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All right, in this last session this evening,
I want to speak on this subject, Father
is the Watchman.
We live in a world that is coming
up with new inventions of entertainment almost daily.
How does a godly family deal with all
of this?
In our last session, we saw the overwhelming
blessing that it is when parents train and
preserve the body and the soul of their
children.
In this session, I want to deal with
some of the practical ways in which we
can protect our children's minds and their bodies.
I have some strong things to say, and
I pray that God will give all of
us open hearts, maybe to reconsider how we
view certain things in this world around us.
I have some very important issues that affect
our children that I would like to take
a look at.
I realize that I can get a lot
of criticism for what I'm going to say
in this session.
But what good if all we do is
talk about it up here and never bring
it down here where we all live every
day and take a look at our world
that we live in in light of the
principles that are in the Word of God.
Nehemiah was an overseer.
He was the governor of Jerusalem during the
time of the rebuilding after the captivity.
When he heard that the wall of Jerusalem
was still broken down and the gates had
not been repaired, he was deeply burdened.
I want us to read what he said.
We can hear the burden of his heart
in the words here in Nehemiah chapter one,
verse three, and then also verse four.
He heard from those who traveled back from
Jerusalem that they were in great affliction and
reproach.
He heard that the wall of Jerusalem was
broken down and the gates thereof are burned
with fire.
Nehemiah's response to this sad news was this.
I sat down and wept and mourned certain
days.
And I fasted and prayed before the Lord
God of heaven.
That was Nehemiah's response when he heard that
the wall of the city was still broken
down and the gates were not there.
God's people were living without any protection from
their enemies.
The walls of the city stopped the enemy
from flooding in and overtaking the people.
And the gates of the city were there
so that with the help of a watchman
who sat at the gate, no one could
sneak in and destroy the city from within.
Nehemiah was greatly burdened about this.
I would like to use him as an
illustration to focus on our responsibility to protect
our homes.
The Father is the one who has this
task, number one.
Father is Nehemiah.
We are the Nehemiah in our house, brethren.
He is the overseer.
He is the one who is responsible for
the spiritual welfare of his family.
He is the one who builds a wall
around his family by raising up basic biblical
standards that the family should live by.
He gives direction about activities, clothing, standards, music,
and many other things.
And as the family submits to his directives,
these family standards become walls of protection around
his family.
Hallelujah.
Not only is he concerned about the convictions
of the home, the walls that is, but
he is also responsible for the gates.
The Father is the gatekeeper.
We are supposed to stand at the gate
of our household and make sure nothing gets
through the gate that could slowly destroy the
family from within.
I have seen many sincere families who had
many things right.
I have seen many erode into worldliness simply
because the Father was not a discerning gatekeeper.
Have you ever seen a family like that?
Let me see your hands.
Going to the right church, wanting the right
things, but for some reason, Dad just didn't
have the spiritual grit that it took to
say, No, we are not going to have
this in here.
This is a warning to each and every
one of us fathers.
Most of the time, when the father wakes
up to what has happened, it is very
hard to convince his already infected family of
the danger of the things that they are
doing that he allowed in through the gate.
The key to the whole thing is to
be a discerning, watchful father in the beginning.
And as a father, you have that place
in your home.
Not that you have to wrestle for it
every time a new cassette comes into the
house.
That is not what I mean.
I mean, the groundwork is already laid and
everybody understands.
My Papa is the gatekeeper of this house
and everything that comes through that door.
He has every right to look at it,
I say, with the eagle's eye and see
if it is okay.
There is a holy war going on over
your children and I am sure you know
that.
John Bunyan wrote an allegory called, The Holy
War.
Have you read it?
It is a story about the devil's attempt
to conquer and control Mansoul, or the soul
of man.
In controlling Mansoul, he has control over man's
being, thus having another servant for his evil
uses.
In this story, Mansoul is likened to a
city with five gates.
The enemy makes his way into the city
through these gates.
The gates represent man's five senses.
Now, it is just a story, but it
represents the realities of how Satan does indeed
take control of man through these very gates.
And we don't have to look very far
to see how he is still employing ways
and means to enter the souls of men
through the same gates as that story which
was written two hundred and some fifty years
ago.
My, if John Bunyan could look around today,
he would have written the book way faster.
That brings us again to the fathers.
In this modern world, our families are in
desperate need of gatekeepers.
