Category: Father’s Day

Suffer the Children

I once heard someone lead a devotion by reading from Luke 18:16, using the King James Bible. He read these familiar words: “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” The person then talked about what that verse meant to him. He said, “Jesus knew that children suffer in lots of ways, from hunger, disease, and mistreatment. He wants us to take care of them so they do not suffer.”

While I admired the man’s love for children, I was just fresh from seminary, and had to stifle the desire to interrupt him to explain that the word “suffer” in the 1611 King James Bible did not mean what it does now: “To feel pain or distress; sustain injury or harm.”* What Jesus was saying to his disciples was to “allow” the children to come to him, reinforced by his very next words, “and forbid them not.” That’s why our modern translation render Jesus’ words as: “Let the children come to me” (Luke 18:16, ESV).

In recent days, however, I have come to believe that the leader of that devotion wasn’t too far from the truth, for it seems that something has gone very wrong in our culture in the ways we value and treat our children. And this is not good. It seems that our society is doing all it can to either harm children, or to prevent their even being born. Consider the following:

1. Fewer marriages. Marriage is the basic unit of the family. It is within the context of marriage that children are produced, nurtured,  and raised to adulthood. This was God’s design from the beginning when “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24, quoted by Jesus in Matthew 19:5). Although people do conceive children out of marriage (hence the terms “baby momma” and “baby daddy”), such children are more likely to suffer (current meaning of the word) poverty, abuse, unemployment and prison. The stability of a two-parent household is undeniable, but the rate of such marriages is declining in the US. Genesis 2:18 quotes God as saying, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” And Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.”
2. Pornography. When people find sexual release and satisfaction through images, video, and other means, they are not fulfilling their duty to their spouse, nor producing the children that God gave them those desires to produce. Instead, children are often suffering as the victims of sexual trafficking, often for the production of pornography. . When God made people male and female, he commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth ” (Genesis 1:28). He designed them to find pleasure and fulfillment in each other, to bond them together even as they produce children in love.
3. Neutered human beings. When our culture celebrates what it calls “gender affirming care,” what it means is, “gender destroying care.” The removal of a person’s sexual organs makes them infertile (obviously), as does the injection of hormones that block the natural development of puberty. When we had our cat neutered we didn’t change him from a male cat to a female cat. He became an “it.” He is still a male, but unable to make new kitties. When we push children to have the same thing done to them, we are not affirming, but neutering them. They are becoming “its.”
4. Same sex attractions and “marriages.” Obviously, the joining of two men or two women will not produce children. Even when such couples want to raise children, they have to turn to the opposite sex to create such babies, either by adoption or artificial insemination. The surge in such “marriages” means fewer children are conceived, and for children raised in such a family, they are more predisposed to look upon their own future partner as being of the same sex as themselves. But this is contrary to God’s design and intent: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
5. Birth Control. I used to think that birth control was fine, as long as the means of such control didn’t destroy a fertilized egg. However, I now see the effect such readily available contraceptives has resulted in significantly lowered birth rates in the countries most able to provide for their children. It also has made “recreational” sex more prevalent by removing one of the consequences of  sex. Also, women who use birth control to advance in their careers may end up not having children when they decide to do so.
6. Abortion. This is the big reason our birth rate is down, because children are being killed before they can be born. In 2021, the numbers were 625,978 abortions, which was up 5% from the year before.
7. Attitudes against children. For many young people, children are seen as an inconvenience or an impediment to other goals they have. They think children take too much time, cost too much, or interfere with work, travel, or entertainment goals. Then there are the people who say “I don’t want to bring children into the world when we all are going to die from (name your poison).” And then there are those who see humans as a plague on the earth, and therefore they want to reduce the population either totally, or to a more “sustainable” level.
The result of all these factors is that the birth rate in the US is 1.64 children births per woman, below  the rate of 2.1  to maintain our population. Other countries are facing even worse declines. In South Korea,  the rate is only 0.76, causing their President to form a  Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter Planning tasked with the handling the “national emergency.” The moves are part of Seoul’s intensified efforts to reverse the trend: including cash subsidies, infertility treatment, and childcare services.

