Family Bookshelf: Parenting by God's Promises by Dr. Joel Beeke

There are countless systems for sale today that all aim to help parents raise their children to be productive members of society.  They teach everything from spanking verses timeout, punishment and reward systems, and numerous psychological approaches.  For any parent worth their salt there may be no greater fear than the fear of failure in raising your children.

That fear is amplified for Christian parents because we not only want our children to succeed in life but we also want to see them grow up to become men and women who love the Lord and lead their families to Christ as well.   The failure of most of what is found in parenting methods being sold today, inside and outside of Christendom, is that it seeks to address behavioral change as the desired goal of successful parenting.  But should that be the goal?  Dr. Beeke does not believe so and neither do I.

Rather than just working to change behavior (which can easily produce legalism in our children) we should instead be seeking to get to the heart of the behavior.  Change the heart of the child and the behavior will change as well.

In "Parenting by God's Promises" Dr. Beeke challeneges parents to adopt a method of parenting that is not new or trendy, rather it is the tried and true Biblical method of raising them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord and trusting God's faithfulness with the results.

For example, instead of being so focused on worrying about who our children marry, let's be equally concerned with teaching them to be "excellent spouses" and model for them what it means and looks like to be a faithful spouse.  Or rather than simply being angry over some infraction, let's sit them down and show them from Scripture why that decision they made was a poor one, a sinful one, and why God's ways are best.  Then, let's not hand out a retributive punishment, but a loving correction that serves to remind them of the lesson they've been taught about the Gospel and trusting God.  ((Yes that loving correction can include a properly administered spanking, not a beating out of anger.))

Further, we needn't try and coerce a decision for Christ out of them at the earliest possible age, but rather lead them to Christ and trust the God who saves to save them as He has saved us and countless others throughout the ages!  Let's teach our children about the God of grace who has so graciously offered up His own Son so that their sins could be forgiven in Him.

I highly recommend this book to any parent who is concerned with raising their child according to Biblical principles.

You can pick this up from Ligonier.org or Amazon.com

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Reformation Trust Publishing through their Blog for a Free Book Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

A Biblical Understanding of Suffering - Part 3 of 5

Recapping, Part one is Constructive Suffering, Part two is Corrective Suffering... Part three then would be Suffering as a part of heavenly warfare.  Perhaps Heavenly warfare is not the best way to describe it.  Rather it is suffering that comes in a similar fashion to Job.

For an example of this we have to look to Job.  As the story opens, we see Job is happy and healthy.  He’s a favored man with many possessions.

Job 1:1-3 - There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.  2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him.  3 His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

Enter into the scene… Satan.  Job 1:6-8 - Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.  7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”  8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”  Did you catch that?  Did you see that?  Satan appears before God.  The picture we get is that the presence of God is with Job’s family.  God has approved of the worship Job’s family is engaged in and He has accepted Job’s burnt offerings.  And Satan came and appeared before the Lord.  It doesn’t say why he came, although we can assume it was to accuse Job’s family before God just like he is the accuser of us all, all the time.  And God initiates a conversation with Satan.  “Have you considered my servant Job.”

Job 1:9-11 - Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?  10 “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.  11 “But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”

Satan says, you can’t use Job as an example of a person who hopes in You God because You protect Job and his family and bless him with gifts and possessions.  Satan is saying that true believers are only faithful while life is good and when good times go… so does their faith.

Job 1:12 - Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.  From this point in verse 12 and all the way through Job 2:8, God allows Satan to take away Job’s servants, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his camels, his sons and his daughters, and finally culminating in the striking of Job’s health.

How did Satan do it?  With the permission of god.  God has Satan on a leash essentially and God allowed Satan enough leash to do what was needed to prove to Satan that the faith of true believers is not in the good only that God gives, rather our hope is just in God.  Period.

