Ever looked at the Bible as a parent or guardian and thought, how on earth does this apply to me and the kids in my care? What wisdom can I use in this situation? Or how do I instruct and discipline my kids?
Doug and Nancy Wilson of Moscow, ID, USA give two long parenting series talks after sermons in Ephesians and Zephaniah asking just these questions, and many others:
Questions from the Q&A:
0:50 – Is there ever a good time to ask your child: “How do you think that makes me feel?” 1:53 – Is there ever a time to ask: “How do you think that makes her (your mom) feel?” 5:30 – Can a parent ever ask the question “How do you think that makes me or her feel?” effectively? 6:49 – Is there a way to use scripture effectively without embittering your children towards it? 8:16 — Is there a way to use scripture effectively without embittering your children towards it? 8:37 — How do you consistently discipline your child and at the same time show them liberty and freedom? 11:48 — How do you become a house of “Yes” without spoiling your children? 17:38 — Can using scripture to teach and admonish your children become abused or done wrongly? 24:10 — Can you talk about the steps you took to not take things personally when your children disobey? 27:03 — What steps did you take to both be on the same page when it came to disciplining your children? 32:13 — What should doing devotions as a young married couple look like? Doing devotions with your children? 36:14 — How involved should you be in your child’s private devotions? 41:28 — How do you prioritize sins/issues to deal with when dad gets home? 46:40 — How does mom not be the dump truck when dad gets home? 48:35 — How do you apologize to your kids? Any thoughts on television for your kids? 54:45 — Is there a time and a place to not discipline your kids? 57:17 — What if your kids know what they did wrong and explained why they needed a spanking, but asked, “Can we not talk about it afterwards?”
Four other resources we’ve found helpful lately are:
“Don’t Make Me Count to Three!” by Ginger Hubbard (simple, purposeful, practical application of the book of Proverbs and NT instructions to discipline, teaching, the heart, and our words/behaviour/attitude)
It’s normal to struggle with prayer. This week several events have caught our attention as urgent to pray about for Christians of every stripe and walk of life in our country:
the freedom convoy in Ottawa
an unlawful border blockade in Alberta
a potential new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
the court hearing of the Constitutional challenge of previous COVID-19 restrictions on worship in Ontario
the application of a Charter (and Constitutional) challenge to mobility rights in Canada from the only surviving member of the original drafters
all of which have potential to either unite or continue to divide, encourage or discourage, bring more of God’s rule to bear in the world or to hinder it further. Therefore, please pray.
If you’re struggling with what to pray, then perhaps pray for wisdom for everyone involved, knowing that the Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8:26-27). You can also use these tools in prayer:
the categories of adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving
make a list (like we did above)
ask someone to pray with you
use a prayer journal or book like the Valley of Vision or Every Moment Holy
pray through a specific passage of the Word (like the Lord’s Prayer, the fruit of the Spirit, or the definition of love)
make a prayer schedule or follow a monthly prayer calendar with a different focus each day
pray in concentric circles (yourself, family, church, friends and coworkers, your city or town, province, country, continent, and globe)
Here’s a jumping-off point from Every Moment Holy vol. I, A Liturgy for the Labors of Community:
Leader: Our lives are so small, O Lord, People: Our vision so limited, Our courage so frail, Our hours so fleeting. Therefore give us grace and guidance for the journey ahead.
We are gathered here because we believe that we are called together into a work we cannot yet know the fullness of. Still, we trust the voice of the One who has called us.
And so we offer to you, O God, these things: Our dreams, our plans, our vision. Shape them as You will. Our moments and our gifts. May they be invested toward bright, eternal ends.
Richly bless the work before us, Father. Shepherd us well lest we grow enamoured of our own accomplishment or entrenched in old habit. Instead let us listen for Your voice, our hearts ever open to the quiet beckonings of Your Spirit in this endeavour. Let us in true humility and poverty of spirit remain ever ready to move at the impulse of your love in the paths of your design.
You alone, O God, by your gracious and life-giving Spirit have power to knit our imperfect hearts, our weaknesses, our strengths, our stories, and our gifts, one to another. Unite Your people and multiply our meagre offerings, O Lord, that all might resound to Your glory.
