Albert Mohler visited the question Should Christians take their children out of the public schools? on this radio broadcast. This podcast also features a brief interview with Voddie Baucham on the issue.
Parenting
Book review: “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp.
There’s an old saying that many parents can be heard uttering: “I wish my children came with an instruction manual.” Well, children may not come equipped with an instruction manual, but I found the next best thing: Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp.
I just completed this book and found it to be the most helpful work on training and disciplining your children in the Lord that I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It has helped me in understanding my faults, what my goals should be, and how to facilitate Biblical principles and standards in the shepherding of the hearts of my children. This book has helped me greatly in how I approach the issues of discipline with my own children.
I highly recommend this book to parents and expecting parents. I read an older version of this book but you can purchase the revised/updated version here or here.
Sending our children to Caesar.
How to make your husband a false convert and cause your kids to reject the Christian faith.
Worldly wisdom from a Christian women’s magazine
on a matter already addressed in Scripture.
My wife still receives the magazine Today’s Christian Woman after subscribing to it a couple years ago (before we knew better). TCW is published by Christianity Today (which is a perfect name for it because it bears no resemblance to the Christianity of yesterday). TCW’s target audience is mainstream, affluent, suburban, women of the Laodicean church.
In their latest July/August issue, I came across a little blurb designed to help women get their unregenerate husbands into a church to warm a seat. I decided to reprint the blurb (which was adapted from a book) below for the readers of DefCon to see how far American Christianity has fallen.
Pew Partners.
Wish your spouse spent Sunday mornings with you? Choose a church with these man-friendly characteristics.
* Large congregation
* No denominational affiliation
* Strict Scriptural adherence
* Young, multiracial crowd
* Authoritative, male pastor
* Informal dress
* Modern technology
* Fun services
Adapted from How Women Help Men Find God by David Murrow (Thomas Nelson)
Granted, not all of the suggestions are bad, but the overall theme is what’s of concern (how much poison would you like in your glass of water?).
I can’t help but wonder what a mess this will create if someone follows this and it works. Instead of an unregenerate man who stays at home on Sunday mornings who could still possibly be reached with the gospel one day, you now have an unregenerate man sitting in a circus church on Sunday mornings who was manipulated into church by his wife and had his fleshly needs catered to by the ear-tickling pastor during one of those great modern technological church extravaganza shows.
Furthermore, the husband is now inoculated from the true gospel because he thinks himself in good standing with God because he’s begun attending church, (and no one in that church would dare challenge him to examine himself daily because that would be “judging”).
This spiritual self-deception will only be furthered if the husband ends up repeating a lifeless prayer of salvation after hearing a non-threatening, positive, upbeat, message on the life-lessons of King David during one of those “fun services” in which the pastor coaxed the audience to “try Jesus, He’ll make your life better.”
Sadly, unless a true conversion has taken place, this man will just be “playing church” and everything will remain the same as it was at home before he began attending church. His kids will grow up understanding what a true hypocrite looks like because daddy doesn’t act in church the way he acts throughout the rest of the week. This will more than likely turn his kids off to the Faith and they may rebel and reject Christianity based off this experience of growing up with a fake Christian in their midst.
But what does the Scriptures say about how a godly wife is to handle her unbelieving husband? Surprisingly it makes no mention of church attendance at all:
In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. (1 Peter 3:1-2)
Ahh, so according to Scripture, the real work is done in the home–in your everyday life–not in some church that caters to men’s needs.
By following the clear command of Scripture it would be better for the wife to remain faithful to the Lord’s instruction and not compromise, capitulate, and water-down her witness by resorting to manipulation in order to get dad to merely be a presence in a church.
It would be better for her children to grow up seeing the contrast between a godly mother and an ungodly father, and learn from their mother’s steadfast faithfulness to do what is commanded of her in Scripture. The above suggestions from TCW, however, would have the kids grow up with mom the compromiser of the faith, and dad the hypocrite of the faith.
What a train wreck we create when we attempt to do the job of the Holy Spirit and cajole, trick, manipulate, and force people into the kingdom of God via church attendance. But hey, all that matters is you got your “pew partner,” right?
Leading family worship and being the priest of your household. How?
I recently finished reading a fantastic book on family worship entitled The Family Worship Book by Terry L. Johnson. It was a great help in providing the reasons and resources to begin a daily family worship time (including creeds, catechisms, psalms, hymns, etc.). And although I highly recommend it, even after reading this book I still felt at a loss as to how to incorporate this into our home.
My family has recently begun practicing a family worship time but I still have a gnawing feeling that we’re just winging it. A typical evening devotion with the family goes like this:
Reading a few pages from a Bible-based childrens book like this childrens book on Noah’s Ark and this childrens book on Pilgrim’s progress.
Then singing a hymn.
Reading from Foxe’s Book of the Martyrs
Then reading a chapter of the Bible.
Then prayer.
I have recently discovered that I am not alone in this quizzical inability to properly facilitate a family devotion time. So it is my intention with this post to ask for suggestions, tips, and pointers from DefCon readers who do family devotions. I hope that the comments on this thread can benefit you and your family as well as me and my family.
Book review: “The Family Worship Book” by Terry L. Johnson
I recently completed The Family Worship Book by Terry L. Johnson. I found it to be a fantastic help in providing the reasons and resources to commit to a daily family devotion time (this, of course, is not at the exclusion of living every aspect of our lives as Believers not just during Sunday mornings and family devotion time).
This book (from a Reformed slant) has many resources contained within so these numerous reference sources are at your fingertips. Some of the things it contains are the Psalter, hymns, creeds, the children’s catechism, the shorter catechism, and a yearly Bible reading plan.
The chapters of this (almost 200 page) book include:
– Introduction to Family Worship
– Making the Commitment to Family Worship
– Outline for Family Worship
– Order for Family Worship
– A Sample of Family Worship
– Family Resources
– Historical Resources
– Family Psalter/Hymnal
I really enjoyed this book and found it to be a wealth of solid resources for family worship time. I highly recommend it for those who are seeking to begin (or improve) their family devotion time.
You can purchase the book here.
Sermon of the week: “The Ungodly Practice of Dating” by Tim Conway.
This week’s sermon is a must-hear for fathers; especially for father’s of daughters. This is a sermon that will definitely change your understanding on who is truly responsible for your daughter’s chastity and spiritual well-being.
In The Ungodly Practice of Dating, Pastor Tim Conway clearly lays out from the Bible how the father is ultimately responsible for the protection of his daughter.
Those familiar with Pastor Conway from previous sermons such as Hell is Necessary and The Fruits of Repentance will know that he pulls no punches and that this sermon on dating will certainly leave an impact.
Click on the link to listen streaming, or right click on the link and click “Save As” (Internet Explorer) or “Save Link As” (Mozilla) to save to your computer. From there you can burn this to a CD or upload it to your MP3 player.
Christ Alone Wyoming 