Bringing Heaven Home

03 The Cry of the Children

Hi. Welcome fathers and mothers and grandparents. Welcome to The World Needs A Father, Bringing Heaven Home series again. And we are beginning on Chapter two, ‘The Cry of The Children’.

Why the cry of the children? Simply because in Chapter one, the topic was ‘Satan Came To Earth’ with one purpose, to destroy the lives of fathers, mothers, marriages and children, whomever he can get his hands on. The cry of the children in pain simply because also Satan has become the substitute fathers through the internet, through Google, and have given the children of false sense of what true love is all about. Satan became the father in a very sly way and a true love of God the Father from their own human father is not being experienced. They’re experiencing a false kind of love that the world gives, and they can never be happy. They will be crying out for the father's love.

And so the real issue here, researched in many countries over the years have shown that there are a lot of dysfunctional family life in the world. And the biggest problem is what you see in front of you, fatherlessness. Stephen Baskerville from Harvard University had done quite a detailed research and he discovered that virtually every major pathology has been linked to fatherlessness. All the violent crime you see, drug, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide, all correlate more strongly one single factor, fatherlessness, than any other factor that you can think about.

And so you will realize also, the rising divorce is also one of the crisis that escalates fatherlessness. This is the research done in CNA in Singapore. The six reasons for divorce has been unreasonable behaviour, spousal violence/ abuse, quarrel, communication problem. The next one is having lived apart for more than 3 years. And 61.6 % of divorce are initiated by women, not men. Adultery is one of them. Desertion and financial problem is one of them. Marrying young and lacking intimacy is another reason.

These are all the facts. But what do these statistics tell us? It’s simply that society is wounded, breaking up, fragmenting. Marriages with a high rate of divorce are breaking up. Families are also breaking up, falling apart. It is the realities of what we can see before us.

What then can be done to stop this from escalating? I believe, with all my heart, you, fathers mothers, grandparents and me, we can do something about it, to prevent the evil one from causing further destruction. We need to stand against all the ungodly influence before us, that are penetrating into families without us realizing it. The internet, the pornography, the addiction that young children at the age of nine are caught up into it. It is a very simple practice, ritual, if all of us can keep to it. That is the what you see on the right hand side, setting up of personal prayer office. The time that we come before God, every day, pray for the special covering of God's presence and blood upon every one of our child.

Coming together with your wife to pray every day, not when you feel like it, not when you have the time for it, but come together to really pray that the devil would not have his way in our lives. And family alter, once a week probably, gather all the families together and really pray, pray, pray. It is as simple as that, but it is not happening as frequent as I would like to see. So with that in mind, you will realize that when fathers are actively involved in the life of the children, the devil will not have any kind of negative influence in their life.

In fact, many research have been proven that children of highly involved fathers see them cognitively do better in school. Academically they perform better, physically they are healthier, socially they are more engaged. They have better emotional control. They control their emotions better. And spiritually, they are more inclined. Spiritually, they are more sensitive to God, and to spiritual things.

I want to shift focus for us to realize that we need to look at the spiritual development of our children. It has been done as a research in a journal article in 1997 that the image of God that children have derived is at the age of 6 years old, from the image they carry of their own father. Isn't it so important? That fathers, at that age, that is the image that your children would have about who God this. And therefore, it is significant how we portray ourselves at home to them very important. And if this is the kind of attitude we portray, it will affect our children's image of God.

And let's look at the first one. The absent father actually portrays an absent God. Many fathers are physically present at home, but emotionally, they are absolutely busy with their own work. And that is not good. Then busy with work, with their phones, and all that. They are disconnected from their children. So a disconnected father portrays that a God is disconnected as well. Disconnected God.

The next one is interesting. A permissive father portrays a permissive God. Don't know about other countries, but there are some in Singapore where the child is a king. The fathers and mothers are so afraid to offend the children. They call the shot. It becomes a child-centric home. When it should be a Christ-centered home. It should be a Christ-centric home, not a child-centric home. And it is happening in some families, because they just love the child from that manner. And again, that's not healthy in portraying the image of God.

And then if you neglect your child, it simply means the child will feel that God is also neglecting him. A neglecting father portrays a neglecting God. And then we talk about an emotional father portrays an emotional god. It’s okay to cry in front of your child. It's okay to show emotions. When you are real, you’re authentic, and the child see that the father is real. We need to portray that God is also real, God is an emotional god.

And the last one we talk about is a loving father portrays a loving God. A loving father, makes a loving family or makes a happy family. It is very important for fathers to realize that we have to be ‘God with skin on’ for our children. We fathers have to portray in our lives, that God is alive in us. And we have to express that love, unconditional love to our children, to our wives, so that they can then see, and know, and realize that they can see God in their father. So important.

So, let's look at the reflective questions. There are three, and in your groups, wherever you are, think through about these three questions, which I think is very important. How involved are you in a cognitive, emotional, social, physical and spiritual development of your child? I used the word ‘God with skin on’,  what does it mean? What does ‘God with skin on mean’? And then question three, how can I initiate a positive influence by being ‘God with skin on’ for my children? Have fun looking at all the three questions and do something about it. Thank you very much.