May our acts of service and creation, frail and wanting as they are, be met and multiplied by the mysterious workings of Your Spirit who weaves all things together toward a redemption more good and glorious than we yet have eyes to see, of courage to hope for. May our love and our labors now echo your love and your labors, O Lord.
Let all that we do here, in these our brief lives, in this our brief moment to love, in this the work you have ordained for this community, flower in winsome and beautiful foretaste of greater glories yet to come.
O Spirit of God, now shape our hearts. O Spirit of God, now guide our hands. O Spirit of God, now build Your kingdom among us.
God uses the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, and I have a sneaking suspicion these truckers – straight talking and clear thinking as they are – are about to teach the pointy-headed a thing or two or three about neighbourliness. They are standing to fill a gap. Their neighbours’ faces are being ground up, and the truckers are standing. The pastors should have stood between the sheep and the wolves. Busier trying to look neighbourly than actually be neighbourly, they’re now being outpaced by 100,000 big rigs barreling through snow drifts on the Trans Canada Highway to face the wolf and drive him away. In one sense, the truckers are doing what the church should have done, and the nation is resurrecting from a slumber as the convoy pushes through inspiring courage in each passing town. Liberty from tyranny is starting to smell like burning diesel fuel. The truckers just might be the Good Samaritans we’ve been waiting for.
Unto what end did God ordain government? Derek Carlsen is a pastor from South Africa. He experienced firsthand the oppression of a tyrannical government, and confronted the killer tyrant Mugabe with the Word of God. In this speech he confronts the failure of Christian elders to address the tyranny they see in society. He gives you – the people – actionable items to bring to your leadership, in the context of a constitutional republic.
“When Elders fail, the Church fails, and when the Church fails, the nation falls.” Why do we live in a fallen America [or Canada]? It is because of the failure of modern day Christianity. Their compliance and false piety has led to our current circumstances.
Bill C-4, the broadly-defined ‘conversion therapy’ ban, came into law over the weekend. The unanimous and unprecedented approval of it in Canada rightfully draws attention from some of our more faithful neighbours to the south.
Dr. Jared Longshore, author (10 mn), gives a solid overview of the state of affairs, as well as the problematic wording of the Bill almost certainly guaranteeing criminal charges for faithful, godly pastors and counsellors:
2. Next we have Tom Ascol, over at Founders Ministries (this one’s 42 minutes long, be warned), interviewing the Liberty Coalition of Canada on this Bill, its poor definitions, and its ramifications:
If just ONE MP had stood up, the Bill would have had to pass regular legislative debate and approval processes. Three members of the Conservative Party of Canada have since expressed regret or attempted explanations as to why the Bill passed without their opposition:
Let’s camp out for a bit on the Honourable Arnold Viersen. Not to excuse Ms. Cathay Wagantall or Mr. Ted Falk, but Mr. Viersen’s statement above should raise the most eyebrows. In it, he claims he was “caught off guard” (his words) about the 3rd and final reading of the Bill. He also claims, however, to have had enough notice to vote against it in both previous readings.
He does, however, chair the federal pro-life caucus (please, hold your applause), and seems to know our Premier well.
Perhaps with his statement, Mr. Viersen banked on our forgetting the crucial moment he waffled back and forth over whether the measures taken against GraceLife last year were just, until Shannon (a.k.a. Knox), Rench, and Sumpter finally called him on it and he implied by his silence, they were? (See minutes 27 through 39 below):
Note: Forgive the lengthy transcript; in reading or listening, the cringeworthy exchange suggests perhaps either a lack of Biblical literacy or clarity on Viersen’s part, intimidation, or a reluctance to speak authoritatively about church matters in public. The moment of silence in question comes after being asked if James Coates helped the cause of Christian liberty in Canada, and betrays his true feelings about the matter. Either way, let’s hope faithful voters and MPs, if there are any, pay attention; C-4 is now the second time he’s remained silent when he ought to speak up.
