So, we say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
- Hebrews 13:6-8
Loving abundantly, even though this is my desire, is an impossibility if Jesus Christ is not a part of... NO! HE IS THE part of love.
To love those who have hurt you, are hurting you, or anyone who is making decisions that remove themselves and family members from a fellowship where God’s hand is working has always raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Reasons given go like this:
Well, it’s time my children need to go to this other fellowship and... they need, you know, Mom and Dad’s support, you know, we’re really torn as to whether to move or not.
The real reasons are that someone has hurt them in some way by word, by action, or by decisions that were made that were not in line with their wishes. The Church didn’t accommodate their own personal ideas or thoughts, based on self-centeredness.
Many of us give major lip service to Jesus Christ when we say things like, “This is my life and my soul,” and then shut Him out in decision-making that we do. When will we ever learn that the grass on the other side of the fence is greener only until we set foot on the other side and look back to discover that now where we came from is greener? You would think we might catch on at some point in our lives, but we just continue seeing the other side as greener, and we move to discover again how green it is where we came from.
Catching on would be to see that we need to have our inner man completely renovated by the Holy Spirit and allow Him to undue all things, not just a few things, all of our self-centeredness.
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
- 1 Peter 3:3-4
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
- 1 Peter 3:8
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The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
- Proverbs 22:3
I am blessed to have older children now, and it is very much a blessing to discuss things with them on an adult level, especially if they desire to look at all things from a Biblical perspective. Adult children are so much different than children who are still in their youth. One discussion some of my children and I have had within the last year was about the phrase, “everyone is replaceable.”
Admittedly, this phrase has always bothered me, even before I was a Christian, because it never really rang true with me at all. And I do mean AT ALL. To me, it really seems to be a phrase that’s nothing more than a threat; if you don’t fall in line, you’re replaceable. Is this really true, though? Again, I contend, not at all. I’ll even go so far as to say it is definitely NOT biblical in the least, and sadly, it has greatly impacted the Church and pastors all over the United States of America. Many now seemingly believe this abhorrent phrase to be true. Please think and pray about it. Why in the world do local churches now have HR departments? The R in that stands for resources, not relationships. And isn’t that really what the church should be about? Relationships.
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
- Matthew 22:37-40
Our spiritual life should be about our relationship with God and our relationships with each other, not how I can use and abuse you for my benefit. That is ungodly.
Why do I so strongly and confidently claim this phrase is not biblical and is merely a threat to try and keep people in line? Because the Bible is clear that:
- We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
- We are God’s handiwork.
- We are all unique.
- God has given each of us gifts and talents because he has prepared for us in advance the good we ought to do.
Admittedly, I am sick and tired of seeing people just put “bodies into slots.” We do this all the time now in the American church, and it’s time for the church to stop following the way of the carnal world and realize we need to do things differently – Biblically. There is a right way to do things, and that is God’s way. It’s time for church leadership to own the fact that many of us have bought the corporate world mindset into the church, which is not of God at all. It is carnal.
Again, we’ve all heard it, “Everyone is replaceable.” Let me share with you what I believe is an eye-opening way to see how bad this phrase truly is. When we start looking at people as resources, “cogs” in a machine and not as unique individuals made in the image of God, we truly begin to believe that we can replace others at the same level of impact as before. For instance, if we have someone in a position that is incredibly effective in what they are doing and they are truly gifted, why would we think replacing them with someone with completely different gifts and talents will be as effective and as impactful? It truly makes no sense to me. Let’s use the “cog” idea to understand my concern over this. Why would we think getting rid of someone that is a steel cog and replacing them with a plastic cog would work and work fine? It won’t. Oh sure, for a time it might work and seemingly work well, but over time that person without the right talents and giftings is going to struggle and will start to fall apart like a plastic cog in a machine.
Now, can people grow and strengthen their weaknesses? With the Lord’s help, yes, of course. Sadly, though, it seems to me that far too many of us have bought into the idea of not living in our giftings. I believe it is very important for Christians to embrace who God has created us to be and become. By embracing how we’ve been created by God to live and be, we truly can live out the idea that in our weakness, He is strong. By leaning on God’s design and strengthening the strengths He has given to us, we will be strong in our weakness. Without God, we are weak. In our weakness, He is strong. When we surrender our lives to God, in our weakness, He is strong because we embrace who He has made us to become. Let’s strive to be strong in the Lord and stop being a “cog” in the machine!
Next week, I plan to share why focusing on our God-given gifts and talents is so incredibly important in advancing the Kingdom of God here on the earth.
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As a child, I was blessed to grow up in the home of a railroader who loved his family dearly. Even though it seemed at times that my mother desired to work outside the home, she chose to stay home when my sister and I were younger, well into our junior high years. I had no idea what a blessing this all truly was, nor did I realize the sacrifices my father and mother made for us in many things until I was much older. My father was your typical railroader who was incredibly strong and very mentally tough. Once my mother became a follower of Jesus Christ, my father “knew” my mother was meeting with some other guy at the church she would bring my sister and me to almost weekly. Dare I say, my father seemed quite jealous of this other guy.
In the mid-1970s, on a cold and snowy evening in Minnesota, my father got into a very bad car accident where the jaws of life were needed to cut him out of his car. Near as we can tell, he had fallen asleep at the wheel and hit a culvert head-on. The only injuries he received were a broken collarbone and a gash on the top of his head. Looking back, he probably had a nasty concussion, too.
The only people who went to see him in the hospital were people from that church and the pastor of that congregation. My mother had been going to see a guy at the church… His name was Jesus Christ, and she was learning how to love Him and surrender her life to Him. My father surrendered his life to Jesus Christ in that hospital, thanks to the love not only of God but also because of the example of Christ he saw in the people of that congregation and of Pastor Wallace Henk.
In 2025, at my father’s Celebration of Life service, a dear friend of ours got up and spoke about my father and his love, not only for the Lord, but also about how my father lived in leading people to the Lord. He said, “Frank was just… RELENTLESS!” And that right there is THE word that explains my father well. He was relentless in everything. My father NEVER shut off. Being the son of a man like this was very trying at times. He was always striving for excellence. Whether it was work time, play time, or just relaxing time, he was RELENTLESS! I am thankful for him showing my sister and me the importance of living life for Christ in everything. He was relentless for the Lord.
Years ago, as an adult, one of my disciplers introduced me to something that my father never formally introduced me to, but that my father lived out in every second of every day. He set the example in everything he did. It’s what I am about to share with you: 10 Biblical convictions that every Godly man should teach his family.
