Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

Home » family

family

Toast for a Younger Brother

Toast for a Younger Brother

by ·

Sam

Today you’ve become toxic. After all, you’re a Scotch-German mutt. If Granny Zornes’ legends are true, your Cherokee blood raises questions of complicity in oppressive colonization. You put marriage before career. You’re a man; and you know it. You married a woman; and you like it. You plan to have enough kids to thwart the most dogmatic climate activist’s CO2 reduction efforts. If all that weren’t enough, you believe that terrifying Pauline doctrine that salvation is by grace alone, through faith in Christ alone.

The Christ-less world screeches for you to be ashamed of all this. God, however, calls you to rejoice in these blessings. You’re now summoned to the duty of dying that this beloved daughter of God Almighty might flourish in sanctified femininity. You’re to have the swagger of a man who fears God alone. You must stand, when everybody flakes. Sprint into danger, when everyone else turns tail. Use your old parkour moxie for raising children who traumatize globalist bureaucrats.

Face this world with dauntless, Gospel aggression, but face your bride with jolly & gentle gravitas. May you & this good thing the Lord has favored you with be blessed with these covenant mercies: “[…] thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee (Deut. 28:9b-11).”

Pint-Sized Saints

Pint-Sized Saints

by ·

If you haven’t noticed, our congregation is populated by a goodly number of pint-sized saints. This is a visible evidence of God’s goodness and blessing. Children are indeed a blessing, but a foolish son is like bone cancer. Parents who treat these blessings like burdens, or who crush these blessings with burdens will find they’ve raised fools for children. Parents who receive their children from God & offer them up to God will enjoy the blessing that accompanies such faith-filled parenting.

Part of offering them up to God, is by bringing them with you into the company of saints as we worship God together. Fathers, the task of shepherding your children to participate in worship falls primarily to you. To that end, here are a few reminders for raising your children not only to be present with us here in the worship service, but for them to be a blessed contribution.

Crying children are not unwelcome, but oblivious parents of crying children are like the neighbor in the book of Proverbs who shouts a blessing to his neighbor at 3am. Fathers, take initiative in whisking the pip-squeak out, disciplining them as appropriate for any unruliness.

Don’t think that it’s less spiritual to have missed half the sermon or losing your spot in a song because you were correcting your child. You are coaching them, leading them, training them. Very soon they’ll get the hang of it, and you’ll once again be able to hear the pastor’s very funny joke after his third point.

Talk about church during the week. Ask your children what they learned. Sing together. Practice sitting still & silent, and reward them with jelly-beans. In short, actively parent your kids both here & at home. Don’t grow flustered, but faithfully train your sons & daughters to delight in the worship of the Triune God.

Our culture abhors children. It glares at them on airplanes, calls the murder of the unborn a right, and lets the television raise their offspring. But God’s Word tells us that the Lord has ordained praise from these tiny lips, and from these cries of infants. Many parents grow weary or frustrated with the, at times, slow progress of rearing little children. Parents must go to God for grace to diligently train their children to walk in all His ways, and this congregation must exercise joyful patience in assisting each other in nurturing up these children to love & fear God. May God forgive us as a nation for despising our offspring, and let the people of God demonstrate the great joy and calling that it is to raise up sons & daughters in the grace of our Lord Jesus.

Five Points on Worshipping Together as Families

Five Points on Worshipping Together as Families

by ·

My first experience with what some call “Family Integrated Worship” was when I was asked to lead the music for such “Family Integrated” church. To my dismay, this meant that while the adults sang, the kids played Cowboys & Indians in the middle of it all. It was free-range parenting, with cheerios tossed like chicken-feed to the knee-highs.

We don’t want that. Nor do we want what many churches have opted for: shuffling the noisiest & wiggliest saints off to some other wing of the church campus, to be sat on by saintly volunteers. 

