Posts by rickmease:
- Always resolve issues from a biblical perspective. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for your hope that you have.” 1 Peter 3:15B
- You spend time in prayer. “Be joyful always, pray continually, giving thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.
- Men love your wives like Christ loved the church. Ladies show respect to your husbands. “Nevertheless, let each individual among you also love your wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:33.
- You respond with love instead of anger. “This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20.
- You are a true servant of God. This means you look for opportunities to serve others. “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” 1 Corinthians 4:1.
- You share your faith. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20.
- You are committed to a body of believers and are faithful in your attendance. You make church a priority. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another.” Hebrews 10:25.
Raising Real Men for God
March 7th, 2012
Author: Rick Mease
My wife and I recently traveled to Bakersfield to visit her sister Joan, who is in the midst of dealing with a serious form of cancer. Our youngest son, his wife Tamara, and their four children also made the four day trip. Needless to say, the children are our adorable grandchildren. While there, I was blessed to watch Tamara spend time teaching the kids their memory verse for the week. Alyssa is seven, Caedman is four, Olivia is just shy of her second birthday, and then there is Liam who is just over two months old. It made me so proud to see all of them engaged in learning God’s word as a family. But the dynamics of the group was so interesting. Alyssa was still, proper, and excited to please and learn, Caedman seemed more interested in getting the M&M that was to follow the successful completion of his reciting the verse properly. He rolled around on the floor and was somewhat disengaged. Even Olivia was able to repeat the verse, with much help from mom of course, but she seemed pleased to recite the verse for her mother. Later Tamara and I had an opportunity to discuss how different each personality was. She was raised around mostly girls and to her admission she had a hard time relating to how boys generally acted.
We discussed how important it is to have insight on how little boys think so we can guide them to manhood properly. Our society and culture has tried to emasculate our boys through redefining the roles that God has set forth in His word. Unisex clothing and other attempts to strip our men from their masculinity is a very serious issue we must face. We need confident, strong, and godly young men and women that know and understand their proper roles as they mature to Godly people that God can use for His kingdom. Caedman is a very creative-minded little guy, very inquisitive, and loves to roam and explore everything in his sight. He is the type of kid who will come into the house with mud all over his clothes and rocks in his pockets, looking for approval for his accomplishments, thinking this is normal and okay with mom. Which, by the way, is somewhat true. Well, maybe not the part of being
ok with mom. Although he can be frustrating at times, he is just being a boy just how God usually makes them. Tamara has taken on the task of understanding him better and searching why boys are boys. To this I give her a resounding, bravo. She cares enough for Caedman to spend the time to understand how his little mind works. This is true love and care. She has uncovered a great treasure trove of information that has helped her greatly. She recommended a book called Raising Real Men. Though I have not personally read it yet, I feel she is a good source of resources to help other families with child rearing. So maybe you should check it out, if you too are struggling to understand that little boy in your life. John Rosemond, the author of Parenting By the Book is quoted in this book and he said, “This book is designed to help parents raise capable Christian men of character.”
Who are the ones who dash from their car wade through water or fire to help an overturned car with people trapped inside? Who are the ones who fearlessly go to war to protect all of us, and who are the ones who get up at three in the morning to see what the noise is outside? They are the little boys that have become real men. Not to say some girls are not able of doing the same things. So let us help these little guys achieve great things with our guidance and most importantly with God’s help. They can grow into young men of principles and courage. So being a little boy can be difficult at times but just consider for a moment that if guided properly and allowed to be boys, they will most likely become men that we will all be proud of. Remember what Proverbs 23:24 says, ”The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice, he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.” Raising a wise Godly son or daughter will bring you great blessings. It is well worth the time to try to understand your children and how God designed them for His glory.
Next Week’s Author: Jennifer Patchin
What is your purpose and goals for your family and children?
