No Church Today

January 31, 2010 Leave a Comment

We had to cancel church today due to our second big snow in six weeks. Whereas the December storm dumped a foot on us, this one only gave us six or seven inches. I suppose we should be grateful that the weather guys missed the forecast a little. We were supposed to have gotten a foot again.

I really do hate cancelling church. The fact is, I could get there. I have not one but two all-wheel-drive vehicles and am pretty good at driving on snow and ice. I could get the parking lot scraped too. My brother-in-law, Ben, has a big blade on his jeep and volunteers to handle that job for me.

So why cancel? I do it because I don’t want anybody getting hurt by trying to get to church on a wintry morning. If one car ended up in a ditch, I’d feel terrible. If one elderly person slipped and broke a hip while getting in or out of a car, I’d feel terrible. If one mother’s feet gave way and she went down while holding her child, I’d feel terrible. I know that we are not supposed to live in fear of what could happen, and I’m really not a “doom and gloom” person. But I don’t think God wants us to completely abandon common sense in some misguided, fanatical zeal about never missing a church service.

As I listened to the church closings on our local radio station this morning, it became obvious that 95% of the pastors took the same cautious approach I did today. No church was having regular services. One was only having an 11:00 worship service. A couple were having one 2:00 service this afternoon. But 95% just cancelled everything.

For me, a Sunday morning without church is like a basketball court without goals. It’s just not right. I’m not one of these people who secretly cheers when church gets cancelled. (Seriously, if you are such a person, you need to do some soul searching and figure out why getting to “legally” skip church excites you.) And it’s not just the fact that I want to preach. It seems like I’m always preparing sermons or preaching them. The thing is, I really do miss the fellowship and community of church. I enjoy being around my brothers and sisters in Christ. I enjoy them being a blessing to me and me being a blessing to them.

Oh well, my prayer on days like today is that cancelling services will help the members realize how much they enjoy coming to Disciples Road Church. It’s the old “absence makes the heart grow fonder” thing. I don’t ever want church attendance to become rut or ritual to them. I don’t even want it to become mere ”religion.” Christianity got off track when it became a religion. It was always supposed to be a relationship, a relationship between the believer and Jesus. And as a integral part of that relationship, the believer is supposed to attend church on Sunday, the first day of the week, as a way of celebrating Christ’s resurrection on that Sunday morning so long ago. Yes, Christians are supposed to do that celebrating every Sunday, not just Easter Sunday.

On a completely different note, I did get one bit of good news this morning. My scales weighed me at 187 pounds. So, I’ve lost 14 pounds in 20 days since I started my diet and exercise program. If you want to know the specifics of how I’m doing it, go back and read the post entitled “It’s Diet Time Again.” 

My goal is still to get somewhere between 175 and 180 pounds. From there I’ll just be trying to maintain. I’ve been in that range before, and I’ve even held it for a couple of years, but it doesn’t happen naturally. What naturally happens is me drifting back up over 200 pounds. Since I know that full well, maybe I can prevent it from happening this time and stay at my ideal weight. Now if I can just figure out a way to safely have church after a big snow on Saturday. That one is a little more problematic.            

Filed under Christ's Resurrection, church, Church attendance, dieting, Easter, Personal Tagged with , , , ,

The Importance Of A Child’s Salvation

January 30, 2010 Leave a Comment

(Post 4 of a series of 4)

This post will be the fourth and last in this series on parenting. In my previous three, I’ve dealt with the importance of obedience in a child, the importance of individuality in a child, and the importance of spanking a child. With this one, I want to talk about the importance of a child’s salvation.

Let us never forget that little boys and little girls need salvation. Salvation isn’t just for the drunk lying in the street, the convicted killer on death row, or the Muslim terrorist. It is also for young sons and young daughters.

To get us into this, let’s look at 2 Timothy 1:1-5, where the apostle Paul writes:

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, a beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.”

In this fifth verse, Paul talks about a genuine saving faith (an authentic belief in Christ). He says to Timothy, “This saving faith (this authentic belief in Christ) was first in your grandmother Lois. She then passed it down to her daughter (your mother) Eunice. Then Eunice passed it down to you.”

The idea is that Lois and Eunice created an atmosphere in their family wherein Timothy wanted to personally put saving faith in Jesus. Lois put saving faith in Christ, and her salvation played a big part in her daughter, Eunice, putting saving faith in Christ. Eunice’s salvation, in turn, played a big part in her son, Timothy, putting saving faith in Christ.

Now, with that said, I want to devote the rest of this post to offering some practical advice about how parents should share the gospel with their small children. I’ve put this advice under the headings of three general statements. You shouldn’t have any trouble following along.

Statement #1 is: Parent, before you ask your child to believe in Jesus as Savior, it’s a good idea for you to have a basic foundation of Jesus already in place in that child’s life.

When it comes time for a child to seriously deal with Jesus and His offer of salvation, it will be so much better if there is a basic foundation of Christ already in place in that child’s life. But how does a parent lay such a foundation? The obvious ways include taking the child to church every Sunday and buying the child a children’s Bible. The sad truth is that many parents fail even in these basic areas.

Moving on from these basics, there is what I’ll call the spoken word. By the spoken word, I mean that from a child’s early days that child should hear his or her parents talking to Jesus and about Jesus.

Here are a few examples of how a child can hear a parent talk to Jesus. Parent, at mealtime let your child hear you say, “Jesus, we thank you for this food.” When it rains, say to your child, “Well, Jesus is sending us some more rain.” When your child goes to bed, make your child’s bedtime prayers to Jesus. Get on your knees beside the child’s bed, have the child close his eyes, and then you say things like, “Jesus, thank you for watching over us today. Thank you for this home. Thank you for this warm bed to sleep in.” You pray like that a few nights and then let your child do the praying. Hopefully, that child will learn to pray like you pray.

And, by the way, be sure to remind the child that Jesus is God. If the child tries to act silly during the prayer time, just say, “Now remember, you are talking to God.” You see, if you will talk to Jesus correctly in front of your child, you can build all kinds of great theology into your child’s thinking.

Just through the things your child hears you pray, your child can learn that Jesus is: God, our creator, our sustainer, our protector, and our provider. Then, when the child is mature enough to honestly deal with the issue of believing in Christ as Savior or rejecting Him, that child will have all of that wonderful foundation already in his mind. If a child already thinks of Jesus as his God, creator, sustainer, protector, and provider, it won’t be too hard for him to add Savior to the list..

