Our Children in the World: Sharing Jesus Now and with the Future: A Systematic Approach to Bible Interpretation for Laypeople and Cultivation of a Christlike World-View

By Carol Lynn Wolfram

As you read this book you will be encouraged. You will understand the need to help your children be better prepared, not only for the challenges in life, prepared to follow Gods word and see it produce fruit in their lives.

Rafael Natividad

Pastor, Life Fellowship Church of Denton, Texas

God does not want blind faith. It is not enough to believe sincerely. God desires intelligent faith. He gave us defensible faith. He gave us the Bible, the truth and accuracy of which will withstand every assault by the Enemy. He also gave us the ability and the responsibility to advance his kingdom in love and kindness, and the key to having an answer to everyone who asks. He gave us as parents the privilege and the obligation to teach these truths to our children. If we are to impart Biblical truth to our children in a way that they will cherish for a lifetime, and become passionate about imparting the same truth to their children, learning about God should be joyous, fun, and exciting. God is bigger than the mistakes we make along the way, and it is he-and not we-who protects and transforms our children. God does not give us any job he does not equip and empower us to accomplish. This book is about providing tools, suggestions, and encouragement to you as parents in your most awesome task of equipping and empowering your children so that they may be rooted in Christ, be filled with his love and world-view, and be launched into the world as his salt and light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512738018

Carol Lynn Wolfram

Our Children in the World: Sharing Jesus Now and with the Future is the culmination of years of study, teaching and practical application of Carol Lynn Wolfram’s life work as a Christian lawyer, teacher and mother. Today she continues to practice law, write and live passionately around Denton, Texas.

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Copyright © 2016 Carol Lynn Wolfram.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-3802-5 (sc)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 05/11/2016

CONTENTS

Dedication and Acknowledgments

Prologue

Section 1: A Systematic Approach To Bible Interpretation

Chapter 1 The Call

Chapter 2 The Contract

Chapter 3 Rules of Construction

Section 2: Cultivating a Christlike World-view

Chapter 4 What about Politics?

Chapter 5 Cultivating a Christlike world-view of Justice

Chapter 6 Cultivating a Christlike world-view of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Chapter 7 Cultivating a Christlike World-view of Love and Mercy

Chapter 8 Cultivating a Christlike World-view of Ourselves

Section 3: A Necessary Defense to What We Believe

Chapter 9 Question 1: Does what a person believe about God have the power to change the nature or character of God?

Chapter 10 Question 2: Is belief in Jesus Christ the only way to heaven?

Chapter 11 Question 3: How Did it All Begin?

Chapter 12 Thinking about Why We Think What We Think

Section 4: Learning about God and the Bible Should Be Fun!

Chapter 13 Choose a Consistent Time

Chapter 14 Fun Ways to Do Bible Study

Chapter 15 Seize Teachable Moments

Chapter 16 Field Trips at Home and Away

Chapter 17 One-on-One Daddy or Mommy time

Chapter 18 I Love You, I Bless You, I Am Proud of You, and You Are Mine!

Epilogue

DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For Dad and Mom, Walter and Nora Wolfram. Thanks for still being two of my greatest heroes. Thanks, Dad, for reading and commenting on the draft of this book; and much more than that, thanks for modeling in so many ways what it means to be a Christian who happens to be a lawyer, for your undaunted courage, and for your unwavering love for the lost. Thanks, Mom, for never being surprised at any of my accomplishments, for all your secret prayers for me, for being a quietly fierce mom, and for being the only truly civilized member of our family.

For my children, Rick, Matt, Daniel, and Laura Beth. For all my other children of every age, wherever you are around the world. You are my greatest teachers. I love God more because of you.

For my pastor, Rafael Natividad. Thanks for all your support, for all your lively discussions and insights on the Word of God, and for never being boring. For Natalia, your sweet wife, whose gentleness and heart for evangelism always bring me joy.

Last but certainly not least, for my prayer partners, Julia Janich and Terry Settle. Without you and your faithfulness, friendship, and prayers, I would have abandoned the writing of this book a long time ago. I cannot imagine my life without your bodacious prayers.

PROLOGUE

God in his wisdom commands us as parents to be our children's primary teachers in the ways of the Lord. Based on the culture of our day, if children do not learn at an early age that the Bible is true and that God is real, there is a huge risk that they will fall away forever when they encounter their first crisis of faith. Children also need to learn somewhere deep inside, where neither they nor the world can reach in and destroy or pervert it, that God will take them back and restore them if they run away from home. We, as Christian parents, desperately need to know how to respond and how to evaluate what and why we think what we think when our belief system is challenged by the world around us---and by our children.

