Husband's Headship and the Idiot Box

From Douglas Wilson in Reforming Marriage (a must-read marriage book):

Wives - "pushing a man to be a spiritual leader will not make him one. He may not be much of a leader but he is enough of one not to be lead into leadership by a women..."

"Obviously, this does not mean the husband has the right to continue his abdication. When a man just sits there like a spiritual dead weight, fellowship is hindered. Husbands have a responsibility to "nourish and cherish" their wives (Eph. 5:29), and staring at the Idiot Box until it is time for sex is not one of God's appointed means for doing so."

Ephesians 5:22-30 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (24) Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (25) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, (26) that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, (27) so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (28) In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. (29) For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, (30) because we are members of his body.

Parenting Seminar Resources

Last Weekend we had a parenting seminar at Grace Church called "One Generation."

Pastor Dave did a tremendous job putting this weekend together. It was exciting to see many families present with the desire to know and obey God in regards to parenting.

We watched 3 sessions by Tedd Tripp, the author of Shepherding a Child's Heart.

You can watch these sessions here below provided by Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. If you click on the "streaming audio" you will find options to download them as mp3s.

Session 1: The Call to Formative Instruction

• Stream the audio
• Stream the video

Session 2: Giving Kids a Vision for God's Glory

• Stream the audio
• Stream the video

Session 3: Helping Kids Understand Authority

• Stream the audio
• Stream the video

Session 4: Helping Kids Understand the Heart

• Stream the audio
• Stream the video

Session 5: Overview of Corrective Discipline

• Stream the audio
• Stream the video

2 Songs - I Need You and Because

The more I grow in my faith towards Christ, the more I realize my desperate need for Him in all things. This is why I love this song that we sang for the first time last Sunday. We will sing it again tomorrow (Sept 13). You can listen to and read the lyrics to "I Need You" by Kristian Stanfill here:

I Need You - Na Band

I am frail, broken easily
Without fail, my strength keeps failing me
All alone, I'm powerless
To lift myself from the pit that I am in

I need You, Jesus
I need You, Jesus

From Your throne in heaven's light
Descended down into my broken life
To right the wrong, to make a way
To bear the load that I deserved to bear alone

I need You, Jesus
I need You, Jesus
I need clean hands
I can't, You can
I need You, Jesus

On the cross on our behalf
The Son of God bore the Father's wrath
And by His blood, the scars and pain
The perfect Son, took the fall and took our place

In His grace and unfailing love
The risen King gave His hand to us
To lift us up, from the pit
And set our feet upon a rock that ever stands

The Kids learned this song, BECAUSE, during VBS and sang it for us last Sunday. We will sing it again this Sunday. It is the Gospel! I want my kids singing these words. I want myself singing these words.

Because He gave His life,
Because He bled and died,
Because He rose again, I come…

And I admit to God I am a sinner
And I repent and turn away from all my sin.
I believe that Jesus is the Son of God
And that He came into the world to save us all.
I confess my faith in Jesus as my Savior and my Lord
And I do this because of His great love.

Because He loves me so
Because He makes me whole
Because He is my friend, I come…

For the wages of sin is death
but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ…

So will you admit to God you are a sinner?
Will you repent and turn away from all your sin?
Will you believe that Jesus is the Son of God
And that He came into the world to save us all.

Will you confess your faith in Jesus as your Savior and your Lord
Will you do this? Will you do this?
Will you do this because of His great love?

Would Jesus Spank His Child?

We would like to invite you to join us on September 18-19 at Grace Church for our parenting seminar called "One Generation."

Through video and audio messages we'll hear from Voddie Baucham, John Piper, Tedd Tripp, and a few others. We'll also hear from several "seasoned" parents at Grace Church and pastor Dave VanAcker will offer some opening and closing thoughts.

To wet your appetite on the subject of parenting, here is a clip by John Piper answering the question: "Would Jesus spank a child?"

Worldliness...quotes

Here are some quotes from my sermon on Sunday on worldliness:

Imagine I take a blind test in which my task is to identify the genuine follower of Jesus Christ. My choices are an unregenerate individual and you.

I'm given two reports detailing conversations, Internet activity, manner of dress, iPod playlists, television habits, hobbies, leisure time, financial transactions, thoughts, pas¬sions, and dreams.

The question is: Would I be able to tell you apart? Would I discern a difference between you and your unconverted neighbor, coworker, classmate, or friend?

Have the lines between Christian and worldly conduct in your life become so indistinguishable that there really is no difference at all? (C. J. Mahaney, Worldliness)

Worldliness is departing from God. It is a man-centered way of thinking; it proposes objectives which demand no radical breach with man's fallen nature; it judges the importance of things by the present and material results; it weighs success by numbers; it covets human esteem and wants no unpopularity; it knows no truth for which it is worth suffering; it declines to be a 'fool for Christ's sake'.

Worldliness is the mind-set of the unregenerate. It adopts idols and is at war with God. Because 'the flesh' still dwells in the Christian he is far from immune from being influenced by this dynamic. (Ian Murray, Evangelicalism Divided)

The Real Self Coming Out

In my sermon series I am in Ephesians 4. Here Paul urges the church to show patient love with a commitment to the hard work of maintaining unity. I have talked a lot about the fact that we live in a broken down house (this world and our sinful bodies/lives) where a Restorer (Jesus) has come and is promising to RESTORE.

One of the things He does in this restoration process is to reveal our Sinfulness which often is seen in the form of selfishness. One of God's gifts to us is to show us where we need to grow by allowing us to go through trials and difficulties even when it means that other people provoke and sin against us. Our reactions to these situations often teach us a lot about ourselves and should help humble us as we observe how self-centered we really are. I was reminded of this in my reading of C. S. Lewis this morning:

When I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; I have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. And the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; I was caught off my guard, I had not time to collect myself. Now that may be an extenuating circumstance as regards those particular acts: they would obviously be worse if they had been deliberate and premeditated. On the other hand, surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? Surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? If there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. But the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. In the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man it only shows me what an ill-tempered man I am. The rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light. Apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul. Now that cellar is out of reach of my conscious will. I can to some extent control my acts: I have no direct control over my temperament. And if (as I said before) what we are matters even more than what we do - if, indeed, what we do matters chiefly as evidence of what we are - then it follows that the change which I most need to undergo is a change that my own direct, voluntary efforts cannot bring about. And this applies to my good actions too. How many of them were done for the right motive? How many for fear of public opinion, or a desire to show off? How many from a sort of obstinacy or sense of superiority which, in different circumstances, might equally have led to some very bad act? But I cannot, by direct moral effort, give myself new motives. After the first few steps in the Christian life we realise that everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.