8 Principals for Christian Parenting

These 8 principals are covered extensively in a series preached by Pastor Tim Conway of Grace Community Church in San Antonio, TX. Of all of the messages I've ever heard on the topic of parenting, these are by far the most powerful, biblical, and challenging.

Essential Principals of Christian Parenting

1. Christ-Likeness. Imitating Christ. It is not only the goal of every Christian, but it is the goal of us as parents to lead our children, to train our children, to discipline our children to be like Christ as well. This is based on the fact that every single characteristic of Christ that’s pressed upon you as a Christian somewhere, either in command or principal or example, the same things are somewhere in the Scriptures also required of your children.

2. Christ is to have preeminence in all things. Col. 1:18 “That Christ might have preeminence in everything.”

3. Just to be a Christian, Luke 14:33 says you must renounce everything. To be a Christian you must yield everything in your life to the authority of Christ, and that includes your children, your parenting philosophies, your ideas, your opinions—everything surrendered to the feet of Christ.

4. If you love son or daughter more than Christ, you are not worthy of Christ. Christ demands your chief affection, your chief love.

5. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price. And our children are not our own. Christ looks at everything and says “Mine.” He is the Master. He is the Lord. And we are the servants. And he taught us in Luke 17:10 to say “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”

6. As our Master, he has given us 3 very specific commandments in the NT with regards to parenting and children, and He has given only 3 commandments.

• Matt 19:14: “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them.” It is imperative.
• Colossians 3:21: “Fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”
• Eph 6:4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

7. Our Lord gives special emphasis to one of these commands: “Do not provoke your children.”

8. Our Lord emphasizes fathers. “Fathers, do not provoke…” The more satanic (and distant from Christ) a society is, the more the fathers are turned against their children.

Men: We are at War

Paul Washer:

This is War - Paul Washer from I'll Be Honest on Vimeo.

Here's some excerpts from the sermon:

You and I are called to be controlled by one single passion: the doing of the will of God, and for a crown that does not perish. We must strive to be in the center of God's will.

...Now, another thing that He has given us-- not just one great love, not just one great passion, but He's also given us a great commission.

Men, we were not made to live like most men. We were made to fight. We were made to strive. We were made to work. We were made to conquer. We were made to give ourselves for something that is eternal.

Adam was given a command to do what? To go out and subdue-- to bring everything in creation in harmony with the will of God, to do all his governing, all his things within the context of God's will.

Now we live in a fallen world that lives in darkness and death. The kingdom of the evil one spread abroad throughout the land. You and I were not called to play video games. We were not called to sit in front of a television set. We were not called to give ourselves to trifles. We were called to advance a Kingdom, to live with a passion, to fight for Him, and to only ever once and a while to drop our swords and look up for a smile.

I want to fight! I don't want comfort! I don't want ease in Zion! Because the Kingdom of God is built not by those who rest in Zion, but by those who go out into the streets and fight. And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They are mighty. Intercessory prayer, the proclamation of the Gospel, and sacrificial love.

Men-- rise up, oh men of God! Do what you were called to do! Be valiant and strong! And know that it's going to cost you. You take your stand next to Jesus Christ and his cause, and you watch the Devil come after you, buffeting you from the outside and from the inside. But that's what war is about.

And so He has given us a great commission... to pace a room at night saying, "There is a place, there is a place, where He is not worshiped, where He is not worshiped. There is a place where He is not worshiped. I cannot sleep, there is a place where He is not worshiped... There is a place where the flag of Zion does not fly." That's what we were made for. To set aside our little temporal causes and to give ourselves to this one great battle.

What is the most important trait in a man? Is it giftedness? Absolutely not! Some of the most gifted men in the world are self-destructive, and destroy others. What does your wife need, and what does your children need? What does the world need from you? Christ-likeness. This is what we are to strive for...

R.C. Sproul's Bible Reading Plan for Beginners:

Here.

Memorize Now

Justin Taylor introduces a pretty cool online memorization tool called Memorize Now.

Idolatry on Sunday mornings

Justin Taylor posts various links to an old Bob Kauflin series on Idolatry on Sunday Mornings.

A good quote from this series:

"Music is a powerful medium that can affect us positively or negatively. However, the root of the division is often (though not always) people insisting they know what kind of music God likes."