Exodus 1: 6-8
“The Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new King over Egypt who did not know Joseph…”
If you have ever wondered about your importance in the Story of God you can discover it in the fact that over the course of these three verses 400 years passed. Think about that. We are in the year 2011 if we go back 400 years we find ourselves in the year 1611. Do you want to know some of the important things that were going on in time? In 1611 The first telescope was invented, people had just coined the word “Electric” but Ben Franklin would not discover how to use electricity until 150 years later. The King James Bible Translation was released. How many of thouest still readith that version of the Bible?
Now as we look on those events or accomplishments from a 2011 perspective we realize that the world has changed dramatically!!! So, image that God was writing a story and at one point he drops in on 1611 and tells the story of somebody inventing the telescope and then three verses later he begins telling your story in 2011 without referencing anyone in between? That’s crazy right? Think of all the “important” people and discoveries that God missed! Or did he? God doesn’t miss anything. The things that are truly important in the telling of his story, God zero’s in on with laser beam focus.
So, what does that say to how we should view our lives? For one thing I think we should stop taking ourselves so seriously! We spend so much of our time trying to climb the corporate ladder, further our education or prepare our kids for whatever we want for their future and even if we or our kids accomplishes something great, like discovering a new planet in our solar system or creating the IPad 3, if it’s not furthering God’s story, we might as well have just discovered an extra curly fry at the bottom of our Jack In A Box lunch bag. Our lives are just a blip on this planet and truthfully in grand scheme of things most of the worldly things we accomplish will have little effect in the Story of God. Sorry. Now it may have tons of effect and be of great interest to the other non-story worthy blips that will live on this planet, but truthfully it’s not that interesting to God.
Now before you go and throw yourselves off a cliff, do you want to know what is interesting to God? Look back at the verse above. In the middle of the passage he does have one sentence that describes what he took note of over that 400 years between Joseph and Moses. “…the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly, they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so the land was filled with them.” Do the words “fruitful” and “multiplied” bring any other biblical references to mind? How about the very first command of God to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it…” or what he told Noah’s family after the Flood “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Gen. 9:1) and in the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:6 what did he promise to do? “I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you…”
God has always desired for his world to be filled with his people and since the fall of man his desire has not changed but how he would achieve this desire has changed because now we are born broken and so he has to fix us, for us to be his people and that is what Jesus is for. Don’t miss the main point of this multiplication. In the Old Testament covenants more Israelites born meant more people of God and the parents were to teach their children who God was. In doing so the people were fulfilling their part of the covenant with God. But, if they did not pass on their faith to their children then they would create useless generations who would forget about God and disobey him, which would lead to some catastrophic discipline by God because they were not fulfilling their end of the covenant. After the cross and resurrection, God establishes a new covenant that cuts the rest of the world in on the deal he had been giving the Jews for years and look at what he commands to his “New” people “ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (matt. 28:19) or be fruitful and multiply.
God is interested in more disciples that will be saved from the punishment of hell to spend eternity in heaven with him. So, to be a part of God’s story what should we be doing? 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 lays out the story of God and his “peoples” place in it the best:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us…”
Simply put God desires to see all his creation saved from their sin and back in a right relationship with him (reconciliation). We are whom he chooses to use for his marketing or we are his representatives of reconciliation. If we are not intentionally taking part in this job i.e. introducing others to God, or worse yet have no excitement or urgency in doing these things we may need to check whether we really have been reconciled ourselves.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
My Personal Challenge for 2011 Part Four: Physical
This year I have decided to get myself Relationally, Emotionally, Spiritually and Physically in shape for the use of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am. Here is the last part.
Physically:
➪ I started working out 6 days a week with P90X and really watching what I am putting into my body and how much of it.
o As of today I have lost 19 lbs since the beginning of the year!! I have gone from 210 to 191 and strangely no one has noticed. I don’t know what that means about the way I looked before ☺ I’ve dropped two pant sizes and I am fitting into clothes I haven’t wore in two years! (Why do I feel like I am doing a commercial for slimfast ☺ )
➪ 1 Cor. 9:26 “so I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
o I have really been looking at my body and asking, “when someone looks at how I look and what I eat, is God glorified?” How can I stand up in front of people and challenge them to love God with everything when I can even practice the fruit of self-control in the area of my eating? Now I am eating to live, instead of living to eat.
