Isaac Crockett: Hello and welcome to the program. Thank you so much for listening. I’m Isaac Crockett and joining me today is the president of the American Pastors Network, Sam Rohrer, those of you who have been listening over the last couple of weeks know that he’s been phoning in some from his Jerusalem journey and he’s back from that and he’s actually in the studio, so we’ll be talking more with him and just a bit. And then also Dr. Gary Dull, senior pastor of the Faith Baptist Church in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He’s our executive director for the Pennsylvania Pastors Network, is also here with us today. And here we are the day after Fathers’ Day. We just celebrated, you know, big day to remember our dads, our fathers and father figures and spiritual fathers. But we want to talk today about Biblical expectations for Godly fathers, Biblical expectations for Godly men and for parents, grandparents, people in the church, people younger than you that you have a sphere of influence over.
Isaac Crockett: I was just hearing on the National Public Radio today about the epidemic we have with pornography, with children and teens getting into this and the destructive lifestyle that this is posing for our whole nation. And so there’s a lot that parents play a part with this and fathers in particular, grandfather’s, father figures, even if it’s someone who’s not your own biological child being, a father figure towards. And so there’s a lot to talk about on that. But before we go that direction, we do need to welcome Sam Rohrer back to the Stand in the Gap studio. He’s back in his regular chair back on the program in person here in the United States. So Sam, welcome back from your journey around the world, I guess.
Sam Rohrer: Isaac, it’s great to be back and yeah, you’re right. In my actual seat here in Elverson, Pennsylvania, which a lot of folks, if they’re in Pennsylvania, they may know where that is, but across the country, this studio here is about midway about an hour northwest of Philadelphia. So that’s where it is. But it’s good to be sitting here and I’m looking around at familiar sights. When I was able to call in last week, Isaac, on the program from Jerusalem, that was not home. It was a great place to visit but I am glad to be back. So it’s great to be here and to be a part of the program with you leading today and then Gary on as well. So it’s a real treat.
Isaac Crockett: And Sam, you know, you’re just fresh back from just a couple of days ago getting back to the United States from Israel and I think you went via a stop in Europe or I don’t know how all you got there, I know most of the time was there in the Middle East, but you’ve been flying now you’ve gone from the dry, dry weather of Israel to the wet, humid weather we’ve been having the summer in the mid Atlantic region and between that and the jet lag and just kind of being on these big airlines that are Petri dish for all kinds of germs. I know that your body is probably a little under the weather, but we’re glad that you made it back not only in time for Fathers’ Day, but that you were willing and able physically to be here today with us this Monday program, and so we want to look in just a little bit at an article you actually wrote for Fathers’ Day that was published in some different places.
Isaac Crockett: Christian Post published it this weekend because it was about Fathers’ Day and we want to talk about that, but before that we really want to just get a little update from you. Some of the regular listeners heard you last week and the week before it gives some brief updates, but for all of the listeners, those included and maybe some who weren’t able to listen on Wednesday, we just want to find out what happened with the Jerusalem prayer breakfast with your Jerusalem journey that you were on and just maybe you could kind of review a little bit of what that was. You were invited to be a part of this, you know, breakfast and a little bit of what transpired at that Jerusalem prayer breakfast.
Sam Rohrer: Yeah, absolutely, Isaac, and glad to report really that that event that’s been called the Jerusalem prayer breakfast, this was the third year that it has happened. It started obviously three years ago upon a resolution passed by the Knesset. The chair of that committee of that breakfast is an Orthodox Jew who is a part of the Knesset and the vice chair is former congresswoman Michele Bachmann. And those who listen to this program know Michele because she’s on this program with us often and she will be joining us again in about three weeks on both our TV and radio program here and we’ll talk more about all that’s going on around the world. But that event was set up to establish the framework by which Christians around the world and Jewish people, committed to Israel, could gather together to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, which is what we are commanded to do.
