Ministry of Dr. Mark Graham
“It has been said by someone that the “ proper study of mankind is man”. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true, that the proper study of God’s elect is God, the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the lofty speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God, whom he calls his father.” -C.H.Spurgeon God Sightings are the current study reflections of Author , Bible Teacher , Dr. Mark, L. Graham. In his life long contemplation of the Almighty, Mark reflects upon his finds in a devotional way “improving” to the mind and heart of every child of God. Here is where you can expect to find our latest articles. Check back often as new articles will be added monthly.
I was deeply moved by the nature of God from Judges chapter 10. The ESV renders verse 16, “and He (Jehovah) became impatient over the misery of Israel.” The NASB lends another helpful angle, “He could bear the misery of Israel no longer.” Hebrew scholars, Keil and Delitzsch, share this practical commentary: “Jehovah could no longer look down upon the misery of Israel; He was obligated to help.” “This is the attitude of God towards His people,” says our German authors. It appears that as He withdrew His helping hand, Israel turned away from her homage of the Baals, Asherah, Ashtoreth, and from similar gods of neighboring cultures. Time after time, Jehovah delivered His people when there was true repentance. Jehovah’s covenant heart of mercy appears to obligate Himself to hear and to act salvifically to the miseries of His own sheep. Specifically, as in this case, to the hurt which sin brings upon the people of God! I John 1:9 must be the lyric of refuge in our lives as Christians! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” To what obligation is this, that God binds Himself? He sees my sinning, He feels my miseries, He is troubled by my wanderings, but His soul is impatient to inaction within His spirit. God obligates Himself to look at His penitent children and extend mercy in every phase of life. Meditate upon the sightings of God’s holy impatience.
God-sightings for August, 2023 I was pondering the theological relevance of the genealogies from the Chronicles recently. I was wondering how God might be manifesting Himself in a text which might seem obscure to many Christians, I suspect. Just as I thought, there was Yahweh shining through, manifesting Himself through the Chronicler and onto the page of inspired genealogy. The genealogies of I Chronicles stretch over the first nine chapters of the book and speak to the lineages of: Adam through before David (1:1-2:55); David to the Captivity (3:1-24); the twelve tribes (4:1-9:1); the Jerusalem dwellers (9:2-34). These genealogies specifically served the post-exilic Jerusalem dwellers coming back to the Promised Land in fewer numbers and after seventy years of captivity. But here in the record of the genealogies, in the enrollment of the returnees—God is found! Electing grace, singling out a people for Himself from the beginning of time with a lineage of covenant hope and redemptive promise. The seed is preserved despite being dispersed to a far-away land; here they are and here in Jerusalem they have come by Yahweh’s strong arm! God-sightings from these genealogies are lucid: First – The sovereignty of God! He rules in the course of human history. History is indeed His story. Second- The unfailing mercies of God! “You kept what You promised. . .” (II Chron. 6:15) Third – The redemptive heart of God! He will redeem His people. (Matthew 1:21) What rejoicing in the hearts of a post exiled people! What rejoicing in the hearts of all of Yahweh’s people! These sightings of God are inescapable throughout the genealogies and not only from the Chronicler. So much more awaits the careful reader who will wait and watch for revelations of God throughout this God-breathed Book that we call our Bible.