• I realized that I was a Glutton. I was eating passed the point of satisfaction and in doing so taking food out of the mouth of others, Who did not even have enough to be satisfied. The more I consume the less there is for others. That is one part of my sin in Glutton
• Part Two is that I was eating as if I didn’t think I would eat again. This was not a conscious thought I had, but a revelation to me of a weakness in my general faith in God
o I ate so much because I didn’t believe that God would provide my next meal so I had to eat two or three meals at a time so I could ensure I would be good for awhile. I know it sounds silly but this was a faith issue and one that the Israelites struggled with in the Wilderness. God told them to only gather enough Manna for one day. This was not to be mean but to build up there faith that He would provide again the next day. This lack of faith in my eating also transfers to what I do with money. I try to store it all up just in case God doesn’t come through.
• Anyway, I have realized that how much I eat is a faith issue and so in controlling my eating I am growing closer to God in Faith.
• I also love to get up and work out. I have done P90X before and not had anywhere close to this success because I was doing it for me only. Now I see getting into shape as testimony to the power of God in my life for others and that pushing me through times in my workout that would have sidelined me before.
This is my journey so far and it has only been two months. I can’t wait to see what the next months hold!! Stay Tuned!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am. Here is the last part.
Physically:
➪ I started working out 6 days a week with P90X and really watching what I am putting into my body and how much of it.
o As of today I have lost 19 lbs since the beginning of the year!! I have gone from 210 to 191 and strangely no one has noticed. I don’t know what that means about the way I looked before ☺ I’ve dropped two pant sizes and I am fitting into clothes I haven’t wore in two years! (Why do I feel like I am doing a commercial for slimfast ☺ )
➪ 1 Cor. 9:26 “so I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
o I have really been looking at my body and asking, “when someone looks at how I look and what I eat, is God glorified?” How can I stand up in front of people and challenge them to love God with everything when I can even practice the fruit of self-control in the area of my eating? Now I am eating to live, instead of living to eat.
• I realized that I was a Glutton. I was eating passed the point of satisfaction and in doing so taking food out of the mouth of others, Who did not even have enough to be satisfied. The more I consume the less there is for others. That is one part of my sin in Glutton
• Part Two is that I was eating as if I didn’t think I would eat again. This was not a conscious thought I had, but a revelation to me of a weakness in my general faith in God
o I ate so much because I didn’t believe that God would provide my next meal so I had to eat two or three meals at a time so I could ensure I would be good for awhile. I know it sounds silly but this was a faith issue and one that the Israelites struggled with in the Wilderness. God told them to only gather enough Manna for one day. This was not to be mean but to build up there faith that He would provide again the next day. This lack of faith in my eating also transfers to what I do with money. I try to store it all up just in case God doesn’t come through.
• Anyway, I have realized that how much I eat is a faith issue and so in controlling my eating I am growing closer to God in Faith.
• I also love to get up and work out. I have done P90X before and not had anywhere close to this success because I was doing it for me only. Now I see getting into shape as testimony to the power of God in my life for others and that pushing me through times in my workout that would have sidelined me before.
This is my journey so far and it has only been two months. I can’t wait to see what the next months hold!! Stay Tuned!
Friday, March 4, 2011
My Personal Challenge for 2011 Part Three: Spiritual
This year I have decided to get myself Relationally, Emotionally, Spiritually and Physically in shape for the use of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am.