Discipleship is so important, especially of a father to his own children. Sadly, it seems as if this is something that many of us have lost the art of doing. In the United States of America and even inside the Church, the breakdown of the family that God has instituted is more obvious and more prevalent than ever. I believe we need to get back to what God has established if we are to move forward as a Church and a nation.
I hope and pray that you will prayerfully consider implementing the following in your own life and in the life of your family.
#1 - God alone is sovereign. The Bible is the inspired Word of God and needs to be the final authority for my life. (Exodus 20:3; Matthew 4:4)
#2 - Seeking God with my whole heart needs to be my priority in my life. I need to build goals around God's priorities. (Exodus 20:4-5; Matthew 6:33)
#3 - My body is the living temple of the Lord God and must not be defiled by the lusts of this world. (Exodus 20:7; Mark 7:21-23)
#4 - The Church I attend must teach the foundational truths of the Bible and reinforce my basic convictions. (Exodus 20:8; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Matthew 7:15-16)
#5 - My children and grandchildren belong to God. It is my responsibility to teach them scriptural principles, Godly character, and basic convictions. (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Matthew 19:14)
#6 - My actions must never weaken the Scriptural convictions of another Christian brother or sister. (Exodus 20:13; Proverbs 28:10; Matthew 18:6; Romans 14:13)
#7 - My marriage is a life-long commitment to God and to my wife. (Exodus 20:14; Proverbs 6:32; Matthew 19:6; Romans 7:2-3)
#8 - The money I have is a trust from God. It must be earned and managed according to Scriptural principles. (Exodus 20:15; Proverbs 15:6; Luke 16:11; 1 Timothy 6:10)
#9 - My words must be in harmony with God’s Word, especially when attempting to reprove and restore a Christian brother. (Exodus 20:16; Proverbs 18:21; Matthew 12:37; Galatians 6:1)
#10 - My affections and desires must be set on things above, not on earthly things. (Exodus 20:17; Matthew 6:20-21)
“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love” (1 Corinthians 16:13-14).
In other words:
- Be on alert for spiritual danger!
- Stand on God's Word no matter what!
- Let your actions then speak! Be courageous!
- Be Strong!
- Be long-suffering, kind, and loving!
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As most of you know, my earthly father passed away in April of 2025. I greatly miss him. Other than Jesus Christ, He is easily the greatest man I have ever known. I am incredibly blessed to call him not only father but friend. Now that he’s in heaven with the Lord, I wish I had given even more of my time to spend with him in person, on the phone, or even playing more cribbage. He truly loved to play cribbage, and thankfully, he passed the love of that game on to me. My father always wanted to preach and desired to share the truth in love with those he knew and didn’t know. I think deep down, he always desired to do something as a father and son in this realm. We did do a little bit together, but not at all what it could have been.
So I am pleased to announce that my oldest son, Ezra, and I will be starting a new podcast in 2026. It will be titled “Falling Apples” – hence the title of this blog post. My son mentioned while recording these editions that, “It sure would have been nice to have Grandpa here to do this with us so we could have the perspective of three generations on what we are going to discuss.” And that brings me to part of the reason for this blog post.
My mother has given me two incredible gifts. One is my father’s Bible. It is loaded with highlights and his own personal notes and cross-references. LOADED! The second gift is one of his personal journals from 2002-2003. There are so many writings in this journal that it is going to take me years to read through them and compile what he has written. This is where my son and I are hoping to receive a gift from him, but also to share with people, like you – a gift that we didn’t know we could give. On “Falling Apples,” we are hoping to not only share what we believe the Lord is leading us to share with you, but also share much of the Godly insight, wisdom, and passion from my father through his writings. We are hoping this podcast will just be organic, real, raw, and very transparent. We currently have a Facebook page for this podcast, so please be on the lookout for new information coming out about this new endeavor.
To finish up this post, I’d like to share one of the writings from my father so you can get to know his heart better.
“CHOICES”
Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Cherries fruit tastes wonderful, but at the same time, the PIT contains deadly poison – CYANIDE.
Our life and choices we make are not much unlike this fruit; if anything, life is like this fruit. We must choose daily between good and evil, like choosing to read God’s Word and praying (talking with Him). BUT it’s when we choose to do otherwise that we slowly poison our souls, and so slowly that over time we begin to think and justify that what we are doing is OK. Like the cherries, life doesn’t have to be the pits; you see, my choices make the difference.
Choice.
Colossians 2:6 states, “as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” “JUDGMENTAL” ME.
We want to have our cake and eat it too. What a saying. A lot of the time, no. Way too often, we attempt to establish our relationship with God by the feelings of mountain-top experiences and move dramatically from one to another. What happens is if these tippy top happenings aren’t a part of our lives, we believe that our faith is weakening (a feelings-centered faith).
Didn’t verse Colossians 2:6 say, “Walk in Him,” a Christ-centered faith?
We need Him in the highs AND lows of our lives. When we do, our lives will become rooted and grounded in Him. Like those things that grow from the earth, their roots need to grow deep to give stability to the plant. Those mountain-top experiences can and are beneficial, but nothing will profit each of us more than our ongoing CHRIST-centered life of faith.
James 1:2-3
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
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It's beyond obvious now, for those paying attention, how much the world has changed, and how much the United States of America has gotten away from the Biblical principles that our nation was founded upon. We are now beginning to finally see what so many of us have been warning about for decades.
We are receiving the consequences of our actions, or dare I say inaction and silence, on many of our parts in the Church. This has brought not only chaos, but much anger in many people inside and outside of the Church. Many are now seemingly believing that they are justified in becoming the very thing that they feared for so many years.
What is that?
They are becoming tyrants or are seemingly choosing to support tyranny in order to get their way. They are forcing others to live Biblically, even when a person might not agree with it. Sadly, many inside the church are now embracing this idea that forcing others to follow Jesus and his ways is good, right, and true.
Even though you might think it's good, it is not good. Jesus never forced people to follow Him. Did he challenge, equip, and educate them? Well, yes. Forcing someone, who is an adult, to do what you want them to do, for the most part, is not good.
It is exactly what I personally have been warning about for so long. I have been encouraging all of us who are followers of Christ to be on the lookout for this within our own hearts. It's why I have had to step back from the ministry of Worldview Warriors for a time in order to try to get my house and family in order.
Discipleship is so incredibly important. It isn't cute, and it doesn't always have a great impact in the short term. But follow the example of Christ and consciously choose to sink into the few in order to reach the many, for Jesus Christ is the answer! I am convinced of this!
So, with this in mind, I would like to share with you what I have been up to over the past two years. After much prayer, consideration, and counsel, I have been pastoring a small church in the state of Ohio, where we have been digging into the Word of God, worshiping, and fellowshipping together. We have been striving to know Christ and are trying to make Him known. We are striving to learn and act in allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us. Do we have it all figured out? Absolutely not! However, we have been and are continuing to embrace the importance of discipleship within the body of Christ.
