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Heritage - A Father's Influence to the Generations
von: Tom Lane
Gateway Press, 2018
ISBN: 9781945529405 , 384 Seiten
Format: ePUB
Kopierschutz: frei
Preis: 11,89 EUR
1
Taking a Personal Inventory
You must have a personal relationship with
God to be able to transfer it to your children!
After teaching a course about God, a university professor made a startling discovery. On the first day of class, he had asked his students to answer questions (in writing) about their relationships with their fathers—How does your father exact discipline? How does your father express his love to you? What actions on your part make your father proud? What actions disappoint your father?
At the semester’s end, after months of biblical teaching about God’s attributes and His unfailing love for mankind, the professor again asked his students to answer questions. These questions were similar to the first set but with a twist. This time the subject was God—How do you believe that God exacts discipline? How does God express His love to you? What actions on your part make God proud? What actions disappoint God?
Upon comparison, the professor discovered that his students’ perceptions of God were direct reflections of their relationships with their fathers! What is the moral of this story? A father’s influence determines his child’s view of God more than a whole semester of in-depth study of biblical truths!
Although not scientifically proven, I submit that the results of this informal poll ring true. To be successful fathers, we must demonstrate God’s nature to our children. We cannot simply shift the responsibility to our spouses, Sunday school teachers, or other people of influence in our children’s lives. We must have a day of reckoning to accept for ourselves the fact that as fathers, we have a profound influence on the outcome of future generations.
A father’s influence has a ripple effect. Like a stone thrown into a pond, our influence produces ripples that impact our sons and daughters, washing over them and circling ever larger across future generations. These ripples affect every area of our children’s lives: friendships, education, marriage, personal and professional accomplishments, finances, and most importantly, where they will spend eternity.
Our goal should not merely be to bring up politically correct children who become religious adults and fit well into society. Rather, our goal should be to rear children who understand how uniquely important they are in the eternal scheme of things and who comprehend that true satisfaction in life is only found in recognition of God’s deliberate work and purpose.
Accomplishing this is not a shallow religious act, nor is it a duty of good citizenship, as if the transfer of knowledge forms the basis of fulfillment and purpose. It must be our goal to transfer to our children a dynamic relationship with the living God who created us and loves us. The transfer of this relationship happens through the personal involvement of a father’s heart and soul and is reflected in the total commitment of his being.
To lay the foundation for a relationship with God in our children, we first must understand two foundational truths:
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1. God is the Creator and owner of all things.
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2. Man’s purpose and destiny are only fully found in service and surrender to Him.
Only with a complete understanding of these truths can we effectively represent God’s nature to our children.
God is the Creator and Owner of All Things
On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court made a fundamentally flawed decision that unleashed gigantic and tragic waves of immorality across our country. The case was Roe vs. Wade, in which the high court legalized abortion on demand. This decision resulted in the elimination of greater numbers of people than the six million Jews systematically murdered during the Holocaust in World War II. Since 1973, approximately 59 million abortions have been performed in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, this number is more than triple the population of America’s five largest cities combined in 2010.
The court’s premise for this decision was that human sexual activity in itself produces a pregnancy. It further concluded that sexuality is under the sole control of the individuals participating in the sexual act. On this logic, the court ruled that it is a woman’s right to decide the outcome of her pregnancy.
The flaw in this reasoning is exposed in the Bible’s clear portrayal of God as the Creator who works in the womb to form us. It is clear that birth is not an accident. God’s hand guides the biological process of conception so that each person is the product of His will and work. Life is God’s determination, not woman’s choice. This is evident in the fact that even with a world population exceeding 7.5 billion, every single person’s fingerprints are different (on each finger no less!) and completely formed in the womb in the sixth month. Each one of us is unique, a product of God’s design.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb …
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them
(Psalm 139:13, 15–16).
Your hands have made me and fashioned me,
An intricate unity (Job 10:8).
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
And I ordained you a prophet to the nations”
(Jeremiah 1:5).
God knows every person’s weaknesses, and He factors them into His divine plans. When God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, Moses objected, citing slow speech as his reason. God answered, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11).
God is the Creator of all things, and the Bible tells us that all things were created by Him to fulfill His purposes. Colossians 1:16 says:
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
In treating birth as a right of human choice, the Supreme Court erred. The court failed to acknowledge that God is the Creator of everything, and as His creation, mankind is ultimately accountable to Him. The Supreme Court is not supreme. God created all things, animate and inanimate; therefore, He is the rightful owner of all creation, and we are responsible to Him for our actions.
Understanding these foundational truths should radically sharpen a father’s view of his parenting role. Suddenly, he realizes that procreation is God-centered, not human-centered. Life is a gift. God divinely initiates conception, guides development in the womb, and entrusts the gift of life to us!
Man’s Purpose and Destiny Are Only Found in Service and Surrender to God
An awareness of God has always been part of my life. He was discussed at our dinner table. He was honored on Sundays. And although I could not see Him, my parents and grandparents demonstrated through their lives that God was a real person, very much alive and a central part of our home.
My family attended church out of gratitude toward God, not out of fear that failure to acknowledge Him might evoke His wrath. We regarded the Bible as worthy of lifelong study and considered it a privilege to gain greater knowledge of God and His ways. We prayed regularly, humbling ourselves in service to Him. We freely gave time and money to the church, helping others with no expectation of acknowledgment or reward. Love for God was the reason—not benevolence, humanitarian service, or social etiquette.
My parents set an example of having a living, breathing relationship with a Supreme Being. Naturally, almost effortlessly, they transferred this concept to me—not only in words but also by consistent actions. Their example served as the foundation for a very important decision I made at age 16. At that point in my life, God became more than a religious concept to me. He used circumstances to break through my insensitivity, and suddenly, I was aware of Him. I knew He was there, and it was more than an awareness of religious knowledge or tradition as I’d had before. I understood that He was offering me a one-on-one relationship with Him. Fortunately, my father, (future) father-in-law, and my grandfathers had shown me the way. They did not see the pursuit of God as something only for preachers, women, children, and the elderly. Instead, they led by example, and their leadership made it easy for me to surrender my life to Jesus Christ. Through my personal act of surrender, God became alive...
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