Making The Most of The Time

Pay careful attention, then, to how you live—not as unwise people but as wise— making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

-Ephesians 5:15-17

What does this phrase, \”making the most of the time\”, mean?

A similar line is written by Paul in Colossians 4:5, \”Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.\”

What got me thinking about this was hearing Jim Croce\’s song, Time In A Bottle.  It was a number one hit in 1973.  He wrote the song just after finding out that his wife Ingrid was pregnant, in 1970, with their only child.  It\’s about mortality and the desire to spend time wisely.

Here are the words:

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I\’d like to do
Is to save every day
\’Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I\’d save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I\’ve looked around enough to know
That you\’re the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I\’ve looked around enough to know
That you\’re the one I want to go
Through time with

Sadly, Jim Croce died in a small plane crash, in 1973, at the age of 30.  From From Song Facts:

This hit #1, 14 weeks after Croce was killed in a plane crash. Croce started touring after he completed I Got A Name. On September 30, 1973 a plane carrying Croce and five other people crashed upon takeoff as he was leaving one college venue to another 70 miles away. No one survived the accident, and among those killed was Maury Muehleisen, who played guitar on Croce\’s albums. Terry Cashman, who produced Croce, told us, \”Jim and Maury got together and all of the sudden Jim started writing these great songs, and Maury came up with these really wonderful guitar parts – the two guitars were like an orchestra.\”

\”Time In A Bottle\” entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 1, 1973 and finally reached #1 for the week ending December 29, a little over 3 months after he died.

It is very ironic that he wrote this song three years before dying.

Jim mailed a letter from the road, just before the fatal plane crash, telling his wife that he was sorry for being such a jerk and that he wanted to spend more time at home with her.

In Ephesians, Paul writes about redeeming time.  I opened up Markus Barth\’s commentary, and these are some notes:

What is time redeemed from?(1)

1. The devil? (John Calvin)
2. Evil men? (Johann Albrecht Bengel)
3. The depravity characterizing it because of Adam\’s  and each man\’s own prior sin? (Thomas Aquinas)
4. Loss and misuse? (Robinson)

Origen wrote that a saint can transform bad days into good ones, but Amos 5:13 says that the wise man keeps silent in evil times.

Paul does not clearly state for us, how to redeem the time.  Barth wrote: \”Only one thing is clear: the transitoriness, deceptiveness, and adversity of the time in which the saints live does not excuse the people of God from using every opportunity and tackling each task they are given.\”(1)

Time here, in Ephesians 5, is kairos, which means \”opportune time\”.  Kairos time is a \”window of opportunity\” time.  A kairos time may be a once in a lifetime set of circumstances or may be something unique that happens in your life, in time.

Chronos is the word for normal time, like when we say, \”what time is is?\”

Most people that are married meet their future spouse in their life time (chronos), but it becomes a special time (kairos), \”the time when we met\”, \”the time when we became engaged\”.  If someone does not ask someone to marry them or someone turns someone down, then the opportunity to become engaged is lost.  And one person may view this as a missed opportunity and another as just an unfortunate circumstance in time (chronos) when one person wanted something that the other did not.

Pay careful attention, then, to how you live—not as unwise people but as wise— making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
-Ephesians 5:16-17

Making the most of time (opportune time) means, \”redeem the time\”.  Or rather, \”redeem the time\”, means, to make the most of the time.

We need to make the most of the time we are given because time is limited.  Our time on earth, our time in time, has a limit.

Make the most of the daily opportunities that come to you, in time.

I want to go back to Jim Croce\’s song, that says:

There never seems to be enough time, to do the things you want to do, once you find them.

I\’ve looked around enough to know, you\’re the one I want to go through time with.

I think that Jim was saying that time goes by and that time is limited, so he said  he wished to spend more time with his loved one.  In the song, he imagines that he would like to save up his time and spend it with his beloved.

But, he says that, \”there never seems to be enough time\”.  That statement is true today.  It is easy to not spend time with the ones you love, because there are a multitude of other things that can take up our time.  The message to parents, and to spouses, it to \”take the time\”, for your loved ones.

