Short Devotional from Ron Auch
Holiness requires a presence and holiness has to do with moral blamelessness and purity. As I was praying over this message and asking God for his thoughts the Lord spoke to me about the child. He impressed upon me how His presence can be seen in a child.
When we talk about moral purity we are talking about both God and children. Both are morally pure and blameless.
If the presence of God is not strong in your life you are completely comfortable with taking Him into some of the most ungodly places there are. The way you can see your error in this is with your children. Isn’t it interesting to think about how careless we are about the presence of God and taking him wherever we go and yet we would never think of taking our children to those same places.
Mark 9:42 “And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.
Based on verses like this, most Christian parents would never think of purposely staining their children with corruption, cursing, and violence, yet we tend to think that God doesn’t mind when we take him along with us in all that we do.
Do you see the hypocrisy in that? If I have anything in my life that I do not want my children to see then I am being a hypocrite. I am saying that I feel indifferent about two opposing things. I am saying I believe in holiness while I have unholy things in my life. If it’s not good enough for your children it’s unholy.
Do you want to know the simple rule of thumb we live by in our family? If we rent a movie it’s something everyone one of us can sit down and watch at the same time – without any embarrassment, apology, or altering. If the presence of your children causes you to act and live differently than when you are away from them then there is a problem in your life. Why are we more protective of our children than we are of our God? We do many things we would never take our children to and yet at the very same time – we take God with us.