Now let me mention a few examples of how a child can hear a parent talk about Jesus. Parent, when you go to the beach, stand with your child on the shore, look out at the ocean, and say, “Didn’t Jesus create a big, beautiful ocean?” When a problem comes up, say to your child, “Don’t worry. Jesus will help us with this.” At Christmas tell your child the story of how Jesus left heaven, became a baby, and was born to a virgin named Mary. At Easter tell the child the story of how Jesus died for the sins of the world and then arose from the dead. Read Bible stories about Jesus to your child. Make it a point to talk about Jesus as if He is a real person, because, after all, He is. Don’t let Jesus get lumped in with SpongeBob SquarePants, Elmo, or Big Bird.

What I’m saying is, let your child hear you using the spoken word to talk to Jesus and about Jesus. In a hundred different prayers and a hundred different conversations, use the words you speak to saturate your child’s world with Jesus. This is a great way for you to lay a basic foundation of Christ in that child’s life.

My second statement is: Parents, when it comes to the matter of salvation, don’t rush your child.

Any right-thinking parent wants their child to be saved from that fiery place the Bible calls hell. But what each parent should remember is that children under the age of accountability are not in immediate danger of hell.

If you look for the term “the age of accountability” in the Bible, you won’t find it. That doesn’t mean, though, that the idea of an age of accountability is wrong. While it’s true that each child is born a sinner, it’s also true that small children simply do not have the ability to understand the idea of salvation, let alone God’s plan of salvation. We hear a lot about the love of God, but the Bible also says quite a bit about the justness of God, and, quite frankly, it’s hard to imagine a God of justness sending the soul of a small child to hell.

The issue is not the child’s innocence because each child really is a born sinner. The issue is the fact that the plan of salvation is totally beyond the understanding of a child. How can you share the gospel with a child when that child can’t even understand your language? I know that Romans 1:20 teaches that every adult on planet earth is without excuse before God (even those who have never heard about Christ), but adults aren’t the same as little children.

Matthew chapter 18 comes into play here. In that chapter we find the story of Jesus calling a little child to Him. In using that child as an object lesson to teach His disciples, Jesus said to them, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.” That’s interesting, isn’t it? Little children have angels who always behold the face of God the Father in heaven. I don’t know everything there is to know about that, but I sure like the sounds of it.

In addition to that passage, we have the story from 2nd Samuel chapter 12. David’s infant son died, and David said of him, “I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” When David thought about the afterlife he certainly wasn’t planning on spending eternity apart from God. He wrote in Psalm 23:6, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” His words about his son, then, seem to indicate that David thought of the soul of his dead, infant son as being with God.

Furthermore, 2nd Samuel chapter 12 isn’t just a story from the life of David. It is also a part of the inspired word of God. That means that those words aren’t just wishful thinking on David’s part.

Because of these passages and some others I could mention, I have enough confidence in the idea of an age of accountability to say that a parent shouldn’t rush their small child to “make a decision” for Jesus. Parent, the last thing you want to do is rush your child into making some kind of shallow, uninformed, false decision for Christ.

If you do that, here’s what might very well happen. After your child makes that false decision, you will then get the child baptized as soon as possible. Following that baptism, you will want the child to officially join the church membership roll. But that baptism and that joining of the church membership list will hurt the church and the child.

It will hurt the church because ideally each person on the church’s membership roll is a true Christian. It will hurt the child because the child will grow up thinking that he or she is on the way to heaven when in reality they are not. That might very well make that child resistant to truly believing in Christ.

You see, parent, you and your child stand to lose far too much if you rush that child on the matter of salvation. That’s why you should wait until you are rock-solid sure that your child is ready to decide either for or against Christ.

Of course, the age of accountability is different for each child. Anyone who knows children knows that children don’t mature at the same rate. Therefore, I don’t know how old your child will be when he or she has the mental capability to genuinely believe in Christ as Savior. But what I’m saying is, please don’t rush your child on this.

And then my third and last statement is: Parent, when you explain the plan of salvation to your child, keep it simple.

When you are giving your child the gospel, stay on topic and stick with the essentials. You don’t need to include a teaching on the Rapture. You don’t need to get into what the Bible says about bodily resurrection. You don’t need to try to explain election and predestination. You don’t need to bring up the topic of spiritual gifts. Just stick with the basic, vital, mandatory information. The child is a sinner; Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus died to pay for the child’s sins; the child needs to believe in Jesus as Savior. Once a child truly believes in Christ as Savior, then you can start the gradual process of giving that child more and more knowledge concerning Christ.

On the other hand, don’t oversimplify things and pronounce the child a Christian when he or she isn’t. Lay out the bare bones of the gospel and see how the child responds. Ask the child, “Do you understand this?” Even if the child says, “Yes,” don’t just take the child’s word for it. Quiz the child to see if he or she really does understand. If the understanding is there, push on to the decision part. If the understanding isn’t there, the child is probably just too young to really grasp what you are saying. He or she hasn’t reached the age of accountability yet.

In closing, let me remind each parent that a child’s salvation is the most important goal in bringing up a child. Parents put such careful thought and work into planning for a child’s college education, but they give little attention to bringing that child to saving belief in Christ. Parents knock themselves out to see to it that their children have food, clothing, and a home, but they put little or no effort into leading their children to Christ. What we need today are some parents like Lois and Eunice. If we have those, some Timothys will surely follow.

Filed under Baptism, Belief, Children, Church attendance, Evangelism, Parenting, salvation, Witnessing Tagged with , , , , ,

The Importance Of Spanking A Child

January 28, 2010 8 Comments

(Post 3 of a series of 4)

This will be post #3 in my series on parenting, and this one will answer the question of what the Bible teaches about spanking. Before we look at any scripture, though, I want to say a quick word about child-abuse. Sadly, child-abuse does occur. And, unfortunately, many people label any form of spanking as child-abuse. But I want you to give me credit for not advocating fanatic extremism. When I talk about spanking a child, I’m not talking about breaking a child’s arm, blacking a child’s eye, or bloodying a child’s nose.

When I talk about spanking, I’m talking about spanking in a sane, sensible way. Anyone with an ounce of common sense and Biblical sense knows that there are limits to how far a parent can go when spanking a child. What I’m saying is, going to the other extreme and not spanking is also wrong. Putting a ban on spanking might satisfy the politically correct, but it will never satisfy God.

Alright, now let’s look at some scripture. We’ll begin with Proverbs 13:24: “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.”

