From the Pastor’s Pen – July 2008

Parents, we should never underestimate the ability of our children to learn truths from God’s Word. With that in mind, let me ask you, what are you doing to make certain that your children learn the doctrinal teaching that is found in God’s revelation to us? Many years ago Baptist taught their children by using a question and answer method called “catechizing.” Somewhere along the way we forgot to do this, and the result has been a lot of ignorance of the things of God. As a parent you have a great responsibility to make sure your children know God’s Word. Whatever the method that is used, we need to make certain that we are filling their minds with God’s Word. They need to know what the Scriptures principally teach. What man is to believe concerning God & what duty God requires of us? It is man’s duty to know God and to glorify Him in our lives. But our children will not learn all that this means unless we teach them. It is always good to set an example before them. If you, as a parent, do not seek to learn God’s truths then your children will probably not learn them. Have you begun to memorize Spurgeon’s Baptist Catechisms? Have you begun to teach them to your family? There are times when we are very direct and to the point with our children about danger. Maybe it is time for us to be direct and to the point in warning our children about the spiritual pitfalls that await them in this world. Maybe it is time for us to be direct in warning our children (no matter how old they may be) away from the path that leads to hell. God has clearly called us as parents to instruct, discipline, teach, reprove and rebuke our children. Are we daily seeking to do this? Deuteronomy 6:6-9 states: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart; you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” This is the kind of interest in the Word of God that produces a good result in our children. We must use the means that the Lord has given us to lead our children to Christ. Every parent is called upon to pray for the conversion of their children, to teach them the Word of God, to set a good example before them, to faithfully attend church, to lead them in a time of family worship, to guard them from error and to see that they are under gospel preaching every Lord’s Day. As a pastor, I am called to be faithful in teaching the whole counsel of God to God’s people. And God’s people are called to teach their children and set an example before them every day. Parents, we have such a short time to instill truth into our children, please do not waste it. Your children will be grown before you realize it. Let us do all that we can to instill God’s truth in them!

Pastor Thomas Winn