In the Way

Then said he unto the disciples, "It is impossible but that offences will com; but woe unto him through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if her repent, forgive him. Luke 17:1-3

When I read this verse, I am reminded of the old cliche about the mafia sticking some offender's feet in a vat of cement and throwing them off of the dock at the edge of town. The weight and the lack of movement just hold the victim at the bottom of the river until he drowns, becoming fish food. The image is quite effective. That is the reason Jesus used it. For anyone standing around and listening, the image would have captured their attention, especially those exploiting, abusing, or otherwise mistreating the children in their lives.
The little ones, as Jesus called them, are just as spiritually needy as any adult. The difference is that they are unable to discern properly. Right and wrong become a matter of how they feel. They might resort to the old adage, "If it feels good, do it." Because of their lack of experience and low stage of development, they need leaders. They need people that they can look up to and who set a good example and who will teach them righteous discernment. if you apply this principle to children in our day and age, the issue becomes magnified. Children are pushed to "grow up" faster by the media and peer pressure, yet we systematically remove more and more of the tools to train them how to face being grown up. Fifty years ago, a couuple may get married at a young age, but they had already worked for some years and developed a sense of responsibility. They knew the value of delayed gratification and a strong work ethic. But as each generation has passed, the children are "given more" than their parents had. People want to save their children from the "pain" they endured, so they spoil them instead, shielding them from the truth in the process. As a result each generation grows weaker and weaker in terms of character. As these children grow up, they become and create weak leaders, weak economies, weak governments, and a weak church.
We have become offences to our children. Instead of fighting the world and its influences, we give in to the easy way out. The end result is true weakness. As adults, we need to realize what we are doing to our children. As we go about our lives pretending that everthing is okay, thinking, "We turned out okay," we ignore the problem and thus become stumbling blocks to our children. Remember that they look to us as examples for how to live. Add to that the disintegration of moral absolutes and the power that the world has in influencing them, and we take fewer measures in fighting a larger and growing enemy. Each generation repeats the mistakes of the prior generation only in an already weaker state. Look around at the way our world is headed. Wouldn't you just as soon have a millstone tied around your neck and be tossed in the sea than experience the effects of our becoming a series of stumbling blocks to our children?
My suggestion is that we become closer to one another. We have to get beyond the superficiality of knowing each other only on a three-time-a-week acquaintance. Each of us has hurts and joys that we can share with one another for encouragement and healing. The church is much more than a building or even a group of people meeting together. We are a family, and if we are going to cease drowning ourselves, we must reach to the next generation and lift them out of the dangerous waters they are in. Work with Christ in forging strong relationships and stronger individuals in order to work in building His kingdom.

Hunger

As I closed last night after our youth meeting at church, I prayed from a compulsion. The compulsion was to ask for God to develop and create a hunger and a desire that burned for Him and Him alone. Today I was confronted with many things that feel like a spiritual net dragging me to the ground. Negativity, faceless criticism, and voiceless supporters wrangle my spirit and my mind. I feel like giving up on some things and just moving forward in the simple easy things that I know. Like most people I just want to make everyone happy. That includes God. The problem is that what God wants is not always what man wants. In fact, it rarely is. Consider Job. Consider Paul. Consider Stephen. Do you think they actually sought what they received? Not likely. But I can name the one thing they each sought after that they did receive. God. So much did they hunger for their Lord that they suffered at the hands of men. They were spat upon, stoned, beaten, accused, laughed at, mocked, scorned, and killed. Their response was almost a, "So what." They weren't in it for the fame and fortune or the glory. They were in it for God. Both as a servant of Him and a recipient of Him. So I dwell on this. I think it over. I prayed for a hunger, and now I am dissatisfied with what comes my way. I wonder how many of the kids are feeling this now and don't know how to label or deal with it. If my prayer was answered in each case, then they are all here with me. We are hungering for something that no amount of anything on this earth will satiate. And I pray that each of us realizes what it is that we hunger for. Dissatisfaction with the world means that God is at work. Know it. Follow it. Reason with God about that hole in you. And let Him fill it. And in knowing, do not give the world back what it has given you, but return love for disappointment. Return love for betrayal. Give back love for suffering and pain and war and loss and lack of control. And in that act you will be revealing that you are a true disciple of Christ. Pray that I do this. Pray that you do this. Pray that every Christian would become so truly disillusioned with the world that God is their only solution.