November 2018

All across the United States family and friends will gather together on Thursday for fellowship, fun and food.  This is because the third Thursday of November is celebrated as Thanksgiving Day.  There are several other countries that take time during the year to pause and give thanks for all of life’s blessings.  Of course, Thanksgiving Day in America is set aside to give thanks to the Lord for all of the blessings He has bestowed on us throughout our 200+ years of history.  Unfortunately, the true meaning of Thanksgiving Day has been lost in the busyness of football games, travel and, of course, Black Friday sales gimmicks.  As with most Christian holidays  in America, Thanksgiving Day has succumbed to the secular culture.  In fact, some secular history textbooks present the first Thanksgiving as a time when the Colonists met and gave thanks to the Indians for their help as they settled in the New World.  God is completely ignored.

Even though it is good to take one day each year to give thanks to the Lord for all of His rich blessings on our lives, thanksgiving should be a way of life for the Christian.  It isn’t supposed to be something we just do on a national holiday.  Paul makes this clear in many of his letters in the New Testament.  Two specific verses come to my mind when I think about being thankful for what God does for me each and everyday.

 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  1 Thessalonians 5:18 (KJV)

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  Philippians 4:6 (KJV)

Recently I sat down and started thinking about how much God has done for me over the course of my life.  Let me share a few of the things for which I am thankful to God.

My Salvation

Sad to say, there are too many days that I allow the urgent to take control of my life and I find myself not consciously being aware of the tremendous price God paid for my salvation.  It goes beyond any human comprehension that the Creator of the universe would give His only Son as a ransom for my sin debt.  When I think about what Christ did for me by laying down His life to redeem me out of sin, it continually amazes me.  It is my desire to never take my salvation for granted but to give God thanks each and every day for this precious gift.

My Family

Next month my wife and I celebrate 50 years of marriage.  Like every marriage, there have been those rough days through which we had to navigate.  But God blessed me with a godly wife who has supported me in everything that God has led me to do.  God also has blessed the two of us with three wonderful children, their spouses and six fantastic grandchildren.  Again, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing but 3 John 4 is so true — There is no greater joy than to hear that your children walk in truth.  I thank God everyday that my three children are walking in truth today.

My Pastors

Sometimes we fail to take time to thank God for the people that God brings into our lives to guide us in the paths He wants us to walk.  I have been overwhelmingly blessed by several pastors who have taught me truth that equipped me for life and ministry.  Spending 16 years under the preaching and leadership of Dr. Jerry Falwell taught me what true faith in God is and how to live by faith each day.  Then sitting under the teaching of Dr. James Merritt and Dr. Glenn Weekly took be deeper into the truths of Scripture.  I also had the privilege to serve with Dr. Michael Catt for nine years at Sherwood Baptist Church.  God used Michael to teach me the importance of prayer in my daily life.  I have also been blessed by the friendships that I have forged with Pastor Mike Lewis at Cathedral of Praise and Pastor James McMenis at Word of God Ministries.  These two men have provided me with biblical counsel and guidance so that my life and ministry would stay focused on Christ.  God has truly blessed me by allowing me to sit under the preaching of such godly men.  One day is not enough to thank Him for providing me with these ministers of God’s Word.

My Mentors

I have also been privileged to serve under and glean from several Christian educators who helped me form a biblical worldview and biblical philosophy of life.  I probably would not have survived being a school leader if it weren’t for the guidance and instruction that I received regularly from Dr. Roy Lowrie, Dr. Jack Layman, Dr. Tony Fortosis, Dr. Gene Garrick, and others.  These men had gone through the trials of leadership and were a source of encouragement and always provided me with a model for what Christ-like, servant leadership looked liked.  A special note of gratitude must go to Dr. Paul Kienel.  He had the courage to take a young Christian school administrator and give him the opportunity to serve Christian schools in 8 Southeast states as Southeast Regional Director of ACSI.  Much of my understanding of kingdom education resulted from Dr. Kienel’s exhortation for me to present a biblical philosophy of education to others.  Again, one day a year is not enough time to thank God for these and other mentors that He has brought into my life over the years.

My Ministry

I have to start by saying that Kingdom Education Ministries really isn’t my ministry — it is His ministry that He allows me to be a part of.  If it were not for God’s leading me that took me to LifeWay Christian Resources, my book, Kingdom Education, would never have been written.  It blows my mind how this little book has been used all around the world to challenge parents, church leaders and Christian educators to follow God’s plan for educating future generations.  Anything I may have been able to accomplish in proclaiming this message to others is due only to the grace of God.  I fully understand the meaning of Jesus’ words in John 15 where His said, without Jesus I can do NOTHING!

My Encouragers

Who are my encouragers?  They are those who receive and read this blog each week.  YOU are one of my encouragers and you do not know what a tremendous blessing you are are to me as you read and share my weekly ramblings with others who want to provide a biblical worldview education to as many children and youth as possible.  There is not a day that goes by that God doesn’t bring to my mind a school leader, a pastor, teacher or fellow laborer in ministry that I have had the privilege of serving and getting to know.  You are in the trenches doing the “grunt” work of putting kingdom education into practice and for that I am eternally indebted and grateful.

