A True Ambassador to Our Children

1/14/2011

For Israel’s incessant sin, God promises to Israel to send a ‘razor’…and He does, killing all their children with enemies. Just as Samson had his eyes put out immediately after being shaved, likewise Zedekiah the king watched his children be put to death right in front of him, and then his eyes were put out as well.

What I am getting at is that God puts an enormous value on children…the loss of the children is the loss of our strength and power. God picked Abraham because he would teach his children God’s way. God calls sons ‘arrows in the hands of a warrior’ and daughters are ‘pillars in a palace’. But they are only that if we train them to be such by laying down our lives for them, too.

In other words: if we do not use our time, resources, energy, authority to communicate the things of God to our children…if we have no representation of Jesus evident (for any reason, hypocrisy or immaturity or foolishness) with our children, neither will we have spiritual authority in the world or the Church. I am seeing that historically, God’s wisdom and insight has only endured for a generation or two before people fell away again, when it is built on words rather than LIFE. The ability to pass on what we know to be true, itself having to be real, seems a big test of authenticity, and may be what will determine when ‘the end’ happens. Straight arrows will be needed for that battle!

This ties in to ‘Elijah must first come’…that is, the hearts of the sons turned to the fathers and vice versa. A generation of believing adults who will see that their children are the single greatest potential to achieve children to God, and who will spend their primary efforts where it may be two decades before the final fruit can be seen. In the meantime, no accolades, no awards, no big numbers or anything the world measures as success…just constant toil day in and day out, knowing that this is where God’s Fruit is.

And I know that my representation of the character and wisdom of Jesus outside my home will in no real way exceed that inside my home. I’m not talking necessarily about my four walls, nor saying that all adults don’t play parts in raising all children. Definitely not talking about ‘family first’ nonsense. But as a man who may gain a commission to speak and demonstrate the Word in the world and the Church, if I do not learn to submit as a servant to my children who are generally thankless and unappreciative (they are still young), neither will I be equipped for dealing with the world or the Church. But if I can see with eternal eyes that every little word or attitude I have will shape my child for eternity…and that his or her life is all by itself worth more than the whole world combined…man, talk about motivation! Talk about treasure!

In no way am I living up to this yet. God is just starting to open my eyes because I’ve asked Him to explain to me both spiritual reality in Representing as a true Ambassador (rather than mere words or thoughts), and how He views children—topics I thought were separate—but now find they are the same.

Just some thoughts. R, NZ