Volume 21 Number 5
July/August 2005
Tamuz/Av, 5765

Keeping Focused To Bless Our Kids

By Michael Stinton
Kehilat Ariel Education Director
 

Getting started can be the most difficult thing for us to do. Unless an artist has a vision of what to paint can sit all day and never do a stroke. A writer can sit in front of a computer all day and never type a word of value. But once the vision comes, look out! He’s off and running. In Proverbs 29:18 it says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keeps the Torah is happy.” Also in Hosea 4:6 it says, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge”. Many of us want to do G-d’s will but don’t know where to start.

First we need to pray. How can G-d direct us if we’re not listening? Prayer is not what you can request, like a child sitting on Santa’s lap, but it’s more about listening! People say, “Oh yeah, I talk to G-d all the time.” That’s great but maybe the more important question is how much are we listening to him?” Yeshua said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Yochanan/John 10:27). So to get started you must pray and be open to our L-rd.

Second we need to read G-d’s Word; His love letter to us. I remember as a teenager I was madly in love with a girl and each day we passed love letters to each other at lunch. We wanted to know each other. We say that we love G-d and want to follow him but we don’t read his love letters nearly enough. Before I read, I ask G-d to help me learn from those who have gone before us; to learn from their victories and their defeats, to learn from their mistakes so their mistakes are not in vain. I ask him to help me learn one thing about him and one thing about myself. This is how we can feed our spirit. We need to be strong for the work that he has for each of us. The strength isn’t in what you know, it’s who you know. Strength isn’t in what you can do, it’s in what you will let him do through you. Yochanan/John 15:5 says, “I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same bear much fruit: for apart from me you can do nothing.” That means when we try to serve him in our own strength, in his eyes, we don’t even look convincingly good. Our Father desires to know each of us and is always listening and always wanting to reveal himself to us. But we must take a step of faith. A classic case is found in Joshua 3:11-17. This is an exciting story about Israel taking a step of faith (literally)as they are exhorted by HaShem to step into the waters of the Jordan before it will part. If they had said, “part the water first then we’ll go”, we might still be waiting today! Are you waiting for G-d to do something, or is he waiting for you?

Jeannie and I were overseas on one of our International Outreaches in which we did 91 programs in 26 days sharing the Good News of Messiah with over 100,000 people. In the middle of our work we were praying for G-d’s direction when we returned home and soon after we received an Email of the KA Board minutes. I had already shared a vision with Jeannie about the KA youth and children and here the minutes addressed the possibility of us taking over the KA Education Department. Our response was, “Oh, boy!”, then laughter, then “what are we going to do? Do we have what it takes?” Of course, we soon came to our senses because G-d never asks us to do something he can’t do, we just need to obey. By the time we arrived back in the USA, we were tired but on fire. I had visions of “Kid’s Under Construction” for the kids, “The Tidal Wave” for Junior High and “The Up Rising” for the High School. We knew G-d was at work; the question was would we take that step of faith? G-d had given me a Scripture from I Peter 5:2-3 about what he wanted from us, “Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of G-d; not for filthy gain, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.”

Our KA children and youth are a precious flock and G-d has given me and Jeannie a love for this flock that is incredible. He has given us wisdom and ability to care for them. As a congregation we all need to take part in this vision. It is reported that the next generation of Believers will only number 4% of the population; today it is 30%. We need to get serious about our children and youth because their world will crush them if we don’t guide them wisely. If Yeshua took time to bless and care for them, how can we not do likewise? May we adults be a model of what it means to be a true follower of Yeshua. Let’s “Be doers of the Word and not hearers only.” (Yaakov/James 1:22) Maybe it’s time to take a fresh step of faith and walk with G-d!