I see and understand your point. I will try to teach my son that church is not a place that you “have” to go, it’s a place that you “get” to go.
I will teach him that Jesus loves all of us, no matter how we dress.
I will teach him that church is not supposed to be boring and if it is, someone is doing it wrong.
I will teach him to listen for that still, small voice for that is the Holy Spirit directing him, counseling him when his Dad is no longer here.
Most of all I will teach him to love everyone, no matter their religious bent. That if he loves them, as Jesus commanded he will share his faith with them and not pick and choose who gets to come to his Lord based on how they dress or what song they sing.
Another thing we must do to help our young people remain faithful is give them the tools they need to reason their faith out.
We need to instruct them in the trite old methods other Christians will use to try to discourage them in their faith. We need to show them what the answers are to all the incorrect statements other people will make about what they think the Church is. We need to arm them with the Truth of our faith, the facts, and the Scripture that refutes all the nonsense. We need to train them in the art of debate, for someday they may have to debate their faith with members of their own family.
Most of all, we need to be good role models in doing this— and in living our faith.
>>>I see and understand your point. I will try to teach my son that church is not a place that you “have” to go, it’s a place that you “get” to go.>>>
Agree however as long as he’s in my house, he will both “gets to go” and “has to go”.....as I heard a black preacher say here in Dallas on the radio this week, Yes, my “drugged” me.....she “drug me to church and thank God she did.”
>>I will teach him that Jesus loves all of us, no matter how we dress.>>>
Agree again. And I will also teach him about what Jesus said. That he who has been forgiven most, loves most. And this can be manifest in how we respond including our approach to worship. A serious matter.
>>>I will teach him that church is not supposed to be boring and if it is, someone is doing it wrong.>>>
Amen. If the congregation is asleep, the Pastor needs to be woken up. And there is nothing boring about the stories in the Bible. What are boring are stories Pastors tell about themselves. Billy Graham was never boring. Spurgeon was never boring. Wesley was never boring. I don’t think Paul was boring. I find Joel Osteen incredibly boring.
>>>I will teach him to listen for that still, small voice for that is the Holy Spirit directing him, counseling him when his Dad is no longer here.>>>
Amen to that. And also, to remember the spirit never goes against the word. In fact, the word is how we test the spirit because many people confuse the “spirit” with their feelings and emotions. As a Protestant, the Bible, the word is the final test. Thus saith the Lord.
>>Most of all I will teach him to love everyone, no matter their religious bent. That if he loves them, as Jesus commanded he will share his faith with them and not pick and choose who gets to come to his Lord based on how they dress or what song they sing.>>
Well, not sure about “most of all to love everyone” because I don’t believe in salvation by works. My child’s soul is not dependent on how much he loves someone because the Bible says our works are never good enough. Loving others is the fruitage of our salvation, not the root.
So “most of all” for me is that Christ died for his or her sins. That’s why the cross is the symbol of Christianity. On that cross, the Lord took his, her, my sin to cover for those days I don’t Love everyone good enough, to cover for those days I don’t have perfect love, perfect patience, perfect tolerance, perfect anything.
Luther figured out NOTHING he could do could make God love him anymore than what God had already done on the cross.
And so when a person gets this gospel of grace in his heart, how much God paid so I could live, ......the response? The fruit? Will be Love and maybe even dressing up for church.
Love is the “fruit” of salvation, not the “root.” The root of our salvation is What Christ did for me, not what I do for him. That is the difference between a Protestant and Catholic and you won’t find 5% of Christians today who understand this because we have become a theologically ignorant society. Unlike the Reformers and people of old.