Today, the assault against having children is happening in many ways. All in defiance of God’s command to multiply. According to God’s word, children are a blessing. When the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament were childless, they conceived and birthed children, often miraculously, as blessing from God. The list is long: Abraham, Sarah, Manoah, Hannah, and a  Shunammite woman. In the New Testament, we read of Elizabeth and Zechariah who gave birth to  John the Baptist, and of course to Mary, the mother of our Lord. That’s one birth we are all blessed with!

In Psalm 127:3-5 it says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (** Please see the important footnote below.)

Children are a blessing. But there are forces working against God’s plan to bless us with children made in his image. What are those forces? Where do they come from, and what do we do about them? I will address these questions in the next blog. See you there!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Genesis 1:26-28, Psalm 127:3-5.

*The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition, 2011

**Important Note for Childless Couples: I want to express clearly that it is neither my belief nor my intent to criticize those husbands and wives that have been unable to have children, in spite of their desire to do so. They do not despise God’s commandment to “be fruitful and multiply,” they endorse it. But for some reason, they have been unable to reproduce. Often this has caused disappointment and deep hurts. Being one of those couples ourselves, my wife and I share those couples’ pain and pray, both for their comfort by the Holy Spirit, and for God to fulfill their lives in other ways: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Our Father’s World

Some of my favorite memories as a child are about the times I spent at our YMCA’s summer camp in northern Wisconsin. From swimming and boating, to great food and fun campfire programs, to trail rides on the camp’s horses, to catching frogs and toads, there was almost always something going on that I now look back on with fondness.

Some of my memories go back to Sunday mornings at the camp, when all the campers would gather at the outdoor chapel for a worship service (the Catholic campers were taken into town for mass, and the one Jewish counselor had the morning off!). Besides the beautiful, peaceful setting looking out through the trees to the lake below, there was one more thing that made those services special: my dad was worship leader and preacher.

Although he wasn’t an ordained minister, my dad was devout in his faith and always involved in some church or lay ministry. In fact, since the YMCA was in those days a lay Christian ministry, he saw the purpose of his work as implementing the organization’s purpose of furthering Christian values and building a Christian society. So, as our Y’s Youth Director, he would come to the camp on Sundays to see how things were going (and to check up on me?), and to lead the worship.

The one thing I remember most from those Sunday services was my dad’s choice of hymns, which always seemed to include the old hymn, This is My Father’s World.* It always inspired me, sitting surrounded by the beauty of nature, hearing birds, feeling the gentle breeze, and seeing the trees and shimmering lake down below. Add to that, the fact that my own father was up front leading the service, and you can see why even today I have such fond memories and an appreciation for that hymn. I still affirm that this is indeed my Father’s world.

But in what way is it my Father’s world, speaking as the song does, of God, being our heavenly Father?

  1. At the time, and for most of my life, the hymn has spoken to me of the natural world which God designed and created by his power. How beautiful his creation is, from mountains to oceans, to rivers and lakes; from trees and flowers to rocks; from sun and moon to stars; and most amazing, creatures from the small frogs I would catch at the camp, to the horses we rode, to the birds, and yes, even to the mosquitos we swatted. Everything in nature that shouted “God!” was praised in the hymn, which reminded us that this world is indeed a gift from God and from him alone.  This world is from him and belongs to him. We just get to live in it.

Think of the ways God has reminded us of this fact. Genesis 1 recounts the creation of all things in the heavens and on earth by God, who sums up his work in verse 27: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” Romans 1:19 says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” Colossians 1:16 reminds us that by Christ, “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.” Hebrews 3:4 says, “For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.” Jeremiah 32:7 proclaims, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” There are more verses which proclaim God as Creator, but let me add this one more from psalm 90:2, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” This is truly our Father’s world as proclaimed in the first two verses of the hymn:

This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass, I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.

