The Dark Alleys in Young Adult Fiction

“I’m just glad she’s reading.” You’ve heard it before. Maybe you’ve said it yourself. You think it’s great that your teen or preteen is enjoying literature. And it is great.
Mostly.
Many parents think any book is better than hours in front of a screen. But they may be blissfully unaware of some current trends in young adult (YA) fiction.
This article isn’t primarily about censoring your child — or even yourself — from the world of secular fiction, but about knowing what’s out there and guarding the hearts of your family through prayer and critical thinking (Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:6–8).

“Tweenager Porn”

As a preteen, I read a dark urban fantasy novel fraught with sexual tension, even though it contained no explicit sex scenes. Afterward, I felt dirty. I sat on my bed staring at the book, wondering what the consequences of burning a library book would be.
That was my first encounter with what I later labeled “emotional porn.” Then one day I stumbled upon a quote by Stephen King where he explains why Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga became so popular. King flipped the way I viewed YA fiction on its head.

[Meyer is] opening up kind of a safe joining of love and sex in those books. . . . It’s exciting and it’s thrilling. . . . A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.

Elsewhere, King referred to Meyer’s series as “tweenager porn.” King rightly thinks young girls aren’t prepared to deal with these feelings yet. But the believer should go even further. Does the sexually charged content in these books edify anyone, at any age? Do unmarried teens and twentysomethings honor Christ in their singleness when they immerse themselves in a world that flirts with sexual immorality?

Hazy and Confused

So exactly how pervasive is this content in pop fiction? YA author Cyndy Etler relates advice she received from hundreds of teens on how to write for them.

You’ve got to give them the dirt most adults won’t touch. Real language — meaning cuss words, if you can deal. Real sex stuff, instead of cutting the scene when the going gets going. Real substance use. . . . It feels like it violates some sacred oath: “Protect the children!” But here’s the thing: the children aren’t protected. They’re doing this stuff.

Etler goes on to say writers should cut parents out because teens want autonomy. Although she ends her article with the lesson “include hope,” many YA books simply end up teasing the emotions. They take their readers on a roller coaster of tension, leaving their hearts hazy and confused, not more virtuous or mature.
In the past decade, at least ten women have confided in me that they struggle with habitual masturbation. For some, the habit began before the age of ten. Years later, they still struggle, hiding it from their spouses in shame. One friend, a married woman, confessed pop fiction as her main source of temptation. She is far from unusual. For a woman, what could be more enticing than a story that pulls at your heart and ensnares your emotions?

Whatever Is Excellent

So how can we as parents practically guard our kids’ hearts?
First, we can do our best to make sure our kids are reading books that will set before them “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable” (Philippians 4:8).
Occasionally, a book’s front cover will be a dead giveaway. If the characters are already immodestly dressed and kissing, the story inside the book will almost certainly go further. Most of the time, however, we’ll need to dig a little deeper to figure out what’s really inside a book. Take time to familiarize yourself with the jargon of book descriptions and reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. For example, if the love interest is described as “mysterious and alluring,” the story will likely include sexual overtones and center around an infatuated teen.
Blurbs and reviews are not often so straightforward. To get a better sense of the book, try reading the first chapter. I recently picked up a book where the female protagonist says a boy’s lips look “achingly kissable” on the first page. That description signals something more to be expected later in the storyline.
Second, we can pray that God himself will guard our kids’ hearts, as Paul says in Philippians 4:6–7: “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Pray through the Psalms and other passages that focus on our affections. For example, we can pray along with Song of Solomon 2:7 that our children will “not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.” Or we can take up Psalm 1:2 and pray that our kids will “delight . . . in the law of the Lord” instead of in the all-too-common teen infatuation of YA stories.

The Right Weapon

Don’t be discouraged about literature. Many books out there present wonderful, character-building stories — some of which are written by nonbelievers. And all Jane Austen fans worth their salt know a romance story can edify as well as entertain.
Stories are incredibly powerful. They’re a weapon in the hands of the author. Let’s make sure that weapon looks more like the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), and less like a wrecking ball to our kids’ love for the Lord.

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Whatever Is Lovely

Where do your thoughts come from?
Our conscious thoughts always come from somewhere. That’s obvious enough, you might think. My guess, though, is that much of the time it’s not obvious to you at all where your thoughts are coming from.
Of course, sensory and information input give you frequent food for thought (like this article is doing right now). But what about the thoughts demanding your attention first thing in the morning, or last thing at night, or the compulsive thoughts that dictate your behaviors?
I’ll give you a personal example. During my morning prayer time, it’s not uncommon for me to suddenly realize I’ve stopped praying and am now engaged in an imaginary conversation with myself or someone else regarding something I’m currently concerned about. When I try to stop and get back to praying, it can be very hard — my thoughts are demanding my attention.
You know what I mean, because you experience this too. Such thoughts often have what feels like a gravitational pull on our attention, almost like we can’t resist going where they want to lead us, even if we don’t want to go there. Where are these coming from?

Thoughts, Emotions, Beliefs

If we want to know where our thoughts are coming from, the first thing to examine is our emotions. What specifically are we feeling — fear, anxiety, anger, disappointment, discouragement, grief, sadness, hope, excitement, pride, joy, desire, anticipation? Sometimes powerful emotions like these push us down a certain train of thought. Other times certain thoughts stir up such emotions. It doesn’t really matter which comes first, because our emotions always point to what’s feeding our thoughts.
And what our emotions point to are our underlying beliefs. What we believe is what feeds our thoughts — the thoughts that really matter to us and guide how we live.
We all have official beliefs and functional beliefs, and the beliefs I’m talking about are the latter. Our official beliefs are like a company’s formal mission statement, core values, and policy handbook. Functional beliefs are like how a company actually operates. If we want to know what a company really values, we look at its operations. If we want to know what we really believe at any given moment, we look at our functional beliefs.
And the quickest way to see our functional beliefs is to look underneath our emotions. That’s what’s feeding our dominating, behavior-dictating thoughts.