Our aim is to worship together as families. I want to lay stress, however, on the word “worship”. We gather to worship, not shush the squawks of infant saints. That said, our worship is to be decent & in order. Thus, we should strive to raise our children to worship the Lord. Just bringing them along with us isn’t sufficient. So, a few bullet points about worshipping together as saints young & old:

  1. Parents, your children are welcome, even the hubbub they add to our service. 
  2. Children, you are here to worship God. Learn to join us in singing, kneeling, and add loud “Amens” to our songs and prayers.
  3. Parents (& Grandparents or others who help these families with young-uns); your children don’t need 15 trips to the water fountain & bathroom. Worship is, in part, learning discipline & self-control. They won’t die of thirst, I promise, no matter how much they protest otherwise. While infant voices aren’t an annoyance to our congregation, it is not an excuse for parents to neglect their task of training their children to attend to the Word.
  4. Work to wean little ones off of needing a steady flow of jelly beans to stay quiet, or needing their entire GI Joe collection to stay occupied.
  5. These last two reminders require preparation & teaching in your home. Meaning, your household should revolve around the joy of ascending here to worship the Lord.

In our homes, we must remember that worship is unavoidable. It is of course not whether we will worship, but who or what we will render worship. Too often we spend our attention on lesser things, our hobbies, jobs, sports teams, pop culture, political parties, and we teach our homes to revolve around the worship of these idols we’ve set up. We then scurry into the courts of the King of king unprepared, mumbling out the songs, perturbed by our kids or someone else’s kids, and we go through the motions of the service irritated, thoughtless, and faithless. We save our praise for fleeting idols, and reserve our leftovers for God. This is upside down, and it is spiritual madness.

And so, worshipping together as families, it is important that you fill your home with Gospel joy, discipline, and faithfulness throughout the week. Make the Lord’s Day a day of worship, rest, and celebration and this means preparation. As Pastor Jim Wilson once put it, “Act, don’t react.” Meaning, plan your life and family around the priority of worshipping the Lord, so that you’re not scrambling to cram in discipline and self-control during the worship service!

Faithful Homes in a Faithless Age

Faithful Homes in a Faithless Age

by ·

Introduction

The Christian home is beset on all sides by enemies. In many places, the enemies are in the gates and that is why Christian homes are in just as much disarray as unbelieving homes. This condition has come about largely because many Christians have failed to view their family covenantally. In other words, we’ve adopted the individualism of the modern age. This ingrown individualism convinces you to be the consumer of everything; from what sort of car you’ll drive to what gender you will be and the accompanying preferred pronouns. Many Christians have unreflectively allowed their homes to drift along in this riptide of hyper-individualism. It is only when they finally look out the window and realize they have drifted so far from the mainland that they start to wonder, “How’d we get here?”

The Text

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Pauline Puns

We have presented to us, in that glorious prose of the Apostle Paul, what might be called the “Inescapability of Fatherhood.” It has been pointed out by others that Paul is using a play on words here that doesn’t come through in our English translations. The Father (patera) is the One from whom the whole family (patria) is named. A family bears its father’s name, and all families of the earth derive their name from the Father of our Lord Jesus. This “pun” is a deliberate rhetorical tactic.

It is God’s Fatherhood which forms the basis for how we enemies of God might be brought in to enjoy all the riches of His glory, enjoying the expansive love of God through His Son Jesus. In other words, integral to the Gospel is that you have not only been justified freely by grace (Eph. 2:8-10), but you are adopted into God’s household (Eph 2:19-22), and the love God has for His Son is also directed towards you (3:14-19). You can’t have family without father, and there is no fatherhood without the Father.

The Home as a Weapon

This means that the home is not a mere accident of sociology. I am indebted to other theologians for this point––namely Peter Leithart’s fantastic book A House for My Name––but the story of the Old Testament is that God build a garden sanctuary for Adam and Eve to dwell in. They wrecked that glorious home and brought the whole world down with them. From then on, God set out to build a house in which mankind might once more fellowship with God Almighty. The patriarchs, Moses, David & Solomon, and the prophets were all laborers on the scaffolding. God used them to build a house for the worship of His name. Christ came to take up residence in the house which the Father had built. We’re told this explicitly in Hebrews 3:1-6.