Obviously, this verse flies directly in the face of the attitude that says, “If you really love your child, you will not spank that child.” God says, “That’s the exact opposite of the truth.” He says, “If you really love your child, you will spank that child.” The term I like is “tough love.” Real love can’t always be mush and gush. Real love must sometimes involve using the rod for the purpose of discipline.

The fact is that God, as each Christian’s heavenly father, simply demands that earthly parents follow the example that He sets in dealing with His children. I say this because Hebrews 12:5-10 tells us in no uncertain terms that God disciplines (chastens, whips) Christians when their unholy behavior demands it. That passage actually goes so far as to say that if God doesn’t chasten a person, that person isn’t a true child of God (a true Christian).

Listen, parents, you aren’t more loving than God! God loves each Christian far more than any earthly parent loves any earthly child, and yet He still disciplines each Christian. You see, He doesn’t ask any parent to do something that He Himself isn’t willing to do. God knows that children must be disciplined (chastened, spanked). He loves His children too much not to spank them when they need it, and He simply asks each parent to follow His example.

Now let’s look at Proverbs 19:18: “Chasten your son while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction.”

The scary part of this verse is that phrase “while there is hope.” The teaching is that a parent only has a limited window of time in which to break a child of its stubborn, destructive self-will. Parent, if you wait until the teenage years to start your chastening, you will be too late. You’ve got to do your chastening while your child is still developing those traits and habits that will carry that child through life. Never forget that those traits and habits will go a long way in determining what kind of a life the child will have.

Think about cement. When cement is first mixed and poured, you can put your handprint or your footprint into it. You can even write your name in it. But you can’t do any of that once that cement becomes hardened and settled.

In the same way, the parent who wants to leave an indelible impression upon a child must make that impression while the child is young. Once that child reaches a certain age, the impression won’t take. You can’t do much with a sixteen-year old smart-aleck. You can’t build the proper values and the right kind of character into an eighteen-year-old know-it-all. That’s why we’ve got to mold and shape our children while they are still young. We’ve got to chasten them while there is hope.

Next, let’s look at Proverbs 22:15: “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him.”

Parents, we’ve got to get away from this idea that children are naturally innocent. Each child comes out bearing the mark of Adam’s fall from righteousness. Maternity wards are filled with little sinners, and don’t you ever forget that. A newborn has daddy’s eyes, mommy’s nose, and Adam’s sin nature.

Because of that sin nature, each child is eaten up with foolishness. Children do things they shouldn’t do, foolish things. They run out in front of traffic. They try to climb trees. They throw temper tantrums in the middle of stores. They do the very things they are told not to do.

How do we get this foolishness out of them? Will begging do it? No. Will bargaining do it? No. Will reasoning do it? No. The Bible says that what will do it is the rod of correction.

I’m not against lecturing, revoking privileges, grounding, or putting a child in “time out.” Each of these brands of discipline has its place in the raising of a child. Furthermore, I don’t believe that spanking is always the best way of handling a situation. But let me be clear: I don’t read anything in the Bible about lecturing, revoking privileges, grounding, or using “time out.” I do, however, read a lot about spanking.

Parenting should work in the following way. First, parents should lay the foundation of spanking in a child’s life. Then, once the child has been spanked and knows that spanking is a very real disciplinary option, the parents can build a diverse system of discipline upon that firm foundation of spanking. That diverse system can include things such as lecturing, revoking privileges, grounding, or using “time out.”

But the great mistake so many parents make is they start trying to build the diverse system of discipline without ever laying the foundation for the building. They go straight to the other forms of discipline without first putting down the foundation of “the rod of correction.” So, yes, there will be exceptions to the rule of spanking, but let’s make sure that we don’t throw out the rule and just go with the exceptions. In God’s plan, the rod of correction, used rightly, is to be the initial, foundational means of disciplining in a child’s life.

Now let’s look at Proverbs 23:13-14: “Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell.”

These verses take a little explaining. Let me start by saying that the Hebrew word that is translated here as “hell” is Sheol. There is a lot that I could say about this place called Sheol, but for now let me just say that in Old Testament days people thought of Sheol as the realm of the dead.

In other words, when anybody died, that person’s soul went to Sheol. One section of Sheol held the souls of the saved. That section was one of bliss and comfort. The other section held the souls of the unsaved. That section was one of suffering and torment. The New Testament’s Greek word for this place is Hades. The Old Testament’s Sheol and the New Testament’s Hades are the same place.

So, when an Old Testament person says something about going to Sheol, he’s most likely talking in a very general way about dying. He’s simply saying, “I’m going to die.”

And so the teaching of Proverbs 23:13-14 is not that spanking automatically leads to a child’s salvation. The teaching is that, as a basic rule, children who are spanked correctly tend to grow up and live longer lives than children who are never spanked. When a parent refuses to spank a child and break that child of its inborn rebelliousness, that little rebel grows up to become a big rebel, and big rebels tend to live sin-shortened lives.

Big rebels rob banks and get killed in shootouts. Big rebels commit murder and are put to death in gas chambers. Big rebels become alcoholics whose livers and hearts become ravaged with the adverse effects of alcoholism. Big rebels become smokers whose lungs become blackened and damaged. Big rebels become drug addicts whose days are shortened by harming their bodies through drugs. Big rebels become sexually promiscuous and fall victim to sexually transmitted diseases. In all of these examples and others we could mention, we see that unbroken rebels stand a very good chance of somehow shortening their days through some kind of sin.

Now let’s move to Proverbs 29:15,17. First look at verse 15: “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” And then comes verse 17: “Correct your son, and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul.”

Here again we have a contrast presented. A child who is left to himself (who is not spanked when he or she needs it) brings his mother to shame, but a child who is corrected (who is spanked when he or she needs it) gives delight unto a parent’s soul. I’m not trying to be harsh, but when a parent spanks or refuses to spank seed goes into the ground, seed that parent will one day reap. Rebels tend to make their parents’ last years troubled ones, years filled with regret, while obedient children tend to make their parents’ last years good ones, years filled with peace.

So, to sum all this up, many parents today just don’t realize that a deadly disease is coursing through the veins of their children. That disease is sin. Its symptoms are: disobedience, stubbornness, selfishness, temper-tantrums, back-talking, and rebelliousness. The only true cure for this disease is for the child to put saving belief in Jesus Christ. But until a child is old enough to make a legitimate, soul-saving decision to believe in Christ as Savior, the primary cure for the symptoms of the disease of sin is discipline. And, according to the Bible, the basic foundation for disciple should be spanking.

