Drew Boswell

a place for us to share ideas, talk about life, and learn together.

Parenting Under Attack “The Clueless Parent” Genesis 19

Parents are constantly under attack. They are bombarded by marketers trying to get them to buy the right kind of crib, straighten their kid’s teeth, the trendiest toy, or even feeling guilty about saving for college. The world feels like it is closing in when their kids seem to struggle or even just keeping up with the hectic schedule of events. Not to mention bills, sicknesses, or family disasters.

There is also a very real spiritual attack against parents. These forces are trying to keep parents from having an impact on the character development of their kids. They are working against having solid and secure families.

In light of this very real attack, the Bible gives parents truth and tools to fight back. During this series we will look at biblical parents who didn’t always get it right, and how God can use their example to turn your family around. You can stand up and succeed while under attack.

It’s tough out there. Let us arm you for the battle.

To Hear A Whisper


I am currently at a pastor’s prayer retreat and we have been given the assignment of following the spiritual discipline of silence. It’ s not as easy as you might first think – “just don’t say anything for 24 hours.” But once you close the noise coming out, there is also the noise inside your brain. Why is it that we have such a hard time simply being quiet and listening for God’s voice?

It might be that we associate silence with death (“dead men don’t tell lies.”) If I am speaking, then I am alive, or apart of what’s going on, or active with the conversation. Or even if you don’t want to take that morbid path, we at least have to deal with the internal question, “Am I ok?” If not, then I want to keep the internal dialogue to a minimum and keep my hands busy, or the tv loud, or the car tires rolling (with the radio turned up). Anything to keep me from having to quietly face God and the question, “Am I ok?”

After the battle of Mt. Carmel, Elijah (after having his life threatened) runs away. In God’s grace he comes to Elijah and says, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”[1]

The Lord was not in the great wind, or the earthquake, or the fire. He was in the whisper. It is not very hard to miss an earthquake, and wind that levels mountains, or fire sweeping in front of you – but you might very well miss a whisper.

So if God desires to communicate with you in whispers, and not mighty acts of nature, then how do we discern or hear Him?

Make An Effort
1. You have to make an effort to approach God. Yes, God came to Elijah first [2] but Elijah had to come out and approach God. We have a relationship with God through Christ so there is no need to cover our faces – but we must still go to Him. Elijah walks out of the cave.

Stop Talking (Outside and Inside)
2. God speaks in whispers, not earthquakes, fires, etc… so stop looking for Him in the loud world and quiet your soul to listen. This again requires effort and discipline. It’s much easier to turn on the tv and mentally check out, verses having to stay focused on listening and remaining quiet.

Any time I have to listen to someone who speaks in such a way that is unnatural to my ear (broken English, some other language, foreign accent) it will after a while mentally exhaust me. Listening for and to God can be tiring – but like learning a new language it gets easier.

Think of it as two people yelling at the same time – there’s a lot of noise, but not very much communication. God intentionally speaks softly so that we have to quiet ourselves to hear Him. We need to hear what God is saying, not the other way around.

Study the Bible and Remember Why You Were Created
3. In the Garden of Eden everything was perfect, yet God still came and talked with
Adam and Eve. Even though life was perfect they still needed God to help them “figure out life.” [3] Mankind is like a mirror – we were created to reflect the light of Jesus Christ. So how do we reflect His light into the world or “Bear His image?” We have to listen and remember the reason for our existence – to reflect the glory of God into our world. We need him to help us figure this out.

Salvation is not about filling an empty spot within us (or giving us something that we need or want). Instead, it is the ability to once again give God glory or “reflect” the image of His Son in your life. Mirrors don’t have batteries, they simply reflect what’s in front of them.

[1] 1 Kings 19:11-13
[2] see also1 John 4:19
[3] Mark Driscoll. Doctrine (Crossway, 2009) p. 117

Image Bearer


A couple of days ago my neighbor asked me, “what does it mean to be an ‘image bearer’? So not satisfied with the answer that I gave him, I wrote this blog entry. David I hope this helps.

Genesis 1:26 says “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.” Being made in the image of God, or bearing His image makes mankind distinctly different from the rest of creation, since mankind is the only being to be made in the image of God.

The rest of creation points to a Creator because it is so wonderfully complex and orderly that it must have a Creator (as a man who finds an ipod in the forest knows someone at one point made it).[1] While mankind also points to God as having a creator because of the complexity and beauty the human body holds, it also plays a far more important role. The role of “bearing the image of God.”

So what does this mean, to be made in the image of God? The word “image” in the Hebrew is where the word “idol” comes from. You don’t have to read vey much of the Old Testament to see that idols were forbidden, and caused much trouble for the people of God. God’s people, the Israelites, would follow a false god, and create an idol (or representation) of the god, that they would then bow down to and worship it as the one true God. The representatives made of stone, metal, straw, etc. represented the god. These images angered God because they did not accurately represent Him and His character, and it was not the way that God had directed that he was to be worshipped. [2]

There are certain attributes that God posses as part of his nature that we also posses (holiness, love, truth, righteousness, beauty, etc… ) and attributes that we do not posses (omnipresence, omnipotence, eternality, etc…) [3] Mankind can show love; dads love their daughters. This is true if a person knows Jesus or not. But it is through a relationship with Christ, that the father is able to point his daughter to God in love.

Think of being an image bearer where the human is a mirror. He was created to reflect; specifically he was created to reflect God. It is in reflecting, that God receives glory and the person does what he was created to do. Idols are forbidden because they do not accurately represent God as he truly is – In fact it is only mankind that can “bear His image.” But we bear His image in order to reflect the glory to God our Creator. This does not make us gods, anymore than the mirror is its’ maker.

