October 12, 2008
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A Serious Matter Of The Heart...In More Ways Than One...
There is within my church, a family that I have the great honor of being able to be somewhat close with. They are tremendous Christians, and I consider them role models for my life. They have several kids, and I love them as if they were my own. One of the kids, we'll call him um, "Jacob", in order to protect the innocent, has really been on my heart for a while, and today I finally had the chance to sit and talk to him alone for a while. He's a great teen kid, and I love hanging out with him when I can. The one thing that I have noticed about him in comparison with his siblings is that when we are at church, he seems rather aloof and uninterested. So today I finally asked him how things were in his walk with God. He told me that he didn't really know, and that he hated being made to go to church all the time. So basically, he has lots of "head knowledge" (trust me), but no real "heart knowledge". This absolutely breaks my heart. I have to say that I am somewhat surprised that his parents haven't picked up on this, and as much as I want to talk to them about this, I can't, because I promised him that it was just between the two of us. I'm not done talking with him. Like I said earlier, I love this kid as if he was my own, and I couldn't help but keep tearing up whenever I looked across the room today and saw him.
Please, please keep him in prayer, that God will speak to his heart, and that he'll be willing to listen and see that being a Christian is sooo much more than just going to church and hearing Bible stories over and over. Please pray that I will be able to say the right things to him so that he will not want to rebel or tune me out.
Please...pray for God's will to be done in his life.
Thank you all.
Love,
-Richard.
Comments (2)
Hi Richard,
I am praying for this dear, dear family and their teenage son. May he soon work through his faith so that it may truly be HIS believe in Jesus Christ, and not simply his parents', that give him hope and motivation. Praying. . . .
-- John
Hi Richard,
Thanks for welcoming me at xanga. There can be a lot of reasons why church kids tend to believe or behave that way. They needed to hear the gospel, the love of Christ for the helpless sinners who are unable (Eph.2) but responsible to believe in Christ sufficient sacrifice. There can be a tendency to be falsely assured by attendees especially church grown kids thinking anyway that their a parents are Christians, believe God exists, faithfully attend church (this can be lip, external service) pray, read and know the bible, baptized, sing worship songs, listen perhaps to christian music, basically good, moral especially compared to the world, attend perhaps a christian school yet their fruit evidently does not manifest a redeemed. You are in a right footing of befriending him and winning his heart and trust. I hope this quote from C.H. Spurgeon preacher from 18th century may encourage you: "It is not my aim to introduce doubts and fears into your minds; no, but I do hope self-examination may help to drive them away. It is not security, but false security, which we would kill; not confidence, but false confidence, which we would overthrow; not peace, but false peace, which we would destroy." You are absolutely being kind to him by not presuming he has become a christian without a clear, consistent understanding of the gospel he needs to embrace, repent from his sin, and receive the pardon of our wonderful gracious Savior.
Regarding his parents, I believe every parent has inconsistencies despite their sincere love for the Savior. I'll pray along with you that in the right time, right words, and praying for right response from the parents, you may serve the Lord in this ministry God has specifically assigned you with. May Christ be always your strength as he has promised. God bless!
Pete
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