Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.
Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2s5yja
We hear a lot about family values these days. So much has changed in just a few years. It used to be that family values meant long marriages, children who behaved, a husband and wife in marriage and not two men or two women, and the list could go on and on.
Traditional families with a mom, a dad and several children are being overtaken by non-traditional families. Not many people blush or seem embarrassed about having children outside of marriage or of living around from one partner to the next without any commitment at all, let alone marriage.
Sadly, these generations to come will miss out on a great advantage that most of us enjoyed—learning family values from our families. Within the family is where most of us received our values training for life. We learned to respect authority, be polite to others, to know right from wrong and to stand up to take the blame when we had done wrong.
The abandonment of family values has meant a decline in the family unit in our culture today. Divorce continues to plague our nation. Discipline and self-control are slipping away. Respect for the rules and authority of our government as well as our religions has also diminished.
Without some form of discipline we would all have chaos and uncertainty. When many people hear the word “discipline” they may think of punishment or of rules. In fact, discipline is defined as a method to obtain obedience to a set of rules. It is also to train by instruction as well as to punish.
Now I’m fairly certain that most of us have dreamed of a device that would magically turn those traffic lights green for us, especially when we were running late. But can you imagine a world in which that discipline of following the safety rules of driving was suspended? Would you feel safe to drive where no one obeyed the stop signs, traffic lights or speed limits? I think we all appreciate the fact that these disciplines and rules are in place to prevent chaos and to provide safety.
That’s the way we should view God’s word and His will for us today in the church. But, sadly, some people wish to suspend God’s ways and simply do what they feel like doing. Friends, that isn’t the kind of family value that God taught you to follow.
Take Noah for example. In Genesis 6:22 we are told that he did all that was commanded of him to do. That’s a great testimony to that man. Can we say today that we are doing all that God and Jesus and the church expects of us?
In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says the following.
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
Apparently some people thought that they could do a portion of work in the name of Jesus and still be found acceptable to Him. But as this passage indicates, it is a total submission to His will that is required. Not just a partial obedience.
Naaman learned a difficult lesson about following instruction in 2 Kings 5:1-14 when he was determined to do some great thing to gain his healing from leprosy. He wanted to pay for healing or do something difficult. Instead he was told to go to a muddy river and wash seven times. He became irate and refused to do what he was told. But then he finally humbled himself and obeyed the instructions from God and found his healing.
Of course, discipline and rules mean nothing without authority. And Matthew 28:18 tells us that all authority has been given to Jesus. Further, that authority was given to the apostles, then to elders.
Friends, without a system of right and wrong there can be no righteousness. God provides us with a system or discipline, the rules and authority with which we can know how to act and how to be acceptable to Him.
On Our Daily Walk today, may we determine to be daily students of God’s word and may we humbly submit to do His will each day. May we learn to respect authority in all aspects of our lives and may we continue to be a shining example of God’s family values in a world of confused values.
Our thought for the day: “Spiritual bankruptcy is inevitable when a man is no longer able to keep the interest paid on his moral obligations.”
May God bless you on your daily walk.
© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.
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