“INSTROSPECTIVE IDOLATERS”
After writing recently on “Introspective Idolatresses”, I truly felt compelled to research the probability that both “Introspective Idolatresses” and “Introspective Idolaters” feed off of each other, but ‘bottom-line’, that ‘spirit’ of ‘fleshly introspection’ has a benefactor called the “powers of darkness” that feeds and celebrates in the ‘curse’ of self-importance and self-indulgence in its basest display!
In fact, in Ephesians 5:1-7, Paul enlightens us between ‘imitators of God as dear children’ or the extension of the fleshly, devilish, self-promoting of ‘the idolater’! Paul wrote: “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love (is that ‘laying down one’s life willingly without regret, like Jesus at the Cross’?), as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God FOR A SWEET-SMELLING AROMA (not a soured countenance of disappointment in child-care!).
But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.”
Much or most of the inter-action between “introspective idolaters” and “introspective idolatresses” is ‘being fed’ or ‘feeding’ one another in the fruit of flesh, not the “fruit of the Spirit”! And there is definitely an eternal difference between the two, but, sadly, some look upon “feeding off ‘flesh’ or the ‘old sin-nature’ as normal and natural until one gets to Heaven one day in the ‘far-off future’”! How biblically wrong is that? Yes, there is a massive spiritual difference between living in “the best of motherly or fatherly faith” and living in “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ” as a mother or a father!
Have YOU ever wondered what ‘rock’ some “moms” or “dads” drink from? In 1 Corinthians 10:4b-5 Paul wrote of both the “gathered” and the “scattered” when he said of those ‘gathered’, “For they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness,” challenging us in the 21st Century, Verse 6, “Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted,” – “my way of parenting or God’s way”? [Paul later said in Verse 14, “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry”! And one can only pray, “Holy God, instill Christ-like, selfless service in both moms and dads, and tear down their altars to the ‘flesh-way’, even at its ‘best’!”].
Yes, I know Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:16, was speaking about ‘temple priests’, not only before Christ but after His crucifixion, and about ‘temple’ idolatry when he wrote: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?” But… has there been, in some, a blinded devotion to ‘mothering or fathering as I see fit’ apart from, “Lord, what would You have me to do?”, even blinded to the Christian walk as a life that was crucified with Christ at the Cross, and, “my ‘faith-walk’ IS Christ in me and through me to His glory, honor, and praise, my life as mother or father reflecting His presence, purpose, and power”?
I would be amiss if I failed to point out that the author of Hebrews 11:4-5 shared the major difference between, yes, a “mother’s best effort” and the “more excellent way”: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.”
The righteousness of “motherhood” or “fatherhood” is imparted, implanted, impacted by the mother’s awareness or the father’s awareness, understanding, desire for, need of, the “obtained witness” of the ministry of the Indwelling Holy Spirit who honors and magnifies Christ through the emptied vessel of flesh, whether father or mother! The ‘Cain-ish way’ of fatherhood or the “Abel-way” through faith and obedience TO the fruit of the Spirit? Do you understand, realize, or comprehend through examples from others, examination of “best effort failures”, or suddenly ‘dumb-founded’ because of no devotion at all to the ways of God in Christ for fathers and mothers, or simply: “Who needs God’s help as a father or mother? I can do it on my own.”
Are future fathers and mothers ever trained or equipped to be “representative parents of Holy God” or is it a ‘best-effort’ philosophy? I wrote a teaching in November of 2004 in which I said: “Even though we are immortal in Christ, as human followers, we have tendencies to fallibility, to failure, and to futility – and sadly some of us accept that and settle in to being our petty little selves! And sadly, some of us settle for religious spasms every now and then, but fail to press in to the High Calling.”
Fathers, mothers, grandparents, friends, neighbors, co-workers, professing Christians, I challenge you: reflect upon 2 Timothy 1:9 where Paul wrote: that God “has SAVED US and CALLED US with A HOLY PURPOSE, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus, BEFORE TIME BEGAN.”
