More Quotes from Hints for Parents

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Here are just a few more quotes from the great little book Hints for Parents. From these you can see the theological awareness and pastoral earnestness of the book.

“To the religious character of our children, everything else ought to be made subservient. Our high privilege is to ‘bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.’ Whatever others may say or do, Christian parents should choose for their children that ‘good part which shall not be taken from them.’ To them, everything else should be like dust.” 27

“Now, you must recognize a mournful fact: Your child is depraved. You will fail utterly to educate him if you don’t recognize this sad reality.” 35

“What a man ought to know, he ought to begin to know very early. The great moral principles, which enlighten his adult conscience and character, ought to penetrate and work on his dark mind in childhood.” 35

“Depraved humans have sacrificed their children to false gods, burning them on the white hot hands of Moloch. Would you do ten thousand times worse by neglecting the heart of your child?” 57

“[quote from Tedd Tripp] Nothing will provide your children with an understanding of the power of the gospel like your love and dependence on God.” 57

Great Little Book for Parents!

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Hints for Parents, by Gardiner Spring
With Gospel Encouragements by Tedd Tripp
(Shepherd Press, 2004), hb., 80 pp.

This is a great little book for all parents. Spring was a 19th century Presbyterian pastor who was highly regarded. His comments to parents have been edited (language updated) and Tedd Tripp has inserted comments and encouragements along the way. Much can and needs to be said about parenting, but this little book distills much of the pure gold about the general goals and procedures of raising children to know and love God. A brief piece by Archibald Alexander on teaching children using catechisms is also appended. I would encourage all parents to get this book.

Here are a few quotes to catch the flavor of the book:

“Many a child has been lost to himself, to his family, to the world, and to God, because he had little else to do but indulge himself.” 15

“If a child cannot be temperate, there is little hope that he will be holy or respectable as an adult.” 17

“A child’s mind is the door to his heart, and our children must think, feel, and consider clearly, before they will repent, pray, and love.” 17

“[quote from Tedd Tripp] Do whatever you must to give yourself to relationships that make home and family attractive to your children.” 19

“This means that parents may need to deny themselves some creature comforts. Is this unthinkable in our current affluence? If by a few sacrifices you could purchase for your children the habit of loving their home, is any price too high? Those families are best educated, and exhibit the most moral feeling, which are most tenderly attached to home. Soon enough, our children will be extending their borders beyond it.” 19-20

I’ll post a few more quotes in another post.

What Is a Healthy Church?

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Mark Dever has released an updated version of his popular booklet, “9 Marks of a Healthy Church.” The updated edition is titled What is a Healthy Church? And is in the form of a little hardback (similar to many Mahaney titles). I really like this format and this tool continues to be extremely helpful in introducing people to conversations about church health. I could not tell what all has been adjusted in this edition, but overall this format seems like it would be more layman friendly. I do not mean to suggest something negative about the previous editions, but I think more laypeople will pick this one up and see it as something for them. It will be a great resource to have available in bulk at your church.

Here are some things that I think are new since the last edition I saw (at least). First, Dever now divides his 9 marks into essential (expositional preaching, biblical theology, biblical understanding of the good news) and important marks. This is helpful. There are also to “Quick Tips” pages titled “If You’re thinking about leaving a Church” and “How to find a good church.” These are very helpful brief application points. I think there is even more in this edition about not seeking personal preferences but looking for biblical essentials.

This is a great tool and I am grateful for Dever and Crossway for making it available.

Packer on Baxter’s Directory

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The following lengthy quote is from J. I. Packer’s introduction to Richard Baxter’s Christian Directory.. The task of writing an encyclopedia entry on Baxter has given me opportunity to delve some more into the man who in the eyes of many embodies the oversight of souls. This quote provides a great contrast between the pastoral teaching of Baxter and much of what passes for instruction today.”From this standpoint it is possible to see clearly the difference between the ‘how-to’ books that today’s evangelicals write for each other and the ‘how-to’ teaching of the Directory, which is so much wiser and digs so much deeper. Our ‘how-tos’ –  how to have a wonderful family, great sex, financial success, in a Christian way; how to cope with grief, life-passages, crises, fears, frustrating relationships, and what not else – give us formulae to be followed by a series of supposedly simple actions on our part, to be carried out in obedience to instructions in the manner of a person painting by numbers or activating a computer. Wisdom in role-play is all; ‘heart-work’ hardly comes into it. This wisdom is in Baxter, too, though usually in a more sober, searching, shrewd form than we superficial moderns attain to; but his ‘how-to’s’ are regularly concerned with the ‘heart-work’ that is involved in doing what has to be done with the glory of God as your goal, and love and compassion for the needy other as your motive, and a passion for holiness as your driving desire, and a vivid sense of spiritual conflict keeping you humbly distrustful of yourself, and constantly watchful against Satan’s devices, and deeply dependent on Christ every moment. Only a little thought about the models of godliness set forth in the Psalms and the moral teachings of the Epistles is needed to convince one that Baxter and the Puritans were right to zero in on the ‘heart-work’ of right action, and that our generation has been terribly wrong to neglect it. Had we remembered that what makes good works good, according to the Scriptures, is a right form, fixed by law and wisdom, allied to right desires, fixed by the gospel, we might have been spared the egocentric, zany, simplistic, degenerate, half-magic-spell type of evangelicalism which is all that the world sees when it watches religious TV or looks directly at the professedly evangelical community. Such evangelicalism neither honors God nor blesses man. Back to Baxter! would make a good and healthful motto for the Christian leadership of our time.”