There was a time in this country when spanking was looked upon as a perfectly acceptable means of discipline, but now much of public opinion has changed. God hasn’t changed, though, and neither has His written word. He spanks His children (Christians) when they get out of line, and He expects earthly parents to do the same with their children.

Filed under Children, Corporal Punishment, Discipline, Disobedience, God's Chastening, obedience, Parenting, spanking Tagged with , , , ,

The Importance Of Individuality In A Child

January 26, 2010 Leave a Comment

(Post 2 of a series of 4)

This will be the second post in my series on parenting. With this one, I want to talk about the importance of a child’s individuality. For my text, I’ll use Proverbs 22:6:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Hebrew scholars tell us that a precise translation of the Hebrew of this verse would read something like:

Train up a child according to his way: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

This explains why the Amplified Bible, which is a translation that adds in extra words to help clarify the exact meaning of Bible’s original Hebrew and Greek, renders the verse as follows:

Train up a child in the way he should go (and in keeping with his individual gift or bent), and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Why am I going to the trouble to dig deep into the original Hebrew of Proverbs 22:6? I’m doing it because an improper understanding of what this verse actually says has led many to an improper application of it. Have you ever heard this verse quoted as a promise that a child who was raised in a Christian home will always eventually return to that upbringing, even though that child’s life has downgraded into sin and worldliness? I have heard the verse preached that way many times.

The problem with that attempted interpretation is that it doesn’t hold up to the test of real-life experience. Saying it plainly, some children who were trained up to know the Lord and live for Him do depart from that training and never return to it. How many times have you heard someone say of a wayward child who is living in rank sin, “Well, he wasn’t raised that way”?

Parent, your job is to let your child run with the talents, abilities, and interests that God has built into the child. You don’t have the right to push some destiny or course of life onto that child. Your responsibility is to find out what the child’s weak points and strong points are and help the child get on a road in life that will lead to fulfillment, happiness, and contentment.

Having said that, let me name the main problem that parents have in this area: living vicariously through their children. The interesting thing is that this vicarious living can play out in one of two ways. I’ll give you examples of both.

First, some parents try to recreate their lives through their children. Let’s say that a father was always a great athlete. Playing ball came easily and naturally to him. So what does this father do? He tries to recreate his days as an athlete by pushing athletics onto his son. But let’s say that his son isn’t gifted in athletics and doesn’t enjoy sports. The boy would rather read a book than go outside and play ball. Despite this obvious problem, though, the father remains too caught up in recreating his glory days through the son to let the child just be himself.

Second, some parents try to go back and change their lives by living vicariously through their children. This way ends up at the same problem, but it gets there by means of a totally opposite motivation. Let’s say that a father wasn’t the great athlete he always longed to be. So what does he do? He tries to go back and change his life by pushing athletics onto his son. He looks at his son and says, “I’m going to make you the ballplayer that I never was.” It doesn’t matter that his son doesn’t have the nature or the ability of a ballplayer. That father makes his son play ball as a means of doing the ball-playing he himself missed out on.

Of course, athletics is just one area where these two kinds of vicarious living show up. Here are some other illustrations involving other areas. I hope none of these describes you.

Let’s imagine a mother who is obsessed with turning her daughter into a beauty queen. Maybe this mother was herself a beauty queen or maybe she was the total opposite of a beauty queen, but whatever her motivation is she wants her daughter to be a beauty queen. So what does she do? She pushes that girl into beauty pageants, won’t let the girl eat like she wants to eat, makes her take singing lessons, dancing lessons, etc. You see, it’s all about that mother trying to either recreate her life or go back and change her life through her child.

Let’s imagine a man who is a skilled surgeon. This man says, “My son is going to grow up and follow in my footsteps. I’ll send him to the best college and the best medical school.” The only problem is that the little boy is a born mechanic. The father buys him one of those Operation games, but rather than taking the tweezers and practicing at surgery, the little boy takes the game apart just to see how it works. What should that father do with such a child? He should steer that child towards technical school, not medical school.

Let’s imagine the most practical, all-business, common-sense mother who ever lived. This mother tries to stamp her personality onto her daughter. But the problem is that the daughter is not like her mother. The daughter is into the arts, things like poetry, music, and painting. So what should this down-home mother do? She should build responsibility and godliness into her daughter and then encourage her to let her creativity flow.

On and on I could go with the examples, but hopefully by now you are catching what I’m throwing. God doesn’t use a cookie-cutter to create children. He doesn’t use a “one size fits all” pattern. Each child comes uniquely designed and gifted, and it is the parent’s job to help that child build a life around what that child is gifted to do.

You say, “But Russell, how do I know what my child’s natural tendencies and abilities are?” The answer is: You spend time with that child, watch that child, listen to that child, and study that child. Also, you let the child try different things.

One of the best ways to find out whether or not your child has a musical ability and tendency is to sign that child up for music lessons. I took guitar lessons for a while, and my mom and dad really encouraged me about my guitar-playing. They bought me two nice guitars, and every Saturday morning I went to a music teacher’s house and took lessons from her. I learned my chords and my notes, and I actually got to where I could play a few songs. Some of my friends and I even formed a group. We won our local 4-H talent show, played a few local events, and played in the regional 4-H talent show.

Now, if some boys had that kind of musical encouragement and experience they would make a life-path out of music. But I didn’t do that. Do you know why? It was because I didn’t have either a real desire or a real gift for music. Oh, I could memorize the hand placements for chords and notes on a guitar. I wasn’t born for music, though. That’s why I didn’t stay with it. I guess the fact that I absolutely despised practicing was an early tip-off!

But what I’m saying is that I didn’t realize that I wasn’t born for music until I actually gave it a try. So, parent, don’t get so upset with your child when the child tries something but doesn’t stay with it. Just see that as a lesson learned in what your child isn’t meant to do.

I’m not a hunter. I don’t think hunting is morally wrong; it’s just not something I like to do. But I can still remember the one day I tried to be a hunter. My dad used to do some hunting, and one day he took me bird hunting with him. We went up in the woods just above our house. I was glad that my dad included me, and hunting is a wonderful way for fathers and sons to bond, but I didn’t enjoy walking through the woods, holding a gun, and looking for a bird to shoot. I was much happier being in the house watching t.v. Still, even now, I classify that day I went hunting as a good memory.