Since it is so easy to waste time or squander it, time-management is an issue.

Any Christian\’s priorities should be:

1. God
2. Family
3. Vocation/ministry
4. Recreation/hobbies

It is foolish to conflate God with ministry.  That\’s what happens when a person neglects their family for the ministry.  Spending time with God is the first thing and spending time with family is the second thing.  The rest of life comes after those.

The idea of redeeming the time actually means buying it back.  If you think about the word redeem, it means buying or taking.  Jesus redeems us.  He takes our sin, if we will give it to him.  To get redemption, there has to be an exchange.

Redeem means to make good or settle an account.  We might say that we liked a movie, because it was redemptive or had redeeming qualities.  Redeem means made good.  We are in a redemption process.

What does \”buying back time\” mean?  It might mean becoming aware of opportunities in time that can be missed.  It might mean to actively make the most of opportunities in time that come up.  It might mean to make the most of what comes each day.

After I finished college and did not have a job lined up, my grandma invited me to come and live with her.  My grandpa had died two or three years prior to this, and in that season, I had begun having dinner with my grandma each week.  I was going through my darkest years, at that time, and she was one of the people who was a loving light for me, in the time.

I took the time and said yes to this redemptive relationship and came over for dinner each week.  And from that, she invited me to live with her.  That was very redemptive, for both of us.  And it dawned on me that we would grow closer and it would be more painful for me when she died later.  But the grief from because of the love in relationship, is far better than the sour grief of the missed opportunity to spend with someone who loves you.

___________________________________
1. notes from Makus Barth: Ephesians 4-6, 1974; pp. 578-9

Ruth- The Book for 2018

But Ruth replied:

Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you.
For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

-Ruth 1:16

Is Ruth the book of the Bible for 2018?  Let’s see.  What is the book of Ruth about?  What’s the message?

Ruth is about salvation history. 

We have the book of Judges, that is a wild west, tumultuous time.  In the midst of that time, Ruth traces the family line of king David.

It is the backstory to the story of david.  We see in Ruth, God working among people to save them, individually and collectively.  God works in lives for lives.  Our stories of salvation are connected, in and by God.

Mother, grandmother, widow, field, gate, harvest, inheritance, covenant, promotion, and new beginnings; are some of the topics in Ruth.

The key lesson of Ruth is that God blesses faithfulness. 

Ruth means friendship, comfort, and refreshment.

Kindness, honor, safekeeping, and redemption are also themes of Ruth.

Ruth demonstrates that during the darkest times, we can make the choice to live in God’s story.

A remarkable and unexpected lesson from Ruth is God’s guidance: God working ‘behind the scenes’, to bless covenant keepers for His ultimate glory.  The characters in the story make choices, based on covenant, and kindness; which God orchestrates into a plan for His purpose, blessing, and glory.

Ruth illustrates redemption and reveals God’s providence. 

Ruth is a story of God’s faithfulness of people who were themselves faithful in an unfaithful culture.

Ruth is a book of ‘full circles’:

• Leadership vacuum to David’s grandpa.
• Childless to child.
• Famine to harvest.
• Bitter to pleasant.
• Leaving to arriving.
• Exiting one gate and entering a new gate.
• Loss in motherhood to new life in grandmotherhood.
• Blessing given and blessing received.
• Redemption requested and redemption received.

Ruth is a story of hope and a way out, for dark times.  Ruth teaches that there is always hope and a way out.

Redemption is always possible, because of God.

Ruth is a story about transformed or renewed identity. 

Two widows become a bride and a grandmother.  The grief stricken person becomes joyful through new life, new friends and new family. 

Ruth happens during the time of the Judges.  Some scholars think that it was around the time of Gideon.  Famine is the backdrop and the characters begin in Moab.  The husbands are dead and the ladies are left destitute.

Ruth, chapter 1.

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the fields of Moab and settled there. Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons. Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.

Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, may have been unfaithful to God, moving from Bethlehem to Moab.  But he may also have thought there was no other choice, seeing life there; because of the famine in Israel.

She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

Whatever the case, he died and his two sons died as well, leaving three women.  Naomi had losses and was far from home.  She decided to go home and Ruth decided to follow her.

Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.”

Naomi tried to talk Ruth out of following her, but Ruth decided her destiny was with her mother-in-law.

Her tie to her was more important to her than her homeland.  Her home was with Naomi, wherever she was.

But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands?Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.” Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Ruth is faithful.  She committed her future onto and into life with Naomi. 

But Ruth replied:

Don’t plead with me to abandon you
or to return and not follow you.
For wherever you go, I will go,
and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May the Lord punish me,
and do so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.

Everything began to change for both ladies, when they got back to Israel.  They changed locations and then their lives began to change.  They were encouraged and became inspired with plans.

The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

With everything that the two ladies went through, the author tells us that “they arrived at Bethlehem, at the beginning of the barley harvest.”  Bethlehem, means ‘house of bread’ and became David’s city.  You can see the timing is right and that the macro theme of the whole story is David, then Jesus.

They decided to try certain things and exercise faith in honest risk taking.  These two widows found Boaz, who took Ruth as his wife after the first in line guy passed, and Ruth had a baby, who finished the renewal of joy for Naomi.  And that baby, with faithful Moabites Ruth as his mom, became the exponential great grandfather of Jesus.

This lady who was not of Israel by birth, through life’s circumstances that no one could predict, became an Israelite.  Why and how?  Because of her faithfulness to a person and to the God of that person who became her God.

What kind of evangelism would you call Naomi’s towards Ruth?  Did Ruth find out about God through her first husband or her first father-in-law?  We don’t know.  What we do know is that Ruth expressed covenant faithfulness and kindness, mercy towards a widow who was her mom-in-law.

Ruth’s conversion was when she left her homeland to follow Naomi to hers.  Due to Ruth’s faithfulness and covenant love, gracious blessings came into her life.  Naomi was inspired to be kind and helpful back to Ruth, by guiding her to Boaz.

In turn, Boaz was kind to Ruth and the end result was blessing flowing back to Naomi of a new and renewed family life.  And this all happened during the ‘wild west’, dark period in Israel, between Joshua and Samuel.

Ruth is a book about new beginnings.

 This is 2018.  Eight is the number of new beginnings and Ruth is the eighth book of the Bible.

Ruth is a story of salvation. 

It illustrates how God saves us in our story.  Our story becomes God’s story as we become saved.

Ruth is a story about immigration.

 Some preachers might say that it was a big mistake for Elimelech to take his family to live in an enemy country.  They might reason that only bad can happen there, pointing to the man’s death, the death of his two sons, and the lack of grandchildren.

But Ruth, born a Moabitess, decides to immigrate to Israel with her mother-in-law.  What do we have here?  Tender loving care.  Ruth says in a sense, “My story is with your story now.  I will go where you go.  Your people are my people.  And your God will be my God.”

This is the foundation of everything that happens.  The lesson might be something like this:  Good things happen when we decide to follow with the one we love.

Ruth was a good person, kind and faithful, caring and unselfish.  But, her story only takes off when she completely hitches her destiny to Naomi’s.  In other words, her faith was fully acted upon.

It would have been nice if she hugged Naomi goodbye and wept.  It would have been caring if she tried to talk her out of leaving and permanently kept Naomi with her in Moab.

But, when Naomi became convicted that it was time now to go back to her homeland, and reconnect with her roots, and by faith, look for a place to live and finish her life that she was filled with sorrow about; Ruth let her caring of and love for this lady, take her into uncharted territory of faith.

Blessings were released into Ruth’s life because she hitched her destiny to Naomi and her God.  And this is how life has been for many of us.  We love someone and we step into their story, including their walk with God.

I have been like Ruth and had several Naomi’s in my life.  I loved them and they loved me and I made a decision to follow them and their faith in God, together.  And very good things happened, from God.  An adventure I would never have had, if I did not commit myself to each one of those persons, in seasons of my life.

