M.A.D.D.
“Mother’s Against The Devil’s Devices”
Genesis 3:15
M.A.D.D.
Mothers Against The Devils Devices!!!
In the early 1700s the Devil seemed to have England under his total control:
1. The dominate teaching in most churches was a philosophy called deism, which basically said God created the world and then left it. According to the deists God was no more than a creative force.
2. Churches, therefore, were corrupt, and the nation without spiritual or moral leadership , was faltering fast!Morality was despised! Virtually non-existent!
3. The nation was known for the gin-craze, every sixth house in London had become a gin shop!
4. The national pastimes were games involving the torture and killing of animals, crime had run rampant, to the point that 160 crimes were punishable by death. The moral low sunk to the degree that hangings became gala events.
5. The nation was characterized by: the rule of the mob, nick-named Sir Mob, child-abuse, poverty, alcoholism, and rat infested over-crowded prisons!
Yet in the midst of this ….
a religious revival burst forth … which changed in a few years the whole temper of the English society. The church was restored to life and activity. Religion carried to the hearts of the people a fresh spirit of moral zeal, while it purified our literature and manners. A new philanthropy reformed our prisons, infused clemency and wisdom into our penal laws, abolished the slave trade, and gave the first impulse to popular education. J.R. Green – A Short History of the English People.
What happen??? Where did the Devils fool proof plan fail???
1st, God — the WHY? of any revival starts with the Spirit of God!
2nd, Gods man — George Whitefield, a study of the history of this revival shows that his open-air preaching was truly its first direct human spark!
3rd, George Whitefields mom — her baby George was the seventh of seven children, one whom she dedicated to the Lord in prayer!
Where the Devil first failed was with the heart of a simple woman who kept praying for her youngest son, whom she raised to serve the Lord, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. He failed by allowing this woman to desire and have seven children!Genesis 3:15 shows us that the Devil always has hatred for godly women and their children. What strategies is the Devil using against women today???
1. Devils Device #1 He would have women think of children more as BURDENS, and less as BLESSINGS!The Bible presents children as unqualified blessings from God, not a single verse says anything about the so called wisdom of limiting family size! (If this is wisdom, it is not wisdom from God!!!!)
NAS Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. 5 How BLESSED is the man whose quiver is full of them; They shall not be ashamed, When they speak with their enemies in the gate.
NAS Genesis 17:2 “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.”
NAS Genesis 17:20 “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will BLESS him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
NAS 1 Samuel 2:20 Then Eli would BLESS Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the LORD give you children from this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD.” And they went to their own home.
NAS Hebrews 6:14 saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU, AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.”
But some might say to me Arnie You Dont Know Children Are Burdens!!!
Well, yes they are, yet they are blessed burdens!!!
Max Heine in Children Blessing or Burden puts it like this —
Children Are BURDENS! It is no exaggeration to say that they require everything from a to Z. They need to be Answered, Bathed, Combed, Diapered,Encouraged, Fed, Groomed, Helped, Instructed, Judged, Kissed, Led, Managed,Nurtured, Observed, Praised, Quiet, Reminded, Spanked, Trained, Utilized, Valued, Wedded, X-Rayed, and Yearned-for-Zealously!!!
For dads the biggest concern is often the need of children to be provided for financially. Yet, even in this children eventually give back more than they take!
In a January 1989 article in World Magazine E. Calvin Beisner provided the following statistics —
You know how the magazines love to tell you how much it costs to raise a child? Well, consider these statistics. The average person will represent a combined liability or economic cost, of $192,600 during his first 18 years plus his lifetime after retirement at age 65. But the same person will occasion the production, directly or indirectly, of goods and services worth, if a male, $55,277 per year, or, if a female, $26,680 per year, from age 18 to 65. This means the average male occasions the production of $2,598,000 worth of goods and services during his lifetime and the average female will occasion the production of $1,253,960 worth of goods and services in her lifetime. This means the average males net worth to society … will be $2,405,400, and the average females $1,061,300 … figuring solely on the basis of measurable income, not including the tremendous value of the unpaid work people – especially woman – perform at home.