Sam Rohrer: And in this era when so much of the world is increasingly hostile to the Jews and Israel, but we have been so blessed in this last year to see what President Trump has done in becoming really the most friendly and supportive President of Israel and Jerusalem that all of these things together that have occurred here are all a part of the emphasis of this prayer breakfast. So this prayer breakfast was a great deal of thanking God for what he has done through President Trump in moving the embassy to Jerusalem, for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and for recognizing the Golan Heights as territory belonging to Israel, which was done last month. All of those things were all cited as answers to prayer, Isaac and Gary, because they were specific prayer requests of the previous two prayer breakfasts. The walkaway prayer request was that President Trump and the other nations of the world would recognize Jerusalem as the capital.
Sam Rohrer: Well, lo and behold it has happened. So those were the elements of it. This prayer breakfast, the walk away was that in this political crisis in Israel when there is no Knesset and awaiting a new election September 17th, that in this time of historic time, because there is no functioning government per se, that God would raise up and move in the hearts of people, members, potential members of the Knesset who would be God fearing that God would move them into position in the September election, believing that God has big things planned for Israel, and therefore having God fearing people in the Knesset would contribute to the furtherance of God’s plan. That’s the walkaway prayer from this prayer breakfast that I was a part of.
Isaac Crockett: That’s such a powerful example of God answering prayer. It’s just such a wonderful reminder. Gary, I know on air a little bit and then off air, we were talking about the timing of this Jerusalem prayer breakfast, last time Sam was on. I’d like to get your comment, what you think, I know you have some questions for Sam, which we’ll get to maybe after the break, but why you think it’s so important to have a prayer breakfast in Jerusalem at this time?
Gary Dull: Well, certainly because the Bible tells us to do so. In Psalm 122 in verse 6, it says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee.” And you know, as we talked about this last week Jimmy DeYoung was emphasizing that the element behind that particular challenge, is to pray for the return of the Messiah, that he may come and bless Jerusalem in Israel. But there are many things going on over in that land. And I think getting together to pray for it and to pray for God’s direction and that the people there will see how God leads is so significant. So I think this is just a very right time for such a prayer breakfast to occur.
Isaac Crockett: What a great reminder of pointing everything back to Christ.
Isaac Crockett: Welcome back to the program. Again, thank you for listening. I’m Isaac Crockett. I’m joined today by the president of the American Pastors Network. Sam Rohrer, he is back from Jerusalem and also Dr. Gary Dull, the executive director of our Pennsylvania state Pastors Network. As we’ve talk about this trip, Sam took to Israel his time with the Knesset at the Jerusalem prayer breakfast and just so many neat and wonderful things were going on. If you want to hear more about this, please don’t forget to go online to our online archives. You can get to that by going to standinthegapradio.com, standinthegapradio.com and while you’re there you can check out all kinds of other resources, both archives of our radio show as well as our television show and many other things you could do there.
Isaac Crockett: But we want to talk a little bit about what was going on over there in Israel and Gary, before we go back to Sam about his recent trip there in the Middle East. I’m curious, you’re involved with so many different things, but one of the big things you’re involved with at your church is a mission board that your church started. And with that you have traveled to many countries to train pastors and to check up on things. What is it about taking a trip to Israel in particular that is so especially beneficial and different than just going somewhere else in the world, especially for you as a pastor. But for any of our listeners thinking about this, we’ve talked about this in the past about actually going to, you know, as they call it, the Holy Land.
Gary Dull: I’ll tell you what, I want to go back. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve been over there, Isaac, and one of the things that I think of every time I think of going to Israel is that it brings the Bible to life. I mean when, for instance, you read in the Bible that they went up to Jerusalem from Jericho. When you’re over there climbing the mountain from Jericho to Jerusalem, you begin to understand what it’s all about. You see the geography of it. And not only that, but when you go to the various places, whether it’s the place of Calvary, where the tomb of Jesus Christ was, or go up around the Sea of Galilee and see the various things that the Bible speaks of, it really brings the word of God to life. And my recommendation to every pastor is this. If you get the opportunity to go to Israel, please do it because it will make the Bible come to life for you in your teaching and in your preaching. It’s a very, very advantageous thing for every pastor to do. Every person, every Christian, but particularly for pastors.