Spiritually:
➪ I began reading 30 chapters of the Bible a week. Then found two accountability partners that would agree to do it with me and hold me accountable to my reading challenge as well as other important areas of my life.
o Because of the way we have it set up, I have read through 1 Corinthians 14 times!!! Which has been incredible!! Every time I read it I learn something else or I get a deeper understanding on something I learned in earlier reads.
o I read a ton of books each year and because of my vocation they mostly about Christian topics. I have loved 1 Corinthians so much and have seen my love for God grow so vigorously in the past two months of reading it that I decided to make the Bible the only book about faith I am going to read this year! Call it my Daniel fast. I want to see what God will do in my life if I only get my views about his Word from Him. Funny thing is many Christian that I tell this to look at me as if I am about to spit on their child. I am not sure why. Many comments to me about this challenge seem to imply that I should not just read the Bible by myself without someone seminary trained to tell me what it means. There is some well intended wisdom in that for that is how many heresies came into existence. I also, know that most of the divisions in the Church today are inspired by seminary trained leaders. So I think I’ll take my chances with Paul’s writings to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:7 when he tells him, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” So I will present myself to God, “as one approved, a worker who has not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
➪ My Church is reading through the Bible this year starting at the Beginning.
o I am hearing new things about my life and about God from stories that I have known and read for years. It is unbelievable!! God reveals different truths to me from single words or phrases. I feel overwhelmed by the blessings of His wisdom in my life.
➪ I look forward to seeing who I have become at the end of this year with my steady diet of God’s Word.
Tune in tomorrow for the final area of my challenge and what God has done so far for me Physically!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am.
Spiritually:
➪ I began reading 30 chapters of the Bible a week. Then found two accountability partners that would agree to do it with me and hold me accountable to my reading challenge as well as other important areas of my life.
o Because of the way we have it set up, I have read through 1 Corinthians 14 times!!! Which has been incredible!! Every time I read it I learn something else or I get a deeper understanding on something I learned in earlier reads.
o I read a ton of books each year and because of my vocation they mostly about Christian topics. I have loved 1 Corinthians so much and have seen my love for God grow so vigorously in the past two months of reading it that I decided to make the Bible the only book about faith I am going to read this year! Call it my Daniel fast. I want to see what God will do in my life if I only get my views about his Word from Him. Funny thing is many Christian that I tell this to look at me as if I am about to spit on their child. I am not sure why. Many comments to me about this challenge seem to imply that I should not just read the Bible by myself without someone seminary trained to tell me what it means. There is some well intended wisdom in that for that is how many heresies came into existence. I also, know that most of the divisions in the Church today are inspired by seminary trained leaders. So I think I’ll take my chances with Paul’s writings to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:7 when he tells him, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” So I will present myself to God, “as one approved, a worker who has not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
➪ My Church is reading through the Bible this year starting at the Beginning.
o I am hearing new things about my life and about God from stories that I have known and read for years. It is unbelievable!! God reveals different truths to me from single words or phrases. I feel overwhelmed by the blessings of His wisdom in my life.
➪ I look forward to seeing who I have become at the end of this year with my steady diet of God’s Word.
Tune in tomorrow for the final area of my challenge and what God has done so far for me Physically!
Thursday, March 3, 2011
My Personal Challenge for 2011 Part Two: Emotional
This year I have decided to get myself Relationally, Emotionally, Spiritually and Physically in shape for the use of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am.
Emotional:
➪ I began meeting with a Counselor at the end of last year
o He has helped my work on my anger problem that caused the above event and has caused issues for me at work. We discovered that I am a perfectionist, which he says is one of the worst things a person can be because you can never enjoy anything you do because you always see the flaws. Praise God this year I have been able to be okay with mistakes and I have been able to recognize things that ignite that anger inside me go through process of evaluation that diffuses me.
Tune in tomorrow for my "Spiritual" progress!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am.
Emotional:
➪ I began meeting with a Counselor at the end of last year
o He has helped my work on my anger problem that caused the above event and has caused issues for me at work. We discovered that I am a perfectionist, which he says is one of the worst things a person can be because you can never enjoy anything you do because you always see the flaws. Praise God this year I have been able to be okay with mistakes and I have been able to recognize things that ignite that anger inside me go through process of evaluation that diffuses me.
Tune in tomorrow for my "Spiritual" progress!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
My 2011 Personal Challenge Part One
This year I have decided to get myself Relationally, Emotionally, Spiritually and Physically in shape for the use of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am.
