In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of fathers reading the Word of God to their families on a daily basis. He believes that this is the key to seeing a mighty work of God in our land. The speaker also discusses the correlation between children turning away from God and the lack of reading the Word of God with their families. He encourages fathers to prioritize this practice and not be discouraged if they forget or miss a day. Additionally, the speaker shares a true story about a man named Bill who experienced marital difficulties but found restoration and purpose through learning and applying the Word of God.

We welcome you again to On Eagle's Wings. I'm Don Corville. We're here to minister to you, to be a blessing, an encouragement to you. You know, life's got a lot of hard things to offer us. But it doesn't matter how hard the things are, if you know Christ as your Savior. I know what it's like to be without Him. And I know why Paul can say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Because Christ became his life. If Christ isn't your life, the very reason you get up in the morning, your joy, your encouragement, your hope, then you might just look in and see if He's really there. Paul said, for me to live is Christ. Well, we've had a traveling visitor with us the last couple of weeks. He's here with us again today, John McDaniels. And we've been talking about the home and about wives and husbands and children and different things. And, you know, I was just thinking about old Abraham. Abraham was mightily used of God. He walked with God. He was called a friend of God. But Abraham had this capacity to get in trouble like we do too. And whenever he left the altar, he left his place there, left Bethel. And, of course, he'd go down into Egypt and get in trouble. He always came back. And if you're away from God and maybe there's something in your life that's not right, there's always time to come back. There's always room to come back to the cross. And, you know, the reason I bring up Abraham to you is that Abraham did something that was dangerous. When he went down into Egypt and he said that Sarah was his wife, or not his wife, but his sister, that was a dangerous thing to do. And he didn't realize what he was doing until afterwards when the king said he was going to take Sarah and make her his wife. Then Abraham realized what he had done. And, of course, Isaac, his son, years later, following on, did the same thing. But as husbands, we need to be careful what we do that may endanger our wives. Well, today, we're going to have John share some more with us about illustrations of fathers and their working and leading in their homes. Well, John, it's good to have you back again. And has God been teaching you something in this area of husbands and the things they do? We can really do some stupid things, can't we, as husbands? Oh, we sure can. John, he really has been doing some things, showing us some things. He's been showing us by example of the different people and the different parts of this wonderful United States. By example of the people, how his Word works. And I'd like to share with you a story about a family that's very dear to us. They live out in Oregon. And several years ago, about six years ago, God started prompting this family to start home-educating their children. Now, they had two sons. Now, these are good-sized boys. One of the boys is 6'4 now and wears a size 17 shoe. Pretty good-sized lads. And the other one's no wimp either. Well, anyway, they had gone to some of the basic youth conferences. And God began to work with them about home-schooling. He began to talk with them about home-schooling. Well, the wife was all for it. And the old dad, he was busy with his job. And he had a little part-time sawmill job besides. He had a portable sawmill. So, anyway, she was kind of the organizer in the family. And he was kind of the server. Well, anyway, she talked him into letting her start home-schooling. And she brought these two boys, these big strapping boys, home from high school. Now, they were all in sports and really making a name for themselves in sports. And the family decided that the Lord Jesus Christ was more important to them than sports. And so they brought them home and started teaching them the principles of God's Word. And as they taught, the Lord started dealing with old dad. And his name is Frank. And Frank was, Frank had some problems. Frank had dyslexia. So he couldn't read very well. So he was kind of bashful about even doing anything with the Word of God. Well, he had worked for this lumber company for about 23 years. And one day the Lord told him, He says, I want you to leave there. Well, Frank left. And he spent two months at home. Didn't do anything. Everybody thought Frank had gotten lazy. But Frank was seeking the Lord. And he would go out into his shop. And I had the privilege of watching him do this. He'd go out in his shop. It'd be rainy and cold. He'd go out there and he'd sit in front of this old overstuffed chair. And he'd get down on his knees and he'd put his Bible down on the cushion there. And he'd say, Lord, if I'm going to serve you, I need to learn to read. Now, I know there's all kinds of programs for correcting dyslexia. But Frank had a problem with pride. And he said, Lord, I want you to teach me. I want you to correct me. And he'd start reading out loud. It sounded horrible. But he kept it up. In two months, God answered his prayer. And today he reads the Bible to pastors. He speaks all over the United States. And now he's going to Romania next. And now he's going to, goodness, it slips me. Where is the conference going? Well, it will be in Tennessee. But they're also taking a group. New Zealand. Yeah, New Zealand. Well, anyway, as he began to learn to read