Isaiah 38:19 The living, the living shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
Well Friends, after all that encouragement yesterday, (smile) ah hope all yuh praise Him today? And if yuh ain’t do it yet, go and do it NOW nuh, cause it never too late while it have breath in yuh body. Is when you exhale yuh last sigh, and doh set things right with Him, that is when crapaud smoke yuh pipe. Anyway, continuing from yesterday; ole Hezekiah lived a decent sorta life and the Lord rewarded him with fifteen more years and peace round about. In return, Hezekiah vowed to sing His praises: ‘The living, the living shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.’ Oh Friends, the last part of the statement is of the utmost importance; ‘the father to the children shall make known thy truth.’ We not only have to praise and worship God, but also faithfully teach our faith to our children. It’s perhaps our most important responsibility, one which we don’t seem to be doing too well, as so many of them have turned from the Lord to Beelzebub, valuing the material things of this world more than the spiritual intangibles. Oh my people, right from the very beginning, from the Passover, when the Lord bypassed the Israelite houses which were daubed with blood, He solemnly instructed: ‘And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.’ (Ex.12:24) And when they were come to the Promised Land, and kept the Passover, and the children asked why? ‘That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.’ (Ex.12:27) Yes Friends, children need to know their history, and why they do certain things, otherwise they won’t know from whence they came and whither they’re going. And that’s our job as parents, to impart that knowledge to them. Moses also cautioned the Israelites in the wilderness, re their experience at Mt. Horeb: ‘Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.’ (Deut.4:9) That’s when the Lord gave them the Ten Commandments. And later on, when Moses went through the Commandments with them, he again implored: ‘And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.’ (Deut.6:9) Oh people, how many of us follow those instructions eh? Obviously not enough, else so many of our children would not have forsaken the Lord for the enemy’s camp. In Psalm 78, Bruh David declares: ‘I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us: We will not hide them form their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.’ (Ps.78:2-4) And all God’s people said, Amen! Isn’t that a beautiful bit of writing Friends? Wouldn’t our children appreciate such stuff if we taught them that from young? That’s how we should operate my brethren; the faith should be faithfully passed by the parents from generation to generation and not be hidden from them. Yes people, we ought to be teaching the children to sing God’s praises and admire and revel and glory in His majesty and strength and His wonderful works from birth. Yes, from birth, for it will seep into their tender, pliable minds and they’ll understand. Don’t worry, the Lord’s still in control. He knows why He recommends that; cause if it’s the first thing they become acquainted with, it will be like their foundation stone. Why we seem to have done a relatively poor job in this respect, I don’t know, but our God is very adamant about the importance of teaching children, for He knows that’s the only way anything at all will achieve longevity. In Joel, He instructs the prophet, re the locust plague in Judah: ‘Hear this ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children, and their children another generation.’ (Joel 1:2-3) Friends, the ball is in our court now. Have we done a good job in passing the torch of faith to the next generation? I certainly hope so. However, if we haven’t, then let’s make a concerted effort, right NOW, in what little time’s left to us, to correct as much of our wrong as possible, for the children are the most important part of any society, and their adult values are formed on the basis of their childhood teachings and experience. Let’s see if we can get in some good last minute teaching nuh, to benefit those to come. Much LOVE!…oh…please teach the children…teach them…to pray…to praise…and to LOVE…
Well Friends, after all that encouragement yesterday, (smile) ah hope all yuh praise Him today? And if yuh ain’t do it yet, go and do it NOW nuh, cause it never too late while it have breath in yuh body. Is when you exhale yuh last sigh, and doh set things right with Him, that is when crapaud smoke yuh pipe. Anyway, continuing from yesterday; ole Hezekiah lived a decent sorta life and the Lord rewarded him with fifteen more years and peace round about. In return, Hezekiah vowed to sing His praises: ‘The living, the living shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.’ Oh Friends, the last part of the statement is of the utmost importance; ‘the father to the children shall make known thy truth.’ We not only have to praise and worship God, but also faithfully teach our faith to our children. It’s perhaps our most important responsibility, one which we don’t seem to be doing too well, as so many of them have turned from the Lord to Beelzebub, valuing the material things of this world more than the spiritual intangibles. Oh my people, right from the very beginning, from the Passover, when the Lord bypassed the Israelite houses which were daubed with blood, He solemnly instructed: ‘And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.’ (Ex.12:24) And when they were come to the Promised Land, and kept the Passover, and the children asked why? ‘That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.’ (Ex.12:27) Yes Friends, children need to know their history, and why they do certain things, otherwise they won’t know from whence they came and whither they’re going. And that’s our job as parents, to impart that knowledge to them. Moses also cautioned the Israelites in the wilderness, re their experience at Mt. Horeb: ‘Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.’ (Deut.4:9) That’s when the Lord gave them the Ten Commandments. And later on, when Moses went through the Commandments with them, he again implored: ‘And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.’ (Deut.6:9) Oh people, how many of us follow those instructions eh? Obviously not enough, else so many of our children would not have forsaken the Lord for the enemy’s camp. In Psalm 78, Bruh David declares: ‘I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us: We will not hide them form their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.’ (Ps.78:2-4) And all God’s people said, Amen! Isn’t that a beautiful bit of writing Friends? Wouldn’t our children appreciate such stuff if we taught them that from young? That’s how we should operate my brethren; the faith should be faithfully passed by the parents from generation to generation and not be hidden from them. Yes people, we ought to be teaching the children to sing God’s praises and admire and revel and glory in His majesty and strength and His wonderful works from birth. Yes, from birth, for it will seep into their tender, pliable minds and they’ll understand. Don’t worry, the Lord’s still in control. He knows why He recommends that; cause if it’s the first thing they become acquainted with, it will be like their foundation stone. Why we seem to have done a relatively poor job in this respect, I don’t know, but our God is very adamant about the importance of teaching children, for He knows that’s the only way anything at all will achieve longevity. In Joel, He instructs the prophet, re the locust plague in Judah: ‘Hear this ye old men, and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children, and their children another generation.’ (Joel 1:2-3) Friends, the ball is in our court now. Have we done a good job in passing the torch of faith to the next generation? I certainly hope so. However, if we haven’t, then let’s make a concerted effort, right NOW, in what little time’s left to us, to correct as much of our wrong as possible, for the children are the most important part of any society, and their adult values are formed on the basis of their childhood teachings and experience. Let’s see if we can get in some good last minute teaching nuh, to benefit those to come. Much LOVE!…oh…please teach the children…teach them…to pray…to praise…and to LOVE…
SCRIP-BITS 