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In 1996 the Southern Baptist Convention gave an assignment to its publishing agency, LifeWay Christian Resources.  This new assignment was to address the topics of Christian schools and homeschools.  Through the leading of the Lord, I left ACSI to head up this new work at LifeWay.

I thought that I was going there simply to expand my ministry to Christian schools and homeschools.  However, God had something else in store for me.  This new assignment was not easy to say the least.  On my first day in Nashville I met with the President of LIfeWay.  He welcomed me and then took me up to meet the Vice President who was in charge of the largest division of LIfeWay, Church Resources.  As we were going to the Vice President’s office, the President told me something that I wasn’t ready for.  He said, when I told Dr. Mims that Christian schools would be assigned to his division, he told me that he didn’t really want it.

I met Dr. Mims and he briefed me on the work of Church Resources.  He shared with me that Christian schools and homeschools would be under the Church Leadership Department.  He proceeded to call the Director of this department to join us.  As we were waiting for him to come to Dr. Mims’ office, Dr. Mims gave me a warning.  He told me that when he told Dr. Miller that he had assigned Christian schools and homeschools to Church Leadership, Dr. Miller said that he didn’t want anything to do with this assignment.

To be honest with you, I was somewhat disappointed and anxious. I soon learned that the vast majority of the 1,700 employees there at

LifeWay there was only a handful who knew anything about Christian schools or homeschools.  Their children were all in secular schools, mostly public schools.  Many of the employees approached me with caution.  I also learned that some of the church growth consultants were actually telling churches that if they wanted to “kill” church growth, start a Christian school.

I spent many hours before the Lord asking Him if I heard Him correctly calling me to LifeWay.  In looking back on the 9 years I spent heading up the Christian school and homeschool section of LifeWay, I, once again, saw God’s hand at work.  I thought I was there to continue working with Christian schools and now with homeschools.  However, God brought me there to show me a missing piece that I needed to know in order to understand His purpose for education.  God knew I needed to understand the importance of the local church.  It was during this time that I realized that the home and church were the two primary, God-ordained institutions that were responsible for educating future generations.

Many people at LifeWay assumed that I would come in preaching the need for everyone to put their kids in Christian schools or homeschool them.  However, I started sharing what I had discovered about how God wanted parents and church leaders to educate children.  Where they were educated was secondary to how God expected them to be educated.  Since I was trying to base everything on Scripture related to educating children and youth, more and more of my fellow workers started to understand we were in agreement on many points.

I was beginning to see how the home, church and school had to be united in providing children and youth with a biblically based, Christ centered education.  This is when I started using the illustration of a three-legged stool that I eventually put into my book, Kingdom Education.  To emphasize this growing conviction, I found myself surprising pastors when they called my office seeking advice about starting a Christian school in their churches.  I would tell them that I didn’t think that their church should start a Christian school.  They were shocked and asked why I would say that.  I would go on and explain that my recommendation was that they should pray and ask God if He wanted the church to expand ministry to include schooling.  I still believe that a church shouldn’t have a Christian school but that Christian schooling should be a ministry of the church.  The schooling ministry is the church operating throughout the week in a united effort with the home to disciple the next generation.

The second reason God led me to LifeWay was to help me understand His highest priority for every believer.  There was a major emphasis that was the driving force behind all of the resources LifeWay was developing during my tenure there.  This emphasis was on the kingdom of God.  It was because of this emphasis that I realized that God’s highest priority for every believer was for him/her to know, understand and experience God’s kingdom each and every day.  I believe this to be true because of Jesus’ own words in Matthew 6:33.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God…

I knew this verse but never understood what the kingdom of God actually was.  In Dr. Mims’ book, Thine is the Kingdom, he defined the kingdom of God in a way that made it easy to understand but also applicable to my everyday life.  He explained that the kingdom of God was,

the reign of God through Jesus Christ in the life of a believer….

There cannot be a kingdom without a king.  A king is sovereign and sets the rules and his subjects are to obey.  The king’s ordinances that the subjects are to obey are found in God’s Word.  It all made sense.

It wasn’t long before I was told by the leadership of LifeWay that I needed to write a book.  It was explained to me that I was saying things that they had never heard and it needed to captured in writing.  I had never written or even thought about writing a book.  However, I started putting together everything that God had been teaching me over my years in education.  When it was finished and ready to go the editor, I had to come up with a title.  I decided to call it Kingdom Education: God’s Plan for Educating Future Generations.

