Here are our summaries:
Not Provoking – the challenge of Christian parenting
Mother’s Day – Eph 6.4
For mother’s day, we decided to make the day an emphasis on the Christian Home. I recently preached on the subject of child training at the recent NW Regional FBF conference, so thought to combine that message with two others on the same subject for an all day emphasis.
The first message concentrated on the first half of Eph 6.4, ‘do not provoke your children to wrath’. We looked at what wrath is and then considered ways in which children are provoked to wrath, including abuse of hand or tongue, inappropriate overbearing leadership, and abdication or absence of leadership. The biblical alternative to this is found in the second half of the verse, which is the subject of our afternoon message. The decision we need to make in light of the possibility of provoking our children to wrath involves forgiveness and attitude adjustment if we are ‘children of wrath’, i.e., if we have been provoked by parents in one of the ways mentioned, repentance if we are currently provoking children to wrath and a replacement of our ways with the Lord’s ways, to be discussed in more detail in the afternoon message.
The Big Idea of the Christian Home
Mother’s Day – Bible Study
The Bible Study time involved a look at the foundational revelation from Genesis 1 and 2 on the Christian home and then tracing through some of the big implications of that revelation as it shows up in the New Testament regarding the idea of the Christian home. God’s intention in the Christian home is to reproduce what God intended at the initial creation. This becomes the foundation for all biblical teaching on the home.
Disciplined Admonition
Mother’s Day – Eph 6.4
Our second message of the day on the theme of the Christian Home completes our exposition of Eph 6.4. This is essentially the same message as I preached at the NW Regional FBF conference. The theme of the message is to show that the antidote to provoking children to wrath is disciplined admonition. Disicplined Admonition is establishing a disciplined environment in the home where salvation is taught and the life of Christ is ‘put in the mind’ of the child. The opportunity for parents to administer this kind of admonition continues throughout life, although the style of imparting it changes. It requires a certain courage and faithfulness on the part of Christian parents.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
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