Read: Amos 1:1-3:15, Revelation 2:1-17, Psalm 129:1-8, Proverbs 29:19-20
But I have this complaint against you. You have lost your first love. Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. (Revelation 2:4-5)
Relate: I went to a Christian school from kindergarten up to seventh grade. One of the disadvantages of being a student at a Christian school was that they had the right to spank you. As cruel as that sounds, it wasn’t the spanking at school that was so bad. I knew that they would never hit me too hard. They just didn’t have the will to force on me the discipline I needed. What was hard about those spankings was that they were required to inform my parents first. What that meant was that when I got home, I would get a real spanking when I faced the wrath of the father.
All of my many spankings in those years were unjust and the first of many happened when I was in kindergarten. I hit my best friend in the head with a house. They didn’t even try to investigate the matter. They never even bothered to ask me why I did it. The fact was, what I was doing was bringing justice. My best friend had the audacity to try and kiss my wife. Yes, I said wife. Yes, it was kindergarten. We had a wedding ceremony. I made her a ring and she cut my hair. My best friend was jealous. So I brought the house down on him.
React: As time goes by we tend to complicate things. As we mature and become more intelligent things should get easier (I don’t even have any more hair to cut) but instead we over think and over analyze and generally make a mess of it all. Coming to Christ should be simple. Do I still love Him as much as I did as a young child? Why not? Do I have the same simple faith that I did back then? Why not? Do I still believe in miracles? Am I still amazed by His love?
Like the church in Ephesus I can say I have worked hard in my walk with Christ. I have been faithful. I have pursued holiness. I have held tightly to sound doctrine. I have not quit. But where is my love? Where is the love of a kid staying up all night trying to read his way through Leviticus? Where is that kid, when he found out one of the guys on his baseball team didn’t believe in God asked, “why not, are you crazy?” Then he pestered him (and daily prayed for him) until the poor teammate relented and said the sinners prayer. What will it take to get me back to a childlike faith? What will it take to bring back a simple love that nothing, not even a spanking can interfere with?
Respond:
God, I love You. Help me to love You more. Help me to love You like I did as a child.
THE RIVER WALK 
Amazing….makes me want to run to Him again 🙂
Reblogged this on Janny Revealed.
All you have to do is to trust. I can understood you, I’ve never gone to Religious school but since my childhood I went to the church and did all the rituals. I believed in god, I believe today, but there’s a strange thing about me: as I grow up things change and love of the god has changed in other things. I don’t like the way I live now and even I am lazy to pray sometimes. I like your article. Today you convinced me that love of the god is the main thing, and it will never be change into other things. Bless god. Wish you to take back your faith and I believe you will.
I can so relate to this. For me, I allowed ‘worldly stuff’ to interfere with my love and excitement I once had for the Lord. My husband and I were in the ministry for over 14 years, and experienced spiritual burnout. We stepped out of the ministry and began attending a church w/o any responsibilities so that we could get our cup filled again. With the way the world is geared towards social media nowadays, I was really into Facebook and Instagram. Although I used FB to share my faith with others, I found myself becoming very critical and judgmental AND discouraged by a lot of what my ‘friends’ were saying, so I recently decided to completely shut it down. WHY spend time doing something that makes you feel so blah?!It’s been a little difficult, but NOW I realize how I was replacing time in God’s word with worldly things that are meaningless. Not to say it’s all bad, just that spending too much of our time with/on anything is NOT a good thing. You’ve experienced something good early on. I have no doubt that it will return. Sometimes it’s a matter of removing something else that’s taken it’s place. True joy and fulfillment comes from only one place. : )
Aw, cute. http://www.LukeBuchanan.com
Yay! Love! Piece out! (but what is the sinners prayer – doesn’t sound very loving?)
The sinner’s prayer is a prayer acknowledging that we are inadequate on our own. That we have sinned and that we are in need of forgiveness from God.
this video is so super duper darling. LOVE IT. She is adorable. I always tell my girl not to grow out of her child like wonder. Being a child of God is such a wonderful gift. I like this post.
Hebrews 12:8 came to mind while reading this post… discipline is part of the walk with God. At least with correction from the Lord, we can know it is out of love, and for our growth. Sometimes when we have wandered or become lukewarm, discipline can be the thing that brings us back. But if we are disciplined, we can rejoice also because it shows we are His children. Hope that makes sense! God bless.
It is Cute.
I gotta ask, do you think growing up in that environment and going to christian school made your life better or easier? I grew up in an atheist country with atheist parents, I was atheist myself for most of my life and a hopeless sinner, then I found Jesus (or He found me) and everything changed. Now I’m thinking about my son, I want to put him in christian school but sometimes I’m thinking that maybe it’s better to just let him go to secular school, grow up and learn on his own, let him find and choose Jesus without me pushing him that way too much. What do you think?
I think that it really depends on the child. For me I did Christian school through 7th grade and then switched to a public from there. I know parents who did the opposite or all one or the other. Whatever you do, though. Push him, pull, him, drag him, carry him to Jesus in every way, word, prayer, and action that you can. You don’t grow a beautiful garden by letting it find its own way, you tend it, weed it, prune it. Kids are raised with the same vigilance and care.
Of course I will teach him about Jesus and how to pray etc at home either way. He is only two years old now so there’s still time to decide, his day care is one of the few christian ones in Sweden but most of the kids there are not even from christian families, its just run by the church.
What I think about sometimes is if it will help him to go to christian school or if it will only push him away from God. I have a friend that grew up in a christian family and went to christian school and its like it made him hate christianity somehow. He is now 35 years old and atheist.
I don’t knooow.. I think he will go to christian school. He will definiitely be drilled at home anyway 🙂