TRCradioVlog:Turning Hearts

JOB 1 - The Most Important Mission of the Church

JOB 1 - The Most Important Mission of the Church

Turning the hearts of the fathers toward the children and the hearts of the children toward the fathers in our own families and churches is paramount.

Not only was this the last message of the Old Testament, it was a warning. Unless this happened, a curse would come. But we are way past the days of believing in curses, right? Well at least curses over a whole land, right? First, no, we are not way past that at all, but really all it takes to be cursed is to have God stop blessing you for a bit. When God curses, it is not so much that He sends bad things as it is the cessation of His blessings.

In this instance, the blessing is tied to His presence. Ancient Israel constantly sought the Lord's presence as the highest blessing. But be careful to realize that this is not God giving us the cosmic silent treatment. We are the ones who push Him out of our presence.

I imagine it like this, I'm doing a project with my son and his friend comes and knocks on the door. He quickly bows out of the project to go play. I continue working on it, but it just isn't the same without him. Later though, he returns because his friend was being a bully and wants to reengage the project with me.

The reason our land (modern society) is cursed for the most part is the lack of real true father/child relationships. Not only have we found fathers to be wanting and absent, many who are present are abusive, manipulative, and selfish. They provoke and use their children rather than raise and teach them. Society also teaches our children to make their own decisions by using their own wisdom, their own morals, and their own agenda apart from any parental oversight; much less any patriarchal authority.

I recently learned of a teacher telling a little boy that they "should not listen to their dad at home...". Now, I get that this teacher was probably frustrated with something that the parent was teaching differently regarding what they were supposed to be payed to teach. However, my issue is with the fact that this child probably only heard, "don't listen to your dad".

The undermining of the authority of the parents, and the father in particular, is of no help to our society. In fact, it has taken us away from the presence of God and without Him, we are getting bullied around by the enemy.

So we must find a way to remedy this disease. Unless we can mend this critical relationship in our society, we will continue to unravel until there is little to no resemblance to what we were created to be as a people.

HOW?

I'll just list a few thoughts on remedy here and leave the rest to those of you who might comment, to come up with some more ideas on how we might facilitate the restoration of the paternal influence and the blessing of God's presence.

1. Prayer - Prayer, while severely misunderstood, is a most powerful weapon. Not only does prayer keep the issue at the forefront of our minds, it also establishes a thing in heaven in order to see it fulfilled here on the earth. Pray for this to become a reality for our world; that fathers everywhere would fall in love with being dad.

2. Kindness - This one approach, more than any other, will lead the generation of youth to repentance. It is the opposite provocation.

3. Respect - The young must learn to respect the authority and position of fatherhood and respond accordingly with honor and obedience. Learning this lesson actually relieves a lot of stress and pressure from a child.

Just these three things would revolutionize the nation. But what else might you suggest?

Please take a moment and post your own thoughts on how we might foster this removal of the curse.

Jesus Loves Evansville,

David Warren

Duck!

No, I'm not talking about this amazing water bird that I just saw fly by.  This is what you say to someone you care about when something is coming toward their head that promises to knock them for a loop.  Now either I don't have anybody on my side or I did not hear the warning, because my head is spinning and I have no idea which way is up right now.

Lucky for you, I am on your side and I care about what might knock you for a loop.  So,...DUCK!

Or maybe brace yourself might be a better term.  The problem is, if someone had told me to duck, I would have, and then I would not be able to partake in this divine moment.  So, I take that "duck" back (let's roast it) and give you a, "get ready and brace yourself" instead.

WHY, David?

Let me spare you the prophetic dance that led up to this and just jump right to the point.

The Old Testament ends with the book of Malachi. That book (along with the rest of the minor prophets) is all about "repentance" and "restoration".  I learned that from one of my Pastors.  The last verse in Malachi is Chapter 4:6; it reads -

     "And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to 
      their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse."

The "he" in that verse is John the Baptist who came in the spirit of Elijah the prophet who was a forerunner of Elisha's ministry.  Let me catch you up on what I just implied.  Elijah prefigured, or typed, John the Baptist and Elisha prefigured Jesus Christ.  This same scenario gets played out numerous times in the Old testament with different characters.  Here is the second layer though; John the Baptist prefigures the End-time Church and Jesus prefigures, well...Himself (His second coming or return).  We are called to walk in the spirit of Elijah just as John the Baptist did. 