27:51 Viersen: “It looks more exciting, from my perspective, as well, to stand on the picket lines, essentially. ‘Fight, Laugh, Feast’ I see that in the corner of the screen here. The fight of it… I like the fight of it. My point is, I’m happy to fight if we’re going to achieve an end-“
28:15 Knox: “Ever read Hebrews? Some had victory, and some die in battle, but the end is always the truth, standing on the what God has said to do. I guess as I’m listening to you… [Viersen tries to interrupt] I feel like if you were giving advice to Shadrach, Meschach, [and Abednego], I feel like you would say something like, ‘hey guys, you have it better than a whole lot of other people in Israel and Babylon. Go ahead, just eat the food, and we’ll figure out the strategy later.’ Versus saying, ‘even if it takes the fiery furnace, or the lion’s den’, you know?”
29:15 Viersen: “Sure, all of that’s correct. Ok, On the C0V1D, is it a pandemic?”
29:22 Knox/Sumpter: “No.”
29:24 Viersen: “In Alberta, it is. Right? Because we’ve deemed it to be a pandemic. The government is then mandating that 15% of the fire code is the thing. Then, is the freedom of worship being impeded? That’s the other big question, right. And that question I throw back to you guys…? Like what’s the freedom of worship… In my church situation, in 2015, we chopped our church in half because we were failing to meet the fire code. We were 600 people in a 500 capacity church building. Right? And so we made a decision back then to make a second church, we chopped our church in half, and now we worship as two separate churches of about 300 people each. And then when C0V1D came along, kind of the precedent had been set, like well when the fire code says we can’t meet, we chop the church in half. And now we meet with 150 people on Sunday morning. And that’s… so what is the freedom of worship? We still gather together as the body of Christ in a particular place, it just happens to be a smaller body of Christ in a particular place.”
30:52: Toby Sumpter: “But isn’t the prerogative to decide that with the elders of the church?”
30:58: Viersen: “100 percent.”
31:00 Knox: “What Bible verse is ‘fire code’?”
31:02 Sumpter: “And I don’t even mind saying that there can be some consideration of safety and health, obviously there can be some consideration of that, but that shouldn’t be the deciding factor or the only factor, because there might be situations where you’re over 100, but for the spiritual health of the people, it would would not be healthy; it would not be helpful to break it in half. I can see it working sometimes that way, sometimes not, because maybe you don’t have enough elders, enough deacons… The spiritual health of the church matters.”
31:37 Viersen: “But that’s the freedom of conscience piece, right?”
31:38 Sumpter: “Right.”
31:40 Viersen: “That’s a big challenge about it. So this is where I said to Gabe [Rench], I’m going to make everybody mad in every direction with this interview, because I can think that GraceLife is taking on a Premier who’s being stupid by being stupid.”
32:05 Sumpter: “Why is it stupid to meet for worship, using your freedom of conscience which you said they should just have? Why is that stupid?”
32:10 Viersen: “Well… the point being, it’s not… stupid’s probably the wrong word. The point being is that the Premier is violating their freedom of conscience, right, but the Premier… that’s why all of this gets conflated all of the time. So on one hand, my freedom to worship is important, and the freedom of conscience of Mr. Coates to gather his entire congregation together is important to me. The freedom of worship, that’s important to me. But it also is important to me that we have a semblance of Christian governance in this country, and we are working to achieve that, and we’ve got a major casualty in all of that right now going on. And you’re going to have to forgive me for that in that I’m a politician, I think in political ways. All of this kind of stuff, I’m trying to work to bring Christian principles to bear in the government world.”