So, parent, let me encourage you to study your child, learn what the child’s strengths and weaknesses are, and help the child to run with its strengths. The world needs brain-surgeons, but it also needs school-bus drivers to get the future brain surgeons to and from grade school. The world needs corporate CEOs, but it also needs bricklayers to build the office buildings in which corporate CEOS work. The world needs writers, but it also needs garbage collectors to haul off all of the discarded paper writers toss into trash cans.

Each child is unique and special, and it is a parent’s job to do all that he or she can to guide their child into the place in life that God has in mind for that child. Yes, that will take some effort, no doubt about it. It will all be worth it, though, when the child ends up happy, contented, and playing the role God built him to play.

Filed under Children, Fatherhood, Individuality, Parenting, Sports, Uncategorized Tagged with , , , , ,

The Importance Of A Child’s Obedience

January 25, 2010 1 Comment

(Post 1 of a series of 4)

With this post, I begin a four-part series on the subject of parenting. This first entry deals with the importance of obedience in a child. To get us started, I want to cite three passages, all of which address the issue of children obeying their parents.

Passage #1 is Deuteronomy 21:18-21:

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear.”

Please understand that this text is not a word that directly applies to us. It was a part of God’s Old Testament law for the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that these verses are any less the words of God. Neither does it mean that we can’t study them and be helped by them. As 2 Timothy 3:16 says: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

I’m not advocating the stoning of any rebellious children, but I am trying to show you the incredible importance of obedience in a child. Obedience is important enough for God to have once instituted a law that called for the public death by stoning of every disobedient Israelite child.

God not only commanded the Israelites to stone disobedient children, He commanded the parents of those children to turn them over for the stoning. God, in essence, said to each of those parents, “It will be better for your nation if your disobedient child is dead. So shall you put away the evil from among you.”

He also said, “And all Israel shall hear, and fear.” That meant that such public stonings would seriously curtail the disobedience of any little potential rebels. For one thing, the stonings would cause parents to fear, because parents wouldn’t want their children to meet such a fate. For another thing, they would cause children to fear, because children wouldn’t want to lose their lives over a lack of obedience.

Now let’s move on to passage #2, which is Ephesians 6:1. This is a New Testament passage, which means that these words do directly apply to us. This verse says:

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”

And then passage #3 is Colossians 3:20, which says:

“Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.”

You see, by stringing these three passages together, we see that God’s holy scriptures have a clear and distinct Old Testament and New Testament word about children obeying their parents.

As for my own upbringing, my parents loved me and provided for me, but they did not break me. I was like a wild stallion that had never been ridden. I had a lot of potential, but like the potential of an unbroken horse, my potential remained unharnessed. I used to think that my staying unbroken was a good thing, but I’ve lived long enough now to find out some of what it cost me.

Why I am telling you this? I’m trying to get the attention of those of you who are parents and those of you who would one day like to be parents. I’m trying to help you understand that children come wired with a self-will. It is stronger in some children than in others, but every child has a self-will. And if that self-will remains unbroken it can really mess up a child’s life. That’s why the self-will must be broken when the child is young. If a parent waits until the child’s teenage years to try and break it, that parent will be about 13 years and 150 pounds too late.

I’ll be grateful to God forever for the fact that He came to me when I was at the lowest point of my life and said, “Russell, for things to get better you must submit to me.” I had never really submitted to anyone, but at that time I did submit to God. It’s been many years since my submission, and in those years I have learned that submission to God is the only way a person can reach his or her full potential. Through my submission to Him, God has gotten stuff out of me that no one would ever have seen if I had remained unbroken.

Of course, when I talk about breaking a child I’m not talking about breaking the child’s spirit. Parents, the goal isn’t to create some braindead robot who lives in terror of you and has no opinion, thoughts, or personality. That kind of a child will grow up to be a complete pushover who never questions anything and submits to everybody. In other words, he or she will be a perfect candidate for a cult. A child needs to have a mind of its own, an opinion, and a personality. A child needs to remain the unique individual he or she is. Don’t break your child’s spirit, just the child’s disobedient self-will.

Let me go back to the illustration of the unbroken stallion. When a cowboy attempts to ride an unbroken stallion, the last thing in the world he wants to do is cripple the horse. He wants the horse to keep its strength, vitality, personality, and nature. That stuff makes for a great horse. But the cowboy understands that the horse’s stubborn, rebellious, disobedient self-will must be broken. All of that strength, vitality, personality, and nature can’t do anybody any good if the horse remains wild and untamed.

And here’s the most important aspect of you breaking your child: If you can bring your child under submission to you, it will be much easier for that child to eventually submit to Christ. The flipside is, if you can’t get your child to really submit to you, that child will grow up with no understanding of submission, a problem that will hinder his or her possible submission to Christ.

Now, having said all that I’ve said, I want to finish this up by speaking directly to those of you who are right now the parents of a small child. I’m going to ask you three simple questions. If these questions hit pretty close to home, just keep in mind that Tonya and I are currently raising two boys. Ryan is twelve and Royce is nine. That’s how I know the right questions to ask. With that in mind, here we go.

Question #1: When you tell your child to stop doing something, does the child really stop doing it? If the child keeps right on going, even after you’ve said, “Stop that” and even after you’ve repeated yourself, you’ve got a problem right now. If your demands always end up in begging, pleading, and bargaining, you are already way behind in the battle of wills. Listen, if you can’t make a child really obey you, you are doomed when that child becomes a teenager.

Question #2: When you tell your child to come here, does the child come? If you say, “Yes, after I go and drag him by the arm,” you’ve got a problem right now. You’d better look ahead to the time when the child will be too big to manhandle. Then what will you do? A child who refuses to get out of a Little Tikes car and come in the house could easily become a teenager sitting in a real car, ignoring your curfew.

Question #3: When your child wants to do something but you say, “No,” does that child immediately start in with the incessant complaining, whining, and crying? You say, “Yes, but don’t worry, I never cave in.” Well, I’m glad that you don’t, but the problem is that you aren’t really breaking the child’s self-will. If you allow all that complaining, whining, and crying your child will get the idea that the issue of size is the only thing stopping him from doing what he wants to do.

Now, if you were honest in how you answered those three questions you’ve got a pretty good idea right now how broken and submitted your child is. I wonder if we would dare put ourselves in the role of Israelites in ancient Israel. How comfortable would we feel in our home-life if it was actually against the law for us to harbor a rebellious, disobedient child? Could your house pass that test? Could mine?