God Sightings for September 2023 The rebellion of Absalom had passed. David had returned to Jerusalem. The burden of Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, had been lifted along with his head. King David was once again established upon his royal throne. He could not sit peacefully, however, because God had some unfinished business with the house of Saul. David was yet to face trouble for his sin against the Lord in the case of Uriah and Bathsheba, but the famine of rain was for something different (II Sam. 21). The three years of draught was for Saul’s house, “There is blood guilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeanites to death” (v. 1). So what’s with this? Years upon years before, the Gibeanites were a foreign people who tricked the nation of Israel to make a covenant of peace with them. Alas, their trickery was found out; but the covenant was made, it was sacred and, in God’s mind, it was to be upheld (Joshua 9). The Gibeanites were to be protected. Saul, however, thought little of this covenant when he proceeded to annihilate them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah (II Sam 21:2). A foreign entity, or not, “the heritage of the Lord” — Israel (II Sam 21:3), needed to make an atonement for its breach upon the covenant of Yahweh— so David cried out to the Gibeanites to bless Israel. This meant atonement by the execution of Saul’s seven sons. Thus it was done and the plague was stayed (II Sam 21:3-19). It is evident that God’s nature shines through His covenants. Yahweh loves to make them and loves to make good on them. Our God is a covenant-making God, and a covenant-keeping God. The nature of God should be likewise manifest among His own special people. “Pay what you covenant,” said Solomon (Ecc 5:4), “for in this very thing, we prove ourselves to be the heritage of the Lord.” And what must the church pay, with a covenant so free? It is a payment reckoned not of debt, but of grace, as “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God” (Ro 12:1). May God help us to make good on the covenant of our salvation!
Here are some selections of archived sermons I have created in the past.
John 9:1-7 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.’ Having said these things, He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to Him, ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’ (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.” We’re going back to the healing of the blind beggar and unearth two very important verses consisting mainly of Jesus’ teaching concerning Himself, His mission and His essential nature. It’s really quite profound, and we don’t won’t to let any revelation escape us, so, buckle in and enjoy the ride. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but there is, on occasion, bright, piercing lights that project to where I live from a hillside approximately five miles away. I mill around in the evening and when it gets pitch dark, I see it from time to time. Two parallel lights. A vehicle, I’m sure. Its got to be more than a car, because it pierces the landscape beneath. The power of those lights divide the night straight to my driveway and beyond. It’s set up high, on a mountain and is prominently visible to all. There is no greater, purer moral light than Jesus. The effulgence of Jesus Christ is so eminent that it can blind a natural man by its radiance. His moral stature is so intense that men have found themselves face down on the ground, bewildered as to how they got there. That is what happens in the presence of Jesus if His vale is only partially uncovered. Ask Moses, Job, the guards at the tomb, Saul of Tarsus, the inner circle at the Mt. Transfiguration, John on Patmos at the Revelation of God’s only Son! The moral light of Jesus Christ is also so bothersome to the conscience that sinful man will innately attempt to extinguish it (John 1:1-10). When Peter began to recognize the Son of God he said. . . “Lord, depart from me, I am a wicked man!” When Isaiah (6:5) saw Him in His glory, Isaiah said this: “Woe is me for I am undone.” When Job (42:6) finally got his audience with God, he said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” When John, the writer of our Gospel, the beloved disciple saw his Lord on Patmos, he said nothing. The text (Rev 1:17) only says this: “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” Beloved, our world has hell to pay for doing their best to douse the glories of Jesus. He has no rival and the purest and best of humanity is as diseased rags next to His original righteousness. And the only reason I dare speak His name is that I am dressed in His righteousness today! A righteousness declared. A purity not my own. Praise the Lord! Now, our context from John 9 is a healing context, but the lesson of healing is all about the glories of Jesus Christ. Our next point, carried over from last week’s message, is this: THE REVELATION OF HEAVEN’S