Who will, with loving scrutiny, check out everything
that tries to get into the home through
the gates?
The gates are fine.
The eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth,
the touch, and a discerning father will watch
out for dangerous influences in all of these
areas.
Now, this is a very practical message, I
know.
And I know I wouldn't get one here,
but I'm sure I might get a rotten
tomato somewhere for what I'm going to say
tonight.
But I know I wouldn't get a rotten
tomato in here.
This is a good crowd.
Here's the question that I propose before we
get real practical.
What is the world?
This is a question that every evangelical needs
to re-ask himself.
We have lost a clear, unquestionable definition of
what the world is.
It seems that Bunyan's Vanity Fair now dwells
in the church.
And it is time for an examination.
And that's what I'm pleading for.
Forty million American Christians, in quote, profess to
believe in the doctrine of separation from the
world.
Yet, recent polls indicate that there is no
difference at all in the way Christians live
and the rest of the people around them.
In some issues, we are worse than the
world, i.e., divorce.
It is time to evaluate where we truly
are going.
That is my plea.
We all believe in separation, but very few
are separated.
That makes us hearers of the Word, but
not doers.
The world is under judgment, dear brothers and
sisters.
It is reserved on the fire already.
It is a sinking ship, and everyone is
dancing while it is slowly going down.
Just like they did on the Titanic.
I mean, they got that crushing blow.
The ship shook this way and that way.
Somebody said, we're taking in water.
There was a big ball going on when
they got the shock.
And the people just said, oh, don't worry
about it.
Nothing can sink this ship.
And they kept right on dancing while the
ship began to slowly sink.
What a picture of the evangelical world in
our land.
I know this probably sounds pretty strong, but
somebody needs to blow the trumpet.
And I'm going to blow it tonight.
I may not have a lot of volume
to blow it, but I'm going to blow
it anyway.
I have observed through these last 20 years
that when parents get serious about raising their
children in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord, then suddenly they take a fresh look
at what is coming in the gates of
their home.
How many of you could give that testimony
by raising your hands?
Isn't that right?
All of a sudden I get aware that
things that are coming into my home just
might affect my children.
Well, my desire is to fan the flames
of this new desire that is in your
heart already.
I want to encourage you.
Many have allowed a host of evil teachers
to gather their children around them and teach
them the ways of the heathen.
And it's time that it stopped.
To some, I probably sound like I'm coming
from another planet, but that's OK.
A godly seed is the issue.
Turn with me to the book of Psalms
now.
We want to read a few verses in
the book of Psalms.
Psalm 101 is where we're looking.
I have written the title above this psalm.
I call it the Father's Psalm.
Reading verse 2 through 4 and 6 through
7.
I will behave myself wisely in a perfect
way.
Oh, when wilt thou come unto me?
I will walk within my house with a
perfect heart.
I will set no wicked thing before mine
eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn
aside.
It shall not leave to me.
Verse 6.
Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of
the land, that they may dwell with me.
He that walketh in a perfect way, he
shall serve me.
He that worketh this seat shall not dwell
within my house.
He that telleth lies shall not tarry in
my sight.
That's what David said about his house.
Let us look at some of these real
issues.
Please, please, just consider this evening.
The television, for one.
A whole sermon could be given about the
evil character of this teacher.
He has slain his hundreds of thousands.
No single influence has destroyed more lives than
him.
The positive advertisement proclaims the negative reality quite
clearly.
We bring the world into your home.
The television is full of those who turn
aside from the Lord.
And David said he'll have nothing to do
with them.
How can we set our children down before
them who turn aside from the Lord?
It is a wicked thing that we have
set before our eyes.
Through the eye gate, our children are inflamed
with passions that plague them all the rest
of their days.
Most of those who stand before the cameras
are filled with lies and deceit.
If we place their opinions and values next
to the word of God, they're antichrist.
Why would we want to sit before them?
We are warned not to walk in the
counsel of the ungodly.
And the television is full of it.
The television is Satan's number one tool to
train the next generation in his evil ways.
America is drunk on this thing.
She stumbles on in silly ignorance, drinking at
its fountain, laughing at its utter foolishness, not
knowing that the serpent is in there.
God's people should not be there with them.
And our precious children should not be allowed
to sit at the feet of this wicked
teacher and bow at its altar.
Some years ago, I heard a sermon by
Billy Graham about television.
He preached it in 1953.
