3 Heroic Lessons to Teach Your Kids

“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

– Deuteronomy 6:5

This year on Father’s Day, I was reminded of what a privilege it is to be called “dad” by my four girls. Research has consistently confirmed that fathers are essential in a child’s life. Without a father in the home, we know that teens and young adults have an increased likelihood of struggling with depression and anger and drugs and crime. So, dads, your role in the home is much more important than you may realize.

If you search the pages of God’s Word, you will discover many heroic lessons that parents should pass on to their kids. Let me share with you three of the most important ones. And as an added bonus, these lessons aren’t just for dads and their kids. These four lessons are for everyone who desires to please God and follow Jesus Christ.  

Lesson 1: Trust in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5). More than anything else that we want for our kids, we should want them to be saved. And they will never be saved unless they trust in the Lord with all their hearts. The following verse adds, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

One of the most important things we can teach our kids is how to make good and godly decisions. When they’re grown, our kids will have to make thousands of decisions without us. So, I encourage you, from time to time, to let your kids know about a big decision you have to make and invite them to join you in praying for God’s guidance. Ask your kids to stand at the crossroads and seek God’s wisdom with you. And when He gives it to you, trust Him and obey His leading together.

2. Fear the Lord and shun evil (Proverbs 3:7). I’m afraid most Christian parents these days do a much poorer job of teaching this lesson than our grandparents did. For one reason or another, parents today are hesitant to teach their kids to “fear” God. Churches used to preach more often about fire and brimstone, and Christian parents used to be better at getting the point across to their kids that disobedience equals pain and punishment.

Many older adults can remember getting the belt or the wooden spoon. Those of us who did quickly learned to have a healthy fear of mom and dad’s punishment. That being the case, it was easier for us to connect the dots and see that we should have a healthy fear of God’s punishment when we choose to rebel and sin.

3. Love the Lord with everything you’ve got. Deuteronomy 6:5 tells us, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” And Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:38 that this is the first and most important command. That’s because if you obey this command, you will—at the same time—obey every other command. We must instill a heart for prayer in our kids. And while we’re at it, we must instill a heart for God’s Word in our kids. And we need to be instilling a heart for the church in our kids. Our kids should learn to love the Bride of Christ at a young age.

I’m deeply concerned about the younger generations of Americans. Too many of our youth are growing up without these lessons. Studies have shown that millennials—those who were born between 1981 & 1996—are the most unreached and unchurched generation in the history of our country. On their heels is Generation Z—those who were born roughly between 1996 and 2015—and early indications are that this group is faring even worse.

Parents, if we’re serious about protecting our kids from the pull of Satan and the pull of this sinful world, we have to teach them to love God with everything they’ve got. We have to prioritize prayer in our homes every day. We have to prioritize reading God’s word in our homes every day. We have to prioritize attending and serving at a church every week. And we have to be on our knees fighting for the souls of our kids and grandkids.

Many years ago, Dr. James Dobson’s dad said it well: “The greatest delusion is to suppose that our children will be devout Christians simply because their parents have been, or that any of them will enter into the Christian faith in any other way than through their parents’ deep travail of prayer and faith.”

Most churched kids stop attending church regularly during their college years—and for many, that decision is pre-meditated. While they’re attending church as teens, they fully intend to walk away from it once they move out. They plan to move OUT of mom and dad’s house and move ON from church.

That breaks my heart. And I hope it breaks your heart too. The spiritual lostness and apathy of our younger generations compel me to step up my efforts to be a better dad than I have been. I must be more dedicated and consistent in teaching my girls to Trust God, Fear God, and Love God. You and I must fight for the souls of our kids and grandkids. And then maybe…just maybe…their hearts will be set ablaze with an unquenchable love for God.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Please join us for our LIVE outdoor worship services Sundays at 8 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. at 17746 George Blvd. in Victorville. Or, join us online at 10 a.m. at Live.GreaterImpact.cc, on our YouTube channel (Impact Christian Church) or on Facebook.

So, You Want to Be Great?

“For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.” – Luke 9:48b

Just about every sports expert agrees that Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers of all time. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years. Sports Illustrated ranked him as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. And ESPN ranked him as the third greatest athlete of the 20^th century.

But as famous as he was in boxing, Muhammad Ali was best known for his trash talking. Before rap and hip-hop became mainstream, he would rattle off taunts and verbal jabs that were sheer poetry. Before fighting George Foreman, he said: “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.” And here are a few of his other classic lines: “I’m so mean, I make medicine sick!” “If you even dream of beating me, you’d better wake up and apologize!” And one of his most famous quotes of all was, “I am the greatest! I said that even before I knew I was!”

Let’s just say that Muhammad Ali was not what you’d call a humble guy, and that made him really entertaining. But when that kind of arrogance is carried out by followers of Christ, who are supposed to be humbly serving others, it’s downright tragic.

And in Luke 9, it would appear that humility wasn’t on the minds of Jesus’ disciples. Luke tells us in verse 46 that the 12 disciples got into an argument “as to which of them would be the greatest.” Now, because James and John had just seen Jesus gloriously transformed a few days earlier on the Mount of Transfiguration, and because we read in Matthew 20 that a few weeks later James and John came with their mommy to ask Jesus to give them the best seats in heaven, I think it’s safe to say that James and John were instigators of this argument. In short, some of the apostles were dealing with what I like to call “Muhammad Ali Syndrome.” They had over-inflated views of their own self-worth.

But Jesus put a stop to their chatter with a classic response. He brought a little child to stand beside him and told them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest” (v. 48). Writing about this incident, Chuck Swindoll said, “The response by Jesus is priceless…. He rebuked [his disciples] by embracing a child, someone too small, too weak, too helpless to be great. With the little boy standing with Him, Jesus rearranged the worldly pecking order. He upset the normal conventions of hierarchy in leadership. His speech was simple, consisting of three statements.”