Think About These Things

But is any of this in the Bible? Yes. God, having designed the human psyche, is the supreme Psychologist, and the Bible is an incredible psychology text. Functional belief-fueled emotions and thoughts are all over the Bible. Why did Gideon think to hide his wheat in the winepress (Judges 6:11)? Why did David think sleeping with Bathsheba was a good idea (2 Samuel 11)? Why did Peter think he should deny Jesus to the servant girl (Matthew 26:69–70)? Why did the anguished father think to say to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24)?
But the text I’ve found most helpful recently is Philippians 4:8:

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Note the last four words: “think about these things.” That’s a strong statement. Paul isn’t offering us counsel; he’s giving us a command. This is something we must obey. God is saying something profound to us through Paul: there is a way to change how we think, and we must choose that way. What way?
Look at the list. Have you ever stopped to think how abstract the concepts Paul lists are? The last time you struggled to escape a compulsive train of thought, how much help were concepts like truth, honor, justice, purity, excellence, and the rest? To the degree they remained abstract, probably no help at all.
Paul never intended these concepts to remain abstract. That’s why he wrote “whatever is” before each one. Paul knew that giving rise to our negative, sinful thoughts are specific false, dishonorable, unjust, impure, ugly, disgraceful, and detestable functional beliefs. Wherever these functional sinful beliefs (or unbeliefs) exist in us, manifesting in our demanding sinful thoughts and emotions, they must be confronted and replaced with “whatever is” the appropriate, God-dependent belief.

Fight for Joy

When we are struggling with distracting, demanding thoughts and emotions, God wants us to know that we are not victims who must simply endure the miserable ride on the train of our thoughts. He wants us to seize the controls he’s given us, switch tracks, and head in a faithful, joyful direction.
And we do this by remembering that superficial thoughts and emotions are the offspring of our deeper functional beliefs. Those false beliefs are based on false promises — any promise that doesn’t have its origin in God through his word. Therefore, when we unseat specific false promises by trusting true promises, we unseat the false belief giving life to dominating emotions and thoughts. When we do this, it produces spiritual peace and joy, even if nothing has changed in our circumstances.
This is hard work, especially if we’re out of practice or have never really made this a consistent practice. It’s a fight of faith, one we engage numerous times a day. And in habits of sinful thought and feeling we’ve conditioned ourselves to indulge, we should expect it to be particularly difficult.
But difficult doesn’t mean impossible, for “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). Yes, learning the habit of not being pushed around by our thoughts and emotions requires us to exercise discipline. But biblical discipline is not in the long run the denial of pleasure, but the pursuit of pleasure (Hebrews 12:10–11).
It is for joy and freedom and love that God is calling us to fight with all our might to “think about these things.”