I am convinced that God does not want blind faith. It is not enough to believe sincerely. God desires intelligent faith. He gave us defensible faith. He gave us the Bible, the truth and accuracy of which will withstand every assault by the Enemy. He also gave us the ability and the responsibility to advance his kingdom in love and kindness, and the key to having an answer to everyone who asks. He gave us as parents the privilege and the obligation to teach these truths to our children. If we are to impart biblical truth to our children in a way that they will cherish for a lifetime and become passionate about imparting the same truth to their children, learning about God should be joyous, fun, and exciting. God is bigger than the mistakes we make along the way, and it is he---and not we---who protects and transforms our children. God does not give us any job he does not equip and empower us to accomplish.

This book is divided into essentially four parts. The first section deals with a useful and usable approach to Bible study and biblical interpretation for us laypeople. The second section discusses a Christlike world-view and how we teach our children to see through God's eyes and respond accordingly. The third section discusses some hard-hitting and unavoidable topics and questions that you and your children are going to face in your faith walks, with some hints on how to have those conversations. The fourth section offers a range of ideas for teaching your children biblical truth and its practical application in a variety of ways, some of which are just downright fun.

And so, this book is my humble offering to you, toward the purpose of providing some tools, suggestions, and encouragement to you as parents in your most awesome task of equipping and empowering your children so that they, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know [experientially] the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that [they] may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17b--19 NASB).

Carol Lynn Wolfram

SECTION 1

A SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO BIBLE INTERPRETATION

INTRODUCTION TO SECTION 1

I have been a Texas lawyer for thirty years and counting. In the business and legal world, there are prescribed rules for how to interpret documents and contracts. The Bible is God's covenant (i.e., contract with humanity). The rules of contract construction can be invaluable tools to a better and deeper understanding of the Bible. I know that applying these rules has helped me be a better student of the Word and be a better teacher as well.

CHAPTER 1

THE CALL

Hear O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4--9 NASB)

This text is known as the Shema (after the first word of the text), which means to listen in the sense of hearing and obeying. It is the central foundation of monotheism---the belief that there is only one God, the I am. Starting today, how different will our lives be---and the lives of our children and grandchildren---because this day we stand before the Lord and promise to obey this, his command? How can we possibly do this job well? Let's go exploring together and see if we can discover some tools that will aid our work.

One morning, when my two older sons were in elementary school, we were reading the story of Uzzah found in 2 Samuel 6:1--11. Not too long after King David was anointed as king over all of Israel, he and his chosen men traveled to the house of Abinadab to bring the ark of God back to the center of Jewish worship---after an absence of nearly one hundred years. King David and everyone with him were celebrating, and life was great. King David had struck down the Philistines, and Israel felt secure and powerful. Unfortunately, nobody had bothered to check with God or his written commands regarding the prescribed transport of the ark. Without question, had anyone pulled out that part of the law that we now call the book of Numbers, he or she would have discovered how it was written that God had decreed that the ark was set aside as holy to the Lord; not even the priests were allowed to touch it. Instead, the ark was required to be carried by long poles on either side of it. Rightfully so---holiness is a big deal.

However, not having read the Scripture, the ark had been loaded onto a new cart---probably the best cart---and was being hauled back to the capital. When the cart was upset because of the rough terrain, Uzzah, one of Abinadab's sons (who presumably had grown up with the ark in his household), reached out and grabbed hold of the ark to steady it and keep it from falling out of the cart. Uzzah's intentions were to do good, and his logic seemed perfectly reasonable. One might conclude that God should have rewarded Uzzah for his fast thinking. However, 2 Samuel 6:7 (NIV) states that the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Now afraid of God, King David abandoned the ark with the household of Obed-Edom. King David and his men returned to Jerusalem empty-handed, angry, and scared. What had started out as a great party had turned into confusion and a seemingly senseless funeral.

My sons' response to this story was that God was not fair and that God had punished what they saw as essentially good behavior. I had a really hard time trying to explain to them why God had been angry and why God was just in killing Uzzah. I remember that I had a rather lengthy explanation about the holiness of God, why he was right in setting up his rules, and how he had the absolute right to exact justice---and some other things I can't remember anymore. Mostly, I recall that neither I nor my children were satisfied with my hollow-sounding platitudes. A few days later, I was recounting my frustration with the story of Uzzah to a dear friend. She answered, The point of the story is that if you want to do good, you have to know what good is. How marvelously simple and profound!

