Fear the LORD and Bless Your Children

When you're browsing your local Christian bookstore (if you're brave enough to enter in the first place...and how does a bookstore get saved, anyway?) or clicking around Amazon.com, you'll find an endless variety of books on parenting, and probably more books on being a good father than you can haul in a dump truck. It can be a little overwhelming.

Admittedly, I have a few of these tomes on my bookshelf. Some I've read, some I haven't. Some were good, some weren't. Naturally, all good parenting (Godly parenting) tips come from Scripture; God's Word is replete with parenting examples, both positive and negative.

But there is one verse in Proverbs that has meant more to me than perhaps any other:

"He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge." Proverbs 14:26

Those few short words speak directly to the kind of man I ought to be, the place of priority Almighty God ought to have in my home, and the promise that accompanies such a practice. Life can get complicated and convoluted. I'm so thankful that God has provided parenting directives that involve simple actions and simple trust. As I learn to acknowledge God in my work, my words, around the supper table or wherever, my children will be living under an umbrella of God's grace, a place of refuge for them.

Along with a plea that I might learn the fear of the Lord, the best prayer I can offer for my sons is simply that God would help me to be a Father like He is: patient, wise, firm, reliable and a lover of His bride.

No Place Like Home

It's August 27th again, and that reminds me of two things: Life and death. Pretty heavy for August 27th, but this happens to be the date of my fifth son's birth six years ago. This was the son that wasn't supposed to live. Matthias will be happily eating birthday cake tonight. It is also the date of Ericka's death five years ago. Ericka was a vibrant, sincere, Christ-loving young lady in our youth ministry who was killed in an automobile accident after school.

I must tell you that every day - I mean EVERY day - I am aware of the mercy of God when I hug my son (usually several times). It's really a profound thing that he is with us. If you want the details, you can read them HERE. I am utterly, completely, deeply happy to have him safely home.

Regarding Ericka, I'm really not that sad. I know it still hurts her folks and her sister, and the friends she was in school with. But you know, it's kind of a weird thing you feel when a true believer passes from this life and enters the next ahead of you. Sure, it's sad, even heart rending sometimes, especially when the person is as young as Ericka, however there's a smile on the face of my heart because I know she also is safely home.

Home. That's a beautiful, comforting word for me. I hope it is for you. And it's pretty cool to think that one day I'll be home in the place Christ has prepared for me, and I have a feeling it won't be that unfamiliar, even though I've never been there.

Tonight I'll walk through my front door, be greeted by Matthias as he runs and jumps into my arms, and I'll instantly be at ease. Some day there's going to be a similar homecoming . . . you get the picture.

No I'm Not

One of my favorite people in our congregation is a fellow motorcycle rider and a servant-hearted handyman. He comes in whenever necessary and fixes...well, whatever needs fixing. I always tell him, "You're a good man, Harold*", to which he invariably replies, "No I'm not." Sometimes he adds, "God's the One that's good."

This morning I read that "...the heart of the wicked is of little value." Proverbs 10:20

How profoundly true. Even the saved, the elect, are at one point separated from God: listless, useless and powerless. I know full well that if it hadn't been for the Father's pursuit of me and the quickening of His Spirit that I would have remained dead in my sinfulness. The older I get, the more deeply I feel and know my complete and utter dependence upon God. Unfortunately, I don't always live my life like that - I still grab the wheel and try to steer myself around - but the fact that the Father is my only help and hope settles more deeply in my soul with each passing year.

So, Harold is right - he's not good. But God is. And because God is good we are rescued from our sinful selves and enabled to do the good things He prepared for us to do. Thanks for having the right attitude, Harold.

*Name has been changed to protect the guilty, and on the off chance that "Harold" should read this post, I don't want him to be embarrassed...:)

His Glory Appears!

Sometimes when it's raining in the morning and the storm is making its way off to the east, the day actually begins to brighten from the west, which makes for quite a surreal experience. Today was like that, and as I drove to work while the rain washed the world around me and the western sky began to glow, momentarily suspending my perception of time, this song was playing in the car:



A beautiful way to start the day. Soli Deo gloria!

