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Murder

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Ties in the Social Distance #26: Proverbs 12:16–Kindness to Animals

Posted on April 20, 2020

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons  for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:

My Favorite Proverbs: The importance of kindness to animals. 

“A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:16).

The World Animal Protection organization is in London and is a strong advocate for the humane treatment of animals, but the better known organization in the US is PETA, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  A quick glance at their website will raise most Christians’ eyebrows. The lead headline is “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”  The site asserts that animals and people are no different, and that the word “others” in the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12) applies to animals and humans alike. Bible believers know that these folks have failed to consult the Word.  The Creator of animals, it seems to me, ought to get a say in these matters:  

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26).

“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Gen. 9:1-3).

“Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey” (Matt. 3:4). 

Scripture often seems to answer questions it anticipates being asked in the future.  The Proverbs writer warns against cruelty to animals in our text today,  but on the same page, Proverbs 12:27, says, “The lazy man does not roast what he took in hunting, but diligence is man’s precious possession.”  Solomon obviously didn’t consider hunting, killing, and eating animals to be cruelty.

But that doesn’t mean this Proverb teaches nothing important.  Using animals for clothing, food, transportation, and companionship is not cruel, but abusing them without regard for their pain is cruelty. Furthermore, I doubt you’ll find a man who thus abuses animals and also treats humans as he should.  There is a connection in there somewhere.  One of the ways we teach our children to be gentle with other children is to teach them to be gentle with puppies.  

It may very well be that God’s prohibition against abusing animals is less about the animals and more about what such abuse says about us.

 

Bible Time with Glenn and Cindy:

Review the events about David and Bathsheba with your kids.

Tonight’s lesson is from 2 Samuel 11:25:

Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.”

I. Read and explain the verse to your kids. Notice with the kids how that David also wanted to encourage Joab to not worry about the horrible sin they’d committed. Have them see that people often think it will make them feel better about their own sin if they can try to make other people feel better about doing wrong. Sin makes sort of a “club” for “Let’s make each other feel better about this bad thing we are doing.” Talk with your kids about a list of things we might say to help each other “feel better” about sin. 

 

  1. “People do this all the time.” (That’s what Joab was saying when he mentioned Abimelech.)
  2. “This is not as bad as what some people do.” (People who are social drinkers talk about how they are not drunkards. People who dress immodestly often point out that what they wear is a lot better than what ___________ wears. For small children, it might be that “I sometimes get a checkmark by my name at school for misbehavior, but I never get five checkmarks like ________does.”
  3. No one will ever know.” (For your teens, perhaps talk about pornography addictions. For younger children, maybe something like when they hide a mess and pretend they cleaned it up. I’m sure you can think of applicable things in your specific case.)
  4. “God will forgive us later, when it’s a good time to do the right thing.” (If you’re talking with teens, talk about premarital sex. Almost always, premarital sex, committed with intentions to marry later, never does even end in marriage; it ends in regret. Even if it does end in marriage, it still ends in regret, for God’s people, because it is sin.)
  5. “We can always make different choices later, if this turns out wrong.”  Let’s just live our best life now. ( A good example is Abraham lying about Sarah. He thought it was so temporary. [Gen.12 and Gen. 20]. Another example is when couples move in together or marry and say “Let’s try this and see how it works out.”)
  6. People still look up to us. We are doing a lot of things right.” (Solomon must have thought this when he was the richest man in all the world and yet was idolatrous.)
  7. “We can’t confess this. It would hurt our influence.” (Joseph’s brothers lived the consequence of their treatment of Joseph and the deceit that followed for many years. After all, their family was prominent  in their community.)
  8. “It’s okay. We are just going through a hard time right now.” (People who may cheat on their income taxes or take things that do not belong to them are examples of this rationalizing.)
  9. “I know it was wrong, but we did it to help someone else.” (Example: When people lie in order to make someone happy.)
  10. “I know this is against what the Bible says, but I just think God wants me to be happy.” (Example: When people marry people to whom they have no right.

Talk about each one of these things and see if your children can think of examples of people today, or people in Scripture, who may be thinking/ have thought this way. Obviously, you will have to adjust this conversation to fit the maturity levels of your children. You may want to omit some of the points for very young children. I included some examples for possible discussion above. 

The point of tonight’s lesson is that people can think of a good “reason” to do any bad thing that they want to do. They can also make it seem like it’s not so bad after they do it and they can comfort each other into thinking it’s not so bad. Try to remind your children of this throughout the day tomorrow when they may make excuses for disobedience or argue about what you tell them to do. There’s never a good reason to do the wrong thing or to disobey. 

