Youth, Discipleship, and the Centrality of the Home

Several articles in the April 6 issue of the Southern Baptist Texan impacted my affections as I read them.  They exhibit a major passion of mine: the centrality of the family in discipling children.

Tammie Reed Ledbetter addresses the research related to youth who prefer expository preaching. Even though this article is not directly related to the centrality of the home, it does relate to the importance of good doctrine and the sufficiency of Scripture in discipling young people.

One Texas church is turning toward a more family-integrated approach.  This article relates the major success of that church.

The newsjournal also included a post  from Eric Bridges, an IMB correspondent, who discussed the rise of formerly evangelical young people who now claim to have no religious affliation.  He examines the idea that this tragedy lies at the feet of parental failure to disciple their children.

I am greatly affected by these articles because they go the heart of my calling toward biblical manhood.  They strike the alarming chord reminding me of my call to prepare to disciple my children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  It is not the youth pastor’s job to teach my kids.  That lies at my feet.  May we all tremble at the responsibility and weight the Lord calls on Fathers, and may we awaken to God’s intended purpose for the family.

Working with you for the Family and for our children,

Vince R.

The Root of Roe v. Wade: The Contraception Mentality

Here is a powerful examination of the current “contraception mentality.”

Check out this compelling excerpt:

“We submit, therefore, that children are now being aborted in the flesh, because they have already been, in large measure, aborted from the mind.”

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Thank you to Bro. Hank for bringing this the current issue of Touchstone Magazine to my attention.  Go visit his biblicaly charged engagment with the Pro-life movement over at Lawn Gospel.

Working with you for Life,

Vince R.

Fathers Count and Family Matters

“He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” Psalm 78:4-7

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ’Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:1-4

It is of most profound interest that the Lord calls Fathers to account about the teaching of their children. Mothers, of course, do this as well, but the Scriptures constantly give a heavy specific command to Fathers to be the primary teacher and instructor of the home.  This is of great importance when one considers recent statistics.

Even in the secular world, where such patriarchy is sneered at and despised, one finds it interesting that even they, with their post modern worldview, can not escape the eternal reality of a Father’s impact in the lives of his children.

In my education class this year, we are reading a book called, “The Act of Teaching.” In the second chapter, I found a shocking reminder of this inescapable truth.  The authors write:

“This brings us to the importance of having a father in the home.  ‘Children who grow up with fathers do far better…in every way we can measure than children who do not.  This holds true [regardless of race, class and income].  The simple truth is that fathers are irreplaceable in shaping the character of their children. (Blankenhom in Alexander; 2005).

Here are some supportive, sobering statistics.  Children in fatherless homes account for 71 percent of dropouts, 85 percent of kids with behavioral disorders, 63 percent of teen suicides, 70 percent of juveniles in detention centers, 85 percent of youths in prison, 75 percent of those in chemical abuse treatment centers, 80 percent of rapists, and 90 percent of homeless and runaways.  Whithead, a counselor at a juvenile detention center, challenges that ‘if you find a gang member who comes from a complete nuclear family, I’d like to meet him…I don’t think he exists’ (ibid.).  Cole adds, “Maturity does not come with age, but with the responsibility of one’s actions.  The lack of effective, functioning fathers is the root cause of America’s social, economic and spiritual crisis’ (ibid).” (The Act of Teaching, p. 30, 2008.)

This is absolutely fascinating to me.  Here we have a secularized textbook on education that cites studies and statistics that support an eternal truth of Fatherhood, namely, that fathers contribute to the stability of civilization.  I cannot help but re-type that last sentence:

“The lack of effective, functioning fathers is the root cause of America’s social, economic and spiritual crisis.”

I recall a prophetically articulated comment from my pastor at home: ‘The hope for America does not rest in any election.  The hope of America rests in the hands of fathers who hold fast to the gospel.’

It seems, indeed, that fathers are irreplaceable, and the family truly matters.  Asaph in Psalm 82:3 prays, “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute,” and I hope we will join with him.

Working with you to wave high the banner of God’s first institution and to stand firmly upon its truth,

Vince R.

A “Pregnant Man,” Rampant Confusion, and the Only Answer

What's the Difference?

Over the twentieth century, the culture has produced alarmingly unnatural images and revisionist definitions of the identity of the sexes.  Only this year, it produced what many of you have heard as the ‘pregnant man.’  This is not a man.  This is a woman.  Men don’t get pregnant, but the culture would have the term ‘pregnant man’ printed across its billboards, in its magazine articles, and on its Internet websites.  The culture wants you to think that a ’pregnant man’ is truly a natural occurrence.

Friends, I think we can see from this that when there is no biblical worldview, confusion persists and truth is suppressed.  We must notice, first and foremost, that this wave of media-driven confusion and propagation speaks of the signs of the times.  It is people ‘deceiving and being deceived.’

