Higher Life Christian Centre

God has given specific instructions to us regarding the importance of keeping and teaching His laws i.e. practicing them ourselves and then passing them on to the next generation (Deut 6:4-9). You may be saying to yourself that these instructions are not relevant to us today. They were given to the nation of Israel a long time ago. I can assure you that “the Word of God abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23), and is therefore relevant to us today. The bible clearly states in 1Corinthians 10:11, that these examples are there to instruct us and that we should learn from them in order to avoid making the same mistakes.

We are going to look at the consequences of failing to adhere to these instructions in scripture, and how this affected the Old Testament saints nationally and individually. We will start this series with a study of the book of Judges (Judges 2:7-15).

As we read through these verses we can see that the precepts and laws of God were not passed onto the next generation as instructed by God in Deut chapter 6. Consequently, they had no reference point, no direction and so, they did whatever they thought was right in their own eyes.

Dear parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, guardian, teacher, youth worker, etc, or whatever your role may be in which you have influence in the life of a child, or youth.
I implore you not to fail them by neglecting the charge given to you by God, because the consequence (as we can see with Israel) could be disastrous.

God has placed certain responsibilities within the Home, Church, and State. In our society however, our state i.e. schools, institutions etc, has failed to pass on true Christian values to our children and as a result (like Israel) they have no reference point and no direction.

It is therefore left to us in the homes, whatever your role may be to teach them these values, and instruct them in the ways of the Lord before it’s too late for them to change (Proverbs 22:6). If we fail to teach them, they will simply copy and adopt the values around them and its source will not be from God. Rather, it will be influences they pick up from their schools, the media and their peer group.

You may have been brought up with very strict Christian values i.e. respect for parents, elders etc (Ephesians 6:1-3), but as the next generation comes along these values are mostly abandoned and dubbed as old fashion or out of tune with the times.

I want to assure you dear brothers and sisters that God is depending on each of us to be faithful to that which He has entrusted to us. Like the parable of the Talents, we will have to give an account of what we have done with the children He has committed to our trust.

Developing true Christian character! Let’s us focus our study on the life of Timothy.

In the book of Acts (Acts 16:1-3), we can see in that Timothy was a second generation Christian convert who’s Father was Greek (Gentile), but his Mother (Eunice) and Grandmother (Lois) were Jewish converts. As believers (who are aware of their responsibilities) they decided to train up their young Son and Grandson in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6), and as we can see he did not depart from that way, (He later rose to become the first Bishop of Ephesus >Esebius AD 325).

Tradition during Timothy’s time would indicate a very Patriarchal society in which the Father would be the one expected to teach the son Godly values, but in this case however, since the father was not a believer it was left to his mother (Eunice) & grandmother (Lois) who having the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit within them imparted the Word of God to this young man (2 Tim 1:4-5; 3:14-15).

As children of God we are charged with the responsibility to teach those entrusted to us and to impart the Word of God to them without fear or favour.

You may be an Uncle, Auntie, Cousin, Grandparent etc, but if you are the one who God has called and given the task to train up our children, especially our youth, then I sincerely pray that you will take up this challenge as Eunice and Lois did.

We can clearly see that as a result of the foundation these great women of God laid in Timothy’s life, Paul the Apostle was able to build on it, when he took the young man under his wings.

Describing him in 1 Corinthians 4:17 as his beloved son, Timothy became one of Paul’s constant companions on his various missionary journeys, and listed as co senders of his letters to the churches in Corinth (2 Corinthians 1:1), Philippi (Philippians 1:1), Colosse (Colossians 1:1) etc. Paul was later able to entrust the Church at Ephesus to his care.

God has placed great responsibilities on our shoulders let us not fail to grasp the opportunity to direct our young children and youth in the ways of the Lord before the enemy gets to them. Children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalms127:3), and so we should place great value on our heritage.
We thank God for these two great women of God who knowing their responsibilities planted the seed and the fruit of that seed became one of the giants of the early church.

In conclusion as we do not know what the fruit of our labour will be, let us diligently and faithfully sow into the life of our young children and our youth, and God will give the increase.