God wants every believer to seek His reign in his/her life everyday.  He wants to reign in all of life.  That means that He wants to reign in the education of children and youth.  This means that God wants to reign in the education a child receives at home.  He also wants to reign in the education a child receives in church.  But it also requires that God reigns in the education a child receives at school.  The question becomes how do we know that God is reigning as king in a child’s education at home, church and school?  The answer is when what God’s Word says about education is obeyed in all three places.  In my book I identified 10 biblical principles of education.  Since the time of writing the book, I have uncovered an additional four principles.

I thought that I finally understood God’s call on my life and what His ultimate purpose was for education.  There was one big question that I soon faced.  Will this work in real life?  Monday I conclude this series by sharing what God did next in my life that has brought me to where I am today.  Have a blessed weekend.

Things were going smoothly in my life.  I was completing 16 year at Lynchburg Christian Academy where I served as Superintendent for the last nine years.  In addition to my school life, I had completed my course work and passed all my comprehensive exams for my EdD at the University of Virginia.  My future plans were in place.  I would continue serving the Lord at LCA, write my dissertation and receive my degree.  All was good!

But God…. Little did I know that God was preparing me for somethings that would shape my understanding of what true biblically based, Christ centered education really was.  In 1989 God uprooted our family and we moved to Atlanta, GA where I assumed the role of Southeast Director for the Association of Christian Schools International.  For the next 7 years I would serve what grew to be over 600 schools in 8 states.

Because of my thirst to understand God’s design and purpose of education, I made a biblical philosophy of education the major theme of the Southeast’s services to schools.  We tried to bring in the best speakers on the subject to our teacher and administrator conferences.  We stressed the importance of the philosophy of Christian schooling in our student activities, student leadership conferences and regular school consulting efforts.

Through all of these efforts, I constantly asked myself if this is really what God’s purpose of education is?  Were Christian schools merely an alternative to other forms of schools?  Were Christian schools a Christianized version of secular/public schools?  One verse was on my mind constantly.  I thought about this verse on an almost daily basis.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. Colossians 2:8 (NKJV)

More questions grabbed me by the heart.  How much of Christian schooling was merely following the tradition of men?  After all, Christian schools operated pretty much like all schools.  They had similar calendars, course offerings, graduation requirements, athletic and other co-curricular offerings, and even used many of the same textbooks.  Were we being taken captive by false ideas/philosophy of education?  What would it look like if Christian schools were doing everything according to Christ?

When I first started serving the Southeast Region of ACSI, I wasn’t able to begin my work on my dissertation.  One day I was near Charlottesville, VA and stopped by UVa to inquire about how much time I had to complete my dissertation.  I was told by one of my professors that I had one month left to complete everything.  However, he told me that if I would get him a proposal that he would approve, he would get me a one-year extension.  I don’t have time to go through how God worked this out but I had my dissertation approved exactly one year from the date I visited the University.

My dissertation involved a national study on the religious beliefs and practices of Christian school graduates.  It was a fascinating study but what was taking place behind the scenes would eventually become my life’s message and mission.  To complete this study I had to provide proof that education, especially formal schooling, was more about developing a belief system than on accumulating facts that would guarantee success in the future.  I spent hours upon hours in the basement levels of the UVa library reading about the purpose of education during the founding of the USA.  I read chapel messages by Noah Porter while he served as President of Yale.  It was exciting to research and find out what our Founding Fathers had written about education and its true meaning.

As I traced the history of American education from its beginning to its current time (it was 1994 when I was doing this research), I became aware of the secularization of education and society.  This dangerous shift in educational philosophy started slowly in the early to mid 1800s.  However, it increased in intensity in the early 1900s.  Today, public schools operated under the authority of the government are completely secular in philosophy and operation.  Of course, many Christian leaders warned of this demise of education when the shift was starting to take place. However, very few parents and church leaders paid any attention to all of the warning signs.

God was working in my life and I was starting to understand what education’s purpose was supposed to be.  I was convinced that it involved the home, church and school.  However, I didn’t know how all of this fit together.  God had to, once again, turn my world upside down.  He did this in the summer of 1996.  What I was about to experience would change my life completely.  Tomorrow I will share how it all came together but it wasn’t easy.

God is always at work — even when we can’t see any evidence of it.  It is only when we take the time to look back can we understand what He was doing and what His will for our lives is.  This has been my experience as I look back over the past 50+ years of teaching.  As I shared in yesterday’s blog, I never imagined that I would be a teacher.  But God…..

The fall of 1973 was a very exciting time for our family.  We had just moved to Lynchburg, VA and I began teaching science and coaching basketball at Lynchburg Christian Academy.  Dr. Jerry Falwell started LCA in 1967 and had just launched what is now Liberty University in 1971.  There was excitement in the air as I began my journey into Christian education.  But then, a question I was asked caused me to stop in my tracks and I began wondering once again what is education really all about?