LIGHT (v. 5) It wasn’t about the blind beggar’s sin at all. That’s not the reason the man’s in such a pitiful condition. He was born blind to the end that the Light of Heaven might penetrate his life—-inside/out. Yes, Jesus healed the man physically, but the greater miracle was just how deep the healing Light went. The Holy Spirit, through Jesus, penetrated the man’s soul. We know this from the man’s later confession (vv. 35-41) Folks, the nature of Heavenly Light in this world is salvific to man’s moral depravity. Our Lord’s miracles served in analogy to the complete and redemptive Light of God. Let’s borrow from theologian, John MacArthur, as we view these analogies. MIRACLE ANALOGY LESSON OF LIGHT BLINDNESS Sin renders one spiritually blind. Salvation restores one’s spiritual light. LEPROSY Sin is spiritually incurable. Salvation provides a spiritual cure to an otherwise incurable condition. PARALYSIS Sin renders one spiritually in- Salvation restores the use of one’s capable. spiritual abilities. DEMON Sin renders one unholy. Salvation declares one holy in God’s POSSESSION sight. DEATH Sin renders one dead in Salvation provides eternal life in trespasses and sins. Christ. The Light of the world is not about physical healing in and of itself. It is about God’s salvation in the souls of men and Holy Spirit’s light that penetrates human depravity! The nature of the light is healing, but righteousness is the issue! Even as the prophecy proclaims of the Messiah: “The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.” -Malachi 4:2 . . . and this Light of Grace, this Day Star from above, this Light of the world had His way prepared by a lesser light whose mission was to underscore a message of healing, a message of repentance from sin (Luke 1:76-79). Again, the nature of the Light is the Jesus of Titus 2:11-15! And there’s more to say, only not today. Let us conclude by underscoring this: The nature of God’s light is penetrating to the very core of human darkness! Above all else, it is intended in this world for the salvation of souls through the Person of Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, there is no hope, no help, no light to reach man’s hell bound depravity. This is why we must bear His torch to our world! This is why we teach the Gospel. So many people, so many churches, get caught up in the healing, the helping, the analogy, if you will. They miss the real import of it all, the real message of hope: To restore spiritual sight to blind sinners through the healing message of the cross. Without that emphasis, all help is a temporal band-aid and we simply never get to THE message.
Pastor Mark Graham, 5/25/14 Have you thought much about the fact that life is so much about coming and going, arrivals and departures, traveling here and there? In this rushing world how many of us really think long about our daily traverse, our routine destinations which make up so much of our lives? Today, we have a great lesson before us about travel; about how to avoid the mindless rush of travel and how to enjoin the verse which says, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,do all to the glory of God.” – I Co. 10:31 “Every part of life is to be consecrated to God,” says E. Hurndall, “and every part of life is sacred.” TEXT: I Corinthians 16:5-11 Our first lesson as we look to the apostle Paul and his extensive travel log is this: I. The true convert of Jesus should always see himself or herself as on or about the Master’s business! That’s right! None of us lives unto himself, we live for the glory of God. -all secular tasks become sacred -all routine and domestic chores have become stewardships -our daily employ and engagements are divine appointments for the purpose of ministry to Jesus Christ. Paul never abandons the sacred in the secular world, neither does he allow his life in Christ to become disconnected, either in his trade commerce or travel. It all was his Master’s business that Paul tended, and Jesus was the hub to his every turning wheel. Look at what we find in our passage relative to the point: A. Wherever Paul travels he has a servant’s mind. He’s in it for others (v 5). Here he’s telling the Corinthians that he plans to see them in his travels, in fact, he hopes to stay with them for a while to bless them, edify them (vv. 7,7). B. Ah, but note how his plans are all subject to God’s will, Christ’s timing, and the Holy Spirit’s scheduling. v. 7 – “if the Lord permits” cp Ja 4:13-15. Don’t live out your existence impervious to this reality! Live God- conscious, Christ-centered, and use the Bible as your road map and compass for life. Everyday! You’ll just travel in circles without the purpose His will gives. C. See how Paul is about the Master’s business as he purposes to advance Christ’s work wherever he goes: -Paul’s commending other servants of Jesus (v. 10) -Paul’s focusing on the fellowship of good brethren (v. 11) -He’s an encourager in route, along