"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries
THE HUMAN SANCTUARY AND TEMPLE OF GOD, part 9 quotes
1) The Emotion of Love Dealing With Family Members -- Love of Parents to Their Children
As a result of a man and woman marrying and then becoming of one flesh together, the wife can become pregnant and children can be born. But whose children are these really?
“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.” Genesis 4:1.
“And I (God) took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau”. Joshua 24:3-4.
These verses plainly tell us that the children born to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac, etc., were not really their own, because they were given to them by God Himself. This means that even though children are born to parents in their own image, yet these children are actually the property of God.
What is the reason why God has given these children to parents in the first place?
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6.
One reason why God gave children to parents is for the purpose of training them, and however parents train their children will become an indelible part of their character for the rest of their lives! So dear parents, your child’s character and future life’s actions are directly connected and attributed to you! This solemn fact of truth is therefore extremely important for you to fully comprehend and understand!
As this is a such a very serious matter, then exactly how should we parents train and raise these children of God?
“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4.
The Greek word for “nurture” used here is “paideia”, and it translates and means “tutorage, education or training, instruction, nurture” (Strong’s, word #3809). And the word “admonition” used here is “nouthesia”, and it translates and means “calling attention to, mild rebuke or warning, admonition” (Strong’s, word #3559). So parents are to tutor, educate and train the children that God has given them by calling their attention to the Lord and instructing them on how to follow His will, and when they deviate from following God’s will then parents are to mildly rebuke and warn them. God does not instruct parents to impulsively scold, or belittle, or berate their children for doing wrong, but to instead correct them in a mild self-controlled manner. After all, these children are God’s precious possession, and thus it is only proper and fitting for parents to remember this and to always treats their children as the precious possessions of God that they are while raising them to follow the Lord and to do His will. In order to properly raise your children for God, both parents need to be devoted in doing so!
2) One of the main responsibilities of husbands and fathers is to “provide for mine own house” (Genesis 30:30). The husband or father is to avoid doing anything with his time or money that will in any way jeopardize his ability to provide and care for his own household and family. And if he should instead choose to avoid fulfilling his sacred responsibilities to his wife and children, by finding various excuses to stay away from home, or spending his money in unnecessary areas when his wife and family really need it, then he is in real danger of losing his soul!
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him...Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied”. Habakkuk 2:4-5.
“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8.
All husbands and fathers need to clearly understand that their time and money is now intimately connected with providing for their wife and children, and is no longer their own to spend carefree like it was when they were single and unmarried. And if any husband tries to live your previous carefree life after you are married, then you greatly endanger not just your salvation, but the salvation of your wife and children as well because you are not there to properly lead them to God!
Instead of being an immature husband to your wife, or a dead-beat dad to your children, and being worse than an infidel, you need to do your best with God’s divine help to follow these verses of Biblical instruction just for you:
“Young men...be sober minded. In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, Sound speech, that cannot be condemned.” Titus 2:6-8.
“(A husband and father) that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity...ruling their children and their own houses well [is what God desires].” 1 Timothy 3:4, 12.
So dear husbands and fathers, in the strength and grace of God, prayerfully and cheerfully take up your family responsibilities each day as a real man, and become the best loving husband to your wife and the best loving father to you children that you can be. And know that by doing so you will indeed become the husband or house-band necessary to unite your wife and children together with you into a strong unbreakable loving family unit that God intended every family to be, and you will surely then be able to raise and train your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
3) One of the main responsibilities of wives and mothers is to “guide the house” (1 Timothy 5:14). The wife or mother is to avoid doing anything with her time or money that will in any way jeopardize her ability to properly guide and tend her own household and family. And if she should instead choose to avoid fulfilling her sacred responsibilities to her husband and children, by finding various excuses to stay away from home, or spending her money in unnecessary areas when her family really needs it, then she is in real danger of losing her soul!
“...for when they (women) have begun to wax wanton against Christ...Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith....they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not....For some are already turned aside after Satan.” 1 Timothy 5:12-13, 15.