Baxter and the Dangers of Pride

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I am convinced that one of the major problems in contemporary American Christianity is pride. I think this is the case in the workings of my own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. We so easily cave to the allure of the praise of men. Early we learn that the way forward is to lavish human-centered praise, and we learn to gauge our progress by the amount of exuberant praise received. I need often to be reminded of the Bible’s rebuke of such ways, and historical examples help me.

It is said that after Richard Baxter received a letter full of praise to him, he responded by writing, “I have the remainders of pride in me; how dare you blow up the sparks of it?” While we need not be unkind to those who wish to express appreciation, we can learn from this example of “self-watch” (Baxter’s term). I would dare say that today you are more likely in the circles of church leadership to be rebuked (or ignored, overlooked) for failing to express enough praise than for fawning.

Let us be quick to give appreciation and thanks, but let us be measured and not exaggerated. Love for our brother will call for us to encourage him with thanks, but it will also call for us to be careful about kindling the sparks of arrogance that lie within his heart just as within ours.

Family Driven Faith, Review

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I finished reading this book this weekend and really enjoyed it. My primary overall reaction was, “This book more than any other I have read expresses what my wife and I aspire to for our family.” This book can be of a lot of help to a lot of people.

If you have heard Voddie any time in the last few years you have probably heard some of the material in this book. It is great now to have all of this (and more) in book form. He stresses the role of parents in discipling their own children, the importance of the husband-wife relationship for the children, and the value of children (in contrast to our culture). With these themes he stresses the importance of family worship and the importance of fathers taking the role in teaching their children about God. He powerfully contrasts this with typical priorities among fathers. He encourages having and raising children without being legalistic about how many and how soon we should have them. He talks about how churches fail to help by sustaining the idea that parents need not disciple their own children. There is much of value here and our people (particularly fathers) will gain much in reading this book.

My wife and I came to some of these same conclusions during our time in Scotland. As we prepared to return to a more hectic pace of life in the US we discussed how to maintain what had become important to us. We called it being “family-centered.” Our family, not job or ministry or activities, would be the center of life for us. We wanted our home culture to be the primary culture for our children. By making our home strong and healthy we would be enabled to reach out effectively. But keeping the home central would mean saying no to any number of good things. We continue to struggle to do this well, and this book was a renewed encouragement to me. I found myself being more diligent to look for ways to demonstrate love to my wife, and I was rejuvenated in our efforts in family worship.

Two areas will probably be points of debate concerning this book: schooling and church structure. Voddie is very positive about homeschooling (as am I) but he clearly states that he is not saying this is what all Christians must do. I was glad to see that. Secondly, he advocates having no nursery or any children’s classes at church. This is what is done at his home church in Texas. I, too, am not satisfied with the typical overly segregated church settings. Therefore I appreciate the sentiment. However, I still see a place for a nursery and for children’s classes. At our church we have Sunday School classes for children through age 11. At age 12 a child goes into the adult class with his parents where we cycle through a four year cycle covering systematic theology, church history, bible overview, and the practical outworkings of the faith. Thus Sunday School provides another format for parents to disciple their teenagers as they discus what is going on in class throughout the week. Younger children have their own classes intended to aid parents in their discipleship. Also we have a nursery during corporate worship. We encourage parents to bring their children into the service at 4-5 years of age.
Voddie is careful not to demand churches follow his model exactly but calls for us to consider ways to encourage families in their roles. I wholeheartedly affirm that goal, though we differ in how we go about it.

I hope many people will read this book.

Washington’s First Mission

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Duel in the Wilderness , Karin Clafford Farley
(The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1995), pb., 215 pp.
Ages 10+

This book chronicles George Washington’s expedition into the Ohio country as an emissary of the Governor of Virginia and the King of England to deliver a message to the French who were pushing into territory claimed by the British. This is a true story (obviously filled in in places) of the event which made Washington a known and respected name at age 20. Thus, it has real potential for excitement and adventure but fails significantly. We persevered through this one, and would not commend it to you. There are too many other books on Washington to get bogged down in this one.

What did we not like about it? First, it was simply dull. There is too much psychologizing about Washington’s thoughts rather than telling the story. Also the author has the odd, irritating practice of referring to Washington as “George” whereas she refers to others by their last name. To us that came across as disrespectful. The author seems to be intent on showing the youth and lack of maturity of Washington, at least until the end of the story. Lastly, I was surprised to find multiple instances of profanity in this “children’s book” which we purchased because it was recommended by Veritas Press!

You can find the actual text of Washington’s journal from this trip and a summary of the story here. This will serve you better without having to buy a book.

Missionary Determination

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Here are two other related quotes from The Greatest Century of Missions.

“Missionary service demands dedication, determination and discipline – and these qualities are basically rejected by the television generation.” (p. 127)

“CMS Missionary at Uganda, Alexander Macay, when 27 years old, expressed the singleminded determination common to 19th century volunteers: ‘I want to remind the committee that within six months they will probably hear that one of us is dead. But . . . when that news comes, do not be cast down, but send someone else immediately to take the vacant place.'” (p. 128)

Brothers, we must teach, commend, and exemplify this spirit.

Paton and the Cannibals

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As promised, here is a quote from The Greatest Century of Missions.
In describing the determination of the 19th century missionaries, Hammond relates this great exchange from John Paton.

“Amongst many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument was, ‘The Cannibals! You will be eaten by Cannibals!’ At last I replied, ‘Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.'” (133)

Yes! I find myself wishing to have such quick wit, and then more importantly yearning to be marked by such clarity of purpose.