HOW do we do this, David?

Well, let's take a peek at how John did his job.

     "Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying
     'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'  For this is the one referred to by Isaiah 
      the prophet..."
                                         - Matthew 3:1-3a

     "...he said to them, 'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the wrath to come?  Therefore,      
      bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say yourselves, 
     'We have Abraham for our father', for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise 
      up children to Abraham.  And the axe is already laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore 
      that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  As for me, I baptize you with 
      water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier that I, and i am not fit to remove 
      His sandals; He will baptize you with His Holy Spirit and fire.  and His winnowing fork is in 
      His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into 
      the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
                                          - Matthew 3:7b-12

First, his message is one of "repentance".  I pose the question, "Has the Church neglected her call to preach repentance?  I propose the answer that the Western Church has surely done this and replaced the message of repentance with a more palatable message of "feel bad" about your mistakes but don't forget how much God loves you anyway.  Don't get me wrong, God does love us all and grace is highly abusable, but "feel bad"?  No, "repent" means that we stop going in the direction we are headed and turn around.  Otherwise, the land is cursed.

Second, he sang the message that God was going to raise up children who would love Him and receive His love in return.  That, I believe, is us, but it is true also of Israel at some point in the future.  Another huge responsibility that we have thrown under the bus is that we are supposed to be praying for the peace of Jerusalem; that we are the ones who are supposed to be making Israel desire God more, not feel right about their decision to reject Him as Messiah. 

Third, He was also calling the religious leaders of the day to remember their duty to train those under their covering in righteousness and instruct them in the ways of God.  They had failed to do this correctly and were more interested in serving themselves than they were those who would be considered their spiritual children.

So, I make this one final drive here.  The Church has been called, on several fronts, to do one thing and one thing only.  The Church is to turn the hearts of the fathers back toward the children and the hearts of the children back toward the fathers. 

The three fronts:

1. All lost humanity back toward God (Globally)

2. Our own hearts back toward Israel and their hearts toward us (The Family of God)

3. The hearts of flesh and blood dads back toward their own children and the hearts of children back toward their own dads. (our own families)

I am convinced that this one mission in itself will remove the curse spoken of by Malachi and set us on a course of righteousness and unprecedented blessing.

Next posting, I hope to talk more about how we go about doing this in our own families first; then in later editions, the family of God and the rest of the world.

Bless You Tri-state,

David Warren

Changed

Changed.
That is pretty much what I was promised this lenten season as I entered in with what proved to be a pretty miserable 40 days (well, relative to a hangnail anyway). I gave up meat which was harder on my wife than it was me, but still fairly life altering as I had to be diligent about what I consumed. I wanted change to happen, but really just wanted to be a little stronger in my faith. More or less, I wanted something different to happen. I was showing up and I expected God to do the same.
As our pastor taught on lent and we prepared our hearts, I was asked to do a series of paintings for the church bulletins. I set about accomplishing those and immersed my heart and mind into the series and all that Passover and First-fruits were all about.
I learned again what my mother had taught me in Sunday School already, but my understanding was deeper. I learned that the ashes from ash Wednesday represented our mourning over our sins, that giving something up for lent had less to do with self-denial and more to do with self-death and allowing Jesus to be our life instead. The connection with Israel's 40 years of Manna started to make more sense to me.
I learned that Maundy Thursday's Passover Meal had less to do with what was on the doorposts of our homes and more to do with what was taking place deep within us.
I learned that Good Friday's darkness had less to do with shadows and shame but more to do with putting our swords away; forgiving those who would harm us.
I learned that the Saturday before Easter had less to do with hunting for eggs and more to do with hunting for what occurred during the last 40 days.
I learned that Easter Sunday had less to do with just an empty tomb with a woman crying in the garden and more to do with the resurrection of an entire people; that as the First-fruits, Jesus led the way out of death with a great laugh and asked, "Why are you weeping?"
As I steeped my life in the life of the Master these past 40 days, I was hoping for greater intimacy with Him, for a deep sense of His love for me and to express my love for Him. Being permeated by perfect love, I got more than I bargained for.
More or less,...
I have been changed.
Jesus Loves Evansville,
David Warren