The normal approach was the one taken by Ruth’s sister-in-law, Orpah.  She stayed in Moab and sought her own destiny there.  The normal method of life is that we go it alone and hitch ourselves to others (join them and work with them) only out of self-interest.

Ruth lived her life for the sake of someone else.  She took who she was, a kind person, and offered it to the most important person in her life.  This took her on a path of redemption, new identity, and profound destiny.

____________________________________
Bibliography and for further study:

Winn Griffin, God’s Epic Adventure; pp. 103-104
John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology, Volume One: Israel’s Gospel; p. 601
LaSor, et al.; Old Testament Survey; p. 820
Thomas L. Constable, Notes on Ruth, NET Bible on-line

Jodi Hooper, Ruth, Bible.org on-line

Alexander Maclaren: A Gentle Heroine, a Gentile Convert

Younger and Philips (cited), Book of Ruth Bible Survey (article, notes) at gotquestions.org

Thomas B. Clarke, What is a Chiasm?

Robert L. Hubbard, The Book of Ruth (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament)
Tim Hughes, For whom the Baby Ruth candy bar was named…

Loves Me Live A Rock

My mama loves me
She loves me
She gets down on her knees and hugs me
And she loves me like a rock
She rocks me like the rock of ages
And she loves me

-Paul Simon

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is a rock for all ages.

-Isaiah 26:4 (CEB)

So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him.

-Luke 15:20
 

Love is pretty much the antidote or answer to everything.  That makes sense when you consider that God is love.  The whole message is that God loves us, which is why Jesus Christ came.

God’s love.  Father’s love.  And we love because God loves.

Loving our children teaches them about God’s love.  My mom has told me hundreds of times, “Remember your mommy loves you”.  Sounds silly, but it is a blessing.

Raising children?  “Train up a child in the way he should go”, is what the Bible says, so that is what we do.  Training means ‘dedicate’ or ‘consecrate’ and in the way he should go means ‘according to their individual temperament, disposition, talents, or destiny’.  We help our children discover their design and who God has destined them to be.

Love is the foundation of parenting.  The parent walks in the love of God and loves their children with that love.  Loving others comes from receiving Gods love and living loved, and we train our children in loving God and knowing the Father’s affection.

We do good after we have received the love and we train our children in the love of God and they learn right from wrong in the atmosphere of love.  Consecration or dedication of children or infants is not just an event, but a process that may or may not have an event occur within it.  We need to walk in God’s love daily, and we need to train our children in God’s love every day.

The love of God is the essential ingredient in everything God does.  The reason Jesus came was love.  The whole Old Testament rules, guidelines, or law is founded on loving God, and fleshed out in loving God and then loving people.  And Jesus’ command, to the person who would follow him and let him live that life of loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength; through them, is to simply love others.

We stand on Christ, the solid rock.  The essence of Christ is his love for his dad.  In Christ, we are all about loving Father.

This is what The Rock of Ages is.  Christians are people ‘in Christ’.  To be ‘in Christ’ is to be cleansed and forgiven of sin and to be living out of his love.

Many of us were not raised or trained up this way by loving parents.  Many of us were raised by godly Christian parents, but we missed out on this foundation of love.  What then?

A few thoughts.  Your history is not your destiny.  Life in Christ is a new history, filled with new beginnings, and a pioneer-spirit life of going out and going in.

We are to honor and love our parents, even as we live in Christ differently than they do or did.  Same Christ, if they are Christians, but Christ calls you to follow him.  And our love for Christ is so great, that we ‘hate’ our parents in comparison.

You may not have had a very loving mamma, but God will compensate you.  You do not live ‘ripped off’ or ‘one-down’ for life, as a child unloved.  No.  Father loves you and adopts you into a relationship that your earthly mamma and papa may have not at all reflected.

Father loves you and me the way that he designed our mothers to love us.  Father created mothers and he will love you in all the ways that your earthly mother did not.  God is waiting and willing to love us, but we have to come into his embrace.

