Is this not just as unfaithful? Is it not just as fatal, but in tiny, tiny increments?

It’s 5:30 P.M. and I’m pulling into my apartment complex. As I near my parking space, the radio fades to silence and a pre-recorded message begins playing: You are arriving at home. Do not be deceived by the cozy nature of that word or its comfortable connotations. Do not think for a moment that because you have left work, that you have put your work behind you. You must not be such a fool. This is where your most important work is done. Because of this, you can not afford to drag yourself across the threshold and collapse into your favorite chair. Instead, steel your nerves and screw your courage to the sticking place. Throw open the door of your house and face what lies inside as a man. There is no higher calling than this. You have no greater duty.

I don’t know that I need to hear the whole speech everyday, but I certainly need to be reminded of it. I don’t know about anyone else, but it’s far too easy for me to walk through the door of my apartment and act as if my day is done. I’ve done my eight, nine, ten hours of work, I think, I’ve done my share. Meanwhile, my wife has just as many hours of work with our two children behind her and probably wishes that she could punch out too.

Clearly, I have a problem. What I need is a reminder, a punch in the arm, and occasionally, in the face. I need to remember that within the walls of my home, I’m responsible for the spiritual well-being of everyone there. I’m the high priest of my household, the pastor of my little flock, the king of a tiny domain. And don’t get me wrong, I like the titles just fine, it the stupid responsibility that comes with them that gets in the way. So I need this feature: Ford, Chevy, GMC, Saturn, Volkswagen, Honda, are you listening?

So here’s my question. If someone put a car with this feature up for sale, what would you want it to say to you when you arrived at your destination? Post your custom “welcome home” message below or on your blog. If you let me know about it, I’ll link to it here.

Let me know what you think.

Which bring us to a second question, namely, what is the Gospel? This requires some explanation. Over the last hundred years or so, there has been a concerted effort on the part of well intentioned individuals to make the message of salvation extremely simple. And it is simple, but without meaning to be paradoxical, the message of salvation is also complex. Here is my definition of the Gospel:

The Gospel is the message of the Bible. It is the commandments that God has given us. It is the news that we are born into sin because of the sin of one man, and that by the sacrifice of one man, the price of sin was paid. The Gospel is in many ways, the story that God is telling. It is the story of Jesus Christ.

And let me be clear here, I am not saying that someone has to know the entire Bible to be saved, but what I am saying is that we don’t know what it will take for any individual person to come to Christ, to experience salvific faith. Look at Abraham: he obeys God and leaves Ur in chapter 12 of Genesis, goes down into Egypt and comes out wealthy, and then he separates from Lot in chapter 13. In chapter 14, he saves Lot and the people of Sodom from Chedorlaomer, refuses the reward of the king of Sodom, and communes with Melchizedek. But he doesn’t get saved until chapter 15, verse 6: And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.And that’s part of our problem. Modern evangelistic techniques teach us to attempt to harvest on every encounter. Never mind that Paul says that some plant and some water. Never mind that if you ask a farmer, he’ll tell you that you spend more time planting and weeding and watering than you do harvesting. We’re taught to close the sale.

Don’t worry if they don’t know enough, don’t worry if this will result in a false conversion, just grab whatever it is that’s growing by the green part, yank it out of the ground, and put it in the ‘Saved’ sack. This sort of thinking terrifies me.

So, what am I driving at? What is my point? Primarily, it’s that we need to be thinking Christians, who safeguard rather than limit the richness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we need to disciple those that we lead to Christ, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matthew 28:20). And this goes back to part one in this series, because if you are already teaching your wife and your children on a daily basis, you will be ready to deal with the questions that a new convert has. What do you think? If you’ve taken the time to read this far, please take the time to leave a comment as well. Your feedback is useful, and Lord willing, will be responded to.

¹ Etymology information taken from the Online Etymology Dictionary

It is a message that still needs to be heard.

Click on the play button above to listen to the message, or right-click here and choose “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to download the mp3. (Note: I have contacted Mr. Baucham and have been granted permission to distribute this message.)

A child changes that. Free time suddenly dwindles, days and night inexplicably become both longer and shorter, typically expanding or contracting as necessary to most effectively limit your perceived freedom. Everyone becomes more stressed out. Throw a little sickness or depression into the mix and you’ve got a custom designed crash-course entitled The Selfish You: Learning How To Defeat the Me-Monster. For those of you who don’t have children yet, I am not joking.

To be fair, the reason that a child can be so shocking to the system is that the experience challenges our beliefs regarding the purpose of our lives. Someone who is already living a life based on sacrifice, humility, and unselfishness, will notice only the blessings that a child brings: the first smile, the first laugh, the feel of the tiny head resting on their shoulder. To the selfish man, these things seem like such consolation prizes. “Look at all that I gave up,” screams the selfish soul, “and all I get is laughs and smiles? I could have rented About a Boy or My Life and saved myself the trouble”.

Where am I going with all this? That’s a fair question. It’s partly a confessional on my part, an admission of my own failures, and an attempt to be more transparent, but it’s also an attempt to frame a question. Does this resonate with other first and second time parents? I have two children now, Gavin will be two near the end of May and Petra is going on eleven weeks. In many ways, the second child was harder than the first, but the first taught us so much that it’s hard to really compare them. God says that the fruit of the womb is his reward, and his blessings tend to be things that go against our nature (Matthew 5:11-12, Isaiah 55:8) How does this thinking compare with what others have experienced? Has God used children or marriage to move you toward responsibility and away from selfishness?