the way, and for the sake of the progress of the Gospel (v. 9) The Apostle’s frame of mind is basically a slave’s perspective. . . about my Master’s business. Is this the way you look at life? Does this focus sharpen your mind for the ‘coming and going’ you do today, tomorrow, this week? Our next lesson pertaining to these words for travelers is: II. Our movements as sincere subjects of Christ should be ordered by the throne. Which means. . . First: There is no pathway we should take that is outside the call of duty (v.9). So many Christians seek the easy street, the route which seems easier for them. They build their lives around themselves and avoid the more difficult errands of Scripture, of serving, of supplying needs for Gospel ends. But not Paul. He looked for the opportunities God would afford him in route, on the job, in his travels, knowing full well, “there are many adversaries.” If you’re resolved to come and go, to live out your life for God’s glory, expect difficulty! There’s temptation, opposition, and adversaries within us and without. If you see your daily itinerary as set by God, then come what may, duty compels you to embrace hardship in the performance of service. Don’t run away from duty seeking rest for yourself, because you’ll end up finding none—– rest, that is! Paul didn’t read “comfort, applause, remuneration, or likings” in his travels. He delighted in the opportunity of duty despite the obstacles. Let your movements in life be ordered by the Throne. Believers are always on call! Second: How Paul looked for the open door of God’s direction (v. 9). Where the door to Gospel opportunities open before you, seize it. Walk through it. Yea, look around for it! I remember going camping a few years ago and I tend to slip into the mode of thinking that this is ‘me time.’ I’ve gotten annoyed with my wife when she reminds me of our Gospel opportunity and duty in our R & R. Well, we camped across from folks that, in a brief conversation, were struggling over the bitterness of having a severely handicapped child. “How could God…” you know the drill. Well, as God would have it – we had lost our precious disabled grandson within the year. -Was our meeting an accident? Did I have the spirit of Paul? Not at the onset of our vacation, but opportunity prevailed. – Again, here comes a talkative older gentleman along the beach of Deleware. It’s getting dusk and he wants to chat, but I’m into fishin’. God just enabled me to bag a sea trout and now, I have to give my attention to this guy? What’s worse is that he’s a Grecian and I was studying contemporary Greek (a few years ago). A common denominator, besides he has a business near my son’s and asked for a copy of my book when it was published. He asked sincerely. Well, I took the opportunity, spoke of the Gospel, and well, I’ll be looking him up this summer. Open doors. . . -look for them – walk through them -get excited about them -follow God’s directives -use tracts, speak for Jesus, leave some salt behind, let some salt from your shaker come out of you into the world! Let God lead and don’t lead a compartmentalized existence. You know, like. . . “recreation is for recreation; vacation is for seclusion; business is for business; work is strictly for work.” Listen, consecrate it all to God and look to the throne always for direction and prayerfully come and go, depart and arrive in a godly frame of mind. Selected Scripture: Acts 17:28; Ro. 12:1,2; Col. 3:1-2; Eph. 5:15-17; Gal. 6:9-10 III. “A Christian is a Christian always and a servant always.” – Hurndall . . . and that distinguishes the believer from the hypocrite, the genuine from the mere professor. Here’s a song for all seasons: “Lord, make me like you, Lord make me like you. You are a servant. Make me one too. O Lord, I am willing. Do what you must do. Just make me like you Lord, just make me like you.” A PSALM OF SINGLE-MINDEDNESS Lord of reality, make me real not plastic synthetic pretend phony an actor playing out his part hypocrite. I don’t want to keep a prayer list, but to pray nor agonize to find your will but to obey what I already know, to argue theories of inspiration but to submit to your Word. I don’t want to explain the difference between eros and philos and agape, but to love. I don’t want to sing as if I mean it I want to mean it. I don’t want to tell it like it is but to be it like you want it. -author unknown
