What Would Jesus Do?                        8/26/2008

     Today I learned something about the generation that some refer to as the Mosaics, that is the new teen generation that will be active when ( as some believe ) Christ returns.  According to Barna Research the teens of today are suffering from declining morality.  What does Biblical history show us?

      1 Kings 3:3. And Solomon (the son of David) loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
 

      Solomon was soon corrected by the Lord himself...

      1 Kings 3:14. "So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.''

       Notice that Solomon was reaching (to emulate his father David )  while his father, David, sought God and wanted walk in God's ways and in His statutes. 

      The end of Solomon's rule He found all things around him to be vain, worthless except for one thing...

      Ecclesiastes 12:13-14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil.

      The richest man in the world came to the conclusion that God's way was the better way.

       What does the word say about our children?

        Proverbs 22:6. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

        This does not mean to train a child by the mistakes that you've made, because just to avoid your mistakes is not an indicator of the correct way to go.  Consider, if North is the incorrect direction, not only are South, West and East options, but so are North-North-East as well as South-South-West.  In fact, UP and DOWN are valid directions.  Yet, if God requires that we go EAST and your best advise is "not North", then there is a serious problem with our advise and council. 

       So, what is the right thing to tell our young people today who are the children and grandchildren of parents of the 60's and 70's where "sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll" were pervasive?  Is it good enough to say, "Don't do what I did?"  Is it correct to say, "Just don't get into the trouble I got into."

       In Biblical history, there is something not often talked about in the modern day churches:

        Leviticus 18: 21. And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

        This was a particular time when people were sacrificing their children, willingly, to death to appease a deity  out of fear.  Yet Jesus speaks (He says, "I am the Lord", and Jesus is the Lord) effectively saying "Stop killing your kids for no good reason!" 

       How different it is to have the Lord request that we train up our children in the way HE should go.  In order to do this, it remains that WE need to change to know the correct direction HE should go.  The thing that will make a difference in YOUR family is when YOU make a change, learn the direction YOU should go, then take your children on the CORRECT path, not just ANY path. 

       Jesus was on the right path.  He demonstrates it by saying:

       John 8:38. "I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.''

       So, Jesus learned FROM His Father and brought the learning that He received FROM His Father with Him to evangelize the world, one person at a time.  You as Fathers and Mothers have the child that God placed in your care.  You as children have been given into the care of your parents.  Rather than give-up, how about giving it a try and learning about God, then share it with your kid.

        What would Jesus do?  He would do what His Father taught Him.

         May your father do the same for you.  May you do well with your children. 

         Let no child be left behind.