Peter Witkowski Evangelism

God Never Dials The Wrong Number

Can anything feel more hopeless than being rejected by God. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s ProGod-never-dials-the-wrong-numbergress, felt this way. He desperately wanted to come to Jesus, but he did not feel that God wanted him. He knew that he was a great sinner. He knew he deserved hell. And he knew the gospel. But he felt that God would not accept him. He felt that he had not been called. Oh the horror of wanting God and yet not being able to get to him. You could almost hear John saying, “Curse those stink’n Calvinist and their doctrines of God’s sovereignty.”

Perhaps some of you can relate. Perhaps some of you have kids in this spot. They claim that they want to repent but do not feel that they can. They feel hopeless. So what do we do? We remind them of God’s character.

It is true that only those called by God can and will repent. But it is also true that everyone who truly wants to repent is called. Notice what happens in Mark 3:13 “And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.” Everyone whom Jesus calls comes to him.

IPilgrimsProgress_038729f someone is under conviction, if they desperately want to repent, if they are eager to embrace and to follow God, all they have to do is come. The Holy Spirit never convicts someone only to leave them languishing in hopelessness. God never dials the wrong number. When He calls someone, he will save them. There is not one person in the Bible who desired to be right with God and was rejected. Everyone from Adam on who wanted to believe in God did. As Jesus said in John 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

All who feel God’s call will be saved. If your kids truly feel God calling them to faith, simply tell them to repent. Encourage them to embrace the cross. Salvation can be attained because Christ has died for them. Regardless of how great their sins are, Christ has paid for them all.  As II Corinthians 5:21 boldly declares:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ultimately the truth that God saves all whom he calls, comforted John Bunyan’s soul. He saw that Christ could and would accept him. Christ has already died to pay for Bunyan’s sin. And he has already died for our sins and the sins of our kids. If you or your kids feel God’s call, go to Jesus. What are you waiting for?

Peter Witkowski Parenting

Successful Failures

Successful Failures blog post

When we see kids getting drunk every weekend, fleeing church like the plague, and rocking out to obscenities, we naturally start to look for someone or something to blame. Was it the wrong crowd at school, or the tattooed kid next door, or all that secular media? Unfortunately, the answer actually might be in our house and church. It might be you and me.

The Church’s Failure

According to a recent study, those of us who attend church are almost indistinguishable from those who do not. During the typical week, Christians are almost as likely as non-Christians to gamble, gossip, hold a grudge, and sleep with someone other than their spouse. Sadly, Christians are slightly actually more likely than the unchurched, to lie and steal. Now admittedly, there is some good news. Christians are less likely to use profanity, get drunk (though almost 25% of Christians still do on a weekly basis) and seek out pornography (Barna & Kinnaman, p. 131). These stats indicate that our church people remarkably mirror the world. As David Platt laments,

We can’t fathom a Christian on the other side of the world believing that a wooden god can save them, but we have no problem believing that religion, money, possessions, food, fame, sex, sports, status, and success can satisfy (p. 23).

Our Successful Failure

follow meSo what does this have to with our kids? Parents have the greatest opportunity to influence their children. Whatever they
teach their kids, they will pick up. But as the stats above point out, many Christian parents are modeling the wrong message. They are successfully teaching their kids that living for Christ and true joy is synonymous with living for self. By living worldly lives, Christians may actually be the ones encouraging their kids to walk away from Christ.

But, troubled kids do typically reject one aspect of their parents’ lives. They skip church. No longer seeing the need for their parents’ Pharisaical attitudes or guilt complexes, many kids will often happily exchange the closed minded church pew for the open tolerance of the coffee shop. After all if you can be a good person without obeying Jesus, why get up early every Sunday and pretend the white robed dude is a big deal?

Overcoming the World

How do we fix our worldliness and in turn, help our kids understand the true Jesus of the Bible? We embrace as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, “Costly Grace.” On Sunday morning, we teach that there is no salvation apart from repentance. We affirm that the grace of Christ calls us all to die to sins and to live obediently for Christ. We proclaim that salvation leads to transformation. The old things such as sexual immorality and lying will pass away. The new has come.

