Teach Your Children

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

At our church here in Anaheim, California, we’ve been presenting a mid-week summer evening class from the “That The World May Know” video series by Ray Vader Laan on the Exodus story of the Israelites from Egypt to Mt. Sinai and it’s meaning & application to us today. One of the primary messages of this outstanding presentation is that parents, Grandparents and great-grandparents need to teach our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren the Bible; that they may “hear God’s words, so that they may learn to fear the Lord (meaning: out of pure reverence, not ever want to let God down) all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children and their children's children.” Does American Christian families … do the Christians in the world teach their Children diligently or do we let the spiritually-blind pagan secular humanistic world teach us and our kids its self-centered message of hedonism and materialism that destroys the soul with sin and leaves them in the dark pursuit of happiness apart from God? What do you see is the virtues & vises result today?

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 "Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children— how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.' Deuteronomy 6:6-8 repents God’s message here.

This was well-known in this country’s beginnings, as evidenced by the first school textbook printed in the United States, “The New England Primer” in 1690 and used to teach children to read until 1900 A.D., which taught our nation’s children using nothing but biblical references. There is also evidence that biblical morality was taught to all American children in public school by the 1890 textbook on Ethics, with its emphasis on character traits such as honesty, gratitude, and responsibility. This text calls attention to the critical importance of character development and the role of a well-formed conscience in making morally sound decisions,; also full of biblical references. Check it out for yourself. Reprint copies for home-schooling or your own reference are available @ http://shop.wallbuilders.com/store/books.html. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Article 3 states: "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged." Why? Because biblical knowledge leads to obedience from the heart to the Maker of Heaven & Earth, that produces order, peace, happiness and joy in life; nowhere else.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20 "You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

The God-rejecting & Christ-rejecting world seeks joy, apart from a just and righteous God’s holy Word, Will and Way, in sinful distractions, while making every effort to suppress and eliminate the thought and even mention of the one true sovereign Lord of all, which we are accountable, based upon His commands and standards, which we fail. Talking to my Pastor this week, we discussed how it is not just knowing and legalistically obeying, outwardly, the Word of God, but having God’s words written upon our hearts, inwardly. When it is the desire of our heart to live a life that is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, we naturally study the Bible to learn, mature and grow, meditating on the holy Scriptures day & night that they will not depart from our lips (Joshua 1:8 & Psalm 1:2). Not that we say and live by the Ten Commandments only because God says to, but to have the purposes of God in our heart that we do not break them and sin against God and our fellow man, because it is wrong and we do not want to. It changes our prospective from “I shall not lie, steal, covet, kill, have other gods” to the heart that says “Why would I lie? Why would I steal? Why would I covet? Why would I Kill? Why would I have other gods? I have no desire to. Like Joseph says in Genesis 39:9 “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Our hearts are changed; transformed by the Lord. Isn’t this where we want ourselves to be mentally, emotionally and spiritually? Isn’t this what our children need to know to become healthy, balanced & stable adults in this generation? Doesn’t it say in Romans 10:17 that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Who will teach them? It’s our job. Let’s do it!

Romans 2:28-29 For no one is a Jew (or Christian) who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew (and Christian) is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

In Christ,
Brian