You say, “Oh, we aren’t Israelites and we don’t live under that law.” That’s true, but does that mean that God doesn’t want us to raise children who know submission and obedience? Of course it doesn’t!

So tell me, are you man enough or woman enough to do this job? Are you tougher than a four-foot rebel with a cowlick? Can you teach submission and obedience to a two-year old hothead? Who’s calling the shots at your house? Is the dog wagging the tail or is the tail wagging the dog? Parents, these are vital questions, and I hope that we are up to the task of living out the right answers.

Filed under Children, Disobedience, obedience, Parenting, submission Tagged with , , , , ,

Always Do Your Best

January 21, 2010 Leave a Comment

Many years ago, when department stores were high-end stores, a group of poorly paid clerks were standing around talking about baseball. It was raining outside and business was slow. Then a woman came into the store. She was wet and disheveled. As she entered, only one employee was willing to leave the baseball discussion to attend to her.

The young man walked over and courteously asked, “What can I show you, madam?” She told him what she was looking for, and he quickly located the item. Then he took the time to intelligently explain its merits. The woman made the purchase and left the store, asking for the young man’s card as she left.

Sometime later the woman sent a letter to the head of the store. Actually, the letter was an order for the complete furnishings for an estate in Scotland. In the letter she specifically asked that the young employee who had attended to her supervise the furnishing personally.

The store head wrote her back and said, “But, madam, this man is one of our youngest and most inexperienced clerks. Hadn’t we better give this assignment to someone else?” The reply came back, “I want this young man and no other.”

So that courteous and efficient young clerk was sent across the Atlantic to direct the furnishing of a palace in Scotland. The palace was called Skibo Castle, and the woman was Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, the wife of one of the world’s richest men.

Before you doubt the validity of this story you should know that it was told by Charles Schwab, the steel magnet. Schwab began it by saying, “I know a young fellow in New York who has built himself a big buisness. He used to be a poorly paid clerk in a department store.”

The moral of the story is: Always do your best because you just never know who might be watching. As the Bible in Ecclesiastes 9:10: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might…” As for you, Christian, remember Colossians 3:17,23: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him…And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”

Filed under Business, Character, Doing Good, God's Omnipresence, Personal Holiness, Reward, stewardship, Work Tagged with , , , , ,

A Couple Of Updates

January 20, 2010 Leave a Comment

I thought I’d check in this afternoon and offer a couple of updates.

Update #1: We just added four more audio sermons to the church website (www.disciplesroadchurch.com). That makes a total of 22 sermons for your listening pleasure. The latest four are:

- ”Abortion”

-”In Defense Of The Virgin Birth”

- ”Jesus & Creation”

-”A Christian’s New Year’s Resolutions”

I think that each of these sermons will be a blessing to you, but in particular let me recommend the one on abortion. It’s a sermon I preached several years ago, and the introduction is dated in regards to the political people that I mention. But once you get past those opening minutes, you’ll find a clear and concise study of  what the Bible teaches about life in the womb. I also cover the arguments for abortion and explain how they match up with the Bible. Seriously, if you have any questions about this controversial issue, listen to this sermon. It’s only about 30 minutes long and it will help you.

Update #2: When I wrote that I was going on a diet, I promised that I’d check in with periodic reports. So here’s my first one: This morning my digital scales weighed me in at 194. That’s a loss of 7 pounds in 10 days. I’ll take that. I could have done a little better but I splurged this past weekend by eating out twice. That after- church buffet bar at K.F.C. was not diet friendly. Neither was the popcorn shrimp and fries I had Saturday night. All of it sure was tasty, though. You can’t just eat low-fat food all the time. You’ll turn yourself into a food martyr. Always remember to keep dieting in a proper balance. Do it, but don’t make it a form of idolatry that owns you.   

For the record, each day I’m still doing the two quarts of water, the 30 minutes of exercise, and limiting myself to no more than 2,000 calories and 30 fat grams. It ain’t always easy but it’s encouraging when the scales show progress. I’ll keep you posted.

Filed under abortion, dieting, Personal Tagged with , , , , ,

How Watching The Lifetime Movie Network Can Lead To A Bible Study

January 19, 2010 Leave a Comment

Last night Tonya and I watched one of those dreaded Lifetime Movie Network movies. I use the word “dreaded” because the Lifetime Movie Network isn’t typically associated with wholesome. As best I can tell, the channel is run by women who pretty much think that every man is an adulterer, bully, spouse abuser, or serial killer. In the movie we watched, the guy was a serial killer.

Actually, the movie was based on the true-life story of Gary Ridgway, the infamous Green River killer. On November 5, 2003, Ridgway entered a guilty plea to 48 charges of aggravated first degree murder. That was a plea bargain deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 48 life sentences to be served consecutively with no possibility of parole. He also received an additional 10 years for tampering with the evidence in each of the killings. That added another 480 years to his 48 life sentences. As part of the deal, he agreed to help the police locate the bodies of many other missing girls. That is what spared his life.

No one, perhaps not even Ridgway himself, knows how many young women he actually killed. He was convicted of the 48 murders, but he confessed to as high as 71 in police interviews following his plea bargain. It is generally presumed, though, that the number was much higher, perhaps over 90.

If we had it to do over again, I don’t think Tonya and I would watch the movie. As the closing credits were rolling, I said to her, “I feel like I need a shower and a brillo pad.” You know, it was just one of those seemingly harmless situations. Tonya had recorded the movie on DVR a few weeks ago because she thought it sounded interesting. She asked me if I wanted to watch it with her. Then once you get started with it, you kind of want to see how it ends. I had heard the name Gary Ridgway before and I knew he was a serial killer, but I didn’t know he was the subject of that movie. I thought it was just one of those fictional Lifetime pieces that majors on melodrama and bad acting.

Anyway, what I took from the movie was that Gary Ridgway should have been executed. No plea bargain deal should have been offered. In the end, he only lead police to three more bodies. While I realize that finding those bodies was of incalculable value to the families, if you are going to have capital punishment at all you must carry it out on the likes of Ridgway. He is sitting in the Washington State Prison in Walla, Walla Washington right now, while the decomposing remains of so many of his victims still lie in unmarked graves around the cities of Seattle and Tacoma.      

A lot of people don’t like the whole notion of the death penalty, but it is definitely a Bible teaching. Just as God sanctions human government, He sanctions capital punishment being administered through human governments. We see this in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

It all begins in Genesis 9:1-6. Not long after Noah and his family climbed off the ark, God said to them, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God He made man.”  

