How Do We Get There?
Getting to the point where people see a difference in the way our
children act and behave means raising our children on purpose. There
are reasons why we do things differently. If you desire to see results
that are different in your children from the normal behavior of other
children around you then you must be willing to walk a different path.
Someone once said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over but
expecting different results.” If we desire to be set-apart we cannot
accept the post-modern view of the world and the raising of our family.
In the post-modern world of today the family and or assembly has
become impotent. The family and church are either one step behind the
world or running in step with it. A family which desires to be set-apart
for Elohim ought to be different. Yahshua told us if we are followers
of Him the world would hate us as it hates Him.
1Jn 3:13 Do not marvel, my brothers, if the world hates you.1 Footnote:
1See John 15:18-19, John 17:14.
Joh 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it
hated you.
Joh 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for
that reason the world hates you.
Peter also tells us we are a peculiar people set-apart for the
purposes of Elohim.
1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation (race), a royal priesthood, an
holy nation (set-apart), a peculiar people (people for a possession);
that ye should shew forth (proclaim) the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Peter is quoting from the Old Testament.
Exo 19:5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people:
for all the earth is mine:
In the post-modern world of today children are viewed as an economic
burden. Children are to be delegated to the care and instruction of
others. There is no distinct difference between male and female.
Daughters are taught being self-supporting and independent is more
important than the high calling of motherhood or of being a helpmate
to a husband.
I am in no way endorsing the the patriarchy movement here. What I
am saying is that society has given up on the biblical mandates for men
and women and the roles they themselves are to play in the family. The
underlying current I am trying to suggest is, as parents we are
responsible to promote a generational faithfulness to the whole word
of Elohim. It is only in this way we are able to be set-apart and
influence the society in which we live.
Post-modern society tries to fragment the family rather than
keeping it together. Wives are encouraged to be independent of husbands
or to serve men other than their husband through work. Husbands are viewed
as the breadwinner rather than the spiritual leader of the family.
Children are seen mostly on weekends and in church the family is
fragmented more. When at home time is spent watching television or
computer not to mention outside activities of sports and recreation.
The post-modern family sees personal comfort as the main objective in
life.
Finances are usually handled through adding of debt into the mix.
When it comes time to take care of our elderly parents it becomes easier
to allow someone else to care for them. Again our own personal comfort is
more important. We forget the wisdom and influence an older generation is
able to have upon our lives and the lives of our children and
grandchildren.
For achieving different results we must begin to see things
differently. We must reject the glitter of the world. As a set-apart
person or family we set ourselves up to be somebody different. The world
around us may see us as being strange. In some cases we don't fit in with
our extended family. In reality we have become a lesson in faith, a visual
aid where Elohim has said we do things purposely to be different. He wants
us to be different so that when people see us they will understand they
have to be different. What are we to be different from? Different from
the culture we live in. We are to be faultless, in the world but not of
it.
Php 2:15 in order that you be blameless and faultless, children of Elohim
without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among
whom you shine as lights in the world,
Sampson is an example of being called to be different. His was the vow
of the Nazarite. He was to be unique, set-apart for Yahweh’s purposes.
Sampson was not effective in his calling as a visual aid for one reason.
He went down to the Philistines and rather than being in confrontation
to the culture there, he chose to participate in it. This is what I see
in the churches today and why following Abba’s instructions are so
important. Sampson’s big failure was not so much in violating his
Nazarite vow but in beginning to participate in the cultural value
system that he was supposed to be confronting.
It is completely impossible for us to live out this Elohim –
centered existence in confrontation of the cultural values that we
live with and with which we disagree if we are openly or even secretly
participating in the value system in which we oppose. The great failure
of Christianity is its tendency to adopt the cultural values and the
lifestyle values of the very culture we are supposed to be distinct
from. Just as when Sampson lived a lifestyle completely separated to
Elohim’s values he was effective, so to when we live according to
Abba’s instructions we can be effective. When Sampson compromised
with the value system he represented he lost his power and effectiveness.
The same thing happens to us. Our task is to be a part of this
confrontation between the culture of Elohim and the culture of the
world. Our task begins and ends with discipleship for ourselves
and our family. We must recognize that “faith is more often than not
counter-cultural, that the values it elevates – selflessness, love,
faith – are often ignored, belittled, or perverted by the society
we live in. And if Jesus really is Lord, as the Gospels, the apostle
Paul, and the church insists, then nothing else is, so why should it
matter what society thinks, does, or says?”3
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