Man, did he smoke.
But in the middle of his sermon, in
1953, he paid his respect to the television.
Now, in 1953, the television was OK, in
parentheses.
People were looking at it and saying, nothing
wrong with the television.
Nice little this, nice little that.
You know, everything's OK.
But there were a few prophets around in
1953 saying, no, no, no.
Stay away from it.
Billy Graham was one of those.
He prophesied in 1953 the dangers of the
television.
And he said this America, the television will
destroy the devotional life of the American Christian.
That's what he said.
Guess what?
He was on target with that prophecy.
I personally believe that this issue is urgent
and it calls for strong measures.
Dear fathers, I plead with you, take that
thing and hew it in pieces before the
Lord and your family.
Don't sell it.
You may say, look, the thing costs $500.
Listen, the lesson that you will give your
children if you take a sledgehammer to that
thing and hew it to pieces in Jesus
name is worth $10,000.
Smash it to pieces.
What about movies and drama?
Hollywood is like the troubled sea that cannot
rest.
Its waters cast up mire and dirt continually.
I accept this evil teacher by itself because
I feel it reaches far beyond the television
in these days that we live in.
The theaters, the videos, and now the DVDs
are all shouting for the attention of our
children.
And for the most part, they have gotten
what they're crying for.
This form of media is deception with a
capital D, brothers and sisters.
It is all fake.
It is all unreality.
Hurting people, put on false faces and act
like they are enjoying the blessings of life
when in reality they are dying on the
inside and contemplating suicide.
Why would we want to sit our precious
sons and daughters down before these hypocrites?
There is also a desensitizing of the conscience
about sin that takes place when you sit
your family and you in front of that
stuff.
To watch people sin on television has a
dulling effect on you.
To watch it on a movie, it does
the same thing.
After you watch so many murders, then murder
isn't so bad anymore.
It has a desensitizing effect upon you.
My children have never watched movies.
If I sat them down to view one
of these bloody movies, they would sit in
utter shock because they've never seen it.
I would never do such a thing.
The thing that makes a movie so interesting,
listen to this, is the drama.
Drama is the use of extreme emotions to
make a story grip the audience.
Anger must become wrath.
Love must be manifested in deep lust.
Disagreements must become a slugging fight or it
just isn't very good.
The flesh is never satisfied with what it
sees, so the movies move on to rape,
murder and witchcraft.
Where will this all end?
I tell you, it will end in utter
destruction of this land we're living in.
When will America realize they are training their
own terrorists of destruction by these means?
We Christians must bail out of this sinking
ship and have a burning in the backyard
in Jesus' name if you have any of
that junk around.
What about the modern toys?
One courageous man wrote a book some time
ago called Turmoil in the Toy Box.
I don't know his name, but he was
a courageous man.
It never hit the bestseller list and it
probably offended many people, but the man was
right on in his evaluation of toys, right
on.
Toys are not innocent child's play.
That is a devil's lie.
The devil wants you to think that that's
what it is, but they are not innocent
child's play.
Play has always been practice and meditation for
future living.
We all know this.
If we stop and think about it, that's
the way it is.
When the hearts were right, the toys were
baby dolls and tractors and real life followed
right along accordingly.
But it's not that way anymore.
The times have changed.
The functions of toys is still the same.
The children in America are still practicing and
meditating for future conduct.
But what kind of toys are they playing
with in these days?
The baby doll has become a Barbie doll
who wears many skirts and paints her face.
She has a figure that is impossible to
match, but the girls are trying with every
means they can to try to match it.
And that's where bulimia and anorexia come from.
The tractor has been replaced with a hot
rod that peels down the street and is
the pride of every young man's dream.
These are the first fruits of destruction.
We have gone way beyond these to utterly
evil demonic toys.
How many rows in the toy store today
is just a big long row of demons?
You can now practice witchcraft and prepare for
deep satanic rituals by purchasing Dungeons and Dragons
on the toy shelf, by the way.
The stuffed toys have been replaced with these
gruesome looking creatures from the underworld of the
damned.
Brothers and sisters, Satan is behind every bit
of it.
Every bit of it.
Just like he's made Halloween look like a
big party when in actuality it's the devil's
high day and human sacrifices are being made
on that day while the children are foolishly
going out looking like demons.
My heart hurts when I think how many
children are ignorantly playing with these evil teachers.
