"Shall we not ... be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?"
Hebrews 12:9
GETTING THE MESSAGE
Read It: 1 Samuel 2:27-35; 4:10-11 One of the Bible's inescapable principles is that when you walk away from the will and the Word of God, you walk toward death. Now I don't necessarily mean you are going to die and go to the grave. That's a possibility, but what I'm talking about is spiritual death. That is, the "Father of spirits" is responsible for spiritual life. When you walk away from Him, then you move toward the realm of spiritual death. One thing that can bring you closer to God or push you away is His discipline. Like a loving parent, He chastens His children. Now when that happens, we have two options. We can say, "I'm not serving You anymore." Or we can say, "I get the message." If we choose option one, God has some work to do. There comes a time when He has to say like a good Father, "If you don't want to abide by My rules, you cannot live in My house." That's the decision He had to make with Eli's sons, although it was even more harsh than that. They went too far, and God said it was time to get rid of them. Their deaths were prophesied, and that's exactly what happened. Unfortunately, they took Eli with them. His failure as a parent brought destruction to the whole family. Read 1 Samuel 4 and you'll see that this became much more than the saga of one family.
It became a case of national disaster for Israel, which shows how when sin enters a house, it can destroy everything. So what do we do as parents in light of this today? We enforce the truth in love; we discipline, we chasten. We do our best under God to be consistent, sistent, not like the mother who kept calling her son, and he kept ignoring her. His friend looked at him and said, "Your mother's calling you. Aren't you going home?" "Not yet." This mother trained her son to know she didn't mean for him to come in on the first "Come in." She meant, "I am starting a process that will lead to your coming in sometime in the future." Wrong message! Think About It The outcome of discipline is blessing. God does you a favor when He disciplines you. Return the favor with your kids.
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