I Corinthians 15:20-23 “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the first-fruits , afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” Today, we are again honing in on the Fifteenth Chapter of I Corinthians, moving to a close in our study of I Corinthians. Resurrection, of course, is our subject matter, and today most of our time will be spent looking at the order and event of the first resurrection. Look with me, now. . . I. Jesus Christ the Firstfruits (v.20) Gordon Clark renders our text this way, “But as a matter of fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Clark goes on to say in summary, “…the resurrection comes in stages. First, Christ’s resurrection negates the death we inherited from Adam.” So, our point is this: If you believe Paul to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God; if you believe the apostle spoke by the Holy Spirit the passage at hand; if you believe the Bible to be God’s very own word, then you believe Christ’s resurrection to be fact, not fiction! Since He is raised, as Paul asserts with all linguistic clarity and force, then He is the “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” And what does that phrase mean? Firstfruits is always singular in the Greek, but always rendered in the plural in the English New Testament (with the exception of Ro. 11:16). It means what is logical. He is the beginning point, yea, He is the firstfruit of the firstfruits, quoting W.E.Vine. By His resurrection, Jesus Christ is the. . . -earliest ripe of the corn crop -the first gleanings of a great harvest -yield from the start of all produce from the apple orchard -the first of His kind in all that will be henceforth . . .the terminology is textually familiar and so the latter phrase of the same verse we apply to all those in Christ who have died believing. “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep” (I Thess 4:13-15). Now, what we have in the next two verses (22,23) is a forthright explanation of: II. How Jesus Christ Became That Firstfruit You might say, “Pastor Mark, we know how Jesus became the firstfruit of all resurrection, of all believers from the dead. His resurrection assures theirs, ours, and that is true!” But specifically, now: – (v 21) Death came by Adam. The man, Christ Jesus negated all that by rising from the dead, thus conquering death. – (v 22) In fact, through Adam’s transgression, all die, so likewise, but conversely, through the Messiah all shall live (the implication here is Christ’s obedience in contrast with Adam’s disobedience). Let’s read together Romans 5:12-2l – “ (12)Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(13)(For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. (14) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. (15) But the free gift is not like the offense. For it by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift of one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. (16) And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. (17) For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the figt of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) (18) Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift me to all men, resulting in justification of life. (19) For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (20) Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, (21) so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” A couple of notes to remember here: 1. Jesus is similar to Adam in kind. He was a man, but Jesus is not similar in His essential nature. Jesus knew no sin. He is God. “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.” (I Pe 2:22). 2. Adam died first spiritually, then physically. Jesus’ resurrection redeems us from both spiritual and physical death. You see, your physical death does not disallow the reality of the effectual work of Christ’s resurrection toward you. Because Jesus lives and the Spirit of God abides in you, the fact is, you have life eternal. Resurrection life! Undying life! -you will not die at death! -you will yet be raised physically! -you will endure forever as an immortal being with physical properties because you are spiritually alive! Christ’s life lives in you! I Co 15:45 – “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” Jn 11:21-27 – “Now, Martha said to Jesus, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died, but even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You. Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Eph 2:1-10; John 3 Titus 3:5 – “…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.” III When will the rest of the harvest be gathered? (v 23) Each in his own regiment or troop is the language here. Christ is first of the firstfruits. Believers are next in order of time and event. Specifically, Jesus’ resurrection is first in rank and order to the rest of the troops. The rest (believers) will come along later with Jesus at the parousia (lit) at His Presence. Presence here is an eschatological event. So what is the next eschatological event that follows Christ’s resurrection and involves our resurrection in the context of parousia? It has to be I Thess 4:13-18. Okay, what do we have here in time and event? -We have parousia – the presence of Christ at His Coming. -We have corresponding language to I Co. 15:23. -We have resurrection and that of believing saints who have gone from this world. What we have here in I Thess 4:13-18 is what was in prospect from I Cor 15:23. The Rapture (harpazo) of the church! In time and order, this is the next aspect of the resurrection harvest. “First Christ and then His own at parousia” (I Co. 15:23) IN BRIEF, HERE’S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE: 1. Descent of Jesus Christ from heaven into earth’s atmosphere (vv 16,17). 