Our families derive their name from the Father, and our homes should be a reflection of the home which God has built. We are God’s house. Our households must take their cues for how to be run from how God runs his house. This means that a certain order and hierarchy will be necessary. To return to Ephesians, we see how the theology of our salvation through Christ (chapters 1-3), informs and shapes how we are to live practically (chapters 4-6). God is our Father, and as members of His house we are to live in a certain ordered way in our varied relationships.

Order is Not Our Enemy

This is where modern egalitarianism and feminism most vibrantly comes strutting into view to make fun of outmoded Biblical views of the family. Family is “whatever” you feel like it should be, and with whoever you want it to be with. You by yourself with ten fur-babies qualifies as a family these days. How dare we try to define family in such a narrow and intolerant way. In our forlorn days, husbands who lead their wives by Christlike strength, courage, and diligence (Eph. 5:25-33), wives who submit to their own husbands with all meekness and quietness of Spirit (Eph. 5:33; 1 Pt. 3:1-3) fathers who train their children in the way they should go (Eph 6:4), mothers who are into their children (Tit. 2:3), and children who obey their parents in the Lord (Eph. 6:1-3) pose a lethal threat to the totalitarians.

The secularists want the only transcendent entity to be the State. It has put the State as the final word on all things through the sleight of hand of telling us this is all for our health and safety. It is striking that on one hand we are inundated with a message of individualism, while simultaneously trapped in a collectivist gulag. But we confess that God is above, we are below, and all authority derives its power from Him, the only Transcendent One. This means we must order our homes according to His Word, not according to how our Statist overlords, or the entertainment/propaganda industry tell us. Again, notice how in Paul’s epistles in particular the soaring theology always lands in the particulars of household duties (husbands to wives, wives to husbands, masters and servants, citizens to magistrates).

The Gospel for Generations

This is why it is vital for faithful Christians, regardless of their stance on infant baptism, to think covenantally about their children, and their children’s children. Viewing the world covenantally is of vital importance in combatting the twin evils of libertarian individualism and Statist collectivism. As my friend Toby recently tweeted: “I’m an individualist over against collectivism, but I am covenantal over against libertarianism.” Children in Christian homes are the fruit of a covenant; that covenant, made in God’s sight has the capacity to produce tens of thousands of faithful individuals within 4-5 generations if you raise your children to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

This means turning away from all the individualism which sets out to entice husbands, wives, parents, and children. We have turned away from the household towards all manner of distractions, many of which are not sinful in any way other than they have taken us away from our primary obligations.

Why do men work hard? It is so they can assure their wife that her closet and cupboards will be full of his love. But if a man’s workaholic tendency hollows out his schedule so that he is not present to be a presence of love and joy in his home to his wife and children, his work is largely in vain. The cupboards may be full, but not of love. Don’t set out to gain the world only to lose your soul and the souls of your children.

Feminism has convinced a generation of women that corporations and paychecks as large as their male counterparts will gratify and bring fulfillment. It is no wonder that so many women must medicate with wine-nights, antidepressants, and the lies of “self-love” as they grieve their barrenness. Many modern women aborted their offspring in order to pursue a career of serving a corporation who will toss them aside without blinking twice, instead of investing in a herd of children whose souls are eternal.

In other words, are you leaving a godly heritage to your great-grandchildren? That is how we will win. They want us living in isolated cells, with the strongest bond of loyalty being the relationship formed between you and the government through their monthly welfare check. The men who hate God are setting out to reset the world, remake the world in their hideous image. South Africa recently learned how much of a bully these tyrants are. South Africa discovered the Omicron variant, and like an eager student, reported its findings to the rest of the class; for its reward, the Globalists stuffed South Africa in the locker. They want the world to conform to their narrative, to their program for mankind. Christians must resist the devil, and that means coming into conflict with the accepted narrative. That narrative is that you as an individual might live in autonomy, so long as it stays within the clearly defined lines of their godless ideology.

