Wisdom?

We have just studied 1 Kings 18 with Bible study during school using the Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament and Calvary Chapel's free study pages. It is an inspiring story as we see how God burned up the soaking wet sacrifice of Elijah's and how the prophets of Baal were left calling on a non-existent false god. What stands out to me, aside from how our powerful God licked up all the water, is how all the prophets of Baal needed to be killed. Their families could not be spared. Why is that?

It is a sad reality that willingly ignorant apostates will not be converted to the true way--they have had it, and left it. True believers should not intermingle with them, it poses a danger of the gospel being altered from what God intends. We cannot intimately co-exist with those who do not uphold the truth. How many Christians today are unhappy because of violating this Biblical principle? It is one that is ignored by many, many people even though we are not to be unequally yoked. Does that apply to marriage only? Larry Burkett said it also applied to business partners. I think it applies to any close relationships we have. There is a difference between relationships we adults have for ministry purposes and friendships we hold as personally close--those we would consider 'wise counselors'.

We play with fire when we ignore how important a godly father leading a family is when it comes to the children we let in our own kid's 'inner circle'. If asked if we think it's critical for dads to be the spiritual leaders of their homes, we'll say, "Yes", but it seems we don't think it is important enough to cause us to make decisions based on it. Do we not think that we create and feed appetites in our children to long for the company of kids that are in shaky 'Christian' homes? Too often we parents do what we want to do while merely giving lip-service to orthodox living.

The bottom line is, people always live what they really believe. That is why you will know who a person REALLY is by looking at their friends. The Christian life is a life of self-denial and sacrifice; at least that is what I see in Scripture. When we surround ourselves with people who do not inspire us to 'reach for the stars', so to speak...people who naturally make us feel better about our walk with the Lord because they are clearly off track, we will reap results from that. The law of sowing and reaping is irrefutable. We cannot pretend that appetites are created overnight, for ourselves or our kids. They are the result of intentional parenting decisions or personal decisions. Are we feeding lax attitudes in our own life because of who we call 'friend'? Are we showing our kids that what we decide as a family is just one option among others that are fine enough (since we let them be impacted by opposing ideologies often)?

Here is another example relating to bathing suit styles. We are blessed with some cute nieces in our family and my kids were ooing and ahhing over all the adorable, tiny bathing suits available. None are in a style my older kids would wear or even things we let them wear when they were younger, but still my kids think they'd be a fun gift. It was a good opportunity for me to explain that while it may not be a wrong idea for a tiny child in the same way it is for them as young women, it would make that child comfortable going about in very little clothing. That begins to create a person who is in general, comfortable being less than modest. What about the feedback that little girl will get in her tiny little baby bikini? Everyone will tell her how adorable she is, and anyone who has been around small children knows that long before a kid understands many things, they understand when they are pleasing people. We can inadvertently train them to want to wear revealing, cutesie outfits from an early age. Do we really think that won't have an impact on wanting them to wear, or shun, conservative swimwear later?

Friends, let us stop playing at being orthodox and wanting to make excuses for living a life that is clearly set apart for the King of Kings. Flirting with looseness and rebellion is not going to take any serious Christian where they want to go.