Covenant Church

Laila and I had two children. Then in 1979 we adopted an infant. The pediatrician looked at us and said: “Throw all your books on raising babies away. Everything has changed.”

The era of raising children for pleasure had arrived. Children are not supposed to work. Moms and Dads run taxi service to school, clubs, sports, hobbies, doctors, dentists and parties. Family life rotates around children. Children first. Marriage second. Forget courtship of husband and wife. After marriage and children the next phase of life is about sacrifice of parents and pleasure of children.

Children go to summer camp. When they come home it would be nice to think they have learned about courtesy, manners, social relationships, and perhaps some survival skills. But summer camp is supposed to be about “fun.” The measure of success of a summer camp is whether children had a good time.

The pricetag of toys in the bedroom of many children is more than the cost of their great-grandfather’s home or farm. Hundreds/thousands of dollars for phones, TVs, CD’s, computers---not to mention closets full of brand name clothes.

We have lived the good life until Sunday is a trade-off for pleasure. We think God would not expect us to get out of bed and go to church---too much trouble when religion can be personalized to a TV program or a walk in the forest admiring nature.

Parents have unwillingly or unwittingly climbed on the wagon of materialism. While providing stuff for their children they have allowed TV and schools to become surrogate parents. Values for children are gathered from the tube (TV in old days) and strangers in classrooms.

Recently, I witnessed a mother in a convenience store panic because she could not find the COLOR of Nerds (candy) that her son had asked her to get. She was anxious about his reaction when she took home the wrong color of Nerds.

There is no mystery why our generation is treating Jesus and the cross so lightly. We have made God to be a sugar-daddy. We have cultivated a generation with values shaped around pleasure, while ignoring humility, honor, and reverence. Our public schools pass out birth control to 11 year-old boys and outlaw giving Bibles to students. Morality in the minds of liberals is optional, like choosing the color of a car or the brand of clothes.

Sin has been ruled out as a topic for home discussion or concept in discipline, repentance and need for divine help. Sin is politically intolerant language that suggests we do not own ourselves and the right to do as we please.

We struggle for meeting ground between personal pleasure and denying self, taking up our cross, and following Jesus. We whisper Christian words while living existentially, e.g., “I exist, therefore, I am.” Latest surveys indicate only about 20% of Americans regularly attend church. Athiesm is growing. Witchcraft is growing. The United Nations is considering giving Mother Earth human status with equal rights.

If we were doing better as a society there might be reason for logic. But there is no logic. Our sins weigh heavy upon us. Our world is rocking. Our problems and disasters are bigger than our budgets. Only one in four teenagers believes the future will be better than it has been for parents. Now is the urgent. Pleasure is the immediate.

Christ knew our condition. He came to rescue us from ourselves. He knew that man left to sin self destructs. He knew that our nature pulls us away from God. Therefore, Christ bore our sins to the cross. He, as the Lamb of God (John 1), shed his blood for our sins.

Oh, for the joy of salvation! All we like sheep have gone astray (Isaiah 53), but Christ loved us enough to come looking for us. He is the Great Shepherd who gave His life to redeem us.

How I pray that this week may be a week for families, homes, marriages, and individuals to come to the Cross that they may realize the victory of the empty Tomb. Our Living Savior intercedes for us. We know that to hold on to our life is to lose it. To give our life for Christ is to gain life now and eternally. Carnal pleasure is not to be compared to the joy of salvation and hope of eternal life!

That you may know the Risen Savior is my heart’s desire. I look forward to seeing you Sunday. There will be three services: 8 AM; 9:30 AM; 11 AM. Spanish, Hindi, Burmese and Nepalese fellowships will meet at regular times later in the evening of Resurrection Sunday.

Much Love
Pastor Bare

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.