33:21 Rench: “And Arnold, I get that, and I appreciate you. I feel like you’re a guy that I could learn to trust. Just from the outside, I don’t trust any politician til they win my trust, or prove their trust to me. So I see all that, but I also see… part of the vibe that I’m also getting is, well, I almost think that you might do the same thing [Jason] Kenney is doing now if you became Premier…? At least the way you’re arguing could set you up for not standing up-“
33:52 Viersen: “That’s my big worry, guys. That’s my big worry. Because I know Jason as a person, who he is, his values align with mine… he is doing this for a reason. What is the reason? He is the Premier of the Province, he has more briefings, he has more than I know… I worked extremely hard to get this guy-“
34:42 Rench: “And he’ll have a greater judgement, for sure… But after a year of him doing that, you have to say no, it’s evil, it’s wrong…”
35:00 Sumpter: “You can’t just keep rolling. Even if you knew him, even if you knew his marriage, you’d do everything to reach out to him. ‘Hey, brother, I helped you get elected, help me understand what you’re doing.’ If you’re not getting answers, even from your most trusted friends. I mean, Jesus said, in one of his most extreme statements, ‘If you do not hate your father and mother, your sister, your daughter, your son, your wife, your husband, then you’re not worthy to be my disciple.’ What I think he meant by that is ‘Your loyalty to me and the truth is going to sometimes look like you’re stabbing the closest people to you in the back’. If you’re faithful to Jesus. And at some point, when they’re putting fences around churches, when they’re arresting pastors, on stupid technicalities, I mean-“
37:07 Viersen: “The fences around the church is a ter-… that can’t happen in a free and democratic society.”
37:14 Sumpter: “Sure. I appreciate that.”
37:16 Viersen: “The arresting of a pastor…”
37:17 Sumpter: “On a technicality.”
37:18 Viersen: “Yeah, sure. Right, like. 100 percent, it’s a technicality. It’s dumb. If you’re going to ask me-“
37:36 Sumpter: “And trying to shame Canadians, trying to keep them home, trying to keep them in their place, trying to make them be afraid-“
37:40 Viersen: “Pick a side between a Premier and a pastor, I’ll pick the side of the pastor. For sure. The point is that we didn’t end up here in a vacuum. And I guess you could make the argument that if it wasn’t Mr. Coates it would be somebody else, and that’s a possibility. But the reality is that there were many other… the BC example is that there were many other churches who were extremely frustrated with all of this and were abiding by the 15% [capacity restriction] while also taking the government to court on it.”
38:28 Sumpter: “Which maybe is another tactic, but I guess the thing that I want to… I’m not going to throw shade on that necessarily, if that’s one play that one church wants to make. Ok, fine, do that if- Maybe that have good lawyers or it’s their way of pushing back. But I guess my point that I want to push back on you for on the tactical side of things would be a question of: do you think that James Coates helped his case by serving 35 days in jail?”
38:49 Viersen: “Helped his case?”
38:51 Sumpter: “Yeah. Helped the case of Christians in Canada?”
38:54 *pause*
38:59 Sumpter: “Did he make forward progress for Christian liberty?” *Another pause* “The answer is yes!”
39:02 Knox: “You know, this is like nailing Jell-O to a wall.“
39:19 Sumpter: “But seriously, Arnold, I mean, this goes back to the Hebrews 11 thing that David [Shannon, a.k.a. Chocolate Knox] was talking about a minute ago. In Hebrews, people win sometimes by winning, but sometimes they win by what looks like losing, if it’s obedience to Christ, if it’s faithfulness to Christ. And what I want to say is, I wouldn’t know about your situation in Canada if James Coates hadn’t been faithful to spend 35 days away from his family and his church. Thousands of Christians around the world wouldn’t know where this thing was headed if James Coates hadn’t been a man of God and gone to jail for 35 days.”
………
TL;DR: if members of our Conservative Party – or any other party, for that matter – cannot or will not publicly uphold the values which give us hope, heal our hearts, build our legacies, make churches, and aid our sanctification – in this case, freedom of religion in the Charter (in this case, the cause of Christian worship and liberty) even in times of trouble – then they ought to step down or be removed and replaced with someone able and willing. It is that simple.
To paraphrase Doug Wilson, ungodly obedience now does not prepare us for godly resistance in the future. The Coates/Stephens (Reaume and others) fines and imprisonments of last year, sadly, seem to be only the prelude foreshadowing what’s next from our Canadian politicians and healthcare magistrates. The only question we need to ask ourselves is, are we prepared to face the main overture, once the drums and tuba and trumpets join in? (Might I suggest starting today with regular prayer, fasting, and time in the Word?)
Here are also some helpful links to read, explore, and consider:
Join us on Sunday, January 16th at 10:30 am as we stand with faithful churches across North America to teach and discuss biblical sexual morality, the love of God, and the gift of Christian community.
