This has been an interesting week for me, one of those weeks that you end up hearing those sorts of things that people only mean to be heard behind your back. We never thought that our decision to follow the path we have chosen would be popular, and in many ways we were surprised by some of the places we got support from, and equally surprised by where we got some of our negative feedback from.
One of the negative comments that I came across this week went something like "UNOH expects people to throw their kids in the bin!", suggesting that when we chose to follow this path, we did so without regard for our children, and that our children will suffer as a result of what we are doing.
When I first heard this I laughed, NOTHING could be further from the truth!!! Our Children have flourished in the environment that they are in.
When Naomi felt the call towards UNOH a little over a year ago, she denied the call due to her having children. Just as those thoughts where going through her head (it was during an altar call) the preacher mentioned that there was someone in the congregation struggling to come forward due to the fact that she had children and she felt that she could not drag her children onto the mission field. The preacher said that if God was calling us to the field He would have taken our children into consideration, and that we would be robbing our children of what God has in store if we did not follow him.
Having taken the plunge (and I know that I have mentioned this a number of times) I cannot deny that this is the truth... If all our plans to join UNOH fell apart today and we found ourselves stuck in Noble Park I would have to say that God's hand was in it, and His Blessing was upon us, the changes that living here have made in all our children through school, friendships and getting to spend more time with both their parents is amazing. But it goes beyond that, our children are part of our ministry, we really are a team. Our children open doors for us in this community that we would otherwise be struggling to open. Jacob has an understanding of this, and a real sense of adventure and excitement over it. Sam & Luke don't really get it yet, but their natural enthusiasm and friendliness are priceless.
Jesus said:
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters yes, even his own life he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)
The word hate here was not meant to be taken literally - that would be too freaky and would be in direct opposition to our loving God's character - rather it is hyperbole to say that all else must come second to a true disciple of Jesus. If we let anything get in the way of God's purpose for our lives then we cannot say that Jesus is Lord of our lives, whatever it is that is stopping us is the real lord - and unfortunately with children there seems to be an unspoken acceptance in the church for that sort of idolatry - makes you wonder about the motivation behind such groups as Family First doesn't it? It sounds like an admirable value but is it really biblical when taken to its logical extent.
In fact, this concept of having anything in the way of you truly following Jesus (& truly having Him as Lord of your life), puts a whole new serious spin onto one of our most watered down scriptures too...
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
Well that's about all I really have to say on that topic, I think I need to ponder in a bit more...
Hmmmm... (the sound of me pondering)
Peter
1 comment:
Great stuff Peter, pretty gutless saying that we "throw our kids in the bin"! How would they know?
Was at a political meeting last night and was really saddened that the first negative attcks that were vicious were from Family First.
They really musn't have anything positive worth saying so they attack, attack, attack.
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