If you click on the image from either Ray’s or my new site it will take you there.  Ray already has a couple of posts on his blog.  He is a couple of steps ahead of me.   Our goal is that these tools will be a help to you and your ministry.  One of the new additions to the Word of Life web page is a section where you can download some classic sermons including ones from AW Tozer, Charles Ryrie, Warren Wiersbe and many more.  Click on the logo and check out these oldies but goodies.

Please let us know things you would like to see on our sites that would help you in your endeavor to reach young people with the Gospel.  We look forward to being able to serve you even more through these great new online resources.

These things are true in our own daily lives as well. Perspective changes how we think about events, people, and problems in our lives, and it causes us confusion sometimes, as we try to figure out what our next step should be. One area in which most people struggle is the area of their own spirituality and sanctification. I wonder who has a better perspective on what we really are– us or the Lord?

Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost for His Highest:

” The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. The deploring of our own incompetence is a slander against God for having overlooked us. Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. ‘Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.’ Say that before God; and it means—‘No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.’ That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.
Again, the things that sound humble before God may sound the opposite before men. To say—‘Thank God, I know I am saved and sanctified,’ is in the sight of God the acme of humility, it means you have so completely abandoned yourself to God that you know He is true. Never bother your head as to whether what you say sounds humble before men or not, but always be humble before God, and let Him be all in all.”

It really is all about perspective! Have a great week serving the Lord.

Our students and children have plenty of influences in their lives.  Television, internet, music, family and friends just to name a few.  A couple of these have the potential to be positive but potentially each of them can be negative.  You hope that a young persons family is a positive influence but the truth is, it many times is not.  We know what can happen with the influence of peer pressure and don’t even talk about TV and internet.  So, how do you have a positive influence on their lives?  How can you commit to the discipleship of a young person?

In Word of Life we use this phrase a lot:  “Discipleship is teaching young people to be what I already am”.  That is a powerful and very humbling statement.  One that has a tendency to scare some of us.  My first thought is to all of the areas of my life that I don’t want a young person imitating but that is not where our focus should be.  Our focus should be on all of the areas that we can be an influence in a positive way.

I want to challenge you to do something as a leader this year.  Look at the young people in your small group individually and ask yourself these simple questions.

• What is the biggest spiritual need they have in their life right now (possibly daily quiet time or negative peer pressure etc.)?
• How can my example help them to experience growth in this area?
• What tools or resources can I provide for them to help them grow in this area?
• What do I need to do to keep them accountable in this area so they might see progress in their life?

Right down the names of each of the students in your small group, ask these four questions about each of them and then put your plan into practice and see how God blesses your discipleship ministry this year.

I can’t wait to hear from you about what God does as a result of your faithfulness!

• STORM – Sending Teens Out to Reach the Masses.  Those of you using the Word of Life Student Ministry in your churches ought to be familiar with this.  If you have never had a STORM event at your church you don’t know what you are missing.  This is an inexpensive way to triple your attendance for one night and have an opportunity to share the Gospel with lost young people in your community.  Click on the STORM logo to check out a short video on how your students can go to their friends houses and invite them to a STORM at your church.

• Fascar - If you work specifically with Children, then a Fascar rally is definitely the event for your church.  Have a Word of Life Missionary come to your church, bring their Fascar track and watch the kids come in to race their Hotwheels cars.  Oh yeah, the Gospel is presented and an opportunity for Children to accept Christ is given.  Click on the Fascar logo to see a video about Fascar.

• Word of Life Superbowl - November 6th is the Word of Life Superbowl in Charlotte.  An all-night activity for teenagers including NBA Basketball, prizes, pizza, laser tag, bowling, arcade, inflatables, soccer, flag football and a whole lot more.  The best part is a clear Gospel message with invitation.  Plan now to bring your young people and their lost friends.

There are tons of other things you can do, these are just three opportunities that Word of Life offers to you.  Whether you use our ideas or not, the bottom line is there are simply too many young people lost and on their way to Hell if we don’t reach out to them.  I firmly believe that the message of Jesus Christ is so powerful that it will change lives, we just have to get the message out there.  So, be intentional about evangelism in your ministry this year and see what God does.  Click here to find out where the closest Word of Life Missionary is to you?