I was able to go back to my children and explain Uzzah's story in a new light that made perfect sense, not just to me, but to my children. It also made sense to King David, because after three months of watching God bless Obed-Edom because he had possession of the ark, King David went back to God's decrees and commands. He learned the right and good way to bring the ark back to Jerusalem, and the ark was brought back with great rejoicing and placed in the tabernacle of God. King David learned what good was, that true goodness comes only from God and proceeds from God, and that therefore good is defined only by God. King David did good and honored God, and the nation of Israel was blessed.

Ever since then, I have loved Uzzah's story. The truths of this story are a part of the foundation for our job as parents to our children. We want to do good for our children. If you are reading this book, you want to accomplish good by teaching the Bible to your children. Just like Uzzah and King David, if we want to do good, we need to know what good is. To know what good is, we need to go to where God reveals his definition of good. We need to go to the Bible, but more than that, we need to have a system---a framework, if you will---for how to figure out what God is telling us through the Bible.

Have you ever heard anyone dismiss or discount the truths of the Bible based upon a claim that the Bible is inconsistent? Confusing? Antiquated? Written and rewritten by men with their own personal agendas? Contains doublespeak? Hypocritical? Irrelevant? A legend? Unverifiable? How about the belief that whatever it means to me is totally acceptable and right, and whatever you think it means is totally acceptable and right, even if what you and I believe is completely different? Can what you believe about God be true just because you believe it? Can what you believe about God be true because you believe it sincerely? How do you know Jesus is the only way to heaven? Don't all religions really worship the same God? Don't I have the right to say what's true for me?

Have you ever had any of those thoughts or asked any of those questions? Or if not those thoughts, then have you ever had questions about what God could possibly mean when he said thus and so? I certainly have heard all of those claims, and I hear them more and more often as time passes. I don't just hear them from people who don't go to church. I have heard those claims from active, long-time church members, and not just from teenagers. And I certainly continue to have questions about what God is teaching through his Word. Let me assure you that your children are going to have serious questions about God, the Bible, their faith, and ultimate truth. Let me also assure you that God is not afraid of or challenged by these questions. I believe God invites these questions, because the honest pursuit of each and every question about God and his Word leads inevitably back to God and his Word. We need to figure out how to know what God is telling us and our children in his Word.

CHAPTER 2

THE CONTRACT

Webster's defines a contract as an agreement or covenant between two or more persons, in which each party binds himself to do or forbear some act, and each acquires a right to what the other promises.¹

The Bible says that God entered into a contract with Noah (But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark---you and your sons and your wife, and you sons' wives with you [Genesis 6:18 NASB]), then Abram (On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates [Genesis 15:18 NASB]), and then the nation of Israel (Then he [Moses] took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!' So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words' [Exodus 24:7--8 NASB]).

The Bible also says that God made Jesus a contract with the nation of Israel and the world.

Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; he will bring forth justice to the nations ... I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison. (Isaiah 42:1, 6--7 NASB)

From Matthew 12:15--21, we know that the references to the Servant in Isaiah 42 are to Jesus. In Jeremiah, God forecasts that he will enter into a new covenant that will be qualitatively different than all prior covenants.

The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. ... I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. (Jeremiah 31:31, 33--34 NIV)

The Hebrew word for covenant in each of these texts is the same. The covenant was a contract that was sealed with signs, sacrifices, and a solemn oath. There were promises of blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.²

You and I are living in the age of the new covenant. God enters into this new covenant, or contract, with all who agree today. Jesus is that contract.

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance---now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. (Hebrews 9:15 NIV)

God made the ultimate sacrifice through Jesus himself so the contract would be effective.

In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. (Hebrews 9:16 NIV)

Jesus is the new covenant, which replaced the old covenant with its outward regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary (ref. Hebrews 9:1). The old covenant, the law, was only a shadow of the new covenant, Jesus³ (Hebrews 10:1 NIV). By God's will, he set aside the first covenant to establish the new covenant, [a]nd by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10 NIV).

God made a solemn seal to the new contract with his Holy Spirit:

In Him [Christ], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation---having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13--14 NASB)

God gave us signs that the contract is still in place through the fulfillment of prophecy, the miracles of Jesus, the continued miracles he performs for his children of the new covenant, and his answers to their prayers.

How do we know the terms for this contract with the Almighty? We can look to the world around us