ReFocus

God continues to use the life of George Mueller in our lives; he set as his goal to live in such a way that people would know from watching his life that you can trust God. Wow, what a testimony we would have if all of us lived that way; it would make evangelism so much easier and it would encourage the Body of Christ each day.

The question that some of you may be asking is, “What are you doing now?” God has given us a wide range of activity. We recently met with two pastors to offer encouragement. We are spending time at the hospital with a good friend whose wife is in critical condition. Also, we have met with several families who have believing children that have gone astray. I miss the preaching but have surrendered that to the Lord…if He wants that in my future, He will work out the details. I love what Oswald Chambers says, “If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you— and His experiments always succeed.”

Last week we posed this question: what do you do between the time your child rebels and the time he/she comes back to the Lord? In looking at the story of the prodigal son, we have seen why the son left; and we have seen the father’s loving forgiveness when the son came back. But what do you do during the time of rebellion?

Sheilah went to a seminar years ago that dealt with this very issue. We don’t remember who led the seminar but one point stands out.

Truth + Space + Prayer + Unconditional Love = A Changed Life!

• Lay the proper foundation of the truth of God’s Word.
• Give them their space…let them take flight!
• Continue in warfare praying.
• Show them unconditional love when they return
• This will result in a changed life.

St. Augustine is held in great esteem in Christianity. But he was not always saintly. He fell into a rebellious lifestyle and fathered a child out of wedlock. He was heavy into drinking. His mother was a virtuous woman by the name of Monica. Sometimes she almost despaired; but she was greatly comforted by a Christian friend who said to her, “A son of so many prayers cannot be lost.” Some time after that he was converted and went on to be one of the founding fathers of the church.

Max Lucado has said, “God has too much invested in a wayward believer to leave them where they are!”

If you have a child who is adrift and wandering from the Lord, meditate and pray the following scriptures…there is power in praying the Word.

• 2 Tim. 3:14-15 (NKJV)
  But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, [15] and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
• Proverbs 24:15-16 (NKJV)
  Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous;
  Do not plunder his resting place;
  [16] For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again,
  But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
• Proverbs 11:21 (NKJV)
  Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished;
  But the seed of the righteous will be delivered.
• Proverbs 12:7 (NKJV)
  The wicked are overthrown and are no more,
  But the house of the righteous will stand.
• Isaiah 59:21 (NKJV)
  “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
• Jeremiah 31:16-17 (NKJV)
  Thus says the Lord: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears;
  For your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
  [17] There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border.
• Jeremiah 24:5-7 (NKJV)
  “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. [6] For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. [7] Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.
• Psalm 23:3 (NKJV)
  He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
• Ezekiel 11:18-20 (NKJV)
  And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. [19] Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, [20] that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

Prayer is the mightiest weapon in the universe. Use it to reclaim lost ground, tear down strongholds, and reclaim fallen believers.

We love you! Remember, you can trust God for God loves you; He is always right; and His timing is perfect!

More and more we are hearing of Christian parents who are having children to stray from the teachings of Christ. There are a lot of tears and a lot of heartache. This is not the first time in history nor is it an isolated problem. Some of God’s greatest servants have had children who rebelled. Billy and Ruth Graham shed a lot of tears over Franklin. W.A. Criswell was heartbroken over his daughter. One of the main founders of Southwestern Seminary, would walk the campus and weep over his children who had gone astray. He was heard shouting, “Other vineyards have I tended, but my own I have neglected!”

What do you say? Who do you blame? What do you do? God is the perfect parent and we are His children…and we rebel. So, even perfect parents have problem children. Children have freewill also. We can stand around and point fingers all day long to cast blame…what good does that do? What is important now is the steps that are needed to reclaim the children for Christ.

The story of the prodigal son is a great passage to help us understand what happened and how to respond as a parent. I believe that the one principle that comes through the loudest is this: Parents must demonstrate love and forgiveness to their children.

I can remember the first church that I pastored very vividly, mainly because of the many mistakes that I made as a pastor. I remember working with one of the deacons of the church whose daughter was very rebellious and was dating a guy of whom the dad did not approve. The guy and girl were sexually active and she ended up pregnant. I can remember the night that I heard the deacon say in anger to his daughter, “As far as I am concerned, I have no daughter!” I will never forget the look on the face of the daughter. A few weeks after this the girl gave birth to a still-born baby. She was devastated and wanted to see her dad…but I could not convince him to go.

Establish this rule: Nothing will cause me to ever stop loving my children!

The father of the prodigal son experienced the same thing that we experience when one of our children rebels against the things that they were taught. The father experienced rejection, humiliation, and guilt. When the son walked in and asked for his inheritance, he was saying, “I value my share of the inheritance more than you…so give it to me now!” In essence, he was saying, “I wish you were dead so I could get the inheritance now.” The son rejected the dad, his customs, and his values.

This had to be humiliating. The custom of the day was that your family would buy a plot of ground and keep it in the family for generations…you simply pass it to your children and they in turn pass it to theirs. This son walked in and said, “I want it now!” The father gave it to him, and the son then sold it for cash. Oh how humiliating and disappointing that must have been to this dad…especially to see someone new move onto the land that had been in his family for years.

The father was stunned by all of this. The questions began:

• Where did I go wrong?
• What did I do to make him hate me?
• Why doesn’t he want to be with me anymore?

The father’s mind went back and forth through all the mistakes that he has made as a dad. These were actions or lack of actions or words that he wished he could correct…but it was too late. The more he thought about it, the more the guilt piled up. There are times that a parent should go to the children and ask forgiveness for the mistakes made as a parent. We do not see this element in the story of the prodigal son because the story is symbolic of our relationship with God the Father…He never made mistakes so He never had to ask forgiveness.

But with all the rejection and humiliation and guilt, the story of the prodigal son is more about a loving and forgiving dad than anything!

Remember these three principles:

• Parents must demonstrate love and forgiveness to their children.
• Nothing will ever cause me to stop loving my children!
• A parent should go to the children and ask forgiveness for the mistakes made as a parent.