2. Angels descend with Christ who announce parousia and signal the resurrection of the believing dead (v 16). 3. The believing dead are first raised (v 16). 4. The living faithful will be translated to the atmospheric heavens (v 17). . . obviously changed physically (how – I Co. 15:51-54). 5. Parousia occurs. God’s people are united with Him and with each other in great joy and comfort (vv. 17,18). We believe this event to be imminent, for nothing in the Bible would prevent this event, save Christ’s own resurrection. Seeing Jesus has been raised, true regenerate souls await the forthcoming resurrection. “First Christ, then, secondly they that belong to Him at His coming!” Our Admonition: -Enrich each other with the prospect! I Thess 5:11 – “Therefore, comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” –“In the text,” says Dr. Clark, “this sent a bittersweet feeling to my soul. Sweet because the hope is intended by God to us. Bitter, because the world will never share in it.” May our imminent Hope increase our passion for the lost around us. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance { II Pe. 3:9). “Therefore beloved ,since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. Count the patience of our Lord as salvation…” (II Pe. 3:14,15a)
Scripture Meditation: Matthew 18:3-6; 19:14 Few things in life are more important than the discipleship of children. The failure of parents to seriously commit themselves to raise their young in the way of the Gospel and in the Word of the Lord will come to light in the next generation. Nothing should distract moms and dads from their God-given responsibility to daily immerse their children in the things of God. Neither work, hobbies, recreation, nor service through the church, community, or school are worthy excuses for the neglect of the development of our child’s devotional life. It’s an all-important task! You and I, as Christian parents, must be ready to put forth every effort and make every sacrifice to insure that our children are getting the message of grace in our homes. The home is God’s primary avenue to affect the behavior of future generations. But how do we make discipleship interesting for our children? How do we make the family devotional time, or private discipleship time attractive and desirable for our young? Le me suggest several things which are essential to the development of your child’s devotional life. 1. Purpose to make your devotional time a pleasant experience. Avoid arguing. Teach your child to sing, to thank God and to recognize that Christ’s atonement for our sins gives us every reason to be happy. 2. Encourage the participation of your children. This is where parents must be careful not to stifle their child’s appetite for God. Participation in the form of questions, Scripture reading, lesson reading, prayer requests and singing is the very means by which parents can discern their child’s needs, growth rate, and understanding of spiritual things. 3. Role modeling biblical truths is an effective way of nurturing your child’s devotional life. One of the best tools my wife and I have found for instilling truth deep into the minds of our children is to share with them our personal testimony and experience of God. 4. Educators stress the idea of repetition in learning. Parents need to be creative in finding new ways to share old truth, over and over again. Teach the truths, illustrate them, and sing those wonderful words of life around the family altar.. 5. Relate what is happening in the lives of your children with Scriptural insight. The Bible is relevant for the day-to-day needs and events of our lives. As a parent, seek to apply the Bible to where your children are: as tots, ‘tweens, or teens. Our children will be more inclined to use the Scripture to solve their problems as they grow older when they are taught from childhood how current its counsel is to every phase of life. 6. Be physical! Use hugs. Huddle together for prayer on your knees. Join hands. Communicate the message of Christ to your young with body, soul, and mind. Through every station of life, the memories of touching moments together will be remembered as those where the Word of God was central. Some Homework Suggestions 1. Put together a plan for family devotions, incorporating the six points discussed above. Use the plan as a checklist to evaluate your discipleship time with your children. 2. If you have neglected the discipleship of your child, return to your biblical priority as a parent. Repent of this sin and organize yourself to obey what the Lord requires of you. Establish accountability for the changes you intend to make.