II. Also, notice with your children that it’s easier to do the wrong thing when someone is helping you. People who disobey God love to get other people to do it with them. Joab and David encouraged each other to do the wrong thing. They were a “sin team” led by David. Ask your children if they have ever had someone who tried to get them to be on their sin team. “Has anyone ever tried to get you to do the wrong thing with them?”

Quote the KidSing rule.

Pray with your children. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Ties in the Social Distance #25: Proverbs 12:5–Seeking Wise Counsel

Posted on April 17, 2020

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons  for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:

My Favorite Proverbs:  Seeking wise counsel when I don’t know what to do (Prov. 12:5, KJV). 

“The thoughts of the righteous are right, but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.”

I love this proverb for its practicality.  Many have been the times of my life when I’ve reached out for the mature advice of faithful Christians in whose judgment I place trust.  It has always benefitted me to hear, not only the answer to my question, but the sound, Scripturally-anchored reasoning it took to reach the answer.  Just now, the faces of these people—my “great cloud of witnesses”—flood my mind.  Many of them have now gone to the other side.

To seek advice from a man or woman who has no Bible-based compass is a mistake. Many have listened to worldly counsel and made life-altering mistakes.

Go from the presence of a foolish man, when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge (Prov. 14:7).

I’ve occasionally encountered people who, in their hearts, knew the right decision at some crossroad, but foolishly chose someone who would say the opposite.  The person seeking the advice already knew he’d be told exactly what he wanted to hear and, on that very basis, chose the counselor.  This often happens in reference to marriage problems when people deliberately choose counselors who are not Christians.  I’ve heard people in such problems say it plainly to their spouses, “I’ll go to counseling with you so long as it isn’t  a member of the church.”  That’s a sad mistake.

Titus 2:3-5 has always seemed so practical for young women: “The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish (other translations: train, teach, urge) the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”  Imagine the foresight of a teenage woman knocking on the door (or even popping up in the email) of an older Christian woman and asking, “Can we talk about a decision I need to make?”

Are you struggling with some dilemma or some difficult question about life or marriage or child-rearing, or a relationship at work, and you need sound advice?  Choose someone you know will be objective, balanced, and above all, someone who knows the Bible. That’s the person who can see the future best. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psa. 119:105).

Family Bible Time with Glenn and Cindy

1. Read or paraphrase 2 Samuel 11: 18-24. Explain the tragic event to your children. Tell them, for now, that Joab had Uriah killed in the battle, just like David had asked him to do. Then Joab told a messenger to go back to David and let him know, for sure, that Uriah was dead. He told him to tell David in crafty terms, so that the servant would not realize, as he was telling David, that they had murdered Uriah. Joab wanted everyone to think it was just one of those things that happens in a war. 

Make some memorable points as you talk about this horrible decision and death of a good man. 

2. Joab found a crafty way to let David know that Uriah was dead. He even acted like he thought David would be mad because of the decision to fight close to the wall and because they had lost a valuable soldier like Uriah. There was a lot of pretending going on here. Joab knew that David would actually be very relieved (in a sick kind of way) that Uriah was dead. Explain this to all of your children. 

3. Have older kids turn to Judges 9:50-55 and read for themselves the account of Abimelech that Joab told the messenger to rehearse to David. Tell them that Joab was trying to both hide the sin of murder from the messenger and make David feel better about the “casualty” of war that Uriah was on that day of battle. “After all, sometimes it has been a great thing to fight up near the wall.”  All of this little speech of the messenger was a huge “code-speech” for “Your plan has worked. Uriah is dead and it all looks good. I believe you (we) can get away with this murder.” Tell them that Joab and David’s friendship had been ruined now by their joint commission of this horrible sin. Their days of innocent friendship were over. There would always be the memory of this terrible sin between them. Encourage them to always keep friendships pure and holy. Never have sinful secrets between friends. It forever ruins great relationships. 

4. Try to make a list, at this point, of all the people that David has involved in his sin. He is hurting people all around while trying to protect himself. The list will be something like this:

Himself

Bathsheba

Uriah

Messenger who got Bathsheba

Servants when Uriah came to place

Joab

The other soldiers who were fighting alongside Uriah and retreated

The other soldiers who died beside Uriah

The messenger sent by Joab back to David

5. Make a strong point to your children that sin hurts good people and bad people. It does not discriminate. Ask them if they can think of good people who are hurting because of bad things that other people have done. Older kids may think of friends who are hurting because parents are alcoholics or unfaithful or abusive. They may think of people in the youth group who have hurt others by saying unkind things or by being disloyal to each other in relationships. Help younger kids think of how families might be hurt when one of the members of the family has to go to jail or even of innocent people who are hurt by wicked people in fairy tales. Examples are Geppetto being hurt in the story of Pinocchio or how Cinderella is hurt by the wicked stepmother and by the stepsisters or how Snow White is hurt by the wicked Queen. (It’s interesting to tell older kids that the name Geppetto means “Jehovah has added.” It’s a Hebrew name.) Choose one of these stories to read tonight and have the kids listen for someone who’s innocent being hurt by someone wicked. Sin hurts other people. (If you have both teens and younger ones, have the older ones read to the younger ones. But stick around for helping with applications.)