All wives and mothers need to clearly understand that their time and money is now intimately connected with properly guiding their household and children, and is no longer their own to spend carefree like it was when they were single and unmarried. And if wives try to live your previous carefree life after you are married, then you greatly endanger not just your salvation, but the salvation of your husband and children as well, because you are not there to properly guide them to God! But instead of being an immature wife, or a could-care-less mother, and waxing wanton against Christ, you need to do your best with God’s divine help to follow these verses of Biblical instruction just for you:
“...the young women [are] to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” Titus 2:4-5.
“...the younger women [are to] marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” 1 Timothy 5:14.
So dear wives and mothers, in the strength and grace of God, prayerfully and cheerfully take up your family responsibilities each day as a real woman, and become the best loving wife to your husband and the best loving mother to your children that you can be. And know that by doing so you will indeed be able to guide your family into becoming a strong unbreakable loving unit that God intended every family to be, and will then surely be able to raise and train your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
4) During this course of Godly raising, training and educating your children for the Lord, parents will meet with varying degrees of disobedience from them irregardless of their age – including while they are in infancy. Once their mental faculties are developed enough to understand what you are saying to them, then their disobedience can often be handled by simply talking and reasoning with them between what is right and wrong. But in cases when reasoning fails to curb their continued disobedience, then different methods of correction will need to be employed until one method is found that works on that particular child. And when this specific method fails, then other methods will need to be tried until another one is found that works. It is only at times when their disobedience turns into outright rebellion against your authority, and milder methods fail to control them, that you will need to employ stronger methods depending on the level of rebellion.
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Proverbs 13:24.
The Hebrew word for “rod” used here is “shebet”, and it translates and means “correction, a stick used for punishing, rod” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, word #7626). Using the Biblical “rod” on your child does not always mean spanking them, but it could also refer to using other non physical methods of correction. The Hebrew word for “chasteneth” used here is “muwcar”, and it translates and means “chastisement, reproof, warning or instruction, restraint, check, correction, discipline” (Strong’s, word #4148). And the Hebrew word for “betimes” is “shachar”, and it translates and means “early at any task, earnestness, seek diligently” (Strong’s, word #7836).
This verse can be read as follows: “He that spareth his correction hateth his son, but he that loveth him reproves, warns, instructs, restrains, checks and disciplines him early, earnestly and diligently.”
If any parent refuses to take up their appointed work of properly correcting their children, then they reveal that they really do not love them, and are actually treating them like they are not their kids at all! And especially does this apply to fathers!
“...for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement...then are ye bastards, and not sons.” Hebrews 12:7-8.
Why are parents to be so earnest in correcting your children?
“...[After sin] God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Genesis 6:5.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9.
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” Mark 7:21-23.
Since each and every child born on this earth are born with a fallen and sinful nature, then they will be naturally inclined towards following wickedness and sin. In order to counter this natural inclination towards evil, God has you parents as a first line of defense! Your God-given duty is to be ever watchful, and whenever you see your children following their own sinful desires and will, then you are to quickly stop and prevent them from continuing to do so. In this way you are teaching them to deny their own will and to instead follow and obey your will, and ultimately God’s will. And depending on how strong your child’s will is, will depend on how much watchfulness, intervention and patient teaching you will have to provide them in order to teach them to deny their own will in order to follow yours and God’s will. And dear parents, at times this will seem just like a battle – with you on one side and your child on the other: and it really is – it is a battle of wills!
But there is someone who wants to make this battle even worse!
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”. 1 Peter 5:8.
The Greek word for “devour” is “katapino”, and it translates and means “ to entirely devour, drown, swallow” (Strong’s, word #2666). So in addition to this battle of wills between you and your children, Satan is eagerly watching for any opportunity to help your children on to become just as selfish, self-centered, proud and sinful as he is, in order that they can be more and more devoured and swallowed up in wickedness until they are completely drowned in unrighteousness and lost. If you as parents do not take up your God-given responsibility of raising your children properly in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and your children then naturally chooses to follow their own sinful will and ultimately the evil will of Satan and then become lost, what will you be able to say to God when He questions you about these little lambs He gave you to raise for Him?