Nobody ever sets out on a journey to fail.  I have never spoken to a salesman who says “my goal is to not sell anything” nor have I met a person in ministry who says “I plan on having absolutely no impact on the lives of those I come in contact with”.  As ridiculous as those two things sound, the truth is that if you are not going to plan, you truly have set yourself up for failure.

I know from experience that when I fail to plan I never get the results I wanted and I am not satisfied with the effort I put into it.  You have certainly heard the term “work smarter not harder”; planning is working smarter.  Planning allows you to get others involved and delegation is working smarter.  Planning turns an unorganized leader into a confident leader.

As the leader of a ministry you should have two types of planning sessions.

1.  Yearly Planning – A time where you get together with your leadership team and plan out the year.  Put important dates on the calendar and lay out a teaching plan for the year.  This is also a time to plan out the first month of your ministry year in detail.

2.  Monthly Planning – A time each month where you plan the next month in detail and look at upcoming events and activities.  This is also a time to evaluate and discuss how things are going and ways to improve the ministry.  The only way to make this a consistent time each month is to plan it for the same day and time each month.  For example, the second Sunday night of every month.  This way it becomes a routine and part of your leaders monthly schedules.

So, what’s it going to be?  Planning, or failure?  Interested in taking your ministry to the next level?  Interested in getting your whole leadership team more involved?  Interested in reaching more young people and growing your ministry?  How about this one; Interested in sleeping better at night?  Being a better planner will do all of those things for you.

I am reminded of Paul under house arrest as he wrote the book of Philippians.  He consistently experienced joy in-spite of his circumstances.  That is because his joy was not about his circumstances, rather his joy was in Christ.

Are you experiencing Joy in Christ?  Please don’t start a new year with your tank on empty.  Take time now before the new year even begins and spend some extra quiet time with the Lord.  Don’t rely on the energy of your young people to lift you up.  Make sure you are the one setting the pace and that your joy is overflowing because it is found in Christ.

So, when will they be ready to go? I can’t answer that. Every child is different, and even your own children are going to be different from each other. Some of our children are probably marking the days off on the calendar as they count down to launch date. Others may need a little pushing out of the nest. It doesn’t mean one loves you less than the other, it just means they are different from each other. You will still feel the tension. You’ve fashioned that arrow to the best of your ability, you’ve drawn the bow back to its limit and you stand there with a trembling hand fighting the tension. Now…release. You are entering a brand new season of your life. In many ways this new season is as scary as being a brand new parent—maybe even more so, but it can also be as exciting and wonderful as being a brand new parent. Enjoy it.

One final word from verse 4 but this is about the parent and not the child. I am told that all good archers have an anchor point. When an archer draws back his bow, he brings it back to the same point every time. We as parents need an anchor point as well and I am so thankful that the Lord has given us His Word so that we can continually go to that anchor point. There are a lot of things that I don’t know but an omniscient God gave me His Word. There are a lot of things I can’t do but an omnipotent God gave me His Word. There are a lot of places I can’t go but an omnipresent God gave me His Word. Several times in these posts I mentioned that our job as parents is to sharpen, straighten, and stabilize those sticks we have been entrusted with and turn them into arrows. The best way to do that is to constantly use God’s Word. You are probably familiar with 2 Timothy 3:16 which says:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” ^[1]

You may have heard that doctrine is teaching, reproof is showing us where we went wrong, correction is showing us how to get back right and instruction in righteousness is showing us how to stay right. I agree with that but I prefer looking at it this way as a parent. Doctrine is how we sharpen our sticks. Reproof and correction is how we straighten those sticks. And, instruction in righteousness is how we stabilize them so that they are wonderful arrows that fly straight and true to the target. There is only one problem with all this, though and that is, first of all, that straightening, sharpening, and stabilizing must be done to us first. Examine yourself and take an honest evaluation of the short-comings you have in your life. Then, go to that anchor point, and let God’s Word do its work in your life and then allow our Heavenly Father to work in your child’s life.

