Impressing God's Word on our Children

This morning at church our worship leader led us all in "There is Power in the Blood".  Remember that song?  I hadn't heard it in a long time.  It brought me back to praise and worship as a kid, standing next to my mom with her hands held up in thanks and my dad's hands beating that bass rhythm on the pew back in front of him.  If my dad noticed me watching, he'd give my shoulders a little love-squeeze as he sang and then his focus would turn quickly back to the front.  A simple memory but a good one.

I digress. Back to the song. 

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s pow’r in the blood, pow’r in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful pow’r in the blood.

There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is pow’r, pow’r, wonder-working pow’r
In the precious blood of the Lamb....

The melody and rhythm hold firm to the label "church song". It's easy to miss the remarkable truth of the words while you're busy clapping or bobbing your head along with the simple 4/4 ryhthm.  Maybe it was just my immaturity as a kid, but those lyrics never really hit me.  I was clapping and singing, maybe even nodding my head in agreement but that's about it.

I leaned over to my husband this morning and said something along those lines, "Wow, we sing this song in a way that it's easy to miss the truth to it. Those are powerful words."  He looked at me a little surprised and said, "This song was always powerful to me.  I remember my mom singing it over me when I was sick."  Later he told me, "I just always knew those words were true. Afterall, from a kids perspective, I always got better!"

Wow.  Same song.  Same old-time churchy rhythm.  But the words took on meaning for him at an early age because of how it was presented to him.  His mom showed him what the words meant by singing them at a time when they would apply and uplift.  So simple yet so lasting.

There's another song Pen always sings over our boys when they're sick.

 I Am the God that Healeth Thee 

...You are the God
That healeth me
You are the Lord my Healer
You sent Your Word
and You healed my disease
You are the Lord my Healer

I love hearing him sing this over the boys.  It has become a small tradition in our home.  Over time, I started singing it too.  Now our oldest has come to expect it when he is sick.  Before bed, during the middle of the night, whenever it's needed, one of us is singing. Sometimes when Caleb is especially struggling and uncomfortable, singing this song brings calm.  The song's become both a prayer and a message. It's a prayer to the One that will heal our sons. It's a message to our sons, that HE is the One we look to for healing and that HE is able to heal.   

I realized today that Pen learned this simple tradition from his mom.  I imagine she never realized the impact her songs were making on him.  She was just singing a prayer, singing a declaration over her child in need.  But she was teaching him too.  And the lesson was so powerfully presented that it's now just natural for him to follow in her footsteps and sing God's Truth over his kids. 

What a wonderful tradition to continue! And what a great example of teaching our children, "when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19), making God's Truth evident through what we do each and every day.  God says that's the way we "impress" His words on our children.

What is Faithfulness?

God has had me on the topic of faithfulness a lot this year!

We read a lot about faithfulness in the Bible.  I think it can easily become a word we hear and even nod our heads at its mention in church, but have little clue of the beauty behind it.  It is just another "church word."

 

We certainly like to hear about God's faithfulness.  He'll always be there; never leave; never forsake; always love... even if we're messing up, even if we're not making it easy.  He's always true to His Word.  He always surrounds us with love.  It all sounds, well, perfect.  Afterall, He is perfect!

 

What about the fact that we are called to be faithful to Him?  We tend to get lost somewhere between "God is faithful" and "We are faithful", probably because it does not come natural for us. Suddenly the term faithful means something entirely different when we personalize it, or at least we think it should. 

We think,

• "I believe in you God. I know you exist." and equate that to being faithful. 
• "I'll do what You ask (when it makes sense to me or when I stop long enough to hear you)" and equate that to being faithful.
• "I'll go to church on Sunday" and equate that to being faithful.

In truth, faithfulness does include those things (apart from the italics of course) but there is so much more than acknowledgment, easy obedience, and routine.  We would never be satisfied with a god who met our own definition of faithfulness; we certainly expect more from Him.  But somehow we're ok with mediocre expectations for ourselves. 

 

We're ok with convenient faithfulness. 

 

What an oxymoron!  There is nothing convenient about faithfulness.  Easy? No, or at least not initially.  Rewarding? Yes.  There is everything rewarding about faithfulness.  In fact a quick look in the Bible, proves this point.  Again and again when God calls us to be faithful, he promises a reward for it.  Just two examples...

•      "A faithful person will be richly blessed." Proverbs 28:20
•      "So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today - to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul - then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil." Deuteronomy 11:13, 14

When we look at the faithful hall of fame in Hebrews 11, it is easy to connect faithfulness with reward in those examples.  But notice the small list of names.  Out of all those that had come before, even all those great ones from the Old Testament, only 18 individual names were listed.  Faithfulness is not easy.

 

As a mom, I must practice faithfulness to my son daily.  There is an expectation on all parents to be faithful to their children, to care for each need, to be true to their word, to protect them, teach them, love them, comfort them.  I am to be faithful day in and day out.  I miss one day and my child suffers.  I cannot break that faithfulness.  It is needed.   It is expected. 

