Christian Family Services Ministry

9-6-2019 – A Word to the Wise – What does a parent teach a child about self defense? What of living at peace with all men? What of not allowing yourself to be bullied? Young parents especially, and older ones as well face the dilemma because they must teach a child to prepare them for adulthood what is the right thing to teach.

The individual starts out totally defensiveness dependant on others for protection. So it is in the development of this attribute. The child must first learn to respect others, submissiveness, and obedience, gentleness, kindness, and patience. This is the beginning, the foundation. If the foundation is not correct then the building will not survive.

The child learns to be at peace with all men whatever the circumstance. Actually, they are compelled by dependence to learn peace at this stage. During this growing period they learn to take care and protect those younger and weaker. These skill are acquired as the care for siblings, and others they come in contact.

During this weak period they learn endurance in the face of adversity. They acquire a desire for survival skills and self-protection.

Jesus taught the importance of peace with all men, and placing the other person first, or self-sacrifice. This means acquiring the skill of not defending or justifying our behavior. It is clear cut we either think or act in a righteous manner, or we correct those qualities which do not meet the mark of good conduct.

Once these skill are ingrained in the child then comes the lessons and skills to defend and protect the helpless, weak and downtrodden. At every step character training is important one quality builds on another.

What do you teach assuming through exercise and training the others qualities are growing? First and foremost one must teach fearlessness in the face of the enemy. If the child has already been introduced to the Lord then he is taught to lean on the Lord for wisdom in dealing with such matters.

Thus the decision to stand and fight is backed up by a spirit of righteousness, reinforced by fearlessness in the face of overwhelming odds. If one decides to fight they must understanding that there is no backing down or running away or quitting.

Now we understand the reason for the development of the other character qualities. One exercises all of the other opinions to reconcile the disturbance because once he decides to stand then there can be no retreat.

The child must be prepared to mentally and emotionally deal with defeat with the understanding that one battle does not make a war.

Once the decisions is in place then tactics become all important. The goal is to strike fear in the heart of the enemy. Nothing less can be accepted. The enemy must fear you and your God.

However, you must observe the laws of the land, and accept the consequences of your behavior. Understand the law. Defense of one’s self is acceptable. Defense of another is acceptable. Defense of one’s family is an obligation. Even the apostle Paul defended himself and others. (Acts 16)

Serious injury to another person unless one or another’s life is in danger is not acceptable. Killing another person should not even be considered unless one is under authority and obligation to do so. Given the choice one never seeks to kill the key word here is given the choice.

One never chooses to go to those places given to disturbances, bars, bad neighborhoods’, risky friends, ect. One must not put oneself in the way physical danger, it is not living peaceably.

The individual starts out totally defensiveness dependent on others for protection. So it is in the development of this attribute. The child must first learn to respect others, submissiveness, and obedience, gentleness, kindness, and patience. This is the beginning, the foundation. If the foundation is not correct then the building will not survive.

8-31-2019 – A Word to the Wise – There are some passages which tend to trouble the reader. Look at the following example; (NIV) Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Is this passage saying a person is duty bound to give his material possessions to anyone who asks?

When a person realizes that Jesus is speaking in Hebrew to his audience and one back translates this verse into Hebrew one becomes aware of a meaning that tends to be missed with our English translations.

Understanding the language of the time frequently helps us interpret difficult passages. In this circumstance realizing the Hebrew language frequently uses different types of parallelism to express a point helps us acquire further insight into the meaning of the passage.

Add to this an understanding of the Hebrew translation further adds to a deeper understanding of what is being taught by Jesus.

Thus a type of Hebrew parallelism is being employed by Jesus. That is expressing the same thought twice using different terms.

The term ask of the first part of the sentence is a connected with borrow in the second.

In the Hebrew a distinction is made between borrowing an object which is to be returned and borrowing a grain and the like and thus the product amount is to be returned.

Jesus is using the term ask to mean borrow in the first sense and borrowing the second time in the second sense.