Quote God’s ideal for marriage: One man, for one woman, for life.

Quote the KidSing rule: Do the right thing.

Pray with your kids. 

(Next time we’ll make some observations about David’s answer back to Joab. Their correspondence both ways was full of deceit.)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Ties in the Social Distance #24: Proverbs 11:21–When it’s Wrong to Join Hands

Posted on April 16, 2020

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons  for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:

My Favorite Proverbs:  When it’s wrong to join hands (Prov. 11:21, KJV).  April 16.

“Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished:but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.”

We aren’t shaking hands during social distancing, but that has nothing to do with this profound proverb.  It means this: I must not allow myself to be anesthetized to the seriousness of sin by observing the broad acceptance of sin. Wrong actions do not gradually become less wrong as they grow in popularity.  Furthermore, it doesn’t matter how many men and women declare a lost man to be saved; he’s still lost until he comes to Christ.  Other people—their words and actions– aren’t the yardstick to measure right and wrong. Paul wrote,  “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise” (2 Cor. 10:12). 

The greatest example of choosing not to “follow a multitude to do evil” (Ex. 23:2) is in Daniel 3 and has to do with the masses of people contrasted with three young, courageous, and determined men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.  What an opportune time to do the wrong thing and go along with the idolatry commanded by Nebuchadnezzar; but these three would not bow themselves and break the commandment of Jehovah (Ex. 20:3-5).

Christendom at large has declared that, in order to be saved, a man must simply pray the “sinner’s prayer”, and that his baptism has nothing to do with his being saved.  In fact, most self-identified Christians today would be shocked to learn that there even exists a church which believes and teaches that immersion in water is necessary to be saved. The majority is opposed to what the Spirit, through Peter, taught us, “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 3:21).

It is popular to believe that we all need to be in a church because we need a support group with which to connect  or because our children need a religious background.  Based merely on these kinds of objectives, almost any church will do.  It matters little what is taught or what is done in the worship presented  to God.  The pivotal question is, “Do you feel comfortable here?” Clearly a great majority supports that view. Jesus stood in opposition to this when He said, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18).  Paul would later write, “but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Tim. 3:15).

Similarly, the popular view of sexuality and morality is both broad in scope and at the same time, utterly inconsistent with Scripture (Matt. 5:28, Rom. 1:26-27, Gal. 5:19-21).  

You can think of other examples.

The point of this proverb is simple: “Though hand be joined in hand…” that is, although there may be a clear majority may adopt a belief and/or lifestyle that is oppositional to Scripture, and although the proponents of that adoption may declare that God must/will surely be happy with said belief, it is, nonetheless, sinful.  

We must never follow a multitude to do evil, even if the multitude is united (have joined hands) to support it (Ex. 23:2). 

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).  

Family Bible Time with Glenn and Cindy

Tonight’s reading is to the point and is from 2 Samuel 12:14-16.It is amazing that this man after God’s own heart has slowly, but surely progressed to the point at which he had now plotted to take the life of (to effectively murder) the husband of Bathsheba to cover up his sin with her. Explain to your children what happened in these three verses. Emphasize to your children that David could have never imagined, when he was walking on the roof that night,  that he would murder this soldier who’s been loyal to him in every way. But sin is like that. At first, we just do something we think is not so bad. But then we do something else to “cover up” the first thing we did. And the things we do keep getting worse and worse until we are in big mess of sin. The devil loves for that to happen to us. Tonight let’s think about some things we can learn from this awful cover-up-sin that David committed.

