REAL FATHERS? Only MEN OF GOD are! By
Capt. Kelly Durant 6-17-12
1-Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6 And he
shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the
children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
2-The famous author Mark Twain said that when he was
14 he could not stand to be around his father because he was so dumb, but by
the time he was 21 he was amazed at how much smarter his father had become in
only 7 years!
The role of the father is interpreted in many ways.
Historically the man is looked upon as the one who corrects, protects, and provides
for the family. Our Father, in heaven, Jesus describes as the One who is to be
honored and He provides for us our daily bread. He is the one who cares for us
and loves us. He also has the role of giving correction to us when we go the
wrong way. Fathers lead and train!
3- God is the One who created the model of families
and he intended for the man to be very involved in the life of his wife,
children, and local community. He intended that the fathers be the role models.
In the verses of today, the very last verses of the
Old Testament, we see that God was giving us a promise, “And he shall turn the
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their
fathers”, and this refers to a love that will flourish.
4-How did God have a plan to mend the broken families
and repair all the disconnection of fathers with their children as we see today?
The verse preceding verse 6, vs.5, is a classic prophetic verse that refers to
Jesus having the spirit of Elijah, who was a powerful prophet.
So this verse implies that it is with the coming of
Jesus that there would be a provocation for people to become close together and
united, for a father and child to bond and be as it was intended to be from the
beginning. Jesus causes men to be humble, transform, and give love and accept
receive love as it was created to be!
Men, in this sinful fallen world, are proud, not
naturally responsible, loving, nor caring, so how do they get reprogramed to
become the way that God wants them to be according to the scripture, connected
with their families? It is by a process,
a process of a man submitting to Jesus’ teachings and ways, loving yet leading.
5-When a Christian man suddenly becomes a father and
he has a son or a daughter, he suddenly gains a cause to live and fight for.
With a baby in his arms he has a world to conquer, so his children can grow up
to have a safe place to develop in. A man that becomes a father changes his
whole perspective and vision on life!
The first step for a man to be capable of being a
good father is for him to recognize that he has a Father over him, who is God
the Father. If a man will give honor and respect to someone over Him, then he
becomes a good example to his children and they will in turn honor and respect
him. But due to free will, pride, and rebelliousness, this does not always work
this way.
6-For example, Adam, who walked with God, taught his
2 sons to love and sacrifice to God and he had one son, Able, who turned out to
follow his good example. But the other
one, Cain, didn’t want to worship God as he did, he was proud, selfish, and
rebellious, and as a result he became an embittered murderer killing his own
brother! This pattern repeats in a lot of families!
If a father doesn’t honor God or anyone, his
children will not learn to honor Him and men reap what they sew. In the world
today only about half of the men own up to the children they have fathered to
raise them, and this has happened due to the decline of men honoring God and
fearing His judgments. Imagine how a just God will judge a person for
abandoning innocent ones and provoking suffering? Unless they repent they will
reap their consequences eternally!
7-And we should also remember that we as men may not
always be able to look up to our flesh father as an ideal role model. Everyone
must always look to God as our Father, as He is the one that set the example
for us as pure love through Jesus.
We are all aware that here are many many people out
there who are like myself, who did not have a physical father present in their
lives growing up, and there are maybe a billion or more people in the world who
have had negligent, bad, or abusive fathers. I am sorry if you have suffered in
the past, but in the end you have to forgive, and turn it over to God!
Psalm 27:10When my father and my mother forsake me,
then the LORD will take me up
8-Let’s take an example of a man of God, Elkanah and
his wife Hannah, who had Samuel. They lent, or gave up their son to serve the
priest Eli. Eli dedicated this child to the Lord and he became an important
leader and prophet of the nation of Israel! Eli was an outstanding man of God
because he taught Samuel as a father. This story indicates that a father to you
may not even be the one who conceived you. Samuel became one of the most
important prophets of all time!
Also remember father Abraham. God tested him to see
if he would give up his son and sacrifice him, and the shocking thing is that
he was ready to carry it out and he even had him tied up on an altar. But God
did not allow him to sacrifice him! It was only a test of loyalty to God first.
But notice later how God gave up his only son, Jesus, for us! So a true father
will sacrifice and put God above all when they need to and God will honor them.
That hurts, but it brings the needed results!