Scripture Meditation: Second Timothy 2:1-3 Insights and Observations: Timothy was Paul’s son in the faith and spiritual offspring in the Gospel. Endunamoo: “be strengthened, become strong, or strengthen thyself.” Paul, here, urges Timothy to draw upon those resources with which God Himself has enabled Timothy—and every genuine convert of Christ—to combat evil and fight the “good fight” (I Cor 15:10; Philip 4:13). There are several points with the immediate context which brings weight to Paul’s admonition, “be strong.” First: Timothy’s heritage of faith, i.e., Lois and Eunice, mother and grandmother, respectively (1:5). Second: Timothy’s commissioning as guardian of the “good thing” (sacred trust – 1:14 cp, I Tim 1:18,19). Third: Timothy’s inevitable embrace of rejection and persecution for the sake of Christ and His Gospel (vv. 1:155-16). Fourth: Timothy’s personal commendation from the Lord along with all those who spend themselves for His cause and hope in His mercy (1:16-18). Activity was to be no substitute for reproduction, so the apostle would carefully urge his spiritual son to the goal of nurturing faithful followers of the truth which is in Jesus Christ (Col 2:5-7). Our second verse would demonstrate the cardinal quest for quality discipleship in the church of the living God. Converts must look like “little Christs” before the task of discipleship is complete (Gal 4:19)! “Suffer hardship with me for thou therefore endure hardness. . .” – Authorized Version and Textus Receptus. The term hardness would acquaint Timothy with his Christian calling. In its classical usage the word speaks of “fatigues, burdens, and deprivations which are connected with military service” (Lange). Interpretation and Application: A stellar admonition is imposed by the Apostle Paul to a younger colleague and minister of the Gospel. Timothy was to look to Jesus Christ for his source of spiritual enablement as he ventured forth to do a sacred work beset with obstacles. Let us learn the lesson of grace well that serving the Lord is a way strewn with obstacles and no one who embraces the course will meet his labor with success without the enablement God’s own Spirit provides (Ja 4:6). The nature of the true minister’s work consists of the discipleship of faithful men. The substance of that discipleship concerns apostolic doctrine, redemptive truth, even the whole council of God’s living Word. Our Scripture text provides the precedent for pastoral service. Foremost, let the pastor search out men qualified as “faithful” in order to indoctrinate them for perpetual discipleship. Let him use every godly means to win their hearts to loyalty of the “faith once delivered” (Jude 3), but also to the end of aggressive reproduction, of begetting progenitors of The Way. Timothy is further warned that the way will call for great endurance as an embattled soldier amidst raging conflict. Hardness and hardship is the promise and prophecy of all faithful men in the service of King Jesus. Rest and reward is the sure inheritance of another day, but for the present conflict, the rigors of a soldier will be the norm for both pastor and people who are resolved to believe. Note of Interest: The inevitability of conflict appears to be synonymous with pastoral labor. It would be well if in the quest for peace, personableness, diplomacy and compromise within the church that the true servant of Christ should regularly assess his own commitment to the King. If one’s ministry is characterized by relative peace and prosperity, the shepherd must inquire of the Lord if he has become more skilled with skirting the skirmish, rather than preaching an unadulterated Word from God. In the heat and throes of one of my most difficult battles in the ministry, I recall an important lesson that surfaced. The conflict raged for nearly three years with little hope of solving the intense interpersonal warfare. The wounds were deep, the days endless, the tears often, the mind and body exhausted. The issues, however, called for no retreating—only faithful endurance. Amidst the ardent prayers, grace enabled and God made His presence known by the strength of His doctrine (Col 3:16). The truth I had forgotten, the lesson I had almost missed came to me from the words of my teen-age son as we traveled home together amidst the “storm.” “Thanks for staying, Dad—most men would have been long gone.” Indeed, the Lord was nurturing endurance in my son through the example of an embattled father/pastor. Our conflicts of the Gospel also have discipleship in mind from the divine standpoint. Example is an effective tool which my own son is learning to communicate at present with the flock under his care.