During the first week of school, there was an open house.  On that night parents actually followed an abbreviated schedule of their child’s classes.  The first group of parents entered my classroom and sat in the students’ desks.  I started my time with the parents by sharing with them what God had done in my life while teaching in the public school.  I explained how several of my students had come to faith in Christ.  It was at that point that one parent asked me a question I couldn’t answer.  He asked,

If God was using you in such an amazing way in that school, why did you leave to come here and teach?

I had never given that any thought.  Why was I here rather than back at my former school?  My answer was somewhat shallow as I explained that I wanted to teach where I could teach truth and could share my faith with my students openly.  In fact, it was exciting to have my principal tell us that we were expected to do just that.  However, I really didn’t know the difference between the public school I left and the Christian school I was at.

I could not get that parent’s question out of my mind for quite some time.  As I reflect back on my journey in education, I realize that it was at that point in time that I started wrestling with trying to understand education from a biblical perspective.  I went to conferences and seminars where several giants in the Christian school movement spoke on what Christian education was all about.  Men such as Dr. Francis Shaeffer, Dr. Roy Lowrie, Dr. Paul Kienel, Dr. Tony Fortosis, Dr. Ron Chadwick, Bud Schindler and Gene Garrick were used by God to begin formulating a biblical philosophy of education in my heart and mind.  I read as many books as I could find on this subject.  To name just a few of the books that started shaping my ideas of what God’s design for education is included How Shall We Live, The Pattern of God’s Truth, Which Way to Educate, Educating for Eternity, Reclaiming the Future of Christian Education, and The Christian Mind.

Later on, I was challenged by Drs. James Dobson and Gary Bauer when I read their book, Children At Risk.  My whole idea of education was rocked when I read Thomas Sowell’s book, Inside American Education and The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom.  I found myself pouring over the Scripture and asking God to let me understand what His design for education was.  I didn’t want to go through the motions of simply filling my students’ minds with facts and figures in order for them to pass a test and get into a good college.  Of course, I had the freedom to add some Bible verses and little sermonettes to my lessons and there were chapels, Bible classes and spiritual emphasis weeks that all students participated in.  Prayer before practices and games were commonplace and expected.  However, there had to be more to this than what the typical Christian school was doing.

After my first year at LCA, I was asked to be the Secondary School Principal.  This led me to begin graduate courses at nearby University of Virginia.  Surely now I would learn what real education was all about.  Little did I know that God was moving in my life in a way that still boggles my mind.  I was very fortunate that all of my professors in both my Masters and Doctoral courses allowed me to address everything from a biblical perspective.  Of course, they didn’t agree with me on just about everything I wrote or presented but they tolerated my positions on a wide variety of topics.  What was taking place behind the scenes was that I was beginning to formulate a biblical philosophy of education in my heart and mind.

As I continued trying to understand God’s perspective on education, I dug deeper in Scripture and continued reading everything I could get my hands on about the subject.  It was during those early years in Christian education that I realized that education could not be equated merely to schooling.  I began understanding that biblically based education was a multi-faceted process that took place at home, in the church and in the school.  Even though I was searching for meaning, I still didn’t see how God was shaping my heart and mind about this very important aspect of life — the education of children and youth.

What God did next in my life was amazing to say the least.  Yet, it still challenged me about everything I thought education was all about.  But you will have to come back tomorrow for what the late Paul Harvey would say —The Rest of the Story!

There are many times in life when we have difficulty understanding why certain things happen to us.  It is during those trials and testing that it is important to continue living our daily lives and trusting God to accomplish His will for our lives.  As I reflect on my fifty years in education, I can now see how God was shaping me in so many ways to get me to where He wanted me to be today.

I was a pre-med student in college but God had another plan for my life.  Two weeks before graduation I didn’t know what I was going to do in the future.  I had not been accepted into medical school and I was getting quite anxious about what the future might hold.  One of my classmates had just signed a contract to teach math in a public school south of Buffalo, NY.  When he returned to campus, he saw me in the library and gave me a note with a telephone number on it.  He explained how the school needed a chemistry teacher and asked me to call the number.  This was on a Wednesday night in May of 1968.

The next day I called this school and on Friday I interviewed for the position and signed a contract to teach chemistry.  At the time it was very confusing to me about what had taken place in less than 48 hours.  After all, I was not an education major and had never even thought about teaching.  In the fall of 1968 I began my teaching career.

Those first 5 years of teaching were quite challenging to say the least.  During my tenure in Gowanda, NY I taught Regents Chemistry to juniors and seniors.  New York offered what were labelled “regents” courses.  These courses were intended to be more rigorous and at the end of each course students had to take a regents final exam.  This exam was prepared by the State and no one saw what was on the exam until the day it was scheduled to be administered.  The pressure that these exams carried was enormous because what you scored on the test was your final grade in the course for the year.

