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&In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths&

"Suffering From Neglect"

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But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.  1 Timothy 5:8.  This is what the Word of God says of a man who will not provide for his own.

We read it in the newspapers and see it on the television news broadcasts daily and sometimes we even see it around us, stories of little children being neglected.  We see little children out on the streets late at night while their parents not only don't know where they are or what they are doing, but they could care less.  We hear of little children whose parents are using and or selling drugs and they use every cent they can get their hands on to supply their own pleasure, while their children are going hungry.  There have even been more and more cases brought to light where parents were using their children to sell drugs for them, because they knew that the courts would go lighter on a child.

All these examples I've mentioned are indeed extreme and there are more I'm sure that are even worse that I have left out, but though they are extreme, they are increasingly common.  The society in which we live has truly become nothing less than an abomination and what we see and hear about is nothing compared to what the Lord sees.

To a lesser degree, but no less a sin, there are men who will not work and they allow their children to do without.  Now, the Lord is the one who provides all men with their own particular abilities and opportunities, so I am not talking about a man who has lost his job through no fault of his own or a man who has come down with some debilitating disease who cannot work.  What I'm speaking of is the man who is able to work and just won't.  There are countless children who suffer neglect because of a lazy good for nothing dad who will not provide for them to the best of his ability.

Then there are those who work to buy their children everything their hearts desire and yet they expect the school system and the church to raise their children for them.  Many of these are well respected in their community and some have even written "how to" books on parenting.  These people more often than not go unnoticed as neglecters of their children.  So many times they will send their children off to school and if they don't get good grades, they blame the school.  Then they will send them off to church and in the mean time, they allow them to watch anything and everything on television and when they come up wanting the latest craze that all the other kids have, they just go out and get it for them.  By the time they finally notice the child getting into trouble, they blame it all on the church for not providing them with the proper morals.  After all, they sent them to church every Sunday.  Well, maybe they did miss a few Sundays, but there was the vacations.  Kids have to get away from it all too sometimes.  Right?  And then there was the few times when they had friends over and they had to play Power Rangers with them.  After all, we have to let them be just kids every now and then.  Right?  Okay, maybe we did go fishing a few Sundays, but we do need time to be together as a family at times.  Right?  If the church had been doing it's job, they would have filled them with enough religion to sustain them through those few times.

Friends, what I have just described here is just as much child neglect as was the first instances I mentioned.  A man who will provide for his own will not send his child to church when it seems convenient.  A man who will provide for his own will take his child to church when it is at all possible.  Not only that, but a man who will provide for his own will train up that child in the way he should go so that when he is old he will not depart from it.  What will a man provide for his own?  He will provide food for his stomach.  He will provide clothes for his back.  He will provide education for his head.  But friends, above all that, he will provide Jesus for his heart.

Now, I could have ended this little article with that last paragraph and I believe that many who would read it would be richly blessed by it, but I believe with all my heart that there may be some who would read it and say they agree with most of it and that they take their children to church regularly, but that they believe their child gets enough Jesus taught to them at church.  Friend, please listen to me as this article is as much to you as it is to the one in the first paragraph.  Jesus Christ cannot be taught.  He has to be shown and the only way we can show Him is to have Him abiding in us.  The only way that can happen is for us to have truly come to know Him as our own personal saviour.  Talking to someone about Christ will never cause them to know Him.  In order to lead someone to the Lord, you must first know where He is at.  If a man can talk someone into being saved, then a man can talk them out of being saved.  You may say that I am trying to talk you into getting saved, but you couldn't be further from being wrong.  What I'm doing is placing before you the gospel of Christ: for it (the gospel of Christ) is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth...  That gospel is that Jesus Christ who is the Son of God, who is God, who knew no sin, came to this earth and took your sins and my sins and the sins of the whole world upon Himself, and that He laid down His life for those sins (yours and mine and those of the whole world) and then on the third day, He took His life up again (giving us the victory over death and hell), and He ascended up to heaven where He sits on the right hand of the Father waiting for the Father to give the word to call His church home to live with Him through eternity.  As I place this gospel before you I am praying for you that the Lord will open your blind eyes that you may see the need for His gift of salvation.  Men (or women) such as we have no power greater than that of prayer, but if you have not yet trusted Him as your Lord and saviour, there is only one prayer that He will hear you pray, and that is the prayer of repentance.  As I said, I cannot talk you into true repentance for only God can call you to true repentance.  If you believe what I have just told you and you know that you are a lost sinner and you feel something inside telling you that you need to repent of your sins, that is the Lord God Himself.  The devil will not call you to repentance.  He will do all he can to convince you that you don't need it.  If the Lord is calling you now, I beg you to get on your knees right this minute and tell Him that you know you are a lost sinner and that you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and that you truly repent of your sins.  Then ask Him to send Jesus Christ into your heart and life.  If you truly do this, He will forgive you of all your sins and you will become a child of God.  If you do this, go now and confess Him before men that He is your Lord and saviour.  And let me be the first my brother or sister to welcome you to the family of God.