From the Classroom Special: Caps and Gowns

“Then David said to Solomon his son, ‘Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.” David’s charge to Solomon to build the Temple, prior to his death. 1 Chronicles 28:20

This is the time of the year that I receive graduation announcements from students past and students present. It is an exciting time of the year, yet challenging! Let me explain. It is during this time of the year that I have to battle the seniors to keep their attention! Once the first week of May hits they see the finish line and are mentally checked out! It can be frustrating at times, yet the best times in class come in these last few weeks. In my senior Bible class, sometimes I have had to close my lesson book because a discussion pops up that deals with life, faith and their future. For many, in the midst of the excitement, reality begins to set in and the routine that they have become to know as norm ends with a dose of adulthood. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices as they begin to process the unknown. For some I have watched them grow from a distance throughout their elementary years, for others I have had them since their freshman year. And like every year, it’s the same for me…I have to say good bye to my kids. For some they will decide to follow their own heart and for others they will serve and grow in their relationship with God. It’s neat to bump into a student at church or receive a letter that gives me a glimp’s of their faithfulness to God. Yet there are those crossings that break my heart. The student who had to try everything and later is found in bondage to the very thing he/she thought was freedom. What even breaks my heart the most…the student who sat in my class and heard the truth of God’s love. They heard the facts that backed the claims God’s sovereignty and message of his love through the Scriptures. Yet through their “journey to find life” they have come to the conclusion, that he does not exist at all. That one hurts the most, yet it propels me to fight even harder!

For parents I know that this too is an exciting time for them. A new chapter begins as they see their child grow to become an adult. Yet a fearful time as they begin to let go of their baby. This will be my thirteenth class to say goodbye to. In that time I have come up with four things I believe a parent must do to prepare their student to face the world.

1. Know your worldview and pass it on!
Their worldview will be challenged! Check these little notes from students:

Hey Mr Limon,
Thought I would share with ya what happened yesterday. Me and my squad (4 others guys) were hanging out in my room and one of them saw my Bible. Turned into a 3 hour bash on their belief on the Bible and concept of a relationship with a suppose "God". None of them could accept the answers I gave them, allot having to do with living by faith. Just thought you might like hearing your class helped..even in the Airborne lol. –James

Mr. Limon,
So like back in my sophomore year you played a video for us about how there were things in evolution that they couldn't explain but could through creation. I was wondering what that video was. I'm taking an evolution class this semester and I think that'd be helpful info. –John

Mr. Limon,
I just went for a three mile run and when I was almost home some missionaries on bikes stopped me and started trying to witness to me. It was weird because I totally knew how to counter their arguments. I stumped them with the whole Trinity thing. It was kinda fun! –Robin

Mr. L,
I really took away so much from your Christian Life Skills class. Although I have yet to attend any college courses seeing as that I am not starting school till the spring, I have been able to identify worldviews within different media such as TV and music. One, which I noticed immediately was a song by the band Thrice. Their song "Circles" speaks about postmodernism and how there's no structure to it and that its built upon no foundation. –Cody

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8

Teach your children to have an answer for what they believe! Just this past year a student shared with me that their professor was teaching them transcendental meditation to be performed ten minutes before each class! Her response, she pulls out her Bible and reads. Another was called on by a professor in front of the class to explain why he thought abortion was wrong. He did so well, that it open the door for him to share his faith to other students after class! He even lead a person to salvation through Jesus Christ! Parents it is vital that your child knows their worldview! Here are four questions I teach my students and daughters to have an answer for. I call them the Four Basic Questions (4Bq’s). Answer and know these, and you will have a step in front of others and be able to identify what others believe. I also use these questions to help me have a better understanding of other worldviews and beliefs. They have come in handy!

How do you see the world created?
How do you see human beings?
How do you see life after death?
How do you determine right and wrong?

To learn more about the 4Bq’s, check out one of the first blogs, "Everyone has a Worldview" Prt2….
http://irrevocablecall.blogspot.com/2010/05/from-class-room-everyone-has-worldview_30.html

2. Attend a church where the Word of God is being preached!
To many pulpits are filled with group session messages that are spoken with the intention to pacify the body of believers, rather than equipping and training believers to be effective in the marketplace. Talking about sin has become politically incorrect and must be dealt delinquently in hopes to not hurt ones feelings. Attend a church where God is allowed to be God and his Word pierces the heart of man!