From both the affirmations of Scripture and my own senses, I have never doubted that God is real, that he is all wise and powerful, and that he is the Creator and Sustainer of everything that exists. This is my Father’s world – and universe.

2. But recently, I have had to look closer at the hymn’s third verse, which asserts that this is God’s world, regardless of its problems and challenges. With all the horrible things going on in the world, and especially now in our country, it would be very easy to think that everything is out of control, that our faith has lost the battle, and that the forces of evil have taken charge to remake everything in their own image. God’s commandments are thrown out, people look to the material world as all their is. As Carl Sagan put it, “The universe is all that is, ever was, or ever will be.” As Paul put it in Romans 1:25, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!”

But no matter how discouraged we might be, or how dominant the anti-Christian forces seem to be these days, we must not forget the truth which the hymn proclaims in its third verse:

This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!

God alone raises up rulers and brings them down. He alone sets the time span for nations and empires, for the righteous and sinners alike. He is the sovereign, in-charge ruler over all. Though we don’t know his purposes in the events we see or the struggles we face, we must remain confident that in the end, God’s will, will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He will judge us all with perfect justice, so those who mock him will not prevail: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”(Galatians 6:7). And above all, God’s love and mercy will triumph over all (James 2:13b), for not only is he the all powerful Father, he also loves us more than even our earthly fathers can.

For that I am grateful, to my earthly father for his love and Christian testimony, and to my – our – heavenly Father for all he has done, and will yet do, in this, his world.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Nehemiah 9:6; Isaiah 66:2; Revelation 4:11; Isaiah 45:18

*Public domain, written by Rev. Maltbie Davenport Babcock, published in 1901 as a poem, and in 1925 with the music.

Ode to My Father/Owed to My Father

They say an ode is just a poem to someone we should respect; so Father’s Day is time to say, some thoughts as I reflect.

Though a poet I’m not, I’ll give it a shot, for someone I owe a lot; so here’s my ode to one I’ve owed: the one who me begot.

So, Dad, here goes, from one who writes prose, I’ll attempt to write you an ode; though my rhymes be rough and my rhythms quite tough, my thanks to you is still owed.

I called you Dad and I was sad, when you passed before my eyes; but ere that day you had much to say, such wisdom I will always prize.

Like, “Stand up straight!” and, “Love, don’t hate!”, “Don’t step in your own bear trap!”; “Don’t sleep till noon, but work for your room,” and “Don’t be a lazy chap!”

“Go kiss your mother and be a good brother; respect those who are older than you!” (But now I find, near age sixty-nine: those older than me are so few!)

“Salute the flag, don’t let it drag, but hold it for others to see. Your land has flaws, but it’s still a cause worth fighting and dying to keep.”

“To church we go, through rain or snow!” You showed me that Jesus is Lord; “So sit up straight, and pass the plate, e’en though by the sermon you’re bored.”*

“Your faith is more than what you swore in church when you were confirmed; it’s how you act, and that’s a fact, though salvation is nothing you earned.”

Yes, you said much, but your gentle touch showed your wisdom was more than just words. You lived your life through joy and strife; your lessons were both seen and heard.

An acorn, they say, will always stay close to the oak where it grew; I pray that’s true, and that I grew to be like the one that I knew.

To say, “We love God,” is naught but a fraud, if we don’t love the ones that we see. Thank the Father above that he showed me his love: he made you, my father to be.

So, Dad, I must say, on this Father’s Day, “I want you to know of my love; as you walk with the Lord, whom you always adored, and rejoice with your Father above!”

And now, for all who read this: May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: 1 John 4:7-21; Deuteronomy 5:15-17; Ephesians 6:2

 

*Note: This never happened whenever I was preaching.