Racism is wrong, it should be condemned unequivocally by all. By that is not the problem, the problem is that most do not condemn it for the right reasons. Racism can only truly be wrong if there is an objective moral authority that makes this claim. If right and wrong are not standardized by the same objective authority than all is left up to the relative interpretation of the majority. Some would agree that this is the way it should be. I would ask if this is true, why did so many fight to end the Third Reich of Hitler’s Nazi regime? One might argue it was because the relative moral majority; namely the USA and its allies, sought to end such a horrible stain on the history of humanity. This argument would be correct and I would agree; however, I would submit to you a question worth pondering for a moment.


What if Hitler continued as the relative moral majority? What if the only reason another came along and denounced his terror was because it was offensive, violent and despicable? Let me add here an obviously needed disclaimer: I believe that all murder, violence, hate, and racism is wrong but that is not what I am contesting. I am contesting the relative thought behind the societal claims of why racism is wrong. These claims are wrong and relative to similar thinking behind “hey don’t do that because I do not like it.” I have seen nothing in the media that says “Racism is wrong because God denounces it!” I probably never will. But here is my point, if these people fighting on either side of this and all through history have altogether abandoned God or believe there is no god; and therefore no objective moral authority, how can any of them make the relative claim that behavior on either side is wrong.


I am not looking to split hairs here, but the fact of the matter is this; God created everything and therefore is in charge of everything and He is very real, He denounces hate, violence and any type of favoritism shown to someone because of their status or skin color. While this is true and confirmed in the Bible, the majority of the “victims” on either side maintain a worldview devoid of any objective moral authority. Therefore, they are behaving consistently within their ideological worldview. Again, let me say that I believe all murder, violence, hate, and racism is wrong. However, if the only reason these national atrocities are denounced is because someone is being treated different, offended, attacked or murdered we have missed the point. The problem was, is and always will be sin. The human heart is an idol factory and the Bible says that anything put before God becomes your god. This is important to understand because this is exactly what the 10 Commandments is about. Look at them:

1. You shall have no other gods before me!
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol!
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain!
4. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy!
5. Honor your father and mother!
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery!
8. You shall not steal!
9. You shall not lie!
10. You shall not covet your neighbors stuff!

Notice anything about these commandments? The first four delineate our hearts before an almighty God and how our lives should be lived toward Him. The last six delineate our hearts and behaviors toward our neighbor. Here is the fundamental point behind the commandments; break the first one and break the rest always (save number 3, occasionally). The first one is always broken when anything else becomes more important than God. In Matthew a lawyer (that is someone who was well versed in the scriptures and taught them to others) came to Jesus trying to test Him and asked: “Teacher which is the great commandment of the law?” Notice that he shows a minutia of respect by calling Him teacher? Now Jesus’ response:
YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’  “This is the great and foremost commandment.  “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’  “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”


Another account takes place in Luke 10 where a lawyer stood up to test him. He asked “teacher what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds:
And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”  And he answered (that is the lawyer), “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”  And He said to him (that is Jesus), “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.”  


What did Jesus mean in each of these responses? Good question and I am glad you asked because as He said, “on these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets;” and “do this and you shall inherit eternal life.” Coincidentally, (or perhaps not) the lawyer had a similar question; again just to test the Lord Jesus, he asks: “And who is my neighbor?”  I would agree it is a legitimate question. Notice how the two “Great Commandments” sum up the 10 Commandments. The first four are summed up in the first Great Commandment and the last six are summed up in the second Great Commandment. Back to the question of “my neighbor.” In Luke 10:30-37 Jesus tells a parable that teaches this lawyer and us who our neighbor is.  

Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. “And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. “Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. “On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

In this day, the Samaritans and Jews did not get along in fact one might say they hated each other. When the Pharisees would go up from Galilee to Jerusalem they took an “around Samaria” approach even though walking straight through the country would be faster. They both exchanged hostility toward each other. The Jews believed Jerusalem was the only right place to worship and that they were better than the Samaritans. Likewise the Samaritans believed the same and hostility ensued. Regarding the parable, those whom one would expect to help this poor man that was beaten, mugged, and robbed did not.