Centuries later, when it came time for God to give His law to Moses and the Israelites, He built the death penalty into that law by way of passages such as Exodus 21:12-17. Under that law, offenses such as murder, rape, incest, sodomy, witchcraft, adultery, blasphemy, and even disobedience to parents were considered capital punishment crimes. I’m not suggesting that all of these offenses should still carry the death penalty. I’m simply pointing out some of the specifics of that Old Testament law that God gave to Israel. 

It should be understood that the law required at least two witnesses for those crimes and the punishment was to be carried out through what could be called Israel’s government. The point is, no Israelite was to take the law into his own hands. The death penalty was only administered through proper avenues. This understanding of how capital punishment should work still applies today.

Obviously, it helps if one’s legal system is fair, honest, and godly. If a legal system isn’t those things, then the administering of the death penalty can sometimes become questionable. That’s where we are today in America. But there is nothing wrong with the basic concept of the death penalty. It is a Bible concept, and Gary Ridgway was certainly a candidate for it.

I say that because of two passages from the New Testament. The first one is Romans 13:1-7, which says:

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”

In these verses, rulers and governing authorities are described as being the instruments through which evil people are put to death. That’s what verse 4 means when it says the governing authority doesn’t bear the sword in vain. It’s also why verse 7 speaks of rendering fear to the authority. Verse 3 calls rulers a terror to evil works. Verse 4 says if you do evil, be afraid. It also calls the ruler or governing authority “God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” All of this plainly speaks of God-sanctioned, government-administered capital punishment.

The second passage is 1 Peter 2:13-14. These verses say: 

“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good.”

Again, the teaching is that the rulers or governing authorities have the God-sanctioned role of the “punishment of evildoers.” That punishment can be the death penalty, if the situation warrants it. And if it didn’t warrant it in the case of Gary Ridgway, it can’t be warranted in any case. That’s what I took from that movie.　

Filed under Bible Study, Capital Punishment, Government, The Death Penalty Tagged with , , , , ,

Contemporary Vs. Traditional

January 15, 2010 2 Comments

(This article ran in the January, 2010 regional edition of The Blue Ridge Christian News.)

At Disciples Road Church, we feature a balanced blend of music. Unlike churches that offer separate traditional and contemporary services, we just throw everybody together and ask them to sing classic hymns and contemporary worship songs. Since having preferences is a part of being human, our members have theirs. With a few exceptions, the lines fall exactly as you would think: the kids like the contemporary songs best, but the adults like the classics.

The truth is, I can’t blame the kids for favoring the contemporary songs. Have you ever really paid attention to some of the words of the old hymns? The second verse of Holy, Holy, Holy has the line: “Cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee.” That’s a glorious thought, but how many youth know that cherubim and seraphim are two categories of angels? (And, yes, I’ve taught on that subject at the church). The first verse of All Hail The Power of Jesus’ Name reads: “Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem.” When does a ten-year old hear the word “prostrate” or “diadem” other than in that song? The second verse of Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing begins with: “Here I raise mine Ebenezer; Hither by thy help I come.” That line is a reference to 1 Samuel 7:12, but a teenager sings it and thinks, “What’s an Ebenezer?” I’ve got to admit that even my initial reaction to the word has more to do with the Ebenezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol than the great prophet Samuel. And I won’t even get into their reactions to “hither” and “thy”.

You say, “Russell, you’re just singing the wrong hymns. You need to quit trying to be ‘high church.’ Just stick to old standbys like At Calvary, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, and Leaning On The Everlasting Arms.” Well, I must report that we even run into some problems with these seemingly simple songs. At Calvary contains words such as “spurned”, “imploring”, and “raptured”. What A Friend We Have In Jesus gives us “laden”, “cumbered”, and “solace”. Leaning On The Everlasting Arms talks about walking in this “pilgrim way” and being safe and secure from all “alarms”. Any child who knows about getting up early for school knows what an alarm is and is left to wonder how God keeps us secure from them.

Do you understand the point I’m making? Oftentimes it takes an elderly theologian to grasp doctrinal truths that are presented in language from the 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s. There’s a reason why Bible-school songs sound so much different from our classic hymns. Yes, the quicker beat helps keep the attention of hyperactive kids, but the unsophisticated words are a major draw too. Children are like adults in that they want to be able to understand what they are singing.

My son Ryan is twelve years old. He is a straight-A student who has been raised in church. He knows Jesus as his Savior and wasn’t baptized by me until I was thoroughly convinced that his salvation was genuine. It has only been over the last three years that he has been introduced to contemporary Christian music. Before that, he only sung such songs during Bible school. Everything else was classic hymnology. What I’m saying is, if any kid should be able to handle the old songs, it’s Ryan.

Nevertheless, a few weeks ago, after our church had sung Victory In Jesus, Ryan asked me something that really opened my eyes. His question was, “Daddy, what’s a ‘wretch’?” You see, if that song had said, “I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory, how he gave his life on Calvary to save a sinner like me,” Ryan would have understood completely. But that word “wretch” confused him, even though he’d also sung it before in the opening words of Amazing Grace. You see, he is a “wretch” who has been saved by God’s amazing grace via Christ’s death on Calvary, but he needs a song that expresses that great truth in words that he can grasp.

A couple of weeks later I had a similar experience with Royce, my nine-year old. For several months now Tonya has been working to get him to remain in the worship service for its entirety, which includes his daddy’s sermon. She’s taken longer to make that transition with him than she did with Ryan because he has matured at a different rate than Ryan. I’ve tried to help by encouraging Royce to really sing out when we sing our songs. I always try to get the kids to participate in the service. It helps them and it helps the service. Since Royce likes singing, he has become one of the loudest voices in our church. (We’ll work at staying on key and in tempo later.)

Well, I don’t remember exactly what we were singing that morning, but I could hear Royce’s loud voice coming in and out of the song. It was obvious what was happening: he was singing loud until he came to a word he didn’t know. If I hadn’t figured that out during the song, Royce certainly let me hear about it at the song’s conclusion. He said, for all the congregation to hear, “Those words are too hard!” Everybody laughed, but I knew the little fellow was simply voicing a frustration that has been felt by thousands of young people at some point during their church lives.

