Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  

This evening is the end of the Chanukkah, the Feast of Dedication. I thought I would therefore share something with you about the meaning of dedication. “Chanukkah”, a noun, means “dedication.”

The interesting thing is that the word to “train” our children in Proverbs 22:6 is actually the Hebrew verb, “chanakh” which means “to teach, to dedicate, to consecrate, to inaugurate”. Apart from Proverbs 22:6, here are the examples where it is used.

1. Dedication of a house. (Deuteronomy 20:5)

2. Dedication of the altar of Moses’ tabernacle. (Numbers 7:10-11,84,88)

3. Dedication of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:63; 2 Chronicles 7:4-9)

4. Dedication of Zerubbabel’s temple. (Ezra 6: 16-18)

5. Dedication of the walls of Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 12:27)

6. Dedication of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. (Daniel 3:2-3)

7. Dedication and cleansing of the temple in 165 BC (from which we now celebrate Chanukkah) after it had been desecrated with the abomination of Antiochus Ephiphanes who sacrificed a pig on the altar of the temple. This is recorded in the Apocrypha in 1 Maccabees 4:54, “It was dedicated anew, with singing of hymns, and music of harp, zither and cymbals.”

This certainly gives us a new light on the meaning of training our children, doesn’t it? The word “dedicate” means “to consecrate to a sacred purpose.” We train our children for the specific purpose of setting them apart for God’s service and the purpose that He has destined for them. Each of our children is born with a destiny that God has planned for them before the foundation of this world. We do not train them according to our ideas. We do not train them by society’s standards. Our whole purpose in training is to dedicate them to the purposes of God.

How did they dedicate in the Old Testament examples?

1. With Purity.

Ezra 6:20-21 tells us that the priests and Levites who were involved in dedicating the temple “were purified together, all of them were pure.”  The people too – “All such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land.”

When they dedicated the walls that were rebuilt in Nehemiah’s time, “The priests and the Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.” (Nehemiah 12:30)

To train dedicated children, we must first be dedicated ourselves. Every temple in the Old Testament was dedicated. God no longer has a temple of wood and stone. He now has temples of flesh and blood. I am a temple of the living God to be filled with His glory. You are a temple of God to be pure and holy for His dwelling. Your children are temples waiting to be dedicated to His purposes.

We must keep our hearts pure from all contamination of sin, rebellion, bitterness and anger. If there is iniquity and rebellion in our hearts, it will cause rebellion in our children’s hearts. (Exodus 20:5) We must be purified mothers to raise holy and set apart children.

2. With sacrifice.

They always sacrificed offerings at the dedication of the temple. At the dedication of Solomon’s temple he personally offered up 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. This was worth $9,550,000.00! And this was apart from the rest of the offerings of the children of Israel. (1 Kings 8:63)

It takes sacrifice to train children to be set apart for God’s service. It takes forgetting our own agenda and laying down our own lives. But it is for God and it comes with His reward. “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” (Mark 8:35)

We cannot forget that in purifying and sacrificing, the blood was shed. It is only through the power of the blood of Jesus that we can keep pure and cleansed from the contamination that will blight our lives and our children’s lives.

3. With prayer.

Read 2 Chronicles 6:14-42. We cannot successfully set apart our children for God without much prayer. One of the most important aspects of parenting, and yet the least observed, is prayer. Are you finding parenting a challenge? Prayer is your answer. Are you having difficulties with one of your children? Prayer is your answer. Are you concerned about the direction of your children? Prayer is your answer. Prayer will release your children into their destiny.

If you don’t pray for your children, who will?

We will look at one more point next week.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Dear Lord, help me to keep my mind and heart pure before you so that I can raise pure and holy children. Cleanse me with your precious blood from all sin.”

 

AFFIRMATION:

I am set apart for God’s purposes and I am raising children to be set apart for God. 

Isaiah 2:5,  “Come and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

This evening is the beginning of Hanukkah, which is known in the New Testament as the Feast of Dedication. Hanukkah is not one of the feasts of the Lord but was instituted during the time of the Maccabees who won the victory over the Syrian Greeks and re-occupied the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 BC. The Talmud records the story that when they captured the Temple, they only had one day’s supply of oil, but the oil miraculously burned for eight days until fresh oil could be obtained. It is also called the Festival of Lights and is celebrated by lighting the eight-branched menorah for eight days. John 10:22-23 records that Jesus celebrated this feast, which is celebrated in late December.

Because it speaks of light, I thought I would share with you a devotion about light. God is light and He wants us to walk in His light.

We were created to walk in light. The light God wants us to walk in is the Hebrew word “or” and it means “illumination, brightness, daylight, sunlight.”

We have been called into light. 1 Peter 2:9 admonishes us to “show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous (amazing and wonderful) light.”

When we are born again into the kingdom of God, we are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of wonderful light. The darkness flees. Deception disintegrates. We leave the path of destruction behind to pursue a life of light. The light is amazing. But although it is such a contrast from the darkness we have lived in, we do not always experience the fullness of His light immediately. We come out of darkness into the light of dawn.

Oh how I love the dawn. I love to look out of the window each morning and watch the dawn appearing. I can go to bed tired but wake up refreshed at the light of dawn. I can go to bed with a sore throat and wake up healed at the light of dawn. The dawn awakens the excitement of a new day and all its possibilities. It reminds us of God’s faithfulness that day and night will not cease. But the dawn is not the full light. There is more. It lightens more and more as the hours go by.

In the same way, we should experience more and more of God’s light.  Our Christian life is to be a “more and more” walk.  As we seek after God, He continues to expose more deceptions and dark places in our lives. As we repent of them and continue seeking, He leads us into more light. As we live in His Word, He pours more and more of the light of His truth into our darkened minds. Little by little, we walk more and more in the light of the Lord until it is like the midday sun.