I am convinced that we must follow the example of Jesus Christ when sinking into His people if we are going to see any movement and action for the Kingdom of God in this world. We must have alignment before assignment.
It is time to continue to grow and become mature and complete in the Lord, so we can then act and be doers of the Word, as it tells us to do in James 1:19-25.
Over the past two years, I have been blessed to personally lead a number of small discipleship groups. God has not only allowed me the opportunities to lead young men, but God has also allowed me to be in relationships with many older men and women as well. They have been an incredible blessing to me. I hope I have been able to bless them, too.
God has also given me the amazing opportunity to sink into the lives of many young ladies and other young men to discipline them through a sports ministry that, with the help of others, my family and I started back in 2018. It is called The Senedot Stripes. Why am I sharing all this? Because starting this winter, we will slowly start rolling out opportunities, starting with young men, to join a small group solely focused on discipleship and unity in the Lord. These opportunities will start in the state of Ohio. Things will roll out slowly, but we are excited to see where the Lord will take this. I encourage you to be on the lookout for more details about all of this in the future.
May God bless you, and may the Lord's will be done as I hope we all continue to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit in each one of our lives.
Jason has been married to his wife since 1997. They have been blessed with 6 children. Jason is the President of Worldview Warriors, and he is also the pastor at Evangelical Pietist Church of Chatfield. He is also the Athletic Director for the Senedot Stripes.
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Read Isaiah 40:27-31.
Today, I would like to share with you about the importance of having a loving Christian supportive father in one's life. As many of you know, my father passed away in April of 2025. I've always known that my father, Frank DeZurik, loved me, but it hasn't been until recently that I've really begun to understand and embrace what this really means and looks like for my life and for his. My father has written so many journals almost every day for years that I don't know if I will ever get through them all. Here's something he wrote back in July of 2003. You'll see that we were on vacation and deciding whether to take a new youth ministry position or not.
Today, Jason is preaching at Becky's church in Minnesota. Neither Becky or Jason and Jaya know I am here. Judy [Frank's wife and my mother] tried to get off work but…
I know we both are praying that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is upon Jason to preach God's word because someone needs to hear God's message through him. We pray renewed strength upon Jason because we know how exhausting vacation can be, and with Jaya and Jason needing renewed strength and guidance upon their lives, as husband and wife and mother and father in making decisions about whether to take a position in Minnesota or not.
Fathers, if you don't think you matter, you do. Your prayers matter. God not only made you, but He made the children that He's given to you. He has given you an incredible responsibility. Don't just waste your time with the children He's given to you.
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As most of you know, my father, Frank DeZurik, went to be with our Heavenly Father in April of this year. In June of this year we had his Celebration of Life service with family and friends. It was a service of great honor and joy and of great remembrance, and for that, I am so thankful.
This has been an incredible time of pain, suffering, and much mourning, not only for me, but for our entire family. Though it has been hard, it has also been a blessing and a time of refocusing, revitalization, and new life for our entire family. It's almost as if, in my father's death, his entire family line has been reborn! It's almost as if we're getting to know him even more, now that he's gone, than when he was with us. It has been a time of pausing, contemplating, and seeking the Lord in all that we're doing.
This has not only been one of the most difficult times of my life, but it has also been one of the most rewarding times of the life that God has given to me. I am in serious awe and thankful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I am beginning to understand why I am the way I am and why I think the way I do, more and more every single day. It is because of the great earthly father that Almighty God has given to me. It's almost as if in my father's death on the earth, he has become even more alive. I cannot really explain it, but hopefully this will help.
Here's just part of an unedited excerpt out of this very notebook:
"Awake the Dawn"
How often I have missed spending time with my Lord in the morning as he wants and desires that I call upon him in the dawning of each day. He blesses me with each new morning, an opportunity to tell someone through my actions or words or both about His saving grace. But I walk in fear of my own strength. All too often I try to express and show others His love and spend little time seeking Him in His Word, seeking him in conversation in prayer... If I don't stay in his word and in prayer daily, it's way too easy to say, "I don't know Him" and yet, How true that statement is because I don't spend the time getting to know Him. You can't say you know someone if you don't spend time with them. He wants us to get to know and understand Him better."
There's much more to this, but my father wrote this back in 2003 on May 2nd. He literally wrote this after reading Psalm 57:4-11. WOW!
I hope you have been blessed reading this.
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On April 22, 2025, the greatest man I ever knew went to be with his heavenly Father in glory. He wasn't a perfect man while on the earth, but he would strive to know his Savior and Lord in all that he did while on the earth. Even with physical death knocking on his door, he strived to be joyful in the Lord, worshipping Him with family and friends all around him in his last days here on the earth. He taught me so much about what Biblical love really is, even though in my youth, I was quite intemperate and unwilling to receive from his words and actions about Godly wisdom.
Typically, as one gets older, though, they begin to realize those who came before them really aren't as foolish as one thought. As I am older now, I realize that his tough love toward me in my youth was a huge gift. He taught me more than anyone in my life about true biblical love. Love is long-suffering. Love isn't always nice, but it is kind. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth of God. Love can get angry, but in your anger do not sin because love is not easily angered. When you do sin, own up to it, confess the sin, and ask for forgiveness of the one you sinned against. Then it's up to the one you sinned against to forgive. If they don't forgive, that's between them and God. Leave it be, and genuinely pray for them.
He taught me the importance of sacrificing and loving the family God has given to you, and to honor them in action and in word. Love always protects, love always trusts, and love always perseveres. Love never fails. I am so thankful for the Lord allowing me to be the son of the greatest man I ever knew – my father, Frank Joseph DeZurik. Why is he the greatest? Because he pointed me to the absolute greatest man ever, Jesus Christ. See you in Heaven.
Born on July 25, 1945, in St. Cloud, Minnesota, he was the firstborn son to Jerry and Mary DeZurik (Gallus) (both deceased). He had 2 younger sisters, Annette (deceased) and Carol, who survives and lives in Zimmerman, Minnesota. He grew up in Royalton, Minnesota. He married Judy Rose Ginter on October 19, 1968, in North Prairie, Minnesota. They had two (2) children together, Jason (Jaya Greenberg) born on May 18, 1970, and Rebecca (Gary Rakow) born on November 4, 1972.
Frank is survived by his wife, children, and six (6) grandchildren: Ezra Frank, Elijah Paul, Anika Jewel, Katerina Rose, Eva Marie, and Theresa Grace.