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Secrets Of Sleep

If you suffer with insomnia or sleep issues, you’ll know how debilitating it can be. Poor sleep over and over again can make you feel like you’re going to mentally and physically breakdown. You may even question how you will get through each day. I truly understand how hard it is to live with sleep issues. Even if you wouldn’t list insomnia or sleep disturbance as one of your chronic issues, learning how to harness sleep so it can be the most healing it can be is a critical part of looking after your health now and in the future. Thankfully, there are answers for you. You can heal and sleep soundly again.
If you look to conventional medicine with questions about your insomnia or other sleep issues, you may be told a number of possible reasons for why you can’t sleep. And some of them may carry some truth. Your doctor or health practitioner may say the cause of your sleep problems are grief, anger, anxiety, depression, worry, restless legs, or chronic pain or you may be told you have sleep apnea. All of these things can be a part of the challenges you are having. But there’s much more to understand. For example, what is truly the reason behind your restless legs, depression, anxiety, and aches and pains.
In the following article I will explain the truth behind chronic and mysterious sleep conditions. In my book Thyroid Healing, I have an entire section dedicated to this important topic because it’s so critical you and your loved ones get the answers and support you need so you can get the deep, healing sleep you deserve.
Mystery Sleep Conditions
When your anxiety and depression are not connected to your circumstances, it can be frustrating not to know or understand their causes. In addition, when you are having sleep issues and you cannot connect it to anything at all, it can be even more disheartening. Lying awake with no answers can create even more anxiety and make falling or staying asleep all the more elusive. At times, someone who is having sleep issues will get an answer from an expert, which will temporarily relieve the person from the confusion. Perhaps that person will even be able to sleep for a week or more because their sleep challenges feel like less of a riddle. However, many times the answers we get from conventional medicine and alternative health communities are not the right answers, and therefore don’t offer a true solution for healing. In many cases, the misinformation we may receive from well-meaning health practitioners may actually lead us further astray or result in even more struggle and confusion. The inability to sleep is still one of the greatest mysteries to modern medicine today.
For example, many people with sleep problems are told that they are having trouble with their thyroid, and that is what is keeping them awake. The truth is that a thyroid problem is not going to keep you from sleeping. But you can lose sleep if you’re worried about having a thyroid problem. Many people lose sleep when they first get their diagnosis of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, or hyperthyroidism because they’re told their body is attacking its own thyroid. But this is a great mistake by medical communities. Your body never attacks itself. It loves you unconditionally and is always working for you. I address this mistaken theory in detail in Thyroid Healing. Someone also may not sleep if they’re worried about having thyroid surgery. But your thyroid itself is never going to create insomnia. It’s not possible. Unfortunately, it is very common for people to be told their sleep disorder is because of their thyroid. This new, recent blame game on the thyroid is so prevalent right now that I address it extensively in Thyroid Healing, along with the true causes of insomnia and other sleep disorders. My goal is to cut through the misinformation and confusion which is preventing people from having the health and sleep they desire and bring the real truth to you. You deserve to know what’s really happening in your body.
Different Kinds of Sleep Disorders
It is critical to understand our sleep disorders and exactly what is happening in the body so we can begin to take steps toward healing. We have to locate the target before we can go after it. It’s almost impossible to effectively and fully heal a symptom or condition without understanding it. Even if you have healed a symptom or condition before without knowing it’s true cause, it’s possible it could come back later in life or the unknown root cause could be creating another symptom that you are unaware is actually related. This is why the answers to our health problems we receive from science and research are so lacking—they don’t know the true causes of chronic mystery illnesses like insomnia and other sleep disorders in most cases, so how could they know the correct treatment?
Everyone experiences sleep problems in vastly different ways. Read the following descriptions and take note if one or more of them apply to you.
1. You cannot fall asleep at first, then eventually you fall asleep after several hours. When you wake up in the morning, you do not feel well rested because you could not fall asleep right away.
2. You fall asleep right away, but you wake up in the very early morning unable to fall back asleep before it is time to get up. You get a racing mind as the sun starts to rise and anxiety because you are unable to fall asleep.
3. You initially fall asleep easily, but then you wake up in the middle of the night unable to fall back to sleep until the early morning when you fall asleep again.
4. You are in and out of a miserable sleep all night long because you never fall into a solid restful state. You keep getting the frequent urge to urinate, which gets you out of bed over and over.
5. You cannot sleep the entire night, and when morning comes, you feel completely exhausted and crash at various times throughout the day. You may or may not attempt a quick nap here and there. Then when it is time for bed, the whole thing starts over again.
6. All throughout the day you are exhausted and you struggle with all your tasks, and all you can think about is the next chance you get to lie down and close your eyes. All you want to do is go to bed. When nighttime hits, you are suddenly awake and it is difficult to wind down enough to get to sleep on time.
7. You are able to fall asleep and stay asleep for a full night, only you wake up feeling like you need another eight hours. Maybe your loved ones report that you snore or you have very shallow breathing throughout the night; they say you woke yourself up snoring, which makes you come to understand that your sleep is broken all night.
8. Just as you sink into deep sleep, a jerk happens. Either your arm, neck, head, or leg jerks and it wakes you up again. Sometimes you can bypass it and you can fall asleep. Or you wake up in the middle of the night to urinate and then you go back to bed and can’t fall asleep because the jerking occurs once again.
9. You are tired and ready to go to sleep, except there is a weird buzzing sound or another symptom keeping you awake. This can be either tinnitus, restless leg syndrome, itchy skin problems, or aches and pains.
The Potential Causes of Sleep Disorders
While many experts today will lump most of these sleep disorders under thyroid problems, this is a trendy trap that you need to be aware of so you don’t fall prey to it and start addressing an issue that isn’t even the cause. Sleep issues have nothing to do with the thyroid. Below I will explain the true reasons for insomnia and other sleep issues that medical science and research are unaware of. No two causes of sleep problems are the same, just as no two sleep disorders themselves are the same. While people’s sleep issues may be very similar to each other, they will never be identical. Keep this in mind as you learn about your own insomnia or other sleep challenges.
1. Liver Issues
One possible cause stems from a liver that’s overheated, stagnant, or sluggish from toxins and a diet too high in fat or processed foods. The liver could also be inflamed because it is trying to fight one or more pathogens (viruses and bacteria) that have nested in the liver for many years, even decades, and they are releasing neurotoxins and dermatoxins. Research and science have not yet discovered that pathogens releasing these toxins are the cause of many symptoms and illnesses.
