God Has No Grandchildren

I've often wondered why one child grows up in a very toxic, dysfunctional family environment and becomes a highly sane, balanced, fruitful, godly adult, while another child grows up in a very wholesome, loving, healthy family and grows up to be a very unstable, unbalanced, addicted, crisis-prone adult. In fact, how is it possible for two children to grow up in the same godly family receiving the same nurturing, loving, consistent parenting, and then develop into radically different adults, one finding a life of fruitfulness and fulfillment, the other a life of frsutration and failure? The obvious answer is that each person is a unique individual who goes through life making unique choices, all of which have profound consequences. But from the perspective of godly parents committed to providing the very best opportunity for their children to be all they can be and do all they can do under God, what are other important factors that need to be taken into consideration? And what are the general implications for our children and young people in our local congregations? Here are a couple of ideas (and observations):

It's All Grace! No one is able to connect heart-to-heart with God apart from God's grace. No human being can initiate their own salvation; faith is always our human response to God's initiative in our lives. (And even faith is a gift.) No amount of consistent parenting or pastoring can replace the need for God's grace in a person's life. I know a young man who as a child was a real rascal. He was always misbehaving, angry, disobedient, moody. And then at age 12 he had a personal encounter with Jesus who personally took him through a healing experience - and it transformed his life. Apart from God's grace working in his experience there's no telling where he might be today.

The condition of the human heart must be prepared to receive God's grace. The human heart is the place where we connect personally with God. All of us find our hearts changing from time to time - growing hard, becoming corrupted, getting soft - due to a variety of factors. It brings to mind the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23). The focus of this parable is not on the sower or on the seed but rather on the condition of the soil receiving the seed. In every case, the sower is Jesus and the seed is his word. However, not every soil is ready to receive the seed. The soil is simply an image of the human heart. Some soil is hard - the seed simply sits on the surface until a bird comes and eats it. Some soil is shallow, ready to receive the seed but not deep enough for a root structure to develop. Some soil has so many thorn bushes already growing in it, the roots already present choke out the seed. But some soil is soft and moist (good), ready not only to receive the seed but also put roots down and ultimately bear good fruit. The good news is that God can provide a life-plow that may come along and turn the soil over, giving it a fresh start.

Every person needs their own encounter with God. Faith is not just believing the right things about God. Those who grow up in the church can fall in love with the idea of God and never actually fall in love with God. Faith is personal, relational, and experiential. Everyone needs to "see" God for themselves. I had a great love for Jesus as a child and grew up in a wonderful Christian home. And yet as a young adult I realized my faith needed something more. As a university student I grew desperate - not for more answers to more questions, but to really know God for myself. One night I grabbed a blanket and went into a small chapel in our dorm and told the Lord I was not going to leave until he met with me. I was not testing God - I really wanted to know. The Lord met me that night, and my life has never been the same.

It's possible to grow up in a godly home, to spend every weekend in Sunday School and church, to keep most of the rules, but never really have a personal connection with God. The good seed of the word can fall on a heart week after week but it never take root and never bear fruit. More than a religious commitment is needed.

In 1980 we had the privilege of hosting David duPlessis in our home in Springfield, Missouri. "Uncle David" was an important figure in the charismatic renewal and he had come to Springfield to restore his relationship with the Assemblies of God. One of the many things he shared has stuck with me: "God has no grandchildren." God only has children. Every church runs the risk of lasting only one generation, because every generation needs its own revival - its own encounter with God. So you see, this spiritual reality applies to more than individual lives - it applies to local congregations and even to generations. While we need to continue doing our best parenting, training and pastoring, ultimately the most profound thing we can do is to faithfully and persistently intercede - for God to open the eyes of those he has placed in our lives and to visit them in a personal way. Indeed, our prayer is for God to visit a new generation of young people who need to see his glory and to put all their hope, trust and confidence in Jesus - to fall in love with Jesus in a profoundly personal, transformational way!