Isaac Crockett: All right, Sam, for a followup then you just did this, you were over there, you’re in good shape, so I guess you were able to climb everything okay, climb every mountain, follow every rainbow or whatever the song was, but you were able to fit a lot into the short trip. But even still, you were just kind of skimming the top, so to speak, because you had a lot of duties with the prayer breakfast and things. But what are some of the places that really stick out in your mind from this journey that you’ve just returned from?
Sam Rohrer: Well, Isaac, there were several things that stood out to me. One was what Gary just mentioned, because I commented when I was going on the bus, when we were going from Jericho, we had been down at the Dead Sea. We visited Jericho, which is down at the Dead Sea and we were going to Jerusalem, and as Gary actually said, it takes on an entirely different light when you read scripture, when it talks about them walking up to Jerusalem or in going down to Jericho, it’s not just like, you know, might refer to the closest town where you live, where you’re going to go up to this town, down to that town. It literally, it is up or down by more than 1000 feet, it’s a climb. And when you realize that Jerusalem or Zion as it’s called, is on the mountain and the Dead Sea is way below sea level, and Jericho’s way down there, that when you consider Jerusalem and Jericho, Zacchaeus, that occurred in Jericho, and the Lord were there.
Sam Rohrer: That was a long trip, a particularly long trip coming back up to Jerusalem, on those little trails. But that was one thing that stood out to me. The other things stood out to me was that when the scripture talks about Israel being reassembled to the land, the actual coming back, which they did in 1948 is a fulfillment of prophecy a nation born in a moment. Well now you see a nation born in a moment struggling, growing, but wow, what has God done? It’s an amazing thing, but one of the other prophetical parts talks about that desert begins to bloom. I learned when I was there, we were told that the part of the reason that entire area was so barren and so desert is that it is dry, but there were no trees on it when Israel started, because under the Ottoman Empire rule, when the Ottomans, when the Muslims were in control, they actually put a tax on people based on the trees that were on their property.
Sam Rohrer: So what do you do when something’s taxed? You try to get rid of it. So they cut the trees down. So that contributed to why there’s no trees, but now you go there. There are trees everywhere. They’ve planted millions of trees all over that country. The date palms are just thousands of acres of date palms that are growing up out of the middle of nowhere, in the northern part of the country that cultivated ground, the wheat fields. I mean it is an amazing thing to see. Again, scripture talking about a dry desert, beginning to bloom. All of those things just point us to the fact that the return of the Lord is really, really close. And if I could, I’ll share one other thing. The other thing that really highlighted my trip was I went to the Wailing Wall, the West Wall, the only remaining portion of the original temple that is there.
Sam Rohrer: And people all remember seeing the pictures of the Jewish men and women going and they’re standing before the wall and they’re going up and down as they’re praying and they’re sitting at stools around reading scrolls and all, they’re praying for the Messiah to come. I went to that wall. I didn’t know what I would feel, but I actually went to that wall and I put my hands on that wall the same way that millions of other people have done. And I’m telling you, I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, Lord, I need to pray when I’m here. And so I did pray. I prayed for six things. I don’t think I’ll give them all right now, but I prayed for six things and I wrote them down when I was done. But I actually cried when I stand under that wall because one, I’m praying for the Jewish people that are around me, who don’t yet know that Yeshua has come.
Sam Rohrer: And so they’re praying that Yeshua, the Messiah will come. I’m praying right alongside of them and I’m thanking God that Yeshua has come. And so that really touched my heart. So I’m praying for the Jewish people that are standing around me in the nation that they would awaken. But then I prayed for my family. I prayed for what the prayer breakfast plea was, that God would raise up God fearing members of the Knesset. And I prayed that God would raise up God fearing people in the American election in 2020 because we need it here terribly. So I prayed over those things that were there and I thought maybe, Gary, I have a question for you. Let’s see what you think about it. But I’m thinking, you know, we as believers right now know that when Christ was crucified, that temple that was right there where I was, God rent the veil from top to bottom, giving us the opportunity to walk right into the presence of God.