And during the week, we live the word. We sacrifice our selfish desires and wants, to care for the sick, to happily wash dishes, to selflessly love our families. We become doers of the word who love Christ more than life itself.

I fear that the many church people are worldly because they have never left the world. As David Platt writes,

People who claim to be Christians while their lives look no different from the rest of the world are clearly not Christians (p. 18).

If we want to encourage our kids to faith in Christ, some of us will need to embrace Christ for the first time. We can only faithfully model what we know and experienced.

Understanding Our Limits

Now with all this being said, we don’t need to develop a guilt complex every time our kids sin or walk away from God. According to God, no parent is ultimately responsible for their child’s salvation or theirs sins. The prophet Ezekiel writes,

The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father suffer for the iniquity of the son (18:20).

Godly parents raise kids who become drug addicts and drug addicts produce kids who become pastors. Thankfully, God saves kids from all kinds of homes irrespective of ones parents.

Yet, God has still specifically designed us parents to reach the next generation for Christ. (Read Deuteronomy 6 and Psalm 78.) And if our lifestyle is so worldly that our kids miss the beauty of the gospel, we will be held accountable. And even more frightening, we (like the trouble kids around us) may be speeding down the broad road to destruction.

Living For Jesus

Thankfully, the antidote for our sin problem is simple. We start guarding against worldliness. As we interact with the scriptures, we compare our lives against the life of Christ and repent when our lives fail to match up to Jesus’ life. (2 Cor. 13:5). And if we follow Jesus, we will be successful parents.

Works Cited

Barna, G., & Kinnaman, D. (2014). Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them. Austin: Tyndale House.

Platt, D. (2013). Follow Me . Carol Stream: Tyndale House .

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Don’t Be a Fake Cubs Fan; Love Jesus

Cubs fanIn our zeal to see kids come to Christ, we often push their little feet down the center aisle of our church the moment they whisper something about Jesus. And once they answer a few questions correctly or repeat a few special words with their eyes closed, we proclaim them to be genuine Christians. They are the real deal, now! Hurrah!

But are they the real deal? Is salvation truly just about repeating a prayer, walking an aisle, filling out a card, or telling a counselor, “I love Jesus?” The Messiah says, “No.” “Not everyone who says to me, “‘Lord, Lord,”’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Math. 7:21). 

If I asked you to stand up this Sunday and to repeat the following words, “I am the world’s greatest Cubs,” and if I had you wave a Cubs banner the following Sunday after the invitation, would people suddenly think you are a Cubs fan? We might have convinced them that there are now two nuts in the church. But, no one would assume that your new favorite hobby is making Lego models of Wrigley Field. Why? You never talk about the Cubs; you never watch their games; and you never associate with their paraphernalia. Saying a few words and waving a banner because I asked you to doesn’t make you a Cubs fan.

And yet, we often act as if these superficial actions when tied to Jesus are the most genuine of experiences. We think that by rushing a child (who loves the world more than God to pray a prayer and to get baptized) we can secure junior’s first heavenly mansion. Nothing is further from the truth. Salvation consists not just of reluctantly muttering, “Lord, Lord” while nobody is supposedly looking up. Those who truly embrace Jesus, demonstrate their faith by doing the will of his father. Even for children, saving faith is inseparable from repentance that spawns a new life.   

And while simple, repentance is extremely hard. To change the direction of our life, boys and girls (and all of us) have to die to self. We have to call our kids to count the cost. They have to understand that their hearts are little idol factories dominated by altars to fame, sports, sex, greed, and pride.  Little ones have to repent of these idols and fall in love with a Jesus. Our savior calls them (and us) to willing suffer the loss of friends, jobs, scholarships, homes, and every earthly comfort. Yes, It’s an awesome trade. As Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” But for all its appeal, our kids will still think the gospel call is foolish apart from Jesus. Only through the power of Christ can any of us come to faith. Praise the Lord! He saves!

But if we rush ahead of God, we will leave behind a generation of confused souls who experienced religion without encountering Christ. If our kids are told that salvation consists of nothing more than saying a few magical words while standing in holy water, they will disconnect faith from repentance. They will become just another one of the millions of Americans who claim Jesus as Lord while being addicted to pornography, enthralled with money, and captivated by sports. They will become one of the many to whom Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”