Our enemy is not this woman who had an operation or her partner who I’m not even sure if it is a man or a woman, but it is Satan and his forces.  We do not war against flesh and blood.  We war against the principalities, the spiritual rulers of this present darkness.  They are actual persons who want lives to be ruined by belief in half-truths and lies about manhood and womanhood.

As such, the topic of my discussion is this confusion; it is a confusion about truth.  It is a confusion about what defines a man and what defines a woman.  The culture will not find truth in the way it is going.  The world and its wisdom is not the source of truth.

Jesus Christ is that truth, and he is that way.  Sorrowfully, I assert that the constant hatred that the culture has for people like me who will boldly say that men and women are different will not cease.  It will only get worse.  With a heavy heart, I truly hate what Satan is doing to those lost souls and most certainly what he will do to that poor baby, whose life will echo more and more confusion because her ‘parents’ are just as confused and blinded by the god of this age.

Satan wants confusion.  He wants disorder and anarchy.  He knows that God took disorder and anarchy and made it into the heavens and the earth.  God is the author of order, not the author of confusion.  He has clearly layed out in his word the definition and distinct purposes of men and women.  It all goes back to the created order of God, but sadly, the culture reflects the fall from that order more and more everyday.  Even more tragically, this fallen worldview has crept into our churches, and numerous Christians are just as confused about manhood and womanhood.

Recently, I heard news about a Christian friend, two years younger than I, who just got pregnant out of wedlock.  This is mostly tragic, not because of the sinful occurrence (which is tragic enough), but more so because of the failure of God’s people to help her understand biblical manhood and womanhood long before this happened. By God’s grace, his people will be there to support and love her in this hard and heavy time.  By God’s grace, the baby will be born and stand as testimony to the redemptive power of Jesus Christ in bringing my friend and her partner through this for his glory and for their good.  May they be saved or sanctified during this difficult time.

It is most sad to me that this topic is not being addressed in our pulpits.  Where it is being addressed, it is mostly ambiguous and curt.  “Don’t have sex until your married,” is the message that we hear.  But how to do that, how to keep a pure heart, how young men are to treat young women with respect and honor, work hard, display integrity, and take leadership, and how young women are to model modesty, support and be led by young men, and display virtuous femininity–these are not being taught. I believe that a pastor must be willing to lose his pulpit over this issue.  It is that important to Christian discipleship, Christian sanctification, Christian maturity, and most of all, the propagation of the gospel to a lost world that needs more of the ordered gospel and less of its own seemingly chaotic self.

Nevertheless, the condition of today’s young evangelical Christians reflects this lack of passionate biblical teaching and discipleship.  As a result, hearts are broken in many ways, and they continue to break up into adulthood, where their children will learn the same confusion. 

Mostly, this is due to young men who are more like little boys.  They are passive, uninterested, and predatory in their minds, viewing women as meat to be seduced rather than hearts to be earned.  They would rather wait patiently during the church services, content with the Lord’s work being done by someone else.  They are consumed with want of possessions (trucks and i-phones), want of comparison (viewing their muscles as more indicative of their character than their hearts), want of women (not with respect but with lust).  Chivalry is dying, and passivity is reigning strongly.  Manhood, for them, is not to be considered until marriage, and it is largely ignored before it.  They’ll play video games and watch funny you-tube sequences before they’ll study their Bibles and cultivate a life in the Word.  They would rather not think of fatherhood or leading a young woman spiritually.  ‘That is too hard, and I’m too young to think about that,’ one of them might say.  Yet for some reason, they think that on that day, when they’re married, they’ll be magically able to lead and protect and provide without any prior training or discipleship from their father’s or from older men in their church.  In fact, they despise any godly advice from their elders.  More so, these fathers and older men often don’t even know how to lead them themselves.  It is the fruit of Satan’s subtle work over many years.

On the other side of the gender, young women are more aggressive, in their words, in their actions and in their hearts.  They would be the ones to make the first move and take the initiative in almost all spheres of social life.  They would be the ones to entice young men with their bodies, wearing clothes that fifty years ago only a prostitute would wear.  They would be the ones to view marriage unbiblically, seeking fulfillment in their boyfriends rather than Jesus Christ, their God-friend.  They despise God’s intent for glad and nurturing motherhood, seeking rather to create a career, a name, and a paycheck.  Many view children as burdens and not as blessings.  Abortions, for this reason, are rampant, and corporations (I choose that word specifically) like Planned Parenthood would have them continue to think that way.  Feminism is killing our churches and ruining the lives of our young women.

In many larger metropolises, the public school system would have condoms and contraceptives in the hands of fifth graders, while the parents merely gawk, jaws dropped to the ground.  Or maybe they’re supportive of this usurpation of parental authority which is even sadder.  Parents may wonder just how raped their children’s minds truly are when their daughter has her first period at age eight or their son asks about a woman’s body at an age when, in my day, I was just enamored with my Star Wars action figures. 

