Wise Words from 1655

Parents, your children have souls which God expects you to nourish with at least as much care as you lavish on their physical needs. Who will teach them if not you? No one is surprised to hear that a ship put out to sea without a compass has sunk or run aground. Why should we be surprised to see children wander far from God, when they have received no spiritual direction?

I believe a man calls in question his own Christianity if he does not bother to acquaint his child with God and the way that leads to Him. I will even go so far as to say I have never known a true saint who was not deeply concerned about his child’s relationship with the heavenly Father.

You will give a poor account at the Last Day if all you can say is, ‘Lord, here are my children. I bred them gentlemen and left them wealthy.’ What a mocking witness to your own folly that you would do so much for that which rusts, and nothing for a knowledge of God unto salvation, which endures forever!

Faith will not grow without planting, and will die even where it is planted unless it is watered and fertilized with the Word of God. Atheism, irreligion, and profanity, on the other hand, not only grow without planting, but will not die without forceful plucking up. Indeed, they thrive best in an untended soul - until simple ignorance and disbelief in the child become willful attitudes in the man.

When a child breaks one of God’s commandments, it is his sin; but it is also the father’s if he never taught the child what the commandment of God was. Wicked children become heavy crosses to their parents. When a father or mother must trace the source of wickedness to his or her own neglect in training the child, cross is laid upon cross and the load becomes unbearable. Can there be a greater heartache in this life than to see your own child running full speed toward hell, and know that you were the one who outfitted him for the race? Oh, do your best while they are young and in your constant care, to win them to God and set them on the road to heaven.

Training your children up in the ways of the Lord is no casual suggestion, but a solemn command given to all Christian parents. Your refusal to obey, whether the product of deliberation or neglect, will pay you bitter wages when you stand before the King of kings in judgment.
- passages from The Christian in Complete Armour volume 1 by William Gurnall

Advent

In a previous post I mentioned that that Sunday (November 29th) was the first Sunday of Advent. Since then a dear friend has asked me to explain to her how to celebrate Advent. So after much delay here is how to do it…

The Basics:

Literally Advent means “coming”.

The four Sundays that make up the Advent Season (which usually begins on the last Sunday in November – the Sunday closest to November 30th) are set aside as a time to prepare, reflect, and acknowledge the gift of salvation that we (Christians) have been given through the birth of God’s Son Jesus Christ. It is also a time to anticipate the second coming of Christ. In short it is a time of looking back to the birth and forward to the second coming. Traditionally Advent is celebrated with three main things – an Advent wreath, candles and Scripture readings.

The Advent wreath is usually a circular evergreen wreath (although Lutherans sometimes use a log shape) – either homemade or store bought (or if you are Catholic there is no greenery just a circle with holes for the candles). The circle of the wreath represents the hope of eternal life in Christ and the greenery symbolizes the abundant life Jesus has promised us in the here and now.

The candles which go on the wreath vary in color but are typically a combination of three purple (or blue) candles, one pink candle and one white candle. One candle is lit each Sunday in Advent with the fifth candle – the white candle- lit on Christmas Eve and Day. The candles are lit in this order: purple, purple, pink, purple, and then white with each previous candle being lit along with the new candle so that on Christmas Eve/Day all the candles are lit. Each candle is symbolic and depending on what source you use their meanings can vary slightly but I think the most common meanings are: first purple candle - promise candle; second purple candle - prophet’s candle; third pink candle - John the Baptist’s candle; fourth purple candle -Mary’s candle and of course the fifth candle, the white candle, represents Christ Jesus, the Light of the World.

There are specific Scripture readings that accompany the lighting of each candle. These can vary slightly also so I am not going to list them but you can find a complete list of the Scriptures here.

Finally, there are many wonderful resources to use with Advent. Advent can be as simple as lighting a candle and reading a scripture on each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas or it can be more involved – with daily scripture reading, hymn singing and a lighting of candles on each Sunday. It can be as involved or as simple as you have time to make it.

There are also many good Advent devotionals available. I will try to list some resources in another post.

Here is a glimpse of our nightly Advent celebration (we do something each night leading up to Christmas and then we have a special celebration on Christmas Eve with a birthday cake for Jesus and then a special reading on Christmas Day before we open our presents):

Each night I prepare some sort of treat for the children – hot cocoa, candy, cookies, or some kind of dessert which we enjoy during or right before we begin our Advent celebration. Before we begin we light the appropriate candle then we pray and sing a Christmas hymn, then Mark or I (if he is not home) read the nightly reading. This year we are reading through Jotham’s Journey. Which I highly recommend, but which is not a necessity. In years past we have read scripture only or scripture and devotions. As a special treat on each of the four Sundays I prepare a special goodie bag for each child inside of which I put candy or money or a special tiny gift. Inside one of the bags there is a scripture verse. I bring the bags out and the children each select a bag. The one that selects the bag with the scripture verse has to locate the verse in their Bible and read it aloud to all. I haven’t done the bags each year (because I’m a very forgetful person) and when I’ve missed a year (as I did last year) the children complain loudly and tell me in no uncertain terms just how much they miss this aspect of our Advent celebration. In fact, Caleb started reminding me of it early in November so this year I am doing it again. You may be wondering what happens if Ben or Bess gets the Bible verse (all of the older children can read) – the answer is that Ben doesn’t get a bag and someone else will read the verse for Bess if she gets it and she will repeat all or part of it aloud.

