Monthly Archives

May 2018

May 20
2

Will Our Children Be Able To Stand?

By | Public Blog

Last week I heard a sermon on the family that had a different twist to it.  The text for the message was taken from Matthew 12:25 which reads:

And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.

Those familiar with this passage know that Jesus said this to the religious leaders of His day who accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan.  This account is also recorded in Mark 3 and Luke 11.  So it is an important concept to understand.  At first, I was wondering how this passage could possibly relate to the family.  Then the pastor pointed out that Jesus not only said that a kingdom divided against itself will fall but He also applied this same principle to a city and a home.  Jesus was making the point that true success requires congruency or cohesiveness.  Without cohesiveness there will be division and division will lead to failure.

The pastor emphasized this important concept by defining division as having a divided vision.  This resonated with me as I have both played on many sports’ teams and coached several teams over the years.  Whenever there were players who had a different vision for what needed to be done that was different from that of the coach, the result was, most often, a loss.  Any division made success impossible.  The solution to removing division and uniting any group is that there must be a common denominator upon which all parties agree.

For the Christian, the only common denominator that will unite an individual, a family, a church or a school is God’s Word.  Paul wrote about the need to understand that the Bible stands above all human opinions and is the only foundation that unites people rather than divides them.

 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV)

Here we find that it is profitable to go to Scripture in order to unite people and avoid having a divided house that will eventually come to destruction.  God’s Word is profitable for:

  • doctrine — what is right
  • reproof — what is wrong
  • correction — how to get right
  • instruction in righteousness — how to stay right

It was at this point in the sermon that the pastor made a profound statement.  He said, differing opinions are actually differing worldviews!  That made me stop in my tracks.  The implication of this statement was that if there was not a consistent worldview in a person’s life, in the home, church or school, there would be division.  The result would be that one’s life, a family, a church, a school etc. would be brought to destruction because it could not stand.  I must admit that with this statement my mind started racing.  I thought about James 1:8 where the writer said that a double minded man is unstable in all his ways.  

Unfortunately, most Christians suffer from double-mindedness!  We have divided our lives up into two compartments — the secular and the sacred.  Certain areas of life are controlled by a secular worldview.  The “religious” areas of life are guided by a biblical worldview.  The result is that there is no cohesiveness to our lives, our homes, churches, schools etc.  This is not something that only exists in individuals’ minds.  It is also prevalent in how we educate our children and youth.  We take them to church on Sundays so that they know what the Bible says about life.  Then, the majority of parents send their children to secular schools the rest of the week where the world tells them what life is all about.  The result is that our children are being educated in double-mindedness and, therefore, are doomed for failure and destruction.

I find this problem becoming more prevalent even in Christian education.  Too many times there is a different worldview at the basis for what is taught in Bible classes and what is taught in the other “academic” subjects.  To compound this problem, there isn’t adequate training taking place to help parents, teachers and church leaders develop a comprehensive biblical worldview.  Then, when you add the reality that an increasing number of schools tend to use secular textbooks, we can understand why the problem of double-mindedness is becoming so prevalent.

Many of us were broken hearted when we heard of the recent school shooting last week that left 10 people dead and several others wounded.  Within a few short hours of this tragedy a divided house could be clearly seen.  On one side, there were those who were demanding more gun control.  On the other side there was the warning that the other side wants to take away our constitutional right to protect ourselves.  One side said that guns were killing our children.  The other side was saying that guns don’t kill, people do.  Some agreement was heard when both sides said that part of the problem was due to lack of sufficient mental health services.  I even read a report where a former leader in the department of education hinted that students should boycott schools until gun control legislation is passed.  My mind was baffled when I read how the president of Planned Parenthood was decrying the senseless murder of children due to “gun violence”.  However, this same person heads up an organization that has been reported to have been responsible for over 300,000 abortions last year alone.  The degree to which double-mindedness has infected our culture is mind boggling to say the least.

The real problem that is behind the crumbling of society, in general, and our homes, in specific, is that there is no longer a comprehensive, consistent worldview that matches reality on which the majority of people agree.  Of course the only worldview that can provide this type of congruency is a biblical one.  Until we teach our children at home, church and school that the value of human life is found in the reality that God created each person in His own image, we will never see a decrease in the senseless loss of human life that is so common in the world today.  That is why I have spent the last couple of years developing resources that I pray will help Christian parents, church leaders and educators develop a biblical worldview.  If we don’t unite the home, church and school and provide our children with a biblical worldview education, we will continue to see future generations grow up with divided minds.  God’s Word says that when this occurs, they cannot stand; they will be brought to desolation!