October 26th, 2011
Author: Rick Mease It has been well documented that many young adults feel disconnected from their church body. This often happens when they have no defined purpose within the church. They were never encouraged to be a part of the ministry at their church or they were always age segregated from the church body. They attend youth and when they are no longer of age to attend young meetings or activities, they find themselves in a vacuum with no real purpose to remain a part of their church. Hopefully, we as parents are constantly looking for ways to deepen our families’ personal relationship with God and to show our children that they play a vital role in their church. We need to find ways to help them feel part of the church. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and God’s divine, inspired Word we can do glorious things for God. Combined with scripture, we must determine how we can accomplish these goals in a practical way. Here are just a few ideas that we can all work on when it comes to our family:
Teach them to love the Word of God. You do this by loving it yourself. You refer to it naturally as you memorize, quote, and encourage your children with it. If your church does not have a Family Ministry that incorporates the whole family in learning God’s word together, encourage your leadership to develop ways to connect your outgoing youth. “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15.
Teach them to love God. You can do this by spending time with your children in prayer, Bible study, and modeling to them obedience to God. If this is not important to you, then your children may not make it a priority in their lives. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
Teach them they were created by God and for Him. Teach them that He loved them so much that He gave His life for them and that He created them for a special purpose. “For in Him, all things were created.” Colossians 1:16
Teach them to honor and glorify God. Teach them to do beyond what God expects from them. Give them service opportunities by finding ways to reach out to those in need. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31
Teach them to love others as yourself. Teach them to put others before themselves through the scriptures and by your example. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility, values others above yourselves.” Philippians 2:3
If we endeavor to be a reflection of Jesus everyday it will become much easier for our children to experience a genuine faith. Remember, that you as parents have the greatest influence over your children, even more than their peers do.
Next Week’s Author: Jennifer Patchin
Elements of a Godly faith
June 23rd, 2011My wife Janet and I have been teaching a parenting class to help parent’s disciple their children. We were excited to see that
many parents are very concerned about their children’s spiritual lives. Many have been willing to learn as much as they can to fulfill God’s mandate that has been given to each of us parents and grandparents. Parenting is not easy and discipling our children is a very complex issue that hopefully we will all engage and make a priority in our lives. Learning new and innovating ideas always helps, but the bottom line always comes back to the inspired word of God. There are many fine resources available, as we have suggested many to parents, but we can be assured that God is the one who can and will direct us if we take the time to seek His direction through His word. One lesson we taught was about the “Elements of a Godly Faith” and it was very important for parents to understand that their spiritual lives will always affect their children’s view of God. Please read carefully each element along with the corresponding verse.
If you truly have these elements in your lives, you will be more successful in your parenting and the discipling of your precious children. Remember, “Man plans his footsteps but God directs his path.” Proverbs 16:9.
Next Week’s Author: Jennifer Patchin
Teachable Moments
March 2nd, 2011
Author: Rick Mease
Rick grew up in the small town of Wasco, California in the Central Valley. He met his wife, Janet, in 1969 and the two were married in 1972. They have three children and five wonderful grandchildren that they adore. Rick was blessed with retirement nearly two years ago after years of shift work at a refinery in Martinez, California. Since retirement, God has given Rick and Janet a heart for shepherding parents who want to disciple their children to love, honor, and serve God and have started a small group ministry to do so.
As adults, God uses trials and tribulations to sharpen us and teach us what an awesome God He is. We find ourselves, in what many call, “teachable moments.” Many times God also uses great success to teach us how to be gracious and thankful for all He does for us. As parents we too have opportunities to use “teachable moments” to reveal to our children about our wonderful Savior. When our children are disobedient, we can use God’s Word to reprove them and when they are kind and faithful, we can show them the blessing of obedience. Both times are teachable moments. If used correctly, they can be used to encourage our children, not exasperate them as Ephesians 6:4 warns.
As parents, Janet and I, decided to share with our children everything that we felt was appropriate to teach them about God even when we were struggling with something difficult. We wanted to use the teachable moments so our children could know if they could trust God or not. Of course great discretion is needed not to burden them with unnecessary worry.
