I used to joke about a “blood relative” rule when it came to taking an interest in the lives of children who weren’t mine, and although it was largely driven by fear of incompetence with respect to kid’s ministry, I now think the joke was unchristian and indeed unmanly.
The last verses of the Old Testament look forward to a time when ‘Elijah’ would turn ‘the hearts of the fathers to their children’ (Malachi 4:6).
The God fearing father in Israel was concerned for more than himself and his time. He knew the importance of passing on the ‘decrees’ of God and the story of Israel, so that the nation might ‘always prosper and be kept alive’ (Deuteronomy 6:24). Personally he looked forward to the blessing of seeing his children’s children (Psalm 128).
Posted in Articles | Tagged Children, Manhood |
This is the first in a 3 parts series on Marriage & Sex, where Dominic Steele gives a Biblical rationale for Marriage & Sexuality.
Let me pose a question: What is a good age to get married?
Now I’m assuming that a good number of us are already married, so to avoid this question being purely hypothetical let me rephrase: What is a good age for your children to get married? Most of us I think will answer something like “mid-twenties”. And if we were to be asked whether we thought it was a good idea to get married at 18 most of us would answer “No”.
Behind these answers I think are two thoughts about maturity; one about its timing, and one about its goodness. Before I am misunderstood, let me clarify:
Posted in Articles | Tagged Manhood, Marriage |
Jesus came ‘[not] to abolish the Law or the Prophets… but to fulfill them’. This side of his death and resurrection, as people of the New Covenant, we are no longer under the law of Moses. But we are still called on by Jesus to live out the fulfillment of Moses’ commandments, written on our hearts by God’s Spirit. The God who gave the commandments to Moses for Israel is the same God who created the world; the commandments are an application of the wisdom of the creator to the nation Israel (cf. Matt 19:1-12), and although we are not that nation, he is still the same God. So when Jesus talks to Jewish people in his own day about the commandments of Moses and the way they were to keep them, we need to listen and learn.
Ok, the course I have followed so far has gone something like this:
The heart of being a man is readiness (willingness and capacity) to take on responsibility. And this responsibility has a two-fold shape to it: responsibility for task and responsibility for people.
These aspects are of course related:
Taking responsibility for people will involve any number of tasks, and taking responsibility for tasks may involve a whole lot of people. However it remains that our responsibilities will almost inevitably take the shape of:
Posted in Articles | Tagged Mission, Work |
