else in the world, “must be born again.”
As we have found out by personal experience within our own family
circle, it is possible for children to sit through, and endure
thousands of hours of religious instruction, and still be none the
better for it. “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any
thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Until such a time as a
child is truly and powerfully saved by a miracle of God’s Grace, even
something as wholesome as sound Biblical preaching and the fellowship
of the local church can become a source of temptation and a snare to
him.
Boredom, Unthankfulness, Apathy, Indifference, Cynicism, Scepticism,
Duplicity, Hypocrisy, Hardness of heart, even outright Atheism and
Rebellion are only a few of the nasty and eternally destructive fruits
that can grow almost undetected, right on the front row of our Sunday
School Classes. How can that be?
Though my children are privileged and certainly blessed to have been
raised in a Christian home, taught by their own loving mother, and
exposed to sound and wholesome Bible preaching all of their lives,
they are not exempt from temptation. Far from it! In fact, they are
actually subject to some very serious and destructive religious
temptations children from unsaved homes never face.
Temptation for my children is quite different than it was (and is) for
me. I have struggled in my life with the seedier side of the flesh; my
children face more subtle temptations, like Nicodemus or young Samuel
in the Old Testament. I was an irreligious and naughty child; my
children are mostly moral and good. I was corrupted very early in
life; and to my great detriment and lasting regret, I became wise
concerning the things that are evil. My children, on the other hand,
are mostly innocent and, thankfully, quite naïve concerning evil, but
they face a host of temptations that in some ways are just as
dangerous and harder to discern and much more subtle.
It is important for us here to understand a very important Biblical
precept.
THE NATURAL MAN OR A NEW CREATURE?
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God:
for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all
things, yet he himself is judged of no man” (1 Corinthians 2:14-15).
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians
5:17).
There is a great difference between being religious and good and being
a new creature in Christ. Nicodemus was a good man, but he certainly
wasn’t a new man. Samuel in the Old Testament was a religious lad, a
very polite and respectful boy, “but he didn’t yet know the Lord” (1
Samuel 3:7). Eli's sons served the Tabernacle but they were “sons of
Belial; they knew not the LORD.”
God recognised something about Samuel and the sons of Eli that few
Christian parents discern today. They were in the right place, but not
in a right spirit. Nicodemus in the New Testament was a good man, but
a natural man still. His religion was based solely on the natural
light of his ritual and outward form of religion, but there was no
illumination. Samuel was the same.
Nicodemus knew the Scriptures by heart; he was a Doctor of the law, a
ruler of the Jews, but he was unregenerate. The things of the spirit
were foolishness unto him, and “he could not know them because they
are spiritually discerned.”
Young Samuel heard the voice of the Lord three times and thought it
was Eli; he hadn't yet had his heart opened by the Spirit of God.
So it is, I believe, with many of our children. They hear the voice of
God and think it is the preacher or only their parents.
Most children in Christian homes profess faith at an early age. Our
Samuel called on the Lord the first time when he was about six. We did
our utmost to encourage his walk with the Lord, but over the course of
the years it became quite evident to us that though Samuel was a good
lad, he wasn’t a “new creature.” Like Samuel of old, “he didn't yet
know the Lord.”
As he entered into his teenage years we began to detect a definite
resistance to and disliking of spiritual truth. This greatly concerned
us and because of that we challenged him a number of times concerning
his salvation.
I have been impressed more and more over the years that the phrase “if
any man be in Christ” in 2 Corinthians 5:17 also applies to children.
It wasn’t only the Apostle Paul who used that phrase, The Lord Jesus
also said in Luke 9:23, “If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
In actual fact, if you will look closely, you will notice that the
word “man” in Luke 9:23 is not in the original. Jesus said, “If any
will come after me let him deny himself...” That certainly includes
children born into Christian homes. Why do we expect others to
manifest a new life, but not our own children?
