[PhilThreeten] What Will My Children Remember?

[PhilThreeten]

I recently received an article () from my father about how the Christian faith, at any given time, is only a generation away from falling into great weakness. He was grieved that he saw some of this happening in his own day and in his own family.

I disagree with the author about the extent that Reformed doctrine equates with a faith heritage. Also, my trust that God will sustain His church leads me to a less defeatist outlook on the church. But I do feel his and my father’s concern for the present and coming generation. It seems that it is almost non-stop that we hear of another story – someone has believed the lie that death, in the disguise of pleasure, will bring them the life they seek. I suppose these stories have been occurring and prevalent throughout all of history since Eden – but still they seem to be coming fast, furious, and from every direction.

We forget. We forget too easily what it is that God has done for us. Of course, God knows we forget. That’s why throughout Scripture He keeps reminding us. I have been struck lately at how repetitive Scripture is. And I understand that different authors may have had different intentions for including similar material and so we need to understand the similarities in context so that we can wedge another truth out of Scripture yada, yada, yada…We sometimes seem to approach God’s revelation like a cosmic shell game – the shells all look the same but there are different nuggets of truth under each one. What if God repeats a lot of stuff because we just forget too easily? When I send my son up to his room to get his socks, it’s remarkable how many times I have to tell him to go back again because he forgot to get his socks…

But words are simply not enough. God commands people throughout history to raise up memorials that will be a testimony to what He has done and who He is. That’s exactly what God did when the Israelites crossed the Jordan. Take 12 stones and set them up on the bank of the Jordan to be a reminder of what God had done. And when their children would ask, “What do these stones mean.” – stop there! It’s wonderful to know and remember what God has done. But additionally, we need to be pointing them to the memorial stones. We have to bring our children to them in order for them to say ‘What do these stones mean?’

What will my children remember? What heritage will I pass on to my children? When I get to the end of my life, will I feel as though I have passed on to them the most important parts of my life – both thoughts and deeds – so that they might then take up the baton for the next generation? What about God – who He is and what He’s done - would I want my children to remember?

What remembrance stones will I point them to? To that end, I’ve added a new category – probably one that I will be dwelling on for at least the next series of posts – called Heritage. There are other remembrance stones that I must point them to in order to be faithful to the faith that has been passed on to me. But this category will be one of the places where I can say to them, “This is who God has shown Himself to be – this is what He has done in my life.”

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Posted by PhilThreeten to PhilThreeten at 3/30/2006 02:14:00 PM