How many of you are sticking with it? Delicious pancakes on the other end, although the real reward is in having read all the way through God’s word! If you are reading D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God, Volume 1, this morning’s (May 18) entry probably stood out to you like it did to me:

Most Christians have listened to testimonies that relate how some man or woman lived a life of fruitlessness and open degradation, or at least of quiet desperation before becoming a Christian. Genuine faith in the Lord Christ brought about a personal revolution… Where there was despair, there is now joy; where there was turmoil, there is now peace; where there was anxiety, there is now some measure of serenity. And some of us who were raised in Christian homes have secretly wondered if perhaps it might have been better if we had been converted out of some rotten background.

That is not the psalmist’s view. “For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.” (Ps. 71:5-6).

The most thoughtful of those who are converted later in life wish they had not wasted so many of their early years. Now that they have found the pearl of great price, their only regret is that they did not find it sooner. More importanly, those who are reared in godly Christian homes are steeped in Scripture from their youth… instead of wishing they could have had a worse background (!), they sometimes hang their head in shame that they have done so little with their advantages, and frankly recognize that apart from the grace of God, there is no crime and sin to which they could not sink. It is best, by far, to be grateful for a godly heritage and to petition God himself for grace that will see you through old age.

So when was the last time you thanked your parents for raising you in a godly home, preaching the gospel to you, and training you to apply God’s word to your life? Do it soon. Do it often.

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