the Word of God, this began to make some changes in their home. And he started reading the Word of God to his family. And one day he was reading in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And he read this about the covering, about the woman wearing the covering. And his wife says, Do you think the Bible really means that? Frank says, Well, I've come to believe that the Bible means everything that it says. And she says, What am I to do? And he says, Well, would you be willing to try it? She said, Sure. And now remember that she was the one that instigated everything in their home. You see the change starting to come as a result of God's Word. She put the covering on. And she had been in charge of women's retreat for several churches in the area. And she was teaching a lot of women's Bible studies. When she put that covering on, God began to speak to her. One day she was going to leave to go to one of the women's Bible studies where they were setting up a big retreat. And she was in charge of everything. And the Lord said, I don't want you to go. Well, Margaret, being the strong-willed lady that she is, she said, Well, I've got to go. I've made this commitment. Now they had four cars on this property. And ours was one of them at the time. And that morning, none of those cars would start. They all drove the day before. But that morning, none of them would start. See, God has a way of bringing His Word about. And so anyway, she says, Lord, what is it? He said, I told you I don't want to go. He spoke into her spirit. And so she had to give up all of these good things, the women's retreats and the women's Bible studies. Her job was to finish the training with her husband of these two boys. And so she just started concentrating on her family, concentrating on what does God want a wife to do. And God began to do marvelous things in there. Well, this last Christmas, they were asked by the Institute of Basic Youth to come back for a Christmas party because their sons had gone back to the ATIA headquarters as part of their apprenticeship program to work back there. Well, the people back there that were in charge were so impressed by these boys that they asked the parents to come out for this Christmas program. And when the parents came out there, the leadership came up to the parents and said, Would you please come and join our staff? The reason that we ask you to do this is because of the quality of sons that you have shows us that they have a godly father and a godly mother who have taken time to train up godly children. So today, those folks are on their way to Oak Brook, Illinois, to be part of the Institute of Basic Youth staff. And they'll be traveling all over the country putting on seminars and whatever God leads. But here God raised a man from just being what we call a common laborer to a man that will now be ministering to pastors, to kings for that matter. The prime ministers of other countries have called and asked for him to come and minister to them. And the word of God says that if we're faithful that he'll set us before kings, and his word is being fulfilled there. So you may feel today that your job is lowly, that it doesn't amount to much. No, it's not. That's a training ground for you. That's a training ground for God to do great and mighty things through you. He does it through people. And if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ today, he has something special for you to do. And whatever you do, do heartily as unto the Lord. Well, that's a good story, John. I'm thinking here I'd like to have you share another one. But before that, it might just be good to give out a challenge to let God speak to you and do what he wants in your life. I think in our churches and in our homes today, we've sort of got used to just having it our own way. We've sort of bit the philosophy of the world. But whenever we have it our own way, we're never happy. I was thinking about this discontentment. Whenever I'm not contented, I'm trying to get something my way, and I'm not happy. What about another story? We've still got a little time left here. Well, when we start talking about stories, I like to tell one of my favorite stories. This is actually a true story, and it's about a friend of mine in Montana. And his name's Bill. Now, Bill was kind of a rough old codger. He spent many years in the Coast Guard. He was trained by the Marine Corps to be a drill sergeant for the Coast Guard. And he was a leading seaman on the Pacific Coast for many years. So you can imagine this man, when he whispers, the windows rattle in the house. And when we first met Bill and his wife, they were just about to get a divorce. Things were really rough. He just said, she just doesn't qualify for a good wife. And so anyway, we got acquainted with them, and we started having Bible studies together. And Bill started seeing what the Word of God says. And he started applying principles from God's Word. And one time I asked Bill, I said, Bill, I said, would you go to Basic Youth Conflicts with us in Spokane, Washington? And he said, no. He said, we got a pretty good church here. He said, I don't think I need to go to one of those. And I said, well, Bill, I said, the only reason you won't go is that you've got a yellow streak, and it runs down your back, and it's about four inches wide. Now, you just don't say that to a Marine drill sergeant. He got real upset, and he says, you think I'm afraid to go, don't you? I said, I know you're afraid to go. Well, needless to say, he went because he didn't want anybody to see his yellow streak. And he went to this conference, and for the next three years, he was group coordinator, and he took most of the pastors in Missoula, Montana through a basic youth. This has completely changed this man's life. He's dynamic