The Priest passed by as he walked to the other side of the road, likewise did the Levite. Not only did these two leave this man for dead, they went out of their way to do it. Along comes a Samaritan, he has compassion for the victim. He bandages him, cares for him and even puts him up in a hotel with an advanced deposit so the man can rest and recuperate.  So the question is, who is my neighbor? From an objective, eternal, powerful, compassionate, merciful, gracious, and moral authority (namely Jesus) everyone.

Let me repeat that, EVERYONE is my neighbor. This is the point of Jesus’ parable. Therefore, I should first and foremost love God, and then love my neighbor. But if I do not love God (the first commandment) I cannot love my neighbor. You see, any time something is placed on the throne of our hearts, it removes God, and when God is removed we seek after that which we desire. We hate, we are greedy, we murder, fight, yell and scream at each other. We break the first Great Commandment and once it is broken we are sure to break the second Great Commandment. If we do not love God we cannot love our neighbor; and if everyone is our neighbor, hate and murder will continue to propagate to everyone because of their differences.


I would go a step further; commandment number six says You shall not murder! which most would agree they are not guilty of, but look again at God’s standard when Jesus says in Matthew 5:21- 22
“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with (or hates) his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.


Lest you say, “well, this is directed toward my brother and I am fine with him.” While the Greek word for brother and neighbor are different; the context of each passage is essentially this, don’t hate anyone because when you do, you are committing spiritual murder and willingly leading yourself into the fiery hell. James has a bit to say about this as well.  "If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors."


We all should do well to heed that warning. If we show partiality to anyone because of their status or skin color we are committing sin against a Holy and Righteous God and He will not acquit the wicked. God sent Jesus Christ His son to take on human flesh; fully God, fully Man to live the perfect sinless, God obedient life we could not, so that He (that is Jesus) could save all those that would put their faith and trust in Him and Him alone. Christ gave His perfect sacrificial life on the Cross to make atonement (that is, reconciling God to humankind) for our sinfulness.

Paul tells us in Romans 14:11
For it is written,  “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,And every tongue shall give praise to God.”


As a middle Eastern Jew; Jesus did not just die for the European Caucasian, He died for all that would believe. In fact Revelation 5:9 and 7:9-12 make this EVERYONE abundantly clear when the text respectively says: And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,  9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”


Pause and absorb that in both of these passages God makes very clear that all people are God’s people and all people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”  will be saved. The only distinction God makes is sinner or saint. When the time comes for us to stand before a Holy and Righteous God, we will have to give an account for everything we have done, said, and thought. At that time, the only thing that will matter is status before God, saved or lost, in Christ or in Adam, Heaven bound or Hell bound. If Heaven bound we will worship God like He deserves or spend an eternity in fiery Hell without Him.

You see God made us with a natural inclination to worship in our hearts. It was rightly bestowed unto Him. But then Adam and Eve disobeyed and brought sin, death, disease, and destruction upon us on. Our hearts are still inclined to worship; however, they will naturally worship anything but God. Once we remove God, His moral authority and absolute truth from our lives, we propagate hate, murder, selfishness, envy, racism, and all manner of abuse at the expense of others to fulfill our wicked desires. Only the God of Heaven, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ and the effectual change of the Holy Spirit can bring about a change in the idol and hate factory that is the human heart.
We were made to worship; the question is, what will you worship?

What does discipleship in the home look like, what are practical ways of accomplishing this feat, and what are the fruits of such an endeavor. Discipling our children is not just a necessity, it is a command from God. Jesus, when He was 12 was constantly at the temple studying about God and increasing His knowledge of His heavenly Father. We increase our head knowledge as the Holy Spirit works in our heart to bring about change or heart knowledge.

Our children face what are now considered cultural norms; but are unprecedented ways of sinning against a Holy God. Paul faced similar circumstances in his day. He explains the reasons behind this behavior in Romans 1:21-23.
21 "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures."

