As a teenager, my pastor, Richard Jordan, used to be a street preacher, even traveling to New Orleans once and holding forth with an open Bible from outside the French Quarter’s St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square (where he says a nun actually snuck up behind him and tried to push him in front of a moving tour bus!).

“I used to preach on the streets at Christmastime the message, ‘Jesus is a big boy now,’ ” recalls Jordan, who grew up in Mobile, Ala. “The point is, people talk about ‘the babe in the manger,’ but He’s all grown up! The weakness is over with!

“The idea that you can cuddle Him in your arms and ‘goo-goo-goo’ Him under the chin, or that you can slap Him around like they did on the Cross—you can forget that! That’s all over with.

“God drew a line at that empty tomb and He’s declared to be the Son of God with POWER by the resurrection of the dead!

“In Isaiah 2, when he talks about ‘the day of the Lord,’ it’s the day ‘when the high and lofty looks of men are brought low.’ Why? Because the Lord shows up! And buddy when He shows up . . . you see, when God shows up, everybody’s put down and man cannot exalt himself until He gets rid of God.

“Human wisdom has one aim and that’s to get rid of God-consciousness. It’s the cover-up. Vain thinking is self-oriented: ‘We’ve got a better idea than believing in God,’ and people develop their own thoughts; their own human wisdom.”

*****

This weekend is the premiere of the controversial Nicole Kidman “kids’ movie,” The Golden Compass, dubbed as “a fantasy film whose heroine is on a mission to kill God.”

An article on it appearing in the Los Angeles Daily News reports, “Proponents say the $180 million film—rated PG-13, urging parental guidance—and the 1995 novel that spawned it are subject to interpretation.

“ ‘God’ is a corrupt authority figure—a false god—whose mission is to control people and deny their free will. Lyra, a 12-year-old girl, tries to rescue a kidnapped friend and winds up saving the world by conquering the all-powerful yet evil leader.

“Interpretations can range from viewing Lyra as the conqueror of false gods or the atheist child seeking to wipe out the deity that Christians worship, because religion poses restrictions on man.”

*****

When it comes to disciplining and raising children, Jordan says II Cor. 13:7 is “the most important verse in all of the Bible; at least it has been for me.” Paul writes, “Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.”

Jordan reasons, “Isn’t that what you pray for your kids? There’s never been a (loving) dad or mother who didn’t have that on their heart for their kids. When it says, ‘Not that we should appear approved,’ that’s saying, ‘I don’t want my kid to do what’s right so that I look good.’

“How many times have you pulled up into the church parking lot and turned around in the back seat and said, ‘Now you get in there and don’t you . . . ’ and the whole thought is what people are going to think of you when you’re family comes in. Now, kids get that! They read you.

“When you realize, ‘My motive isn’t for me; my motive is for you,’ you know what that is? That’s loving your kids. Valuing them more than yourself.

“The greatest war you’re ever going to fight is with your own will and the will of your children. When you discipline a child, you enter into life’s most demanding warfare. And you better not enter into it—don’t even get on the battlefield—if you don’t have the heart and intent to win!

“Because if you let that child beat you . . . how hard is it to make a five-year-old do what you want them to do?! Look how much bigger you are! I tell my grandkids, ‘Don’t you notice I’m bigger than you?! I get you between me and the wall and you’ll be a little greasy spot! That means you better do what I’m telling you!’

“And when they don’t want to, you know what, I recognize there’s a war going on—a war of wills—and I better learn to win that will.

“As a parent you better teach that child there’s an authority they HAVE to obey. And when you do, you give them a gift of maturity. You don’t grow into maturity and adulthood until you learn that lesson; where you can live beyond being a spoiled brat.”

*****

One of the great passages nailing today’s overwhelmingly flippant, condescending attitude toward the God of the Bible is in II Peter 3: “And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.”

As grace preacher D. Kuepper explains, “Since Christ hasn’t returned, many today are going, ‘Well, apparently God didn’t really mean what He said!’ Those who walk after their lusts today lay the groundwork for those who’ll do the same in the last days of prophecy.”

*****

Satan can manipulate circumstances so it looks like God isn’t really hearing your prayers.

As Paul himself testifies in I Thessalonians 2:18, “Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.”

Jordan explains, “Paul desired earnestly and fervently to go back to the Thessalonican church and minister to them and even though he’s praying God would give him an open door to get back, he never got back.

“Paul says, ‘I believe I have access into God the Father’s presence and I believe He hears me and loves me and loves to answers my prayers—and desires to be known as He who hears and answers prayer—Lord, I know you hear me; I know you love me,’ and then NOTHING.

“Paul prays, ‘I know you want these people established; I know you’ve given me the ministry,’ and there’s NOTHING. And it looks like God just shut a deaf ear to him. And, you see, what we do is we begin to doubt and we begin to say, ‘Lord, don’t you love me? Aren’t you for me anymore?’

“Paul said, ‘I’m praying for this and I want this and oh, Lord, give me that,’ and God said ‘No.’ Why? He had something far better. Paul couldn’t go back to Thessalonica, but what’d he do? He wrote them a letter.

“And when he wrote I Thessalonians, he was writing part of God’s eternal Word that you and I can put it in our laps here today. Now, that’s a whole lot better than a trip, isn’t it? You see, there’s a principle there for you.

“Satan will try to block and check you and so when you pray, you pray, ‘Nevertheless not my will but thine be done.’ Because Romans 8:26 says we don’t know what to pray for as we ought so, we pray, ‘Nevertheless we want to do this by the will of God.’

“If the thing we’re petitioning for doesn’t come just exactly the way we said it, we don’t get all upset and in turmoil about it. We say, ‘The Lord has something else; I just don’t see clear enough. I put aside my viewpoint and I wait on the Lord.’

“Now, the question comes, ‘How do I know I’m in the will of God? How do I know I’m where God wants me to be?’

“There’s a principle involved in knowing where God wants you to be, and knowing when you go somewhere by the will of God and when you don’t, and that’s just . . . to put it in real plain vernacular where it’s not flowered up—it’s just to say, ‘Start moving around and He’ll put you where He wants you!’

“If you’ll be right where you are what He wants you to be, He’ll open the doors and get you there to the place He wants you to be.

“That verse (I Thess. 5:18) doesn’t say anything about where you are; it talks about how you are where you are. What are you doing; what’s your mental attitude, what’s your viewpoint? Are you rejoicing?

“You see, it’s a mental attitude that He’s after first. Now, that’s not to say there’s a place He wants you and places He doesn’t want you. But the first issue is that heart attitude, and if you have that and you be what He’s made you to be—a member of the Body of Christ functioning in that way wherever you are—you’ll find He’ll begin to open doors and move you around when He’s ready to.

*****

As Paul writes in I Thess. 4:3, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.”

Jordan says, “God’s will is that you be clean. Holiness, not a holy mess. God expects you to perfect holiness in the fear of God (II Cor. 7:1). He wants you to be wherever you are living a sinless life. He expects you to be where you are living for Him.

“Paul says, ‘I want to have a prosperous journey BY the will of God.’ Now there’s a principle! Old man Bob Jones used to say, ‘Duties, never conflict.’ And you need to write that down upon the impress of the doorway of your mind and never forget it!

“There’s another one Jones used to say, and these two have meant more to me over the years than anything else: ‘The greatest ability is dependability.’ That’ll help you get through some real tough spots of self-doubt.”