When you go to sleep for the night, your liver shuts down operation and runs on autopilot. By around three or four in the morning (it’s different for everyone), your liver starts to wake up again and once more begins to process poisons, viruses, and debris (such as dead cells, including dead red blood cells.). If you have a sluggish liver, then as the liver tries to do its job at this time, it goes into subtle spasm. Most of the time, it’s not anything you can feel, but for some people it’s enough to wake them up. This accounts for those nights when you fall asleep normally, then suddenly you’re up again in the early morning hours, and after a certain period of time, you’re able to nod off again. This can also explain those miserable nights of sleep where you drift in and out the whole time.
Sleep issues caused by something going on in the liver tend to be present in someone dealing with a thyroid issue, not because the thyroid is causing the problem but because thyroid issues are also caused by EBV. This is something I discuss at length in my book, Thyroid Healing.
2. Viral Issues
Viral issues are one of the major causes of trouble with sleep. The Epstein-Barr virus, shingles, cytomegalovirus, HHV-6, and even some bacteria can poison our systems and keep us up at night. That’s because viruses such as Epstein-Barr excrete neurotoxins, which can create the issues of not being able to fall asleep for hours, or waking in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back asleep. Viral-caused insomnia is often mistaken for a thyroid issue, because, as I said, it’s common to experience insomnia and thyroid trouble side by side. It’s not because an under or overactive thyroid causes sleep issues, despite what you may hear from other sources.
3. MSG and Toxic Heavy Metals in the Brain
If someone has MSG or toxic heavy metal deposits speckled throughout the brain, which is extremely common, these alone can keep a person from getting quality sleep. Mercury deposits are what cause OCD, Tourette’s, anxiety, depression, and much more, which, when coupled with a pathogen like Epstein-Barr Virus, can only make things worse because the virus is feeding off of the mercury and releasing more poisons, such as neurotoxins. Medical communities are unaware of just how prolific this virus is and the hundreds of symptoms and conditions it causes. I share the reasons why research and science have missed just how much EBV is responsible for in Thyroid Healing. They are also unaware that viruses feed off toxins like mercury, which allows them to strengthen and thrive and create further issues.
4. Digestive Tract Issues
Some people have digestive sensitivities, which are actually connected to the nervous system because nerves are attached to every part of the colon. As food moves through the intestines, it hits those sensitive nerves throughout the night. Sometimes it is so subtle it is barely noticeable but it can be enough to disrupt your sleep. Even if there is no pain or gas in your gut, these digestive tract sensitivities may be related to your sleep disorder and you simply are not aware of it.
5. Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea can occur if you have a sinus problem or a post nasal drip. It can also occur if you are overweight and lying down, which may put pressure on the chest and throat, prevents proper breathing from taking place during sleep. The third kind of sleep apnea is a mystery to modern medicine. In this case, it is a neurological sleep apnea where the brain is sending out incorrect messages to the vagus and phrenic nerves using electrical impulses and neurotransmitters that are being weakened or interrupted by toxic heavy metals or viral neurotoxins.
6. Adrenal Issues
Another potential cause for sleep issues occurs because of a high stress lifestyle that pumps adrenaline into your bloodstream all day. Adrenaline keeps you up until very late and then by the time you wake up in the morning you are exhausted.
These are just some of the reasons why your sleep may be suffering. Other possible causes I address in detail in Thyroid Healing include anxiety, which is not as self-explanatory as you may think, emotional wounds, and other neurological issues.
Your Very Own Sleep Account
There is a common belief floating around that once you miss an hour of sleep, that sleep is gone and you can never make it up. You can never get it back. This is false. The truth is that we have a divine sleep account that is owed to us from the minute we are born. Every time you miss a minute, hour, day, or week of sleep, that time is automatically put into your sleep account to save for a later date. All is not lost. Those three hours of sleep you lost the night before are not gone forever. They are waiting for you in your very own sleep account, controlled and maintained by the Angels, and you will get them back some day. It is a misguided belief that you cannot catch up on sleep or gain your sleep back. Once you’re able to target your sleep issue and begin to heal by restoring your liver, detoxing the MSG and heavy metals, mending your digestive tract, healing your adrenals, or eliminating EBV, get ready. Because your sleep account is waiting for you and you are going to enjoy plenty of restorative, healing sleep. It’s your divine right and one of the unknown universal laws.
Foods for Sleep
There is so much we can do to heal viruses, work on our digestive and liver problems, and detox from heavy metals, MSG, and other toxins that could be contributing to your sleep issues. I go into further depth on what’s behind your sleep issues, how you can heal from them, why bad dreams are good, which foods and supplements are the most helpful for healing, and so much more in Thyroid Healing.
The Sacred Sleep Window
Sleep is so important for healing and yet it can be impossible to sleep when you have any of these issues. It can seem like a catch 22. That’s why it’s so critical to know about the Sacred Sleep Window. Between 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. your body does most of its healing. If you are able to sleep during that period, your body is healing at an accelerated rate. Even if you only catch 10 minutes, those 10 minutes will be potent. The restoration your body performs in that snippet of time will power you through on your path to healing. If you’re not able to sleep during this window, even lying down with your eyes closed will allow your body to continue healing. This is because even if you are still conscious, part of your brain is asleep. If you work night shifts or just have a lot of difficulty lying down in this window, you can nap or lie down with your eyes closed between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This four-hour daytime window is the equivalent of the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. for healing.
Angel of Sleep
The Angel of Sleep is always there for you if you need her. Whenever you’re seeking guidance or comfort, speak her name aloud and ask for her help. She’ll aid you in your path to a better night’s sleep, whether because of a health issue or an emotional trial. The Angel of Sleep will watch over you as you travel to the land of the subconscious.
Moving Forward
I know how frustrating and debilitating sleep problems can be. We tend to beat ourselves up when we are unable to get restful sleep, and it is very easy to blame ourselves. Stay light-hearted and know that the answers are now here for you. The information here and in Thyroid Healing is here to help you move forward and finally get the sleep waiting for you.
It can take time to resolve a sleep issue. It will take time for your body to cleanse itself of toxins, heal, and rebuild, so in the meantime, remind yourself of the laws of sleep: that your sleep account is waiting for you no matter what and that you deserve healing sleep. On top of this, you can help yourself navigate whatever rocky nights come your way with the foods and supplements I share in Thyroid Healing, the Sacred Sleep Window, and the Angel of Sleep. Soon enough, you will be able to take full advantage of your sleep account and cash in on countless nights of restful sleep.

