First Lutheran Church

FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH
303 6th Avenue in Havre, Montana

Join us for Worship at 8:30am & 11:00am with Coffee Hour at 9:30am

(Radio Broadcast at 11am on Sundays on 610AM KOJM)

JUDGES 2:1-5, 10-15

Disobedience and judgment show up again and again in Scripture as a regular pairing. Other frequent pairings are obedience and prosperity, and disobedience and poverty. Unlike the first pairing, the next two parings may be understood as generalizations. The book of Judges implies some other connections too, all of which share a common factor: unfaithfulness (along with idolatry, its synonym and symptom). Throughout this book, Israel’s unfaithfulness is accompanied by (1) rampant lawlessness, (2) lack of military success and (3) a repeated experience of being plundered. Another characteristic of the book of Judges is its almost singsong rhythm, its continuous cycling back and forth between faith/repentance and peace, and rebellion and strife (more pairings). When will God’s people get it?

Judges 2:10 points to a significant problem in post-Joshua Israel and it’s stewardship issue. Simply put, the memory of God’s mighty acts, as represented in the memorial stones of stewardship, was never passed down to the new generation, all of whom had also now passed on. The tragic result: already by this second generation, the people no longer know the Lord or the miraculous deeds he had accomplished for Israel.

In 1904 the country of Wales experienced a remarkable revival…Wales sent missionaries all over the world. One of those missionaries traveled to Argentina, where on the streets, he led a young boy to Christ. The boy’s name was Luis Palau. He has since become known as the “Billy Graham” of Latin America. Out of gratitude for this Welsh missionary, Palau traveled to Wales during the early 1970s to express his thankfulness to that nation for helping lead him to Christ. What he discovered was astonishing. Less than one half of one percent of the Welsh attended church. Divorce was at an all-time high, and the crime rate was escalating rapidly. Many churches had closed and been converted to bars, and rugby had replaced Christianity as the national religion. Each generation is responsible for passing on the faith to the next. In Wales, despite tremendous spiritual vitality, the impact of Christianity had all but disappeared in 70 years. Parents had failed to pass their faith on to their children.

Each generation is responsible for passing on to its children the gospel and the truths of Scripture, including God’s financial principles. That should start in the home long before Sunday school and confirmation. Studies show that quite often it is the mothers who bring their children to Sunday school and church. It is the mothers who teach Sunday school and they are the one’s involved with VBS. Sadly, it is the fathers who have the most influence on the faith life of a child. Thank you mothers!!! It would be nice to see fathers take a more active role (commitment) in the faith development of children, with things like daily devotions, daily family prayer, tithing and teaching children about tithing, participating in an adult Bible study, bringing the whole family to church, teaching Sunday school, helping out at youth activities, sharing what their faith means to them, reading Bible stories at home and by setting an example in serving and participating in the life of the church. How are we faring today?

See you in church,

Pastor Michael