But because mankind is sinful the mirror is covered with mud. It reflects nothing. This is mankind apart from a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We do not bring God glory and we do not live a life of reflecting the image of God. God saves us; we then reflect our Creator (Jesus) and He receives honor, worship, praise, and glory. We have a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction because we finally are doing what mankind was created to do (Genesis 1:26).

There is also another problem. Once a person receives Jesus’ free gift of salvation the reflection that he gives is not a perfect reflection. Yes, Christians still make mistakes! In fact it’s much like a House of Mirrors at the local county fair. The image is distorted, warped, and weird. Thus begins a lifelong process of making the image more and more accurate (theologians call this Sanctification). It is only in eternity when we will as the image bearers of Christ accurately reflect Him as we should. Also, because we are all created different and unique we have been designed to reflect that light differently. One person will reflect the attribute of love differently, but they both reflect love.

Therefore the Church (the body of believers) is like a chandelier. Many pieces of cut glass or crystal, grouped together to create a magnificent display as the light shines through it. Light is reflected, and it bounces and shines all throughout the room (or the world).

[1] Romans 1:18 ff.
[2] Exodus 20:3, 4
[3] Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Doctrine (Crossroads; Wheaton, Illinois, 2007) 121.

Big Hairy Questions

This coming Sunday at the Delaplaine the DBCC student ministry is inviting everyone who can make it to an evening of games, snacks, and BIG HAIRY QUESTIONS! Bring a friend, a snack to share, and some BIG HAIRY QUESTIONS.

Understanding Roles of Church and Home (Part Three; Written Learning Goals and Objectives)

Written Learning Goals and Objectives

Another way to help parents and teachers in their effort to educate their children would be to have written learning goals and objectives. Doug Fields has written a book entitled Purpose Driven Youth Ministry. What makes this book different from any other “how to do youth ministry” book is that he introduces the concept of identifying “H.A.B.I.T.S. ”[1] that students should be encouraged to implement into their lives.[2] These are activities that students do outside of structured church programs and are an effort to get students to have a quiet time, an accountability partner, memorize Scripture, etc., on their own, away from adult supervision. Field’s theory is that if these “H.A.B.I.T.S.” truly become second nature in the lives of the students, they will more than likely carry them over when they graduate out of youth ministry. The strength of this concept is that he has identified a short list of six things that the youth ministry can focus on and encourage in the lives of the student.

With regard to a strategy of equipping children within the local church, it would be helpful to provide parents and teachers with a list of learning objectives that the church feels are fundamental to the child having a balanced and maturing relationship with God.[3] These learning goals can even be broken down by appropriate age range. For example, two-year-olds would have completely different objectives than second graders.  In order for the material to be reviewed over time these various sets of learning objectives could build upon one another over the course of the child’s time in the church’s children’s ministry.

Someone may ask, “But what if a new student comes into the class or a student misses several lessons?” This lack of knowledge on a particular topic (missions, evangelism, Samson, for example) can be dealt with by making the topics cyclical in nature. For example, a first and second grade class may learn about “missions” and when they graduate up to the third and fourth grade class, they may study it again. Instead of repeating the old material, it will be reviewed and new material will become the focus.  At each class level, even though the same topics may be covered, the learning objectives change toward becoming more complex.[4]

There are several benefits of having written learning goals and objectives. One is that the teachers have a clear list of learning objectives that can help them in evaluating if their teaching has been effective. Second, parents have a clear list of learning objectives so that they can be working on these concepts at home, in the car to the soccer game, during bath time, or whenever the parent thinks would be an appropriate time to teach.[5] The third benefit is that the home and the church can work together, in concert to see that the child’s life conforms to the set biblical teaching objectives and life habits. It has been said that, “what is not evaluated is not worth much.” It is humanity’s natural tendency to drift toward mediocrity rather than push toward improvement and growth. Therefore, a fourth benefit of learning objectives is that it encourages the teacher to do a good job of teaching because he knows that his ministry will be evaluated when the child “graduates” to the next class. There will also be a form of outside evaluation when the child goes home and the parents ask them questions based on the set learning objectives. In discussing this concept of written goals and learning objectives Barna says,

One of the most startling revelations I encountered on this journey was finding that many of the effective ministries have a long-term plan—in some cases an 18-year developmental plan with specific ideals outlined for each age groups from infants through high school seniors. While those churches allow for spontaneity and flexibility despite their long-range planning, they are fully committed to implementing their “big picture” plan.[6]

A teacher may have teaching objectives for a given year, and she may even have learning objectives that she has developed on her own, but for her ministry to be successful these goals have to coincide with the “big picture” for the child’s spiritual development.

A fifth benefit of having written goals and objectives is that the teaching ministry of a church from nursery to high school can function as a team, with one level building upon the next until the child is mature in Christ.[7] A teacher or parent could reference the learning goals and objectives and seek to help one another in their teaching efforts. It is in essence a map for everyone to follow, so that one could get to the desired destination; a growing disciple of Christ.

[1] HABITS is an acronym where the “H” stands for Hang Time With God, “A” stands for Accountability Partner, “B” stands for Bible Memorization, “I” stands for Involvement in the Church, “T” stands for Tithing, and “S” stands for Studying the Bible.

[2] Fields, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,  Chap. 9.

[3] See Appendix A

[4] See Appendix B for an example of how topics can be repeated with the learning objectives becoming more complex.

[5] Deut 6:7–9

[6] Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, 100.

[7] “Maturing” as defined in Heb 5:14, “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”  (NIV)

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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