What do these stats say to our current and future problems concerning social security??? Are not these caused by the lack of young people, due to birth control and abortion, as much as they are by the increased health of the aged, yet the media will never say so — they would rather keep abortion and do away with our elderly through euthanasia!!!!
NAS Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
The Devil would have us focus our attention on the burden and the cost!!!! God tells us children ARE BLESSINGS? Who will you believe???
2. Devils Device #2 He would have us belittle the Role of Wife and Mother!!!!Why????
Because he knows motherhood is part of Gods perfect plan for women!
NAS 1 Timothy 5:14 Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach; 15 for some have already turned aside to follow Satan.
NAS 1 Timothy 2:11 Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression. 15 But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.
What could the Devil possibly gain by getting women who were on fire for the Lord, to give themselves wholeheartedly to ministering, maybe even preaching and teaching in the Church?
Well, there might be many answers to this question — 1. They keep men from roles that men often sinfully avoid because of spiritual laziness! But 2. And most important, They keep themselves from that which God created them, the role of child bearing, by their business with other things!!!
John Calvin in interpreting 1 Timothy 2:11-15 applied this to the nuns in the Churches of his day … they may have thought they were doing holy work, yet they were not working according to Gods will! Women being saved in child bearing does not mean that they are not saved like men, by the righteous work of Jesus on the cross, because the are saved in that way, just like men. Yet, what it means is — women will show the truth of their salvation, will work out their salvation with fear and trembling by being faithful to the work God called them to, and work no man could do, that of bearing children! There is no higher calling!!!!So the Devil would have women despised for what God values most!!!!
It is no coincidence that the most despised lines of work in an ungodly day are the work of the pastor for men, and the work of the mother for women! Is not this what we see all around us today???
Because he knows faithful motherhood has a important part in the advancement of Gods Kingdom!!!!
1. The mother of George Whitefield mentioned earlier is an example of this!!!
2. 80% of ministers and most Christians were raised in Christian homes!!!
Why are Muslims so successful??? The average Muslim family today has over 6 children. The Average professing Christian home today averages less then two!!!
No wonder the Devil has made such great advances in our society!!!
3. Devils Device #3 To propagate Lies!!!! Such as the myth of over-population!!!
NAS John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.
The Bible says,
NAS Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
This is one commandment from God many Christians today consider to be already fulfilled and so no longer applicable …Where is this idea taught in Scripture???? Is it???
In 1968 a man named Paul Ehrlich, wrote a book called The Population Bomb.Though he presented it as scientific and based on truth, and it was accepted as such, and still is, its contents were pure fiction. Immature Christians who predict the coming of Christ on a certain date and are proven wrong are often lambasted by the media!!!! But what about fools like Ehrlich??? In his book he predicted that overpopulation in the United States and in the world, would result in a famine that would directly or indirectly kill sixty-five million Americans between 1980 and 1989, – Did any of you feel the effects of this famine???? Yet even today the man is still respected and the false fears he promoted of over-population continue to be propagated and used by ungodly government to bilk our people for money for unnecessary population control programs!!!!
Lie of the DEVIL!!!!!!!!!
Application:
1. Dont believe everything you see on T.V. or read in the newspapers!!!
2. Honor Your Mother!!! She deserves it!!! Especially if she has dedicated herself to faithful raising of children to the glory of God!!!
3. Encourage mothers to see their children as Blessings, not burdens, or at least as MUCH Blessings as burdens!!! How often because we have even three children, have we heard the saying (in a negative tone) You sure have your hands full!!! Sometimes worse things are said, especially to mothers who have more children!!! Let us start looking at our children through BIBLE COLORED GLASSES, and not according to the opinions of an ungodly world!!!
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