Raising Kids the World Will Hate

I recently read a blog post by this name, written by Adam Griffin at The Village Church's blog.  When a friend of mine linked to this on Facebook, I couldn't read the title and not read the full post.  And it was well worth it.  Very thought provoking.  Here's a portion of it:

I have a strong, and certainly not uncommon, desire for my child to be validated by the love of other people. Most parents want their son or daughter to be a lovable person, and it’s that desire that makes John 15:19 so important and so transformative when it comes to the way we prepare our children for the future. Christ tells His disciples, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” It’s not just John 15:19, either. There are many Scriptures that describe the adversarial relationship that God’s followers will have with those who are not believers. 

Reading this, I realized that if God answers my prayer for my son to be a follower of Christ, people will hate him. People will absolutely, unquestionably be repulsed by my son.

Go read the full thing, it's well worth your time.

The Innkeeper

From Crossway's website, a description of John Piper's poem, The Innkeeper:

Only two weeks from his crucifixion, Jesus has stopped in Bethlehem. He has returned to visit someone important—the innkeeper who made a place for Mary and Joseph the night he was born. But His greater purpose in coming is to pay a debt. What did it cost to house the Son of God? 

Through this imaginative poem, John Piper shares a tale of what might have been – the story of an innkeeper whose life was forever altered by the arrival of the Son of God. 

Ponder the sacrifice that was made that night. Celebrate Christ’s birth and the power of His resurrection. Rejoice in the life and light He brings to all. And encounter the hope His life gives you for today – and for eternity.

Here's Piper reading the poem:

I'm more than a week late in posting this, but Desiring God also has a good Advent resource that Trisha and I have been going through.  It's a free ebook/PDF, called Good News of Great Joy, and it's a collection of devotional readings for each day of Advent.  I'd encourage you to check it out.

Immanuel - God with us