There is the crux of the issue. Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. The world is a tough place to be in. Ask anyone that has a day job and they will tell you the same. Ask some of your non-Christian friends or co-workers and even they will agree with you.  Kids are pulled in every direction by every person they meet. Society at large tells them they can be anything they want as long as what they want is not Christianity. Society tells them to engage in sexual activity and to try new things so long as that new thing is not Christianity. There is a culture war fought in the spiritual realm and the enemy has his ballistic missile cross-hairs on your children.

Consider that your children spend an average of 35 hours a week in the public sphere of influence. 35 hours translates to 140 a month, and 1260 hours a year in a traditional school year. They spend hours with their friends and consume copious amounts of media, often unchecked and unsupervised.  How can we compete with the world and without provoking them; “bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). What follows is not a comprehensive list; however, it is a list of 5 things I have implemented in my life over the years and has proved fruitful.

I need to offer a disclaimer here; none of these are possible without being wholly submitted to the Lord Jesus, which is #5. What I mean is, if you desire lasting change, if you desire to bring glory to God and Jesus to other people then one must be submitted to the Lord and committed to an eternal perspective. You must be wholly committed to the discipleship of your children and Biblically speaking it is our job as parents but most importantly it is a fathers God ordained role.

Shut off Auto-Pilot and Fly Right
Fathers, we have got to stop going through life with the auto-pilot engaged. Let me say, I understand. As a full time employee, husband, father, student, church member and more importantly disciple of Christ I know that life can be weighty at times. We should not allow the demands of life to get in the way of discipling our children. If you can give up something that falls into the category of “my desires” then do it. You may not “crash the plane” so to speak but you will have no influence on your child’s spiritual condition.

They need a leader and the Bible makes very clear it is the role of the Father to spiritually lead his family. This cannot be done on auto-pilot. It does take time and involves heart change but change is good. We need to first understand our role: spiritual leaders. If we are called to be spiritual leaders, we need to ensure we are fed spiritually and “dressed like a man ready for action.” This is only accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit in fervent prayer, Bible study, and being discipled. Here are a few practical things I do to accomplish this.

Give up on yourself
We were not meant to go about life apart from the power of God that is in Christ Jesus so quit trying. The very foundation of man is a complete dependence to his Creator. Life apart is meaningless and full of anxiety. Therefore, understand who you are in Christ, you are a son of God. Galatians 4:6-7 says
"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."  A son inherits all that the Father has and we are joint heirs in Christ.

Plead with God to change your heart. 
Pray to the God of Heaven to give you a new heart. If you need to see this in action read Ezekiel 37. See yourself lying dead there in the valley. Dry bones, no life and see what the Lord does. God is in the business of changing hearts and He will change yours.

See your child as God intended
A heritage unto the Lord. They belong to God most High and He has entrusted you with them for such a time as this. God never gets an address wrong, He never makes a mistake and He did not with you nor your children.

Instruct Your Children with Family Devotionals
As joint heirs in Christ we must instruct our children in the very same. Family devotionals sounds tough but it is not. This can simply involve:
Praying
If children are old enough I encourage them to offer a prayer request. Sometimes a little guidance is all they need. You would be surprised at what is going on in their little hearts when they share their requests. It is also a perfect opportunity for you to work through John 14:13 “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.”

Reading together
This can involve a lesson, a book or a book of the Bible dependent on the appropriateness of age.

Aim to Change the Heart, not the Surface Level Behavior
This concept is so important and it is Biblical. The Bible is very clear that our behavior, (e.g. what we say, do, think and act) is a result of a sinful heart. We must aim to change the heart of both our children and ourselves. Without a changed heart you get what I call “circumstantial behavior” that is behavior that only lasts when there is an authority around to enforce it. The Bible likens man to a tree many times, and this tell-tale analogy shows the heart is the problem. In Matthew 7:18 Jesus says
“A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”
If the fruit is rotting, hanging good fruit on the branches will just be a waste of time, spraying perfume on a dead body doesn’t help. Jesus says in Matthew 23:25-26
“… wash the inside of the cup and the outside will be clean.”

