Home

"So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone . . . Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it . . . And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem" (1 Samuel 17:50-54). 

Parents - be warned!  The Veggie Tales version of the Bible may not be as great as we first thought.

Now, don't get me wrong.  My daughters and I have been known to enjoy a Veggie Tale or two or three in our day.  The videos are well done, truly funny, and downright entertaining.  And, they do, albeit in a very shallow manner, teach basic Bible truths or values.  But that's where the benefit of them ends.

A recent conversation with a Children's Sunday School teacher really opened my eyes.  This teacher said a student actually argues with her that the account in the Bible is not how it really happened.  The child then proceeds to tell the teacher the Veggie Tales version of the Bible event, which this student thinks is the true version.  I mean, it must be true, it's on TV!  And, the child has seen the Veggie Tale so many times that it is proving hard to convince him that Junior Asparagus is not real, and did not lightly thump a giant pickle with a small rock, ala the Veggie Tale "Dave and The Giant Pickle."

Parents, take note.  TV and DVDs make very poor baby-sitters and parental substitutes, even if what's showing at your local home theatre is non-stop hours of wholesome vegan fun. 

If you do watch a Veggie Tale now and again, no sweat.  Just supervise and use it as a way to teach your children the way it really happened.  Seize the interest the DVD might generate to live out Deuteronomy 6.  Break open your Bible, open it to 1 Samuel 17, and read your children the real thing. 

Our children are receiving a sanitized version of Christianity.  It's as if we think the Bible will somehow hurt them!  But friends, rest assured, God's Word, all of it, is "the power of God unto salvation" and "shall not return void."  We must make sure our children know that the "Giant Pickle" got his head lopped off by Junior Asparagus, and then Junior paraded said head in the streets, and then presented said giant head to King Saul.

But why?  Can't we just skip the graphic parts, the bloody parts, the gruesome parts of the Bible? 

Sure, if you want a cross-less Christianity.  We must take care that our cute little cartoons are not cutting the very heart out of the gospel in the minds of our children. 

David was a warrior-king whose bloody escapades point us to The Warrior-King Jesus whose bloody cross-work paid our sin debt in full, and secured our victory over sin, death, and hell. 

Maybe our well-intentioned friends at Veggie Tales need to reconsider their methods.   After all, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (Hebrews 9:22).

On March 27th, 2000 the Lord blessed my wife and I with our first child, Meaghan.  She was so tiny, I called her "peanut."  We also called her "squirt" because the doctor literally had to catch her as she shot out of the birth canal.  Meaghan made quite an entrance!  My life has never been the same.

Please indulge me as I write this post just for my precious daughter on the eve before her birthday.

Dearest Meaghan, we surely did name you rightly.  Your Celtic name means "pearl."  And, to me, you are an amazingly beautiful gem, and your life sparkles as it reflects the glory of your Creator and Savior God. 

May God uphold you by His mighty right arm as you move away from girlhood and into womanhood.  Some parents seem to want to keep their children in their childish years forever.  Though I do have a great sense of how precious each day is with you because the time of your departure from my home is drawing ever nearer, I also want you to know your mother and I are intentionally raising you to become a woman sooner, rather than later.

May the Lord make you a lady whose heart always and forever belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.  You shall never make the godly wife and mother that we so strongly desire you to be if you give away your heart to another lord other than Jesus.  May God keep and establish you in the faith.  May you never forget what is means to be "the called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ" (Jude 1).

May God grant you a heart that "hungers and thirsts for righteousness," for such a heart "shall be filled." 

May the Lord give you an undying passion for His Word, for our Savior said "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."  May you truly hide His word in your heart, that you might not sin against Him.

May you pursue holiness as a young woman, taking your view of a "successful woman" from Proverbs 31 and Titus 2.  May God Almighty give you strength of spirit to reject the view of woman being given to so many young girls by Hollywood, our culture, college and career counselors, and indeed anyone who guides you away from what God has said about being a woman.

May King Jesus bless you with a man after His own heart one day.  The Sovereign Lord has so obviously given you a sweet, submissive and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:4) that is precious in the sight of God.  You will by God's grace truly make some strong, Christ-exalting man an "excellent wife."  He and your children will surely "rise up and bless you" in the Name of Jesus.  Your mother and I can aim no higher than to raise you to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul", and to "love your husband and to love your children and to be a worker at home so that the word of God will not be dishonored" (Titus 2:4-5). 