Sam Rohrer: So all of us who know Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can go to prayer before God, anywhere in the world at any time. We don’t have to go to the temple in Jerusalem, but I thought, you know, on the other hand, there is something special about this place because when Christ does come back and sets up his kingdom, the nations of the world will come to that temple to worship. And I thought just some thoughts went through my head at that point, just to the reality that there is a special thing about this place because this is where God is going to rule. Christ is going to rule right there. And I thought it is something special. So a lot of things went through my mind at that point. Gary, were you there at that point? What thoughts went through your mind?
Gary Dull: And I am just reflecting as you’re talking about it Sam, and you know it is interesting. The Bible teaches that the nations of the world will come there and worship the Lord Jesus. He will rule and reign from there. I mean not only is there great history there, but there is a great future there and I think it does something for one’s spiritual life to be at a place like that and to remember what took place and to anticipate what is going to take place. That’s why I say that every Christian ought to go if they have the opportunity to see the land of Israel. My question to you, Sam, is you often see people writing things on a piece of paper and sticking them into a crack in the wall. They’re at the Wailing Wall. Did you do that?
Sam Rohrer: I actually did not put my prayer requests on a piece of paper, but I saw many did. And when I’m standing there and I’m looking up as far as I could reach and I’m looking over to my right and my left and literally every crack was filled with some piece of paper. So lots of people have done it. What I did, because I don’t think there’s a magical thing and I’m not sure that if I put in my prayer requests on that wall that people praying, that there’s going to be some association to my prayer request written on that piece of paper, but I did want to make sure that what I prayed for as God would bring it to my mind, I did note it. And when I stood there and God spoke to my heart and I did pray for specific things, I prayed for some family things. I prayed for APN and our ministry here and around the world. I prayed for the election coming up in Israel. I prayed for the election here in this nation, in the United States.
Sam Rohrer: What I determined that when I did leave that site and I did, I went over immediately to the side and I sat down and I wrote down everything that I prayed and I do have them on my phone so that I do know what I prayed for and God knows what I prayed for. So that’s how I dealt with that, Gary.
Isaac Crockett: But I want to talk about this need for men to really fulfill their God given role of fatherhood or being a father figure. And if you’re listening and you’re a woman or maybe you don’t have any children of your own, or your children are all grown, all of us have a duty, a responsibility to be helping the next generation. In fact, I was just reading in my devotions today after I read scripture and I like to read a lot of the older preachers and I was reading from JC Ryle who was a pastor over in England. He was born in 1815. And he wrote a book in 1877, so over 140 years ago. And in that book he says, “we live in a day of profound ignorance in some quarters.” He says, “there’s false teachers.” And he says this, he says, “I fear that thousands of men and women can render no reason of their faith and practice. They do not know why they believe or what they believe or why they do what they do. “Like children, they are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, they’re liable to be led astray.” He says “by clever heretics.” And he goes on.
Isaac Crockett: It is important, and I think all of you listening would agree that it is important for us to teach the next generation, especially our fathers. If you’re in a situation where that’s not possible, or maybe you know children or families that don’t have a father figure or don’t have a Godly father, that we do what we can to reach the younger generations with the truth. And so, Sam, you wrote an article for fathers. It was published, like I said in the Christian Post this past weekend. In fact, any of you listeners, you can go online to the Christian Post and you’ll see it there. Now the title was Five Things Fathers Can Teach Their Children This Fathers’ Day. We don’t have time to get into great detail on the entire article, but Sam, what are those five things that fathers can be teaching their children?