9-We conclude that good fathers dedicate their
children to God! Dedicating is really not a one-time event. It implies that a
man will take charge and be the spiritually leader at every moment possible to
his family. Back from work he will teach
his kids Bible stories and everything about Jesus love and power.
Another important thing that a good father will do
is pray often with his family and pray for his children asking God’s blessings
on them. I really hope the fathers here are doing that! You will see a
difference in your kids!
10-Let’s take a look at the consequences of our society
not holding on to the values of their past fathers and letting the men get away
with not being responsible fathers. There are about one in 2 people divorced in
the USA today! And the sad part is that Christians too have about the same
amount of divorce! Where’s Jesus?
When there were too many sins in Israel and God let
them be defeated and taken into slavery by an enemy God, revealed that the men
were not being men. Isaiah 3:12 As for
my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my
people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy
paths.
11-We haven’t even begun to see the all the bad
effects of men not leading in our society as they should! Divorce is a sin
provoked by both parties. But the juveniles that commit many of the current
crimes, according to statistics, are those who do not have a father. Most kids
today, and even some here in the Corps, will do disrespectful things because
they do not have a father (or mother) that will discipline them correctly. You need a strong arm and a roaring voice at
times!
Everyone suffers when no leadership is present as
the scripture says, Proverbs
20:11 Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and
whether it be right.
12-I have seen fathers just give up, and why? This
is serious problem today! Fathers are under attack by the media and
disrespected by our current degenerate society! Hundreds of news articles
report that for the past few decades there has hardly been one good role model
of a Dad on TV! All of the family shows, or soaps (novellas) have single parents
and the fathers are always made out to be as dumb idiot nobodies that no one
respects. If men aren’t honored as the
city fathers they deserve to be, then manipulation and destruction can flourish
in that society.
There is nothing that hurts a man more than to have
his dignity and authority disrespected by those of his family or by the laws!
That is why some men just give up. They try to be good and give their all, all
their time and dedication, and use their full paycheck in their home but if
they have a wife and/or kids who are corrupted following the disrespectful role
models of the world and not after the ways of Christ, then they just get
discouraged and call it quits!
Reacting to this dishonor, some men even become
violent with their wives and kids, others may drink to escape reality, but it
is all tied to fathers not being honored as the Bible commands to honor. Jesus
unites, but without him is death!
13-It takes a real father, a real man close to God
to keep on going even when times seem impossible in his family. Historically, many
countries have had centuries of stable families and societies (which go hand in
hand) with the ones in the family valuing each other. The men historically also
have worked from sun up to sun down to support their homes on farms or in big
cities!
Sons and daughters bring real happiness in the life
of men; fathers get inspired as much by their kids as the mothers do. Men just display
less emotion though.
14-Another attack on fathers comes from the
consequences of man’s laws not being aligned with God’s laws. This applies to
punishment. But also, for example, fathers who migrate from other countries for
work, suffer greatly. There has always been a large group of Hispanic immigrant
men here in the U.S. who have had to come here for work and sadly they usually leave
behind their wives in their country. This break- up of the family unit is
devastating! I have attended to those in these separation situations for over
decade and the sad stories will crush you!
We all know from past experience that a bunch of men
to hanging out together for too long a time without domestic responsibilities
and kids is disastrous. The men will often drink too much and get into trouble with
many illegitimate things. If these men were near their wives and children they
would not do these things. The authorities have not wanted to solve the injustice
of no visas for immigrants who slave here, and how it separates dozens of
millions of fathers from their families.
It is a pity that even despite the good family
values many people see modeled in the Christian church, and all those years of
a good solid foundation from past generations that there are so many homes
losing their men as active leaders. We need to pray desperately for responsible
fathers! Consider once again:
15- 1. A father must love, honor and respect God,
his spiritual father. The men who love God seem to always have more courage,
more leadership, more faithfulness, and the all the good qualities of God in
their lives to offer those in their home.
2. A father must be willing to give his kids up to
the Lord’s service. I know in the church we dedicate our children to God when they
are babies but it shouldn’t stop there. The father and the mother have the serious
job of teaching their children daily about the Lord!
3. Real fathers will pray for their families daily and
then lead, and be confident in their role as spiritual leaders. The young men
and the young women today need to see more role models that govern with
authority. Fathers today are discouraged,
restricted, and oppressed but Jesus can empower them to do their job right,
amen? Let’s pray for our fathers and
families! Jesus brings us together with our fathers!
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