I love the story of the father with two sons in Luke 15.  When the prodigal (“wasteful and extravagant”) son returns home, the father runs to meet him and embraces him.  Jesus is sharing that this is how God is.

This son was reckless and very disrespectful and unloving towards his dad.  But his dad still loved him anyway.  The dad was on the lookout and saw the young man returning and ran down the path to meet him, which was very untoward, culturally; which means that he did not care how it looked, but his running was about his compassionate love for his lost son.

The other side of that story is the ‘good son’ who stayed with his dad, but was not enjoying his father’s affection, but had the mistaken idea that he was in good standing through his own merit.  When the story ends, there is a huge celebration for the return of the lost son, while the other son is seething.

Both sons have the opportunity to learn about their father’s unconditional love and unmerited favor and about just being with their dad in his love.  The Father has always been the compassionate loving God.  We are the ones who have either gone astray.

We go astray overtly or covertly.  People who strive in their religion of Christianity and delude themselves that even part of being saved is through their own merit, do so thinking that God is with them and is affirming that lifestyle.  They are living in “The Father’s House” with completely wrong assumptions about how the life works.

The ‘kicker’ is that God seems to not correct or fix them, and lets them keep doing their (wrong) thing, in his name and make disciples who make more disciples.  And they say they are ‘for His glory’, as they live unlovingly and represent God as something other than compassionate and loving.

Why or how can this be?  Free will is a huge value for God.  He lets people blaspheme him and misrepresent him in all sorts of egregious ways without stopping it.

God has spoken and God is speaking and God is alive and well.  Jesus is building his church.  You can recognize it, in it’s infinite number of unique expressions by his character in it, that mirrors his father’s character.  The great war plan against God has been to distort his character and what he is towards humankind.

The whole OT told a story of God’s love and in Jesus, God showed what he is like.  There have been distortions from the beginning about what God said and who God is and what God requires.  But we know that God’s way, God’s character, and what God is to us is about Father’s love.

He loves me: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit love me.  And I love them back because they loved me first.  And I join in on their love mission in this world.

That is the love we love our children in, that sets them on the path.  That is the love we live in as Christians.

——————————————————————

Loves Me Like a Rock, by Paul Simon

When I was a little boy
And the Devil would call my name
I’d say “now who do
Who do you think you’re fooling?”
I’m a consecrated boy
Singer in a Sunday choir
My mama loves, she loves me
She gets down on her knees and hugs me
She loves me like a rock
She rocks me like the rock of ages
And she loves me
She loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me

When I was grown to be a man
And the Devil would call my name
I’d say “now who do
Who do you think you’re fooling?”
I’m a consummated man
I can snatch a little purity
My mama loves me, she loves me
She gets down on her knees and hugs me
She loves me like a rock
She rocks me like the rock of ages
And she loves me
She loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me

If I was President
And the Congress call my name
I’d say “who do
Who do you think you’re fooling?”
I’ve got the Presidential Seal
I’m up on the Presidential Podium
My mama loves me
She loves me
She gets down on her knees and hugs me
And she loves me like a rock
She rocks me like the rock of ages
And she loves me
She loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me
She loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me
She loves me, loves me, loves me, loves me

Household Faith

So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

-Acts 16:31

Photo: Pixabay

Some of us are very troubled about the lack of faith or unbelief of some people in our families.  Our brothers or sister, mothers or fathers; who do not believe in Christ.  Funerals are hard enough when the deceased is a believer.  What do we say when they were not?

The truth is that the love of God remains.  The truth is that we love them and God loves them and salvation is God’s work.  These are our anchors.

In the years leading up to the end of my grandmother’s life, just like some people I know today, I was very concerned about her salvation.  When we were younger, she told us she was an atheist, and I never forgot that.

But sometime, and how it happened I do not know, she joined the neighborhood church, a few blocks from her home.  Unfortunately, I always assumed it was a “liberal church” that did not embrace or teach the gospel.  I was wrong.

