THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES OF NEGLECTING OUR GODLY DUTIES TO OUR CHILDREN

www.legacyoutreachinternational.com

One of the horrifying developments in the body of Christ today is the ugly reality that Christian parents are raising unsaved unbelieving children. It is distressing to see moms and dads who claim to love the Lord so passionately, while their children are living the most despicable sinful lives that rival and many times even mock the ungodliness seen in the lives of children whose parents have never known the Lord or His ways. 

What is even more disgusting is that most church-going Christian parents are so clueless of their godly responsibilities to their children that they don’t recognize the spiritual implications and the eternal consequences of their failure to raise their children up for Christ. Despite the commitment of most parents to their local churches, the children of the majority of Christian parents are unbelievers. They are not just unbelievers, but, they are so rebellious and sinful that they completely reject the gospel and have no sympathy for any instructions to them based on the authority of God’s word.

The sight of children from homes where moms and dads profess loving the Lord, Read more…

....AND YET STUDENTS ARE SUSPENDED FROM SCHOOL FOR GIVING OUT DOUGHNUTS WITH BIBLE VERSES?

California Gov. Signs Bills Requiring Schools to Teach on Homosexuals

Friday, 15 July 2011 10:04 AM EDT Gina Meeks News - Featured News

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Gov. Jerry Brown after he was sworn in on Jan. 3. (AP Images/Rich Pedroncelli)

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 48 on Thursday, making California the first U.S. state required to teach students about the contributions of homosexuals, bisexuals and transgenders.
Also known as the Fair, Accountable, Inclusive and Respectful Education Act (FAIR Act), SB 48 was written by self-admitted homosexual state Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco. The bill passed the Assembly Education committee on June 22, and on July 5 the state Assembly sent it through to Gov. Jerry Brown on a 49-25 vote.
“History should be honest,” Brown said in a statement. “This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books. It represents an important step forward for our state, and I thank Senator Leno for his hard work on this historic legislation.”
The California Board of Education is now required by law to create textbooks and other materials that highlight the homosexual community's contributions to the economic, political and social development of California and the U.S. Daily Mail reports that although the bill will take effect in January, textbooks will not likely be changed until 2015.
The FAIR Act also requires that textbooks and materials—for students in kindergarten through 12th grade—must present lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, groups and lifestyles in a positive manner. Nothing negative or perceived to be negative about them can be presented.
According to Maryal Boumann, director of Pray California, the law will only affect public schools and does not apply to private schools, including church schools and home schooling.
“Today we are making history in California by ensuring that our textbooks and instructional materials no longer exclude the contributions of LGBT Americans,” Leno said. He went on to thank Brown for recognizing the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. Read more

WOULD YOU STAND FOR THIS?

NM School Suspends Students for Sharing Bible Verses

Monday, 18 July 2011 01:06 PM EDT Jennifer LeClaire News - Featured News

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Relentless. That’s how some might describe the Roswell Independent School District. That’s because the New Mexico system appears to be on a mission to squash the Word of God on its campuses, according to a lawsuit Liberty Counsel filed.
The suit alleges the Roswell Independent School District retaliated against a Christian group called Relentless, punishing and suspending its members for buying and giving fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Bible verses to each of their teachers.
The students went to great lengths to share the Word of God. 
Read more- http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/31542-nm-school-suspends-students-for-sharing-bible-verses

In The Matter Of Raising Our Children For Christ: DO WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS AND YOU WILL GET GOD-ORDERED RESULTS

When it comes to raising up our children, we must bear in mind what God expects from us – godly children. “And did not God make [you and your wife] one [flesh]? Did not One make you and preserve your spirit alive? And why [did God make you two] one? Because He sought a godly offspring [from your union]. Therefore take heed to yourselves, and let no one deal treacherously and be faithless to the wife of his youth (Malachi 2:15).

If as parents we bear this in mind, then, we would already have in our hands both the goal (purpose) and standard by which to measure our success in raising our children. Children from Christian homes are at risk today because many believing couples-parents did not think about this God-centered purpose before they embarked on bearing and raising their children. Read more...legacyoutreachinternational.com

DIVIDED ON DVD

www.dividedthemovie.com

There is a crisis. Christian youth are rapidly leaving evangelical churches for the world. This well-recognized disaster has been the topic of significant discussion in recent years for both church leaders and modern new media. DIVIDED follows young Christian filmmaker Philip Leclerc on a revealing journey as he seeks answers to what has led his generation away from the church. Traveling across the country conducting research and interviewing church kids, youth ministry experts, evangelists, statisticians, social commentators, and pastors, Philip discovers the shockingly sinister roots of modern, age-segregated church programs, and the equally shocking evidence that the pattern in the Bible for training future generations is at odds with modern church practices. He also discovers a growing number of churches that are abandoning age-segregated Sunday school and youth ministry to embrace the discipleship model that God prescribes in His Word.

