Thursday, June 9, 2011

Bringing Up…Martyrs

Last week at a Homeschool Convention in Naperville, IL Elizabeth and I heard Eric Ludy preach a bold and passionate message about raising and training his kids to be heroes. The message was called Hero Training. What he said next was extreme but true. He believes that he and his wife must bring up their children to be martyrs for Christ!

This sounds extreme and radical but so true! We should all be in that kind of training no matter what age. I heard a pastor recently pray this kind of prayer, “We have mixed the American dream with the Kingdom of God. Lord forgive us.” That pastor was right on!

This mixing of the American dream and the Kingdom has caused us to loose sight of the fact that we MUST be willing to lay down our life for King Jesus. Sadly, the American dream has changed into looking out for #1. There is no selflessness in that.

I’m also not talking about what other religions might demand of their followers to kill ‘infidels’ (incident people) in order to be a ‘martyrs’ for their ‘god’. I’m talking about following in the steps of King Jesus. Let’s take a look at the scripture to bring truth to this challenge to bring up our children as martyrs…

John 15:13
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” 

We will not purposefully place our kids in harms way but they will be ready nonetheless to lay down their lives just like their mommy and daddy are. More importantly, they will be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others because that is what their Savior Jesus Christ did for them.

Let us raise our kids to follow hard after Christ, even if it costs them their lives. If we do not raise them with this possible end we could risk their faith being more shallow and superficial than we’d want to admit. Raising children in the fear of the Lord (obedience and reverence before a Holy God) and preparing them to lay down their lives is the ultimate goal. Again, we MUST bring up our children in the footsteps of King Jesus. Jesus gave His life, why shouldn't we teach our kids to be prepared to do the same?

We’re bringing up martyrs. Ready. Willing. Surrendered. Set apart.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJune 9, 2011 at 10:31 AM

    I completely agree. However, I think we need to take this a step farther, and not only be willing to raise our kids to die for Christ, but to suffer for Him. It's really easy to say "I'd die for Christ," because once you do that, it's over and you earn your eternal reward. What's hard is to say "I'll wake up every day, and willingly face ridicule, mockery, physical torture, beatings, arrest, tarnished reputation, and ruined finances and career tracks for Christ."

    Martyrdom isn't just about dying a physical death, it's about the path to that physical death, which is rarely as easy as a quick death.

    -Skye

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