I Will Not Forget Thee O Perth

By the time this blog is posted, Lord willing, we would have arrived home.

Perth has been our arena of ministry these last couple of weeks, not to mention the place where we rediscovered winter.

It has been interesting seeing our little boy Michael adjust to different surroundings.

When he was just 10 days old we decided to go away for the weekend to do ministry as a family.

Since then we have travelled around QLD, through NSW and Victoria serving wherever the Lord opened doors.

Having children are not an end to ministry they just mean you need to be more wise about what you do. As much as possible God wants us to serve in and with our families.

It is not a pain or inconvenience for Michael to travel, just sometimes though for his parents. He didn’t mind spending four hours playing between and on us during the flight from Cairns to Perth. He quite enjoyed it actually.

So the lesson is don’t stop living or serving when kids come but of course be wise and sensible. Some things will change but they shouldn’t stop.

We finished our last Sunday night with Katie teaching a ladies fellowship while I was with the men.

We looked at stages of spiritual maturity from 1 John 2. In that chapter the apostle addresses the ‘little children’, the ‘young men’ and ‘fathers’.

John is not primarily dealing with age groups but rather their spiritual maturity.

The little children are the new believers while the young men have moved on to waging successful spiritual warfare through abiding in the Scriptures. The fathers have a deep experiential knowledge of God.

Each group needs each other in the local church.

The little children and young men need the wisdom and counsel of the fathers; the fathers need to be fired by the enthusiasm and vigour of their spiritual progeny.

When was the last time you sought advice from a spiritual father in your church? Fathers, when was the last time you sought to encourage those who needed it most?

I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:13-14

By Robert Apps

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