The Gospel offers a different bond. It offers a new family in Christ. In Christ’s family, the church, there are instructions which if obeyed will cause our earthly families flourish and build while rejoicing in the Lord together. Christ died, Christ rose, Christ ascended so that you can be saved from your sins and set about to do the good works He’s prepared for you. Those good works begin with those right in front of you. Love your wife. Honor your husband. Raise more than 1.9 kids to walk in the fear of the Lord. Worship the Lord with faithful saints every Lord’s day, and don’t let tyrants tell you that you may not do so. This Gospel is feared by the secularists, because it topples the god of individualistic autonomy, and breaks open the doors of the collectivist cage they want us to live in.

This Gospel which we have received by the Apostles’ doctrine is that God is our Father because Christ our brother died for us, and by His Spirit we are made into a new humanity, a new family, so that we as individuals and as families might enjoy fellowship with the triune God.

Companion of Fools

Companion of Fools

by ·

Introduction

Teaching our children to walk in wisdom when it comes to entertainment and friendship is an active task for parents.  Throughout the Proverbs the word used for companion is a poetic use of the same word used throughout the OT for shepherding/feeding/tending a flock.

One of our primary jobs as parents is to feed our children. Now, imagine a parent who lets their child rummage freely through the cupboards whenever they like. Those parents will soon find the health problems of a diet which consists solely of jelly-beans and potato chips. In the same manner, parents are called to shepherd their children to pastures of green pastures. This is particularly important when it comes to what flock they run with.

Lead Your Teens to Green Pastures

The task is to lead your children to green pastures where other sheep commune together under the Great Shepherd. Sheep require vigilant care and attention. Sheep are herd creatures, and if they wander from the herd, or wander with the wrong animal they’re sure to become the main course on some other animal’s menu.

The Scriptures are our authority not only for what sort of friendships we should cultivate, but also what godly friendship is for. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Paul reiterates this same reality that evil companionship leads to corruption, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners (1Cor. 15:33).” In other words, friendship is for the cultivation of wisdom.

When you walk with the wise, you walk in the way of the righteous, and so the fruit of wise friendship is that, “The lips of the righteous feed[H7462] many: but fools die for want of wisdom (Pro. 10:21).” Instead of becoming the main course, a wise man is able to feed many. Proverbs 15:14 offers a stark contrast to this exact thing: “The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth[H7462] on foolishness.”

So friendship is for the cultivation of wisdom and thus righteousness. But how does Solomon teach us to cultivate friendship, and what sort?

The clear guidance we are given is that the morality of your friends matters, and certain individuals are to be spurned, not befriended: “Make no friendship[H7462] with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go (Pro. 22:24).” And,  “Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion[H7462] of riotous men shameth his father (Pro. 28:7).” Lastly, “Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company[H7462] with harlots spendeth his substance (Pro. 29:3).” In other words, we are not to keep company with angry or riotous men, or with harlots.

There are other words of wisdom for us, but notice that here we have a simple summary of what sort of people shouldn’t be befriended. Are they bitter (and therefore prone to either outburst of wrath or cold, seething envy)? Are they out of control? Are they sexual loose? Then don’t keep company with such individuals it. Avarice, greed, and lust are not the traits you want in your children’s companions. As the Apostle John teaches, “Love not the world (1 Jn. 2:15-16).”

Contempt for the Cool

Perhaps one of the most important lessons which parents should teach their children is that of godly uncooperativeness. Proverbs 1:10, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.” Those three words––“consent thou not”––is the sum and substance of what you want to aim for in raising your children to choose wise friends. It is the young man, void of understanding, who wanders down her street.

You want your children, at their various stages of development, to be sticks in the mud. They don’t just go along. They lead in the games, in the places the gang hangs out, what sort of things they talk about, what sort of jokes they laugh at, what sort of entertainment they enjoy. A wise son is not a log floating down the Mississippi; he’s a steamship going against the flow of foolishness.