Things We Leave Behind

So as I'm mowing the lawn a few evenings ago, I begin to think about what I'll leave behind when I'm gone. Strange, I know, but what do you think about when you're cutting grass?

I'm not old, nor am I ill, but I do sometimes think about the fact that my life on this earth in its present form is passing fairly quickly. There will be an end to it, one way or another.

And if my mortal body should give out before the Lord's return, I want to know that I'll be leaving something behind for my sons. I'm pretty sure this won't be vast amounts of money, and that's just as well - I would if I could but it all burns up in the end anyway and money can lead to trouble.

What I want to leave behind are stepping stones . . . guideposts . . . handholds. There will be plenty of writing to go through, including my personal journals, this blog, and the individual journals I've been keeping for each of my sons since they were young. Through these they'll have a pretty clear glimpse into how my heart truly feels about them. Through these they'll (hopefully) see a little bit of my journey with God: times of growth, times of drought, times of rejoicing.

There will also be the imprint of my personality. Writing those words makes me chuckle, and you, too, if you know me personally. But, in spite of my quirks and weaknesses, I hope my boys will recall images of a good and Godly man in a happy home. And more importantly, I hope they'll see the obvious link between that and the place God occupies in our home.

There will be other miscellany such as musical tastes, thousands and thousands of photographs, a rich library, trips to the mountains, dumb jokes, and a mother who was loved and cared for deeply.

My boys are everything to me, even if in this flesh I love them imperfectly. They are constantly teaching me about the relationship the Heavenly Father has with His children, and the deep desire He has to teach them and be close to them. What are you planning on leaving behind?

Wood, Steel and Poetry

I've shared C.S. Lewis' poem "As Warm As Tears" before, now here is the video of Phil Keaggy playing the beautiful piece he wrote for the poem. Not exactly HD, but beautiful nonetheless:

Confessing With Augustine

One of my favorite quotes from Augustine's Confessions is this one:

"It was you, then, O Lord, who made them, You who are beautiful, for they too are beautiful; You who are good, for they too are good; You who ARE, for they too are. But they are not beautiful and good as You are beautiful and good, nor do they have their being as You, their Creator, have Your being. In comparison with You they have neither beauty nor goodness nor being at all. This we know, and thanks be to You for this knowledge. But our knowledge, compared with Yours, is ignorance."

The appreciation of beauty is not some inherited evolutionary trait selected to ensure we eat plants that are safe and mate to continue the species. Beauty observed in the world we live in is a reflection, albeit a dim one, of the beauty that emanates from the God of Creation. Any goodness we experience or witness or receive exists because God is good. And obviously, the wisest among us is a simpleton compared to the only wise God.

The wise and scholarly of this age champion evolution, encourage abortion and worship what has been created instead of the Creator. But Paul says in 1 Corinthians that God will frustrate and shame this so-called "wisdom".

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1 Corinthians 1:20

I can't help but rejoice that my God is the ultimate in beauty, goodness and wisdom. Soli Deo gloria!

To Know Him Is To Love Him!

"The people who know their God will be strong . . . " Daniel 11:32

When I was younger, and younger in my faith, I knew less of the Savior than I do now. I trusted what the Bible told me, and understood what trustworthy adults told me about Christ.

Now that I'm quite a ways down the road, I can see how much more I know the Savior and how much deeper my trust in Him is, how much greater is my peace and how much more solid is my joy. Of course, along with this comes the realization that my grasp of Him is smaller than I ever imagined. However, He is patient and faithful.

The longer I live, the greater He becomes in my eyes. As each year passes, I apprehend just a bit more of His glory, His greatness. The more I know of Him, the more I love Him. And the more I know of Him, the more I realize how much I need Him.

Charles Spurgeon wrote that, "we cannot love a Christ whom we do not know, at least, in some degree. If we know but little of the excellences of Jesus, what He has done for us, and what He is doing now, we cannot love Him much; but the more we know Him, the more we shall love Him."