Letters to Joshua-- Preview

[toj.cc]WildBillKickoff

[toj.cc]WildBillKickoff

New Member
I'm writing a book.

I'm sure that's come as a shock on this forum. However, unique to this forum, my book is actually non-fiction. It's a series of letters to my son about what he should learn from me.

It is a clear Biblical mandate that fathers are to teach their children about the Bible, doctrine, and how to live. The premise of the book is that I am writing these letters so that if something happens to me where I'm not around to teach him personally, I will be able to teach him through these letters.

Here's letter number one (I have written four so far-- this intro, the salvation plan, provision/job advice, and sin-- this one is the shortest by far).

Little Buddy—

I’ve been going through some amazing changes in my life in the past few months, and I now understand fully that the most important job a father has is to teach his children the right way to live. I’m sorry I didn’t understand this sooner, but the good news is that as I write this, you are three years old and I have plenty of time to instill in you the values and character that you will need. At least, I hope so. My prayer, Joshua, is that you grow up to be a better man than me.

You see, I’m nowhere near as perfect as you think I am now. You’ll discover that over the next fifteen years or so that you’ll live with me and your mom, but you’ll come to accept that a few years afterwards. There is only one perfect thing about me, and that is Christ inside of me. If you learn nothing else from me, please take to heart that God loves you, that He sent Jesus to die for your sin so that you don’t have to die, that He rose again in victory over death so that no one has to die, and that you can accept this free gift and live forever in Heaven with Jesus, me, and your mom. This is the most important decision you will ever make. I hope God gives me the privilege of being there when you make that decision, but only God knows if He will allow me that honor.

I want and need to leave you this record in case something happens to me. In this crazy world, there is no guarantee that I’ll see you grow up. So, just in case something does happen, I want to be sure that you know two things: First, you need to know that I love you enough to write down what I’ve learned in 29 years of life, in 13 years of being a Christian, in 7 years of loving your mom, and in 3 years of being your daddy. Second, you must know that I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you—not on your birthday, but in your sonogram picture which I kept on my desk at work until I could replace it with a real picture. In fact, I think I loved you from the moment on that Sunday morning when your mom woke me up by waving a pregnancy test with a + sign on it in front of my face. You were loved by me before you were born, just like your Heavenly Father loved you from the moment He created you and placed you in your mother’s womb.

And Joshua, I accept you for who you are. I can already see in your steel blue eyes that you are the same as, yet somehow very different from me, and that’s OK. I don’t want you to live up to any expectations I have for you, whether I set them for you or you come up with them yourself and attribute them to me. I have lived my entire life under the shadow of my father’s “expectations”, which are something I created in my own mind. Son, I release you right now from ever having to “live up” to any standard anyone in this family creates. Don't feel that you have to accomplish any task or win any award to "earn" my love. My love is given to you as a free gift-- just like salvation, which I'll write you about very soon.

I am infinitely more concerned with the development of your character than whether you win a school spelling bee or have a high paying, powerful job. Those things are nice, but trust me—it is better to be remembered as a man of character than as a man of power or accomplishment.

It’s time for bed for me (actually, it’s well past that time), but some things can’t wait. I love you, son, and hope that all is well with you.

Love,
Dad
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[toj.cc]WildBillKickoff;194055 said:
There is only one perfect thing about me, and that is Christ inside of me. If you learn nothing else from me, please take to heart that God loves you, that He sent Jesus to die for your sin so that you don’t have to die, that He rose again in victory over death so that no one has to die, and that you can accept this free gift and live forever in Heaven with Jesus, me, and your mom.
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Unfortunately I have to use my imagination to understand what these words would mean to me now, if my father had ever spoken them. My father has been a great example in my life in so many ways. He is very kind, very courteous and very industrious. He’s been generous to me too, fixing my car on countless occasions for instance, and he and my mother drove me to (expensive) piano lessons for years and did so much else for me when I was a child and teenager. Looking back I see so many good and kind works, and I can easily forgive anything he might have done wrong. But in some ways, it would be easier for me if my father had been a jerk who I didn’t care for, or an arrogant self-centered egotist who withheld the things I needed. Then the spiritual separation, the inability to connect with him on any really meaningful level, wouldn’t be so consistently gnawing at my heart now. My father and I share good times still, we enjoy company and conversation. But even with my friends in this guild, many of whom are a thousand miles away or more, I really have a deeper and more meaningful relationship.

Any book like you’re making for your son, from my own father, would be painful for me to read now, because it would be filled with witty observations, maybe jokes here and there, and plenty of knowledge and good ideas, but never a true word of love or a blessing. On the other hand, your book is obviously going to be filled with love and blessings, so you don’t even have to worry too much about the rest. Not to say that your book won’t have plenty of wisdom too, but really when your son is grown and you’re gone I doubt any part of your book will be more meaningful than the paragraph I quoted above.

Paul
 
My Son's Name is Also Joshua and i like this Idea of writting to Him. so i think i will copy your Idea and use my own Words. so far i learned that sometimes its easier to express my self by writting rather than talking,i guess i need to get closer to my son before he gets to be older(Hes 14 now)Hope you get your book done and publish it one day.
God bless...:)
 
Update:

Just cracked the 10,000 word mark, which makes my set of six full letters to my son slightly longer than the Prayer of Jabez book that was so popular a few years back. Still so much more that I need to pass on to him...

