Deut 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;
I’ve been a Family Radio fan all my life. When I was 10 my dad would wake me up at 5 am to listen to Omar Andale’s radio show and eat poached eggs. Probably my best memory of my dad. Even before I got saved, (and probably the reason I got saved) was that I listened to Family Radio every chance I got. The old hymns and Bible memory verses soothed my soul, even when I was completely lost in the deepness of sin.
The Family Radio speakers’ voices were filled with certainty and joy. No matter what was on the headline news, they happily ignored all of it. Not because they were ignorant, but they were brilliant and discerning enough to know what was worth focusing on, and what wasn’t. We are going to meet Jesus, all this other stuff is just a vapor. Like the Christians of old, they weren’t burdened with current events or opinions. The only topic was the good news of Jesus. They were always a source of encouragement when I wasn’t even a believer. The constant messages of God’s tender cords of love are what was used to reel me in. Never condemning, just drawing the listener deeper and deeper in love with the Lord and His Word.
The reverence of the Word of God is their hallmark. Most importantly, the most soothing part of listening in was the weekly Bible Memory verses. Even when Family Radio went through the unfortunate turmoil in 2011 due to a mistake in eschatology, the joys and assurances of Bible verses and hymns far outweighed any awkwardness. Same thing as in my personal Christian walk! I’ve blown it in a big way, more than once. We just keep on doing what God shows us to do and we come out the other side better and wiser than ever, with even more grace than before!!! Maybe a little humbled, but that’s a good thing as well. If you can’t be corrected without being offended you will never grow. It is the difference between bitter and better. All heartache, disappointment, failure, and embarrassment turn into a joy. A joy that surpasses all understanding. Only when you realize that Jesus is true to His Word. He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter how bad we’ve blown it!
Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”;
Family Radio’s President Thomas Evans and Jennifer ‘Jenny’ Burkhiser were gracious enough to do an interview with me recently about Million Friends. I’ll let you know when it’s on the air. I think you’ll fall in love more with Jesus after listening to it. I always learn to see something new in the scriptures, every time I listen to it. Today I learned that shepherds are not docile. David was a great warrior because he fought lions, bears and wolves constantly to protect his sheep. HMMM I can relate. You should see how Winnie and I defend our little ones from the monsters. Our zoo in Nicaragua lets you get close enough to the cages to smell a lion’s breath when he roars so loud in your face. You literally get speckled with his saliva, and it makes your ears hurt and insides tremble. The last thing that comes to mind is taking its prey from its mouth, grabbing it by its mane and killing it with your bare hands like David did. I read the story a million times but didn’t ‘hear’ it until today on their Study on Psalm 23. Faith comes from hearing. Biblical Christianity is a constant learning endeavor. Part of learning is rote memory. Not a modern or in stylish topic but a basic of the art of education. No matter how far we think we might have evolved academically, we always resort to the memory on important issues.
Going back to Family Radio, their key point is getting the Lord in your heart, and Bible memory verses really aids in that area. I learned verses when I was 10 that carried me through many horrible experiences in the military and business world! 57 years and counting, my heart fills with unspeakable joy when I remember them. My favorite verse, even when I was not a believer, blessed my heart every time it came to my mind, without even having the Holy Spirit to interpret it for me. I was never condemned by it. It made me certain that God was near me and that He was going to save me.
Isaiah 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness
Today Jennifer interviewed the founder of BibleParent. He was a retired pre-k Sunday School teacher (with 40 years experience under his belt). I was so convicted as he re-emphasized to me the importance of teaching the Word of God to our children when they are young. Primarily by old fashioned memorization. He had Bible memory games, and the best takeaway was he would encourage sticking verses into the kids’ pockets. Not only was it good for me to memorize scriptures but also was a fantastic way for me to learn Spanish. The first verse I ever memorized in Spanish was this one. Almost all my Spanish was learned this way. When I go to Cuba everyone knows I am a Christian because they say I speak Bible Spanish (the Reina Valera version is like the King James Bible).
Salmos 119:11 En mi corazón he guardado tus dichos, Para no pecar contra ti.
Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, That I might not sin against thee.
Parents should reinforce what the kids are learning from Sunday school but few do. There’s a lack of communication between the Sunday School teacher and the hurried parents. To my shame, as a parent with young children, I was just as guilty. I kick myself! I know we all did the best we could with what we had at the time, but we can improve with what we have now.
My adult kids are in college now. We can’t go back in time. They’re blessed because my wife and I are saved, and we trained them up in the Word, so they’re in God’s hands now. I can’t go back and do things better, but we can change how we handle the Million Friends kids today. There’s a ton of great websites for us that are concerned about our spiritual children’s souls. It is a fact that the average kid spends 8-9 hours a day in front of a screen. This can help change that, or at least give them something of value to ponder on while they’re doing other things.
I want to encourage all of us to keep spreading the Word to every one possible with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Not just evangelizing the obviously lost adults, but also working with the fertile minds and souls of the children. The chances of them getting saved is improved a million times if you start working with them at the youngest age possible.
I always thought that the last verse below applies to parents. Now that I am saved, and the Holy Spirit is showing me things, I know otherwise. As a Christian, when I was spiritually born again, I have a whole new set of friends and family. Although hopefully I can keep the originals as well, that doesn’t always happen. Now on top of my existing friends and family, I have new friends, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and children in the family of God.
Thanks to God, for His calling us to start Million Friends, for His Honor and Glory, Winnie and I (although empty nesters) have a house full of kids every day! We deal with hundreds of children daily. They are loved as if they are our own children. They ARE our kids. And they are your kids. Any believer is a BibleParent, or at least they can be if they want to. So this applies to not only our flesh and blood adult son and daughter, but also to All the Million Friends kids. (Some of whom are in their 40’s now 🙂
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.