There are two memorable moments in our life that turned out to be teachable moments from an unexpected source, once from one of our children and once from our Granddaughter Alyssa. We decided to move to Benicia from our home town of Bakersfield in 1984 after being unemployed for six months. It seemed that God was closing every door we tried to open there. We as a family prayed for what God want for us. We shared with our two sons that we were going to follow God’s direction no matter where it took us. It was a very difficult decision that would also affect our sons, so we were careful to keep them in the loop as we searched for what God was doing in our life. After bathing our decision in prayer and getting wise counseling from our pastor, we knew that God was directing us to leave all the worldly securities that we enjoyed in Bakersfield. The day before I was to report to work, we were sitting in a restaurant and Janet and I were reassuring ourselves that this was the right decision. It was going to be a new chapter in our life. Daniel, our oldest son at eight years old, in his childlike understanding, looked up at me and said, “Dad, this is kind of like when Jesus went to the cross.” “He didn’t want to go but He knew His father wanted Him to.” In Luke 22:42, Jesus said, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Daniel went on to say it is better to obey God’s will than to do what we wanted to do. We as a family really did not want to move, but we were willing to do what God wanted us to do. The whole time we struggled with our decision to move was immediately confirmed. Our son had a teachable moment that taught him a valuable life lesson. If we had not shared with him what was going on, he may have never learned this lesson so profoundly.
We had our granddaughter Alyssa and our grandson Caedman with us for a few days recently. While here, our grandson made a comment about what happens to people who do not know Jesus. He is only three years old so I joking ask my son what he was teaching my grandchildren. My son Jeremy said that Caedman had overheard a conversation he had had with Alyssa, concerning salvation and the consequences of not knowing Jesus. My son said that he is careful not to use the “H” word, so Alyssa does not tell her friends about Hell and get him in trouble. She was busy putting stickers on a piece of paper so we did not realize she was listening. She looked up and said,” Dad, if we don’t tell them, they will not know.” Alas, a teachable moment for us adults.
Next Week’s Author: Jeanine Cook
Intentional Parenting
October 27th, 2010
Author: Rick Mease
Rick grew up in the small town of Wasco, California in the Central Valley. He met his wife, Janet, in 1969 and the two were married in 1972. They have three children and five wonderful grandchildren that they adore. Rick was blessed with retirement nearly two years ago after years of shift work at a refinery in Martinez, California. Since retirement, God has given Rick and Janet a heart for shepherding parents who want to disciple their children to love, honor, and serve God and have started a small group ministry to do so.
It is amazing how much time we commit to planning every aspect of our lives. We plan, save, and dream of that perfect vacation. We plan and save for our retirement and our children’s education, but how much time, money, and effort do we invest in our children’s spiritual lives? We can be intentional or unintentional in this important mandate that God has given us. Do we respond as Proverbs 16:9 states, “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his way” or do we just hope our children will get it and serve and love our Lord. I hope all of you as parents discuss this important issue. Are you intentional with a God-led plan or are you unintentional with no clear path to lead your children to spiritual maturity?
When we stand before God one day, we will be held accountable for the assignments God gave us. One of the assignments was what did we do to teach our children about God and His Word. Did we complete it as God directed or not? Will He say, nice job at providing material needs for your children, nice job at teaching them sports, and even nice job providing for their education or will He say we missed the most important assignment, winning your children’s heart for God. Did you realize that numerous polls have been held to determine how many young people are walking away from their faith by the time they are in their late teens to early twenties. The results show that about 80% of young people are walking away from the church and their faith. This must be considered a crisis if this trend is to be reversed. Churches and parents must partner together to find the causes and address them before we lose a complete generation of young believers. There is hope because we know the One who gives hope, our Gracious Loving Father in heaven.
Here are a few questions I would also like for you to discuss as a family.
1. When it comes to your children, what do you spend most of your time and resources on: Sports, education, television, game systems, or spiritual development?
2. What would you like to be able to say about your children when they are thirty?
3. What would grieve you to have to say about your children when they are thirty?
4. What does Deuteronomy 6: 6-9 tell you concerning the father’s mandate to his children?
We are in trying times and our enemy, the devil, is working overtime to steal our children’s hearts away from God. Let us all endeavor to be intentional with our plan to capture our children’s hearts for Jesus. We must look for teachable moments with our children to share with them God’s powerful word.
Psalms 25:4 “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.”
Psalms 119: 136, “Direct my steps by Your Word.”
Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Next Week’s Author: Jennifer Patchin
