When they are old they will not depart
Proverbs 22:5-7
6 Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
This past Sunday I taught adult Bible study to the oldest class in our church. The lesson was from Ezekiel and dealt with shepherds leading the people astray. I told them that I thought the generation to whom I was speaking did a better job of passing along both the tradition of the church and love for the church than my generation. I was surprised to find that many of the class members have children who no longer attend church.
A few months ago I asked my 34 year old son what will happen to the church if his generation does not return. He said, “Oh, mom, the church will go on.” “How,” I asked him, “will the church continue without people?”
I love my son dearly, and I love his wife, but one of the great disappointments of my life is their choice to stay away from church. Perhaps it is because she is Catholic and he is Protestant. Perhaps it is because they both work so hard that they feel church would take up too much of their off time. Perhaps they see the church as irrelevant. Or, perhaps it is as my son once said, “Mom, I think I got enough church growing up.”
Prayer comforts me and today’s verse sustains me, because I know that we raised our son to love God and love the church. I continue to pray that God would soften their hearts and draw them back to Him. In the meantime, I trust, believe and rely on God to keep them in the shadow of His mighty wings and by His prevenient grace draw them to Him. What more can we ask? What more can we hope?
PRAYER: Father, your Word is light and life to us, and we depend on your Word to carry us through. May we each see the fruition of this verse come to pass, that our sons and our daughters would return to the place of their youth. Amen.
And some of the disciples turned away
John 6:53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Many Disciples Desert Jesus
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
When you hear something that either makes no sense to you, or perhaps it is the exact opposite of what you have understood, what is your reaction? Do you attempt to understand or broaden your thinking, or do you dig your heels in, clinging to the dogma that makes you comfortable?
Jesus tells the men gathered in the Synagogue that in order to follow Him they must eat of His flesh and drink of His blood. We as Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper not just to remember what Jesus has done. We place ourselves in that upper room two thousand years ago so that we know, understand and believe that there is a cost to following Jesus. We accept that the cost may be great, but the reward is so much greater.
Had you been in that Synagogue, would you have been one of the disciples who turned away, or would you have been faithful to the end?
PRAYER: Father, help us to cease our grumbling, to determine we will not be offended by the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that we will be the disciples who are faithful to the end because of your grace and your mercy. Amen.
How do you use your gifts?
1 Tim 4:14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. 16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (Bible Gateway NIV)
I heard a story of a young woman who had a niece she adored. Although the young woman did not have much money, she bought the niece a bicycle for her birthday. Her niece was thrilled and the young woman was grateful she could give such a nice gift. The next time she visited, the once shiny bicycle was laying out in the rain. It was dirty, the edges of the fenders bent and showing signs of rust. The young woman was devastated. How could her niece treat this gift so carelessly? The young woman said nothing. She prayed that God would help her niece understand how to care for the things she receives as gifts. Instead, God showed the young woman that once a gift is given, it is no longer yours. You must let it go.
But the even deeper lesson God shared with her was that we each receive gifts from God. Some of us treasure the gifts, setting them on a shelf so that they will be honored, but not used. Others do not like the gifts they received, wishing instead they had different gifts. But then there are the ones who are so grateful God has given them a gift that they use that gift to the fullest extent possible.
May each of us be the person who uses his or her gift(s) to the building up of the body and the growth of the kingdom.
PRAYER: Gracious God, may each of us treasure the gifts you have given us, but may we also use them and in using them may the body of Christ be strengthened and enlarged. Amen
Seeking Holiness 