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Showing posts with label Family Issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Issues. Show all posts

Father's Day Prayer

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Lord, please bless our fathers,

these men who mean so much to us,

who are greatly responsible

for who we are and who we are becoming.

Bless them for having the courage

to do what's necessary to keep us out of trouble,

for making us do the right thing,

for helping us build our character,

even when it makes us angry;

and bless them for pushing us to do our best,

even when they just want to love us.

Bless our fathers for being our protectors,

for leading us through stormy times to safety,

for making us believe that everything will be all right

and for making it so.

Bless our fathers for quietly making a living

to provide for those they love most,

for giving us food, clothing, shelter

and the other material things that really matter,

for unselfishly investing time and money in us

that they could have spent on themselves.

Bless our fathers, Lord,

for saving some energy for fun,

for leading us on adventures

to explore the outer reaches of ourselves,

for making us laugh,

for being our playmates and our friends.

Bless them for being our secure foundation, our rock,

for holding on tight to us...until it's time to let us go.

Lord, bless these men we look up to,

our role models, our heroes, our fathers.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

                                                ~Joanna Fuchs

God's Inheritance

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Genesis 48:21 "And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers."

Psalm 127:3 "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward."



A common bumperstick on the back of RV's traveling across America reads: "I'm spending my kids' inheritance." Often when it comes to any spiritual inheritance for our kids, we would be better off if we did! Conflict and concern over an inheritance has always been the case. The Old Testament is full of examples: Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael, Manasseh and Ephraim.

God's inheritance is what informs any other inheritance you may leave your kids. In Genesis 28, Jacob was alone and scared. With a rock for a pillow, he falls asleep and God sends him a message through a dream. The message was for the God of his fathers to become his God-the God of Jacob. Anything else you pass on to your kids will be to their hurt and not to their good without Christ.

You may spend scores of dollars and hours of time giving your kids piano lessons, soccer games, or horse riding lessons. But you are ruining your kids if do not give them God. And you must give them God intentionally-that is, on purpose, by design. It will not happen by accident, nor will it happen just by taking them to church or bringing them to the Bill Rice Ranch.

Nothing is more important than leaving your kids God's inheritance. Jacob told Joseph, "Behold, I die: but God shall be with you . . . ." Jacob saw God as his God when he came to the end of himself and claimed God for himself. And this was the God he passed on to his son . May God help us, both with our own kids and the "kids" we may work with in ministry, to make sure we give them God's inheritance.

Christian Parenting

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”Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:20).

God has established the institution of the parent as one of His ruling authorities on earth. To this position has been delegated both the right to rule children and all the power necessary to succeed in training children according to God’s plan. Whomever God places in the position of being a parent is accountable directly to God for how he or she rules.

No other institution has rulership rights over children. The child is not responsible to the “state” rather than to the parents. Parents must not allow government to usurp their authority in those areas in which God holds the parents alone accountable. There are no instructions in the Bible that grant authority to government over children (except that of upholding the parents’ position of authority). There is no such thing as “child rights” sanctioned by the Word of God.
(Quoted Source: What the Bible Says About Child Training -J. Richard Fugate Copyright 1980)

Brethren, where do you stand on this issue? Where does our government stand on this issue?

We’ve just read where God stands on the issue now read this:

A proposed parental rights amendment has been introduced in Congress. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, notes that, "Now we're finding that parental rights are being attacked by courts all over the country," he contends. "And as we look at where this country is going, particularly more association with the United Nations and the U.N. Convention on the rights of the Child, these treaties would supercede all the laws in 50 states." And it would challenge parental rights in different ways, he argues.

Download the UN Treaty

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) said, "[It would] outlaw spanking and prohibit parents from raising children in the family religion, negates legal assumptions that parents act in the best interest of their kids," he points out. "Things [like these] that are inconceivable in America are now being contemplated and planned by a number of people." (Source: OneNewsNow.com)

Footprints -- a poem for Daddy

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"Walk a little slower daddy,"
said a child so small.
"I'm folowing in your footsteps
and I don't want to fall.

Sometmes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up,
You'ree what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower,
Daddy, For I must follow you."

Another Attack against our Youth

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The battle for this generation of youth is intensifying. Dave Hunt (of The Berean Call) addresses another onslaught, the new militant atheism, in his soon-to-be published book, Cosmos, Creator, and Human Destiny, and notes a particular assault that is without precedent: "The Blasphemy Challenge":

The Rational Response Squad (an atheist activism group) is giving away 1001 DVDs of The God Who Wasn't There, the hit documentary that the Los Angeles Times calls "provocative—to put it mildly." There's only one catch: We want your soul. It's simple. You record a short message damning yourself to Hell, you upload it to YouTube, and then the Rational Response Squad will send you a free The God Who Wasn't There DVD. It's that easy.