Once again I want to say thank you for reading these posts. I hope they have been helpful and encouraging to you. I know this hasn’t been an expository study of Psalm 127, nor has it been an all-encompassing parenting book. What it was meant to be was some words from someone on the same path you’re on who hopefully can point out a few of the pot holes he stepped in.

“And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;”

All of us are arrows in the hand of the mightiest warrior, Lord God Almighty. It’s a very sad thing when people decide they don’t want to be used by God, but would rather accomplish their own purposes for their life. They never become what they could be for the Lord. What’s even sadder is when a child is not allowed by his parents to accomplish God’s purposes for him. We are all to be, first of all, witnesses for our Savior. While we accomplish our first purpose for the Lord, we can also explore other avenues of service for the Lord. He may want us to be a Christian accountant, doctor, nurse, engineer or maybe even a Pastor or missionary. We can then accomplish His purpose for us in that arena but I would ask you a couple of questions: How much have you consulted with the Lord about what His purpose is for your child? And, how have you led your child to consult with the Lord about His purpose for them? Then, where the rubber meets the road, are you prioritizing your time, activities, and resources on a daily basis to accomplish GOD’s purpose for your child?…or are you putting undue emphasis on activities that just fill time (keep them busy) or make YOU feel good about your child excelling at some activity that doesn’t really prepare him or her for what God has called them to?

Our next comparison is that it is wise to test how your arrow flies before letting it go for real. Imagine with me, if you will, that you have one arrow in your quiver. You have never made an arrow until you made this one. You have spent a lot of time and energy on this arrow as you straightened the shaft, attached the fletching and honed the arrowhead. It certainly looks good and you are very, very proud of it. Now though, you are face to face with an enemy warrior or a magnificent buck. If you miss, the enemy will kill you or the buck will get away and your family will go hungry. How confident are you if you are placing that arrow onto the bow for the very first time? You don’t know if it will fly straight and true or not. You don’t know if it will stick in its target because you haven’t given it any test flights. I’ve seen some parents just like this, no test flights for their children. Little Susie or Billie (my apologies if that is your child’s name) have been kept under mother hen’s wing until they graduated from high school or, even worse, college. Now they get out into the world and they don’t know how to interact with an unsaved boss, manage money, or even go to bed on time so that they can get themselves out of bed the next morning! This process begins with the simplest choices that we allow them to make as pre-schoolers, while they are still in the safety of our home; like teaching them how to pick out appropriate clothing for the day, teaching them about healthy food choices, and teaching them how to make choices that prefer others above themselves….and letting them deal with the consequences of those choices. If we lived in an agricultural society, it would be expected that children would be out helping with the chores around the farm, but we don’t live in that type of society any longer. That isn’t a reason though, to prevent our children from making some “test flights” away from Mom and Dad. It’s a good thing for our children to have part time jobs. A paper route, or cutting some lawns in the summer, or stocking some shelves at the local store could possibly do as much for sharpening, straightening, or stabilizing our children as anything we personally could do. From having a job, they learn the importance of good communication skills, dressing appropriately, being on time, working hard, and many other intangible skills. Getting your child involved in a youth group that does Christian Service and mission’s trips and then encouraging your child to get involved with those events would be a good thing. You may be surprised with what takes place in your child’s life if they are faced with a tough question in a nursing home or rescue mission. When they are young may also be the best time to learn how to make that cell phone or insurance payment and what they may have to “do without” if they choose to have the cell phone or driving privileges. If your child reads this, I may have just made an enemy, but these posts are intended for parents, and as one parent to another, “test flights” and learning responsibility are definitely something that we as parents we need to help our children with.