Relational:
➪ My Brother and I have had an estranged relationship for close to 20 years because of a fistfight that happened between us when I was 14 yrs old. Through this journey God revealed that I was at fault for what happened. I got angry, which is okay, but in my anger I sinned by throwing a book at him that hit him in the face. Over the years I have blamed him for what he was doing that made me that angry. But the truth of it is that my actions are the only ones I can control and in that moment I lost control and Sinned. I had never asked God for forgiveness or my Brother. In January I did both and was forgiven by both. My brother said “I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me.” We have had rough times of the passed 20 years but I blame myself for all of the hurtful things we did and said to each other because I was the one that was continuing to allow the devil to reign in that part of my life. Incidentally, estranged sibling relationships are not new in my family. My father has problems with his siblings as well. I believe to some extent that the same demon that powers that estrangement was passed on to my siblings and I. Praise God that he revealed that evil me and now that generational curse has been brought to the light and exposed so now boys and his kids do have it lurking around anymore. I was embarrassed that I had not seen it in my life before, but feel blessed that now my brother and I can start again in love.
Tune in tomorrow for my Emotional progress!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says “…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your Body.”
I believe that working on all these aforementioned things and getting them in shape will bring glory to God in my life. I realize that something this big in my life needs to be chronicled for my sake but also for the sake of others. For the journey itself could be a blessing to others. So, I will chronicle my journey right here on this blog for the 8 of you that may care ☺. I started this process New Years Day. So, let me take a couple of days to catch you up to where I am.
Relational:
➪ My Brother and I have had an estranged relationship for close to 20 years because of a fistfight that happened between us when I was 14 yrs old. Through this journey God revealed that I was at fault for what happened. I got angry, which is okay, but in my anger I sinned by throwing a book at him that hit him in the face. Over the years I have blamed him for what he was doing that made me that angry. But the truth of it is that my actions are the only ones I can control and in that moment I lost control and Sinned. I had never asked God for forgiveness or my Brother. In January I did both and was forgiven by both. My brother said “I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me.” We have had rough times of the passed 20 years but I blame myself for all of the hurtful things we did and said to each other because I was the one that was continuing to allow the devil to reign in that part of my life. Incidentally, estranged sibling relationships are not new in my family. My father has problems with his siblings as well. I believe to some extent that the same demon that powers that estrangement was passed on to my siblings and I. Praise God that he revealed that evil me and now that generational curse has been brought to the light and exposed so now boys and his kids do have it lurking around anymore. I was embarrassed that I had not seen it in my life before, but feel blessed that now my brother and I can start again in love.
Tune in tomorrow for my Emotional progress!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Oh, no you didn't..
Do we look down on the actions of God. Or said another way. Do we Judge the actions of God in the Old Testament. Who are we to judge what he does? I think we need to learn to believe the best about God. Do we pretend to know how to do things better than God? How can we say, “Man, God is so harsh in the Old Testament,” as if it is our place to label the actions of God as what is right and just. If we truly believe God loves us and will do what is right then we must look at all the things he does through this lens. It is fine to not understand and to even question, but we need to check our attitude in asking and make sure that we are really asking for God to give us clarity as opposed to using our question to condemn his actions.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Childish Idolatry
Did you know that most adults practice the sin of Parent Idolatry. It's true. Maybe it's you. Here are some questions to help you determine if it's you.
1. Does what your parents say about you have any effect on how you feel about yourself?
2. Does how your parents treat your siblings have any effect on how you feel about yourself?
3. Do you worry or wonder about how your parents will respond to decision you are making about your life?
4. Have you ever made a decision but then changed it because your parents didn't agree with it?
5. Do you ever seek your parents advice over your spouse?
If you answered yes to any of the above you may be guilty of Parent Idolatry. What this means is that part of your brain is still working from a child perspective. To a child parents are gods. Parents know everything, they have no faults, they know their children better than anyone else and in a child's mind his parents created him. But the truth is that parents are just two people who had sex. Think about it.(or not, yuck!) In the creation process of a child the parents play a very small role. All they do is connect the sperm to the egg so that you can be formed. Parents are merely connectors and caregivers for a child.
