Father's Day

Howard Hendricks called children, “God’s little spies.” I don’t totally know what he meant by that, but I’ve thought that it at least includes the truth that children are a major tool in God’s hands to test us as parents. Through their differences as individuals, through the incredible joy they bring and through their foolishness and various kinds of behaviors God will:

Test your character. You’ll never know how impatient you are until you have children. Your challenge as a parent will always be to love them -- unconditionally over and over – even when they don’t meet your expectations and certainly as they get older -- even they disappoint you. Your challenge will be to treat them as God has treated you – in love, forgiveness, grace and kindness, again and again, showing them God’s character.

Test your perseverance. At times you’ll want to beat them, give up on them, put them down and show them you’re bigger and smarter (which will only exasperate them). But God’s test to you in those times will be – can you hold back… can you keep still…. and again, will you love them anyway?

Test your faith. You will repeatedly need to trust God to work in their lives – sometimes it will be through you – but very often it will be directly – through His Spirit. That means, you won’t be able to always direct them, certainly not always rescue them, or always get them to do what you want them to do. But God, in mercy, grace, love and His own discipline -- can and will work in their lives. Ultimately, your role will be to entrust them to Him, to pray for them and to always demonstrate to them that the One you follow is the God of all grace.

Schaeffer to the current generations

I read recently that Francis Schaeffer likely speaks more to the present generations that he did even to his own. His own testimony would certainly be of that nature. He said he almost abandoned the faith for two reasons: the lack of reality in the lives of believers and the lack of beauty in the way Christians treated each other. If we had a renewed church today, certainly authenticity as Christ-followers and solid biblical relationships would be what we'd notice.

Schaeffer on a Loving Church

The church is to be a loving church in a dying culture. How, then, is the
dying culture going to consider us? Jesus says, "By this shall all men know
that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." In the midst
of the world, in the midst of our present culture, Jesus is giving a right
to the world. Upon His authority He gives the world the right to judge
whether you and I are born-again Christians in the basis of our
observable love toward all Christians.
Francis A. Schaeffer, The Mark of The Christian

"Man, made in the image of God, has a purpose - to be in relationship to God, who is there. Man forgets his purpose and thus he forgets who he is and what life means." - Francis Schaeffer