Added additional material to letters 2-4, and finished first drafts of letters 5 (love and marriage) and 6 (trials and suffering).
 
Up to 9 letters now, 14,000+ words of love, encouragement, and admonition. Here's the latest in the hopes of getting some suggestions.

Letter 9: Basic Christian Doctrine Part One said:
Little guy—

This letter should have been written near the beginning of the stack. I got a bit ahead of myself here, and I feel like I need to backtrack. I’ve been spending this time talking about my experiences as a believer in Christ, and I haven’t laid the basic beliefs of Christianity out. I’ve assumed that you already know them just by osmosis at this point, but there are some basic tenets of Christianity that I did not learn until years after I became a believer.

The reason I never learned them is because no one ever showed me what they were, until very recently. The funny thing is, I had read them several times, but it never clicked. The six basic tenets of Christianity are located in the book of Hebrews, chapter 6, in plain language. For this passage, I actually like the King James version better than other translations.

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

So, in order to progress to maturity in your Christian walk, one must learn these six tenets first:

1. Repentance from dead works
2. Faith towards God
3. The doctrine of baptisms
4. The doctrine of laying on of hands
5. The resurrection of the dead
6. Eternal judgment

I’m going to try to give context to each of these doctrines for you, explain why they are important, and show what it looks like in someone’s life. If you can understand and believe these six doctrines, you have completed the first step towards Christian maturity.

First, repentance from dead works. I think it’s important to study the context of the words here. The word “repent” appears 38 times in the Bible (NIV). To repent means to turn away from. Whenever someone repents, they are repenting from something. There are three main things in those 38 passages that we are told to repent from: sin (Isa 59:20, Eze 18:30, Rev 16:11), idolatry (Eze 14:6, Rev 9:20), and evil (Job 36:10). We are told what will happen if we repent: we will be restored to God (Jer 15:19, Acts 3:19), we will live and not die (Eze 18:32), Heaven rejoices (Luke 15:7), and the Redeemer comes to them (Isa 59:20). And, if we do not repent, we will perish (Jesus’ words in Luke 13:3 and Luke 13:5—if Jesus repeats himself, it is EXTREMELY important.), and be removed from the Kingdom (Rev 2:5).

We are also given certain commands when we repent. We are to turn to God (Acts 26:20, Acts 3:19), believe the Good News (Matt 21:32, Mark 1:15), and be baptized (Acts 2:38). True repentance means to turn away from sin, idolatry, and evil, and to turn towards God, trust in Jesus, and be baptized. The rewards for doing so are great; the consequences for not doing so are horrific.

So then, what are dead works? There are clearly two different types of dead works mentioned in Scripture—any works done before we are believers (works done by a spiritually dead person), and works done by a born-again believer that are against God’s commands, a.k.a. sin.

What I take from this is that no works that we do on our own are considered live works in God’s eyes. We can be doing our best to please God, but if what we are doing is not what God is directing us to do, it is a dead work. For example, if I use the talent that God gave me in singing to go on American Idol, let’s say my motivation was to earn a contract to record songs that will glorify God. That sounds great, right? Well, let’s be honest, doesn’t that sound like someone coming up with an idea on how to get rich and famous and justifying it by throwing God into their idea? There is a very fine line between a dead work and a live work, often attributable to mixing our own desires in with those of God.

God does not speak to me audibly. (There’s a term for that. It can be found in psychology textbooks.) Rather, for me, God speaks to me through the Holy Spirit, inaudibly. Here’s the problem—Satan also speaks inaudibly to me, trying to screw me up, and I come up with some ideas on my own, unintentionally screwing myself up. Part of becoming a more mature Christian is learning to discern which voice is which.

I tend to think of discernment as a filter which separates those Godly thoughts from the carnal thoughts. As long as the filter is clean, the thoughts are separated, the bad ones discarded and the good ones kept. However, when those filters are clogged by our own ungodly desires or our sin, they do not function properly and lead to more sin. This is the anatomy of how someone becomes backslidden—sin separates from God, making it harder to separate God from man, making sin more prevalent, making God’s voice and man’s voice indistinguishable, leading to hedonism, leading to man becoming his own God.

That’s why it is essential to repent. Without repentance from the things of this world, from dead works, a man runs the risk of becoming his own God. I have yet to meet a man who has tried to create his own Heaven and succeeded. More often than not, their own selfish attempts to create Heaven lead to their own personal hell.

So, put God in his place—the head of your life, and the head of the universe. Repentance, at it’s heart, is recognition that nothing we can do will forgive us of our own sin, that forgiveness of our sins is something we do not deserve, and that we need God’s help to get things right. What we do on our own is worthless, while true worth lies in Godly things.

Well, there’s over 1,000 words on just the first of the six basic doctrines of Christianity, and I feel like I’ve left some things unsaid. I’ll cut this letter off now and give you some time to digest this. I love you and hope that you take this to heart—repent from your dead works, whatever they may be.

Love,
Dad
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I've got to say this is a very good book idea. I'd like to do something similar when I've got a kid on the way -- in 7-10 years :p
 
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