I have always loved Proverbs 4:18 RSV which says, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”

David confessed, “that I might live, ever mindful of God, in the sunshine of life.” (Psalm 56:13, Moffat) Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t be content to live in the light of the dawn, as wonderful as that is. There is more! Live in the full midday sun of God’s marvelous light.

We have also been commissioned to shine our light. Jesus is the light of the world and amazingly He tells us that we also are the light of the world. “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8)

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, I thank you that I was destined to live in light. Please expose every bit of darkness in my life so that I can walk in the fullness of your marvelous light. Help me to walk in the light with my husband, my family and my brothers and sisters in Christ. Help me to shine my light to all I meet today. Amen.”

 

AFFIRMATION:

I am a light-shiner to the world because the Light of the world lives in me!

Isaiah 43:20, “I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.”
 

Are you going through a desert place in your life? Do you feel dry, empty and with nothing left to give? Don’t despair, dear one. You are in the very place for God to pour into your life.

The children of Israel experienced the desert, not just for a day, but for 40 years! And they didn’t just land there. God led them into the wilderness to test them and to see what was in their heart. (Deuteronomy 8:2) But even in the desert wilderness, when there was no sign of water, when they thought God had deserted them, when they were ready to go back to Egypt – God was still there. He did not let them thirst. He wanted to show His people that they couldn’t do it without totally relying upon Him.

We also cannot walk through the wilderness of this earth on our own resources either. They don’t last. They run out quickly. But what joy to know that in the heart of our everlasting Father are inexhaustible wells that never run dry.

Our love wanes. We think we have no love left, but there is a well of love that never runs dry.

Our patience dries up quickly. We become frustrated and quick-tempered. But oh there is a well of long-suffering that is inexhaustible.

Our joy runs out. We become cranky and irritable. Oh dear one, there is a well of joy, a well of victory, a well of salvation that is everlasting.

Draw from these wells. Drink deeply. There is everything you need in the heart of the Father. “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water from the wells of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:3) 

When we came out to the land where we now live, we had to drill a well. They drilled to over 400 feet and still found no water! And every foot cost money. We were not very happy. We sought advice from the geological experts and started drilling another well. They drilled to 250 feet and still no water! I have never seen my husband depressed until this moment! The next morning the drillers came to take away their equipment but first checked the second well. Praise the Lord. We had water. We rejoiced. They put down the pump and we thought we were set. We enjoyed water for about three weeks until one day no water came from the tap!

What were we to do? How could we live without water? My husband threw a stone down the first well and could hear some water that had gathered and in faith he asked the drillers to put the pump down that well. They resisted but eventually did what he asked. My father arrived from New Zealand at that time and also prayed over the well. God did a miracle and we have continued to receive water from this well for the last three years. However, it is not an over abundant supply. We conserve our water very carefully. If we use more than our quota, it runs out.

We may have a survival well, but God has a bottomless well. You can draw until you overflow. You can drink until you are satiated. God does not give you a trickle of water.  He pours it out. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring."(Isaiah 44:3) 

God gushed the waters out for His people.  “And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them, he cleaved the rock also, and the waters gushed out.” (Isaiah 48:21) And “He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” (Psalm 105:41)

There is no excuse to stay dry and empty. Draw from the never-ending wells that are daily available to you.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh Lord, I run out of my resources so quickly, but I thank you that I can draw from your inexhaustible resources. I drink from your living well today. I draw from your unlimited wells of love, peace and joy. Thank you for pouring out your water upon me. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

“Here’s my cup, fill it up, fill it up, fill it up,

Then I will taste, I will drink, I will savor life,

Oh let it overflow…”

Isaiah 41:10, “Be not dismayed; for I am your God.” 

The Hebrew word for “be dismayed” means “to gaze about, to be non-plussed, to look around in amazement or bewilderment.”

Where are you looking, dear mother? Are you looking in despair at all you have to do? Are you looking at the difficulties you face and worrying how you can cope? Or are you looking up? God, who is our Rock, our Fortress, our Savior and our Deliverer specifically tells us to stop looking at what we see – and look to Him. He is God. He is in control. We can trust Him unreservedly with our lives and all our problems.

How can I do it? I have too much to do,

I’m overwhelmed and feeling real blue,

I’m stuck in this house like super glue.

    Don’t look around – LOOK UP!

The dishes and laundry are piled up high,

When I look ‘round the house I have to sigh,

And for supper my husband’s expecting a pie!

    Don’t look around – LOOK UP!

We can’t pay the mortgage; bills are overdue,

I’m tired and have headaches, not a few,

These children are driving me crazy too!

    Don’t look around – LOOK UP!

My husband comes home late; he doesn’t care,

He doesn’t help with the children; it’s not fair!

I don’t want to smile; I just want to glare!

    Don’t look around – LOOK UP!

Take your eyes off your problems, look up to Him,

God’s presence is with you, even in the din!

Confess your bad mood and He’ll cleanse your sin.

    He is your God – LOOK UP!

He will show you how to order your place,

He will give you direction as you seek His face,

He wants to pour upon you His anointing of grace.

    He is your God – LOOK UP!

Keep your eyes fixed on Him; He is your Stay,

He is your Wisdom for problems each day,

He will bring His presence right into your fray.

    He is your God – LOOK UP!

Each morning He comes as the refreshing Dew

To revive your body, and your spirit too,

He is your Deliverer and He’ll make you new,

    He is your God – LOOK UP!

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, forgive me for looking at everything, except You. Oh God, help me to remember that you are bigger than my circumstances and the problems that I face. I thank you that you are my God. You are in control of my life and every situation. I look to you, Lord, as my Source and my Deliverer. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: 

I’m going for the up-look!