Friends, I’m less concerned about lost people acting like lost people.  I’m more concerned because this is so rampant in our own pews.  Regenerate membership is a dirty idea today, and church discipline is a four-letter word.  This is tragic because those lost people just can’t seem to tell the difference between Christians and Agnostics, both of which are just as involved in pre-martial intimacy.

People will not like what I write in this essay.  My younger friends will call me a ‘twenty-year old fossil’ or a hyper-conservative hung-up male chauvinist because of what I say.  Older folks will say that I’m too young to know what I’m saying, and too inexperienced to have any authority to speak this way.  To them all I say, my only authority is God’s own word.

I’m okay with that now.  It once haunted me to consider what people would think of me because of these convictions for which I stand.  My social popularity is not what is at stake.  Rather, their souls are at stake.  This is because this issue, if you read my recent post on whether it’s 4th order doctrine or not, is so important.  It strikes at the core of a biblical understanding of marriage.  We don’t model this because it’s just tradition.  That is a sorry and pathetic reason to want to do marriage and gender roles like this.

The core issue here is that men and women are to relate in such a way that symbolizes the gospel.  A man must look up at his crucified savior with tears in his eyes and then turn to his wife and say, “That’s how I’m supposed to love you.”  A woman is to look at that same cross with tears in her eyes and then turn and look at her husband and say, “I will be there to support and love you the whole way up that Calvary hill.”

For you see, that is why the world hates the biblical understanding of manhood and womanhood.  They hate it because it mirrors the stumbling block of the gospel of God.   Are we preaching the gospel in our marriages and relationships?  That is the heart of the issue.  Is Christ being made much of in this? That is the goal of the entire institution of marriage.

Here is my thesis:  the only answer to the confusion of biblical manhood and womanhood is the gospel.

The once for all propositional truth of justification by faith in Christ alone is the answer to that scared and trembling young woman with that weight in her stomach as she sits in that cold waiting room at the clinic wondering if she’s doing the right thing.

The truth of penal substitutionary atonement is the answer to that facade of bravado as the young man sits next to that girl just as scared and confused and unable to understand what went wrong because now manhood means more than just seducing girls.

The truth of the resurrection with power is the answer to those comfortable young men who don’t know how to lead and so are just as content letting the girls do everything.

Because of an infantile understanding of Christ’s finished and complete work, all other spheres of life will grow weaker and weaker until understanding of truth has vanished and the church looks just like the world. 

God’s gospel will heal all wounds, will order all chaos, and will model servant leadership for young men, and glad submission for young women.

Go back to the old old story, Christians! That will set you rightly. It’s a biblical guarantee.

Working with you to cast down all confusion and to bow humbly before that old rugged cross,

Vince R.

4th Order Doctrine? I think not…

I just wanted to ask for prayers from my brothers and sisters.  I pray for two things: grace and boldness.

As I am approaching the school year when the ministry with which the Lord has blessed me begins more consistently in my local church (as students begin to come back to class), I am bombarded with ridiculous voices that tempt me to worry.  There are in fact many voices.  I must cut them down with God’s sharp word.

Most particulary, I ask for prayer on this issue.  I may be bringing up a biblical principle in my opportunities of vocal influence that might make some people uncomfortable.  I am truly frightened at this prospect and more disgusted that this prospect exists.

That Biblical Manhood and Womanhood is so hated in today’s evangelical church is quite tragic.  That anyone who brings up what God says on the matter must face the scorn and contempt of fellow Christians is quite pathetic.  I don’t believe this issue is forth order doctrine.  My friends, it is much more important than the details of each other’s end times theology.  It is God’s created order and God’s own word that’s facing attack.  What results and has been resulting is tragic.  I am seeing lives around me flounder and burn because of so much confusion on this subject.  It must be addressed. 

“Just as in the days of the Apostles, so as this day we are forced to hear from certain denominations that we (by our obstinacy to adhere to the truth) do offend against love and unity in the churches, because we reject their doctrine. It would be better (they say) that we should let it pass, especially since the doctrine in dispute is what they call ‘non-essential’, and, therefore (they say) to stir up so great a discord and contention in that church over one or two doctrines (and those not the most important ones) is ‘unfruitful’ and ‘unnecessary’. To this I reply: Cursed be that love and unity which cannot be preserved except at the peril of the word of God.” – Martin Luther

If for some reason, you don’t agree on the importance of this subject, then I ask that you would pray that God would show that to me.  Right now, it would take a massive wave of illumination to convince me otherwise.  Thankfully, our God controls waves.

Working with you to engage with grace and truth where error persists,

Vince R.

A Woeful Decision in a Popular Ministry

As many of you know, I’m not a big fan of Rob Bell. I put that nicely.  Here’s another reason why.  http://www.theresurgence.org/jeff_robinson_2004_engaged_by_the_culture.