The bad root that is causing the fruit to rot is the heart and it must be addressed. A good book to read on this is Shepherding a Child’s Heart by Tedd Tripp, and Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul Tripp.  Each addresses the importance of heart change, not mere surface level behavior. Tedd Tripp’s book is specific to children but is beneficial to adults. Paul Tripp’s book is more geared toward everyday people who engage in personal ministry.

Lead Your Children
Leading by example is no small feat. It takes a man focused on God as he goes, to lead with grace, mercy, humility and continually get back up after every fall. Your children need to know that it is okay to fail, it is okay to struggle, and it is okay to ask questions. Let’s face it, in life there will be failures; we are not perfect, and sin still remains.
However, when you fail your children need to see repentance and growth. In the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus God forgave our sins, but we still need to repent of sin and seek God’s forgiveness. We need to teach our little ones that sin is not just a tiny wrong committed against another individual; rather it is a great offense to the God of the universe first and foremost.

Second it is an offense to the person whom we/they have wronged. Therefore, when we sin we should seek forgiveness from a Holy God and ensure our heart is submitted to Him. Then and only then can we seek forgiveness from the person we have wronged. Emulate Christ for your children and help them understand that daddies mess up too. It is okay, every mess up is an opportunity to see the changing power of Christ in the heart of fallen sinners.

Crucify Your Flesh and Follow Christ
This is by far the most important step in seeking to live like Christ, lead and love our children. When you became a daddy, God is saying, “take care of this child, teaching him/her all that I have commanded you, and lead them spiritually. For you will give an account of how your lead them.” He knows our failures, fears, responses, and still gave us children to rear for His glory.

As a daddy our desires should be crucified daily and we should seek to follow Christ no matter what. The most ridiculous thing I can do after an “abundant” day at work, and 1 1/2 hours of traffic, is to rely on myself in leading my family. My sinful desires of comfort, “peace and quiet” and whatever else my wicked heart can dream up will overtake me every time unless I am resting in the power of Christ and seeking to follow Him.

I pray when I cross the threshold of my driveway for more grace, mercy, wisdom and a gentle heart as I head to the door. Was my day busy, stressful, cumbersome, agitating, and long, you bet; but God called me to lead my family for His Glory not fulfill my lusts of the flesh. Luke 9:23 — Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

As a husband and father to 4 boys, I have seen much in the way of messiness. I have seen boo boo’s that widen the eyes and cause panic; however, I have also seen boo boo’s that call for wasting precious band-aids simply so the youngster will take his scarcely scraped knee like a “man.” I have dealt with the logic behind every excuse and reasoning from toddler to teen. One thing that has continually stood out is that of the messy room. It’s a feeling of dread as you climb the stairs and open the foreboding door. It leads to an alternate dimension where you are sure one of your children live, but can no longer discern how or where.

You know what I am talking about. One wrong move could spell disaster. Lego blocks strewn across the floor, storage tubs laying on their side and remnants of terrible battles waged between Lego dragons and army men still lying about. The thought then arises, how does one find anything in this place of disorder?  Growing up I remember that while I was not what one would consider a modern “minimalist” I was one to stay periodically organized. It seemed good that something could be found or played with when needed; therefore, things usually had a place.

As I got older and realized that “stuff” started to build up, I would simply purge. We still occasionally do this with things, toys, papers and stuff. This idea of purging seems rather foreign to youngsters and it can be difficult to comprehend let alone partake in. But it is important if we are to focus on the things that matter. Back in Egypt, I recall Pharaoh’s response to Israel’s desire to go and worship their God, “You are idle (or lazy) you are idle that is why you say let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.” In Exodus 5:2 Pharaoh says, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?” Pharaoh’s desire was to keep the nation of Israel busy working for him so that they would “forget” about serving “this God.”

We are not slaves to Pharaoh; however, we can become slaves to other things. Like Pharaoh’s desire to keep the nation of Israel busy and not worshiping the LORD, we too become too busy to worship the LORD as He deserves. The average home has 2-3 televisions, 1-2 gaming consoles, computers, and other mobile digital devices. Soon our lives and homes become so cluttered that we are unable to discern a path through the mess. Our physical “room” becomes messy and before long our spiritual room is so cluttered that God is left completely out of the picture. Some will say, “I may have a messy room but I still engage scripture and pray.”

