The Consistency of Life

10/22/2001

Monday Morning, October 22, 2001

A dinner conversation with some Saints from a few thousand miles away..... Here’s part of it, joined “in progress” : ) .........

For our children, the “quality of life” must be the same—from the moment they get up, to the moment they fall asleep. Their lives shouldn’t be compartmentalized, as is so common in both the cultural religious world, and the world at large. To many, sad to say, it seems “normal” that the home provides for one part of their children’s lives, the ‘church’ provides for another part, and the schools provide for something else.

The quality of life needs to be the same for our children, from the moment they get up to the moment they fall asleep. Their friends shouldn’t change (pagan buddies here, and youth group buddies there, and neighborhood pals here, and sports league friends there). The children’s attitudes shouldn’t be allowed to change, depending on their environment and their allegiances and desires. The things they do and the things they value shouldn’t be like flipping channels on a television—from one department of their life to another. “Every man must be very careful how he builds!” saith the Lord. Authority issues, affections, conversations (heard and unheard), habits, friendships... all things must be built in consistency, if we are doing our Job with the trusts Father has placed before us, together. “Oh, come on, Mom! EVERYBODY is doing it! Why are you CONTROLLING me?! Let me just go this one time! Trust me!” How easily will you allow yourself to be emotionally blackmailed, duped by satan, and trash your children’s lives by your foolish or naïve or lazy responses and lack of discernment? And most of the issues only come up—because most are building so poorly in the first place. If you throw a child into a piranha pool to “sink or swim”—what do YOU think will happen?

We can build GOD’S Way, and avoid so many of the pitfalls. But it will cost you your life. YOU will have to LOSE it, in order to find it—for yourself and your offspring and responsibilities.

NOW! Catch this. The same is true for the men. “I go to work and that’s my first world. I come home and I’m with my family and that’s my second world. And, then I go to a ‘church’ meeting and that’s my third world.” It shouldn’t be like that. That’s the destruction of our adult men. Their destruction is that they live in three worlds ... or maybe four if they have a recreational or sports life with buddies that they go off and play racquetball, tennis, or whatever with. (And, pathetic as it sounds, many have made an “internet world” with invisible snuffle-uffa-guss “friends”—and zero accountability. It is a counterfeit; far too often an oozing throat culture of gossip, slander, foolish opinion, bully pulpit, and foulness of many kinds. And that is just the “christian” forums, chat rooms, and discussion lists. Think how bad the others are!) But, if a brother is living the same, from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to sleep, then he is not going to have three different sets of friends and three different worlds. There are going to be brothers that are part of his work situation. Even if no one works directly with him, brothers are still going to be there—because any Solid brother will be introducing his co-workers to brothers at lunch and after-hours. He will do whatever it takes to merge his “worlds.” It will be a free flow—not totally isolated, different worlds. Never will a valid man of God slump into the philosophy, “Ok, this is my family time, this is my family night. This is my this night and my that night. My workday. My non-work day. My weekends ... well, I’ve gotta get all caught up on my housework because I had to work all week. So, as soon as that’s done, then I’ll get with my christian friends, maybe, as long as I’m not too tired. My work friends. My church friends. My church day. My day off. My free time. My vacation. My possessions. My biological possessions.”

All these different worlds! Blah! Jesus was not that way, and STILL IS NOT! And HE can never truly be found by those who are living that way. “How CAN two walk together, unless they be in agreement?!” “EVERYONE who claims to live in Him—must walk as Jesus walked.”

And for our children? If they have a “church” world and a home life and a school life and whatever, we are mis-raising them, and mis-representing Father’s Kingdom to them. It’s just not God’s Way. And it shouldn’t be a surprise, if you have raised them this way and lived this way, that the statistics quoted by religious leaders come to pass—You will lose 75% of your children to the world, “sowing their wild oats” to the disgrace of the Lamb of God, trampling His Blood, as well as (statistically in the “churches”) lose 50% of your marriages. And those are just the visible things—and the product of man’s way of building our families and lives and “church world.”

Good Building is a Big Part of the Answer

It’s natural for the flesh to do all of that compartmentalizing. That’s precisely why, unless the Lord builds the House, its builders build in vain. The way we build in our daily lives amongst the church (Acts 2:42-47, Heb. 3:12-14, Mk. 10:29-30, etc) takes about 80 or 90 percent of the variables out of the picture, as we said. Our flesh would find a hiding place in our minds and hearts and “devotions”—unless we build well. We’ll get twisted and perverted, even with our best intentions (God PROMISED—Heb. 3:12-14) unless we build well. The Lord’s House “is build with Wisdom.” If we build well (His Way, as in the Scriptures just mentioned), then 80 or 90 percent of the variables are resolved in God’s Wisdom, and God’s Light (1Jn. 1:2-2:6, John 3:19-21): God’s Habitat. 80 or 90 percent of the temptations and the frustrations and the odd relationships that could result in disaster—just disperse or are resolved to the Praise of His Glory. Then, with the last 10 percent, we are left just dealing with the hearts of those involved—not the confusion and contradictions that are the product of poor building. Mysteries and invisible things come up perpetually when we build according to the traditions of men. If our lives and “church involvement” are defined by creature comfort and worldly religious “attendance” schemes—rather than daily LIFE, “as we rise up, as we sit down, as we walk along the Way” (Acts 2:42-47)—we are BEGGING for trouble in our children, and every area of our own lives. And the problems, some fatal, should come as NO surprise, if we persist in lazy, undiscerning parenting—and other poor building practices with ADULT men and women. We must not be “unaware of satan’s devices!” If we Build HIS Way (please READ those Scriptures again!)—90% of tragedies can be avoided, and most of the other 10% effectively Redeemed, for the Glory of the Son.