The Shepherd Press Blog

Sin - Empty Promise, Bitter Fruit

      When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also  desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Genesis 3:6
     So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. Ephesians 4:17-19

Dan raised an interesting question in his comment about the posts on lying. He asked, “How do we understand the "lies of sin," and how do we help our children see they have been lied to?” Dan, thank you for this insightful question. I want to take at least two posts to answer this.

We are all familiar with Adam and Eve and the Fall. What drove Eve to taste the fruit is the same temptation that drives your children to see sin as a good option. As Dan states, sin at its core is deceptive.

This deception takes at least two forms.

The first is that a particular sin will be satisfying and will do no harm. Sin, however, is never satisfying, as Ephesians 4 teaches. And as Eve painfully realized, sin does great harm.

The second form is that we believe that sin offers a shortcut to getting what we want. Translated, this means that we think we know better than God what is good for us.

Your child’s struggles with sin are tightly connected to these two points. And—as I am sure that many of you are also concluding—so are your own sins. Give this some thought. Think about the biblical narratives and find some examples of the deceptiveness of sin. We will delve more deeply into this topic in the next post. Dan, thanks again!

Why?

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these… Galatians 5:19-21

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3

Let’s consider one basic question regarding the issue of protecting our children from the entrapment of the world: Why? As in Why do they want to sin? Why can’t they see that it is more blessed to give than to receive? Why can’t they see that they don’t always have to be first? Why can’t teenagers see that sexual sin is wrong, always wrong? Why can’t they see that parents must be obeyed? The answer, of course, should not really be a mystery.

Midlife: A Portrait

The next few posts are drawn from the penetrating insights of Paul David Tripp’s book Lost in the Middle. These insights intersect with the biblical perspectives taught in Tedd Tripp’s Shepherding a Child’s Heart. I can almost hear someone asking, “What does a book on midlife have to do with a book on childrearing?”  The connection is this: what rules those in midlife also rules children. That connection, of course, is the heart.

Proverbs 4:23 says:

Above all else, guard your heart,
       for it is the wellspring of life.

The heart determines the things that matter most to us. Our treasures in this world reflect the true longings of our hearts. This is true for everyone, including both the child and the midlife adult. In chapter 1 of Lost in the Middle Paul Tripp sketches a portrait of life. This sketch is helpful not only for those in midlife, but also for understanding the ruling desires of children. As we look at some of these dominant themes in midlife, also look at how these same themes are at work in your children. It is not difficult to project these ruling attitudes and desires into midlife. By identifying these themes in your children now you can begin to prepare your children to chart a safe course through the turbulent waters of midlife.