I have only listed a few.
There are many, many more.
But I just plead with parents.
Consider toys our practice for future living.
What are your children practicing for?
That is a good question to answer.
What about the world of thrills?
Have you looked in the dictionary for the
definition of this word thrill?
It is very revealing and it helps me
to understand why there's never enough.
A thrill is a sharp, shivering sensation running
through the body.
It means to give a rush of pleasure
to penetrate the body with intense sensations.
That's what the word thrill means.
The whole idea of more and more thrills
is central in all of its roots.
Worldly men are working overtime to come up
with another thrill that is a little higher
than the last one.
And the masses are running after them as
fast as the new ones come out.
There's never enough.
The thrill is never enough.
200 miles an hour is not fast enough.
The old rides at the amusement park are
not good enough.
The rush is gone.
They must have another one.
They must get a higher one.
They must have a faster one.
Now they tie a rubber band around their
waist and jump off the side of a
mountain.
The rush they get is the feeling they
get from free fall, thinking that they might
land on the rocks below.
They call that a rush.
I tell you that's utter perversion.
But that's the way it's going.
We watch over the thrill level of our
children.
I used to go home in the summertime,
you know, to visit family.
And all the relatives would get out there
with my children and say, Hey, can Daniel
ride the motorcycle with us?
And I said, No, absolutely not.
He likes his bicycle.
Bless God.
We watch over the thrill level of our
children.
Oddly enough, the children still get a thrill
out of going to McDonald's for a meal
together.
Bless God.
But you know what?
If you let that thing just keep getting
higher and higher and higher.
What's McDonald's?
Who needs that?
I want the next latest thing.
Let me go up and climb the highest
mountain.
Let me go skiing up in Alaska on
the highest mountains where you fall off over
a cliff and land 30 feet down below
and keep on going.
It's ridiculous.
The world of thrills.
What about computer games?
I have much caution about these innocent games.
More cautions are coming about these innocent games
all the time.
It's being raised by the secular community in
the last couple of years because of all
the high school shootings.
Even the secular media is raising questions about
the connection between the practice of these games
and youth walking down the halls in the
school shooting their classmates with real guns.
Because of progress, these games are getting more
realistic all the time.
You actually feel like you are in the
game standing before your enemy when you blow
his brains out.
The blood flies everywhere when you shoot.
You say, well, we don't go for things
like that.
We're Christian.
Well, OK, and I'm glad.
I'm glad you don't go for things like
that.
But who wants to be a part of
any of it?
Seriously?
Remember, your children are practicing for real life.
Is this what you want them to do
in real life?
Hmm.
I don't want mine to mess around with
a game of golf.
Bless God.
I'd rather they go soul winning than go
golfing on Saturday afternoon.
Bless God.
The golf games gave way to the killing
games long ago, and both are a waste
of precious time.
How about reading material?
Most children are avid readers.
Aren't they?
How many of you have children like that?
I mean, give them something to read.
They're just like, hmm.
They just eat them up as fast as
you can come up with a new one
that you think is OK for them to
read.
It seems like they can never get enough
books to read.
This presents a real challenge to parents.
But it's one that we need to take
seriously and not just let them read whatever
they get their hands on.
I reserve the right in my house.
And everybody knows that I have that right
to pick up any book, any time and
look it over and check it out and
say, I don't like this book.
Let's set this one aside.
OK, Papa, when you're choosing books, I would
encourage you to stick to the true, the
real and stay away from the imaginary.
We are being overrun with Christian novels and
the church is eating up this material by
the millions.
They all have a story of romance in
them and they are mostly read by ladies
and girls.
Interesting, isn't it?
I feel these books are dangerous for our
daughters and our wives to read.
They present an unreal, fuzzy kind of love
affair that is not true in real life.
A girl's lust for romance is stimulated by
reading these books.
I have heard of dozens of cases where
girls read till three o'clock in the
morning to finish the end of the story.
And get up at six o'clock, skip
devotions and go off to the rest of
the things in life.
What is drawing them to stay up till
three o'clock in the morning?
Is it the spirit of God brooding over
the book?
Absolutely not.
It is nothing but emotion and flesh.
Burn them.
Let us read the Bible till three o
'clock in the morning.
Amen.
I am a fanatic.
Our daughters get an unrealistic idea about what
love is.
And then they get disappointed with their marriage
because it isn't like what they read in
the book.