And what were those three statements? 1) Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me. 2) Whoever welcomes me welcomes God the Father. 3) He who is least among you all is the greatest. And Mark offers us this powerful addendum to Jesus’ teaching in Mark 9:35: “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

We call this style of leadership “servant leadership.” And surprise, surprise, in the past 40 years, secular management gurus around the world have come to the conclusion that servant leadership is the most effective way for any CEO to lead. We lead others most effectively by serving others. Our greatness is not defined by how much we get others to serve us, but by how much we serve others.

Jesus’ definition of greatness is so different from the world’s definition of greatness. But sadly, far too many Christians choose to pursue greatness in the eyes of the world instead of greatness in the eyes of God. Far too many Christians pursue prestige, power and fame. But Jesus calls us back to a humbler, simpler Christianity—a Christianity marked by putting others’ needs above our own, by getting our hands dirty loving those whose lives are messy and undesirable, and by being the first to volunteer to be last.

On the heels of seeing Jesus in glorified form on the Mount of Transfiguration, what should have humbled James and John actually had caused their heads to swell. Jesus’ teaching about humbly serving others completely escaped them. It didn’t sink in. They so wanted to be great, but they just didn’t get it. They were still clueless about what true greatness looks like in Jesus’ kingdom. At this point in time, they were clueless, but in the days following Easter Sunday, their eyes would be opened. They would finally understand the truth, and they would be changed forever.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church of Victorville and the author of "Holy Huldah! Lessons You'll Never Forget From Bible Characters You Never Heard Of." Visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com, and join us for our Worship Celebration Sundays at 10 a.m.

Do All Babies Go to Heaven?

“Now that [my child] is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” – 2 Samuel 12:23

A few years ago I served as a volunteer chaplain at Victor Valley Community Hospital. One of my main duties was to officiate at the hospital’s quarterly Fetal Memorial Service at Victor Valley Memorial Park. When a pre-born baby is miscarried prior to twenty weeks gestation, most hospitals discard the fetus as “biological waste.” But in recent years, Victor Valley Hospital and St. Mary’s have partnered with Victor Valley Mortuary and Sunset Hills to cremate the babies’ remains and offer a free Fetal Memorial Service for the grieving families.

Each time that I speak at one of these special services, I do my best to offer words of comfort and hope. I want to be able to give the moms and dads some level of assurance that their little ones are safe and sound in the arms of our loving God. This was also the case last year when I presided over a funeral for a ten-day-old baby boy who died of SIDS. As the boy’s mom stood in stunned silence in front of her son’s tiny casket, I wanted to assure her, “Your son is in a much better place, and you will see him again.” But does God’s Word support such a bold statement?

I believe it does. In Romans 1:18-20, we are told that God has revealed His power and character to men and women everywhere. Throughout nature and even within our own consciences God has left His unmistakable fingerprint—clear evidence that He is a powerful, intelligent and just Creator. That being the case, God’s word reveals in Romans 1:20 that those who reject God and His laws “are without excuse.” God’s eternal judgment is based on two things: 1) a conscious rejection of God’s revelation regarding the way to salvation, and 2) a conscious disobedience to God’s commands.

The fact is: The majority of human beings have no excuse for rejecting God’s grace through Jesus Christ and disobeying His laws. But could it be that there are some human beings who do have a valid excuse? If so, babies and young children would seem to fall into this category, especially in the light of the following verses.

After King David’s baby boy died in 2 Samuel 12, the king told his servants, “Now that [my son] is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” You may remember that David concludes his most famous psalm (the 23^rd Psalm) with these words: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It’s clear from David’s writings that he believed he would live eternally in the presence of the Lord. That being the case, when David said, “I will go to him” in 2 Samuel 12:23, it seems clear that David believed his young son would be with him in heaven.

This conclusion is reinforced by Matthew 19:13-15 and Mark 10:13-16 where Jesus tells his disciples, “‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.” Note that Jesus doesn’t say, “If these little kids died today, they’d go straight to heaven.” But he sure seems to indicate that babies and young children are innocent of sin before God.

Although the Bible doesn’t come right out and say that babies and young children are exempt from God’s requirement of personal faith in Christ and repentance in order to be saved, it seems to imply it. After all, if God’s eternal judgment is based on a conscious rejection of God’s revelation regarding salvation and a conscious disobedience to His commands, how could God condemn to Hell those who are incapable of understanding and responding to the gospel? And since the New Testament is clear that there are only two possible eternal destinations (heaven or hell), all babies and young children must live eternally in heaven. And the same could be said of individuals suffering from mental handicaps. It seems clear to me that teens and adults who don’t have the intellectual capacity to understand and/or embrace the message of salvation through Christ will similarly receive God’s eternal grace in lieu of His eternal judgment.

Where does that leave you and me? Well, you and I have heard the Gospel message loud and clear. We have heard and understood the truth that Jesus lived, died, was buried and rose again on the third day. We have heard and understood that it is only by accepting His grace that we can be saved. You and I have consciously turned our backs on our Creator and consciously disobeyed His commands. You and I know this. We understand this. Therefore, we are without excuse.

If you continue to reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and continue living in disobedience to His commands, God’s just wrath will fall on you. So, God calls out from the pages of Scripture: Turn to Christ! Place your trust in Him as Lord and Savior and walk in obedience to His commands! Babies and the mentally handicapped have an excuse for not submitting their lives to Christ. But you don’t. You are without excuse.         

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information,

visit www.fccvv.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 am.