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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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email
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| Generational Christians |
"Christianity is just two generations from extinction. The first generation embraces it passionately, the second assumes it, and the third forgets it."
The quote itself comes from the meta of my last post, but the sentiment has been around for a long time. I was asked my thoughts on that by the same reader who mentioned it in his or her comment, and specifically, What approach I take when instilling spiritual disciplines/knowledge to guard against dead religion growing in my own children and this without neglecting instruction also. So this post is going to touch on all of that (I hope).
The first thing I, as a parent, and as a preacher never, ever do. I never assure anyone else that they are God's child. It isn't my job, and I could be wrong about a person. When I refer to a truth in the pulpit I will often say, "if you are in Christ, this is true of you", rather than say, "this is true of some of you" or some other thing. I make my children understand that they are not Christians unless they personally become so through Christ, and not through me. I speak of sin and its consequences both in the here and now (pain and suffering in the world) and in eternity (condemnation and wrath) openly and pointedly - there is a judgment coming, and anyone who is not in Christ needs to know about it. I don't spare mentioning it out of concern that it might cause an undue fear or trembling in the hearer - even if that hearer is my own child. It is good to dread condemnation - it shows you understand it.
I think that unless a person agrees with God regarding their condemnation, they can not be saved. They have to see sin for what it is, and see God for who He is - see clearly that they deserve hell, and understand fully that God will pay them the wages of their sin - that is a very hard place to get to when everyone around you is crying "peace, peace" - because you begin to believe there is peace when their is no peace. That is why, I believe, we are seeing children grow up in Sunday school and youth groups, and then live like the world till they eventually abandon the faith they never really came to.
My plan is simple, I don't say it's perfect, nor do I suggest anyone else follow it, I mention it only because I am asked. I believe the scriptures, and teach them to my children when I get up (five days a week at least), and when we go to sleep (each night), and when we eat (at supper) together. I talk about the whole gospel to them, often, including hell and damnation, and make it very, very clear that just because I am God's child, doesn't make them God's child. That unless they see themselves as God sees them, they will never come to Christ in earnest. I don't assume that the soil of their heart is good soil, I assume it is hard, rocky, and full of weeds, and I plow, plow, plow.
I have to leave for work, or I would right more. Perhaps I can pick it up in the meta. |
posted by Daniel @
6:46 AM
 
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| 4 Comments: |
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I swiped part of your post here to put into the meta of my current post at BlueCollar blog.
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Swipe away Mark, swipe away. ;)
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Daniel, thanks for taking the time to respond to my question. Your response encourages me. The simplicity with which you approach instruction (when you rise and lay down) is wonderful (perhaps even scriptural ;-)) and requires faith in God and His gospel to do the work - just where I (we all) need to be walking. Thanks again for the response.
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Anon - I was glad to respond, it was a good question.
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I swiped part of your post here to put into the meta of my current post at BlueCollar blog.