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The darkest hour of night comes just before the dawn.

Life is the name of purpose, struggle, love, dedication and a number of feelings and emotions. Life shows its true colors with time. It depends upon you that how you look towards life and what is your strategy of leading an ideal life.

Life takes a number of turns during its whole span. Life may not be kind to you all the times. There are tough times which really test your courage and your capabilities of facing unfavorable situations. How well you tackle these adverse conditions prove your credibility. People who just close their eyes to avoid facing the hardships of life are coward. They do not have courage and stamina to stand firm in front of life’s demon. Remember that nothing can be done without trying, without striving hard to get yourself out of the trouble, without facing the situations. Such incidents in life improve your approach towards destiny. These incidents may entirely change one’s life (in some cases). These make your thinking a bit more rational. If there were no such thrills in life, it would be quite boring and monotonous. These incidents make you strong nerved person. In other words, life tests you all the time.

“Life is different from a teacher because teacher teaches a lesson and takes the exam but life takes exam first and then teaches a lesson.”

When you are in love, life changes its meanings, priorities and requirements. Life seems to be confined within the kingdom of your loved one’s heart. Life is a gift of God and to love and being loved is the best feeling in life which has no parallel. Everyone wishes to live a blissful life with his/her life partner. Life can be blissful only if you know each other, understand well and stand for each other through bad times.

Do not waste your life. Life should have some purpose. Identify your aim, head towards your destiny and spend your entire life in achieving your goals. This is what we call life. It is a wise saying that time waits for no one. Once it is spent, it is gone. We’ve got to be wise in choosing our priorities so as not to waste any of our precious time. Keep on trying to get your goals and don’t lose hope. It is said by Paulo Coelho:

“When you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Life is worthless without hope. Hope is the key element in life which never lets you down and keeps your morals high. Always be optimistic and have faith in God. Everything happens for a reason. Sometimes a slight inconvenience makes us to think that we are unfortunate, life is cruel etc but this is not the reality. Spread optimism instead of pessimism. It will light up your life positively.

Remember that:

“The darkest hour of night comes just before the dawn.”

The inspiration of life is to serve mankind. Spread happiness and you will be blessed!!

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Six Common Ways Preachers Dishonor God’s Word

The Protestant Reformation was a recovery of the pulpit, and yet five hundred years later there are ways Protestant preachers unwittingly fail to honor the Bible in the pulpit. Which leads to today’s question from an anonymous church leader. “Pastor John, I am on staff at a church, and over the past couple of months, I have noticed a trend in my pastor’s preaching. Let me first say that nothing he says would ever be considered wrong. He uses points from the overarching theme of Scripture in his sermons. Bottom line, he preaches the truth, but those points rarely derive from the sermon text he reads at the beginning of his message. Is this a problem? What’s at stake? And is this a common phenomenon or an anomaly?”
In summary, the answer to those three questions is (1) yes, it is a problem, (2) it’s far too common, tragically, and (3) what’s at stake are at least six things.

The Text Speaks

First, preaching that does not show the people what the text means and what those implications are for our lives is failing to honor the nature of the text as God’s glorious revelation of what we need to know and how it relates to our life.

“The more difficulty the people have in seeing the pastor’s points in the text, the less warrant they have for believing him.”

It’s failing to honor the text, and he is failing to honor the people in the congregation who should be shown by preaching how they themselves can see glorious truth from the text that is relevant for their lives.
Paul said in Ephesians 3:4, “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.” Preaching that is heralding the fruit of reading — that sees the mystery of Christ in the text and helps others see it — is real preaching. Preaching is the heralding of the fruit of reading that sees the mystery of Christ in the text and helps other people see how we saw it.
Pastors who don’t preach this way are missing the thrill of being an instrument in the hands of God to help people actually see for themselves the glories of the mysteries of Christ and their relevance to life.

An Unhealthy Sign

Second, preachers that don’t exult over the exposition of what they’ve seen in the biblical texts are bearing witness to (1) their own laziness because they haven’t taken the time to see it, (2) their dullness because they’re not able to see it, or (3) their own emotional incapacities because they see it, and they can’t feel anything special about it. So why would they talk about it? They’re going to make up things they feel special about. This is not something to be proud of. This is not a token of creativity.
These are weaknesses that need to be corrected and overcome. We should pray for our pastors earnestly that the laziness or the dullness or the emotional incapacities would be overcome. In other words, this is not only unhealthy for the church; it is a deeply unhealthy sign for the pastor.

Who Has Authority?

Third, to preach by making points that hover above the text and are not manifestly rooted in the text diminishes the authority of the passage and the authority of the message. Manifestly rooted or obviously rooted is the key phrase here. The only authority that a pastor has derives from his faithful delivery of God’s word. It doesn’t come from himself.

“The only authority a pastor has derives from his faithful delivery of God’s word. It doesn’t come from himself.”

This is important. Take note here. The more difficulty the people have in seeing the pastor’s points in the text, the less warrant they have for believing what he says. Because it’s the text that has final, decisive authority. If they can’t see what he’s saying in the text, there’s no warrant for why they should believe him.
The situation may be worse. The pastor may in fact want to shift authority from the text to himself and thus enlarge his own personal power. Then nobody can really question because he has shifted the authority from the word, which everybody has access to, to himself, which nobody can question.
Oh, I love leadership rooted in the council room and in the pulpit with the pastor saying, “I am not the decisive, final authority. Anybody that can see the word more clearly than I can correct me.”

Waves of Doctrine

Fourth, a pastor who preaches by making points that are not manifestly in the text is preparing his people for biblical and doctrinal defections in the days to come.
If the people become accustomed to making their biblical and doctrinal judgments about what is true and right and beautiful based on the declarations of a man rather than based on what they see in Scripture, these folks will — as Ephesians 4:14 says — be blown off course by the various winds of doctrines that blow in our culture.

Wishy-Washy

Fifth, to put it differently but almost the same as number four, a pastor who preaches without drawing attention to the details of the wording of the text as the warrant for his points will train the people to be careless and inattentive to the specificities of the moral and spiritual claims of Scripture on their lives.