What can we do to prevent our young people from being seduced by the advancement of the apostasy? Teach them the Word. Disciple them. Teach them to be sound in doctrine.


Dave Hunt has this to say:
I recently spent some time with young adult leaders here and in England. Many feel overwhelmed by what's taking place but are not without hope. They see the apostasy as a flood that cannot be turned back (outside of a sovereign act of God), yet they are optimistic that many can be rescued. They are aware that most of their peers who profess to be Christians have not been grounded in the faith, many are distracted by and attracted to the world, and some even think they are Christians because of their family ties. Nevertheless, these committed leaders are hopeful that the older generation—those mature in the Lord and who love His Word—will reach out to the younger generation, whether in Bible studies or one-on-one situations, as disciplers, mentors, teachers, and encouragers in Christ. They believe that the Lord will help them to reach those who He knows are willing to take up their crosses and follow Him. Their continual prayer is for more seasoned laborers from the older generation to come alongside their peers.


The Bible is the most exciting book there is, yet for years here in the U.S. our children have been fed a "let me entertain you" diet with only a hint of scriptural nutrition. That's part of Satan's "Yea, hath God said...?" strategy. The consequence is an upcoming generation that is, for the most part, spiritually anemic and ripe for the various schemes of apostasy. Deprived of the objective truths of Scripture, they are easy prey for those who would entice them through the subjective and experiential, that is, their "feelings." Nevertheless, our marching orders involve a rescue operation as found in 2 Timothy 2:24-25:
"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth."

Pray for our young people that they would have a heart for truth, but then seek out those of their generation to whom the Lord would have you minister His love and truth.

Faith and Family: MTV 'Reality'

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[I found this article in an email from a non-religious oriented newspaper. So I guess it is not just us preachers who try to warn against the consequences of sin]

It was bound to happen. With the bright lights of reality shows zooming in on every aspect of human life, it was inevitable that someone would create a show about unwed teen mothers. And who better than MTV, which has catered to teen viewers since its creation in the 1980s.

MTV has a history of risqué programming, from racy music videos to the bisexual dating show "Tila Tequila." But its new show, "16 and Pregnant," is no less than a ringing endorsement of a national travesty that robs teens of their youth and contributes to child poverty and neglect.

One of the show's subjects is a high school student named Maci. The cameras follow Maci as she deals with her child, Bentley, and the baby's father, Ryan, with whom she has a rocky relationship. Yet according to Maci, things couldn't be better. She speaks about the fact that her friends are jealous because she and Ryan have gotten their own apartment, and she refers to herself as an "over-achiever" who gets good grades, plays softball and is a cheerleader.

Education
*Only 50 percent of teenage mothers finish high school.
*Only 70 percent of teenage fathers finish high school
*90 percent of mothers under the age of sixteen will never finish high school.
*Less than two percent of women who become mothers before the age of twenty will complete college.
*Lack of education usually results in an inability to get adequate jobs.

Employment
*Teenage parents are more likely to have low status jobs, lower hourly wages or be unemployed.
*The younger the mother at childbirth, the lower her family income will be.

Poverty
*There is a direct link between poverty and teenage parenting. Families headed by young mothers are seven times more likely to be poor.
*71 percent of AFDC recipients under thirty were teenagers when their first child was born.
*Of all families with young children headed by women who gave birth as teenagers, 67 percent live below the officially designated poverty level.
*A study found that only one in ten children in two-parent families were poor while two out three children living in single parent homes were poor.

Future Pregnancies
*Teenage mothers are likely to raise large unplanned families alone. 60 percent of teenagers gave birth before the age of sixteen will be pregnant again before the age of eighteen.

Concerns About Children of Single Parents
*Children of single parents are likely to have lower I.Q scores and are more likely to repeat school grades than children raised in two parent families.
*Children from single parent homes have more physical and psychological problems than children raised in two parent homes
*When children of teenage parents grow up, they are more likely to become teenage parents themselves, receive welfare, or become divorced.

Concerns About Teenage Marriage
*Marriages that result from an unplanned pregnancy often fail.
*At least 60 percent of young people who marry before the age of twenty will be divorced within five years.
*When pregnancy is the major reason for marriage, the failure rate could reach 90 percent within the first six years of marriage.
*Even if a husband is working, it is not likely that he has a well paying job.
*Because the young mother will likely drop out of school to care for her child, she will find herself with no education or job skills.
*Marriage will not solve the problem of an unplanned pregnancy. A good marriage demands hard work and commitment from each partner. This is often difficult for young people still working on developing their own identities.
*If you do not receive support from your family and will not be able to finish high school because you parent your child, consider these facts carefully. It may predict your future life and that of your child.


Hey MTV - how long will the good times last? Sadly, according to the above statistics not very long. It's no wonder, then, that two-thirds of families started by unwed mothers are poor. In fact, the increase in childhood poverty in recent decades is caused almost exclusively by out-of-wedlock births. Think MTV will mention that?