In all these things, you are already making us so proud.  We worship the Lord today and each day as we watch you grow and mature in the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  May you never forget you were created for His glory, for His pleasure, and for His kingdom.  May the Holy Spirit always and forever consume you with a burning passion to "worship God in the spirit of holiness" through the blood of Jesus spilled out for you on the cross. 

May God fix your eyes on Jesus, the Risen Lord, and help you live the "resurrection life" as you take up your cross daily to follow Him.  Jesus is the Author and Finisher of the faith, the King of kings and Lord of lords.  He is worthy of whatever acts of service He ever demands of you.  Go with King Jesus to the gates of hell, to the jungles of Africa, or to your neighbors here in America, and spread the good news to everyone in your path that Jesus saves!

Your soft, compassionate heart is such a living testimony to the powerful grace of God in Christ.  May the love of God pour out of your heart and into the lives of those around you.  If God make it so, your beauty will only keep growing, and the glory you bring to the One who died in your place will only find new heights. 

Oh Sovereign Lord, make it so.  Be glorified in "my pearl."  May she always and forever be willing to sell it all to follow the Pearl of Great Price - the Blessed Lord Jesus.  Amen.

Happy Birthday, Meaghan.  I love you.  Mom loves you.  Little 'Sis loves you.  But above all, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has lavished on you, that you would be called the child of God."

Well, well, well, Colton Harris-Moore (aka the Barefoot Bandit) is no longer barefoot, though allegedly he is notoriously a bandit. 

While 80,000 + fans on Facebook glamorize, idolize and celebrate this thieving teen, it is worth noting none of them will sacrificially serve time with him (or for him) in his jail cell. 

His own mother has expressed pride in her son's criminal escapades, and this is what is saddest of all to me.  Colton and his boys-behaving-badly ilk are becoming a pandemic in America.  The Christian church has for decades been warning of the ugly and deadly repercussions of rampant divorce, single-parenthood, and absentee dads.  Recently, the absentee dad has been the subject of notable studies, but the results of those studies could not be more predictable.  Let me summarize them for you:

Children, all children, but especially sons, need Dads.

Earth-shaking, isn't it?  The Creator's design for the family - one dad and one mom married for life and investing themselves fully into raising their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord - really works. 

Colton's biological Dad abandoned him at age 2.  His step-dad died when he was 7, leaving him at the mercy (if such a word can be used of her) of his sin-sick mother.  Whatever she taught him, she surely did not emphasize the 8th Commandment.   

Now, do not get me wrong.  I am not saying single mothers (or dads) are always destined to fail.  Nor am I saying a boy in his teens (who everywhere else but the western world would be considered a grown man), does not stand accountable for his own actions.  Colton is responsible for his crimes and cannot excuse them away.  Ancient Israel tried that with God, but it did not work out well for them (see Ezekiel 18).

But dear readers, my concern is how many other Barefoot Bandits are waiting in the wings in America?  Fifty + years of ignoring and rejecting God's design for the home is just not working out well for our country.  This is especially alarming when one takes stock of the conspicuous absence of real men and real Dads in our culture. 

We are a Dad-deprived and men-deprived culture.  We are becoming a nation of boys stuffed into hairy, belching, beer-bellied bodies. 

Oh Sovereign God, raise up real men once again in Your church.  Grant to us Dads who will instruct their sons in what makes a man a man, in Your Holy eyes.  May our daughters, too, be blessed to be raised by Christ-like, sacrificially loving men who will model manhood for them day-by-day.  Turn our eyes to the Man of men, the God-Man Jesus, that we might live and move and have our being in Him.  For the sake of Your Son, Jesus, help men of Your church rise up and bless their homes with loving headship and heart-felt worship.  And give us grace to reach out in gospel love to the Colton Harris-Moore's in our own neighborhoods.  For it was for bandits, bad boys, liars and adulterers You died, precious Jesus.  And wonder of wonders, you are still saving sinners like me.  Be glorified in Your church, O Lord.  Amen.

For a much more intelligent discussion of the plight of men in America: http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/06/22/the-end-of-men-a-hard-look-at-the-future/            

To read up on the Barefoot Bandit: http://www.katu.com/news/local/63636867.html