We ought not to be congratulating ourselves that our children are good
kids and that at least they are in church. No, that position comes far
short of Bible salvation. We ought to search out the matter and make
diligent inquiry as to whether our precious children are truly born
again; are they regenerate? Can we see Biblical evidence of a New
Creature? Or are they just, going through the motions?
Children are creatures of habit. They can very easily adapt to their
environment, especially if it’s the only one they have ever known.
“Christian” children become experts at duplicity; they know all the
right words to say at the most appropriate times. They can say their
verses and get their awards. They know how to dot all their i's and
cross all their spiritual t's, and all the while many of them are
complete strangers to the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Often it’s not all their fault. Many Christian parents, even pastors
and teachers, take much too much for granted when it comes to the
souls of their children. There seems to me to be a great lack of
discernment in hanging all of our hopes for our children’s eternal
destiny upon some long gone profession of faith that has absolutely no
bearing or impact on the general course of their present day lives.
Salvation is a today issue.
Don’t ever forget that our children’s sinful natures will only be
restrained for a time under the heavy yoke of the Christian home and
church culture. Many Christian children in church are just doing what
kids do naturally, conforming to the majority mindset around them.
They are just going through the motions. That’s all fine and well
whilst they are youngsters, but once the hormones begin to kick in and
old Adam begins to assert his authority, Mum and Dad look out!
If children continually chafe, complain, and defy and even despise and
rebel against the authority of the Scriptures and their parents, it is
quite as likely as not that we are dealing with unregenerate
offspring. This ought to challenge us, as it is quite obvious in
Scripture that the Biblical criterion for salvation is not an empty
profession of faith, but rather a new creature. If you doubt that read
again Galatians 6:15, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”
If we take the Scriptures seriously we will understand that our
children, just like adults, are sinners that need repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is genuine
repentance, there ought to be genuine fruit. If after a Biblical
evaluation of our children’s lives and testimonies we fail to see the
evidences of a new creature overcoming the old, we need not despair.
No, we need to go to prayer.
We prayed for Samuel his whole life, but we never really took up the
matter of his salvation seriously, even unto fasting, until a few
years ago. As I mentioned, as Samuel began to enter his early teenage
years, old Adam began to make his presence known and it wasn't pleasant.
This was not the normal flesh/spirit conflict of the true Christian
mentioned in Romans 7 and Galatians 5:17. We saw this very different
spiritual conflict in our daughter Lydia, who was very clearly saved
in the year 2000 whilst we were on furlough. She was only six at the
time, but we have had no cause since then to doubt her decision, again
because we have very clearly seen the “new creature.”
In Samuel we hadn't seen the new creature until just recently. Since
Samuel was saved on the 23rd of March this year (he had no idea at the
time that it was my spiritual birthday as well), we have seen a
definite change. He himself has confessed Christ openly on a number of
occasions; he has told me he now understands and gets fed from what he
reads in Scripture. He is also experiencing the conflict with his old
nature. He desires to be baptised and has expressed a very clear
desire to go back to the mission field.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature...”
Don’t settle for less. By making excuses for worldly-minded,
unspiritual children, we are giving place to the devil and also
encouraging deceit and hypocrisy. Look for the tell tale signs of dead
religious observance, and pray against it for all your worth. Your
child’s eternal well being could well depend on you being discerning
enough to see it for what it is, unregenerate flesh.
“He that is spiritual judgeth (discerns) all things” (1 Corinthians
2:15).
Copied here on my blog with permission from D. Cloud
Way of Life Literature's Fundamental Baptist Information Service
Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box
610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org
Add A Comment
Linking to this in my next Prayer Monday~OH how it speaks to my heart!!!!! (((((HUGS))))) sandi
Thank you Marmee...My husband and I are pastors and on the missionfield. Thanks again for the WAKE-UP call. We need to be wise. I too will print this one out and pass it along. Blessings
Thanks, Marmee. I think about this a lot. I don't want to raise a bunch of Pharisees! I'm printing this one out to go over later.