I hope you all enjoy or are challenged by reading my lunch-time thoughts, and I do hope that what I write can be edifying to the saints. This is my 100th post on this blog, and honestly, I have never written on a topic about which I am more concerned than today's: The salvation of my children. Paul wrote in Romans 9:3, "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren..." He is referring to the people of Israel. Truthfully, I don't think I could honestly say that about anybody in this world. I don't think that I would be willing to exchange my eternal salvation just to let somebody else get in... The only exceptions to that might be for my wife and children. I praise God that I will never be in a place that I would have to make that decision.
How do you bring your kids to Christ?
I start my post with this: There is one example in all of the Bible where a person made a sinner's prayer and was justified. That is the story of the publican (as opposed to the Pharisee) that begged God to be merciful to him a sinner. The next verse says that he want home justified. Other than that, salvation is always an issue of believing, and not of saying some prayer.
Because salvation does not come as the result of a prayer but rather from believing, and believing is described as being "...faith which worketh by love." (Galatians 5:6), because that is true, I don't want to lead my kids in a prayer and then say, "If you really mean that, you are now saved, and since you are saved, you can never lose that. Congratulations. Let's go get baptized." Honestly, I could do that with my three year old. He would agree with everything, and would repeat the prayer after me. But, I don't think Joe has the moral capacity to understand what sin really is and that he needs a Savior. I don't believe that God is holding him responsible for his sinful nature at this point in time in his life. When the law comes, sin will revive in his life, and he will die (Romans 7:9).
So, what do I do as a father that loves his children? I admit up front that I am lacking in definitive answers here. If I perfectly knew the right answer without doubt, then I would not struggle with this issue, I would just do whatever it was. But since I don't, I am going to share my random thoughts with you all here.
1) Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17. I believe that we need to have the word of God given to our kids - when we lie down, stand up, walk in the way, sit in our house, etc. The word of God must established as the true authority in our lives.
2) For the word of God to be recognized as the true authority in our lives, then we have to live by it. If I teach my kids they need to obey their parents because the Bible says so, but then I am not kind one to another, and my kids realize that, then they will learn from me that God's word isn't really that authoritative. They will grow up as a Christian by name only, and never believe from the heart unto righteousness.
3) The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Ray Comfort wrote a great book on this subject, How to Bring Your Children To Christ and Keep Them There. I read that book a while ago, and as I am writing this, I realize that I want to read it again. Part of that book teaches that we need to make our children understand the law of God and that when they violate that law, they are offending the very God that brought them life. Again, this demands holy living on the part of us parents, or else the children will not believe it to be true. But we unfortunately need to say to our kids sometimes, "Joseph, that was wrong. You did bad." (And after the modern day self-ego-building philosophers stop having their hissy fit, we as Christians need to remember not to be deceived by the philosophies and vain deceit of the world.) God has set the standard. It is NOT ok to ignore it, and it’s not OK to let our kids ignore it.
4) We need to pray. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We need to pray for the influences in the lives of our children - their friends, teachers, neighbors, etc. I can remember friends in my life that were not positive Christian influences on me... And some of my old friends could be saying the same thing referring to me.
5) We need to teach them Jesus and His cross. It is only through faith in the blood of Christ that a person can be saved. It is by faith that we have access into the grace wherein we stand. After that we believe we are sealed with the Holy Ghost (Rom 5:2 & Eph 1:13). We need to teach our kids that they are not good enough to do anything to merit their own salvation! They need to understand their weakness (we use the law to show them their sin and exceeding sinfulness), and learn to fully trust in Jesus for forgiveness. When we demonstrate how to trust God in all areas of our lives, it becomes easier for our children to see it. Like it has been said, if we are willing to trust God with our eternal souls, we ought to be able to trust Him with whatever we're facing today.
What else? What am I missing? I have never been so concerned about a subject before. Would you be willing to wish yourself accursed from Christ for your children? Would you give up your eternal salvation for your son or daughter? I thank God that I will never have to make that decision, HOWEVER, what will I be willing to give up in this life for the eternal salvation of my children? What if it means I have to stop watching movies? Stop listening to certain music? Go to church more faithfully? Hold better times of family devotions? Have some standards that will cause us as a family to be mocked? Am I willing to cause this discomfort to myself if it will help nurture faith in my children? I would contemplate the idea of giving up my eternal salvation for them - I love them that much - but will I give up temporal pleasures?
