Love All People, including Your Children

I realize that there are many different issues that serve as “roadblocks” to having and raising children in our day. There is the financial issue, the educational issue, and the issue with the world. Wherever we look and whatever we do, we find problems that we seek to overcome, with the help and blessing of God. But what about a related matter—that of what a child is taught and how he or she is to live?

Years ago, in the public school in which I received my first 8 grades of education (I would not at all advise this today), they had a yearly tradition of providing a movie for the students to watch. As I recall, the whole school went to this event (as you can see, it was a rather small school, before the contemporary consolidated schools).

This would have been before the days of the television (TV), thus it was somewhat of a looked-for experience. One of those years, we saw a movie about “Lassie”—the proverbial Scottish female collie dog. Then there was “Black Beauty” which was about a horse. On another occasion (the point of our message), we saw “Cheaper by the Dozen.” I suppose that the idea was that children were “cheaper” if a family had 12 children to raise.

None of these, of course, was a “Christian” movie, and (of course) as a child of God I wouldn’t agree with the pride, the play-acting (of which movies are rampant), etc. that we see in movies in general. Yet we do want to express ourselves in ways that make sense.

Interestingly, just last week I just watched a movie entitled “Sabrina” which dealt with the wife of Richard Wurmbrand (the martyr from Romania, and his wife, Sabrina. You may have heard or read of Richard. Of course, he and his wife are gone now, but the film does make a point that we need to take to heart. As a recap, the true movie goes back about a hundred years when this Romanian couple sought to do the right thing (at least as it was and is depicted) even when the Nazi regime was in power. The Romanian government was Communistic. As you know, all of this was against the ways of Christ as found in the New Testament of our Bible.

We do need to deal with the deception, the false doctrine, and much more found in the movie as well as found in unbelieving nations to this day. As we go to Operation World, edited by Jason Mandriyk, the 7th edition and published by Ywampublishing.com, we learn that. Romania (south of Ukraine and Moldova and north of Bulgaria and Servia, is about 87% Orthodox and 5 % Catholic as well as 6% Protestant. The movie does show that the Wurmbrands were Lutherans. Richard Wurmbrand was a Lutheran pastor. So much could be said about all of this, however we must deal with the fact that the Wurmbrands were in a false religion (I left the Lutheran Church when I was 15) and he had a position that was false (a pastor). Elsewhere on this website we have dealt with the false teachings that we find in very sincere and devoted people.

What about Russia, their closest large neighbor, to the north and east? As you know, Russia, the largest country in the world (in land), is much in the news these days. According to the above-mentioned book, it is 80% Russian ethnically and in language, 2% Ukrainian, and 0.6% Belarusian. Caucasus is 3.8%, Finno-Ugric is 2%, Turkic-Altaic is 8%. Various religions are represented by these people. Some 64% are Orthodox, 12% are Muslims, and 19% are non-religious. (We have all probably heard of the rampant atheism and evolutionism found in this country.)

In the same book, we read this about “religion” in general: “The Church in Russia has suffered some of the most severe and sustained persecution of any nation in recent history. Deaths in the Gulag (prison camps) between 1920 and 1990 are reckoned at 20 million; many prisoners were Christians. Up to 200,000 Christian leaders were martyred. Of the 100,000 church-owned buildings in 1920 (mainly orthodox), almost none, by 1940, were in use by Christians; they had been seized or destroyed. Structures and ministries were emasculated or manipulated, leadership was cowed into compliance and compromise. Christians and their children were discriminated against and millions were consigned to years of imprisonment, exile or psychiatric ‘treatment’ treatment.” We think that this small survey of the repression and evil persecution of those who profess Christ in Russia does let us know the extent to which the Russian government has either killed or slain or maltreated “Christians” in this well-known country.

Now we must add this: Most of these people were not true followers of Christ; most were false religionists who claimed to be Christians but (as you can see) most were not truly saved. But this fact should not cause us to fail to see the devotion of these people. Even though they say that some 20 million were slain and even now most of those who claim to be Christians are not, still we must see the commitment of these men and women in this populous country!

The question that we must ask relates to those countries where many people do claim to be “Christians.” Sadly, although there may be some people in certain of these countries, we must point out that most (nearly all) of them are not saved. They surely are not true and genuine believers in Christ.

What are we doing about these devoted people (we say they are devoted but, of course, we know that most are not even “devoted”)? Are you and I reaching these men and women, according to Christ’s command in Mark 16:15 or Matthew 28:18-20 or Luke 23:46-47? Are we seeking to reach these people with the “good news” of Christ and are we presenting them with a way of following Jesus that may be different from what they have learned in the past and what they are doing now?

Friends, now is the time to touch their hearts with the truth and bring them the “good news” of Jesus. We would want to do this for our sake, for their sake, and especially for the sake of God Himself. He wants us to reach these committed people regardless of their present belief or disbelief, regardless of what they believe or not believe. May God be glorified through our efforts!