Dear fathers, guard the hearts and keep the
hearts of your daughters for one man.
The mystery thrillers have given way to the
end time thrillers.
And now all the boys also have something
to captivate their receptive minds till three o
'clock in the morning on.
Stay away from it, my dear brothers and
sisters.
Stay away from it.
It has nothing good in it.
It is a waste.
What about the Internet?
We have Internet in our house.
The Internet is fast becoming a tool for
every kind of business activity that you can
imagine.
While we do use the Internet, it is
very limited and no one is allowed to
log on without someone else in the room.
The children are not allowed at all to
log on.
We use it occasionally to gather information about
a subject or a product of interest.
The first issue I see when I look
at the use of the Internet is T
-I-M-E.
I mean, I've got so many things that
I want to do.
How could you waste your time in front
of one of those things?
But the main issue is the filth that
is available to those who go looking for
it.
It has been the greatest curse to American
men that you can ever find.
It has revealed the low level of spiritual
strength that Christian men have in this land.
Someone said, what are we going to do?
Look at what's happening to all our Christian
men.
I say, it's just revealing where they've been
at all along.
No fire of God burning in their soul.
They live in the flesh, so they get
trapped by every hook that the devil throws
out.
Every fleshly hook that he throws, they get
caught by.
There are dangers to our children, and they're
very obvious.
I would encourage you, there are options available
that protect you and your family from this
evil.
Don't wait until you've had a tragedy to
do something about it.
Do it now.
And if you can't handle it, smash it.
And do it before your children, by the
way.
It's good lessons for them.
What about Christian rock music?
When Balaam could not curse Israel because of
God's blessing on them, he taught of another
way to curse Israel indirectly.
He counseled Balak to destroy them from the
inside.
He sent sensual women down into the camp
of Israel, and the rest is history.
This is the story that I think of
when I consider the destructive influence that wrong
music has had on our youth.
That would be sad enough, but it has
now reached over into the Christian realm, and
now the church is dancing to the world's
music with some sanctified words thrown in.
Even the subtitle that I have used is
a misnomer.
Christian rock?
That's like Christian gambling and Christian beer.
They don't go together.
At least not yet.
But probably they're on the way.
Amen?
Somehow they'll figure out a way to sanctify
gambling and beer too.
Those two words do not go together.
I want to encourage you fathers to stand
at the gate and check out the music
that your children are listening to.
Listen to this.
We spoke about authority earlier.
Here is where the rubber meets the road,
men.
Sit down with your family and get a
clear understanding from all that are there that
it is okay for Papa to check out
the music, and he can throw away any
that he wants to, and we will bless
him and thank him for it.
I would encourage you fathers, gain that piece
of ground in your home, and don't let
go of it.
There is so much stuff coming out, and
it comes out so fast, somebody has to
watch over it.
And guess what?
You are the gatekeeper at your house.
Every time we have a youth Bible school,
scores of youth get right with God and
their dads about their worldly music.
Let's head them off at the pass, men.
Why send them to the Bible school where
some hot preacher gets them all fired up
and they get right with God in the
midst of the atmosphere, then they go home
and say, Dad, this is what I've been
doing.
Would you please forgive me?
You head them off at the pass, Dad.
Sit down, have a family meeting, and discuss
these things.
Lastly, and there are others, but I'm just
giving you a few.
Silly Bible stories.
Some time back, maybe 20 years or so,
it came into the minds of Christian educators
that children learn better if the material is
funny.
I wonder where they got that.
There is that foolishness again that we talked
about the other evening.
Now even the Christians are playing on the
foolish mind of a child and thinking they're
going to teach them with foolishness.
Well, the children really did sit up and
listen as they laughed their way through the
Bible story.
From there they went to the silly puppets,
which really made everybody laugh, but now it's
the norm.
That's the only way you can learn the
Bible, is with a silly little puppet up
there dancing around in front of the children.
Hmm.
Most material for the little ones is full
of this nonsense method of teaching.
Can I give it such a strong name?
Nonsense method of teaching.
Moses is a funny little man with a
big round nose, with eyes that look like
precious moment babies.
Please, please.
Instead of a prophet, a fiery prophet who
stood for God in the midst of hard
times.
Where are they going with all this stuff?
Do you really think this is the way
to pass on the faith to the next
generation?
I hardly think so.
Now they have put these things in animated
cartoons and added silly voices to go along
with it.
