QUESTION OF THE WEEK:
Question: What do we pray in the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer?
Answer: In the fourth petition, which is, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray that of God’s free gift, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life and enjoy his blessing with them.
Scripture: Matthew 6:11, Proverbs 30:8-9; 1 Timothy 6:6-8, 4:4-5.
SWEET POTATOES
(Maybe this really happened)
One of the things I enjoy doing for Deb on occasion is to make a special meal for her. Over the years I have put together magnificent dishes, and some have been absolute culinary disasters. On one of the occasions recently, I asked Deb what she would like to have as a side dish to the special meat dish I was preparing on the grill. She informed me that she would really enjoy having a sweet potato. After struggling with preparing the potato for several hours and how late it was getting, I finally picked up the phone and called Linda Rempel, knowing that she was a culinary expert. I explained to Linda, “I finally figured out how to make the potato taste sweet, but I cannot figure out how to make it orange!” I only heard a sigh.
NEWS ITEMS
Coming in October will be CrossTalk and CrossWalk. Both will be held on Thursday evenings, 7:00 – 8:30 PM at the church. The topic for CrossTalk which will be the first and third Thursdays of the month, will be addressing the issue of sexual assault and how to minister to yourself or others who have or are struggling with the impact of it with the power of the gospel.
The topic for CrossWalk, on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month, will be parenting and establishing a gospel-centered approach to raising children. Check out the church webpage in the next few weeks for a more detailed description of these classes. Both are open to the public.
FIGHTING FOR YOUR CHILDREN: THE REALITY OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE IN THE HOME
by Brian Nelson with Timothy Paul Jones
Your family lives in a war zone. With every exploding shell, the house shakes. Your physical body may never feel the shell shocks, and the plaster on your walls may remain intact- but the impacts are present all around you. Long after your children fall asleep and the chaos of the day fades into the quietness of evening, the shelling continues.
To be sure, when you look out your window and survey a suburban backyard, a busy city block, or the rolling hills of a rural landscape, what you see probably doesn’t look like a war zone. But don’t let such serene scenery fool you! Beyond the doors of your household and mine, there is a battle raging. The battle is about glory, and who will receive it. The battle is about authority, and who will exercise it.
This is war because the same serpentine dragon who– in that celestial conflict that John glimpsed on Patmos– longed to consume the fruit of Mary’s womb also wants to devour our children (Rev. 12:1-9). His weapons in this conflict are, however, neither the priests of Molech nor the soldiers of Herod (Jer. 32:35-36; Matt. 2:16). The Enemy’s weapons in our children’s lives are slickly-promoted celebrities and clothing and commercials that subtly but surely corrode their souls.
What we wrestle against in this battle is not “flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Faced with the recognition that our households are targets in a cosmic conflict, it is tempting for Christian families to seek some sort of bunker to escape the battle– hunkering down in well-fortified homes or churches, dreaming about a heavenly kingdom and hoping for the rapid return of Jesus. But that is not our calling: In God’s design, Christian households and churches are not shelters from the conflict; they are gospel-empowered training bases for the conflict.
God has graciously gifted my wife and me with two precious daughters. Surrounded by play kitchens, plastic dolls, and princess dresses, it would be easy for us to lose sight of our vast responsibility for these two creatures of God. It is only the Word of God that keeps us grounded in the reality that we are training our children for a conflict that transcends empirical observation. When my wife and I look at our girls, we see two beautiful gifts that God has placed in our household– but we also recall how the first family fell in the garden of Eden and how deeply the prince of darkness despises the gospel that was proclaimed even there (Gen. 3:15). We are reminded that, because this gospel is transforming our lives and the lives of our children, our household is a target for the enemy. We know our calling to train our children in the fear of God. To neglect this training would be to send our daughters into battle unprepared, unprotected, unaware.
Tonight, audible reminders of war ring in my ears– literally. Above my daughters’ playful laughter, I hear tanks at Fort Knox running maneuvers. Only a few miles from my home, troops are training. Thunderous cannon peals are very real reminders to me of physical conflicts in which these soldiers could soon be engaged. In this moment, the thunder also reminds me of another conflict- one that swirls unseen around my family, even here and even now.
Pastor George’s Note: To help prepare you for the battle, please consider at least one of you in the home attending CrossWalk on the 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings of the month as I will begin a series called “Rescue” where we will explore how we can rescue our children and ourselves as a family from the ravages of the world, the flesh, and the devil with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Starts this month on October 13, 7:00 PM at the church.
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