now for the Lord. As a matter of fact, as we travel around the country, his family takes care of all of our business and our financial affairs. This is the type of man that God has risen up there. He's a real servant at heart, and God's doing mighty things to him. And his marriage, they're just a delight to be around. And they have saved several other families from getting divorced or remarrying after divorce. They're real rebuilders in this area of marriage. And God wants to use all of us, just like he's using Bill and his wife there in Montana. And he wants to use you today. He wants to bring forth his gift from you. See, that's how he spreads his word, and that's how Christianity is spread, is through people. And there's none of us any greater than anyone else. We're all equal in God's sight. There's no big shots with him. Well, thanks for sharing those stories, John. Those were good. And I'm just wondering, you know, when we're thinking about what God just did in these two men's lives, what do you think it would take to see God turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children? In our day, I was just looking at Malachi 4, 6, and, of course, Dr. Dobson uses this a lot. And our land is in need of seeing God do a mighty work. What do you think it would take? John, what it takes, and it's the only thing that will work, if fathers will begin to read the word of God to their family, if they will take the time, and that's not once a week or once a month, but that's on a daily. Now, if you start out daily, and the next day you forget, don't get under condemnation. Just start over again the day that you remember. It seems like I'm forever starting over again. Well, this sounds simple. It's very simple, Don, but it's the hardest thing you'll ever do. Now, say if we had some rebellious children. I was just looking at this passage in Malachi 4, 6, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. Do you think there's been a direct correlation to children going away from God, not following in the ways of God, to our not reading the word of God, just simply reading the word of God with our families? You know, Don, when we talk about the word of God, we've gotten away from the power of God's word. We start looking around and seeing what God's word really does, what the power that's in there. Yes, this is exactly what the problem is. Interesting thing, the Secretary of Education for the United States is going across the country, and they have recorded that the last good year that our high schools have produced quality, educated students was in 1962. Do you realize that in 1962 was the same years that our government ordered the Bibles out of the schools? Interesting, isn't it? Now, you can call that a coincidence if you like, but you know, it's an interesting thing. There was a family down in, just out of El Paso, Texas, that we just visited, they have a children's home there. And they had, these children were very, very rebellious, and they didn't know what they were going to do with them. And so I talked to the father, who was the director of the home, and I said, why don't you just start every morning, before they do anything else, by taking 30 minutes and reading five Psalms and a Proverbs to them. Just do that for two weeks. At the end of two weeks, there was such a peace in the home, and the kids began to change. And now today, that home is a pilot program for institutions for the Institute of Basic Youth, just as a result of one man, one father, beginning to read the Word of God in his home. Hmm. I think that maybe we've tried to throw too much responsibility on the church for raising our families, our children. It should have been more on the father. Yes, that's true, Don. One thing that is said on the, you know, is to be said about this, is that we talk a lot about shepherds. But if we really look at God's Word, the father is the shepherd. Now this is not a popular thing to say, and I don't want to get any of you pastors mad at me, but when you really look at it right, the father is the shepherd, and we as pastors are hirelings. Because she's a father, by God's ordination, cannot leave the family. He cannot divorce his wife. He cannot divorce the family. What you see is we as pastors, if we see greener pastors, we can go to that. But a father can't do that. He is the true shepherd. He's also the true youth leader in the home. Because he's the one that's responsible for what happens to those youth. Something to think about. It sure is. I was just thinking about, you know, there's a lot of pressure put on our children, peer pressure. And I'm thinking back on my own life. I lived a very intimidated life. I had an inferiority complex, and I felt like others were superior to me, scholastically and athletically and all kinds of other ways. And it wasn't until Christ came into my life and began to remake my life that I came out of that complex. But I was thinking how maybe I could have been protected if my father had kept me home and schooled me the way I'm schooling mine. I know my children just enjoy it. They are free, and they learn. It seems like they just learn so much more. And you don't have to get up in the morning and say, OK, let's go learn something. They're ready to learn something. They're just excited about life. Life means something to them. And I think that we might, as fathers, be damaging our children by letting them get into situations just like we've been talking in the last couple weeks about our wives, but letting our children get into situations that they can't handle. You've got to comment on this. Well, I do on that, Don. One thing that comes to my mind is that what do we do with our children today? We compare them with other children. We compare them in sports. We compare them in academics. We give