Insights and Observations: “. . .For the due solemnization of the seventh month, the festal month of the year. For this purpose the people came from the cities and villages of Judea to Jerusalem, and assembled ‘in the space before the water-gate,’ i.e., to the southeast of the temple square.” – C. F. Keil The public reading of the Law was upon the hearts of God’s people and they compelled Ezra to fetch the Book and read it in the presence of the great assembly. From the morning until mid-day or from daylight ‘til noon, a spanse of about six hours was the Law of God read. “Ezra, God’s true priest, at once responded to the call. He did not say, ‘The Law is difficult, hard to be understood, might mislead you, should be reserved for the learned’, but at once ‘brought and read therein’.” – Rawlison The reading of the Law was received with “attentiveness,” i.e., a fixation upon the book and nothing else. The audience included both young and old, adults and children. In fact, it encompassed all those who had understanding of words, yea, all those who could ask rational questions of symbols and meaning (Deut 6:7,20 ff). Edersheim on the upbringing of Jewish children: Rabbi Jehudah, the son of Tema, says: “At five years of age, reading of the Bible; at ten years of age, learning the Mishnah; at thirteen years, bound to the commandments; at fifteen years, the study of the Talmud.” Although orthodox Judaism required, at times, all male children to memorize the Pentateuch by age seven, the practice may have fallen in disuse by reason of the Talmudical saying, Cheth 50: “If you set your child to regular study (laborious discipline) before it is six years old, you shall always have to run after, and yet never get hold it.” This, says Edersheim, chiefly has reference to the irreparable injury to health caused by such early strain upon the mind. Jewish history demonstrates that age five was the likely period children were to begin formal training in Scriptures from the original Hebrew. These were not all mature youths and adults who were summoned by desire and interest to hear the lengthy reading of Ezra the scribe. There were undoubtedly the ‘Taph’ (Hebrew) children (Esther 3:13); the ‘Elm’ (Hebrew), or those becoming firm (Isa 7:14), yea, not unlike those tender, impressionable souls whom Jesus suffered to come to Him (Luke 18:16). Roman Catholic teaching has long suggested that the most impressionable years for solidifying the doctrine of the church to the life of her communicates lies in the first seven years. After seven, the likelihood of the child to remain in the faith is statistically sure. There is no segregated (children/teen) worship precedent in Ezra’s day, only rational minds who could understand words, whom the Lord would nurture to enlightenment through the means of the public proclamation of divine revelation and covenant discipleship of the home (II Tim 3:15-17). Interpretation and Application: “A great yearning arose in the hearts of God’s people concerning the Law of God. As yet disobedient to the Law, Israel looked for hope in God’s Word by calling for a ‘special Sabbath, a memorial of blowing trumpets, a holy convocation’ (Lev 23:24).” -Lange Central to the jubilance was the nearly six hour public reading of the Law of Moses by Ezra who had earlier led a host of 3,000 exiles back to Jerusalem under the decree of Artaxerxes. Inspired by the people of God to “fetch the law,” Ezra read, without hesitation, from the Book in the hearing of all—those who could “perceive meaning or grasp an idea.” These certainly included whole families: fathers, mothers, youths, and children. “God has provided His word for our household life. Those who neglect its reading in the house neglect the best support of parental authority, the truest bond of love, and the foundation of consolation and joy.” -Bedford Notes of Interest: In the contemporary craze for man-centered worship with its emphasis on the palatability of truth, the comfort and convenience of the worshipper and the ultimate happiness of household members in church assembly, the people of God must come to grips with the import of our text. Family togetherness in worship affords the most sacred opportunity for the intimate discipleship of both parent and child in the “fear of God.” Example, structuring, involvement and edification happens mutually in the discipline of family worship. *Statistically, the current worship duplicity segregating whole families is doing little to curb the youth exodus from attendance and/or involvement in evangelical assemblies. Parents must own up to their particular accountability before God to “train up a [their] child” rather than pass off intimate nurturing for a more convenient worship experience. *At a recent state conference of associate churches and pastors, Baptist leaders were alarmed to hear the current stats/polls regarding church youth and church attendance/involvement after college (specifically youths out of Christian homes). The trend is largely and predominately non-involvement and irregular or spotty attendance. More than fifty percent of our church youths simply drop out of a local church assembly after college. Not surprisingly, characteristic of young people who continued in regular and involved church life was their own testimony that the example and intimate involvement of familial relationships was the key to their church body life—–in every case! Obviously, God intends His glory to thrive in the nurturing that public family worship affords.