God's Good Design for Our Children

As many of you know, Children Desiring God is located in Minneapolis Minnesota. This month, Minnesota will become the 12th state in the nation to officially recognize same-sex "marriage." In one of his final sermons at Bethlehem Baptist Church, John Piper made the following observation, ...as I hand off my leadership role at Bethlehem to Jason Meyer, the world he and you will face is very different than when I came almost 33 years ago. It would have been unthinkable to suggest that anyone would seriously propose defining marriage as between two men or two women; and it would have been even more unthinkable that in a mere thirty years America would have lost its soul so profoundly that most American’s would approve of a definition of marriage that no society in the history of the world has ever embraced. (“Life Together at the End of the Age,” February 25, 2013) How will we raise a generation of children in the midst of this increasingly hostile culture? Are we giving them the solid, foundational truths that they will need if they are to stand against the tide of worldly deceit—especially those truths that relate to a right understanding of manhood, womanhood, and marriage? With these concerns in mind, CDG has developed a curriculum for youth titled, Rejoicing in God's Good Design to deeply immerse our children into God's absolute and unchanging truths, so that they might "shine as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:15). Here is a sampling from the preface,

We live in a confused world. A world in rebellion against the Creator. Rejecting the beauty of God for a lie. 

It all started in the garden when Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s vicious lie of autonomy. With that act of rebellion, man and woman traded harmony with God and with each other for pain, suffering, brokenness, disharmony, and…confusion—confusion about the nature of God, confusion about God’s commands, and confusion about who they were. Safety glass that has received a blow doesn’t usually just chip or crack…it shatters—into a million little pieces, beyond repair.  God, the all-wise, good Creator created a perfect world and a perfect design for man and woman. But into that world, a lie was believed, a rebellion established and God’s good design for man and woman wasn’t chipped or broken. It was…shattered…into a million little pieces, beyond repair, almost.  God, in His richness in mercy, sent His Son, Jesus Christ, the Repairer of the Broken, the Restorer of Relationships, the Destroyer of Confusion into this broken, confused world.  Because of Jesus Christ, and His work of redemption on the cross, man no longer needs to live in rebellion, disharmony, or confusion. We can become new creatures in Christ.  We, the people of God, can bring His message of hope to a confused, rebellious, dying world. Hope for rebellious hearts through the atonement of Jesus. Hope for disharmonious relationships through the grace of the Healer. And hope for confused minds through the clarity of the Truth.

Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

This is the message we have for the world regarding man and woman: 

So God created man in his own image,

In the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

—Genesis 1:27 

This is good news. This is a good design. This is worth rejoicing in! 

And God blessed them. And God said to them,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth

and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea

and over the birds of the heavens

and over every living thing that moves on the earth”…

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden

to work it and keep it… Then the Lord said,

“It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.”

–Genesis 1:28; 2:15, 18 

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.

—Genesis 1:31

In a world that “turns things upside down” will you search the Scriptures, opening your heart before your wise, good Maker, and rejoice in His good design? Will you “set things right side up” through your living and obedient faith in Christ, pointing others to the perfect design for man and woman…and to the Creator? Will you stand against the flood of untruth, anger, rebellion, and suffering and live according to God’s will, command, and blessing?  Will you pray that as you see the truth unfold from the Word of God about being male and female, you will see the goodness of God in His wise and perfect plan and REJOICE IN GOD’S GOOD DESIGN!