Why?

I have been asked this question a lot recently.  In fact, I have asked myself this question quite often.  Maybe you, too, have asked the question, Why?  Consider the following forms of this question.

• Why is there so much division in our country, our churches and our homes?
• Why is there so much confusion over one’s gender?
• Why are there so many people being attacked because of things they have no control over such as color of skin, gender, religious affiliation, etc?
• Why is there so much fear about COVID-19?
• Why is there a growing demand by people, especially the younger generations, for the government to provide everything to them for free?
• Why is the nuclear family under such fierce attack like it is today?

You can probably add many other questions to this list.  When I have been asked “why” questions such as these, my response has been pretty simple.  I believe there is only one reason why our w0rld is in such a mess.  It is the same reason why today’s church has lost much of its influence in society.  Here is my answer.

We don’t know God!

I want you to notice that I didn’t say that people don’t know God.  I said we, including me,  don’t know God.  I cannot think of one problem that I face that couldn’t be solved if I really knew God.  I am convinced that families would be stronger if its members knew God better.  I believe the church would have greater influence on the culture if its leaders and members knew God.  I believe Christian schools would see more students become devoted followers of God if their staffs got serious and strived to know God better.

I was reminded of the importance of knowing God when live streaming a conference over the weekend.  Pastor Rodney Brown made a statement that caught my attention.  He said,

In almost every case the problem with every worldly philosophy is an unbiblical view of man or an anemic view of God.

As I contemplated Brown’s statement, I realized that an unbiblical view of man is the result of an anemic view of God.  Not knowing God correctly is the problem.  Dr. Thomas Sowell once said,

Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.

Solzhenitsyn was correct when he said,

Men have forgotten God; that is why all this has happened.

Paul understood how important it was for him and everyone he came in contact with to know God.  That was his message to the Athenians on Mars Hill.  One of the gods that they had built a monument to was the “Unknown God.”  He told them that they could know who was and is the only true God (see Acts 17:22-31).

Paul, himself, was willing to lose everything in order to know God better.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.  Philippians 3:7-8 (NKJV)

I believe that there is a reason Christians don’t know God.  It is because most of today’s Christians don’t know the Bible.  Knowing God doesn’t result from some mystical vision or experience.  God is known by knowing His Word.

I can remember when everyone who was heading to church always had his/her Bible in his/her hand.  It may have been the only time in the week that they opened their Bibles but, at least, they took it to church on Sunday’s because the preacher would ask them to open their Bibles as he preached from it.  Today, we don’t even take our Bibles to church.

If we want to see God do a work in our lives, homes, churches, schools and communities, we need to count everything in life as rubbish in order to grow in the knowledge of God.

As I close this week’s article, I want to ask all of you who are reading this to pray for several very important events that will be taking place over the next few weeks.  This week, ACSI will be conducting its first Flourishing School Institute.  During the last week of June, I will be speaking at a worldview conference hosted by Precept Marketing and BJ Press at the WWII Museum in New Orleans.  Immediately following that conference, I will be conducting the first Kingdom Education™ Summit.

Hundreds of Christian school educators, pastors and church leaders will be attending one or more of these events.  Please pray that there will be a desire for each of those in attendance to strive to know God as He meets with them to show them how He wants them to educate future generations.

One of the saddest verses in the Bible is found in the book of Judges.  God had just brought Israel into the Promised Land.  He had done marvelous things so that they could possess their inheritance. Then we find these words.

When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work He had done for Israel.  Judges 2:10 (NKJV)

The theme we have chosen for the upcoming Summit is Teaching the Next Generation to Know God.  We believe that is our only hope for the future.  I am excited that we will be giving each participant at the Summit copies of my new books, Understanding Kingdom Education™ and Applying Kingdom Education™.  Both books are at the printers as I write this article.

It is not too late to register for the Summit.  I would love to have you join Christian school leaders and pastors at this very important event.  You can find out more about the Summit by clicking HERE!