It is funny that I was earnestly praying Acts 16:31 while God had already been working in my grandma’s life.  It was a case of, “before you call, I will answer”.

Everyone’s stories are different, but that is part of my story.  I have a brother who is a believer and my wife’s brother is a believer.  But I know people who have siblings who do not believe, and who are the only Christians in their families of origin.

The New Testament also speaks to the possibility of being married to a non-believer.  Marriage is hard enough when your Christian spouse is not very mature in Christ, but the Bible addresses the scenario where they don’t even have Christ.

Jesus was raised by loving parents, who were told who he was; but that revelation did not get passed on to his siblings.  When he left home, at age 30, and began his ministry we read about, his family thought he was crazy (Mk. 3:21).  When they stood outside where he was teaching and called for him, Jesus said that his family (brothers and sisters) are like these who obey God (Mk. 3:31-5).

Later, his brothers did get saved; and we have Jude and James, the authors of those two books of the Bible.  If Jesus was misunderstood and rejected by his brothers, it might happen to you.  Jesus warns of betrayal from the family of his disciples, because of their belief in him (Lk. 21:16), and seems to say that it will be more common that not, for his disciples to leave family and their homes because of him (Mk. 10:29-30, Matt. 19:29).

Then, we also have the hard word from Jesus, that we will hate our families of origin, compared to how much we will love him (Lk. 14:26).  In the NT epistles, “brothers and sisters”, means other Christians.  But, there is counsel and instruction about one’s immediate family.  For example, we are to take care of our parents (1 Tim. 5:8).

So, on the one hand, we have the declaration, “You shall be saved, and you whole household”, which I personally applied upward, to my grandparents and have applied to my parents, wife and child; and I believe in it.  I wrestled with that verse and believed it and prayed it.  I claimed it.

But, I have had many friends with unbelieving siblings or parents.  What about them?  We can draw some comfort from Jesus.  His family (brothers and probably sisters) did not believe in him, until after his resurrection.

We have a savior who can identify with our suffering.  He was perfect, did nothing wrong, and was obedient to Father all his life.  Yet, to this day, people reject him.

My advice would be to lean into him.  Walk close with your savior.  That is who he is and he cares about the salvation of those you love, more than you do.

Keep caring, keep loving, keep praying, and keep believing.  Even while someone we love is unsaved, in unbelief, resisting and rejecting the good news; we can rest in God, surrendering to him as The Almighty, continually sharing our broken heart with him and keeping fresh.

The alternative is aggravated grief, bitterness, and lack of faith on our part that will morph into deception and delusion about God’s goodness, where we question God and drift from our faith in the Lord’s faithfulness (Heb. 2:1).

The Bible says that the Lord is close to and heals the brokenhearted  (Ps. 34:18, 147:3) because our hearts do get broken in this life.  So, you have loved someone and your heart is broken.  Take your heart, open it to the Lord, over and over and over.  

Jesus wept.  It wasn’t fake.  God weeps.

When I was in rebellion, God wept over me.  Someone who loved me wept about me.  They wept with God.  Their prayers, when I was lost, were tears.

And I found my way back to the Father.

Have you wept lately over the lost?

What It Is To "Train Up A Child"

Most translations fail to get at the true meaning of this popular verse on raising children:

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

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. (NLT)

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. (NIV)

The Amplified Bible shares something that other translators leave out:

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. (AMP)

Photo: Pixabay

Breaking it down:

1.  Train up a child means “dedicate” or “consecrate”, in the Hebrew.  For dedication and consecration to work, to bear fruit; there must be cooperation from the child, then there will be assimilation.  The older the child, the more responsibility they bear for their own training.

2.  We wrongly assume that “In the way he should go”, means “in the way of righteousness.  We are all called to walk in and develop our walk in righteous; but that is not what this verse is saying.  What it does mean, is “according to the individual child’s temperament”, or, “According to the tenor of his way”.  Again, all are called to righteousness, but each child is unique.  Parents are given the call and command to discern their child’s unique temperament, disposition, character, talents , and destiny.  The way he should go might look different for each child.  The meaning of this part of this verse is both wider and deeper than some people have made it.