You really have to distort the prophet Moses
to do that.
These creative educators have now come up with
the greatest perversion of them all.
King David is a cucumber.
Can you believe it?
He's a cucumber playing his harp.
I tell you, it makes my heart hurt
to think that they're doing stuff like that
and nobody has a sensitive conscience at all.
You mean it's okay for David, the prophet
David, the psalmist David, that powerful man, that
giant killer, it's okay for David to be
a singing cucumber?
That's the veggie tales, you know.
Maybe you don't know what those are.
I hope you don't, bless God.
But that's what it is.
That's what it is.
This whole thing is the devil's device to
water down the Word of God and his
testimony to the next generation.
I guarantee you, that's what it is.
He's out after them.
I feel this is a poor choice for
babysitters and even poorer choice for teachers.
What do you think?
Let's have an old-fashioned house cleaning.
Amen?
This is what we have invited into our
homes.
All this stuff.
It's time to have a house cleaning.
We've invited these things into our home to
entertain our children while we do better things.
I'm deeply burdened about all of this.
Most of this has happened because the fathers
have not been watching at the gates.
Many fathers do not even know that they're
the ones that are responsible to deal with
all these things.
Dear fathers, how are the walls and the
gates of your home?
Are they broken down?
Have you directed your family with holy standards?
I pray that God will give you the
strength and courage to cleanse your home of
anything that defile it.
It's time to have an old-fashioned house
cleaning.
Oh, your children will never forget it.
I remember back there.
I remember what that dad got all excited
in.
He went through the house.
And when he got done, we had a
pile of this and we had a pile
of this.
And he got out the sledgehammer and took
care of these and started a fire and
took care of these.
And all of these went to the garbage
dump.
Oh, what a blessed memory in the hearts
and lives of children to look back to
a day when dad finally got on fire
for God and destroyed all the junk that
was in the house, defiling the children.
By the way, if William Booth were standing
up here right now, he'd say it a
whole lot stronger than what I have.
I guarantee it.
Have you ever read any of his writings
about entertainment?
I'll close with this.
A dear friend of mine got convicted by
God about his television set.
He realized this thing is not good for
my family.
We're hooked on it.
Everybody sits in front of it.
Nobody talks to each other.
We come home from work.
We come home from school.
Everybody sits down.
They eat their meal in front of it.
They don't communicate.
There they are glued to the TV.
They had this cable TV stuff, too.
You know, he had a big dish outside
in his front yard.
You know, back when they had big ones,
huge discs sitting out there, sticking up on
a six-by-six post.
He came home from work for an evening
with a backhoe and a chainsaw.
And backed up there in the front, bless
God, I mean, all the neighbors were looking.
Hey, I wonder what Graham's doing.
He's got a backhoe out there.
I wonder what he's building.
Ring!
He gets the old chainsaw going, you know,
gets down there on that post.
Boom!
Down goes the cable, whatever that satellite dish
is.
And then after that, he gets the old
little backhoe and starts digging himself a hole
right in the middle of his front yard.
All the neighbors are watching.
What in the world is that guy doing
out there?
After he dug the hole, he laid the
big dish right in the hole, filled it
up with water, made a fish pond out
of it, bless God.
He did it in front of the whole
neighborhood.
Now that's taking a stand for God, amen?
It's about time we quit being ashamed of
being Christians.
And I want to encourage you dads, rise
up and take the lead, and you dear
moms, stand beside your man.
Don't you make a fuss if he wants
to break something, even if he breaks the
wrong thing.
Thank God he wants to break something.
Amen?
Let's pray.
Oh God, we plead with you tonight, Father.
Make us men on fire, dear God.
Give us some holy grit, dear Lord.
Oh, help us to watch over our children,
God.
How many times us ministers say, we're the
dads.
Why'd the dads do something?
Oh God, would you wake us dads up,
Lord?
Would you wake us up, God?
Help us to look around us and see
what's happening, Father.
Give us spiritual eyes, Lord, in this lazy,
sloppy Christianity that we have grown up in,
dear God, I pray.
Give us fathers and mothers spiritual eyes to
protect our children for the sake of the
God who wants to dwell in them someday.
Let us preserve their minds and their hearts,
their souls and their wills for the day
when you will come and dwell in them.
I pray this, oh God, in Jesus Christ's
name I ask it.
Amen.