He started working for the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1964 and retired from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad in 1999… 35 years later. While working on the railroad in Steele, North Dakota, in 1972, he was nearly electrocuted when 7,200 volts of electricity ran through his body. The Lord was watching over him that day. In 1976, while driving home from the bar, Frank fell asleep, hitting a culvert head-on. The engine of the car was found 25 feet away from the car, and the jaws of life were needed to cut him out of the car. The only injuries he received in this accident were a broken collarbone, a concussion, and a gash in his head. It was at this time, in the hospital, that Frank surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. He never took another drink of alcohol again.
After this time, he started to not only become outspoken about his faith in Jesus Christ but strived to live his life for the Lord in everything he did. In 1978, he was promoted to management on the Burlington Northern Railroad and worked out of the shop in St. Paul, Minnesota. During this time, he was also a part of the music group “The Potter's Clay” with his friend, Lowell Olson. They traveled and performed in churches all around Minnesota.
In 1988, the traveling began for Frank and Judy. With his loving and loyal wife by his side, they began a new adventure together, moving to Snohomish, Washington, for his new position in Seattle, Washington. In 1992, they were transferred to Springfield, Missouri, where Frank could be found at Bass Pro Shop quite often. As he put it, “I thought it was great, as Bass Pro Shop was just starting out.” In 1997, they moved just east of Kansas City to Blue Springs, Missouri, and in 1999, Frank retired from the railroad.
Frank was blessed to lead Bible studies, sing in the church choir, and sing tenor in a 10-man singing group called the “Circuit Riders,” which was blessed to perform in Missouri, Kansas, and even in Pennsylvania. He and Judy traveled to Israel in 2000, to which Frank said, “This was an amazing trip.” He and Judy made mission trips to Juarez, Mexico, and were blessed to build homes and share the love of Jesus while there. In retirement, they bought a lake home near Emily, Minnesota. All were welcome to join him to fish on the lake and help him monitor rogue ATV activity as they jumped his driveway on a regular basis. He loved playing games with the family. Some of his favorites were Cribbage, Rook, and Hearts. Frank was known for holding high standards for himself and encouraging others to do the same. He will be remembered as a man of God who strived to do God's will in all that he did. He will be remembered as a man who loved, in his own words, “This Great Nation.”
He will be remembered as a man who loved his wife with his actions as a protector and provider. He loved his children and grandchildren greatly and will be remembered as a man who showed them and everyone the example of always striving to follow the one true King, Jesus Christ.
A Celebration of Life will be held from 1 pm – 4 pm on Saturday, June 28, at Maranatha Church * 24799 Forest Lake Boulevard North, Forest Lake, Minnesota, 55025. An informal service will be held at 2 pm. A light lunch will be served.
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One of the things I have learned about spiritual warfare and living in society is that the enemy plays dirty. The enemy of the soul plays a dirty game. Why? Not only because cheating helps him win, but he knows he cannot win a fair fight. His game is deception and subtlety. He was a liar from the beginning, and it is pure naivety to think he is going to play by the rules. He plays dirty, he cheats, he lies, he does not honor codes of ethics, and he has one agenda: to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
The enemy also is a brilliant strategist and plays the long game as well as the short one. He knows how to play generations as well as individuals in the moment. And there is one target he loves to get more than any other: children. As the lion goes after the weak, the slow, the old, and the young in the pack, not after the strong ones, so Satan goes after our weak ones. He targets the children, the wives, and the widows, and he uses the poor and defenseless to get easy prey. Ever notice how when the government and the media go after taxing the rich, they don’t actually go after the rich? The rich are either party with them or strong enough to stand in their way.
As an educator, one of the things I see in the system is the purpose and intention to get children to believe what the “elite” want them to believe as early as possible. Evolution is a classic example. Instead of letting kids actually figure out the science from the start, the idea of millions of years and the theory of evolution are thrown at toddlers through Sesame Street, Dinosaur Train, Dr. Seuss, and everything else. The details aren’t given until later, but at that point, the idea of “millions of years” has been so driven into us that we have a difficult time separating the Deep Time story from the actual evidence.
The tactics used to teach evolution are the same tactics that were used by Hitler to reach the youth of Germany and the same tactics used by Castro to reach the youth of Cuba. The pastor’s wife of my previous church was raised in Cuba, and she remembers being a six-year-old girl when the Communist takeover took place. The new teachers asked the children to pray to God for a piece of candy, and obviously, no candy showed up. They then had the kids pray to Castro for a piece of candy, and of course, while eyes were closed, a piece of candy was put on each desk. I should not need to further explain what was going on there. Hitler was well known for similar tactics. When a man approached Hitler and said he’d never support him, Hitler simply retorted, “You will pass away. I already have your children.” And he did. The “Hitler Youth” was not a mere propaganda piece but a political tool to eliminate opposition.
Another part of the tactic is to blame the opposition for what you are doing. I see this one everywhere, and it’s primarily used on Christians. Pro-evolutionists make a point and purpose of saying that Christians are indoctrinating their kids and needing echo chambers when they think we aren’t letting them have a voice (by that, they mean dominate it all and never give an account for what they do). Yet, who are the ones who need echo chambers and practice indoctrination? Around 90% of students go to public schools where they only hear about evolution, and 90% of churches and denominations are not teaching the Biblical side of creation; they teach the evolutionary side. So, who is actually indoctrinating, and who needs the echo chambers? Creationists actually tend to know the evolutionary side better than the evolutionists themselves. And the evolutionists, especially the “ex-Christian” types, can hardly get a thing we say right. Don’t fall for that.
But evolution is just the “gateway drug.” Flowing out of it has come the real heinous junk we are seeing today. Evolution is what has opened the door for certain people to deny that God actually did create people as “male” or “female;” because we evolved, we can be whomever we want to be. The whole gender identity crisis is targeting these youth and starting with preschool books. Yes, there are preschool books out there to start teaching these tiny kids about sexuality and to prepare them for receiving and engaging in such activities. Parents who get word about this are rightly outraged, and school board meetings are being regularly hounded by parents who are livid that these are being allowed in the school libraries. The books for middle school and older get much worse with pictures and very detailed pornographic descriptions of sexual activity engaged by kids as young as 10 or 11. The “system” has gotten so many kids away from their parents for so long through schools, sports, and other activities, though there’s nothing wrong with these individually. Both teachers and counselors are speaking to kids outside of the influence of the parents, telling kids NOT to tell the parents. This is why we are seeing these issues. School board members have been caught on a hot mic saying they don’t listen to any of the parents’ complaints.
