Reflections on Lord’s Day 52 of 2019: “How to Enter the New Year”
On 12/29/2019, the sermon preached by Pastor Joe Rosales was based on Deuteronomy 11:1-25.
The pastor noted that our society is inundated with screens and a false sense of reality, especially children, at an increasingly alarming rate.
The truth is that the Internet, video games, and media in general are often too much for young impressionable minds to handle, especially without close parental supervision. They’re highly addictive, even for adults, and much of the content is inappropriate for youth. They foster impatience, heighten irritability, fuel tempers, destroy self-control, the list goes on and on:
https://www.frictionlessfamilies.com/technology-in-the-family
https://www.drkardaras.com/research.html
Parents need to wake up and stop overexposing their kids to technology and media. (“The Right Kind of Traitor: A Review of Ed Snowden’s Permanent Record,” https://thorncrownministries.com/blog/2019/10/12/Book-Review-Permanent-Record-by-Ed-Snowden)
This, combined with many couples’ desire for more stuff, requiring both the husband and wife to work and neglect their children, brings misery and disappointment. A mother’s calling and purpose and fulfillment is grounded in the home.
Our circumstances shouldn’t dictate our happiness. The apostle Paul attests to this, that while he was in prison, he wrote to the Philippians:
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me. (Philippians 2:14-18 NKJV)
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. (Philippians 3:1 NKJV)
“Miserable Christians” are therefore a contradiction who reflect Milton’s Satan rather than Paul’s admonitions:
Me miserable! which way shall I flie
Infinite wrauth, and infinite despaire?
Which way I flie is Hell; my self am Hell;
The pastor read from Deuteronomy:
“Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm…but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did.” (Deuteronomy 11:1-2, 7 NKJV)
It’s interesting how God said he wasn’t addressing the children in His covenant stipulations. The parents, of course, are charged with instructing their children:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:4ff. NKJV)
The pastor also encouraged us to write our new year resolutions down, and to remind ourselves of and meditate on them throughout the year. The first step to take for the new year is to remember and rejoice in the God of our salvation, and in His mighty works.
Grow in the Word, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (II Peter 3:18 NKJV).
Be intentional about family worship. Don’t serve God half-heartedly. Be watchful and don’t let the cares of this life hinder your walk with God. “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Luke 12:29-31 NKJV)
New Year Resolutions
Sleep!
Practice family worship consistently
Be punctual
“Do all things without complaining and disputing”
Read the Bible every day
Moderate screen time
Evangelize
Write consistently