The Law of First Mention

In Bible interpretation, we give weight to the Law of First Mention. Whatever that is mentioned first is significant.

I believe it applies to our children. When we teach them each subject for the very first time, it leaves the strongest imprint and significance in their lives.

Today, J said to me, “Papa, when I grow up, I choose a nice girl like Mummy.”

I took this opportunity to re-iterate what I said to him before.

“A boy must be with a girl. Daddy must be a boy and Mummy must be a girl. There is no other way around it. Every other way is wrong. A boy cannot marry a boy and a girl cannot marry a girl. Two boys can never have a baby. Two girls can never have a baby. It must be a boy and a girl. That’s how God made it.”

And I got him to repeat what I said.

If we don’t give our child the “Law of First Mention”, the devil will. 

Sometimes we Christians are so fearful of taking a stand and try to use the name of Love to keep things under the water. That’s not the Jesus I know. Even Paul was not afraid to confront with truth when he wrote to churches where non-believers were present.

Jesus openly preached the truth, but He walked in Love. He loved people into truth.

Nowadays, we either hide truth and act in love or we preach truth and walk without Love. It is not either or... it is both.

Today, we are so focused on numbers and leading people to say salvation prayer that we don't present the full Gospel. "Jesus loves you and knows you. Would you like to receive Him?" That's not even the full Gospel. I have tried it so many times and almost all want to receive Him. Who doesn't want?

But try adding, "Jesus is the ONLY Way to Father God" and see if they still want Him.

When I presented the full Gospel, some decided not. It's totally okay because not all are ready to receive Him. Sometimes, we want to get a person say the salvation prayer just to add to another new testimony to share with people, instead of truly seeing the person giving his/her life to Jesus. This is why the community that believes in monotheism is the hardest to reach because they know what it means to receive Jesus as God. The rest who believe in polytheism  (like the Chinese) can easily receive Jesus as another god to add to the list of gods they already have, because the more the merrier.

John 6:65-67 - And Jesus said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

Please don't set our eyes on salvation numbers. No wonder we have plenty of numbers but not real believers. Because if you present a half Gospel, you get a half believer. The early church gave the full message so that those who were saved continued to live out the Gospel. They didn't even have the issue of "is it once saved always saved" or "can you lose your salvation?" Because when they accepted the full Gospel, they gave their lives to Jesus and period. 

The early church started with small numbers and they shook the whole world. Today, we have the largest numbers but the world isn't impacted much. It's the result of a half Gospel. #fathering101