lynnbusby.com Bread for your hunger. Water for your thirst. Oil for your wounds. Strength for the journey in the desert.

In my dream, I approach and enter a large house of noisy children. Some of the children have gathered around specific activities like are or circle games like duck-duck goose. Others play on their own, doing as they please. professional social workers are sitting in various places with the children. But they are there only to take case notes, observe, and make recommendations, as the children run their own house. The older children boss the younger ones around the little ones having no responsibility but to be children. As I walk around, I am struck that there is no bathroom. There will not be any rules about baths and brushing of teeth.

My chest feels heavy and painful when I first wake up. I pray, and I feel a sense of grief. Suddenly, I am overcome with the burden of intercession. I do not know how to explain it, but I know that the house in my dream stands for the Church. It consists of children telling each other what to do and professional staff who do not intervene and bring order. (There are also not enough staff for the number of children, but that is a side point.)

The church has staff, but they do not live among the people. They are hired. Where are the parents?  1 Corinthians 4:14,  I do not write these things to shame you but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 If you were to have countless teachers in Christ, you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus, I became your Father through the gospel. 16 Therefore, I exhort you to be imitators of me. 17 For this reason, I have sent Timothy to you, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways, which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every Church.

Many of us want the authority to dictate others’ behavior. Some even have a well-meaning desire to care for the troublemakers. But only a few of us are willing to live in the sacrificial and committed ways of our parents. The day-in and day-out drudgery of life is where we often find it necessary to put ourselves last on our list of priorities. Social workers are often helpful and skilled, and they do important work. But they do not replace parents. They do not replace family. If the Church were to believe and behave like family, I am sure the “house” would look vastly different from the one in my dream.

The absence of a bathroom was notable in this house of undisciplined siblings and no parents. The bathroom represents releasing what is toxic; from a spiritual standpoint this consists of confession and repentance.

Why was it significant that no place was given for confession or repentance in the house? Siblings living together in a house will have little interest in child-raising responsibilities compared to their parents. Children can boss each other around, and may even enjoy doing so, but they don’t have the time, patience, or incentive to care about the often-difficult task of correction. They are not invested in seeing repentance and change in behavior.

A story of a certain father in the bible comes to mind. Hezekiah is being reproved by Isaiah for showing his enemies all the treasures of his palace and displaying all his resources. Isiah tells Hezekiah that all of his riches will be carried off into Babylon and his sons will go with them.

2 Kings 20: 18 Some of your very own sons will be away into exile. They will become eunuch’s who will serve in the palace of Babylon’s king. 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “This message you have given is from the Lord and it is good. For the king was thinking “at least there will be peace and security in MY lifetime.

This is a father uninterested in the future of his children. His mind is not on legacy but on his present comfort and peace during his reign.

This dream was pointing out this kind of difference in the outlook of a staff person, a teacher, as opposed to the heart of a father.

To return to Paul’s example, he spoke of his heart for the people. He would see himself cursed and separated from God forever in order for his children in the faith to be saved and grown. (Romans 9:3)

This dream caused my heart to cry out in grief and intercession for the display of this kind of heart in the body of Christ today.

I hear the song, “where have all the flowers gone? Long time passing”

Where have all the fathers gone? A long time ago. When will they ever learn….

This song when written spoke of the futility and devastating consequences of war.

I meditate on what the Lord could be saying to the church through this song.

Where have all the fathers gone?

Where are the ones spending themselves in prayer, with a heart breaking for their spiritual children to come into all that God has for them?

Who is willing to be rejected, and to be an unpopular disciplinarian?

Because we should all know by now that the current view of Daddy God loves me no matter how much I sin is destroying us.

The church is being run by a bunch of unruly siblings. It wont be saved by studies and teachers.

We are going to have to see mature men and women brave enough to get dirty and insist on a return to true discipleship.

Mothers and fathers spending themselves in prayer who SPEAK UP.

This morning in my inbox was the following clip. Would thinking and acting like a family change anything?