The Safest Path
by Rev Greg Obong-Oshotse 7 May 2021
First published 12/6/2020. We continue to publish new thoughts but hope you find encouragement and blessing in revisiting some we have previously published.
Read Psalm 112:1-10
Text: Proverbs 20:7
“The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!”
Two 18th century American families have been compared. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was an American puritan preacher and theologian. He went to Yale University at thirteen, succeeded to his grandfather’s pastorate in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he preached his famous sermon Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God. He and his wife Sarah raised their eleven children in the way of the Lord regularly holding family worship each evening. 150 years after his death educator A.E. Winship, studied their descendants, among whom were: ‘1 U.S. vice-president, 1 dean of a law school, 1 dean of a medical school, 3 U.S. Senators, 3 governors, 3 mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen, and 285 college graduates.’
In 1877 sociologist Richard L. Dugdale studied Max Jukes who lived in the same state of New York at the same time as The Edwards’ family. He and his wife did not accept Christian living. A report says at one point ‘the family trees of 42 different men in the New York prison system were traced back to him.’ His descendants include ‘7 murderers, 60 thieves, 190 prostitutes, 150 other convicts, 310 paupers, and 440 who were physically wrecked by addiction to alcohol. Of the 1,200 descendants that were studied, 300 died prematurely.’ No gloating intended but the safest path in life has always been paved with the golden slabs of God’s word. Happy are the children whose parents walk in it.
Prayer
Dear Father, help us to delight in Your word in Christ’s name, Amen.
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