The real creator is God. He is the one that created you and he is the one who truly knows you intimately. He is the one that we should be looking to for approval and he is where we determine our identity. The best part about this system is that God will always think you are special, he will never compare you or look down on you like your human parents. His is the one who is capable of perfect unconditional love. As human parents we try very hard to show unconditional love to our kids but because we are flawed the way we love will be flawed and if our children are taught that we are where they get their identity then they will end up very disappointed and spending quite a bit of money in counseling.
Jesus' first sermon was on this same issue. In Luke chapter two we are given a story of Jesus in his youth. Because of some cultural circumstances Jesus is unknowing left in Jerusalem by his parents. When they return to look for him they find him in the temple teaching. Check out this exchange:
"The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.
His mother said, "Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you."
He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?" But they had no idea what he was talking about.
So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people.
Do you see what happened. In the very first words that we get from Jesus in the Bible we see him dethroning his parents as his god and sharing that his God was the father in heaven. They asked why have you done this to us and he says my life is not about you but about God. Jesus still loved his parents and the Bible even makes a point to tell us that lived with them in obedience, but we need to see here that their approval was not what he was after. This is a very important lesson for all of us to learn not just as kids but as parent also. Our job is not put ourselves in a divine position in our children's lives but to position our children's hearts on the truly divine father in heaven. God put children in our lives so that we could raise them or disciple them into a relationship with Him. If we decide to do anything else we might as well start putting money away for the counseling sessions.
1. Does what your parents say about you have any effect on how you feel about yourself?
2. Does how your parents treat your siblings have any effect on how you feel about yourself?
3. Do you worry or wonder about how your parents will respond to decision you are making about your life?
4. Have you ever made a decision but then changed it because your parents didn't agree with it?
5. Do you ever seek your parents advice over your spouse?
If you answered yes to any of the above you may be guilty of Parent Idolatry. What this means is that part of your brain is still working from a child perspective. To a child parents are gods. Parents know everything, they have no faults, they know their children better than anyone else and in a child's mind his parents created him. But the truth is that parents are just two people who had sex. Think about it.(or not, yuck!) In the creation process of a child the parents play a very small role. All they do is connect the sperm to the egg so that you can be formed. Parents are merely connectors and caregivers for a child.
The real creator is God. He is the one that created you and he is the one who truly knows you intimately. He is the one that we should be looking to for approval and he is where we determine our identity. The best part about this system is that God will always think you are special, he will never compare you or look down on you like your human parents. His is the one who is capable of perfect unconditional love. As human parents we try very hard to show unconditional love to our kids but because we are flawed the way we love will be flawed and if our children are taught that we are where they get their identity then they will end up very disappointed and spending quite a bit of money in counseling.
Jesus' first sermon was on this same issue. In Luke chapter two we are given a story of Jesus in his youth. Because of some cultural circumstances Jesus is unknowing left in Jerusalem by his parents. When they return to look for him they find him in the temple teaching. Check out this exchange:
"The next day they found him in the Temple seated among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions. The teachers were all quite taken with him, impressed with the sharpness of his answers. But his parents were not impressed; they were upset and hurt.
His mother said, "Young man, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been half out of our minds looking for you."
He said, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be here, dealing with the things of my Father?" But they had no idea what he was talking about.
So he went back to Nazareth with them, and lived obediently with them. His mother held these things dearly, deep within herself. And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people.
Do you see what happened. In the very first words that we get from Jesus in the Bible we see him dethroning his parents as his god and sharing that his God was the father in heaven. They asked why have you done this to us and he says my life is not about you but about God. Jesus still loved his parents and the Bible even makes a point to tell us that lived with them in obedience, but we need to see here that their approval was not what he was after. This is a very important lesson for all of us to learn not just as kids but as parent also. Our job is not put ourselves in a divine position in our children's lives but to position our children's hearts on the truly divine father in heaven. God put children in our lives so that we could raise them or disciple them into a relationship with Him. If we decide to do anything else we might as well start putting money away for the counseling sessions.
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