tests to see, you know, is our child doing as well as? Is our child a student, honor student, all this? My Bible tells me that when we compare ourselves one to another, that we lose our wisdom. Now, if you want a good definition of wisdom, it is seeing life from God's perspective. So when we start comparing ourselves, we begin to lose sight of the perspective that God has for us. See, your children are individuals before God. God has a plan for your children, and He wants to work through you, Dad. So actually, I was comparing myself with others. I had no right to do that as a human being, even, to compare myself with others because God created me as an individual. But yet, by being thrown out among others, I compared myself with them. Well, the Scripture even says that the Corinthians were comparing themselves among themselves, and they were not wise to do that. And so our family units are actually weakened, destroyed, hurt, crippled, if we allow, as fathers, our children to get into areas like this. That's right, and with that, one thing on this thing on comparison is that I want to encourage all of you fathers and mothers, too. It's not where you're at, but the direction that you're heading. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. So did you take that first step? Well, I know that there's a lot of struggling families out there. I was talking to one this week about a situation. They live in another state, and I was talking on the phone about a situation in the school. One of their children was in the school and was undergoing some kind of traumatic experience at school. Something was happening to the child to where the child was deeply emotionally upset and unstable. When the child came home, just visibly shaken and infected the child into the night and everything. The child was exposed to something at school that was disturbing the child. The father, of course, is responsible. The father went to talk to the authorities in the school. This wasn't a public school, either. This was a private school. But I'm thinking that in our land, we need to see a great turning back of fathers taking on the responsibility of educating their children. While our great land was founded on the principle of the fathers teaching their children, many of our great leaders were actually home-educated. They were taught at home. What do you think a father should do today, and maybe a mother, if they are really discouraged or dissatisfied with the way things are turning out in their lives, in their home lives, their family lives, what would you have for encouragement to them as the first thing that they could do? Well, you can take this sign of discouragement in that God wants to make a change in your life. Begin to seek God and to ask Him what is His will for your family. And as He begins to reveal that, be bold and step out. And when He's revealing His will, He's responsible for what He tells you. I know that you and I were talking as we drove here, that when we sense in our spirit that God is telling us to do something, we need to do it, even if it's 180 degrees different from what everybody thinks that we should do. And as we're talking with you today, we're not setting ourselves up as a standard to you as to what you should do. You go to God for that. What we're trying to do is establish some principles today and share some things, some stories and things from God's Word that basically the Father is responsible for everything that touches His home and His children. Everything that goes into the lives of your children, the Father is responsible for that. And I know one of the things, and I'm not off on an attack school system, but it just greatly disturbed me when my children were being taught witchcraft in the public school. And when I go up and talk to the teachers, well, they said there's nothing wrong with it. And so we just had to take our children out if they didn't think there was anything wrong with it. I felt like that I was accountable, and it disturbed my children, greatly disturbed them. Well, in our day and age, we need to be careful. We're moving into some different times. As fathers, we need to teach our children Scriptures. We need to help them to memorize Scripture. And I know I've got one of mine, my third born, well, I've just got to stay with her or she just doesn't do it. And I'm a little bit like that too. Somebody's got to stay with me, so I have to spend some extra time. And my firstborn, you give him something to do, and he's gone on it. He's self-motivated and self-disciplined, and so the father has to minister to the children in the special ways that the children need it. And you know what? My children appreciate the attention that they get. Children love their parents' attention and time. They love for the parent to sit down and talk with them. I try not to go somewhere alone. I try to take one of my children with me and teach them. I'm able to do that in my work. I just don't sit here at the radio station and record all the time. I have a skill that I do. I do carpenter work in that area. So when I can, I try to take one or two of my children and teach them. Well, John, do you have something else that God has been prompting you to share with us today about this area before we run out of time? Well, I just want to encourage fathers and mothers. You may feel that you're not adequate to do this, but if you're in the position of father and mother, that's a God-ordained position, and God will honor through that position as much as you let him honor and as much as you honor the position. Well, we thank you, John, for being with us today. Well, you've been listening to On Eagle's Wings. We've had John McDaniels. Until next week, we trust that God will use you to be a tool that you'll let him lift you up and minister to you.