“Preaching that makes points without clear warrant from the text robs the people of joy Jesus intends for them.”

This produces a people (I’ve seen it) who are loose and careless in their moral judgments. They have become accustomed to generalities and vagueness. And generalities and vagueness on tough moral issues produce wishy-washy saints who do not have the backbone and the specific insights to stand up for the specific teachings of Scripture regarding controversial matters.

Jesus’s Joy

Finally, sixth, this kind of preaching that makes its points without clear warrant from the specific wording of the text robs the people of a kind of joy that Jesus intends for them to have when he says, in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”
That text does not mean that the incomparable, divine joy in the heart of Jesus Christ will become our joy because of the pastor’s interesting comments about important things in the world that are not manifest expressions of the intention of Jesus when he spoke. Jesus’s words with his meaning will impart his joy.
Yes, the stakes are very high when a pastor regularly builds his message with points that are not plainly from the actual wording and intention of the text.

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He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Class that day began so peacefully.
My university professor began the Christian Love and Marriage class with a “fun little assignment to get the creative juices flowing.”
The task was simple: Draw what you think of when you envision the love of God.
She went around and handed out crayons and blank sheets of paper for our project. We had fifteen minutes.
The first five I just sat there. How could I, who could barely draw straight lines for stickmen, draw the love of God?
As my peers joyfully scribbled away, I grabbed the black crayon. I still recall those next ten minutes of worship.
The alarm rang — time for show and tell. Each of us went around and shared our drawings, explaining why we drew what we did.
The first student unveiled her picture: a collage of lipstick red hearts, shiny bubbles, and a dozen or so smiley faces.
The second student revealed a unicorn galloping over a rainbow.
The third, a meadow with the sun shining down on laughing butterflies.
The fourth, a worn-out teddy bear.
As each explained their picture, one thing became obvious: despite my previous assumption, none was joking. All artists took their work seriously.
“God’s love makes me feel a kind of warmth inside,” explained one girl.
“Yeah, his love is magical, like the best dream you don’t want to wake up from,” added another.
“I just see a big bouquet of butterflies when I think about how God loves all of us.”
“I just feel a sense of home with God’s love, like I do when I remember my childhood teddy bear.”
I revealed my picture. My classmates were first shocked. Then confused. Then disgusted.
“That’s pretty barbaric of you,” said the first.
“I don’t think such a gory event should depict God’s love,” contributed the second.
“This is why some people don’t want to explore Christianity,” scolded the third.
In my drawing, a hill quaked. Lightning flashed. Darkness enveloped. Two dark crosses backdropped the third. My sore hand held up my nearly torn through artwork depicting my Savior dying on the cross for my sins.
“I believe this to be God’s own picture of his love,” I said.

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Fact or Feeling?

Notice what happened: When prompted to draw what each envisioned as the love of God, each drew what they felt when considering the love of God.
Instead of looking without themselves, they gazed within. The objective reality of God’s love for sinners was evidenced for them — not in the crushing and torture of the Son of God two thousand years ago — but was displayed in the fluttering sensations in their own hearts. How did they know God loved them? Their feelings told them so.
And their inners did not tell them of the fierce love of God demonstrated in the Son of God being brutally executed as he bore the wrath of God on sinners’ behalf. The fallen human heart is too politically correct, too Hallmark, too civilized to mention that God so loved the world that he sent his only Son to be brutally murdered for it.
When God showed his love for sinners, it was rated R.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

If handed a box of crayons and a paper, I would be surprised if many would draw what my nominally Catholic peers did. But I too often share their disposition to look within instead of without to see whether God truly loves me from day to day.

• I felt like I counted my family’s interests above my own today: He loves me.
• I didn’t experience much joy in the word the past few mornings: He loves me not.
• I am happy because I finally shared the gospel with my coworker: He loves me.
• I was incredibly angry in my heart towards my spouse last night: He loves me not.
• My heart overflowed today in corporate worship: He loves me.
• I didn’t feel any warm sensations of his presence during prayer: He loves me not.

This life is utterly exhausting. It may not be legalism, but feelism is just as tyrannical.
Although it is true that if we have absolutely no subjective experience of God’s love ever, we most likely are not a child of God (Romans 5:5; 8:16). But we must not confuse faith’s gaze from the cross to our feelings. The Spirit in Romans 5:5 directs our gaze to the cross in Romans 5:6.

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

The gospel has a far better word for us than our fickle feelings:

• The Father sent his only Son into the world so that I might not die in my sins (John 3:16): He loves me.
• That Son emptied himself and took on human form to rescue his people (Philippians 2:6–7): He loves me.
• Jesus Christ loved his Father and perfectly obeyed on my behalf, even unto death on a cross (Philippians 2:8–11): He loves me.
• Jesus stepped forward in Gethsemane (John 18:4), bowing his knee to his Father’s will (Matthew 26:42): He loves me.
• He was beaten as to be unrecognizable (Isaiah 52:14). He was whipped, scourged, spit on, mocked, slapped, bloodied, beaten, shamed: He loves me.
• The Father crushed his own Son (Isaiah 53:10). He gave him the cup of wrath bearing my name (John 18:11). God did not spare his own Son (Romans 8:32): He loves me.
• The Light of the world was snuffed; the Bread of life, broken; the King of kings, executed; the Lamb of God, slain; the Son of Man, tortured; the Son of God, forsaken; the Rock of ages, stricken; the blood of Christ, shed: Oh, how he loves me.
• And the Father raised the Son from the dead. The Son reigns over the universe as my great Prophet, Priest, and King. The Spirit has made me new, is sustaining repentance and faith, and has sealed me for the day of Christ. He loves me.
• Jesus, our life, is coming back. He will marry us. He will take us into his kingdom to reign with him. The time hastens on. He loves us.