First, arrows must be stable to fly true. I personally would not consider myself an archer although I have shot a bow and arrow a few times. One thing I have learned though is that the feather-like object on the back of an arrow is called “fletching” and its purpose is to stabilize the arrow during flight. Without fletching, an arrow would tend to tumble when released, flopping end- over-end with no real direction at all, and it wouldn’t fly very far, if at all. Does that sound familiar? Many children grow up physically but don’t seem to fly very far, and also seem to lead directionless lives. Evidently they don’t have a stabilizing influence in their lives. The Holy Spirit using the Word of God in their life is the only true stabilizing influence our children can have. In a previous post we mentioned schooling, and while that is an important decision that can affect the stabilization of our children, even before that decision is made we need to be teaching God’s Word to our children at home. It is a parent’s responsibility to teach their child how to “feed” themselves from God’s Word by spending time in God’s Word daily in personal devotions. A parent can only teach about a daily “Quiet Time” if they are themselves having a daily time in the Word. Parents need to make sure that their child is receiving good Spiritual instruction at church as well. I’m not saying that you have to be your child’s Sunday-School teacher and continually move with them from class to class as they grow; I’m suggesting just the opposite! I believe that it is good for our children to hear other voices saying the same thing we are saying (but we do need to be sure that those voices are saying the same things we are.) Visit your child’s class or youth group meeting. Listen to what is being taught. Ask your child questions about what they learned this week. If the Holy Spirit convicts you of something in your life through a conversation with your child or a visit to their class, let your child know what you learned. If the Lord leads you to become involved in a particular ministry, follow through and give it your all. Listen carefully for warning signs such as, “I don’t need to take my Bible, we never use it anyway.” If you hear something like that, don’t be afraid to do something about it. After all, God has given YOU the responsibility for the spiritual training of your child. While I believe that many times parents receive too much blame or credit for how their child turned out, I also believe that many parents are too casual about making sure their child is in a position where it is easy for them to listen to the Holy Spirit.

Our second area of similarity for this week is that the archer must be stable for the arrow to fly true. I know, now I’ve gone to meddling. Please read the following thoughts with an open mind and an honest self-evaluation. If you watch an old movie that includes battle scenes with armies facing each other that includes archers, how many of those archers are on horseback? I doubt that you have ever seen an archer on horseback. Rarely do you even see an archer running, and if they are, they stop before they release their arrow. In fact, you will usually see archers standing or even kneeling as they shoot their arrow. (And no, I don’t think that it’s a coincidence that they kneel sometimes. Kneeling in prayer should be a regular position for us as parents.) How does that play out in our society? Let me ask you a couple of questions: 1. What’s your schedule and how many evenings a week do you have at home with your children? 2. How many evenings do your children have at home with you? 3. What events have you said “no” to so that your family could spend more time together? I find it amazing that “energy drinks” are so popular among adults and young people alike. Whatever happened to planning your schedule to allow yourself and your children adequate rest? You may have to make some changes in your schedule so that you can be a stable archer. I realize that there may be temporary times of crazy work schedules, but what I’m talking about is a way of life in which you only get to talk to your kids when you are ferrying them to their next activity. Sometimes even then you have to ask them to take the earphones out of their ears so they can hear you!  As Dr. Alvin Reid wrote in a chapter of the book The Greenhouse Project, “We live in a culture that has made busyness a part of so-called success. That disposition has filtered to our children as well.” He goes on to say, “In the church, we have made busyness a mark of godliness, although Scripture would not necessarily concur.” I would remind you what the Lord Jesus said: “You shall be My witnesses” (Acts 1:8 NASB95 emphasis mine) What kind of a witness are we to our neighbors? Do our neighbors see a family with love, joy and peace, or do they see a family with hurry, grouch, and fatigue? So what can be done? Take control of your schedule. Don’t be afraid to say “no”, even to church activities if need be, in order to protect your time with your children. Our family certainly isn’t perfect, but we made a concerted effort to manage our calendar and not let the calendar manage us. We had a family policy that our boys could choose one sport per year to be involved in.  Thankfully, they all chose baseball instead of a sport I didn’t enjoy, because when a child commits to a sport, the family’s time and money are going to that sport, also. That may not be a decision you make for your family, but it is one we made and it allowed us to guard our time at home, as well as allowing our kids the time to discover their skills in other areas that the Lord has called them to serve. We have probably all heard a message about “redeeming the time” but I, for one, don’t believe that the Lord will commend a believer for redeeming time if he is investing very little time in his most precious commodity—his children.