Jonadab- The Kind of Father every family need. I posting these excerpts from a bulletin post I wrote for our church .
Text: Jeremiah 35:1-18 (Recabites)
6 But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine….8 We have obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab son of Recab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine 9 or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. 10 We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab commanded us. 13 “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words?’ declares the LORD. 14 ‘Jonadab son of Recab ordered his sons not to drink wine and this command has been kept. To this day they do not drink wine, because they obey their forefather’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not obeyed me.
6 The descendants of Jonadab son of Recab have carried out the command their forefather gave them,18 Then Jeremiah said to the family of the Recabites, “This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed the command of your forefather Jonadab and have followed all his instructions and have done everything he ordered.’ 19 Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jonadab son of Recab will never fail to have a man to serve me.’ ”
Children become what their fathers make them.
+The power of a father words and his obedience to God hold great power in the lives of his children, when he demonstrates with his own life how his children and future generations should live.
As father we are to demonstrate our commitment to God by what we do, not just by what we say. What we say will only have greater impact when we live out our faith. We can only expect our children to do what we say when we live what we say ourselves.
+To be this kind of father we must be present and involved in our families, and in our churches.
Where are all the men?
Majority of men choose to be absent, this graph shows us the decline of men in our churches…. the findings show that there are often more women in our churches than men. There is decline of men in our congregations.
• The typical U.S. Congregation draws an adult crowd that’s 61% female, 39% male. This gender gap shows up in all age categories.
• On any given Sunday there are 13 million more adult women than men in America’s churches.
• This Sunday almost 25 percent of married, churchgoing women will worship without their husbands.
• A significant number of churchgoing men attend out of habit, unaffected by what they hear.
• Quite a few men go to church simply to keep their wives/mothers/girlfriends happy.
• The majority of men who attend church do nothing during the week to grow their faith. Source: Church for men.com
+ Live out what you say, and say what you want lived out.
Do not confuse your kids, we must be in or out! Don’t be a fake and a con, be true! Your children will not forget the real you. Fathers who do not live what they say risk the opportunity to influence future generations in their linage.
+The Recabites where a model for God to use as a demonstration because they fully obeyed God and their fore-father Recabs commands. If are faithful to our covenant with God, our lives and families will be exemplemnary in our communities and to the people of God. (v13b)
+If we are to have this kind of Legacy, we must allign our lives to obey all that God has commanded. God promises, that we will never fail to have a man serve him.
“ ‘Jonadab son of Recab will never fail to have a man to serve me.’ “
+ It is the faith of the fathers that will determine if the children will become practicing believers.
For some of us, God is calling us to be a father to the fatherless…if we fail we can only expect to be brought into account for our inept to do undue wrongs in the life of the fatherless in our congregations, families, and communities. Let us not neglect to reach out and undue the bad and plight that will befall the fatherless.
+Malachi 3:5 5 “So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty.
+Deut 24:17 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
The plight of the fatherless: Statistics
+According to 72.2 % of the U.S. population, fatherlessness is the most significant family or social problem facing America.
+An estimated 24.7 million children (36.3%) live absent from their biological father.
+”Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse”–Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
+Children growing up in single-parent households are at a significantly increased risk for drug abuse as teenagers. –Source: Denton, Rhonda E. and Charlene M. Kampfe.
+In studies involving over 25,000 children using nationally representative data sets, children who lived with only one parent had lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, poor attendance records, and higher drop out rates than students who lived with both parents. –Source: Growing up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.
+School children from divorced families are absent more, and more anxious, hostile, and withdrawn, and are less popular with their peers than those from intact families. –Source: One-Parent Families and Their Children:
1) 43% of US children live without their father [US Department of Census]
2) 90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]
3) 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes. [Criminal Justice & Behaviour, Vol 14, pp. 403-26, 1978]
4) 71% of pregnant teenagers lack a father. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, Friday, March 26, 1999]
5) 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]
6) 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. [Center for Disease Control]
7) 90% of adolescent repeat arsonists live with only their mother. [Wray Herbert, “Dousing the Kindlers,” Psychology Today, January, 1985, p. 28]
71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. [National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools]
9) 75% of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. [Rainbows f for all God’s Children]
10) 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions have no father. [US Department of Justice, Special Report, Sept. 1988]
11) 85% of youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home. [Fulton County Georgia jail populations, Texas Department of Corrections, 1992]
12) Fatherless boys and girls are: twice as likely to drop out of high school; twice as likely to end up in jail; four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. [US D.H.H.S. news release, March 26, 1999]
Fathers Day DC
God is a defender of the fatherless
+Here is a great practical way to be a father to the FATHERLESS and be a defense for them.
Fr: My friend J. DelRio (NY)
Here are some thought on “FATHERING” the fatherless:
1. Frame the issue so it’s personal. Allow God to turn your heart toward a real child.
2. Ask God for eyes to see and ears to hear the need in your local context.
3. Take the initiative to reach out to the specific child, and his/her family, in creative ways.
4. Hold onto the relationship for the long-term.
5. Endure the down-times, misbehavior, and possible resentment that you’re not biologically related.
6. Resist the urge to preach all the time. Meeting felt needs by being present and involved goes much farther than having all the right answers.
7. Invest in their future by exposing them to and even financing educational and professional opportunities.
8. Notice and praise both their character and achievements.
9. Guide them through life’s milestones: school graduations, adolescence, first crushes, weddings, etc.
More like this here: http://jeremydelri.com/blog/?p=206
Thanks to those of you who have been praying for our family. Yesterday we completed our home inspection with CYFD. In just a few days we (Panch and I) will be licensed foster care parents in Rio Arriba County. Our hope is to become adoptive parents….