As Christians, we no longer look to the drooping flower of our own love for God, peeling away petal by petal, muttering frantically to ourselves: He loves me, he loves me not.
Instead, we sing,

When Satan tempts us to despair,
Reminding of the lack within,
Upwards we look and see him there,
Who proved his love by conquering sin.

We spend our lives looking outside of ourselves to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1–2), who has proven God’s love once and for all, and will amaze his people afresh with that love forever.

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One Day at a Time

In middle school, my mother started having some strange symptoms following a bad car accident. She easily felt dizzy, to the point that she couldn’t drive anymore. She began losing control over her muscles. She would kick her legs around uncontrollably, and she experienced constant twitching. We knew that something was wrong, but doctors could not figure out what it was.
During my freshman year in high school, a neurologist finally suggested that she fly to California to get tested for a specific neurological disease called Huntington’s Disease (HD). My mom and dad went together. The results came in. She did have this incurable neurological disease.

God Saved Me Through Her Disease

When I heard my mom’s diagnosis, I became incredibly depressed and spent many hours each day of my freshman year of high school looking at pornography. Depressed and hopeless, I realized that I could no longer try to fight through life alone. I felt the emptiness of my life.
But at my lowest point, the Lord began to slowly awaken me. I started going with friends to a Bible study on Wednesday nights. In a way I never would have expected, the Lord was using my mom’s disease to draw me to himself.
I soon became close to the youth pastor who led the Bible study, as well as with the other high school guys who went. For the first time in my life, I started to read the Bible on my own and asked lots of questions about it. I continued for another five years, still not truly committing to the Lord. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in college that I fully put my trust in the Lord and became a new creation.
My mom’s disease awakened me to the Lord. I can honestly say that if not for this disease in my family, I may have never come to faith in Christ. And even since turning to Christ (about fifteen years ago), I can see how the Lord has used the disease to continue to sharpen and purify my faith in him. I believe with all my heart that the Lord was sovereign over all of these things. Even something as seemingly “terrible” as an incurable disease is still ordained by our good God who works out everything for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).
I still remember my dad telling me that there was no cure for this disease, and that my mom would continue to get worse until she died. That’s what happened. During high school she was having too much trouble staying with us at home, so we moved her into an assisted living center. A few years later, as her disease grew worse, she was put into a nursing home. She was in the nursing home for a few more years, until she finally died in January 2007, in the middle of my second year as a missionary in China.

Testing for Huntington’s Disease

When my mother was first diagnosed with HD, our dad told my siblings and me that we had a 50% chance of contracting the disease. It’s genetic. Knowing this, I planned to get tested when marriage was on the horizon. So, when I was engaged in 2008, I thought that before Lynne and I got married, I should get tested for HD, so that she would know everything before we made our vows. We drove with my dad to Wichita to get tested. I got the results about a month later.
Before the man who showed me the results opened the envelope, I prayed aloud from Job 1:21, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” I prayed that even if I were to be tested positive for the disease, I may still be able to praise the Lord for his goodness and wisdom. We opened the envelope. Positive.
I had dreaded that day for many years. I had always assumed that I had HD, trying to lessen the potential blow if I did test positive. But really l had hoped deep down that I wouldn’t. When we saw the results, Lynne and I wept together and prayed in tears.

My Prayer

After receiving the diagnosis in 2009, I prayed for joy. I prayed that I would not just be able to deal with having the disease, but that I may be able to rejoice in the disease. I prayed for more trust in this part of God’s plan for me. Since then, I have seen God use these trials to build my faith. He desired to show the power of the gospel in my life, that through my disease somehow his name may receive glory and honor.
Fear is still a consistent temptation. My condition could begin to affect me more any time. The symptoms showed up for my mom in her mid-30s. Now I am in my mid-30s. God’s veiled purpose behind all of the uncertainty and waiting feels unbearable at times. Paul writes, “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength . . . to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8–9).
HD took my mother, and it may take me, but it cannot take my hope. Because of my disease, I now constantly cry out to the Lord for mercy. I literally cannot rely on my own strength to survive. If we hope to escape the constant despair and debilitating fear that often comes with incurable disease — or whatever unique fears you face — we must rely on the Lord to carry us through and strengthen us, one day at a time.

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You Cannot Guarantee Your Child’s Godliness

If Christian parents could choose to control one thing about our child’s future, we all would choose the same thing, wouldn’t we? Across every nation, every culture, in any generation, one thing rises highest on the prayer list of any Christian parent, dwarfing every other request we might make for our precious son or daughter: we want them to know, obey, and enjoy Jesus.
Of course we want them to live long and healthy lives. Of course we want them to learn and mature through their school years without caving in to peer pressure. Of course we want them to thrive in a career, whether they work in an office or at home. Of course we want them to marry, if God wills, and give us grandbabies. But even more than we want grandchildren — far more than we want grandchildren — we want our children to love our Lord with all their heart, and all their soul, and all their strength, and all their mind (Matthew 22:37).
We would trade in a heartbeat eighty years of cancer-free health, summa cum laude at commencement, financial stability and security, and a whole litter of baby boys and girls, if we knew that’s what it took to see our sons and daughters love Jesus. Wouldn’t we?