 

But my son has a responsibility to be faithful to me as well, even at 2 years old.  He must learn to trust me, to obey me even though he doesn't understand why, to accept my comfort and my care, to control himself so that he remains under my protection.  As he grows and becomes more aware of his own personal will, difficulties begin to appear.  He does not want to wash his hands before eating.  He does not want to take the medicine that will help him. He does not want to be true to his word.  He thinks it will be more fun playing in the next aisle at the store than staying near mommy.  He does not understand why any of this is important.  In his toddler brain, he doesn't believe it is important.  He has learned that faithfulness is not convenient. 

 

That's because true faithfulness is not a physical concept but a spiritual one.  We cannot be faithful if we are living by what we see, feel, hear, even what we think.   

 

Hebrews 11:1 says ^"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."  That's a scripture you have to think about for awhile. It's never been an easy one for me to mull over in my brain.

 

The Amplified version says this... "NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]."

 

I like that last part, we perceive as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. That's a hard one for us to grasp let alone walk out in our lives.  When we live by what we can perceive, we do not live in faithfulness.  Despite our personal feelings on the matter, the truth is we are not the expert on ... well on anything.

 

We cannot see God.  Faith is being absolutely convinced, as if we hold the conclusive results in our hands that He does exist AND that He is who He says He is.   We do not see the Spirit at work or the battles being fought today in the spiritual realm by God's angels. Some may even hesitate when reading that sentence and think I've gone a little too far (I suggest reading Daniel btw). Faith if being 100% sure that each of thsoe statemenst are true are, as confident in that as we are that the title to our car means it is ours.  We know it's true because God said it in His Word.  We are so confident in fact, that we base our actions on it.  That's when God can bless us. 

 

As Caleb grows, I am learning that faithfulness is most beautiful when there are two willing parties. When both of us are acting in faithfulness towards each other, peace is easy and growth is fast. Caleb must completely trust that mom knows more than he knows, that mom has reasons for what she says and for what she asks of him. The more he waivers in his faithfulness to trust or to obey me, to stand by me, the more trouble appears between us/  It means the less I can do with him, the less I can trust him with and the less I can bless him with. Our relationship grows as I act in faith towards him AND as he acts in faith towards me. It is easy to see in the parent-child relationship. It is easy to see between a husband and wife.

 

But we fail to make the same application between us and God.  When it comes to our relationship with God, we expect all the blessings with none of the responsibility.  And we often go so far as to get mad when the blessings aren't there, jealous when others receive them and not us.

 

God is taking care of His part. He does not waver in that. But when we mistake convenience for faithfulness, we are completely missing the mark on our part. And then of course we can't fathom why life isn't working out as we intended... or even better... as He intended. 

 

God's plans are ever so perfect.  As a mom, I so hope that Caleb learns and grows in his trust so that I CAN pour out the blessings.  That's the exciting part!  God's doing the same thing, so very excited when we allow Him to pour out those blessings.  When we believe Him enough and are faithful enough to get all He had hoped and planned for, what an excited Daddy He is!

Lessons from Caleb, the man of faith

I've been wanting to finish this forever and keep putting it off! 

Pen and I don't have the easiest times picking names.  Both of us are pretty non-committed when it comes to a decision that is so lasting like this.  And we have very different opinions about what we like and dislike.  Surprise, surprise! Names that I liked he has known someone of the same name that irked him and declares the name unusable.  I'm the same way though.  In fact being a former teacher and coming across hundreds of kids (ie names), there were a lot of names that I declared unusable!
It actually is really important to both of us that the name mean something that we approve of.  I'm more into the meanings and the heritage in a name than even the sound of it (though I'd prefer both to be pleasing of course!). And I'm not concerned with how popular a name is (at least I thought I wasn't, come to find out Caleb is pretty popular for this age group... how was I supposed to know though, he's my first connection to this age group!)

So why did we choose Caleb?

In a nutshell it was because of the speech Caleb gave in Joshua 14:6-14. 

Yes, it's lengthy but WELL worth a read (all emphasis is mine).

A little background on the story:  God has rescued the Israelites from Egypt, promised them a land of their own, and led them right to it.  Caleb and 11 other men are sent to scout the land before the entire group moves in.  They find beauty and abundance.  They also find large cities, large walls, and large people.  And then they report back to Moses and the Israelites in awe and fear of man... completely forgetting any awe and fear of God.  BUT Joshua and Caleb do not cower and because of that God holds them apart from the rest.  They are the only ones in their generation allowed to enter the promised land.
 
"...and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to [Joshua], “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.’
 “Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”


Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron has belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the LORD, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly.