But just going against the grain isn’t enough. Think about all the teens you’ve known who have gone through a rebellious “independent” streak. They shave the side of their head, put streaks of neon green, orange, or pink in their hair, put the bone through their nose and claim they’re doing it all to be different, to not conform. But the mugshots of all the Antifa protesters should be enough to conclude they they are not non-conformists, they are just conformists to an entirely different culture.

We want our children to go against the grain because they are being raised up to not depart from the way in which they’ve been trained. They already have a way they are going, and any deviation from that way will not entice them.

Lewis points out in the Four Loves that phileo love is oriented towards a mutual goal. Eros is face to face, while phileo is shoulder to shoulder. The question for your teens is: if you stand shoulder to shoulder with this individual or group of friends, which way are you pointing? Are you pointing towards folly, and thus poverty, despair, and death, or are you pointed at wisdom and therefore abundance, hope, and life?

Leisure Rather than Entertainment

An important distinction should be made here between entertainment, and leisure. Entertainment is akin to gluttony, in that it turns us into mindless consumers with no brakes to stop our indulgence. The rabbit hole of Youtube videos, the endless scroll of Social Media, all serve up to us a seemingly endless world of discovery and gratification. 

Leisure, on the other hand, is the enjoyment of one’s work, and the reception of the blessings of God. Entertainment gobbles and grabs, whereas leisure receives and rests. We rest in God, to work up a sweat, in order to rest once more. Leisure is a gift to be received.

Remember that friends are chosen, not assigned. We are born into families, but we choose our friends. Entertainment is a subset of friendship. In other words, no one forces you to watch whatever the latest smut-fest is. You choose it. Your choice is a fruit of your heart. A heart that either rejoices in evil or in the truth.

When your children are knee-high to a grasshopper, the father in particular is tasked with pointing and instructing. The movies you watch, the music you allow, the internet sites permitted should all be accompanied with pointing. Point out that Moana disobeys her dad, and then it is her dad who has to apologize in the end. Point out that the melody for most pop music is boring, repetitive, and unoriginal. All this pointing is so that by the time they are nearing adulthood, you’ve pointed out all the principles, and now they will continue to go in the way in which you’ve trained them.

One final note in regards to entertainment. The common complaint is that “clean” or “Christian” entertainment isn’t as cool, or slick, or well-produced as the latest “Dawn of the Freaky Brain Eaters” or whatever blockbuster garbagé Hollywood insists must be seen. The reply is this: “Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit (Ecc. 4:6).”

Narnian Friendship

You want your kids to be Narnian in their friendship: “You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and didn’t give a fig for anyone who wasn’t (The Horse and His Boy, pg. 55).” Readiness to befriend, however, is not the same thing as being a friend with everyone.

While we may choose our friends, and by extension our entertainment choices, we cannot choose to not have friendship. Friendship is inescapable. You are either a friend of the world, and thus riddled with lust and envy, and so an enemy of God: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (Jas. 4:4);” or you are a friend of God, by faith, like father Abraham (Jas. 2:23).

So, as in all things, it comes back to believing the Gospel. This of course must be followed with obeying the Gospel out of love for God. And be like David, “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts (Psa. 119:63).”

Fathers & Mothers

Fathers & Mothers

by ·

Introduction

The US Congress recently introduced the rules for their new legislative session. They struck gendered familial terminology (i.e. father, mother, son, daughter, etc.) from the House’s rules for legislators. The recent events of our nation reveal our void of fathers and mothers. This is just one more effort by the godless to further erode the biblical structure for families. As Psalm 11:3 says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

So it is vital that we understand both how God made the world, and then as those who are in Christ, strive to live in this world according to our assigned duties.

The Text 

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named Eph 3:14-15

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Galatians 4:26

Summary of the Text

When we think about Fatherhood and Motherhood we need to sweep out the clutter. These roles are not optional add-ons which you can discuss with the dealership. They aren’t social constructs which support the oppression of victims. They aren’t the evolutionary development of our species ability to babble some sounds and then linking them with our immediate ancestors. They aren’t interchangeable parts of machinery.