Just a thought... or two...
Andy Hinds
How do you bring your kids to Christ?
I start my post with this: There is one example in all of the Bible where a person made a sinner's prayer and was justified. That is the story of the publican (as opposed to the Pharisee) that begged God to be merciful to him a sinner. The next verse says that he want home justified. Other than that, salvation is always an issue of believing, and not of saying some prayer.
Because salvation does not come as the result of a prayer but rather from believing, and believing is described as being "...faith which worketh by love." (Galatians 5:6), because that is true, I don't want to lead my kids in a prayer and then say, "If you really mean that, you are now saved, and since you are saved, you can never lose that. Congratulations. Let's go get baptized." Honestly, I could do that with my three year old. He would agree with everything, and would repeat the prayer after me. But, I don't think Joe has the moral capacity to understand what sin really is and that he needs a Savior. I don't believe that God is holding him responsible for his sinful nature at this point in time in his life. When the law comes, sin will revive in his life, and he will die (Romans 7:9).
So, what do I do as a father that loves his children? I admit up front that I am lacking in definitive answers here. If I perfectly knew the right answer without doubt, then I would not struggle with this issue, I would just do whatever it was. But since I don't, I am going to share my random thoughts with you all here.
1) Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17. I believe that we need to have the word of God given to our kids - when we lie down, stand up, walk in the way, sit in our house, etc. The word of God must established as the true authority in our lives.
2) For the word of God to be recognized as the true authority in our lives, then we have to live by it. If I teach my kids they need to obey their parents because the Bible says so, but then I am not kind one to another, and my kids realize that, then they will learn from me that God's word isn't really that authoritative. They will grow up as a Christian by name only, and never believe from the heart unto righteousness.
3) The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Ray Comfort wrote a great book on this subject, How to Bring Your Children To Christ and Keep Them There. I read that book a while ago, and as I am writing this, I realize that I want to read it again. Part of that book teaches that we need to make our children understand the law of God and that when they violate that law, they are offending the very God that brought them life. Again, this demands holy living on the part of us parents, or else the children will not believe it to be true. But we unfortunately need to say to our kids sometimes, "Joseph, that was wrong. You did bad." (And after the modern day self-ego-building philosophers stop having their hissy fit, we as Christians need to remember not to be deceived by the philosophies and vain deceit of the world.) God has set the standard. It is NOT ok to ignore it, and it’s not OK to let our kids ignore it.
4) We need to pray. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. We need to pray for the influences in the lives of our children - their friends, teachers, neighbors, etc. I can remember friends in my life that were not positive Christian influences on me... And some of my old friends could be saying the same thing referring to me.
5) We need to teach them Jesus and His cross. It is only through faith in the blood of Christ that a person can be saved. It is by faith that we have access into the grace wherein we stand. After that we believe we are sealed with the Holy Ghost (Rom 5:2 & Eph 1:13). We need to teach our kids that they are not good enough to do anything to merit their own salvation! They need to understand their weakness (we use the law to show them their sin and exceeding sinfulness), and learn to fully trust in Jesus for forgiveness. When we demonstrate how to trust God in all areas of our lives, it becomes easier for our children to see it. Like it has been said, if we are willing to trust God with our eternal souls, we ought to be able to trust Him with whatever we're facing today.
What else? What am I missing? I have never been so concerned about a subject before. Would you be willing to wish yourself accursed from Christ for your children? Would you give up your eternal salvation for your son or daughter? I thank God that I will never have to make that decision, HOWEVER, what will I be willing to give up in this life for the eternal salvation of my children? What if it means I have to stop watching movies? Stop listening to certain music? Go to church more faithfully? Hold better times of family devotions? Have some standards that will cause us as a family to be mocked? Am I willing to cause this discomfort to myself if it will help nurture faith in my children? I would contemplate the idea of giving up my eternal salvation for them - I love them that much - but will I give up temporal pleasures?
Just a thought... or two...
Andy Hinds