Holy God has had an eternal plan for marriage and parenting even before the world was created? And whether it’s parenting, pastoring, participating in the present world and kingdom living as fathers and mothers, is there an eternal word of hope for moms and dads who trust in Christ alone for parenting skills and parenting ministries? Psalm 138:7-8 says, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. THE LORD WILL PERFECT THAT WHICH CONCERNS ME; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”
And I have to ask: Do you, parents, see your present parenting ministry as the works of God’s hands? Are YOU confident in Him when it seems the “candle” has been burned at both ends, and the fire of parenting is about to die out, in you? But, we just read: “THE LORD WILL PERFECT THAT WHICH CONCERNS ME.”
In the previous message on “Introspective Idolatresses” I made mention of Ezekiel 22:6-7, and it’s just as relevant here. “Look, the princes of Israel: each one has used his power to shed blood in you. In you they have made light of father and mother…”. Making light of marriage or parental responsibilities is a sad commentary in this 21st Century! And one wonders: “In marriage, in parenting, do marriage couples and/or fathers and mothers nonchalantly take marriage and parenting without a clear biblical equipping, alerting them to both pleasure and/or problems, or do they allow themselves to be fully aware of both weaknesses and strengths, dangers and glorious times, its insignificance as seen by some or it’s heavenly ministry, day by day, as formulated, instituted, and empowered by God Himself?
Husbands and/or fathers? Vessels of the Indwelling Christ? Purpose-driven marriages and parenting? Solid witnesses or insensitive husbands and fathers? I often am confronted with guys who have not treated their parental responsibility as a “God-representative father” or their ministry as a God-ordained husband but both as totally insignificant to their “life’s pleasures” – and I want to cry, but I do definitely pray for insensitive fathers and husbands!
It was Sir Charles Villiers Stanford who wrote the following – let it sink in ‘dads’ and husbands! “Human excellence apart from God, is like the fabled flower, which, according to the rabbis, Eve plucked when passing out of paradise. Severed from its native root, it is only the touching memorial of a lost Eden – sad while charming and beautiful, but dead.”
There are a number of truths that I feel vital to share in order not to be “Introspective Idolaters” as fathers in, sadly, a world of ‘fathers’ in America who are absent, away, yes, forsaken “the family fires and gatherings” under the Sovereign administration of King Jesus!
FIRST, THERE MUST BE A REVIVAL AND RETURN OF “TRUSTING” IN CHRIST JESUS TO OVERSEE AND ADMINISTER GODLY FATHERING! In Psalm 22:4-5 David, yes, sang these words: “Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; they trusted in You, and were not ashamed.” Is Holy God a respecter of persons?
Trust is visibly and spiritually witnessed as one “leans not to his/her understanding, but trusts in the Lord with ALL of one’s heart; (but) in all ‘the father’s way’, as a father, he sees he must acknowledge the Lord, allowing Him to direct the father’s path”- in child-care with spiritual nurturing!
But the heart-breaking reality? Christ Jesus KNOWS whether an earthly father is truly trusting Him to oversee the care of his children in, yes, cooperation with that father! In John 2:23-25 we find a powerful, awakening, convicting few verses. It says: Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. BUT Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. (Rather than just a ‘mind-reader’, Christ Jesus was and is a ‘heart-reader’ – He Knows every man’s “heart” – unredeemed or redeemed, fleshly or spiritual, out to pump ‘self-image’ or a heart and life to glorify Holy God through Christ by the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit)!
SECOND, THE ATTITUDE OF “TRUSTING” LEADS TO THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN ‘BIRTHING’ AND ‘BLESSING’ THE NEW-BORN FATHERS IN THEIR PARENTAL MINISTRIES! What did Jesus say in John 3:3? “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus questioned that, (he was a highly religious Pharisee in the Jewish hierarchy!), and in Verses 5-7 Jesus responded to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the water of the Word of God!) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
How shocking that ‘religious leaders’ needed to be born again – we understand the ‘out and out, fully committed unbeliever to his/her sin nature – but even the religious’? Religion is NOT a redemptive relationship, but one’s fleshly devotion – and that crucified Christ as well as the darkest sinner! “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!”
