One Million Arrows Christian Parenting Blog
- The Fallen Arrows
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Guest Author: Rev. Daniel Moses, Oman
- August 31, 2009 | View or add comments |
- Sarita from India
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Guest Author: Hopegivers Internatonal
- August 27, 2009 | View or add comments |
- What Does an Arrow Do?
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By Julie Ferwerda
- August 25, 2009 | View or add comments |
- Meet Napoleon from India
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Guest Author: Hopegivers International
- August 24, 2009 | View or add comments |
- Arrows Are Made Not Born
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By Julie Ferwerda
- August 17, 2009 | View or add comments |
Entries for: August, 2009
"Then he said to his lad, "Now run, find the arrows which I shoot." As the lad ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. When the lad had come to the place where the arrow was which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried out after the lad and said, "[Is] not the arrow beyond you?" And Jonathan cried out after the lad, "Make haste, hurry, do not delay!" So Jonathan's lad gathered up the arrows and came back to his master." (1 Sam 20:36-38)
David was in distress, fleeing for his life as he waited for Jonathan near a stone called "Ezel" which means "departure." When Jonathan arrived at Ezel, he shot three arrows in the air, sending a secret message to David. Because David understood the message and acted accordingly, he was able to see the fulfillment of God's plan in his life. Later in the course of time, he became a King and a Man out of God's own heart.
Since I can remember, my mother was sick and my father a drunkard. He used to beat up my mother and throw us out of the house, forcing us to spend the nights outside.
Every day, our family worshiped our own deity. We were told that whatever we needed, she would fulfill our desires and make our dreams come true. During this time, I got possessed by an evil spirit, and I did very strange things including vomiting up hair and flowers, as well as addressing my parents as "son" and "daughter." My parents took me to witch doctors and sorcerers, but it didn't help.
Does raising arrows mean that all our kids should only pursue full-time ministry or missions?
Absolutely not! Raising an arrow of God means raising a child
to always focus unwaveringly on bringing the love of Jesus Christ into every aspect of the journey throughout his or her life, regardless of location or vocation. Along with raising a daughter who might decide to become a heart surgeon, I also want to prepare him or her to be ready and able to be used as a healer of hearts. In addition to raising a child who decides to become a teacher, I also want to prepare him or her to be a disciple-maker of Christ. Instead of raising my own girls to have an affinity for international travel, I'd like to take it a step further and give them the opportunity to develop a heart for missions. Instead of raising just channel changers, I most definitely want to raise world changers.
"There is a difference between the man who goes into medicine because science, service, and humanity course through his veins, and the man who sees it as a lucrative career," Voddie Baucham, author of Family Driven Faith, explains. "One man is pursuing the best the world has to offer; the other is pursuing the best he has to offer the world."[i]
One of my favorite pictures of the complete redemption potential for orphans is sort of a modern-day Joseph story, nineteen-year-old Napoleon.
Napoleon lived a comfortable lifestyle with his family of five in a large South India city. But one day, when he was six years old, the police came and arrested his entire family, falsely accusing them of being Naxalites, or anti-government terrorists. Even though the charges were soon cleared for lack of proof and they were released, the social pressures and superstitions present in India made them a threat to their friends and family. Overnight, they lost everything and everyone that mattered.
It's a funny coincidence, but at the same time I'm launching this book, One Million Arrows, I'm also launching my first arrow, Danielle, out into the big world. She left for college this weekend, and it will be exciting to see the plans God has for this impassioned young woman. She definitely has a heart to light up her world for Jesus, and she is already doing that!
Arrows are made, not born. Raising your children as "arrows for God" is a time-consuming, tedious, intensive process. But I can surely say that the results are always worth it when the time comes to launch them and then you get to watch them soar and hit their target.
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