DISCIPLING OUR KIDS: Jehovah Names According to Jesus our goal as Christians and churches is to make disciples of all nations. We must ever keep the world that Jesus created and loves so much before our eyes and in our hearts. It’s not all about any of us individually or even about our own family. Jesus died to save the world. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. How can we rest while billions of people with immortal souls are still on their way to hell having never even once heard the Gospel of Christ and salvation? It is to that ultimate end that we set as our immediate goal to disciple our own children. We are looking beyond them to other children. We don’t want it to stop with us. It must not stop with us. We must keep before our children the fact that Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross that others might know Him. God recently spoke these words to my heart: “If you cannot disciple your own kids then you have no business discipling the nations.” If we don’t get the discipling of our kids down, we have no business trying to disciple the nations. Beginning in Jerusalem means beginning at home. To that end I want to give us some Biblical teaching on discipling our children at home. Of course, it needs to be stated up front that the parents must be living the Christ-life before them. If we are not observing all the commands that Jesus has commanded us, it’s no use trying to teach them to our kids. Our love for God must be real, and observable. We cannot fake it; they will see and be turned off. Parents, learn it and live it, before you try to teach it. If they hear it with their ears but don’t see it with their eyes, our attempts to disciple them will have the opposite effect; it will turn them away from Christ. We must be in love with God, each other, our own kids, our neighbors and the world. “According to researchers, between 70-88 percent of Christian teens are leaving the church by their second year in college. That’s right, modern American Christianity has a failure rate somewhere around eight (almost nine) out of ten when it comes to raising children who continue in the faith. Imagine the alarm rate if nearly 90 percent of our children couldn’t read when they left high school. There wouldn’t be room enough at school board meeting to hold all the irate parents. The problem is that most of them, by their own admission, are not Christian! Hence their leaving makes complete sense. 1Jn.2:19.” (Family Driven Faith, p.12-14) Our lessons come to us from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It would be hard to overestimate the importance of this passage in the life of Israel and to us. The people of God get their most important statement about God here in the opening verse: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” This “Shema” is still an integral part of the Jewish profession of faith. The Hebrew word is translated “Hear” in the English Bible and it is the strongest possible word the Spirit of God could have used to get our attention. “Listen up,” just doesn’t get it. It’s God calling us to pay full attention with our minds and hearts, with a desire to learn and obey. Jesus said this was the most important part of the Old Testament (Mt.22:36-38) and that all other commands concerning God are wrapped up in this one. If we love God we will have no other God’s before Him, we will not make any image of Him and worship it and we will not take His name in vain, along with hundreds of other commands that dictate the will of God concerning our relationship with Him. I. Teach Them About God, v.4 Our first obligation is to communicate to our children the truth about God. For this we need the Word of God, which was written for two main reasons: to tell us everything we need to know about God and everything God requires of us. Don’t take this lightly; it is the most important reason God wrote the Bible and the most important thing we can know and the most important thing we are to teach our children. It is imperative that we teach our children that there is only one God and He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that there is only one way to know Him and that is through Christ. In John 17:3 Jesus says, “This is eternal life, to know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” There are not many gods whom people may choose as they see fit. And there are not many ways to God (Jn.14:6). Jehovah Names Jehovah is the covenant name of God in the Old Testament. It means, “I AM.” (Exodus 3:13-14) It is typically followed by something that He is to His people, thus making it a compound name. God’s name is a verbal expression of His nature. He IS all these things to His people. And since His nature never changes (Heb.13:8), He is always these things to us. 1. Jehovah-Jireh.........Genesis 22:13-14 meaning "I AM Your Provider". He will provide everything His covenant people need. He says, “I AM your provider.” We say, “YOU ARE my provider.” That is our confession of faith. Philippians 4:19 says, “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory.” 2. Jehovah-Rapha.........Exodus 15:26 meaning "I AM Your Healer". It is the will of God to heal us, because healing is in His name and nature. 3. Jehovah-Nissi.........Exodus 17:15 meaning "I AM Your Banner". He is our victory over all our enemies. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. He is our flag of encouragement and victory. “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name.” (Ex.15:3) 4. Jehovah-Maccaddesh.......Exodus 31:13 meaning "I AM Your Sanctifier". He is our holiness. We have none of our own; He supplies the will and power to live a holy life. We are only holy in and through Him. He is the difference between us and the lost world. 5. Jehovah-Shalom........Judges 6:24 meaning "I AM Your Peace". He is our peace. We have no reason to fear men or demons because He is our peace. We can live without fear because of Jehovah-Shalom. 6. Jehovah-Rohi......Psalm 23:1 meaning "The Lord (is) my Shepherd". He is the One who takes complete care of His sheep. What the shepherd is to his sheep, our Lord is to us. Read all of Psalm 23. 7. Jehovah-Sabbaoth......Isaiah 6:1-3 meaning "The Lord of Hosts". This speaks of power. In our worst times, He is our strength. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” 8. Jehovah-Tsidkenu......Jeremiah 23:6 meaning "The Lord our Righteousness". He says to us, “I AM Your Righteousness.” Since we have none of our own, He Himself is our right to all His blessings. 9. Jehovah-Shammah.......Ezekiel 48:35 meaning "The Lord who is Present". He is omnipresent to all, but to His people He is present to be whatever we need. He will never leave us nor forsake us. 10. JESUS……. Matthew 1:21 meaning “Jehovah Saves” or I Am Your Savior. Jesus is the summary name of all the other ones. He is the God of the Old Testament manifest in the flesh (1Timothy 3:16) and as such is everything His people need, the covenant God who saves His people from their sins and all their consequences.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:44:40 +0000
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