“It’s time to get past the denial phase.” — kevin swanson

“The church has set aside the sufficiency of Scripture for the discipleship of the next generation.” — scott brown

• Running Time:54 Minutes
• Format:DVD
• Bonus Feature Running Times:15 Minutes 

MODELLING, IMAGES AND PATTERNS

The power of what your see

STUDENTS AT RISK - A CALL TO PARENTS, PASTORS AND PROFESSORS: A dear sister, Susan, said on Facebook "But then I would also like to ask parents what are they teaching their children? I think parents tend to forget that children really, really do what they see, not what parents tell them to do!" 

Grace Terry and I agree. I call it modelling. Images. Patterns. Parents are the first and most important role models for their children. Their attitudes to God's word in their homes form the primary images their children see on the importance of God's word. If parents don't consider God's word the guide book on how to doing and living, those are the pictures or images that would form in the minds of their children about the place of God's word in their lives. On the contrary, if parents take God's word seriously both as individuals and as a family, those are also the images that would form in the minds of their children.

Why is it important that parents have a proper attitude to God's word and model the same to their children? There are many reasons. But, first, look at Proverbs 1:1-8. I take the quote from the Amplified Bible:

1. The Proverbs (truths obscurely expressed, maxims, and parables) of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

2. That people may know skillful and godly Wisdom and instruction, discern and comprehend the words of understanding and insight,

3. Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity,

4. That prudence may be given to the simple, and knowledge, discretion, and discernment to the youth--

5. The wise also will hear and increase in learning, and the person of understanding will acquire skill and attain to sound counsel [so that he may be able to steer his course rightly]--

6. That people may understand a proverb and a figure of speech or an enigma with its interpretation, and the words of the wise and their dark sayings or riddles.

7. The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.

8. My son, hear the instruction of your father; reject not nor forsake the teaching of your mother.

Look at verses 3-5 very closely. God gave us the book of Proverbs so that we can "Receive instruction in wise dealing and the discipline of wise thoughtfulness, righteousness, justice, and integrity." Not only that, He also gave it so that the empty minds of young children can be filled with prudence, knowledge, discretion and discernment (vs 4). Now look at verse 5. The child raised according to verses 2-4, will hear and increase in learning, acquire skill and attain to sound counsel with the overall result that he is able to steer his course rightly. Isn't failure to know how to stir their lives rightly the greatest problem we have with our young children? Isn't it clear, then, why our children are becoming anything but the God-fearing children we dreamed they would become? They have no fear of God in them and live very recklessly while we cower under the pretext that someday, they would come to their senses and begin to make wise choices. How would they come to their senses one day? From what deposit of wisdom would they draw the data they need to come to their senses? Who has ever gone to the bank to draw money he did not deposit there?

When parents fail to make it a priority to model proper attitudes to God's word in their home, through the way they deliberately make time to read and study it, through the way they talk about it in their homes, through the way it is the reference point to any decisions they make, the friends they keep, the places they go and what constitutes their fun activities, the children would simply adopt the images that are thrown around the house from the behaviors of their parents. 

The models, images, and patterns seen at home preach more convincing and lasting messages than any word picture painted by any preacher. The task is in calling parents' attention back to their primary responsibility to God in relation to their children- "Train up a child in the way he should go....." The Father's assurance in His word is that "...when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). If parents do their part in solidifying God's truth in the hearts and minds of their children, the kids themselves would be able to detect the lies being pushed to them in the classrooms through their subjects and reject them or at least bring them back home for a discussion with parents, who then take them up with the teachers/professors for corrective measures, and actions when such measures fail; or take it up with their pastors for issues they don't see themselves well equipped to deal with.

Like those people who heard Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost (Act 2:37), my heart cries out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"

STUDENTS AT RISK - A CALL TO PARENTS, PASTORS & PROFESSORS

One thing perplexes me and that is the indifference of most Christian parents to what is taught to their children in Schools- from primary to high school and of course the university. Most parents spend their time working very hard to get the money to pay their children’s school fees so that their remain in school and attend classes with minimal disruptions. What I don't understand is why we should go to all that trouble making sure that our children are educated but care very little about what they are being educated about.

Isn’t it time that we as parents, pastors and believing professors examine the contents of the educational curriculum used in teaching our children? If for no other reason, to satisfy ourselves that what they are learning is consistent with the faith in Christ Jesus we are teaching them at home? Or have we forgotten that we are accountable to God (and will give that account very soon) for how we raised our children? Doesn’t what is fed into the minds of our children count? Children whom we are responsible for raising for Christ? Your comments are welcome!