“...where is the flock [children] that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee [for their lost condition]? for thou hast taught them to be captains [to rule over others, instead of ruling over their own selves], and as chief over thee [ruling over you instead of you as their parents ruling over them]: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail? And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.” Jeremiah 13:20-22.
So dear parents, if you do not live up to your solemn responsibilities to properly raise, train and educate the children God has given you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord so that they can be saved, then Satan will surely raise, train and educate them in sin so that they can be devoured! And if this occurs, and these beautiful lambs of God are lost, then what possible excuse can you give to God for your sinful neglect of your parental responsibilities? No justifiable excuse at all will be found, because the real bare facts make very plain your great iniquity in this matter, and thus you yourself will be lost!
“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea....[and he will] be cast into everlasting fire.” Matthew 18:6, 8.
But this does not need to be your fate. God is waiting for you to recognize your mistakes and sinful neglect, and then humbly come to Him for pardon. And He promises to freely forgive you, and then to work right along with you in doing battle and warfare against the wicked inclinations and habits first in you and then in your children, so that His children under your care may be properly raised and trained by you to God’s glory!
“...with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles.” 2 Chronicles 32:8.
“But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle:...for God hath power to help, and to cast down.” 2 Chronicles 25:8.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6.
“Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13.
As long as your children are still at home under your authority, then dear parents it is not yet too late to redeem the time and begin anew in the strength and grace of God to lovingly correct, reprove, warn, instruct, restrain, check and discipline these lambs earnestly and diligently in all the ways of God!
5) There is another reason why God specifically gives one or more children to parents to raise and train for Him.
“Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.” 1 Timothy 2:11-15.
Is this verse teaching that only women who give birth to children can be saved? Obviously not, because all people, including women, are “by grace...saved through faith” in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8). But yet this verse does indicate that something connected with childbearing does indeed involve a woman’s salvation. So then what does this verse mean when it states that “she shall be saved in childbearing”?
The Greek word for “childbearing” is “teknogonia”, and it translates and means “parentage, the performance of maternal duties, childbearing” (Strong’s, word #5042). So this verse is not just dealing with a woman becoming pregnant and delivering a child, but is dealing with her maternal and parental duties after the child is born! In other words, God is saying in this verse that the woman’s salvation is not connected with the time frame of 9 months being pregnant, or with the time frame of many hours of delivery, but is instead connected with the time frame of being a mother to her children, which is for the rest of her child’s life! This means that just by the mother taking up her maternal and parental duties in caring for, raising and training her children to the glory of God, then this will be the very means of saving her own soul, because she will have to be daily converted to God herself before she can properly train and educate her children in the faith of God!
I hope you can see the bigger picture regarding one of the reasons why God allows children to be born into a marriage. It is for the purpose of saving both the husband and wife through the process of themselves needing to be daily converted to the faith in order to properly raise, train and educate these precious lambs to the glory of God, and thus they both, along with their children, will indeed be saved “if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.”
Having children that you can properly care for is actually a great blessing from God. This is because God sees that it will be the means of helping you as parents “to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) through raising these children for Him.
But if God has not allowed children to be born to you, then there is no need to fret or complain or feel that you are a failure and are lost because you do not have children. This is because God sees that you do not need children in order to help you to become saved. And this then means that your salvation can be so much more easily obtained through Him without you having to go through all the extra headaches and trials that come with raising and training children.
So dear husbands and wives, whether you have children, or do not have children, in both these cases you have cause for great rejoicing! Through God you both can “work out your own salvation” by daily remaining steadfast and unmovable in the faith as it is in Jesus.
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:57-58.
“...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Philippians 4:11.
“In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18.
So by the father and the mother choosing to follow God’s will in all these matters, you would be expressing and manifesting the true self-denying and self-sacrificing type of this emotion of love. This would show that you are cleansing yourselves from the wrong Satanic kind of this emotion, and thus revealing that God is truly dwelling in you and not Lucifer. But by knowingly choosing not to follow God’s will in these matters, then you would be expressing and manifesting the false self-pleasing and selfish type of this emotion of love dealing with your children. This would show that you are making yourselves more filthy, and thus reveal that Lucifer is truly dwelling in you and not God.