"Is it just a New England thing, or is this happening everywhere?" That's the question I asked myself as I saw more and more families skipping church for their kids' sporting events. Well, apparently this trend is not unique to New England. According to the Fall 2006 edition of Leadership Journal, the overall busyness of families (which includes, but is not limited to, sports events), is keeping them away from church. Of the 490 pastors surveyed, 76 percent said that "the scale tipped toward family activities. This contrasts with the perception of 62 percent of respondents that a generation ago, free time was more likely to be spent on church commitments. The balance has shifted." In fact, 83 percent of the pastors surveyed said they are aware of situations where people routinely choose family events over church commitments!
What types of activities are families opting for over church? According to Leadership's survey, the most common reasons families give to their pastors for missing church are "kids' activities and weekend trips." Nine in ten pastors hear this frequently.
Hmm. Does this suggest a problem to you? What are we to think when Sunday sports or other children's activities take precedence over worship on the Lord's Day? I have to agree with R. Albert Mohler, who said on his own blog regarding this issue: "... When Christian parents take their kids to Little League games rather than worship on the Lord's Day, these parents teach their children that team sports are more important than the worship of God.
"Every kid has a 'thing' going on virtually all the time. That is the condition of life today, it seems. But when that 'thing' keeps the child -- or the whole family -- away from church, we need to name that thing what it is . . . at best a snare, at worst an idol."
Do you think that assessment too harsh? Then consider the command of Hebrews 10:24-25: "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (NASV, emphasis mine). Worship is both a public and a private duty. People who say, "We haven't been in church because of our kids' crazy sports schedule, but spiritually we've never been better!" are self-deluded. They have deceived themselves into thinking that the second commandment supercedes and is greater than the first commandment. Scripturally, our first priority is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every other priority and value flows from our worship of God.
The word "worship" comes from the Saxon word weorthscype, which later became worthship. As Don Whitney notes in his book, Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life, "To worship God is to ascribe the proper worth to God, to magnify His worthiness of praise. . . ." When we take our kids to a sports game instead of the weekly worship service, we tell them that their game is more important than God. Plain and simple. We can try to rationalize, philosophize, and theologize all we want, but that's the message we're driving home to them. Then we wonder why our children show little to no interest in things of the Lord when they leave home.
Granted, it is possible for one to attend church and not have his mind and heart focused on the things of God. That's another type of problem that I'll save for another blog posting! But for now let's deal with the issue on the table. Ask yourself the question, "What do I want most for my kids? What is my highest goal?" If you are a Christian parent, your answer will be that what you want most for your children -- more than a good education or job, more than a loving mate or healthy children (which are all good goals) -- is a heart for God (see Psalm 27:4; 84:1-4, 10).
To see this goal become a reality, we must develop a heart for God by modeling it in the home. They must see it as a priority in our own lives as parents and in our life as a family. But if our love for God is displaced by our love for other things, than our children will inevitably cultivate a greater love for the world than for our heavenly Father (1 John 2:15). They will worship and serve created things (e.g., sports, recreation, etc.) rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25).
In his excellent book, Age of Opportunity, Paul David Tripp states, "We have failed our children if we don't do everything we can to have them leave our homes with a sense of awe over God and the glories of his grace. . . . We need to recognize humbly that one reason we have not passed this on to them is because we may have lost it ourselves."
Whatever god is keeping you and your kids away from corporate worship, repent of it and get rid of it. For it is only as we seek first His kingdom, making the pursuit of Jesus Christ our highest priority, that we become conduits of God's grace to our kids and allow Him to instill in them, through us, a heart for Him.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Oh where, oh where, is private prayer?
Lately I've been convicted about my lack of private prayer. Taking in God's word is no problem for me, but spending time in prayer often is. What bothers me most about my lack of prayer is that it reflects a spirit of self-sufficiency, pride, and lack of dependence on Almighty God for all things.
Yet I praise God for His Holy Spirit, who convicts me of all this and impels me to pray -- who makes me realize that "my flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Ps. 73:26). So this morning, I bowed myself before my heavenly Father, asked His forgiveness for my negligence in private prayer, and proceeded to enjoy sweet communion with my Lord once again.