It is my prayer that many families, churches and schools will become KEM Prime Members and develop a single-mindedness based on a biblical worldview.  Click here to learn more about this or email me at [email protected].  Join in this conversation by leaving a comment below.

 

May 14
0

Strengthening One’s Authority

By | Public Blog, Uncategorized

It is important that parents, church leaders and educators understand the importance of effectively exercising their authority.  Many years ago I read about what makes up one’s authority in any given situation.  The writer explained that there were four components to one’s authority or one’s power and right to command and exact obedience.  These four components that make up a person’s authority were position, competence, personality, and character.  As I thought through these four components of authority, I drew a model like the one below.

Position

When a person is placed in a position of authority, he/she is given the authority needed to fulfill the responsibilities of the position.  For example, when I was placed in the position of high school chemistry teacher, I was also given the authority of a teacher to exercise in fulfilling the responsibilities of this assignment.  The same was true when I was named a coach, a high school principal, a superintendent and even became a parent.

It is important to understand that I was only given the authority that was respective to the position I was placed in.  As a teacher, I was not given the authority of a principal.  As a coach, I was not given the authority of the owner of the team.  Positional authority is constant as it is related only to the position a person has been placed in.

Competence

Competence can be defined as the ability to do something successfully, efficiently and effectively.  When I first became a teacher, I was not very competent in the act of teaching.  I never had any teacher training nor did I ever do student teaching.  If I wanted to gain greater authority in my students’ lives, I had to improve my competence as a teacher.

This was really driven home to me in my first varsity coaching experience.  The players responded pretty well to my directions but mostly

because they wanted to be on the team and get playing time.  They didn’t know anything about my basketball knowledge or ability.  This changed when a couple of the players asked me to participate in little pickup game after a practice.  I agreed and thought this would be fun to get out on the court with the guys.

It turned out that they had arranged the game in order to see what I really knew about the game of basketball.  They played pretty rough and eventually caused me to push my “competitive button”.  It wasn’t long before my college playing experience and abilities kicked in and dominated them.

The next day in practice the entire team gave me a much greater effort in every drill and aspect of practice.  I learned that my authority as a coach had increased.  This greater authority was not due to my position — I was still the coach.  However, my competence as a basketball player had increased significantly due to a little pickup game after practice the night before.

Personality

When the author talked about the influence of one’s personality as it relates to one’s authority, he was not talking about being an extrovert or introvert, or a “D” or an “S”, or a “golden retriever” or a “beaver”.  We have all taken some type of personality inventory and have been categorized in some way or another.

The aspect of personality that influences the degree of authority one might possess is related to the person’s openness or closeness.  Here it referring to how approachable are you to those who are under your authority.  This is not about being “buddies” with people.  It is about developing your personality where those you are leading can come to you and talk about a success or failure, an idea or a concern, or something that created an offense with them.

Again, this component of authority is under the leader’s control.  Anyone can improve his/her authority by working on developing relationships that allow others to approach you without being fearful.  This is very important in parenting.  If we do not exercise our parenting authority properly, it can drive our children away from bringing issues they may face in their lives to us.  Instead, they end up going to their peers or the world to get their answers to life’s questions.

Character

Character, when it comes to being a good steward of one’s authority, can be defined as one’s credit rating with people!  We all know how important it is to maintain a good credit rating when trying to purchase a house or something similar.  A poor credit rating costs a person greatly.

This is also very true when it comes to the exercise of one’s authority.  If we are not trustworthy and honest with those we are trying to influence, it will hurt our ability to exercise effective authority over them.  We must develop a strong credit rating with our children and/or students.  We must live lies of integrity where we actually do what we say we will do.

Let me try and bring all of this together.  Last week I shared how I believe that any authority I might have in life is actually given to me by God.  Therefore, He expects me to develop and invest the initial authority that He gives me so that it will bring gain to the Lord.  Again, it must be understood that authority is a stewardship responsibility.

As I shared with you the components that make up any authority we might be given in life, we must grasp the reality that there is only one component of one’s authority that he/she as no control over.  That component it the authority one has because of one’s position.  A teacher only has teacher authority.  He/she does not have administrator authority because he/she does not have the position of an administrator.

Every person, however, has control over the other three components that make up one’s authority.  It is each person’s responsibility to develop and strengthen his/her competence, personality and character in whatever position one find’s himself/herself.  An example may be helpful in making my case.

When I first became a parent, God gave me enough parental authority to handle a newborn child.  God also knew that I would need greater parental authority to direct and guide my children when they became teenagers.  That meant that I need to become more competent as a parent.  I also needed to develop an open personality that would allow my children to approach me with any problem or issue that they were facing.  It was also very important that I strengthened by character or credit rating with them if I expected them to respect my authority and submit to my guidance.