Sam Rohrer: Well, Isaac, these five things that I listed there comes from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 6 and it’s a great place to go. I really like reading the Old Testament and particularly in these sections here because God is giving commands to his nation. His people are good. And we’re talking about Israel and this program, right? This is the nation of Israel, the covenant people of God, the ones that God went to, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and said, I’m going to make of you a great nation and I’m going to do certain things for you and I want you to be blessed and I want you to be the head, not the tail, and I want you to be a light to the nations. And that was the key thing. So all the way through to the Jews, the reference of illustration of light, they understand well and they understand even there in Israel now, they are a shining city on a hill.
Sam Rohrer: Well, isn’t that what our founders said about the United States? But we were also by our founders, patterned this nation and the way we did things here after God’s commands, the Old Testament. So these principles are for all life and for all time. But these were God’s commands that he said, all right, now I’m going to bless you as a nation, but here’s some things that you need to do. And he told the fathers. Why that? Because fathers have the primary rule. We tend to get away from that in this country, but fathers have the primary responsibility for their families. Fathers should lead in the husband and wife relationship, and they should take the lead in their home. That’s a clear thing. And in this article that Christian Post published for us, this whole article, by the way, which people can find like Christian Post, you can give that link in a minute, but all of that is really the essence of last week’s minute programs that we did on Stand in the Gap minute.
Sam Rohrer: We embed each Stand in the Gap minute within each of our Stand in the Gap today programs. These are really the total compilation of the five programs of last week and that was put in the form here of a written piece. But all that being said, God said that the people here in Israel, I’ll give it just very quickly here, then we can go back and we can talk about it. But God said to this, he told fathers to teach our children five things. One, he said, we must lead our children to faith ain the Lord because he is only one God. In Deuteronomy 6:4 it says, “Hear, oh, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” That’s the first thing. Lead our children to faith in the Lord and that there is only one God.
Sam Rohrer: Secondly, we must lead our children to a fervor for the Lord by teaching them to love him with our whole heart and soul and mind. And that’s what verse 5 says of Deuteronomy chapter 6, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul and with all thy might.” Third thing is that we must lead our children to fear of the Lord because that is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Of course, the book of Proverbs tells us that, that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Sam Rohrer: Number four, we must lead our children to a familiarity of the Lord by learning of him daily, diligently, and that’s in verse 7 it says, “And thou shall teach your children diligently. Talk of them, of the scripture, what I’ve commanded you when you sit in thine house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise up.” And then number five, and then when God blesses, because if our children do these things, have faith in God, a fervor for the Lord, a familiarity with the Lord, of the Lord. If we do those things, then God will bless and he says, he will bless us. And then he says, when that happens, we must teach our children not to forget the Lord and what he’s done. In verse 12 he says, “When I do all these things for you, beware, lest thou forget the Lord, which brought you out of the land of Egypt.” So those are the things, faith in the Lord, fervor for the Lord, fear of the Lord, familiarity of the Lord, and then don’t forget the Lord when he blesses.
Isaac Crockett: Sam, excellent advice. Obviously very Biblical advice from right there in Deuteronomy, Moses’s teachings, and those of you who like to see the article at Christian Post, you can actually also find links to it on our social media. We’re going to be putting it up there. I just asked our producer, Tim, he’s going to be putting it on our Facebook and Twitter so you can look up Stand in the Gap Today. You can look up American Pastors Network and start following us or looking at that and you can get a link to there.
Isaac Crockett: Gary, you know what Sam is saying here about helping our children find faith in Jesus Christ, I think far too often, many parents think, oh no, maybe I send my kids to Sunday school or youth group, maybe even a Christian school or homeschool them with a Christian curriculum. And they think that somehow that abdicates them from needing to rear their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord because they’re paying somebody else to do it. Can you talk to our listeners a little bit as a father and a grandfather, for really any parent, any guardian out there about leading their children to have faith in Jesus Christ?