The pressure wasn’t just on the students.  Teachers also faced a lot of pressure as your future as a teacher was somewhat determined by how well your students did on the regents exams.  I took the place of a teacher who had been quite successful teaching Regents Chemistry.  87% of her students had passed the exam the year before when the state average was around 82%.  My principal regularly reminded me of the challenge I was facing to have my students do as well those students of the former teacher had done.

The first year ended and when I had graded all of the tests, 96% of them had passed.  For the five years that I taught Regents Chemistry in the school 97% of the students passed their regents exam.  It was through this season in life that I realized God had given me the gift of teaching and that this would be my calling in life.

One of the difficult situations I found myself in dealt with the theory of evolution.  In order for the students to pass the regents exam they had to answer certain questions as if evolution was true.  This was the first time that I can remember my faith being tested.  It was frustrating to tell students that they had to answer certain questions in line with evolutionary thought but that those answers were not in line with truth.  As I explained to the students, the people making the tests believed in evolution but the design and patterns found in chemistry clearly showed that there was a Creator behind our magnificent universe.

Even back in those days, what I was doing with my students was not acceptable.  I still remember the day when my principal came into my classroom and told me something that brought a lot of anxiety into my life.  He said,

I know what you are doing in your classes.  However, if any parents complain, I will tell you to stop.

What was I going to do?  I shared with some fellow Christians who also taught in the school what the principal had said and asked them to pray for me.  During a men’s prayer breakfast one Friday morning, the only prayer that they prayed was that the principal would not come in and tell me to stop.  I remember very vividly interrupting the prayer time and challenge them about what they were asking God for.  I told them that what I wanted them to pray was if and when the principal came in and told me to stop, I would have the courage to do what was right.  I asked them to pray that God would give me the boldness to teach truth.

During those five years of teaching in public schools, the principal never came in and told me that I had to stop doing what I was doing.  I had the privilege of seeing several of my students and players (I coached basketball also) place their faith in Christ.  But, I continued to wrestle with knowing what education was really all about.  Was it just a process that students went through in order to get into college or get a decent job?  Was there something more that God expected children and youth to learn during their school days?  I didn’t understand it at the time but I now see that God was stirring my heart in such a way that I would leave the public school system and begin a teaching career in Christian schools.

In the fall of 1973, I began teaching science in a Christian school.  I was so excited because now I could teach the truth behind science without fear of retribution.  In fact, I was encouraged to share my faith and talk about God in everything I did as a teacher and coach.  I felt like I was in heaven.  However, my faith was, once again, rocked during my first open house at my new Christian school.  It was then a parent asked me a question that shook me to the core.  Tomorrow I will share with you what God did in my life on that night.

When you look at this cartoon image, does it describe how you feel when the weekend is over and you have to go back to work on Monday?  For many Christians this is how we view work.  But that is not how God wants us to view work.

I believe that everyone wants their children to be successful in life.  Most parents believe that a key to their children being successful is getting a good education so that they can get a good job.  A great deal of energy is put into making sure that children and youth know the right information so that they can get into a good college.  Parents are convinced that getting a good college education is the key to getting a good job and, therefore, being successful.  

At the same time, Christians say that God has a plan for every person and the best place to be is in the center of God’s will. Unfortunately, there is a deep divide in many Christians’ minds between being in God’s will and getting a good job.  Christians seldom look at education as the process through which their children will discover God’s will for their lives which will, in turn, lead them to finding a vocation in life.  Yet, that is exactly what one of the key goals of education should be — education must guide people in knowing and doing God’s will.  In discussing this goal of education, I will equate God’s call with God’s will.  Anything that God calls an individual to do must be God’s will for that person.

There are two calls that God puts on a person’s life.  The first call is a general call to salvation.  God desires for all people to be saved.  The second call that God places on a life is specific to the individual.  This call is a call to vocation or work.  A call to work must be seen as a divine call.  This is because God is portrayed throughout the Bible as a God that “works.”  We have all read the account of the creation of this universe in Genesis 1.  This marvelous creation is the “work” of God.  In fact, after God “worked” to create this world in a mere six days, He rested from all His “work.”  God is a God who works.  Since man is created in God’s image, it means that man has been created to work.  Education should guide children and youth to find God’s call to a vocation in life.