Pornography is one of the deadliest “drugs,” and Satan is so crafty that he will get a toddler who looks at another naked baby as a seed to start planting deeper and darker sexual thoughts. With smartphones today, the moment a kid gets access to the internet, it will be a very short time before he or she is exposed to pornography for the first time. Just one look can start it, whether through exploring a web page, a link by a peer, or on social media. I read one story of a 10-year-old boy who was found watching porn on his phone by his mom. The kid said it started with exploring the web, and soon, naked men came up, and one thing led to another, and the kid was grieved that he could not get the images he saw out of his head. It starts young, and we need to be alert and ready to guard our kids from the start. Have those discussions with them, even at younger ages, about good stuff and bad stuff so they can learn to recognize, “Hey, that is wrong.” No amount of sheltering them will prevent their exposure, but if we can train them to reject it when they are, it will save them from a whole lot of peril.
Again, the enemy fights dirty, and one of the key tactics in all this is the removal or neutralization of the “father” of the home. When the Industrial Revolution shifted jobs away from the home and the farm to factories and white-collar businesses, it also removed the father from the home to raise the kids. Since they no longer lived on the farms where there were always things to do, the kids got bored, needing centralized school, and mom began to work as well, requiring daycare for the kids. As a result, parents are no longer actually raising their kids; the programs are.
The schools do not speak to Dad very often when dealing with kids but instead, they speak to Mom. This reminds me of the Garden, where the serpent bypassed Adam and went to Eve. Unless Dad is very active, involved, and intentional about raising his kids, the only thing he will be in the home is the money maker (which is good, however, he won’t be the active father). And the kids, needing a father figure, will go to where they can find one, be he a coach, a teacher, or find that role in a woman or in a gang. This is no knock on kids who legitimately don’t have a dad. However, in every institution God sets up, Satan sets up a counterfeit to usurp or replace. Instead of a father, there is school. Instead of a church, there are gangs and peers of grade/age level segregation. Instead of a proper nuclear family, there is anything that whoever wants to fulfill whatever lusts they want. And instead of a father for authority, there is either the mother or all their activities. Again, there is nothing wrong with extra-curriculars, but parents, you are responsible for running the home, not the kid and their schedule.
Remember, all these tactics, and I’m just giving a brief snapshot here, are to get at you and get at your kids. Satan desires to either destroy them, neutralize them, or recruit them to fight for darkness. We’ve been so accustomed to a comfortable lifestyle that few of us realize what kind of battle is going on, and we’ve essentially raised a white flag and gone into hiding rather than rise up and confront this. That is what we have done for the past couple of generations; the net is set and ready to be sprung. The fight that we have refused to fight as a whole generation would have been nothing if we stood up when we had the chance, compared to the battle we are about to fight if we want to get out of it.
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Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
- Psalm 34:14
As parents, we only have so much time with the children who God has given to us. Children are a blessing from God, and it’s high time those of us who are parents and Christians to take this opportunity and responsibility in a much more serious way than many of us have in the recent past.
I believe it is time for those of us in the church who are a part of what is called Gen X, and even those who are older, to stop pointing fingers at those who are younger than us as the problem. We need to realize that perhaps many of them are “The Problem” that so many of the older generations speak of because many of us allowed our children to learn and live in the ways of the world and not grab onto the Christian faith as their own.
For instance, why get upset at them when your child learned at a young age that playing a sport or doing some extracurricular activity on a Sunday morning or on a Wednesday night was more important than going to meet with believers of Jesus Christ in teaching and fellowship? Don’t put the blame on them; take a good look in the mirror. Own your part in their decision to go the world’s way and not God’s way.
I believe it is time to own our part in the younger generation’s tripping up and not living out good, Godly ways. I believe it is time to own the fact that these children may have, in fact, been taught not in the ways of the God of the Bible but in the ways of the world. Why should we be surprised and upset that they have turned out to be “Romans” when many of them have attended the schools of the “Romans” (government-run schools).
I believe we need to set the example of what true humility looks like. I believe it is time for parents and grandparents to own our sin in this area. We need to confess it and ask for forgiveness from God, our children, and quite possibly even from our husband or wife. We need to repent and move on to living out good, Godly ways in all we do. It’s time to own it. By taking it “on the chin” and setting this loving example, we may be dragged through the mud and be called many names, but I genuinely believe that someone needs to lead the way.
So, why not our generation? Why not we Christians?
My wife and I are far from perfect. I can tell you that for my family and me, by becoming vulnerable with my wife and children and accepting responsibility for my part in where difficulty and hurt may have happened, healing can begin. Now, I am not in the least encouraging anyone to accept someone else’s sin as your own. I am encouraging you to own up to your sin and accept the reality of how you may have been sinful. The one you’re speaking and confessing to then has the opportunity to forgive you and, if needed, an open door to admit wrong and sin to you as well. You can then have an open opportunity to forgive them.
Communication is incredibly important. Where there is a lack of communication, negativity fills up that space. If the person you are confessing to won’t forgive or receive your open and honest confession, that is now on them. You cannot force someone to forgive, so please do not anticipate what they are going to say or do in this circumstance. Just allow the Holy Spirit to do what the Holy Spirit can do. Give up control and then surrender to Almighty God.
I cannot tell you that it will be perfect and go how you want. What I can tell you is that Romans 8:28 tells us that God works all things together for the good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose. Surrender and let God be God. You are His creation.
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This post will wrap up my series on what is going on with our culture for the time being, but there is far more to be said about these issues. We need to face some facts. The fact remains that our culture here in the U.S. is not Christian and is in fact quite hostile towards Christianity. We aren’t bleeding for our faith yet, but we are fast approaching that, and there are people who intend to harm us as much as possible in high positions. This is simply fact.
The fact also remains that American Christendom has long departed the tenants of the faith. While many of us long to go back to the good old days when there actually was morality, to be honest, I do not believe there is any going back for this country. I do believe we have crossed the point of no return. That’s as a country. But what about us as individuals?
One thing we have to remember is that we are not of this world. The United States is not our home. While we should cherish what is left of this once-great country and praise God for the little freedom we have left, the U.S. is not paradise. It is not our final destination. Eternity with God in the New Earth is our ultimate destination.
That said, when God judges a nation, the one thing He says to all who may believe is to come out from among them. While that sometimes means actually physically leave the country, sometimes that is not an option. What is does mean in every situation is to come out of that culture. Do not partake in that culture any longer. The church needs to actually obey this. We’ve heard it, but few are listening. The world has so deeply infiltrated the church that it is nearly impossible to identify a genuine sheep anymore. And even when there are genuine sheep, there is no power behind them. Why? Because the world has gotten so deep into our roots that we cannot comprehend what to do apart from it. Need an example? “Youth ministry.” I am not against churches ministering to youth, but how are we doing it. It is exactly as the world does it in our schools: age segregation and be “youth focused” instead of “Gospel focused.”
