Sabbath School Today
With the 1888 Message Dynamic
Family Seasons
Lesson 8: Season of Parenting
How can the 1888 message help you with parenting and grandparenting? If the 1888 message is anything, it is the practical truth of Christ's High Priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. Jesus is giving to parents wisdom and guidance in how to raise their children so that they may have characters which will fit them for Jesus' second coming and enjoy their heavenly home life. The judgment-hour message isn't more simple than that. But how can we let Him do it through us as parents? And, more importantly, how does He do it?
First, the bad news has pretty well got us as parents hyped-up about doom-and-gloom ahead for us and our children. Surveys indicate that Millennials don't want to have children for fear of the zombie apocalypse, global catastrophe, or out-of-control human chaos.
The devil is the ultimate source of all bad news. When it comes to salvation, bad news is actually a lie the devil delights to repeat. We are told that "he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). He wants us to believe bad news, like a stalking cobra paralyzes its fear-crazed, hypnotized victim into standing still until the serpent strikes. Bad news paralyzes the human soul, so that one can't do anything constructive towards solving the problem that appears so unsolvable.
Truth is invariably good news, for the reason that there is no such thing as truth except "in love" (Eph. 4:15), and love is always good news. Truth comes from God. He never gives a person a message of hopeless despair.
Dear parent, no matter how bad you may feel or how hopeless your outlook may appear, the Lord has some good news for you: "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me" (John 14:1), "whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that I will do. ... If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it" (vss. 13, 14).
Children have become physically sick as the result of watching TV cartoons. There are medical effects that television can have on viewers. The illness is linked to a scene in which rhythmic strobe-like flashing lights of different colors flash about one-thirtieth of a second long. In this way cryptic and subliminal messages are conveyed which the viewer absorbs unconsciously.
Technology is not itself Satanic; but the devil uses it. Revelation 16:14 says that "the spirits of devils, working miracles, … go forth unto ... the whole world, to gather [the world] to the battle of that great day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14). It's scary, when you think of Satan's power to be manifested in the last days--which are right upon us.
But here is the good news. When Satan's power is manifested, the Holy Spirit of God will manifest an even greater power to reach our children's hearts. Satan is not stronger than God! It is a message from God that demonstrates where sin abounded, grace does much more abound.
Quite a number of people are discovering that a love for the pure Gospel of Jesus can drown out the allurement of TV addiction. TV is darkness, although the screen does light up with fancy colors; but the Light from heaven is stronger than such darkness. Grace is stronger than sin.
Do single parents need special good news? According to a recent "large, long-range study," the media's answer suggests yes. The scientific study of a million children for a decade shows that children in single-parent families are "twice as likely to develop serious psychiatric illnesses and addictions as children whose parents stay together." Girls--three times more likely to become drug addicts living with a single parent, boys--four times so, such children "twice as likely as the others to develop ... a severe depression or schizophrenia, or to attempt suicide, or to develop alcohol related disease." Eleven to one the problem children were in homes without a father, opposed to those without a mother.
Sounds like bad news. Is there some good news greater than the bad? Yes, if the single parent will invite the Lord God, the world's Savior, to function as the missing parent. Not once in an emotional revival meeting, but daily, hourly, continually, consciously sensing the desperate need. The Lord is willing, but He needs to be treated as the single parent would treat a loving, faithful co-parent.
In a happy marriage you never forget your spouse, do you, even for an hour. When our Savior says, "Abide in Me," He obviously means a constant conscious dependence, not fueled by fear but by heart-appreciation.
The body can function with only one lung or one kidney; the remaining organ taking over. A single parent united by faith with the Savior covers for the missing one, enabled by the Holy Spirit to assume roles he or she never expected to fill. The One who created us male and female knows what He can do for someone who knows and expresses his or her need in fervent, intelligent prayer.
There's more good news. The Lord uses human agents. Church fellowship will function corporately to fill the role of a missing parent if the single parent fully integrates into its fellowship, not just "attends once in a while."
Jesus said something both wonderful and terrible when He said to His disciples, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:23). It was a parallel statement with the one in Matthew, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19).
As parents, can we actually open or lock the gates of heaven to our children? Jesus says yes! If in a fit of temper a parent tells a child, "You are lazy! You'll never amount to anything!" that child will have to carry that burden all his life unless somehow he finds the true gospel that gives him relief from that "burden."
As parents we can close the gates of heaven against children and youth. We may wonder why they drop out of the church "family" when they reach their teens, but that was the reason. In a fit of anger, a husband or wife can tell his or her spouse words that wound forever: "There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword" (Prov. 12:18). Sometimes the words are so painful that they are like a barb--it hurts even to draw them out in repentance. You are indeed an authority figure to your spouse and children!
But there's another half to that verse: "But the tongue of the wise is health." Don't forget the good news side to what Jesus said: we can say good news to children and youth, to spouses, words that will be the opening of the gates of the New Jerusalem to their souls.
Let us thank God for a new "today" wherein we can apply some healing balm to the wounds we have made, and we can tell a family member some precious good news. There is nothing to thank God for more earnestly than that we have another day in which to receive His precious gift of repentance with another opportunity to use those "keys" the right way.
--Paul E. Penno
Notes:
Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson is on the Internet at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37AhoK6QktQ
"Sabbath School Today" is on the Internet at: http://1888message.org/sst.htm
| RR |