Well, now it is time for me to go and join my family so that we can light the second purple candle, sing our hymns (Away in a Manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem) and have our nightly reading (from Jotham's Journey and Scripture - Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 2:1-7, Micah 5:2, and Isaish 40:31. The secret verse that one of the children will get will be Micah 5:2). If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll try to post a list of Advent resources soon.

Not Our Own

The purpose of raising our children is to get them ready for God’s purposes for them in this life. God wants His salvation, love, joy, and peace to be revealed in them wherever they go and whatever they do. We are not to raise our children for hibernation but the revelation of God in their lives. They are arrows that we daily polish, getting them ready for the day when we send them forth to hit the mark for God. – Nancy Campbell (Above Rubies, #74)

Do you want an Uncommon Union?

My answer is yes!

This is what Jonathan Edwards called his marriage to his wife Sarah. An uncommon union. I don’t know about you, but that is what I want…an uncommon union.

Today as I cleaned my house I listened to a wonderful, wonderful message. It was a message (sermon/teaching) by Doug Phillips on God’s vision for the home or more specifically – how a wife can be a blessing to her husband and establish an uncommon union between them.

The Series is entitled: The Wise Woman’s Guide to Blessing Her Husband’s Vision and it is powerful.

Here is the description for the series: The Christian community is full of dear ladies discouraged because their husbands lack vision to lead the family with gusto. In some cases, the men are simply overwhelmed with present responsibilities. In other cases, they lack a biblical framework for household leadership. It certainly does not help when men have poor role models in their own lives, which is the case for a growing majority of husbands. Often wives cry out, “Help, my husband just doesn’t get it,” or, “I want more children, but my husband says ‘no,’” or even, “My husband is nervous about home schooling.” For more than ten years, Doug and Beall Phillips have spoken with hundreds who share these sentiments. But, too often, wives contribute to the problem through a wrong response. The great news is that the Bible anticipates this crisis of leadership in the home and provides crystal clear direction for wives. Wise women will desire to bless their husband’s vision by embracing the specific affirmative and negative biblical commands given to them for this very purpose. Those who do will become a sanctifying influence on their household, grow in spiritual maturity, and become God’s vehicle for their husband’s spiritual revival. This series is meant to encourage both wives and husbands with the principles and the practicalities for men and women growing in family vision for the Lord. –Doug Phillips

This is such a dead on right message that I am seriously thinking about buying a copy of it for every wife that I know.

And just so this message is not casually dismissed by those of you who do not home school, or do not have more than two children let me mention that this message is for every wife out there. Every single one of us. We can all learn from it. But, it is especially for wives who have come to the conclusion that their husbands have given up on their family.

I honestly believe that if more women were to put into practice the principles that Phillips shares in this series many marriages would be saved.

So, if you have a moment and $7.95 follow this link and download The Wise Woman's Guide to Blessing Her Husband two part lesson and do so now! Then spend some quiet time tonight or tomorrow while you are cleaning or working to listen and then come back and tell me what you think. You will either be blessed or angry - there is very little middle ground.

P.S. If you are an unmarried woman, this message is for you as well. Listen and absorb it. What I wouldn’t give to have known these truths before I was married (though at the time I probably would not have listened).

Mothers, listen to these messages, change your marriage, then teach these truths to your daughters. Please! Please! Please! We need a few more uncommon unions…because right now we’ve got way too many failed unions and the way of the world is not the answer. For those of you that think that submission = servitude and unhappiness. I would submit that being a servant is exactly who and what Christ is calling us to be and do, and that being a servant actually = true joy, peace, and contentment. Try it and see.

Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God, that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest regards to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature, as trust is spiritual, and therefore will continue forever. And I hope she will be supported under so great a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children, you are now like to be fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all, to seek a Father who will never fail you. –Jonathan Edwards writing to youngest daughter Lucy on the eve of his death

And his wife Sarah’s beautiful reply once he had passed…

What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands upon our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives; and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be. –Sarah Edwards

P.P.S. Don't you love that! Sarah says, "But my God lives; and he has my heart." No woe is me here. And then she goes on to praise her husband. No condemnation. And the last line, "We are all given to God; and there I am, and love to be."

And there I am and love to be.

Amen.

Note: The above picture is of Sarah Pierpoint Edwards. She was 17 when she became Mrs. Jonathan Edwards. He was 23.

George Mueller on Meditating on God's Word

While I was staying at Nailworth, it pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, irrespective of human instrumentality, as far as I know, the benefit of which I have not lost, though now...more than forty years have since passed away.

The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed the morning. Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, whilst meditation, my heart might be brought into experimental, communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.

The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God; searching, as it were, into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul. The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication; so that though I did not, as it were, give to prayer but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less to prayer.

When thus I have been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me that food for my own soul is the object of meditation. The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word that I have myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man. –George Mueller

Read more about George Mueller HERE and HERE.