Under this same category, we also find the debate concerning the use of modern translations of the Bible. Just as words such as “wretch”, “prostrate”, “diadem”, “cumbered”, and “solace” are completely foreign to today’s youth, so are K.J.V. words such as:

 “chambering” (Romans 13:13); “sackbut” (Daniel 3:5); “clouted” (Joshua 9:5); “glede“ (Deuteronomy 14:13); “ouches” (Exodus 28:11); “brigandines” (Jeremiah 46:4); “chode“ (Numbers 20:3); “nitre” (Proverbs 25:20); “purtenance” (Exodus 12:9); “choler“ (Daniel 8:7); “scall” (Leviticus 13:30); “amerce” (Deuteronomy 22:19); “tabret” (Genesis 31:27); “neesings” (Job 41:18); “suretiship“ (Proverbs 11:15); “collops” (Job 15:27); “trow” (Luke 17:9); “cieled” (Haggai 1:4); “blains” (Exodus 9:9); “wen” (Leviticus 22:22); “cotes” (2 Chronicles 32:28); “crookbackt” (Leviticus 21:20); “wantonness” (Romans 13:13); “ambassage” (Luke 14:32); “wimples” (Isaiah 3:22); and “habergeon” (Exodus 28:32).

I’ve been preaching for seventeen years, but even I have to work hard to figure out what these words mean. I can only imagine what young people think of the Bible when they run into such words while reading it. Since translation teams devote their lives to putting the Bible into the common languages of indigenous groups around the world, shouldn’t we do the same for our young folks here at home?

Frankly, I don’t claim to have all the answers in the traditional vs. contemporary debate. But what I do know is that if we want our kids to understand the word of God and the great doctrinal truths it conveys, we have to give them translations and spiritual songs that speak the way they do. The critic would call this more of the “dumbing down” of our society, but I just can’t justify holding 21st century kids (or adults for that matter) to the language standards of the 17th, 18th, or 19th centuries.

If I know anything about God, I know that He is alive and vibrant, always pushing ahead and moving on to the next thing. Jesus refused to be trapped by so many of the “traditions” of His day, and He hasn’t changed. Our Lord is in the business of reaching all people with His message, and as such He doesn’t want to be held hostage to archaic language that doesn’t speak in a clear, easily understood way to the people of the day. That is especially true when it comes to highly impressionable young people. I’m not saying that we should abandon the time-honored hymns or the K.J.V. translation. As long as large numbers of people still prefer these, there’s no reason to exclusively embrace the contemporary. But, on the other hand, let’s not drive into the other ditch by automatically labeling anything “new” as “bad.” Our young folks need us to be more discerning than that.

Filed under balance, Bible Study, Children, King James only, Music, Scripture, Worship Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Diet Time Again

January 13, 2010 2 Comments

Well, this past Monday I hit the ground running on my new diet. My digital scales clocked me in at 201. That’s 20 to 25 pounds north of where I need to be. Since it’s been a few years since I really got into diet mode, I think I’m due for a reconfiguring.

Truth be told, in addition to my weight issues, my stomach has been bothering me quite a bit for the past several months. Too much fried food will do that. I was up to two tagaments a day because the heartburn had become such an issue.

I don’t worry that I won’t be able to lose weight. That’s not to brag, just to state the truth. I know I can drop pounds when I put my mind to it. I wasn’t always so confident, but several years ago I went from 225 to 175 in just a few months. That’s when I learned how to effectively shed weight.

My teacher was a Bariatric Clinic that Tonya and I attended for a while. They gave us a simple plan and guaranteed that we would lose weight if we followed it. For a male, it goes like this:

1. I’m allowed food and drinks totaling up to 30 fat grams and 2,000 calories per day.

2. I have to drink two quarts of water each day.

3. I have to put in 30 minutes of exercise each day.

Certainly there are all kinds of other diets out there (Atkins, Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc.), and I’m sure these other plans will work too. For me, though, I know what’s done the trick in the past. I’ll dance with the one that brung me.

Back then, it took me a few weeks to get the hang of reading the sides of every box and learning to count fat grams and calories. Eventually, though, I became an expert at it. As for the 30 minutes of exercise, my weapon of choice is a treadmill. Yes, it’s old school, but it works. It’s been sitting there in my bedroom just waiting for the day when we’d get reaquainted. I can drink one of my two required quarts of water while walking on it and watching t.v.          

The exercising is fine once you get in the habit of it. It really does give you more energy. Drinking all that water is a bit of a chore, but it’s not too terrible. The hardest thing is the difference in the tastes of foods. With a few notable exceptions, fattening food does taste better. Don’t believe the hype about not being able to tell the difference between regular food and low-fat food. But as the old saying goes, no pain no gain (or in this case, no loss).

If I needed any reassurance that my tried and true system still works, my digital bathroom scales have been giving it to me. By Tuesday morning I had gone from 201 to 199. This morning I was at 198. The slow process has begun. Oh, I’m well aware that losing the first handful of pounds is the easiest. Just drinking the water will accomplish that. If I’ll stay on course, though, the scales will continue to be friendly. Like so many things, the plan will work if I will work the plan.

I’m not one of these fitness fanatics who is going to lose my mind over my appearance. I’m not going to bow down before weight loss as an idol either. (I’ll admit that I experienced a touch of that when I lost all that weight years ago.) And, yes, I’ve read 1 Timothy 4:8, which says: “For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things…” Every overweight preacher knows that verse. If you don’t mind, though, if I can get in on that “little” profit without sacrificing any godliness, I’ll take all the profit I can get.

I think the better scripture concerning weight loss is 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, which says that God the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of the Christian’s body makes that body a temple. As such, the Christian is told to “glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Admittedly, those verses are found in the context of a warning about sexual immorality, not weight loss. Still, the basic idea can be applied in any number of ways, including that of excess weight.

I do know that too many Christians are far too flippant about this subject. Preachers, in particular, are notorious for making jokes about it. For example, one old joke says that a preacher’s belt is nothing more than a fence around a chicken graveyard. Yes, that’s funny. It loses some of its humor, though, when a guy has been preaching for fifteen minutes and is red in the face, out of breath, and in need of a chair. Getting drunk or having an affair isn’t the only way to defile a temple.

As the weeks move along, I’ll keep you posted here and there on how my diet is going. I’m also trying to make some other changes for this new year. I want to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. That’s hard for a born night-owl. I want to watch less television. I want to listen to more preaching and contemporary Christian music. I’ve already started writing a second book. This one deals with prayer. Hopefully, and prayfully, I’ll make great strides in all of these areas as 2010 unfolds. One thing’s for sure: I’ve got plenty of room in my life for improvement.

Filed under Choices, Christian Liberty, dieting, Personal, The Holy Spirit, The New Year Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

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