Timothy Keller has written an excellent book that deals with this call to vocation titled, Every Good Endeavor.  In this book, Keller explains,

We must recover the idea that work is a “vocation” or calling, “a contribution to the good of all and not merely…a means to one’s own advancement.”…To one’s self-fulfillment and power.  Something can be a vocation or calling only if some other party calls you to do it, and you do it for their sake rather than your own.  Our daily work can be a calling only if its reconceived as God’s assignment to serve others.

Work has gone through a progression, or more accurately a regression, of meaning.  When our Founding Fathers established this country, work was seen as a vocation, a calling from God.  As time passed, work became a job one had that God was asked to bless.  Then work became a job to pay the bills.  Today, someone has said that work is the ability to consume!  This regression in how we look at work is due to a flawed education system that is not focused on guiding students to knowing and doing God’s will.

Kevin Swanson provides us with keen insight related to this educational goal.  In his book, Upgrade, he writes,

A successful education is achieved when a child is prepared to make maximal use of his God-given talents & abilities in the accomplishment of the child’s calling…Everybody is gifted and has a purpose in God’s world…Each child has a specific calling, framed by his unique talents and abilities.

My friend, Pastor James McMenis, consistently reminds his church’s membership that every person is a purpose with a name.  This statement is grounded in the fact that God has a plan for every person that is born.  Since this is true, education must aim at guiding students to understanding their God-given talents and abilities so that they can know God’s purpose for their lives.  This goal of education must be central to every educational effort a child experiences at home, church and school.  Consider this profound statement.

The challenge of the first eighteen years of a child’s education is to find that calling [God’s will]…A fulfilled life will be determined by whether he/she has centered in upon his or her life calling.  Kevin Swanson

Christians must answer some key questions if they are going to give their children an education that will result in them equipped to glorify God in all of life.

1. How is the education that your children/students are receiving at home, church and school helping them to understand their God-given abilities and talents?
2. Does the education children are receiving at home, church and school help them to hear God’s call on their lives to be saved?
3. Are your children/students on a path to finding God’s call on their lives to a vocation for which God has created them to fulfill?

In light of last week’s post Enough is Enough, I want to look at another essential goal of education that must be pursued by all Christians.  There is no question that we are engaged in a fierce culture war.  Therefore, the education we give our children and youth must be aimed at achieving this very important goal.

Education must equip people for war!

There is a trend that I see taking place in western Christianity.  This trend is an effort to “tone down” any talk of war.  The argument for this line of thinking is usually stated in this way.  If Christians are to be “relevant” in today’s culture and want to influence the lost about their need for a Savior, they need to be more understanding and not use language that reflects conflict, battle or war.  I understand that Christians must show compassion and empathy to the lost.  However, God’s Word has much to say about war and all Christians’ responsibility to engage in a very real war that has been raging throughout human history.

The reality is that ever since the Fall, man has been at war with God, His creation and each other.  This is because with the entrance of sin into the world all relationships were broken.  Christians always talk about how the Fall has separated man from God.  However, it is also true that sin has set man against man generically speaking.  There is no question that the culture war today is seen in such things as rising levels of violence, gender confusion and loss of truth.  Last week we addressed the fact that this war is now targeting babies both in and out of the womb.

In the Old Testament the reality of war can be seen whenever God instructed the leaders of Israel to take a census of the people.  The first census taken of the Israelites is recorded in the book of Numbers.   God instructed Moses to number the people.

Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above—all who are able to go to war in Israel. Numbers 1:2-3 (NKJV)

There were some other instances when God instructed the leaders of Israel to number the people.  In each case, they were to number the men who were 20 years old and older who were fit for battle.  It is true it was expected that when a man reached 20 years of age, he was supposed to be able to fight on behalf of Israel.  Even though the battles were physical battles against other nations, each of these nations represented people who worshiped false gods.

In the New Testament we also find references that teach us that Christians are to be strong soldiers.

But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier… Philippians 2:25 (KJV)

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. 2 Timothy 2:3 (NKJV)

…to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier…Philemon 2 (KJV)

Not only are Christians expected to be fit for battle, they are to be equipped with the right armor to be successful in war (Ephesians 6:10-17).  This is where a biblical look at education can help us understand this goal.

The war that God expects Christians to be fully engaged in is a spiritual one.  According to Paul’s writing, this war is waged on an intellectual or mental front.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NKJV)

Drs. James Dobson and Gary Bauer reflected on this war of ideas in their book, Children and Risk.  The book suggests that a new civil war is raging across America.  This war is a war of values and to the victor goes our children.  Dobson and Bauer explained how the major front for this war will be fought on educational turf.

In order for education to achieve God’s ultimate purpose, it must assist Christians in living lives to glorify God.  This requires that the education we give our children and youth must equip them to develop their minds for the purpose of waging war in the arena of ideas in today’s culture.