I could go on and on listing things for which I must daily give thanks to God.  However, my point for doing this is to encourage all of us to always be thankful for God’s blessings on our lives.  No matter what you and I may face, the truth is that God is at work to make all things good for His glory.  If you live where a specific Thanksgiving Day is observed, by all means take the time to give Him the praise He deserves.  But more importantly, in every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  Have a blessed week!

I had the privilege of speaking at the BJ Press Worldview Conference at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter last week.  I came away from the conference encouraged, challenged and convicted.  One of the presentations that brought the most conviction to my spirit was the one given by George Barna.  In his presentation he showed where the country was in relation to a biblical worldview.  Barna noted that:

• Only 10% of adults in the country have a biblical worldview
• When this is broken down by age group, only 1 out of every 25 Millennials (4%) have a biblical worldview
• A child’s worldview is basically formed by age 13
• The primary parenting generation [and teaching generation in schools] today is the Millennial generation

Barna’s premise was that every person, individually, and groups of individuals, corporately, only do what he/she/they believe!  This means that today’s children have a much higher probability of developing a secular worldview than a biblical one because their teachers can only give them what they, themselves, possess.

Upon returning home, I went to my bookshelves and pulled two books out that address this serious condition that we are facing in today’s Church.  The first book was The Christian Mind: How Should a Chrisitan Think?, by Harry Blamires.  As I opened the pages of this book, that I have read on a couple of occasions, I was taken captive by the first sentence in the book.  It simply states, There is no longer a Christian Mind.  Wow!  Is Blarmires stating that Christians don’t have minds?  Absolutely not.  What he is proposing is that Christians no longer possess the ability to address all of life from a biblical perspective.  In fact, Blamires states unashamedly that the Christian mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness unmatched in Christian History.  He postures that, in Christianity, there is

• a Christian ethic that Christians subscribe to in their personal lives that non-Christians don’t.
• a Christian practice that, as members of a church, Christians observe that is ignored by the non-Christian.
• a Christian spirituality such as prayer and meditation that a Christian might practice that is unexplored by the non-Christian.

However, when it comes to all of life, there is not any Chrisitan thinking commonly taking place.  In Blamires’ mind, most Christians accept the morality, worship and spiritual culture of religion but reject the “religious” view of life.  Christians have succumbed to the secularization of the mind.  This is evidenced by thinking that ignores the supernatural as having any part to play in everyday life.  There are those who will share their grave concerns as to the direction society is going.  In many cases, these concerns are in line with the concerns we, as Christians, have as well.  However, they can only address these issues from a humanistic view and, therefore, cannot begin to address the cause and/or the cure for the direction we are all heading in.  The alarming thing about what Blamires so accurately described is that he wrote this book in 1963.

The second book that I pulled from my book shelves was one written by Os Guinness, written 30 years after Blamires’ book was published.  I must admit that I first bought this book only because of its title — Fit Bodies, Fat Minds.  However, the subtitle of the book is what really caught my full attention the other day.  It reads, Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What To Do About It.  Again, I found myself asking the question, Is it true that Christians don’t think?  Once again, I had to admit that all Christians think.  That is a reality of life — human beings all think!  So what was Guinness trying to say.  His main premise is that the average Christian no longer has the ability to think Christianly.  The result, according to Guinness is,

Failing to think Christianly, evangelicals have been forced into the role of cultural imitators and adapters rather than originators.  In biblical terms, it is to be worldly and conformist, not decisively Christian.

Guinness goes on to point out how evangelicals take their “religious” life seriously but Christianity does not have much, if any, influence on our everyday, non-religious life.  He makes this point when he writes,

We are a people with a true, sometimes a deep, experience of God.  But we are no longer people of truth.

Blamires and Guinness talk a great deal about “Christian” things.  I struggle with using Christian as an adjective to describe anything related to life today because the term has become so subjective.  What does Christian mean?  What does it mean to have a Christian mind?  What does Guinness mean when he says we need to think Christianly?  I am thankful that Guinness goes on to define what thinking Christianly really means.

…thinking Christianly is thinking by Christians about anything and everything in a consistently Christian way — in a manner that is shaped, directed, and restrained by the truth of God’s Word and God’s Spirit.  (emphasis mine)

This is what needs to take place in our homes, churches and schools if we are going to be able to instill a biblical worldview into the hearts and minds of children and youth.  Barna summarized his findings as he closed his presentation last week by stating,

• Most parents do not have a biblical worldview and are not seeking to develop one in their children.
• The media to which our children are exposed do not reflect biblical principles and are not seeking to develop a biblical worldview among our children.
• A huge majority of Protestant churches do not have ministries that are focused  upon helping to establish a biblical worldview in the minds and hearts of children.
• Government laws are not geared to facilitating a biblical worldview among children.

Barna then left the attendees with this challenge.

So…who is called to, and capable of, leading movement to lead the development of a biblical worldview in the minds and hearts of America’s children?

