December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 Peter Witkowski Discipleship

The Four Most Popular Posts: 2014

I am very thankful for the support that Mission PS: 78 has received over the past year. I have greatly enjoyed interacting with followers of this blog both via comments and personal conversations. Below, I have listed the 4 most discussed blogs of 2014. I look forward to the discussions that 2015 will bring our way! To God be the glory! Happy New Year!

4 – What Are We Choosing

During the predawn hours of July 16, 2013 our hearts were gripped with fright. We had learned that our precious, first born son would be entering the world at 23 weeks with only a 50/50 chance of survival. Even if Second Peter developed a strong heartbeat and exhaled air through his lungs, we still faced the daunting task of raising a child with several physical and mental deficiencies. As the minutes leading up to our first child’s birth ticked quickly away, we listened to two different doctors as they encouraged us to allow our son to expire upon his arrival. But with barely a blink, my wife and I both knew what our course of action would be. We would fight for our son’s life.

3 – Did Noah Drown

During the first five minutes of Noah, I was pleasantly intrigued. I had was not making plans to write the following review. I knew going into the theatre that the marriage of Biblical narrative and Hollywood cinematography often leaves our scriptures a little worse for the wear. And, I was willing to give the creators some creative grace when it came to dressing the characters in 1860’s work clothes. Sadly though, the creators of this film did not stop with recreating the historical setting of the story.

2 – Should Kids Go To Big Church

Do kids belong in church? It’s a simple, straight forward question that has existed even before the first church was launched at Pentecost. Remember back to Mathew 19. Jesus had to tell his disciples to, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (vs. 14). Speed forward a couple of thousand years and we find the evangelical church once again asking, “do children belong in church today?” Do they belong in our sanctuaries and services? Sadly, many evangelicals say, “No.”

1 – Caring For Those in Crisis

This past Friday, the Mayberry folksiness of Eastman was jolted by the depths of evil. The story of how three-year-old Zack was cruelly beaten to death has brought sadness to most every home in the area. And now as his family and the community grapple with the tragic death of this beloved toddler, the questions of “Why,” “How,” and “What now” begin to fill our brains. We want to know, “Where was God” on Friday, March 14, 2014.

September 18, 2014September 18, 2014 Peter Witkowski Discipleship, Parenting

Don’t Baby Talk Jesus

Sometimes I am not sure if I’m teaching my 4 month-old how to talk or if he’s teaching me how to make noises. Regardless, I love our time together. And as we communicate through giggles, cackles, and words, I find myself constantly putting ideas into his mouth. When he smiles, I smile back saying, “Does little man think Daddy is silly? Yes he does, doesn’t he?” And I am not alone. I think, pretty much every parent, grandparent, aunt, and uncle verbalizes their thoughts about their baby’s brain activity as if the adults’ notion was the kid’s reality. Such conversations are naturally titled “baby talk.” And while baby talk is appreciated by families everywhere, our spiritual conversations with our kids need to be baby talk free.

The Danger of Good Desires

My wife and I very much want to see our son embrace Jesus as his savior. We continually pray for his soul and introduce him to Bible stories, and our church. But when he becomes old enough to talk and think about abstract things, we will have to fight the temptation to use baby talk to coax him into a profession of faith.

Here is what I mean. We could talk to our little guy about the horrors of hell and then ask him, “Don’t you want to follow Jesus and have a happy life?;” or we could say, “Mommy ,Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma will be in heaven, don’t you want to go to heaven too?;” or we could have him repeat the sinners’ prayer after us. We could put all kinds of ideas and thoughts into our son’s head and then ask him to act. Now, our little man might respond by getting scared and even saying a few words. But, he will only have acted on our thoughts as they relate to his sinful desires. You don’t have to be super spiritual to realize that saying a quick prayer is a lot less troubling than an eternity in hell.

The Power Of Salvation

But for our son to embrace Christ, he must embrace Christ. It’s redundantly simple, but it is a huge truth. He must realize that he is a sinner; he must want to repent; and he must desire to set his mind on things above. His words only matter if they are expressing his heart and his love for Christ.