Gary Dull: Isaac, this is a very important subject to take into consideration and I might say first of all, full disclosure here, you know, as I go back about five generations, my grandparents, going back five generations, all knew the Lord and they all taught their children the things of God’s word. I fully believe that I am saved and in the ministry today because of the heritage that I have. The day that I was born, my granddad and his mother-in-law, my great grandmother, prayed that I would get saved and go into the ministry and I see what I’m doing today as an answer to their prayer. The Bible teaches us that we are teaching our children and our children’s children the things of God’s word. That means that we as parents and grandparents, do have the responsibility to teach our children about Christ and to bring them into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Gary Dull: Many parents neglect that. They put it off to the church or to the Sunday school or even a Christian school, but I firmly believe, Isaac, that the first responsibility of any parent is to bring that child to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as much as they possibly can. When I visit a parent, a mother, who’s just had a baby, right there and then I pray that at a young age, that child will trust Jesus Christ as savior and then grow to Christ through the instruction of the mom and the dad. I pray that same prayer when we publicly dedicate that child that the Lord, which is really the dedication of the parents to the Lord in bringing the child up in the things of God, but there’s a great responsibility there. You know when I go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 8 and it says, “But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” That shows me that a father has a great responsibility to teach his children the things of God that is emotionally, physically, materially, and socially, but most importantly spiritually.
Gary Dull: The first responsibility of the father is to teach his children about the things of the Lord and do everything that he can to see that child trusts Christ and if that is neglected according to 1 Timothy chapter 5 he’s denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. I’m not sure what all that means other than the fact that if a parent neglects to teach his children the things of God, he will answer to God for it. It’s a very important thing to do.
Isaac Crockett: You’re right, Gary, this is extremely important for all parents. Fathers in particular, but you know what? Even if you’re not a parent or maybe your children are grown. We all have opportunities to impact, to influence other young people around us and we should be looking for opportunities to be the right kind of influence. The Bible tells us to give the truth to be the light in this dark world that we live in and so all of us should be looking for opportunities.
Isaac Crockett: All right, well, welcome back to our final segment of Stand in the Gap Today. I’m Isaac Crockett and along with Sam Rohrer and Gary Dull. Sam, I want to get back into, we’re talking about the Biblical role of fathers. There’s so much in the Bible as you and Gary have both pointed out, geared towards men, towards their leadership, towards fathers and their role in particular. There’s also a lot about mothers and their role as a mother in the family, but what about so many people in our country today are coming from a situation that is less than ideal. That’s not what God was maybe expecting or had put in place. Homes that have been completely destroyed and broken up by all kinds of other issues going on. What about somebody who maybe did not have a good role model as a father? What about maybe someone listening out there today who has no children and they say, well, you know, those things don’t really apply to me then. What can those people take away from, you know, this time of reflection about the expectations of fathers and five things that fathers can teach their children. What could somebody do in these other situations where you know, they might be say, well that doesn’t exactly apply to me and my particular place.
Sam Rohrer: It’s a great question, Isaac. And I think that the application, the father, the charge to fathers here on Fathers’ Day focuses on fathers and that’s what we’re doing and that’s appropriate. But you know, even when we focus on our earthly fathers and our roles, the real focus is on God, our Father, because you see, lot of people don’t realize this, but the earthly father provides the child’s first view and image of God. Now, if that father in the home, that husband, is loving his wife the way Christ loved the church, then the children are going to see it. And they’ll have an image of God, our Father in Christ that is powerful. But if that husband doesn’t love his wife, the children’s mother, treats her meanly, not patient, not merciful, not just, those kinds of things, then the child is going to think that God as the ultimate authority figure, God the Father, that God’s that way.
Sam Rohrer: And so on the other hand, if the earthly father, when he teaches the children in the home and he deals with their children’s mother, the wife, and speaks godly things as Deuteronomy 6 talks about, talking about the commandments of God and talking about the principles of God’s word and how it applies. When we sit down, when we stand up, when we go to bed, when we work, the continual application of making life in the presence of God our Father who always is, always loves, never changes, is always there for us, protects us, guides us, loves us. That’s what God the Father does. That’s what earthly fathers should provide as an example. So earthly fathers, if they are in a position where they know God the Father through Jesus Christ, then they have the model and the scripture tells us how we ought to live.