The church is dead. It has a reputation for being alive, but it’s dead. There is no life in it. Where is the church in which people are genuinely getting saved, holiness is sought, the world is being shunned, and spiritual eyes and ears are being opened? It’s hard to find. Why? The answer is because we have followed the world and left the narrow path.
We have departed the path for so long that we cannot just stop and leap over to the narrow path. We actually have to go backwards and repent of our departing the path. One thing I’ve greatly enjoyed in my pastor’s teachings on Exodus is that God didn’t merely take Israel out of Egypt from bondage to slavery. He took them through the wilderness so He could get Egypt out of Israel. Israel was still hooked to Egypt’s gods, Egypt’s “luxury living,” and Egypt’s authority. The wilderness was scary, and not even the promise of their own land could keep them believing. God had to strip that all away so only teenagers were those alive during the Plagues and the Red Sea Crossing who remembered it when they finally entered in, in their 50s.
Over and over again, we see the same central message: Go back to the ways God taught us from the beginning. To do so, we have to backtrack and pull away from the direction we are going. We cannot simply steer this ship back onto the right course. We made a wrong turn in the maze of life and there is no route out except turning around and going back.
Israel did this during the time of the Judges. They would sin, then God would hand them over to enemies, then they’d cry and go back to God, and then God would send a deliverer. But Israel kept going back to their sin because they really weren’t sorry for their sin. They were sorry they were being oppressed. They went back to just get the difficulty over with, but they never actually went back to their roots and what God established from the start.
The American home departed the path of the Biblical home at late as the Industrial Revolution. Which homes today are actually following the Biblical mandates and the parents can point to which Scriptures they are using for their decisions? Can we find anyone giving examples? We will follow the Bible’s moral standards, but how have we followed Biblical principles for home decisions, job decisions, kid decisions, what we watch and read, who we hang out with, and all that stuff? Is the Bible playing a role in any of it? I’ll be honest: it may be difficult for me to actually say “I do this, this, and that, because Scripture commands me according to this, this, and that passage.” There are things that are there in general principle, but have I actually directed and guided my life according to Biblical principles or just modern “Christian” home traditions? One thing I have been chewing on is to really get a set of “advisors,” a board of directors, good friends who can give me a whopping when necessary. I’ve never had any real mentors in my life with whom I can talk face-to-face. I am so grateful for my current church because they see that need too, and steps are being made to get some kind of mentorship going again. We need to get back to the Biblical principles of Christian living, not American culture living with Christian flavors.
How do we get there? There is one word to describe it all: repentance. We need to completely abandon the world’s way of doing things, turn around, and go back to the basics. There is a reason I keep harping about origins, and a key reason why is that is where most of the departure has taken place. While not a universal statement, if you trace the demise of a church, a seminary, an educational institution, a denomination, etc., many times you will find a caving on origins at or near the beginning of that path towards death. There are other issues such as morality, but when origins go, Biblical authority goes, and everything else spirals. This is a key point of the Romans 1 spiral to depravity. If we want to truly go forward in our walk of faith, we have to go back and return to the very spot where we departed. We cannot just look for a path back to the good path. We have to completely backtrack. And that may include destroying and abolishing “traditional” ministries that have long lost their purpose and have now become institutionalized. We need to cut off and prune the dead branches that are no longer producing fruit or multiplying and get our resources to branches that are producing.
So, as I conclude this series on what has gone wrong with the home and getting back to a Biblical-based home, we need to abandon modern psychology; we need to abandon the American culture of consumerism; and we need to return to the Bible, strip away all that theology and tradition and reset God’s way. The nations want a “Great Reset.” We need one, too. The way forward is back: back to the basics, back to the foundations. And let me warn you what Jesus warned us all: if we do not reset things ourselves, God will do the resetting for us, and He will strip us down to nothing so there is nothing of self or the world dominating our lives.
How can we reset? How can we go back so we can truly go forward? This was not intended as I wrote this series, but my next one is on how to understand the Bible. We have so drifted away from Biblical truth and Biblical foundations that religion is just a matter of interpretations. And it has gotten so bad that in order to justify unfounded positions, people actually turn to hide behind illiteracy. So likely to end 2022, I will do a study on how to read and understand the Bible, and there will be no need to go to seminary to follow up with it.
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After writing my previous post on being fruitful and multiplying in regards to Genesis 1:28, I sensed it needed further study and namely on the multiplication part. As I have mentioned, this verse is usually taught as “have lots of kids and fill the earth.” This is the same commandment given to Noah after the Flood. While this verse definitely does teach to have kids and procreate, there is so much more to it.
There are modern families who have taken this verse to the full extreme. The Duggar family is the classic example, with 19 natural born children (and each with a name starting with “J”). They are professing Christians, but something went wrong in that home. What “cancelled” them was allegations (which I understand to be true) of sexual abuse by one of the older kids. While each is held responsible for his own actions, one has to wonder how it went unnoticed and how there was an environment where this was a possibility. These issues did not stem from having so many kids but from something else.
As this is part of a series on what the Christian home is supposed to be in an American culture that is all about consumption, there is one thing that people on all sides have noticed. In the agrarian cultures, families had lots of kids because that meant working hands for the farms and animals. That was a productive home. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution and technology, work went to a factory or business instead of the home and kids suddenly had nothing to do. As a result, families started having fewer kids. This is especially true when the mindset changed from “kids are an asset for life” to “kids are a liability, keeping us from our pleasure and consumption and enjoyment.” We no longer talk about “how many kids can we have?” but instead “how many kids can we afford?” Our view of what a “child” is has changed and it REALLY went downhill when abortion entered the scene.
But multiplying carries much more to it than just having children and multiplying people. When Jesus told the Parable of the Sower, He tied these two things together: fruit and multiplication. The three soils of the path, the rocks, and the weeds did not produce fruit. But the good soil did produce fruit, and that fruit was 30x, 60x, and 100x what was sowed. Fruit and multiplication go together. Last week, I emphasized on being fruitful – that we need to be productive and bearing fruit that will produce works, deeds, and attitudes that are becoming of God. If we are bearing such fruit, it multiplies.
One of the problems we have is men of God who have great visions and do great works but when they pass away, there are few who carry it on. Often the vision goes a different direction, which can be fine, but when that happens, it is due to loss of sight of what God is doing. When Henry Morris started the Institute of Creation Research, he had a vision to see highly qualified scientists trained and teaching on Biblical Creation. They have pretty well kept that vision after his passing. But when David Wilkerson started Times Square Church, he sought to simply preach the Word and forget all the social engineering and methods that seminaries and church builders are using. Yet after he passed, the church looks nothing like what Wilkerson started and doesn’t even preach the same message. The Salvation Army also lost the vision that William Booth had. Then they were Gospel first and help was second. Now they are primarily just a charity organization that hardly preaches the Gospel at all (though I know some still do). But things are not multiplying as they should be; they are instead “devolving” into something entirely different.
