Encouraging Family Reformation

The biblical institutions of church and family in America are in need of reformation. Some say that we are in the period of greatest apostasy in 500 years. Less than one-half of one percent of adults ages 18 to 23 years have a biblical worldview. Only one-third of Christian parents say their religious faith is one of the most important influences on their parenting and only 27% of Protestant parents are very familiar with what the Bible has to say about parenting. It is clear that many Christian parents are no longer discipling their children in the faith. The result---SBC’s Council on Family Life reported that roughly 88 percent of evangelical children are leaving the church shortly after they graduate from high school. The problem is not only with the church and its program-oriented, marketing-driven growth philosophy, but also with parents, who have abdicated their role and responsibility in teaching, discipling, and nurturing their children in multigenerational faithfulness. The result is that the secular post-Christian culture has claimed the children and youth of America. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3). We are encouraged by the fact that God is sovereign, Jesus Christ is Lord and His kingdom is forever. As we believe God's covenantal promise, our opportunity is great in working toward reformation of the family, the church, and the nations.

This blog links to a wide variety of writings on biblical issues regarding the family, biblical roles and relationships in the family, the church, education, and biblical worldview including ethics, apologetics, history, politics, and culture. The blog was created to encourage biblical family reformation through development of a clear family vision of multigenerational faithfulness. Our duties as parents include sharing the gospel with our children, discipling them in the faith (Deut 6:7), raising them in the fear, nuture, and admonition of the Lord (Prov 9:10; Eph 6:4), cultivating in them a biblical worldview (2 Cor 10:5), and providing them with the necessary tools to recognize and engage an increasingly humanistic, post-Christian culture while glorifying God.

November 6, 2009

Destroying Every Form of Bitterness in Us

Rev. Allen M Baker is Pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

The apostle urges us to 'Put all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, slander away from you, along with all malice' (Ephesians 4:31).

Richard Cameron, the Lion of the Covenant, the powerful Scottish Covenanter preacher of the 17th century, along with so many other preachers, was driven from his pulpit by Charles II of England. Cameron and many like him took their congregations to the fields and forests in Scotland to continue pulpit ministry. In 1670 Charles made such public gatherings and preaching a capital offence, and he sent his army into Scotland to hunt down the Covenanter preachers. Richard knew his days were numbered and while preaching one day to his congregation, Charles' army disrupted the service, arresting Cameron. Before being executed before the eyes of his congregation, Richard Cameron prayed, asking the Lord to 'spare the green and take the ripe.' His head and hands were severed from his body and taken to a prison in Glasgow where Alan Cameron, his father, was being punished for the same crime. When shown the head and hands, and asked if he knew to whom they belonged, Alan Cameron kissed them and said, 'These belong to my dear son. The Lord has done it. The Lord has been good to me and mine. The Lord has given us mercy and grace all our days.'

How could a father respond with such faith, devoid of bitterness and wrath?

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