I believe in this age we NEED men and women willing to stand apart from the crowd.  The crowd is overwhelming and by definitition outnumbering. And the crowd is convincing, to the point where it gets more and more difficult to discern Truth in light of their manipulation (1 Timothy 4:1-10; Colossians 2:1-10).  Honestly if we aren't in the Word and in it consistently, we are putting ourselves at great risk of believing the deceit and lies. Caleb was willing to stand apart, to stand with God, to stick to his convictions while others melted in fear.  So they would have to fight for this land.  So God wasn't handing it to them on a silver platter but asking them to step out in faith. Caleb must've had a pretty good idea of who God was... and why not?  God had shown Himself to His people repeatedly (plagues, pillar of fire, cloud of smoke, parting of the Red Sea, water from rocks, manna from heaven, through the radiance on Moses' face,...).   Caleb followed the Lord God wholeheartedly.  No wavering. No second guessing. No allowing deceit to enter.  No fear.... of the Philistines OR of his own people (even his own friends). 

That's a man that definitely knows God.  You don't get to that point without spending time with God. "Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." (Ephesians 6:10-13) Caleb had already spent the days learning and listening so that his armor was in place.  And when it was time, he stood.

So lets rewind 45 years. 

Forty of those years were spent waiting for the unbelievers to die off, stuck with them despite his standing firm.  Forty years.  I haven't even lived that long, let alone wandered in the desert with whiners, complainers and confusion for that long. I can barely take 40 minutes in a setting like that.  Caleb stuck it out.  But even more than that, he waited with wisdom during that time.  There was one event where the people felt bad about their lack of faith and decided to try and fight.  Some would think, "Oh they're trying to rectify their error.  They learned their lesson.  Now they have faith."  But they were still missing the big picture.  They were completely disregarding God in their plan. God had already said that anyone 20 years and older (at the time of the spies discouraging report and the Israelites lack of faith) would first have to die in the wilderness before the next generation could begin to fight for their land.  And remember, God is always true to His Word.  I love that Caleb saw through this.  Yes, he wanted to fight but he knew to do it on God's time. And of course their attempt didn't turn out so well (Numbers 14: 39-44).  

So Caleb waited those 40 years while everyone else died off.  He came out the other end STILL believing and STILL ready to fight for what God said was his and (I love this) STILL as physically strong in his 80s as he was in his 40s.  God had literally preserved him because of his faith. A miracle that we could quickly skim over if we're not careful. 

What happened during the remaining 5 years before Caleb went to Joshua with his request?  They finally cross into the Promised Land.  Caleb then spend 5 years doing exactly what he had waiting 40 years to do.  Fight.  Those convictions he spoke of 40 years prior were now put to the test.  And this 80 year old is stepping out to literally fight battles, knowing that God doesn't lie.  God said this land would be theirs and it would be.  Get this...  these five years he has fought for others to get their land.  God had laid it all out, whose land was whose (meaning which tribe of Israel would receive which portion of the land won).  Caleb knew which land was to be his.  So for all of those 5 years spent fighting, he knows he has more fighting to come because he's not yet fought for his land.  He's helping the descendants of the complainers (who I should note are not like their parents; they are now fighting in faith right alongside Caleb). 

So finally after 5 years, this 85 year old man asks to fight for his own land.  I love that he doesn't say, "Joshua, I've worked hard.  Go send out the young-folk to get my land so I can sit pretty."  He still doesn't expect it to come easy.  He doesn't even expect the others to fight with him.  He just wants permission to allow his own family to fight for their own land.  AND he is still completely aware of what stands in his way.  The Anakites.

It's interesting that the very group that the disbelieving and fearful ten spies were most afraid of, the descendants of Anak, were the ones Caleb is still waiting and ready to fight.  This is what the ten spies said about the Anakites (45 years before). “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (Numbers 13:33)  But remember Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said,  “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Numbers 13:30).  He and Joshua countered, "And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” But the whole assembly talked about stoning them. (Numbers 14:9-10)
 
So now this "grasshopper" of a man is going to put words to action... at 85 years old.  He did just that.  "In accordance with the LORD’s command to him, Joshua gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion in Judah—Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron. (Arba was the forefather of Anak.) From Hebron Caleb drove out the three Anakites—Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, the sons of Anak." (Joshua 15:13,14)

God did just what He said He would do. Caleb won his land after waiting for 45 years.  He defeated the very thing that everyone else feared... because he feared God more.  That's conviction.  That's faith.  That's a man who knows God. 

I just adore the strength of Caleb's words in this speech and then the fact that he followed through with every one of them.  This is what we need in the body of Christ, those who are not lukewarm in their beliefs, who do not waver, who act in wisdom, who live out their faith, and who follow God wholeheartedly.

"My servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to"
(Numbers 14:23-24)

I pray that my son would have a different spirit and that he would follow God wholeheartedly.  I pray that he would KNOW Christ personally, not just know about Him or know of Him through parents, pastors, or stories.  That is the only way we can be able to stand with such faith amidst deception and adversity.  That is what my son will need as he grows.