While this may be true, the amount of time we spend on digital devices away from God train our mind and rewire our desires and it shows. For example, let us say we spend 30 minutes in the morning with God in prayer and Bible reading. During that 30 minutes, count how many times you pick up your phone, think about doing something else and consider where the desire of your heart and mind truly is. We are so bombarded by the things of this world that we can no longer discern where God is in our mess. I understand, we as a people are inundated with calls for our attention, marketed on every front, and assaulted with new shiny gadgets every few months, that we “just have to have!” so, what can we do?

Like the aforementioned  fallen Lego dragons and army men , we must wage war on this mentality that has so consumed us. I mean really put these desires to death. I heard it said one time, if you really want to know how important something is find a bench in front of a graveyard and ask yourself “what eternal value does it have?” 
Matthew 6:19-21 says:
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Can you just feel how heavy that truth bomb is? We were made to worship, and we will always worship something, the problem is not worship but our sinful desires that entice us to worship everything but God. Therefore, we accumulate to ourselves “things” that have no eternal value and do nothing to spread the Glory of God nor His precious Gospel. We sit continuously in front of our screens assuming we are living life when the people in front of us are ignored. We flood ourselves with information and post constantly in an attempt to see and be seen; to know and be known, but all of this is inherently full of sinful selfishness and pride.

Ravi Zacharias said, “Our right to know assumes our right to know and see everything, and that we have the wisdom to respond appropriately. Both of those assumptions are false.”  

Hear me on this as I cannot stress it enough. You must organize your time and do it with intentionality. I know some people just do not thrive at organization but it can be learned. It may not seem important, but when you have reached the end of your day barely wading through the chaos and ask yourself “what just happened to my day?” its importance starts to feel heavy. It is in these moments that we realize how much time we waste on frivolous things with no eternal impact.

We must forecast our time with the Lord, so that we are able to put away the things of this world and submit to him mentally and within our heart. If everything we are flows from our heart (Proverbs 4:23), then it seems good to organize time with the Lord with intentionality. The definition for intentional is “done on purpose.” Using the word intentional is a nice way of saying, DO IT!


Force it if you have too but understand that doing something with intentionality means to do it on purpose. We all do many things with intentionality: cooking, cleaning, scrolling, watching, playing, talking, and a mess of others. However, when it comes to time with our Creator we seem to forget what intentionality means. Start out small and intentionally spend time with God one day a week; then move it to two, and continue to increase until it is an intentional part of your day every day. Do not sell out to the world’s hedonism. It is exactly the opposite of what we are called to do as Christians.

1. Kill Your Desire, Before it Kills You
2. Organize Your Time With Intentionality
3. Pray Pray Pray

Did I mention, pray? If we believe the Bible is truly the word of God, then we must believe what it says not only about Him, Jesus and the Holy Spirit but also about us. Therefore, we must accept how hopeless and helpless we are without God. Our spiritual room is messy and we can no longer find our way through. We try but we may stub our toe or step on a brick and subsequently wave our white flag.

We must cry out to God in prayer pleading for help in this area. I know its tough, I know we all have like a bazillion things to do and I know that we get tired, overworked, frustrated, and dare I say it, lazy. But we must persevere in the faith which was given us in Christ Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit. Spending time with our Creator uninterrupted must be an intentional battle against the prince of the power of the air. We will not depart from our idleness (television, internet, mobile phone, games, etc..) unless we cry out to God for His strength to overcome. This has to be done continually. We must seek His help through the empowering of the Holy Spirit each moment of each day. Cry out to the Lord in prayer and seek His help.
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Jesus said to ask in His name and it will be given. Rightly understanding Jesus’ words means asking for that which is in line with the Lord’s will. Think about the word “in line.” In line skates typically have 4 wheels. God at the front, Jesus next, the Holy Spirit and then you, or me. If we put ourselves first, subsequently leaving God, behind we can be sure to wreck. The easiest times to worship God are when we feel like it, the hardest is when we don’t. Therefore, get in line with God and cry out to Him for help in both and He will honor your cry. Our spiritual room is messy, we need to clean it!