Insanity Of Discipleship Part 3

Growing up, I remember having some family devotion time. It was usually sporadic. Sometimes, we would do it at night, and sometimes we would do it early in the morning before school. Often times, family devotion time was non-existent.

I want to lay out three problem areas in the modern church culture that is negatively impacting our homes.

First, our church culture has embraced a non-influential and wimpy savior. This modern day savior has come to keep us out of hell, but doesn't require us to change our lives to become more like him. With this mindset, church attendance becomes a morally good thing to do, but not necessarily a spiritually desirable thing to commit to.

The repercussions of this spiritual segregation is dramatic. Essentially, our culture leaves most of the spiritual training to the church, not inside the home. I have heard so many people tell me this, "Yes, I know I need to get my kids in church. They need to hear about Jesus." The problem with this mindset is that if the children do not turn out they way they wanted them to, then they could potentially blame the church for not straightening them out. All the while we ignore Scripture inside the home.

Second, we are wired to worship. God created us in His image for the purpose of bringing glory to Him. When sin came into the world, the wiring was severed. Since that time in the Garden of Eden, we are continually trying to reconnect that wiring. We are going to worship something. "Luke this is a Christian nation." You might get upset with me about this, but I believe that America has become a polytheistic (multiple god) nation. Similar to the Hindu religion, we are easy to accept so many different things that we worship. We will worship professional sports, our kids sports, our earthly possessions, etc. God/church will happen if no other alternatives get in the way. In the same breath we will complain about how humanistic our world has become.

Lastly, we have placed our children's educational/future/athletics on a much higher level than their relationship with God. When I was a student minister, many teenagers told me about some tests that they had to take to help them know what they should major in. These tests seem like a great idea on the surface. As a Christ-follower parent, I believe these tests to be dangerous. Peter, James, and John had all grown up around the fishing industry. More than likely they would have tested that they need to continue in this business. There is one element that the tests don't take into account, and it is a big one. Jesus. What does God want you to do?

All these things are counter cultural, but we are called to train up our children in the ways of the Lord. Whether or not it is counter cultural or not doesn't matter. The only thing that should matter is what the Bible says. Whether or not we like it or not doesn't matter. Whether or not our children get upset or not doesn't matter. As parents, we must stand in between the world and them and say "Our home is going to worship God and God alone." If we don't do this, then please don't be surprised when our children grow up not loving God.