Near the start of my prayer time, I reached for The Valley of Vision, a precious collection of anonymous Puritan prayers. I opened to where I had last left off, and as God would have it, I read the following words, which expressed well the sentiment of my own heart. Perhaps it articulates your own pangs of conviction regarding prayerlessness in your life. If so, pray it even now with total sincerity, knowing that God hears the prayers of His children:
O LORD OF GRACE,
I have been hasty and short in private prayer,
O quicken my conscience to feel this folly,
to bewail this ingratitude;
My first sin of the day leads into others,
and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw thy presence
from one who waited carelessly on thee.
Keep me at all times from robbing thee,
and from depriving my soul of thy due worship;
Let me never forget that I have an eternal duty
to love, honor, and obey thee,
that thou art infinitely worthy of such;
that if I fail to glorify thee
I am guilty of infinite evil that merits eternal punishment,
for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation.
O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee,
Melt my heart, heal my backslidings,
and open an intercourse of love.
When the fire of thy compassion warms my inward man,
and the outpourings of thy Spirit fill my soul,
then I feelingly wonder at my own depravity,
and deeply abhor myself;
then thy grace is a powerful incentive to repentance,
and an irresistible motive toward inner holiness.
May I never forget that thou hast my heart in thy hands.
Apply to it the merits of Christ's atoning blood whenever I sin.
Let thy mercies draw me to thyself.
Wean me from all evil, mortify me to the world,
and make me ready for my departure hence
animated by the humiliations of penitential love.
My soul is often a chariot without wheels,
clogged and hindered in sin's miry clay;
Mount it on eagle's wings
and cause it to soar upward to thyself.
Yet I praise God for His Holy Spirit, who convicts me of all this and impels me to pray -- who makes me realize that "my flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Ps. 73:26). So this morning, I bowed myself before my heavenly Father, asked His forgiveness for my negligence in private prayer, and proceeded to enjoy sweet communion with my Lord once again.
Near the start of my prayer time, I reached for The Valley of Vision, a precious collection of anonymous Puritan prayers. I opened to where I had last left off, and as God would have it, I read the following words, which expressed well the sentiment of my own heart. Perhaps it articulates your own pangs of conviction regarding prayerlessness in your life. If so, pray it even now with total sincerity, knowing that God hears the prayers of His children:
O LORD OF GRACE,
I have been hasty and short in private prayer,
O quicken my conscience to feel this folly,
to bewail this ingratitude;
My first sin of the day leads into others,
and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw thy presence
from one who waited carelessly on thee.
Keep me at all times from robbing thee,
and from depriving my soul of thy due worship;
Let me never forget that I have an eternal duty
to love, honor, and obey thee,
that thou art infinitely worthy of such;
that if I fail to glorify thee
I am guilty of infinite evil that merits eternal punishment,
for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation.
O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee,
Melt my heart, heal my backslidings,
and open an intercourse of love.
When the fire of thy compassion warms my inward man,
and the outpourings of thy Spirit fill my soul,
then I feelingly wonder at my own depravity,
and deeply abhor myself;
then thy grace is a powerful incentive to repentance,
and an irresistible motive toward inner holiness.
May I never forget that thou hast my heart in thy hands.
Apply to it the merits of Christ's atoning blood whenever I sin.
Let thy mercies draw me to thyself.
Wean me from all evil, mortify me to the world,
and make me ready for my departure hence
animated by the humiliations of penitential love.
My soul is often a chariot without wheels,
clogged and hindered in sin's miry clay;
Mount it on eagle's wings
and cause it to soar upward to thyself.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
No Easy Way Out
Is there any cross in your Christianity? This question, posed by J.C. Ryle in his classic, Holiness, came to me at a critical time -- right on the heels of my reading Proverbs 24:10, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small."
Christianity -- real Christianity, that is -- is by no means easy. As Ryle says, "Flesh and blood naturally shrink from pain. It is in us all to do so. We draw back by a kind of instinct from suffering, and avoid it if we can. If two courses of action are set before us, which both seem right, we generally take that which is the least disagreeable to flesh and blood."
That is so true, isn't it? We're always looking for the easy way out. This tendency is reflected in virtually every area of our lives. But for the sake of this brief discussion, let's take just one area. (I'd rather shoot with a rifle than a shotgun.) Let's consider the matter of confrontation. It's hard enough to overcome temptation ourselves. But what do we do when we see another Christian brother or sister caught in a trespass, overcome by temptation, perhaps persisting in sin?
Let's be honest. Our natural tendency is to do nothing -- to let it go, to ignore it. After all, who needs to borrow trouble? Better to say a silent prayer and go on our way, letting the Holy Spirit handle it! But what saith the Scripture? Scripture tells us to go to that person in a spirit of humility and gentleness, with the intention of restoring them. We are to go to them privately about their sin in the hopes of winning them over, of leading them to repentance and restoration. Yes, the Holy Spirit does the work, but we are the agents He uses!