Sam Rohrer: If an earthly father does not know Jesus Christ, then that’s really impossible for them to do what Deuteronomy says and what God tells that father to do because the father’s relationship with God the Father really determines how he’s going to conduct and teach his children. So it really starts a spiritual relationship that’s then overlapped onto the family.
Sam Rohrer: Now, if a person’s listening right now and said, I grew up in a home, I never had a father that was loving. Matter of fact, my father wasn’t even in the home as we know that so many in this country are now there. That’s a reminder of the reality of sin because the devil has really worked hard to destroy our families, hasn’t he Isaac? And so how can that be fixed. Well the point is yes, that can be fixed. If a person never had an earthly father, then that person really perhaps maybe they can find another earthly, father age type person who can become to them perhaps a substitute father. But reality. If a person finds themselves without an earthly father or without an earthly father that gave the right kind of example, the person who can always fill that void is Jesus Christ and God the Father because God the Father does provide and say that he will be the father to the orphans and he will provide that help to the widow.
Sam Rohrer: I mean all the way through ultimately God as our Father can provide to us what we don’t have or can be the model and the guide for what we do have. And one last challenge. For all of you women who are watching or listening right now, you’re wives of a husband that maybe he’s Godly, maybe he’s not, that you and your prayers for your husband and your encouragement to him to live Godly is a tremendous help and encouragement for your husband, for the father of your children. You as a wife, as a mother, play an important role. It’s not just the father, it’s a team effort. And the wife support is so important for a father. It’s a tough job to be a father these days. Isaac and Gary, you know that and our wives are so important to us and helping us to carry that out.
Isaac Crockett: Thank you Sam. Very well said. You Know Sam and Gary, I have seen so many times in the church, growing up in the church where those cases, where there wasn’t a good father. In some cases, not a good father or a good mother and yet children were able to be, you know, find a father figure, mother figure in the church or sometimes people literally in the church taking children in. And this has been the case since the beginning of the church.
Isaac Crockett: But Gary, what about the opposite? What about when a child grows up, maybe even in a good loving Christian home and they choose to walk away from that. You were just talking a few days ago about gay pride month and all of this, and I’ve seen these things where fathers are going out and giving, you know, dad hugs. Gary, we don’t have much time left, so I’m sorry to do this to you, but do you have any advice for fathers, mothers, family members when a child may be takes on the gay lifestyle or it walks away from what they grew up with in the church?
Gary Dull: Well, my challenge is, number one, pray for them. Number two, continue to love them. Don’t walk away from them. I mean, children can go away from the word of God in any number of ways, but it must be a great shock, particularly to a Christian mom and dad when one of their children would decide to go the way of homosexuality or lesbianism or whatever the case is. But I think that it’s important in that situation to continue to pray for that child, to love that child, to know that you’re not rejecting that child and through your prayers and love extended to that child, win that child back to biblical principles. It’s the word of God that’s going to have an effect. And if a child has been brought up in a Christian home, there’s no doubt that that child has heard the word of God over and over and over again.
Gary Dull: God’s word does not return unto him void. And so if I’m talking to a person today, a mom or a dad, you’re a Christian and your child has decided to go the way, the LGBTQ direction. Don’t give up on that child. Continue to pray that the word that they have heard will make an impact upon their life. And maybe you came to Christ later in life and didn’t get to teach your child the scripture. Well, pray that in one way, shape, or form, God will bring the word of God to that person, maybe through you or through another person that will be used to bring that child to Christ in a relationship with Christ so that they will choose to follow Christ and not the way the LBGTQ. It’s a very difficult place for a parent to be. Pray for them, love them, give them God’s word and much good work.
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