THIRD, THERE MUST BE IN GODLY FATHERS THE DAILY HUNGER, FEEDING, APPLYING AND EMPOWERING OF GOD’S HOLY WORD! After Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, tested by the devil himself, Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”
And our Lord reaffirmed the historical validity of seeking men and fathers when in John 6:63-64 He said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (even the “best efforts” of human flesh that fail to birth Sovereign life?) profits NOTHING (redemptive or eternal!); The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”
The wise author of the book of Hebrews, anointed and inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in Hebrews 4:12, “for the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
The Word of God, inspired by the Spirit, is like the “Master-Surgeon” of the ages, applying divine skills in “saving” men from living in ‘death’, cut away at the Cross, and granted Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!
You are aware, I’m sure, that it is in every man’s mind, heart, and will to decide for himself whether or not he’s even interested in the things, ways, truths of God concerning himself – and he will leave open or eternally shut the door as the Lord knocks! I’m even sure that there can be a counterfeit of outward allegiance apart from brokenness, hunger, or desire to be all God has revealed to them even in their ‘pre-birth’ stage of spiritual journeying!
In fact, to the early disciples of Christ, in Luke 6:46, Jesus asked, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” And concerning marriages in general, whether we look at husbands and fathers or wives and mothers, is there that daily consideration, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” Is parenting to be, as disciples of Christ, of faithful feeding and digesting of His Holy Word to honor Him or the ‘pumping’ of “best-effort flesh”! Be careful dads about asserting, “I have no time to be in the Word!” That is a self-destructing word of ‘flesh’! Be guided, inspired, directed, empowered by His never-dying Word!
FOURTH, DOES FAITHFUL INTERCESSORY PRAYER DAILY, AS FATHERS, FOR MOMS, KIDS, AND SELF PLAY A VITAL ROLE IN, YES, AN OVERCOMING FAMILY MINISTRY? In 1 Timothy 2:1-8 the Apostle Paul was truly such a powerful equipper of men about the care of themselves and those around them. He said:
“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle – I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying – a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting…”
Even to the church at Ephesus, and us in our modern day, in Ephesians 6:18, Paul said: “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” Is there to be an attitude of prayer throughout your day? I believe so with all my heart! Without hesitation I’m convinced it’s how we begin our days, continue our days, and end our days! Prayer is the invisible pillow upon which the true “set-aside-saint-of-God” lives his/her life! I love the statement Henry Ward Beecher once made: “It is not well for man to pray cream, and live like skim milk.” A “skim-milk prayer life” short-changes some too often!
Prayer, faithful prayer, is the evidence of a finely ‘fermented in- the- Spirit life’ of a disciple who knows that he/she is the bottle and Holy God pours in the ‘wine of Holy Presence’ to fulfill through an available vessel His eternal will! I believe this is why Robert Burns, in “The Cotter’s Saturday Night,” (st.6), wrote: “They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright!” And I’m sure there is no “arightness” to a prayerless disciple, parent, church, or pastor!
I often wonder how many see “prayer” as simply an adornment of a professing Christian rather than the absolute necessity of requesting, receiving, and resting in the revealed will of God as father or mother – as one said from a long time ago, “to preserve the web of life from unraveling.” (Robert Hall).
Is it possible that some fathers do not see the “prayer ministry” as an absolute essential of being a “God-blessed” husband or father, but just “gut it up and do what you think is best or right” rather than, yes, the will of God?
I need to share a statement by G. Ashton Oldham that I came across in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, “ (p.345), where he said: “Prayer is the chief agency and activity whereby men align themselves with God’s purpose. Prayer does not consist in battering the walls of heaven for personal benefits or the success of our plans. Rather it is the committing of ourselves for the carrying out of His purposes. It is a telephone call to headquarters for orders. It is not bending God’s will to ours, but our will to God’s. In prayer, we tap vast reservoirs of spiritual power whereby God can find fuller entrance into the hearts of men.”
I would be praying faithfully, dads or moms, “Holy God, Lord Jesus, I pray for those I’m most concerned about for only a seeking of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God in ‘parenting’ and ‘child-responsibility’ in the ‘raising-up’ ministry of dads and moms.” Let’s close with challenging words for personal examination as parents in Romans 1:20-21! It says: “For since the creation of the world the invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Let’s pray for ‘darkened’ hearts and minds to biblical child-caring to be enlightened by the “King of Parenting-Care, the Lord Jesus”! Amen?