The reality is that every educational effort prepares children and youth to wage war.  It either prepares children to wage war for God or wage war against God.  Secular education equips its students to think and act from a secular worldview that is opposed to God.  We must provide children with a biblically-based, Christ-centered education so that they are equipped to wage war for God.

Some would argue that Christian education shelters students from the real world.  The fact is, secular education shelters children from truth.  I agree with author Kevin Swanson who wrote that the goal of protection is not to shelter students but to prepare them.  It is important to note that God’s Word doesn’t suggest that Christians be equipped and engaged in this spiritual war.  It commands Christians to do so.

Here are some questions we must answer.

1. Do you see education in the home, church and school as a battlefield for the hearts and minds of your children/youth?
2. Does the education your children/students are receiving at home, church and school equip them for war for God or against God?
3. What are some specific ways that your child’s education at home, church and school equip them to be strong soldiers of the Lord?
4. How would you rate today’s youth as being fit for battle?
5. Is the education they receive at school actually equipping them to do battle for the enemy?

January 16, 1947 is a very special day to me.  It is the day on which my mother gave birth in the afternoon to a son in North Tonawanda, New York.  I thank the Lord that on that winter afternoon I started my journey in this life life.  Even though that date is important, there is another very important date related to my birth.  That date was sometime in April 1946.  I say this because it was at that time that I was conceived.  With all that has gone on in my home state last week, I have been thinking about how wonderful God’s design for human life is.  God knew that I, as well as every other person that is conceived, needed a safe place where He could form my inward parts and He could weave me in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).  The Psalmist goes on to proclaim that my frame was not hidden from You [God], when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance (Psalm 139:15-16).  The safest place in which God can form and weave a baby together is in his/her mother’s womb.

Not only did God form my inward parts and weave me into who I would one day become while I was safe in my mother’s womb, He also knew me before He formed me in that womb.  I may have taken my first breath of fresh air on January 16, 1947, but that is not when my life began.  There is no doubt about it — life begins at conception.  This is what God said to Jeremiah.

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you;” Jeremiah 1:4-5 (NASB)

I share this because on January 22, 2019 the New York legislature passed the Reproductive Health Act and the State’s Governor signed the legislation into law that same night.  If there were ever a deceptive name given to a law, it is this one.  This is because the Reproductive Health Act is not only unhealthy but deadly to babies who are in their mothers’ wombs.  In fact, this new law allows a baby to be aborted right up until the time of birth.  It even allows a baby that survives an abortion to be killed.  What added to the horror of such a law being passed was how the signing of the law was celebrated with applause and cheering that equaled that of a team’s celebration of winning a championship. No doubt that most of you reading this post saw videos of this celebration of evil and/or pictures of various buildings in New York City lit up in pink to “shine” attention on this “historic” legislation.

I cringed as I read a statement by the New York Senate Majority Leader who rejoiced that this law sends a clear message to everyone.

Here in New York, women’s health matters; women’s lives matter; women’s decisions matter.

What about the health, lives and decisions of the baby?  When I was being developed to be born in this State, I was able to do so in what God designed to be a safe place – my mother’s womb.  This law 72 years later made a mother’s womb one of the most dangerous places for a new life to be found.  I must admit when I heard and saw the reports and the rejoicing about the passage of this law, I was angry.  How could human beings do such a thing?  I have read people’s reactions from all walks of life who were incensed by the passing of this law.  Many Christians have called this nothing less than demonic.    There have even been calls for the Catholic Church to excommunicate the Governor of the State.

However, as I pondered what had just happened, I found myself in a different state of mind than many of the fellow believers that were commenting on the actions of this State’s government.  My anger turned to brokenness and I found myself not wanting to strike out at the people who drafted and passed this piece of legislation.   After all, they represent this sin-wrecked world.  Should I expect something different from a secular society?  Ever since sin entered this world, the world has hated God and is bent on destroying everything that He established when He created the world and made man in His image.

My brokenness and my anger was not toward the lost men and women who were behind this hideous Act but toward me and other Christians who have allowed this to even be possible in our country.  The reality is that Christians have allowed these people to be positions of leadership at both the state and federal levels.  We can’t ignore the fact that Jesus said we are to be the salt and light of the world.  We are the ones’ who are supposed to be shaping the culture.  Instead we, the church, have lost our savor and are good for nothing else than to be trampled by the culture.  This has happened on my watch!

I fully realize that this is not something that just happened in one state in the country.  It is the condition of the culture of the entire country.  A recent bill was passed at the Federal level that called for continued funding of Planned Parenthood, whose leadership recently stated publicly that its major business was the aborting of human lives before birth.  That bill also called for millions of dollars to be spent on paying for abortions internationally.  I read the statistic that in 2015 1 in 3 unborn babies were aborted in New York City.  There is even a social media campaign where women are encouraged to shout their abortions under the hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion.  What breaks my heart the most is that many Christians over the years have consistently voted for people who boldly declare that they are for the abortion of unborn babies.

