Father's Day 2015

Father’s Day

I remember on one Father’s Day we were visiting the church of Karenlee’s Uncle Jim. In SS class the teacher was expounding on Proverbs 22:6, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” And the main point the teacher was forcefully bringing was that if you train up your child they will ultimately surrender their heart to God even if it takes a long time for it to happen. This of course put the burden of the child’s salvation squarely on the shoulders of the parents.

Then we moved up stairs and heard a forceful sermon that proposed the idea that God chooses some for salvation and He rejects others and there is nothing that any one in either of the groups can do about it.

This led me to a great deal of wondering; “Is it all up to me or is it all up to God?”

Can my life and training of my child lead him or her to come to know Christ as Savior or will it happen in spite of anything I do.

The main thing I got out of that Sunday was that the pastor and the Sunday School teacher need to get together and have a theological discussion.

When we hear the words “Father’s Day” some very important things immediately pop into our minds, like, “What kind of a tie am I going to get this year?”

Actually, the images that pop into our heads are normally controlled by the type of father we had, good, bad, or absent, emotionally close or distant, geographically close or distant, living or deceased …

How they treated us when we were young. Were they involved in our lives?

Were they married to their jobs and seldom home?

Were they a drunkard or a sober person?

Were they kind or mean?

Did they love Jesus or use His name as a curse word?

Were there multiple men who filled the position of father due to death or divorce?

Another thing that can bring thoughts to mind is a question only fathers can answer?

Was I a good father?

Did I teach them the things they needed to know about living here and in eternity?

Did I show them that God had supreme position in my life with my actions?

When Sunday worship came around was it a top priority or could it easily be replaced by some other activity?

Was there any evidence in my life that I was sacrificing time and money for the Lord and His work?

Did my children see me pondering the great things of God or did I spend more time belittling someone from another denomination?

Fathers … do they really even matter any more?

Jesus Himself laid down some foundational principles.

Matthew 19:4-6

“And [Jesus] answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’”

There was no official Father’s Day in the time of Christ but Jesus had some very concrete ideas about the family structure.

A Father and a Mother would have children who would have a Father and a Mother and the children would eventually marry and have children who would naturally have a Father and a Mother and on and on …

Today we are in a world of confusion. Traditional marriage or two moms or two dads or one dad and two moms or unwed parents or single moms or single dads.

Case in point:

Bruce Jenner - recently divorced from his third wife with multiple children from multiple marriages.

Bruce - an amazing athlete - Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon. Considered to be the greatest athlete in the world at that time.

Now Bruce has had multiple surgeries and considers himself to be a woman.

Is he now the mom to his children or is he still their dad?

If his DNA was tested what would the results be? Male.

No amount of surgery could ever change that.

If Jenner were to come to church which restroom would he use?

The world has gone CRAZY!

This week I read about the father of a three year old who “seems transgender”. The father is quoted as saying,

"I wonder if I'm holding him back. Like, should I be asking, 'Do you want to be called a he or she?'"

Men have husbands.

Women have wives.

In Las Vegas a person can pay up to $85 to see a show of men dressed as women.