I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t what you think it was. What do you think caused more deaths than cancer, smoking, alcohol, traffic accidents, malaria, and HIV/AIDS combined?
Dr. Daniel Wallace explains the copying of the New Testament books and shows the reliability of the scribal processes:
Video from the Sacred Words History of the Bible Conference, February 21–22, 2020. Hosted by the Text & Canon Institute.
This video is followed by a Q&A with the plenary speakers, the directors, and pastor Josh Vincent. Dr. Dan Wallace is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) and Senior Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society, a consultant for several Bible translations, and the author of numerous journal articles and books including Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics.
Happy New Year. We survived 2020, and 2021, and are now looking down the barrel, so to speak, of 2022. We’re delighted and excited to share more content and stories with you over this next year, but for now, there is a pressing matter at hand.
You may have been following the saga of Bill C-4 over the past few weeks. This is post 1 of 2 (and, let’s be honest, probably several more) detailing the issues at hand and the circumstances leading up to this moment in Canadian politics.
“Bill C-4 passed through the House and the Senate without opposition. Not a single dissenting vote was cast by any member of the Conservative Party. It received Royal Assent on December 8, which means it will come into Law after January 8, 2022. The Bill will amend the Criminal Code in Canada to ban conversion therapy. It will criminalize, among other things, “causing another person to undergo conversion therapy; promoting or advertising conversion therapy.”
In the Preamble of the Bill, it says that the belief that “heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth are to be preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions” is a “myth.” According to Canadian law, as of January 8, 2022, the belief in God’s design for marriage and sexuality will now be seen as a myth.
The Bill defines conversion therapy as, “a practice, treatment or service designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual; change a person’s gender identity to cisgender; change a person’s gender expression so that it conforms to the sex assigned to the person at birth; repress or reduce non-heterosexual attraction or sexual behavior; repress a person’s non-cisgender gender identity; or repress or reduce a person’s gender expression that does not conform to the sex assigned to the person at birth.”
The definition is intentionally broad, and it can clearly be used against any preacher or elder who either speaks against homosexuality/transgenderism or who counsels a person to obey Christ and abandon their homosexual/transgender actions and lifestyle. This means as of January 8, 2022, it will be against the law to preach, teach, or counsel regarding God’s design for marriage and sexuality.
“Everyone who knowingly causes another person to undergo conversion therapy – including by providing conversion therapy to that other person – is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years.” Similarly, “Everyone who knowingly promotes or advertises conversion therapy is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years.”
…
Since this law takes effect on January 8, 2022, faithful Canadian pastors are going to preach on the issue, calling for a biblical understanding of sexual sin, the eternal judgment that falls on the unrepentant and gospel-rejecting sinners, and the grace of God in the gospel which offers forgiveness to those who repent and believe in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, Paul clearly articulates why we must speak the truth:”
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
While we recognize that no person is sinless except Christ (1 John 1:8), and anyone with such desires is welcome in attendance at our church and its events, Covenant Presbyterian gladly supports the work of pastors across Canada and the US to draw attention to, confront, and oppose this Bill, as well as any motion passed by Parliament which contradicts or undermines the clear teaching of the Word of God, who benevolently rules over all.
Join us on January 16, 2022 as we link arms with faithful pastors across the country and preach, in a spirit of love and mercy, the unfailing love of God, the unrighteousness of sinners, and the need for a Saviour – Jesus Christ – who bore the wrath of God on our behalf that we might become His redeemed, new-made children.
Chris Cousine Pastor, Covenant Presbyterian Church
What does someone struggling in their faith or considering not being a Christian need to hear most? If you have non-believing parents, siblings, relatives, friends, or children, you may find this conversation an important one to have at the holidays.
Listen in to this 5mn chat between Stand to Reason’s Tim Barnett and Clear Thinking Christianity’s Jon Noyes that both communicates love, establishes boundaries, and continues the conversation.
Streaming now on YouTube & Facebook (Meta). This original video is presented to you courtesy of Covenant Presbyterian Church. Special thanks to the members of our congregation who made it possible.
Covenant Presbyterian Church 