Think of the crowd at Pentecost, the Ethiopian Eunuch, or the man born blind in John 9 (Acts 2; 8). Yes, they all needed to hear the gospel explained before they believed. But once they knew the glory of the mystery of Christ, they eagerly repented and embraced Jesus. Without any coaxing or sinners’ prayers, these people boldly asked, “Brothers what shall we do” (Acts 2:37)? No one had to speak for these new believers to make sure they got saved.

A Baby Talk Free World

Today, our kids come to faith in the same way by responding to the Word of God in faith. As parents, we are called to expose our kids to the gospel by teaching the scriptures, by correcting our kids in love, and by repenting of our own sins. Let’s faithfully follow the example of the Christ, the apostles, and the early church and introduce our kids to the gospel! And then, let’s trust God to work.

And in our zeal to see our kids saved, we must leave behind the baby talk. We can’t manipulate our kids into salvation by projecting our ideas onto them. Instead, let’s ask open-ended questions, such as: “Do you love Jesus; does this make sense; do you sin; what do you think about heaven; and if lying is wrong what should you do?” Then, let’s respond to their answers with truth, asking God to work!

July 16, 2014July 16, 2024 Peter Witkowski Babies and Birth, Pain & Suffering

What Do We Say?

Eleven years ago, today amidst a swirl of both joyful and frightful confusion, our first-born son – Peter Alexander Witkowski (Second Peter) – was born in the early morning hours. About 4 hours later, he abandoned his earthly body for the loving embrace of Jesus. As the days between Second Peter’s birth and death continue to grow, the truths that comforted my heart at his funeral continue to resound in my soul. I still have a jellybean size hole in my heart which now knows the deeper pain of associate with the loss of my dear April, Peter’s mother. But God’s goodness, love, and comfort still far exceed the depths of my great sorrow. Our savior dries our tears, holds our hearts, and remembers our prayers. He blessed us with our second son, Luke Alexander Witkowski and with two beautiful little girls. God is faithful! Today as I celebrate Second Peter’s life, I affirm with an ever-increasing realization that, “To live is Christ!” Below are the words I spoke at his funeral which remains our hope for today. (7.18.24)

What Do We Say:

34. April and Peter holding 2nd Peter shorty after 100 pm.

The fleeting dance of poetry, the smooth elegancy of prose, and the most insightful uses of language all seem inadequate, trite, trivial, and unworthy of expressing what has occurred. On Tuesday morning after a sleepless night, April and I welcomed our precious little baby boy with trembling souls; our souls broke into happy smiles as we heard Peter Alexander’s heart beat firmly and his lunges taste the softness of the air. And then as if heaven itself had fallen, we flew calmly back to Second Peter’s tiny plastic bed to love him with unending passion. After an eternity that had been shrunken into four vaporous hours, we softly and slowly kissed his cool little forehead one last time. And now we follow his body to this somber chamber. So what do you say to these things? What do you say when your son of promise is born at 9:08am and then dies in your arms at 2:49pm?

“To live is Christ, to die is gain (Phil. 1:21.)”

When Second Peter died, he gained. April and I pleaded for his life, and God saw fit to give him eternal life. Our First Born Son is glorified. He knows fully the joy of Christ. He bounces playful to heavenly music. He gets to play with David, Samson, April’s Papa, and my own dear Grandfather, whom I never meet. He is the coolest little child that I’ve ever known. To die is gain!

For April and I, “To live is Christ.” We have and will continue to shed tears for Second Peter. And I know that both of our hearts will always have a jellybean size hole that will never be covered. Yet we will go on living, serving, and ministering because we have a savior who is a perfect high priest. Our hope lies in the life of another son who once lost his life alone on a cross to conquer death by rising again. For this we live, looking forward, as David did to going, to being with our precious son (2 Samuel 12:23). To live is Christ.