You Can't Be A Baby All Your Life

When a man accepts Jesus as his personal Lord and Saviour, his eyes are opened to see God. His mind can perceived the Word of God and his will incline to godly life.

This is the beginning of a Christian, birthed into the family of God. He comes in as an infant and don’t even know what to say. All he knows is that he has received Jesus into his heart. Now, he is to grow out of that stage. He is to grow to a child, then to an adult, and become full grown in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God's will for us is to grow up in spiritual maturity; to become like Jesus. "For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son" (Romans 8:29). He wants us to develop the character of Christ. The big question then, is how do we become mature in Christ? The answer is that we read, believe and obey. It's the application of the Word: become doers of the Word; don't just hear it and deceive yourself (James 1:22). Don't call yourself a Christian and then not practice Christianity.

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." (Ephesians 4:14-15).

The evidence of Christian maturity is not just in what we know, but how our lives and words speak to others. When we allow God complete control in our lives, we become mature in Him.

A mature Christian is one who exercises godly wisdom and does not become disillusioned by the things that people do, but, rather, stays focused on Christ.

Colossians 2:6-8 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

"God is not honored by our arrested development. The New Testament teaches that we should go on to full maturity, that mediocrity is not the highest that Jesus offer!" - A.W. Tower

Why married?

It’s school holidays soon – and we are all going to be swamped with wedding invitations to attend. I attended two wedding dinner within a week, and will be attending another in 3 weeks time. The question that is always ringing in my head is whether the marriage will last, whether there is a matched compatibility, and most importantly whether the flame of love will continue to burn despite the wind?

In today’s society, the focus is not on the longevity of the union, but on lavish gowns, adornments, gifts, gold necklaces, diamond rings and five-star hotel reception.

Marriage is the process by which two people who love each other make their relationship public, official, and permanent. It is the joining of two people in a bond that putatively lasts until death, but in practice is increasingly cut short by divorce. Of course, over the course of a relationship that can last as many as seven or eight decades, a lot happens. Personalities change, bodies age, and romantic love waxes and wanes. And no marriage is free of conflict. What enables a couple to endure is how they handle that conflict. So how do you manage the problems that inevitably arise? And how can you keep the spark alive?

I heard joke about marriage and money, because they say you can’t sustain a marriage if you don’t have enough money. But if you’re a Muslim and you have too much money, you also have the itch to expand your series of women, often resulting in more headaches than happiness.

Real happiness is overcoming our negativity and beginning to count our blessings so we can experience the mysterious beauty of life. It is about learning to surrender, release the need to control and allow our lives to unfold in its own unique and organic way. Happiness is a choice that only we can make.

Hugh Downs once wrote, "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes".

Essence of happiness is love. You are genuinely kind, generous, open, warm and friendly. In marriage, two unique individuals are bound together in a most intimate and demanding relationship.

Successful marriages are not perfect or made in heaven but rather well managed. Accept the realities of day-to-day life, and work within it. It is important that marriages be sustained and improved upon.

“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person” – Mignon McLaughlin.

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. - Hebrews 13:4

Honoring our parents

Honoring parents is not the same as loving them, or even the same as obeying them. Some children who obey their parents, who say they love their parents, do not honor them. To honor is to show reverence, respect, and godly fear. Already here it is wonderful to see that the relationship of children to parents is patterned after the relationship of us to our heavenly Father. When we are called to honor God, we reverence, respect, and fear Him. We are not afraid of God, but reverence Him. Likewise, if any children are afraid of their parents, the parents would do well carefully to examine their behavior. Children respect their parents as we respect God.

Honoring parents includes loving them. This ought to be plain to children who know that the fifth commandment is part of the second table of the law. The heart of this second table is to love the neighbor. Since parents are the children's closest neighbor, obedience to the fifth commandment is loving the parents. This is not a natural love - - loving because the parents gave them birth and feed them. This is a spiritual love that comes from a heart that loves God.

Third, honoring parents means submitting to them. This is crucial. It's not enough that the children say, "I know that God put these parents over me; I love them; I honor them; I respect them in my heart." The children must submit to them. Here is where children have a difficult time. Suppose dad must rebuke his son. Son stands with his arms on his side, defiant while dad speaks. Even though son may obey dad, he shows that he is rebelling in his heart. This is not the way we behave towards our Father in heaven. Children who love their parents will submit, with an attitude that shows it.

Fourth, honor includes obedience. If the children honor their parents, they will obey them - - both of them. The 5th commandment says, "Honor thy father and thy mother." Deuteronomy 21 speaks of a son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother. Ephesians 6:1 says, "Children, obey your parents." It used to be that when pastors gave the warning about this part of the commandment that children needed to be exhorted to honor their mother. Nowadays the warning is in order that the children honor their father. From television programs to the Berenstein Bears, father is mocked as a bumbling oaf. But disrespect of father or mother is serious business. If children do not obey both parents, they really honor neither, for the parents are one.

This does not mean that children must always obey their parents. If parents command the children to disobey God, the children must disobey them, using the same reasoning that Peter did with the rulers of Jerusalem who commanded him not to preach about Jesus: "We ought to obey God rather than man" (Acts 5:29). But children still must honor their parents, submitting to them always, just as Peter and the disciples still honored those in authority, submitting to them and not rebelling.

We parents must work our entire life teaching our children to honor us. We do this by being honorable ourselves - - by behaving honorably at home. Mother honors her husband in all things (I Peter 3:1-6). Father loves his wife by caring for her in humility (I Peter 3:7); by honoring those in authority over them, obeying the laws. respecting the president, police, judge, and employer (I Peter 2:13-18).

Why must children honor their parents?

Not simply because God says so. This is part of the reason. God says, "Honor your parents". Children often do not like to hear this, but sometimes this must be the last word: "Obey because God says so." Paul brings this out in Ephesians 6 when one of the reasons given for children to honor their parents is, "For this is right"! Indeed, this is the first reason given, but it is not the only reason.

Nor must they obey this commandment of God because they fear dad's punishment. Chastisement is a deterrent to disobedience, but it certainly is not the reason for obedience. And yet it's not infrequent that this is the reason given by children. Is it fear of punishment that drives us to obey God? God forbid!

Children honor their parents because they are thankful. Children of God honor and obey Him because they are thankful for their salvation. This is the beauty of the Reformed faith! I love God because He first loved me; therefore I honor Him! Children, honor your parents because you are thankful to God for everything He is for you.

Especially, they must honor their parents because their parents are over them in the place of God. The Reformed Heidelberg Catechism says, "since it pleases God to govern us by their hand". Parents are the "hand of God" upon the children.

These reasons show how serious dishonor is. First, dishonor shows that children are not thankful, do not love their parents. This is dreadful! More dreadful is that dishonor shows a failure to love God. For obedience to the second table of the law ("love you neighbor" is evidence of our obedience to the first table ("love God").

May God forgive our children, lest His great judgments come upon them (Deut. 21:18-21). God grant grace to our children to fight against their sinful nature, to love their parents, to love God, "that it may be well with them, and that they may live long on the earth" (Ephesians 6:3), and eternally in heaven. May God grant it. For His glory.

article written by Rev. Barry Gritters