Teaching our Children
“Therefore you shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them your children, talking of them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates; that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens above the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21 WEB)
God wants us (parents) to teach our children. Nowadays there are many ways to outsource education, but we cannot leave our children completely in the hands of the secular education system.
The most important thing to teach our children from infancy is : God’s word. Teaching is not about seating them in front of a desk with a thick Bible and going through chapter by chapter.
Be led by the Holy Spirit, and whenever an appropriate teaching moment arises, use the chance to talk about Jesus and make the faith real and practical in your children’s lives.
For example, if your child fell down and scraped his knee, just comfort him and pray together, declaring that Jesus’ healing power is entering the wound to fix it.
Before each meal, thank Jesus for the food and declare it sanctified in Jesus’ name. Tell your children that the Lord is specially preparing the food to be clean, good, and healthy for them.
Whenever possible, quote portions of Scripture to etch it in your children’s hearts. “Wow look at all these gifts that we received! Praise Jesus—the Lord is truly our Shepherd, and we shall not lack!”
Teach them Gospel truths—what is applicable under the New Covenant of Grace. Definitely don’t make them recite or memorize the Ten Commandments of the Law.
The Gospel has a prospering effect. It has the power to save from every trouble. As a parent, and especially if you are a father, you are also entrusted with the role of leading your children in their spiritual growth.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6 WEB)
By the leading of the Holy Spirit, build a strong foundation of faith for your children, and they will greatly benefit from it throughout their lives!
When I wrote the book “Sandcastles Don’t Last Forever” the compiled truths within were designed for the whole family. It is so important that our children know from young that we do our best in life for the Lord’s sake, to worship Him, and that He is the one who will reward us. There is no need to live for the praise of men. This belief alone will save them from many disappointments and heartaches.
There are so many great lessons about eternal rewards in the book. I hope you can get it (either the eBook or a paperback copy) and share the truths with your children in a relatable way, after digesting the revelations yourself: http://bit.ly/sandcastlesdontlastforever
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When you Can’t See the Supply
“All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh’s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?” The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?” Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”(Exodus 17:1-6 WEB)
The name of the place “Rephidim” in the wilderness of Sin means “place in the desert”. When the children of Israel were encamped at Rephidim, they were thirsty and there was no water source in sight.
This represents a situation in life where you can’t see the supply. It’s like you feel trapped with no possible way out.
When we walk by sight, we will be more conscious of the lack.
However, when you trust God, you will know that even in an ‘impossible’ situation, God has already prepared the supply that you need.
God will bring the water of supply out of the rock for you.
“and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:4 WEB)
The apostle Paul taught us the revelation that the rock was a picture of Christ.
God brought nourishment and life out for us when Christ was stricken. When did this happen?
At the cross, Jesus was punished for our sins so that we could receive His righteousness, and obtain every blessing from God.
In whatever desert situation you find yourself in now, keep your eyes on Jesus. The water you need to quench your thirst will come from Christ who was stricken for your sake!
Get a better understanding of the four gospels through the lens of grace, and discover what Jesus accomplished for us at the cross: https://bit.ly/understandeveryparable
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Abba God: The Best Father
Learning to be a father? You can’t really learn what is important from prenatal classes. Learn it from the Scriptures, through seeing how your heavenly Father, Abba God, is like.
“Sing to God! Sing praises to his name! Extol him who rides on the clouds: to Yah, his name! Rejoice before him! A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.” (Psalms 68:4-5 WEB)
Abba God is a true hero—a father to orphans and a defender of the widows. He who has perfect power protects those who are weak and vulnerable.
““Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 WEB)
Abba God is good to His children. He knows when to give them good things that they ask for.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.” (James 1:17 WEB)
Abba God definitely does not give evil things. There is no evil in Him at all—He is fully good.
“and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn’t discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children. Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live? For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12:5-11 WEB)
Abba God disciplines us out of love, so that we will profit from it. When emerge from the chastening process, we become partakers of His holiness, meaning we are set apart from every form of death (sickness, poverty, strife, depression, anger, addictions, etc).
“Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 WEB)
When we know that our God is good and He is love, we can imitate our Abba God as beloved children. We too can walk in love, towards our children, our spouse, and our fellow men. All this is made possible by having a good opinion of Abba God, which keeps us in a state of faith!
See God’s heart of love for you when you look at Jesus who is His exact representation. Through every one of the thirty seven recorded miracles that Jesus did, we can see Abba God’s heart of love and grace for us: https://bit.ly/messiahs-miracles