It was 2:00 a.m. I heard a noise outside my office window. I peeked through the blinds and saw two boys about the age of twelve skateboarding down the street. The noise had come from my neighbor's yard. They'd been using her sloping driveway as a launch ramp. Where were those boys' parents?
On another day I drove down my street and there in the middle of the road was a group of children. Some circled their bikes around and around. Others walked in slow motion; I had to stop and wait till they decided to clear a path for me to pull into my driveway. Two boys stared at me like I was rudely infringing upon their territory. My garbage cans were empty from the trash pick-up that morning. When I went to retrieve them, one boy about the age of 14 went riding by my cans and kicked one over. As he rode down the street they all broke into peals of laughter and ran after him.
I'd venture to say that these children received very little discipline in their lives. Oh, it's probably safe to say they may have been corrected at times. But I'd guess they had not been disciplined to follow the corrections. Then again, I might be wrong. In this day and age, many parents set no boundaries. They enforce no rules. Many kids have no curfews and face no consequences for their actions. As children of God, we have a Father in Heaven who corrects us and disciplines us and expects much more from us.
"You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God's children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all]. Moreover we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live? For [our earthy fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness." Hebrews 12:7-10
And as God's children, we must submit our will to His will. The lost and illegitmate will see no reason to follow God's commands or be guided by the principles set forth in His Word. But we are His own and we are expected to live according to all the teachings of Christ. To be exempt from correction and discipline, you cannot be a child of God. selahV
[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2008]
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