The Father in our day
Our children are being attacked in this day on a level I have never witnessed before. The age of internet, personal hand-held devices, and social media have combined with the forces of evil to take even the children in the best household conditions to a dark, emptiness full of devastation and seclusion. As fathers, we need to be more in tune with our kids and focused on raising them up in the biblical way they should go. Teaching them their place in this world, who they belong to, and letting them know how much they are loved by both you and their Creator. They need to know they were created perfectly for the life God has designed for them on this earth. Whether they are a boy or a girl they should be proud of that and embrace their future ahead of them. We are delegated by God to give them a strong foundation in the Lord and His word. If we don’t do this, the world will obscure their identity, their gender, their self-worth, their morals and so much more.
We, ourselves are caught up in careers, relationships (wives, families, friends, co-workers), hobbies, the same mind-numbing enticement of our smartphones and so much more that we lose track of our main objective after loving our wives, raising our kids to know God and follow in His ways.
God just so happens to have a man we can relate to in the book of Judges. Jephthah is a man who is good at his skill and well known for it. He makes rash decisions from time to time and tends to hang out with people your wife wouldn’t want in your home. He is not perfect. He gets a short chapter written about him along with a quick blurb in Hebrews…chapter 11…the list of Old Testament people of faith! Jephthah, a man destined for destruction. A man who didn’t have a great example of how to be a husband or father. The man who wasn’t the most well-rounded, upright person was found by God, his Father, to be a great man of God. He simply had faith. Do you have this faith? …because you and I have that very same Father!
Pastor Mike