What we see as society rejects the biblical order for family is not an absence of fatherhood and motherhood, but we get mangled fatherhood and motherhood. We get satanic fatherhood, and tyrannic motherhood. We get State-run protection and provision and State-run nurture and rearing. All because those with their hands on the wheel of society are of their father the devil (Jn. 8:44).

Your father and mother are earthly shadows of cosmic realities. That cosmic reality is if you are in Christ God is your Father, the Church is your Mother. That is the evident in these two texts from the pen of Paul. 

In Ephesians 3:14-15, Paul bends his knee to God the Father; every family derives its name from God’s Fatherhood. You don’t have family without fatherhood, and you don’t have any of it without God the Father and Creator. In Greek, you can’t say family (patria) without saying father (patera). In other words, God’s Fatherhood fills the world and fills our earthly families as the inescapable reality. In Him we live and move and have our being.

Furthermore, God has taken a bride for His Son, our Lord Jesus, and she is our Mother. Paul, while making the case that we are delivered from the bondage to sin which the mosaic Law revealed, he uses the imagery of Hagar and Sarah. Two mothers: one a slave, one a free-woman. Which one is your mother? Mother Kirk is a fertile mother, because she is marked by grace and thus life springs from her; whereas Hagar (the bond-woman/Sinai), brings bondage and death (Gal. 4:26). 

To repeat, God is Father, and thus we have fatherhood; for those in Christ God is their Father, the Church is their mother. For those not in Christ, the devil is their father, and the death of Sinai’s law is their mother. As always it isn’t whether you will have Father & Mother, but which one you will have.

Children of Promise

Children who grow up without parents or with unmarried parents are faced with a deck of statistics stacked against them. With few exceptions, their lifetime income is significantly lower; their education level will not go as high; their likelihood of being abused and then abusing in turn shoots through the roof; their prospects are bleak by almost every metric. Children were not intended to exist in a covenantal void. Scripture is concerned with bastard children, which is why it placed heavy penalties on rape, pre-marital sex, and adultery (Cf. Lev. 18), as well as provision for the care of fatherless children (Deu. 16:11, Ps. 68:5).

So, if you are a father or mother, you must not think of your duty (as father or mother) as being in a separate container from your marriage vows, and the consummation of those vows. You are a husband and a wife first. The potency of this covenantal love produces children. Your children are children of a promise, even as the whole family of believers are children of the Promise.

Covenant Duty of Fathers and Mothers

So Fathers are first husbands which are called to be faithful to their promise of loving and cherishing. Mothers are first wives which are called to faithfully fulfill their vow to submit and obey. 

A father which exhibits for his children that he doesn’t beam with delight over their mother (Is. 62:5), isn’t attentive to her (1 Pt. 3:7), doesn’t shower her with love (1 Ti. 5:8) will teach them to railroad her (Pro. 10:1). Husbands love their wives practically by full bank accounts, full cupboards, full closets, and full wombs.

Mothers which run down their husband in front of the kids (2 Sam. 6:16-23), swerving the opposite direction he is leading (Eph. 5:22), or criticizing his leadership at every turn (Pro 21:19) is teaching her children to be lawless rebels. Wives respect their husbands by bearing his name, and being his glory; she demonstrates this respect practically by not being an indecipherable code to get into, but by being ready for him and responding to him in all spheres of their relations (sexually, directionally, financially). So while husbands are called to fill, wives are are called to receive and be filled.

Lazy, inattentive husbands and bitter, nagging wives are teaching the children more than just how to be unpleasant humans. A sin-riddled marriage is presenting a false Gospel, and a marred understanding of God the Father, Christ the Son, and His Bride.

It’s vital that we see that Fathers and Mothers are cosmic categories. Husbands show their children how Christ laid down his life for the church. Wives show their children what joyful obedience to Christ should be. Not only are you teaching them about Fatherhood and Motherhood, but also the glorious Gospel of sacrificial love, responded to in joyful response.

