Last month we saw that discipline, though often hard to bear, is the product of God’s fatherly concern for his children. In this second article, we consider the problems that arise if there is no discipline, and the benefits that accrue when there is. No discipline The writer to the Hebrews tells us: ‘If…
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'The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself brings his mother to shame' (Proverbs 29:15) Were your parents mean? Ours were. We had the meanest parents in the world! While other kids ate candy for breakfast, we had to have cereal, eggs and toast. When others had a coke and…
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There are few things more lovely than disciplined children who know genuine happiness. There is a feeling abroad that discipline spells gloom and is inconsistent with love. Some Christian parents, who believe the Bible on the Incarnation, the cross, the resurrection and the Second Coming, seem to find it difficult to believe the Bible…
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There are a multitude of ways of going wrong in the Christian life, but Eli’s way is particularly sad. Eli was an Old Testament priest who seems to have known God and bowed to his will. When Samuel informed him of God’s judgement upon his household, Eli responded with both grace and realism: ‘It…
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