  1. Uriah took his own death orders to the captain of the army. Notice just how much David trusted Uriah. He knew that Uriah would not open the envelope on his way back to the battleground. Talk to your children about how guilty David must have felt when he handed Uriah the letter.
  2. Once again, David asked someone else to do a very wrong thing. Who, in this account, did a very bad thing in order to obey David? Should Joab have disobeyed the King, since he knew the plan was for Uriah to die? Discuss this ethical question with your children.
  3. Show your young children a drawing of an eye. From the eye (David’s lustful eye), draw an arrow to a drawing of  David’s mouth speaking. From David’s mouth draw an arrow to a door. From the door, draw an arrow to stick figures of David and Bathsheba together. From those figures draw an arrow to a drawing of David talking to Uriah and from that drawing, an arrow to a wine bottle and a glass of wine. From there, draw an arrow to an envelope (David’s message to Joab) and, from there, an arrow to a dead stick figure. At the bottom have the citation: John 8:34. Use this drawing to emphasize the progression of sin to your kids. It should look roughly like this (only you should draw your own as you are explaining the descent). When you get to the verse read it and elicit, from your kids, ways that we become slaves to sin. Was David a sort of slave to sin?
  4. Lastly, talk to your children about a staircase. Take them to the top of the stairs if you have them in your home. Ask them what would happen if you threw them over the railing to the floor below. Then explain to them that they travel the same distance down if they take on step at a time down the stairs; but when they go one step at the time, they don’t even notice that they’ve descended. That’s how sin is: if we just go a little at the time, we can do very sinful things and not even notice how wicked we have become. Of course, the lesson you leave with them is that we guard ourselves against small compromises. We see the devil’s deceit and avoid playing his little one-step-at-the-time game.

Quote the KidSing rule again: Do the right thing.

Read Ephesians 6:11 and tell your children that the word “wiles” there means trickery or deceit.

Pray for wisdom to always see the devil for what He is and for strength to always resist His trickery.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Ties in the Social Distance #13: Proverbs 6:17–Hands that Shed Innocent Blood

Posted on April 1, 2020

 

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons  for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:

My Favorite Proverbs:  Hands that shed innocent blood (Prov. 6:16-19)

These six things the Lord hates, 

Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

A proud look,

A lying tongue,

Hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil,

A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

God hates murder, but God does not hate all killing. Every word in this, the third in the list, is important: “Hands that shed innocent blood.”  When God, in the Ten Commandments, said “Thou shalt not kill,” He was forbidding murder; not all killing. Not all killing is murder. The Old Law created cities of refuge as a remedy for a man who accidentally killed another man (Deut. 4:41-43). That was killing, but it wasn’t murder. Killing animals was endorsed by God from the beginning (Gen. 1:29-30). In both the Old and New Testaments, God clearly endorsed capital punishment of the guilty (Gen. 9:6;  Rom. 13:4). God sometimes commanded Israel to kill in war (Joshua 6). So, pay attention to the wording of exactly what God hates here: the deliberate taking of innocent human life. Centuries later, the apostle John would write, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 Jn. 3:15).  

Now leap-frog over the obvious examples of murder in today’s news and get to the one which is by far the most egregious kind of murder in our world, despite being promoted and applauded as guiltless. It’s abortion.  I cannot imagine an act which better illustrates what is meant when the Proverbs writer said that God hates “hands that shed innocent blood.”  

Consider that the Greek word for baby is brephos, used of the baby Jesus: “And this will be the sign to you: You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” (Lk. 2:12). The same Greek word is used of John who was still in the womb of his mother, yet unborn!  “And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk. 1:41). When the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write this passage, He called both the baby in the womb and the baby outside the womb, brephos: baby. Killing a baby in the womb is the moral equivalent of killing a baby outside the womb. Man has imagined that killing an unborn child is different in order to protect the wickedness of abortion. He has defended the horrid act of murder.  

One more thing to consider: A website which has been tracking the Novel Corona numbers in the last couple of months has posted that, worldwide, just under 40,000 have died. The Associated Press published its most recent abortion numbers in the U.S. for one year: 862,000.  

God hates the hands which commit the murder of abortion.

Today in prayer, thank God for His amazing gift of human life and pray that our world will awaken to the murderous darkness of abortion.

Story Time from Glenn and Cindy:  Genesis 47

1.Teach your children about the practice of a man recommending another for a position.  Based on the respect Pharaoh had for Joseph, he immediately offered a trusted position over his own livestock to whomever Joseph recommended: 

 “The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock” (Gen. 47:6).

Use this to again teach your children the importance of always telling the truth; always keeping appointments; always fulfilling tasks with excellence.  There will be times in life when they will be of great service to others by similarly extending recommendations.

2.  It is important in life to elevate the blessings of God over the unhappy things of life.  Even in trials we should  speak of God’s goodness. The poorest of Christians is still greatly blessed. Hear the sad answer the aged Jacob gave to the king when asked “How old are you?”   

“And Jacob said to Pharaoh, ‘The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years; few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage’” (Gen. 47:9).

Make sure your children understand that Jacob’s answer to the king did not include any of the blessings of Jacob’s life. Make sure they know that we should constantly be telling others, especially unbelievers about the blessings of God.