I believe the only hope is for Christians to repent of the sin of giving our children to the world for it to develop a secular mindset in them.  Then the home, church and school must unite and address the issue of education biblically!  As Nancy Pearcey puts it in her book, Total Truth,

We have to insist on presenting Christianity as a comprehensive, unified worldview that addresses all of life and reality.  It is not just religious truth but total truth!

Once we do this, we must then be committed to following God’s plan for educating future generations.

This past Friday I had the distinct privilege of attending a powerful Veterans Day Program.  I have always enjoyed and been moved at these types of programs over the years.  In fact, one the highlights of my time at Sherwood Christian Academy was participating in our annual Veterans Day Program.  However, Friday’s event was one of the most moving Veterans Day Program I have ever attended.

Vietnam War Memorial

The reason why the program had such an impact on me was because of the men who planned, prepared and presented it.  These men had spent many, many hours planning and putting together the program.  In fact, on display were three tributes to veterans and their sacrificial service to the County.

• A full-size Willys jeep made out of two pallets of cardboard, 9 gallons of glue, and 3 gallons of paint.  This work took over 750 man-hours and can actually hold a person weighing up to 200 lbs.
• A detailed replica of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall; complete with the names of the 58,300 US military persons who lost their lives in this war.  This project took over 9000 man-hours, 65 days, and over 3500 lbs. of cardboard.
• A life-size replica of the Bataan Death March Statue and Walkway.  This project was also constructed out of cardboard and glue.  It even shows the footprints beneath the three figures that represented those prisoners of war that died on the march.

The theme for this Veterans Day Program was Never Forgotten and was a tribute to the more than 80,000 US P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s that still are unaccounted for today.  This is probably the case in other countries where men and women have stood up for freedom and were taken into captivity.  The audience was brought to tears through videos and songs that were performed live by this group of men.  Several pieces, including the songs Never Forgotten, Freedom Flies, Memories and the poem, P.O.W./M/I.A., were written and performed by individuals in this group.

Bataan Death March Statue

I was literally blown-away by the sacrifice and talent that these men put into making this event so meaningful.  This is because the program was held inside Walker State Prison and the men who presented the program were inmates there.  While inside the prison compound, I reflected on the reality that many people, including myself, have forgotten that there are so many P.O.W.s and M.I.A.s that are still unaccounted for from past wars.  The theme, Never Forgotten, was not only a reminder that we cannot forget that men and women never returned home from war and no one knows where they might be but also that there are scores of men and women who are serving time in prisons all across the country whose friends and family members seem to have forgotten them and they are all alone.

Since attending this event, my mind has been meditating on how important it is to remember certain things in life.  Unfortunately, the educational systems of the world have led to many people, including thousands, if not millions, of Christians, to suffer from severe memory loss.  Our children and youth are told that they must remember facts and pieces of knowledge in order to score well on tests, be accepted into the university and have a successful life or career.

However, secular education does not place any importance on remembering the most important thing that every person must keep in the forefront of their minds in order to find peace and joy in all of life. What is the culture and the church not remembering that is so dangerous?  It is the reality that we have forgotten God!  When I began studying what God’s Word says about the dangers that come one’s way when he/she forgets God, I became aware of how important it is that God is at the center of all that we think, say and do; including the education we give our children.  I encourage you to take the time and read what the Bible says about the consequences that will always result from forgetting God.  Here is just a sample of what God’s Word says about this subject.

• Deuteronomy 6:10-12; 8:10-14; 8:19-20
• Judges 8:33-34
• Psalm 50:22; 78:7, 42; 103:2; 106:19-22; 106:13
• Isaiah 51:12-13
• Jeremiah 2:31-32
• Hosea 4:1; 5:4; 13:6

Even though it is terrible when men and women become prisoners of war, it is much more disastrous when they become prisoners because of sin and are bond slaves of Satan.  When people, even Christians, forget God, they always end up in chains.  As I have presented in earlier posts, the real danger of giving our children and youth a secular education is found in the fact that God is ignored in the entire process.  Therefore, even though certain lessons may be factually accurate, God is not seen as being the source of wisdom and knowledge for any study and/or area of life that is studied.  The student develops a secular worldview and lives his/her everyday life as if God doesn’t exist.  This always results in imprisonment.

In my book, Kingdom Education, I present 10 biblical principles that I found in Scripture to help guide Christians on how God wants them to educate their children.  Since writing the book, God has revealed three additional principles to me.  The first of these additional principles is of utmost importance.  It reads:

The education of children and youth must have as its primary focus the increase in the knowledge of God.

Here are some Scriptures to support this principle.

John 17:3; Romans 1:20; Romans 11:33-36; Psalm 19:1-6; Ephesians 1:16-19; 3:15-19; 4:13; Philippians 1:9; 3:8-10, 13-14; Colossians 1:9-10; 2:2-3; 2 Peter 3:18; Proverbs 2:5; Hosea 4:1; 6:6; and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Our children are asked to remember a lot of stuff throughout their years in school.  Like you and me, they will forget much of it.  However, we must do everything in our power to make sure that they never forget God.  The best way to make sure this doesn’t happen, is for us to always remember Him.  May God never be forgotten!