Covered in Sawdust & Flour

These covenantal duties are not pie-in-the-sky intangibles. Rather, these spiritual duties are earthy, and are covered in sawdust and flour.

In Scripture, fathers name; a fathers’ word carry great weight. Fathers provide and protect. Fathers represent God to their families and their families to God. Father’s correct and teach. Fathers sacrifice and intercede. Fathers rule and lead. Fathers head their home.

Mothers respond to this headship by being fruitful. Indeed without the Father, she cannot bear fruit. As the one who bears and nurtures new humans she is to be held in high honor. They are to be fountains of the sort of wisdom which might be worn proudly around the neck of their offspring (Pr. 1:8-9). They are to be industrious, and laugh at all the troubles which are around the bend (Pro. 31:25). Mothers give glorified life and nourishment that is provided by the Father. Fathers face outward, Mothers face inward.

Adopted as Joint-Heirs With Christ

In Reformed theology we generally emphasize justification and sanctification. We blast through the mega-phone that you are not saved by your works of righteousness, you are justified in God’s sight only because of Christ’s righteousness and death in your place. We exhort each other to holiness and growth in sanctification because God has set us apart to be a holy people. But we must not gloss over the fact that one of the terms which is frequently included in NT descriptions of salvation is adoption (Gal 4:4-7).

God the Father, by the redeeming work of His Son, has delivered you from bondage to the law of sin and death. This isn’t like one cruel slave-master defeating another cruel slave-master, and your just caught in the crossfire. Rather, Paul tells us that you are no more a servant, but a son. In other words, you now have a share in the inheritance which belongs to Christ Jesus: resurrection life, everlasting joy, unending glory. You have been adopted as sons. Your Father in Heaven has given to Mother Kirk the Bread of Life and the Wine of Relief, and she has spread a table for the nourishment of her children. The children of grace and glory.

Why We Say “Amen”

Why We Say “Amen”

by ·

Families accumulate habits like a magnet sweeping over metal shavings. When a baby is born––or a child is adopted––into the family, they immediately begin acclimating to those customs. A wise family should be able to point at their traditions and give a good reason for why they do it. Parents should always be ready to give an explanation of the customs to curious minds, and encourage cheerful participation in family customs. All those mottos, chants, and traditions should reinforce unity and loyalty. But they aren’t the source of the unity. 

If you’re new here, you might’ve noticed that we punctuate our songs and prayers with a corporate “Amen.” Let me assure you, it’s deliberate. We want to follow a custom which we see in Scripture (Deu. 27, 1 Ch. 16:36, Neh. 8:6, & Ps. 106:48): “And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.” We continue this family practice by exclaiming hearty “amens” after our sung and spoken prayers.

Amen (אמן) is Hebrew for “truly, certainly, assuredly, so be it.” It was used in the ancient church to affirm agreement and unity in what was just vowed, spoken, sung, or read. We say it together, because the Father has adopted us into His family. We do it heartily, because the Spirit invigorates us to trust the Word. We say it frequently because our service is piled high with sweet promises from our Savior, and we rejoice in each one.

One practical observation for parents of young-un, this is a great way to help them participate. Even one-year–olds can shout out a loud amen, mingling their infant voices with the rest of the saints as we affirm what our Lord has said to us and our corporate agreement in what we have petitioned Him for.

So, instead of saying “Amen” to God’s promise of forgiveness, we’ve said “Amen” to the retribution of envy, the vengeance of pride, and the indulgence of lust. Instead of saying “Amen” to the praise we should render to Christ, we’ve said “Amen” to our self-love, self-glory, and self-righteousness. Instead of saying “Amen” because we confess that we’re God’s people, we’ve said “Amen” to the creeds and confessions of worldly men. So let us repent of all our sinful “Amens”, and receive grace to turn from all the false gospels, saying “Amen” to the true Gospel that Christ alone is King.

Ben Zornes