Paul challenged Timothy to be bold and build his foundation on God’s word. While Timothy was heading up the church in Ephesus, one of the main problems was a movement called Gnosticism. This was an early form of heresy that confronted the early church and continued throughout the second and third centuries. Its main teaching was that the spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. Thus, man’s body which is made of matter is therefore evil. God, who is spirit, is good. Salvation could not be achieved through Christ only but through special knowledge. Because of these ideas Paul knew that God’s Word held the answers to man’s questions. He knew where salvation came from. It was God’s Word that was used to build the believers, which lead Paul to write the following to Timothy.

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and 4:1-5

You can take this or leave this advice…but I believe a church of our culture should be doing these four. If not, get out and find one that is.

First, the Pastor should preach the word boldly, not watering it down. Not taking it out of context. Not being politically correct in hopes to fill the pew. Yet bringing God’s word to life in hopes to challenge others to dig into God’s word for themselves! Second, a church should disciple its members. It should train and equip its members to know and have an answer for what they believe.  Third, the church should challenge it’s members to impact the marketplace, because that is where church growth takes place. When the members share their life with others, they will see the life changing hope we have through Christ.
For the fourth, I do not in any way want to offend anyone. Please allow me to share a thought. It is alright to agree or disagree. This fourth one does not make or break a church, yet I believe it has an impact. A church that allows God to move as he wishes through the Holy Spirit will be a church that will send out those empowered to do great things! The Holy Spirit can do more things to fill the heart of man in five minutes than a preacher speaking for forty-five.

In the Old Testament book of Numbers, when Moses was complaining because the burden of leading all the people had become so weighty it was about to crush him, he pled for relief from God. God told him to gather seventy of the elders of Israel in order to take from the Spirit that was upon Moses and distribute it to the seventy so they could help him lead the people of Israel. That's exactly what the text said happened. God then gave this charismatic empowering, this special gift, to seventy other people, not just Moses, so that they could all participate in ministry. That was not regeneration or sanctification, it was an empowering for ministry given only to select individuals. Moses' prayer was, 'Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!' (Num.11:29). What Moses prayed for became a prophecy in the pen of the prophet Joel, who said that in the latter days that's exactly what would happen. And on the day of Pentecost it did happen. The apostle Peter said that it was about this that Joel was writing that now the Spirit to empower the church for ministry is given to everybody, not just to the leaders. – R.C. Sproul(http://www.therockofnea.com/Berean_2_Website/PDF_Books_&_Material/Holy_Spirit_&_Prayer_Material/The_Holy_Spirit_by_RC_Sproul.pdf)

I believe when you attend a church that incorporates these four areas, it will be a church that will come along side of you as a parent to equip your child in their walk with the Lord. I thank the Lord for my church and the impact the staff has had on my children. I also thank the teachers who have lived out their faith and spoken into the life of my children. Men and women who I can truly say are my partners in the equipping of my children’s faith in God. It makes a big difference!

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs. 22:6

3. Parents, live out your faith. Seeing is believing!

“You teach what you know and reproduce who you are.” - Dr. Jim Reeve

If there is a battle in my classroom, this has to be one of the biggest. I could talk about God’s favor. I can talk about God’s faithfulness. I can even bring up God’s changing power, but if it is not lived out at home, the seeds will fall on hard soil that will never grow deep into the rich soil of God’s mercy. Mom and dad, it starts with you! Read the words of David and accept the challenge of your greatest call…your child!

“We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.” Psalm 78:4-8

We have a responsibility as parents to show our children the greatness of God. In my career I have had so many parents drop their child off into my classroom in hopes that I speak life into them. Yet at home there is no peace or example. Every year I challenge my parents to understand that their child’s growth in the Lord is a team effort, not mine alone. There have been times that I have walked into my children’s room to say good night, and there they are reading God’s Word. Where did they learn to have a time with God? They heard it from the pulpit. They heard it in class. Yet they saw their mommy and daddy doing it. My prayer now is that God’s Word buries itself into their hearts so when they are old it will not depart from them.

4. Teach your child to talk with God!
Prayer is powerful! It moves the hand of God! It is important that our children hear us talking with God. Whether it be through prayer as a family. Prayer before a meal. Prayer before going to bed. Bringing a tough situation before the Lord as a family. Even pulling aside your child and say, “Let’s come before God with this.” When our children hear us talking with God it will lay a foundation that will give confidence to children to come before God with anything! As a child I remember walking into my grandfather Limon’s house and looking down the hallway, and there in his rocking chair he was reading the Bible and praying. There were times when you would hear your name pop up and you knew he was lifting you up before God. I will never forget that picture! Teach your child to approach God in the good and the bad, and you will make an impression on your child that will last a life time!

To all the graduates and parents out there…CONGRATUALTIONS! May this season bring you so many memories that last a life time. May God’s blessings and direction be with you as a new chapter begins in your life!

His call. His gift to you. Your purpose. Irrevocable.