The Creation Truth Foundation saw a problem with how they were doing ministry. They would go to a church and arm and equip them then leave and they’d be on their own. So, what they did was create the “Cadre” program which was designed to train and equip pastors and church leaders on the issues with intense training for the purpose of multiplying the ministry and content and carrying it out. While I had studied origins for several years prior to going to the Cadre, it was at the Cadre when I got my commission to go, and it was there that the fire was lit. That is also when I started with Worldview Warriors in 2014. It was life changing. I learned little in terms of new content, but what I have been doing with Worldview Warriors and now as co-leader of the El Paso Creation Network, the vision the Creation Truth Foundation has multiplied with me. I am not officially part of them, but I am a product of their fruit.
Multiplication is not just about having kids. It is about sharing the faith so others can go out and do the same. Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples. Disciples are people who seek and walk after Jesus and then teach others to do the same. It is about multiplication. Instead, the modern evangelists in general have this idea of making converts and professions of faith that more often than not have no weight to them. We have lost the meaning of multiplication. Today, we think we are growing if we have more people in church, but we quit examining them to see if we are multiplying sheep or goats. Most are multiplying goats and goats are going to leave when the tests come. We need to be concerned about multiplying sheep instead, and that calls for proper instruction and proper evangelism using the full council of Scripture.
Finally, multiplication is not about our kingdom but about God’s kingdom. We need to be focused on multiplying God’s kingdom, which means His purposes, His will, His authority, and His plans. Now, don’t read what I am not saying. God is sovereign and He does indeed rule over everything. But there are ideas and teachings and even territories that are not submitting to God’s sovereign reign. Our job as ambassadors is go to these rebellious sectors and call for them to make peace with God before God’s judgment comes. He is simply delaying His judgment because there are some loyal citizens He wants to save before that happens. God never lost territory. He still rules over it all. But when we rebelled, we went from treasured vessels to things to be tossed out in the trash. We are called to bring the message of hope, restoration, and regeneration before the trash is taken out to be burned. Those who obey God will receive a great reward, but what if that reward included souls we have witnessed to? Let us go back and re-learn what being fruitful and multiplying truly means. Our American culture has departed from the truth for so long that the only way we can get back do the right thing is not to “right the ship” but to actually go backwards and reset back on the foundation God gave us from the start. That is for next week.
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Last week, I wrote about how man was given dominion over the earth, but there is a second part of the first commands given to man: to be fruitful and multiply. Most of the teachings I have heard on this issue is basically to procreate – to have lots of kids and fill the earth. This is indeed part of it; God made the earth to be inhabited, and He gave the earth so many resources that even secular scientists think we could easily manage 10 billion people on this planet. With better resource management, we could manage even more than that.
God’s command was to be fruitful and multiply. The multiply part is pretty straight forward, but as I have been going through the gospel of Luke in my personal studies and listening to the teachings of my church’s teaching elder in our men’s meetings, I now understand what being “fruitful” mean in a far deeper way than ever before.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the issue of the home being a place of production rather than what it has become – a place of entertainment and consumption. Because I have lived so far away from my circles for most of my life that hardly anyone would want to come visit me, I am used to going out to others. As a result of that among other things, my home has primarily been a place of consumption. Work was “out there.” School was often “out there.” Even ministry was “out there.” Yet despite that, my parents have always had the mindset of “How can I make this home a place where we can be hospitable and host people?” I have learned from that mentality. When my parents moved to Michigan, I stayed in El Paso and moved to an apartment. I see this apartment as being a temporary place (for how long is up to God) but I have always wanted to be able to host a Bible study. For so long, I’ve had to go to some other place. As of writing this post, I am on the queue to host our men’s meeting.
But the key thing here is: how are we using our resources for the Kingdom of God? That includes our homes. My parents would service the bus for Jesus Chapel School, which my former church hosted at their building. The pastor would never have thought about using his own home for such things. I’m not blaming him, but that is a severe problem we’ve had in the American home and the church – the compartmentalization of church life, home life, work life, etc., when as Christians, everything should be viewed with God and the church as primary. (Check out this post, this post, and this post for more on that idea.) As result of this compartmentalization, “home” is reduced to a place to just eat, sleep, and consume with entertainment.
But our commandment is to be fruitful. The Biblical view of the home was that it was to be a place of production where everyone was involved; it was not merely for survival, but all life revolved around the home. “Church” wasn’t just meeting at the Temple. It was to be done at home with the father being the priest of the home. Today, we don’t have that view. We see church as “that building where we meet.” Many will say, “The church is the people, not the building,” and they are correct to say that, but how many people thinking that will say that about their own home? How is my home being used as productivity? I am examining myself on how I can be more fruitful and more productive.
My elder told me directly that one of the ways I have been productive is by writing daily devotionals, blog posts, and books. Even though I knew that, I needed to hear it. He’s been blessed by them and has been using some of my material in his sermons. I’ve been blessed by his teachings, too, and this mini-series has been a fruit of that. We are feeding off each other, which is what the church is supposed to do.
Being fruitful means you are producing works that feed others for the purposes of the Kingdom. The greatest American problem today is that we no longer think in terms of production but in terms of consumption. We are not thinking about producing fruit others can enjoy but what we can eat from others. The original American dream was to be a place of productivity. Today, it is a place of consumption. A society consumed by consumption will literally eat itself to death. The Communists were right. They never would be able to beat us in an outright war, nor did they need to. They just needed to feed us little doses of consumption and communism and we’d fall from the tree on our own. And they have nearly succeeded. Why? Because we left the moorings of Scripture. If we had maintained a Biblical worldview as a nation, not just in morality but in how the home was to operate, we’d never have fallen for these tactics.
What the Industrial Revolution and Evolution/Communism have done together is remove the father from the home. Even if he is part of the family, he is at work most of the time, not at home. He doesn’t make the main decisions anymore because he’s not there. Moms don’t have anything to do after “cleaning the house” which is part of the job, but not the primary job of the Proverbs 31 wife, so they seek something else to do, too. To be honest, feminism is right about their objections on the status of the home. But because they don’t know God, their solutions are even worse than the problems. And kids are at school, effectively raised by anyone except mom and dad. Productivity is no longer a thing to be considered or grasped in the context of a home. Being fruitful, being productive is not meant to be just “out there” where ultimately we are actually producing for someone else’s home. The socialists constantly object to greedy CEOs, and there is a legitimate complaint there. But they want to throw the baby out with the bath water and promote communism without dealing with the primary issue: consumption instead of productivity. Now, we are to be able to enjoy the fruit of our own labor. A workman is worthy of his hire.