3.  “When he is old, he will not depart from it”, means that when they are living as an adult, launched from their parents and childhood, they will have a fruitful life in God; because they have learned how to be who God has uniquely made them to be and given them an abundant life in their unique temperament, talents, and destiny.  Godliness will have become second nature and life will be fruitful.  There would be no reason to depart from the way (becoming themselves as God has deemed), because that is their identity, which their parents have helped them develop.

Summary:

The goal is inside out, not outside in.  We want to see, and to facilitate the bringing out, and the coming forth, of who God has created this child to be, and nurture that life. The huge mistake our parenting culture has made is to neglect the ‘inside out’ part.  And it is the parents responsibility.  If your child has other teachers, they are in your employ, and it is still your responsibility to train your children.

Fathers and mothers:  It is your responsibility to facilitate your child’s activation into their destiny.  Consecrate, activate, and assimilate.  Train (consecrate), in the way (activate), and they will not stray from it (assimilate).

We have tons of people today, some went to church when they were young, and some have never been in a church; who are walking zombies, who are living dead lives.  They have never been activated.  They do not know who God has made them to be.  

This is the opposite of what you want for your child.  Personally, you must take the active role in discipling your child, so that they are launched into living an adult life in Christ, instead of being “adult children”.

Jesus has made your child unique and special, destined to glorify God.  Find out what that is and bless it.  Jesus calls us all to the inside out life.  Religion is outside in.  Christianity is people in Christ.

What It Is To "Train Up A Child"?

Most translations fail to get at the true meaning of this popular verse on raising children:

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

Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. (NLT)

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. (NIV)

The Amplified Bible shares something that other translators leave out:

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. (AMP)

Photo: Pixabay

Breaking it down:

1.  Train up a child means “dedicate” or “consecrate”, in the Hebrew.  For dedication and consecration to work, to bear fruit; there must be cooperation from the child, then there will be assimilation.  The older the child, the more responsibility they bear for their own training.

2.  We wrongly assume that “In the way he should go”, means “in the way of righteousness.  We are all called to walk in and develop our walk in righteous; but that is not what this verse is saying.  What it does mean, is “according to the individual child’s temperament”, or, “According to the tenor of his way”.  Again, all are called to righteousness, but each child is unique.  Parents are given the call and command to discern their child’s unique temperament, disposition, character, talents , and destiny.  The way he should go might look different for each child.  The meaning of this part of this verse is both wider and deeper than some people have made it.

3.  “When he is old, he will not depart from it”, means that when they are living as an adult, launched from their parents and childhood, they will have a fruitful life in God; because they have learned how to be who God has uniquely made them to be and given them an abundant life in their unique temperament, talents, and destiny.  Godliness will have become second nature and life will be fruitful.  There would be no reason to depart from the way (becoming themselves as God has deemed), because that is their identity, which their parents have helped them develop.

Summary:

The goal is inside out, not outside in.  We want to see, and to facilitate the bringing out, and the coming forth, of who God has created this child to be, and nurture that life. The huge mistake our parenting culture has made is to neglect the ‘inside out’ part.  And it is the parents responsibility.  If your child has other teachers, they are in your employ, and it is still your responsibility to train your children.

Fathers and mothers:  It is your responsibility to facilitate your child’s activation into their destiny.  Consecrate, activate, and assimilate.  Train (consecrate), in the way (activate), and they will not stray from it (assimilate).

We have tons of people today, some went to church when they were young, and some have never been in a church; who are walking zombies, who are living dead lives.  They have never been activated.  They do not know who God has made them to be.  

This is the opposite of what you want for your child.  Personally, you must take the active role in discipling your child, so that they are launched into living an adult life in Christ, instead of being “adult children”.

Jesus has made your child unique and special, destined to glorify God.  Find out what that is and bless it.  Jesus calls us all to the inside out life.  Religion is outside in.  Christianity is people in Christ.