We are living in the day when Scripture is being lived out before our very eyes.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: Jeremiah 8:12 (KJV)

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20 (KJV)

How did a nation that was founded on biblical principles get to the point where we celebrate infanticide?   We should not expect anything less than what we are witnessing in our country when we realize that a secular educational system has indoctrinated the vast majority of young people for the past 100+ years.  As Christians, we must lay the condition of society at our doorstep because we turned the formal education of our children and youth over the government in the mid-1800s.  As historian Francis Curran noted it was a revolutionary happening in the history of the New Testament Church.  Before a holy God, we stand guilty because we ignored warning after warning what would and has happened because of thinking it is okay for our children to sit under the influence of secular education for more than 1300 hours every year from ages 5 to 18.

One man who warned the church what would happen if the government took over the education of our children and youth was Dr. Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898).  Read his words carefully.

If the State assumes responsibility for education, there is therefore a great risk that the education of youth will be perverted to serve an ideological faction.  This will occur by the hateful means of filling their minds with error and passion in place of truth and right...If the State in America becomes the educator, education must be secularized totally.  (emphasis mine)

But nearly all public men and preachers declare that the public schools are the glory of America.  They are a finality, and in no event to be surrendered.  We have seen that their complete secularization is logically inevitable.  Christians must prepare themselves then, for the following results:  All prayers, catechisms, and Bibles will ultimately be driven out of the schools. (emphasis mine)

Last week I shared a quote by Dr. Ravi Zacharias from his book, Deliver Us From Evil, in which he said,

And for centuries politics has dabbled int eh deadly game of social engineering.  The whole point of state-controlled education is that it gives the government the power to shape the souls and write on the fresh slates of young hearts.  This empowerment is the most important trust given to elected officers, and to think that they accept that responsibility from a posture of neutrality is to live under the most destructive illusion.  To elect one to the highest level of leadership, therefore, is to put into his or her hands the possibility and opportunity of shaping a nation’s conscience.  (emphasis mine)

I have been involved in the teaching profession for over 50 years.  The past 45 years have been dedicated to providing children and youth with a biblically-based, Christ-centered education in the home, church and school.  I cannot count the number of pastors and other church leaders that I have met and urged them to address the issue of education biblically.  Year after year I have faced fierce opposition to this effort because pastors don’t want to offend those teaching in secular schools or they believe that we can’t shelter our children from the world.  This isn’t about where God sends His mature disciples to advance His kingdom.  It is about how God expects us to educate our children.

The Scripture is clear about the danger of sitting under false teachers.  However, most Christians have divided their lives up into the secular and sacred compartments that have resulted in dysfunctional living of every day life.  The average pastor would never allow evolution, gender neutrality, same-sex marriage, free sex and a host of other topics to ever be taught to children in their churches.  However, many of them don’t even raise a concern that these same children and youth get six hours-a-day of this type of false teaching for 13 years before going off to college.

I had the privilege of serving at LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, for several years.  I was always puzzled how one of the largest protestant, evangelical denominations in the country stressed the importance of their churches having early childhood programs and provided millions of dollars of annual support for their colleges and universities.  Church and denominational leaders stressed how important it was for parents to put their children in their church childcare centers and send them to Christian colleges and universities after high school graduation.  Yet, they seemed to fully support sending their children between the ages of 5 and 18 to secular schools; for the very years that their worldviews would be shaped.

I sadly remember how a group of pastors in one state wanted to remove church funding from one of the convention’s colleges because the President of the school had written a book claiming that Jesus was not God.  I understood that this was heresy.  What I couldn’t understand and what I shared with some of the pastors involved with this conflict was how they could send millions of dollars to a school that was denying the fundamentals of the faith for young men and women whose worldviews were pretty much set but wouldn’t invest a dime in Christian elementary and secondary schools so they would develop a biblical worldview.

Secular educators, on the other hand, knew that they would eventually control the thinking of Americans because they understood that education is in the worldview-shaping of young minds.  Humanist educator and one of the original signers of the Humanist Manifesto, C.F. Potter, knew that they were going to win the culture war of ideas back in the early 1900s.  He wrote.

Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism, and every American public school is a school of humanism.  What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?

Yes, I have a broken heart over what the church has allowed to happen when it comes to the education of our children and youth.  By not addressing education biblically, the church has forfeited its right to partner with parents and provide future generations with a biblically-based, Christ-centered education.  The result has been that the majority of Christian young people have received a secular education, developed a secular worldview and have left the church.