Finally, Jesus said that branches that do not bear fruit will be cut down and burned. There are many debates about whether that is talking about believers and unbelievers, but keep in mind that Jesus frequently used His parables to distinguish true and false believers. The true believer who abides in Christ will bear fruit. It will be natural. A branch attached to the vine is going to produce fruit. But if there is no fruit, then there are only two options: the branch is not actually attached to the vine, or there is something blocking the nutrients from getting to the branch and it must be pruned. God is not taking couch-potatoes to heaven with Him. He is not going to take those who just consume and try to ride the works of others to spend eternity with. He is taking those who showcase Himself, those who bear His fruit, and those who are productive for His purposes to Heaven. I am not preaching works-based salvation here at all. But the strongest evidence that you have actually been born again is that you will produce fruit that only a born-again believer can produce.
How are we being fruitful? How are we being productive? Some of us are being fruitful; some are not. Where are the areas in our lives where we are not being fruitful? What can be done about that? One thing for sure is that we need to go back to what God has established and stop trying to do all these “new” things. God set His pattern, and He expects us to follow it. Let us go back, remember what He established, and go after that.
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Two years ago, I wrote on how we have a compartmentalized life. I would recommend reading that post before continuing on here. Over the past few months, one of the elders at my church and I have been feeding off each other as we are wrestling with different issues. He has been wrestling with God over what he needs to do in his family life to prevent little things from going downhill, even asking God, “What seeds am I planting that I will not like when they bear fruit?” God has been doing an amazing work in him, and it’s been stirring me up as well. That is what triggered me to write my current blog posts.
As mentioned last week, the American home has been a center of consumption in the last 100-150 years, mostly triggered by the Industrial Revolution. The home today is for eating, sleeping, consuming, and little else. With few exceptions, I think only farmers maintain the old lifestyle, where all the kids were seen as assets and were productive to the family job. Today, they are viewed as liabilities, and they produce suffering for those who want to consume and be entertained. These are significant issues that we have to face, and this has produced another side effect: the compartmentalization of the family, the church, and the areas of life.
The Industrial Revolution brought something to the home that had never been done before other than with military service: taken the father away from the home. The typical “work dad” in the family leave home early, works for a corporation, and comes home in the evening. His job is completely irrelevant to the family. The typical mom, because dad’s job is independent of the home, now only has housekeeping to do and gets bored. Due to rising costs, mom also has to work (which was catalyzed by World War II). Kids are now bored because mom and dad are working and are now sent to school. Public schools were birthed in this industry, and for several decades now, we have “compulsory” education – children MUST be in school or they are sent to court (yes, that is a real thing).
While much can be said about the effects this has, one key thing to point out is that dad, mom, and kids each have completely separate lives and only spend time with each other for a few hours each day and on weekends/holidays. In fact, parents have to be encouraged to spend “quality time” with their kids. They are advised to take from the few hours you have to make quality time. That is not what used to be. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, parents had “quality time” with their kids every day, because everything they did revolved around the home from their farming, blacksmithing, tailoring, etc.
But as goes the home, so goes the church. Regarding elders, Paul told Timothy that if a man cannot rule his own household, how can he rule the church? Paul was not talking about totalitarian dictatorship nor was he talking about having completely submissive children. He was talking about how a man manages the home. Was he leading the family appropriately? That letter was written in a context when the whole family was truly a unit, and the wife and children were all part of what dad was doing. If dad led a dysfunctional home, how could he functionally lead the church?
What is going on in the church today? Total segregation. Adult service, children’s ministries, youth ministries, woman’s studies, black studies, white studies, division, division, division. While youth group was formed as an answer to the bored children who were segregated from their families due to jobs, it has since become an institutionalized part of the church and has actually usurped the parents’ role and job. There are pastors who will tear children away from their parents to take them to Sunday School when parents wanted their kids with them for the main service. There are even pastors who didn’t know their own kids were not going to church because they were part of the youth ministry and went to separate services and different buildings. See Voddie Baucham’s Q&A on youth ministry for more details. What is going on? Compartmentalization of the home led to compartmentalization of the church, and the enemy is having a heyday with it. Parents no longer know who their own kids are because they are rarely with them.
Church aspects themselves are also compartmentalized. How often have you heard the claim that the “worship” was just the singing part of a service? This is not so. The reading of Scripture, the preaching, the singing, the testimony – all of it (when done appropriately) is worship. My church has a “beadle,” which in our case is someone who presents the Bible to the pulpit (a job I often do). It was done with John Calvin’s churches too, which I didn’t know until just recently, so it has history. It is meant to showcase that the Bible is not just some book but the holy Word of God. Even that practice can become mundane and trivialized. But that is worship too; it is not worship of a book but worship of its Author. Yet we have compartmentalized that also.
The worst part of it, though, is the compartmentalization of our faith and the rest of life. It is so strong that people believe literal contradictions at the same time. I know a guy who is an “Old Earth Creationist.” He professes to believe in a literal Adam and whom was the originator of sin and that all death to mankind came through Adam. He proclaims animal death prior to sin because “the Bible is silent on it,” but he believes human death was only after Adam. I asked him how he handles his dating methods that put human fossils and human DNA long before Adam lived, and he avoids this like the plague. He thinks he’s escaped it with “I don’t know.” At that point, I cite the very theologians he cites as defense for his Old Earth position who adamantly stand on the doctrine of Adam’s original sin as being fundamental to the Gospel and that they reject any teaching that violates that doctrine. His compartmentalization is so strong that he does not see the inconsistency in his beliefs.
We need to return to holistic faith again, where our faith is holistic and central to every aspect of our lives. We let science separate our doctrine from the real world, and with that line of thinking came separation of the family and separation of the church. This is why we cannot mess with origins or any other part of the Bible. We cannot have the Bible in one category and academia in another. Abner Chao wrote a masterpiece article on getting theology back in its rightful position as the Queen of the Sciences. I have been preaching that message for years, and it is great to hear others give the same message. We need God to reunite our families, reunite our churches, and reunite our thinking/academia and all under one banner: the banner of Jesus Christ. That means kicking out anything that would usurp and take a place that it is not supposed to have. Satan is a master of division, but Jesus’ prayer was that we would be united. Never at the expense of truth, but under truth.
Next week, I’ll take a closer look at science and its proper place, based on an intriguing statement made by an elder at my church.
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