First From Julie's keyboard:
While reading my husband's post dealing with "walking with God," I was stirred to ponder how truly blessed it would be to see men and women, boys and girls, everywhere desiring to "walk" in this fashion. It just seems this world about us tends to dance to the beat of a different drum.
Maybe today, you are such an one who has observed, more than once, that person in whom you had great confidence. They were most talented and were over loaded with everything that one needs to be esteemed as "having it all together," only to find out that their humanity and the fallen status of this world has left them short. Maybe you've watched their family lives fall apart, or a child go in the opposite direction of their upbringing. I think you're getting the setting that's being targeted with these thoughts.
At any rate, when we set out to walk with God, it just seems that a great place to begin would be to find out what He says in His Word and walk there.
Personally, I find more challenges in His Word by the day when compared with the way "culture" has impressed me to live on this earth. In my studies of His Word, I'm continually finding men of theology and relationship with the Lord who will say, "God means what He says and He says what He means." Yet, there are so many areas, especially in those Epistles, that teach us how to have successfully obedient families as the Lord would desire. Too often I've noticed that we hurriedly read through these passages (for whatever reason). Have we found them dated? Do they no longer apply in this culture? Have we been endowed with such wisdom that surely God has improved on what He had men of Holy Spirit inspiration write?
Could it be that the reason so many ideal situations ( as far as great families and relationships go) are not making the grade could be found in the fact that the simple Truth of God's Word and obedience to what He has set forth, has been ignored? For a good guideline for these thoughts, read the 2nd chapter of Titus and compare it to the average American lifestyle today. How many households do we know that seem to model this instruction?
Some would say, that applies to those trouble makers that Paul was always having to deal with in that era. I'm not sure that the Scripture indicates anywhere that we can apply the Truth with a smorgasbord approach. Actually, Paul told us that we must "rightly divided the word of truth." (ref. II Tim. 2:15)
May we pray one for another daily as we continue in this process called growth. The truth we know will make us free. When we know it, we will have a relationship with it that causes us to live therein.
Titus 2:12,13 "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"
Blessings in Christ,
Julie
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While reading my husband's post dealing with "walking with God," I was stirred to ponder how truly blessed it would be to see men and women, boys and girls, everywhere desiring to "walk" in this fashion. It just seems this world about us tends to dance to the beat of a different drum.
Maybe today, you are such an one who has observed, more than once, that person in whom you had great confidence. They were most talented and were over loaded with everything that one needs to be esteemed as "having it all together," only to find out that their humanity and the fallen status of this world has left them short. Maybe you've watched their family lives fall apart, or a child go in the opposite direction of their upbringing. I think you're getting the setting that's being targeted with these thoughts.
At any rate, when we set out to walk with God, it just seems that a great place to begin would be to find out what He says in His Word and walk there.
Personally, I find more challenges in His Word by the day when compared with the way "culture" has impressed me to live on this earth. In my studies of His Word, I'm continually finding men of theology and relationship with the Lord who will say, "God means what He says and He says what He means." Yet, there are so many areas, especially in those Epistles, that teach us how to have successfully obedient families as the Lord would desire. Too often I've noticed that we hurriedly read through these passages (for whatever reason). Have we found them dated? Do they no longer apply in this culture? Have we been endowed with such wisdom that surely God has improved on what He had men of Holy Spirit inspiration write?
Could it be that the reason so many ideal situations ( as far as great families and relationships go) are not making the grade could be found in the fact that the simple Truth of God's Word and obedience to what He has set forth, has been ignored? For a good guideline for these thoughts, read the 2nd chapter of Titus and compare it to the average American lifestyle today. How many households do we know that seem to model this instruction?
Some would say, that applies to those trouble makers that Paul was always having to deal with in that era. I'm not sure that the Scripture indicates anywhere that we can apply the Truth with a smorgasbord approach. Actually, Paul told us that we must "rightly divided the word of truth." (ref. II Tim. 2:15)
May we pray one for another daily as we continue in this process called growth. The truth we know will make us free. When we know it, we will have a relationship with it that causes us to live therein.
Titus 2:12,13 "Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"
Blessings in Christ,
Julie
_________________________________________________
"A man who walked with God"Dr. Benjamin Rush pictured to the left here was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. He rose to great heights of achievement in many fields in life and received great national fame. President John Adams described him as one of America's three most notable Founding Fathers, ranking him alongside George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Yet, I doubt you will find 1 in 100 Americans who even know who he is. That statistic is of my own guesstament, so I made a few phone calls to friends I know to ask them if they ever heard of Benjamin Rush. No one had even heard of him, I had them ask their kids, none had ever heard of Him.
We are all looking for great role models for our children, how about some of our own American men and women of history. I wonder what kind of influence Dr. Rush would have on our children? What would he say to them if he could speak to us today? Glad you asked, in the New Testament we find this testimony of one of the Prophet's of God, speaking of Enoch it says, "He walked with God"
As Dr. Rush found himself the object of praise and public acclaim in America during his time, on January 31, 1777, he wrote to his beloved wife, Julia: "I shall be better satisfied if the same can be said of me as was said of the prophet of old, 'That I walked in the fear of the Lord, and begat sons and daughters' than if it were inscribed upon my tombstone that I governed the councils or commanded the arms of the whole continent of America." ~ Benjamin Rush. Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. Butterfield (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1951). Vol. I, p. 132, to Julia Rush, January 31, 1777.
Our American government tastes of the flavor of the faith of our Founding Fathers, yet it seems that flavor is becoming distasteful to many in our nation. Some because they just don't like it, many because they have just never tasted yet, it is a flavor that is not offered or taught to our youth anymore. O that such men as Benjamin Rush would be made much of in American Academia today. I would encourage you to study the life of Dr. Benjamin Rush.
May God bless each of you,
David
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