A Good Father

I’m reading the story of Jotham and his son Ahaz with fresh eyes these days, because now I read it as a father. Ahaz’s grandfather Uzziah reigned for 52 years over God’s people, and for the majority of those years, “he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 26:4). But in the end, he failed the nation, embarrassed his family, rejected God, and fell into terrible sin (2 Chronicles 26:16).
Instead of falling into his father’s sin or blaming his own weaknesses and failures on his dad, Ahaz’s father, Jotham, simply “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord according to all that his father Uzziah had done, except he did not enter the temple of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 27:2). Jotham followed his father’s example in godliness, while refusing to repeat many of his father’s failures.
Ahaz’s father was not perfect, but unlike so many kings in the Old Testament, the record we have of his reign is a story of faithfulness, not wickedness. The author of Chronicles says, “Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the Lord his God” (2 Chronicles 27:6).

Son of Disobedience

Jotham died young at 41, and the people made his son king. Ahaz was twenty years old. For twenty years Ahaz had watched his father lead by faith. So how did he respond to his father’s good and godly example?

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. (2 Chronicles 28:1–2)

The “not” does not seem to do this son’s disobedience justice. Ahaz did not grow up fatherless in a single-parent family. His father wasn’t a nominal or apathetic example as a believer. His father had not simply taught what was right in the eyes of the Lord; his father had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord. But Ahaz rejected all of it — a slave to sin, a son of disobedience, a child of wrath (Romans 6:16; Ephesians 2:2–3).
He made metal idols for the false god Baal (2 Chronicles 28:2). He made sacrifices and offerings to foreign gods “on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree” (2 Chronicles 28:4) — all over the land that God had promised and given his people. When God sent waves of enemies against the nation because of her sin, Ahaz ran to Assyria, and not God, for help (2 Chronicles 28:16–18). He even stole from the temple to bribe the Assyrian king (2 Chronicles 28:21). Then he destroyed the vessels for worship, slammed and locked the doors of the temple, and made altars all over Jerusalem where he worshiped the gods of the nation’s conquerors (2 Chronicles 28:22–25).

Ceremonial Abortions

This son was so wicked, he even burned his own sons as an offering (2 Chronicles 28:3) — a series of ceremonial abortions after he had held the babies in his arms. Jotham had surely raised him to cherish and protect his children, and to diligently teach them, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5).
But instead of introducing his sons to “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exodus 34:6–7), Ahaz sacrificed his own little ones to a god who could not speak or hear or smell or feel (Psalm 115:5–7), a god who is worth nothing and brings nothing (Isaiah 44:9). He killed Jotham’s grandsons for nothing.
Watching Ahaz run away from the faith has always been difficult for me, but being a father has made it even more devastating. I’m suddenly able to imagine my own son rejecting Jesus and choosing sin after I am gone, refusing to tell my grandchildren about the strength, beauty, wisdom, and worth of our Savior. I could spend every day for the next twenty years sharing, teaching, modeling, inviting, and appealing — 7,300 days — and on the 7,301st day, he may still walk away.
My heart isn’t strong enough to think about it for long.

What Can We Do?

So what can a father do? God doesn’t ask fathers (or mothers) to dictate what happens on our child’s 7,301st day — or on their first day, for that matter. Parenting never decisively determines a child’s destiny. Jotham could not be faithful for Ahaz. He could only be faithful in front of Ahaz.
You cannot bear your son’s guilt before the Lord. Only Christ can (Romans 3:23–25). You cannot give your daughter the gift of repentance and faith. Only God can (2 Timothy 2:25). You cannot perform the good works God has planned for your child. Only God can, through your children (Philippians 2:12–13; Ephesians 2:10), as the fruit of their own faith in him (James 2:26). As vulnerable and perilous as it may feel at times, we simply cannot guarantee our child’s godliness.
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow [my son or daughter] will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit [and believe or not believe]’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring” (James 4:13–14). Yet we do not know. Despite what it feels like most days, you and I do not control or dictate any final detail in our children’s lives. We can only faithfully provide, influence, discipline, teach, and train under the sovereign parenting of a far better Father.

Successful Parenting

We are not called to execute a complicated series of steps that secures a certain outcome in our child’s heart. As burdensome and impossible as that parenting technique seems, our flesh foolishly prefers it to trusting Someone else with our kids. No, success in parenting is not found in meticulously performing a process. Real success in parenting is taking today’s step in steadfast obedience to God’s word, by prayerful dependence on God’s strength, with open-handed faith in God’s plan — always relinquishing the short-term and long-term (even eternal) results to God’s will.
We all love the idea of open-handed faith in God’s plan — until it means our children might not believe in him. The irony in that tension is subtle, but thick. Do I trust God enough to let him decide what my child believes about God? As a father, if I’m honest, that feels even more intimidating than being tortured or martyred for my faith somewhere in the Middle East.
But if we are willing to trust God with our children’s futures, we can focus on parenting faithfully today, while pleading with him to move in their hearts and lead them to himself.

Your Child’s Real Father

The birth certificate may declare that our sons and daughters are legally dependent on us, but they belong, first and foremost, to God. We can’t give our children to him, because they have always been his — dreamed up in his infinite imagination, delicately knit together by his hands (Psalm 139:13–15), placed by him in this part of the world at this point in history (Acts 17:26), every day planned by him before there was even one (Psalm 139:16). We may wake up one day and realize we can trust him with our children, but the reality is he has never stopped parenting them.
Before Jotham could truly be a godly father to Ahaz, he had to surrender Ahaz to God. Like Abraham, walking precious Isaac up the mountain, we must trust that whatever God calls us to do or endure in parenting, he will provide. He may not choose what we would choose for our children, or provide exactly what we ask for, but he will not choose wrongly, and he will give us everything we need.

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