I'm convinced that the reason we don't lovingly confront one another more often about our sin is because we love ourselves too much, and we love God and others too little. We are more concerned with what others think of us than what they think of God, what God thinks of their sin, or what the world thinks of God.
This problem is nothing new. Scripture's indictment of the religious leaders of Jesus' day (the religious leaders, mind you!), that "they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:43). Paul the apostle, who had been in that very boat when he was Saul the persecutor, said rather pointedly: "Do I seek to please men? If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10).
When it comes to dealing with sin, there's no easy way out. Sin must be confronted, first in our lives, and then in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God" (1 Pet. 4:17).
What fellow believer has God placed in your path who needs to be restored to fellowship with Him? Do you love him or her enough to pursue them in love? You could be the very agent God uses to bring them to repentance and renewal. Remember, "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue."
-- Proverbs 27:5-6; 28:23
Christianity -- real Christianity, that is -- is by no means easy. As Ryle says, "Flesh and blood naturally shrink from pain. It is in us all to do so. We draw back by a kind of instinct from suffering, and avoid it if we can. If two courses of action are set before us, which both seem right, we generally take that which is the least disagreeable to flesh and blood."
That is so true, isn't it? We're always looking for the easy way out. This tendency is reflected in virtually every area of our lives. But for the sake of this brief discussion, let's take just one area. (I'd rather shoot with a rifle than a shotgun.) Let's consider the matter of confrontation. It's hard enough to overcome temptation ourselves. But what do we do when we see another Christian brother or sister caught in a trespass, overcome by temptation, perhaps persisting in sin?
Let's be honest. Our natural tendency is to do nothing -- to let it go, to ignore it. After all, who needs to borrow trouble? Better to say a silent prayer and go on our way, letting the Holy Spirit handle it! But what saith the Scripture? Scripture tells us to go to that person in a spirit of humility and gentleness, with the intention of restoring them. We are to go to them privately about their sin in the hopes of winning them over, of leading them to repentance and restoration. Yes, the Holy Spirit does the work, but we are the agents He uses!
I'm convinced that the reason we don't lovingly confront one another more often about our sin is because we love ourselves too much, and we love God and others too little. We are more concerned with what others think of us than what they think of God, what God thinks of their sin, or what the world thinks of God.
This problem is nothing new. Scripture's indictment of the religious leaders of Jesus' day (the religious leaders, mind you!), that "they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:43). Paul the apostle, who had been in that very boat when he was Saul the persecutor, said rather pointedly: "Do I seek to please men? If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10).
When it comes to dealing with sin, there's no easy way out. Sin must be confronted, first in our lives, and then in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God" (1 Pet. 4:17).
What fellow believer has God placed in your path who needs to be restored to fellowship with Him? Do you love him or her enough to pursue them in love? You could be the very agent God uses to bring them to repentance and renewal. Remember, "Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue."
-- Proverbs 27:5-6; 28:23
Monday, April 23, 2007
Live Like You're Dying
... because you are. "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). "Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity..." (Eph. 5:15-16a).
Over the desk of my study hangs a large, framed quote by Charles Spurgeon, that my wife Ruthie gave to me. Daily it reminds me of how precious a commodity time is, and that the only life worth living is that which is lived out one hundred percent for Jesus Christ. Here's the quote:
"As long as there is breath in our bodies let us serve Christ; as long as we can think, as long as we can speak, as long as we can work, let us serve Him. Let us even serve Him with our last gasp. And if it be possible, let us try to set some work going that will glorify Him when we are dead and gone. Let us scatter some seed that may spring up when we are sleeping beneath the hillock in the cemetery."
Amen. "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12).
Over the desk of my study hangs a large, framed quote by Charles Spurgeon, that my wife Ruthie gave to me. Daily it reminds me of how precious a commodity time is, and that the only life worth living is that which is lived out one hundred percent for Jesus Christ. Here's the quote:
"As long as there is breath in our bodies let us serve Christ; as long as we can think, as long as we can speak, as long as we can work, let us serve Him. Let us even serve Him with our last gasp. And if it be possible, let us try to set some work going that will glorify Him when we are dead and gone. Let us scatter some seed that may spring up when we are sleeping beneath the hillock in the cemetery."
Amen. "So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)