#540 (6/2) "Driving Parents to Church..."

REMINDER: The"Truth That Transforms" broadcast - (Cen. FL - Sun., 5 pm, ch. 55.1; Mon. 7 pm. ch. 52.2; www.truthinaction.org) this week discusses the importance of having a Biblical worldview. It also includes a special video about how the concept of truth is under siege in our society.”

URGENT PRAYERS/PETITIONS:Same -Sex "Marriage"- PLEASE PRAY WITH ME (every day untill the decision is revealed around mid-June) THAT THE SUPREME COURT WILL VOTE TO UPHOLD THE 2 LAWS REVIEWED SUPPORTING A TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.. PRAY that the Court will resist any pressure to MAKE new law based on "cultural trends." PRAY as though the very future of the institution of the family is at stake because it is. PRAY! -  for the sake of possibly millions of children, and for our country if it is to continue to be shown any more favor by our Heavenly Father, who I promise you will be very displeased if homosexual marriage is legalized; "GOD IS NOT [TO BE] MOCKED..." - (Gal. 6:7)  - Stan [Be sure to check out my brief essay at post #478.]

"Prayers from Prison: American Pastor Held in Iran Releases Letter," May 22, 2013; http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=1458"...Abedini has been held at the brutal prison for 238 days, enduring long stints in solitary confinement, and, according to his supporters, beatings and torture at the hands of his jailers and fellow inmates. For months, he has been suffering from serious injuries, including internal bleeding from beatings with no proper medical attention, according to his family and attorneys."(Sources: Fox News, Assemblies of God website) As the Lord leads, please PRAY: =1) For the imprisoned Pastor Abedini, and for those Iranians who tend to his needs in prison to treat him more humanely. 2) For his family in Boise, Idaho. and their efforts to involve the U.S. State Department in securing Pastor Abedini’s release. And 3) For the impact of his witness upon believers and non-believers, in America and across the world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Driving Parents to Church, Faith and Family Part 2,"by: Eric Metaxas|Breakpoint.org: May 30, 2013  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6120056083724277087#editor/target=post;postID=4813792682724734321;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link

Have you ever noticed that some folks start going back to church after the birth of their first child? There’s a reason for that...

Yesterday, I introduced you to Mary Eberstadt’s important new book, “How the West Really Lost God.” Her hypothesis is that while the decline of Christianity has contributed to the weakness of the traditional family, the opposite is also true.In other words, the family that stays together is more likely to pray together.

Eberstadt’s principal metaphor for the relationship between faith and family formation is the double helix of the DNA. In western societies, faith and family are like “two spirals that when linked to one another can effectively reproduce, but whose strength and momentum depend on one another.” When one is in decline or ascendance, so is the other.

What’s important to understand is that causality runs in both directions: religious observance promotes strong families and strong families produce religious observance.The evidence for the latter, counter-intuitive, part of that equation lies in the historical data. Measures of birth rates, average age of first marriage, and marriage rates in general didn’t trail indicators of religiosity, such as church attendance. Instead, declines in the “family factor” occurred simultaneously with declines in religiosity and, in some instances, even preceded them. For instance, “the dramatic decline of the family in eighteenth-century France,” which was unique in 18^th century Europe, coincided with a similar decline in French Christianity.
The story repeated itself with minor variations throughout Europe.

What Eberstadt writes about Britain—“British families are less religious today because they are also less familial”—is also true for the “advanced nations of the West,” including the United States. Here, the decline in religious affiliation has coincided with a decline in marriage and child-rearing. We are less likely to marry, marry later when we do, and have fewer children.This trend has been nearly fifty years in the making. And it probably has a lot to do with the rise of the so-called “nones”—those who claim no religious affiliation.Which still leaves us with the question “Why are families and faith so intricately linked?”

Eberstadt suggests several ways that “experience of the natural family might incline some people toward religious belief.” One is that the birth of a child gives parents the sense “that they are witnessing something that only a Creator could have made” and this awakens their sense of transcendence.This sense of transcendence is why people often go back to church after the birth of a child. Not only do parents drive kids to church, kids drive their parents to church, as well.

Another is that “the Christian story itself is a story told through the prism of the family. Take away the prism, and the story makes less sense.” The most obvious example is that, in Christianity, God is “our Father.” Eberstadt quotes a book on the children of divorce in which a child is asked to imagine God as a loving parent. All he could say is “I’m drawing a blank.” Then there are Christian teachings on family and sexuality. People for whom divorce, cohabitation and, increasingly, same-sex marriage are normative are likely to reject Christian teachings on these subjects.

As Eberstadt puts it, “family illiteracy breeds religious illiteracy.”All of this is to show that the battle for the traditional family has enormous implications for the Church. I urge you to read Eberstadt’s book—which we have for you at our online book store at BreakPoint.org.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]
"How the West Really Lost God' Part 1- So Long, Family, So Long, Faith?" - by Eric Metaxas; |Breakpoint.com; May 29, 2013  http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/22360