Unfortunately, I have seen parents who never developed and strengthened their parental authority that God gave them when they first became parents.  It wasn’t that they necessarily weakened their parental authority.  They basically did nothing to strengthen it.  They were like the unjust steward who hid his master’s talent in the ground.  The result that comes with not strengthening one’s authority is that that person can actually lose any influence over the ones that God wanted them to lead.  Sometimes a parent’s authority is taken away and given to another person or group.

Here are some questions we must answer as we attempt to be effective leaders and teachers of the next generation.

  1. What position(s) of authority has God given to you?
  2. What have you done or need to do to strengthen your competence related to the position(s) God has given you?
  3. How can you be more approachable as a person in authority to those you are leading?
  4. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, what credit rating would you give yourself in the various positions of authority God has placed you in?  What can you do to raise your credit score in each position?

Be sure to share your comments about this post or any of the posts related to authority and submission that I have covered over the past several weeks.

May 06
0

Authority: A Stewardship Responsibility

By | Public Blog, Uncategorized

I have been highlighting the issue of authority and submission to authority in several of my recent blogs.  I am giving so much attention to this subject because I believe it is so essential to Christians living a life that is pleasing to God.  After all, every person is under some authority and everyone exercises some authority over someone else in some way or another.

When trying to understand authority, it is important to define the term accurately.  I have used a couple of definitions to help me understand this all-important area of life.

Authority is the right or power to command and exact obedience and/or an accepted source of expert information.

Once authority is defined accurately, it is then important to put one’s authority in the proper perspective.  When I consider authority, I see it as a stewardship responsibility from God.  Again, it is important that we have a clear understanding of what stewardship is.  Stewardship is defined in the dictionary as:

The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.

In order for something to be entrusted in to one’s care, someone else must first own that something.  That person must have the power to give what he/she owns to another person’s care.  When I considered the many aspects of stewardship found in Scripture, I defined stewardship this way.

It is the use and/or management of something that an owner gives to me in order for the owner to receive gain or profit.  

Another way of putting this is what someone posted online.  The person made this statement.

Stewardship is the maximizing God’s blessings for His glory!

This is clearly the concept that one finds when reading the parable of the talents in the gospels.  The owner gave certain amounts of his talents to three servants.  The servants who managed the owner’s talents and produced a profit for him were praised and rewarded.  However, the one servant who did nothing with the owner’s property and simply returned what he had been given back to the owner was criticized and lost everything.

Based on these definitions, I believe that authority, when properly understood, becomes a stewardship responsibility.  Christians believe that God is the creator of the universe and is sovereign over all things.  God is literally the owner of everything that exists in both heaven and earth.  This means that He has ultimate authority over everything.  He, alone, has the right and power to command and exact obedience from the entire created universe.  He not only has the authority over all people but also over all of creation.  This is seen when Jesus told the wind and the waves to be still and they obeyed.  It can be said that God is authority!

No matter how much authority I might attain, I must always realize that I am not in charge.  God is the only One who is sovereign and has all authority.  Jesus made this clear when He stated,

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:18

Who has given Jesus all authority?  It is God the Father who has done this.  The Father can do this because He is the supreme ruler of all things.  Consider these verses.

[God] brings princes to nothing, and makes rulers of the earth as emptiness.  Isaiah 40:23

O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven?  You rule over all the kingdom of the nations.  In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.  2 Chronicles 20:6

The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.  Psalm 103:19

Scripture also makes it clear that God gives a portion of His ultimate authority to man.  Consider the following verses.

Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth…Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1:26-27

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord‘s: but the earth hath He given to the children of men. Psalm 115:16

Since God “owns” or “is” authority, any authority I might possess has to have been given to me by God.  In line with all the other stewardship responsibilities that God has given me, I must use, manage, and/or invest my authority in such a way that it will bring Him gain or profit.  This is in essence what it means to glorify God.  The stewardship of my authority as a parent, teacher, administrator, church member, etc. must be exercised in such a way that it brings Him glory.

Here are some question that come to my mind when I think about the authority that God has given me.  How would you answer them?  Better yet, how would those whom you have authority over answer these questions?

  1. Have you looked at any authority you might have as being given to you by God?
  2. Since any authority you have has been given to you by God, what are some of the ways that you should exercise that authority so that God will be glorified?
  3. In what ways have you been a poor steward of the authority God has given you in some area(s) of life?
  4. What are some things you will do in the future as you steward the authority that God has given you?

I always appreciate your comments that you can leave below.  Next week I am going to share a model of authority that has helped me be a better steward of any and all authority God has given to me.