3. Decide if your children are old enough to understand the following observations:

Joseph served Pharaoh to the degree of using the plague to strip the Egyptians of all their their wealth and fill the treasury of the King:

‘So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed.” Then Joseph said, “Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock, if the money is gone” (Gen. 47:15-16). 

Those monies lasted a year, but the famine continued. Because they had not money or livestock to buy back all the grain they had charged during the seven years of plenty,  Joseph agreed to trade grain for their lands, and their bodies.  They would become Pharaoh’s slaves.  They all agreed.

“Then Joseph said to the people, ‘Indeed I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones.’”

A. By taxing their grain in the first seven years and selling it back to them during the time of famine, Joseph had saved their lives.  Question: Did he do a good thing?

B.  Could it be that Joseph was following God’s instructions?  It would not be long until Moses came before a different Pharaoh, introduced the ten plagues, and spoiled Egypt.  Egyptian wealth would largely be used to fund the exodus of Israel from the slavery and oppression they experienced in Egypt.  Could that have been Joseph’s long-term motive? Could it have been God’s plan? 

Emphasize to your children that God’s plans always happen. He always makes a way for things to work out for the good of his people. Read Romans 8:28 to them and talk about its meaning. Sing one verse of “I Know the Lord Will Make a Way for Me”

I know the Lord will make a way for me.

I know the Lord will make a way for me.

If I walk in heaven’s light

Shun the wrong and do the right

I know the Lord will make a way for me.

 

Tell your children that this hymn was written by Paul Epps, a minister for the Lord’s church.

4. Pray with your children. Be sure to pray that God will make his people stronger through the coming days when lots of people in our land will likely be ill.  Pray for the leaders in our churches, that they will make good decisions to help us be stronger on the other side of this sickness.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: The Dissonance of Orlando for Christians

Posted on June 23, 2016

Pretty young girl with martini looking at camera in the bar

What happened in Orlando at a gay bar earlier this summer seems unthinkable, yet it wasn’t. I mean, all of us had thought about it. We knew the possibility of an attack by a Muslim terrorist (and that’s what he was) or a group of them—on our soil—again—was likely. To me, this is the worst case scenario, though, because, after the fact, reflection brings such a cold hard truth to mind. This truth keeps haunting me: Every single person killed—every.single.one– so far as can reasonably be determined —was involved, at the time, in overt rebellion against the plainly stated will of God. Certainly the perpetrator was committing murder in the first degree multiplied times over. He left this life without hope. Those fifty people who were brutally killed in an establishment where homosexuality is celebrated and liquor was flowing at two o’clock in the morning on that Lord’s day also left this earth without hope. Christians who went to worship Him later that morning know, whether we have verbalized it or not, that the murderer and the murdered left this life to share an eternity in hell together. 

Certainly we can take nothing but sorrow from that realization. I’m pretty certain there are parents left behind—parents of some of those millennials who died—who are believers in Christ and the Bible. How their hearts must grieve at the realization that their children left this earth while participating in a hedonistic lifestyle that scoffs at the Word of God. We grieve with them. Perhaps some of them were unaware of that lifestyle in which their children were involved until the news and circumstances of their deaths were announced. The pain of even thinking about that, for me as a parent, is hard to fathom. 

It’s true that we are all sinners…condemned…without the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Praise God for that Lamb! But for those of us to whom that Lamb’s blood has been applied, the Orlando incident represents a greater tragedy than even the loss of fifty lives and the fact that Islamic terrorism is a constant threat to our American way of life. The added dimension, for Christians, is the knowledge that both terrorist and terrorized, in Orlando, are in the same list in God’s word. We’ve come to the point in America, at least in this instance, in which calling the victims “innocent” is, although appropriate in some sense, technically inaccurate. The list is here:

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death (Rev. 21:8).

Here it is again from Romans 1:28-32

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 

I’m sad for people who left this world from a gay bar. At the same time, I am stricken with the reality that I could leave this world at any time and there’s a list of sins in these passages that’s far broader than just murder and homosexuality.  May I do my very best to honor his laws; to be found in places and with people who will help me to do that. May I constantly praise him for the blood that cleanses me as I walk in His light, doing my best to honor Him (I John 1:7). And, finally, may I realize that there are two great enemies of this great American culture we’ve known for 250 years. One is the threat of the Muslims who are practicing what the Quran teaches (in multiple Quran passages) about slaughtering followers of the Lamb. The other is Americans  who have forsaken the teachings of the slaughtered Lamb.  

I pray for America regularly. But in those same prayers, I thank my Father that I am part of a kingdom that will still be standing when America falls. May His children here be faithful to Him. May He be merciful to His children here.