How does God use Job to prove it?  Job 1:20-22 - Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 

Job 2:3 - The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” 

Job 2:9-10 - Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”  10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Shall we accept good from God and not adversity?  That sounds crazy!  Job is not cold hearted, he’s clearly mourning his losses, but he stands up through it because of his hope in God.  Listen, someone who is not a Christian… what hope for anything do they have to hold on to?  Nothing but this world which is perishing day by day.

The unchanging faithfulness of God

Clearly a short blog post cannot begin to fully unpack the amazing nature of God.  Let alone His faithfulness.  With that in mind, this is not intended to be a thorough handling of the subject, rather these are some thoughts on God's faithfulness taken from Romans 3:3-6.

Romans 3:3 What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?  God chose Israel, but all throughout their history what does Israel do?  They rebel.  For example, in Exodus 3, God has heard the cries of the Israelites, groaning under the merciless hands of the Egyptians.  He hears their cries for deliverance.  As you know, God uses Moses to ultimately deliver them and lead them out.  But when you get to Exodus 14 and Pharaoh is pursuing them, they complain that they would have rather died in Egypt.  But again God delivers them.  This is where He parts the Red Sea.

Then in the wilderness, God provided for them, yet they groaned and complained… Do you see a trend?  I do.  GOD IS FAITHFUL!  As Jews, he tells them, you’re history of constantly rejecting God testifies first hand that God is faithful!

The Jews are a greatly privileged people; honored by God.  But these things are not saving facts for them.  None of that guarantees them salvation.  God will always uphold His promises.  Always without fail.

Psalm 90:1-2 - Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.  2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Even when we demonstrate unbelief, and others reject Him totally.  Still God is faithful.  God has been the hope, the same hope and only hope for all man in all generations.  He is both the starting point and the focal point of all things.  As a Christian, the outlook for our lives isn’t rooted in this world.  On the contrary, it is rooted in and oriented around God’s eternal being!

There is a wonder and awe that is aroused in the human heart at the pondering of His eternal being.  So, Paul says, GOD IS FAITHFUL!  The fact that He revealed so much and blessed the Jew so much proves God’s faithfulness.

Even if some of the Jews didn’t believe the Word of God and certainly some didn’t.  God will be faithful to what He has promised.  Our unbelief does not alter reality.  Out belief doesn’t alter reality.  Reality is reality.  Now that sounds like such a simple statement.  You are probably thinking, well of course reality is reality.  But you’d be amazed at how many college students are being taught these days, in the post-modern school of thought, that everyone can be right.  That there truth is there truth if they believe it to be and no one can tell anyone else that they are wrong.  That’s absurd.

If I believe with all my heart that I can walk through walls and I take off and leap head first into a brick wall.  My belief doesn’t alter the reality.  If I tried that, I’d be in serious trouble.  On a more sober thought, thinking you can do whatever you want, take all the dangerous chances you want, simply because you are young and feel invincible.  You don’t think anything could ever happen to you… your belief doesn’t change the reality that death has no respect of age.  Your time to die will come just like every one else who has ever lived.

So will the unbelief of some nullify the faithfulness of God?  4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,

Don’t even entertain the thought that God is unfaithful.  It is not God who is a liar, but EVERY man. 

Jeremiah 17:9 - “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?

Psalm 62:9 - Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie; In the balances they go up; They are together lighter than breath.

Since God is true and every man is a liar, then He is justified in whatever He does.  In this context, what’s being referred to is God’s justification of the judgment of the Jews.

God is true, man is deceitful… so  “That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.”  The implication there is that God will uphold and preserve His own honor in this world, regardless of the sins of men.

Romans 3:5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)  6 May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world?

Just in case they were confused at Paul’s words, he poses a question that is more rhetorical than anything.  He says, if our unrighteousness demonstrates God’s righteousness, then is God unrighteous in His wrath?  NO!  No, God is not unrighteous at all, not even the least little bit.  He is fully righteous and full justified.

If He weren’t, then how would He judge this world?  What standard would He use that would be perfect and right if not the standard of His own Divine Holiness?  He could not be the Just Judge if He Himself were not just.  Because He judges according to truth and HE is truth (John 14:6).

Soli deo Gloria!