But I am equally brokenhearted by what I have seen happen in Christian schools over the past several decades.  I have witnessed a major shift take place in Christian schools during my tenure in this vital ministry.  I can best describe this shift in this way.  Christian schools have pursued academic excellence to the point that it has become an end of Christian schooling rather than a means to a greater end.  At the same time, there has been a decreased emphasis put on the importance of the staff and board members of these schools to fully know and embrace a biblical philosophy of education.  Over the past several decades, there has been an intense effort to “improve” the education that Christian schools provide its students.  This has been marked by:

• increase in the importance of school accreditation and teacher certification
• an effort to have more teachers and administrators earn advanced degrees
• a major push to pattern teaching and administrating after “best practices” research
• the need to make “data-based” and “research-driven” decisions
• a greater use of technology
• the development of strong STEM programs at all levels

Please know that I am thankful that there is an effort for Christian schools to be the best they can be.  However, all of these efforts only address the “what” and “how” a Christian school does.  They don’t address the “why” or the purpose behind Christian education.  Unfortunately, so much emphasis and effort is on improving what and how we do things, that there is little, if any, attention given to the biblical philosophy that makes the what and how of Christian education unique from secular education.  We are finding ourselves with highly qualified staffs that do love Jesus.  However, they do not have strong biblical worldviews and do not understand a biblical philosophy of education.  George Barna recently told a group of Christian schools educators that only 10% of today’s adults possess a biblical worldview and when it is broken down by age, only 4%, 1 out of 25, Millennials have a biblical worldview.  Barna went on to explain that the Millennial generation is now the primary parenting generation in the church and our schools today.  I would add to this that the Millennial generation is, or is fast becoming, the primary teaching generation in Christian schools today.  Both Barna and Dr. Tony Evans have said the same thing — you cannot give to others what you don’t possess yourselves.

I have talked to a number of Christian school administrators over the past several years.  When I asked them what they are intentionally doing in an on-going effort to make sure that every staff and board member understands a biblical philosophy of education, the most common answer that I get is we aren’t doing anything.  I share the following merely to serve as an example of how Christian school educators have not been intentional in this area.  I have developed, with the help of a wonderful partner church, a wide variety of resources that are designed to help school leaders and teachers strengthen their understanding of a biblical worldview and a biblical philosophy of education.  Because of the support from this church, we have been able to provide this service at an extremely low price.  Even though many administrators expressed a great deal of interest in the new subscription website as it was being developed, very few have taken the time to have their schools take part in this much needed endeavor.

At the same time I have discovered that many schools are spending hundreds and sometimes thousands of more dollars than it would take for this philosophy training for staff development in areas that merely address the what and how of Christian education.  Again, I am not trying to downplay the need for good staff development in areas other than worldview and philosophy.  What I am saying is that we can have the most effective teachers possible but if they don’t live and teach from a biblical worldview and philosophy base, there will not be very much accomplished that has any eternal impact.

Joel Belz wrote an article for World Magazine in 1993.  His closing statements in this article haunt me every time I read them.  Belz predicted,

In summary: Christian schools will be found overall to have done a very good job in terms of general education, but will be disappointed in terms of instilling a profound sense of Christian discipleship.  On basic skill tests, SAT scores, and other standardized measurements, Christian school graduates will increasingly outperform their counterparts from public education.  But in terms of radical adoption of a Christian perspective on life, the differences – while definitely present – will be disappointing.

When we look at what is taking place in our country and we are honest with ourselves, I think that Christian parents, church leaders and Christian school educators would have to say Belz was right.  In terms of a radical adoption of a Christian perspective on life the results from the homes’, churches’ and schools’ efforts have been disappointing.

I was going through some old transparency masters (When was the last time anyone used transparencies?) and came across a challenging quote.  I do not know the source of this statement but it is something that I have lived long enough to actually have witnessed.

Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation.  Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself — its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions.  Fifty years later, there is a new world.  And the people born then cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. (emphasis mine)

As I have watched this very thing happen before my eyes, I have to admit that this rearrangement of society is our [Christians] fault for lack of action.  As the title of this post states, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!  It is time that the home, church and school address the issue of education biblically.  As Josh McDowell wrote in the Forward of my book, Kingdom Education,

The ideal way to help our kids not only to reject the postmodern worldview but also embrace deepened Christian convictions is to align church, home and school into a unified whole that arms our children with the truth and protects them from distortions.

What took place in New York last week and has been taking place throughout our culture should wake us up to the fact we are in a fierce battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation.  I received a tweet the other day of some new art work that has been put up in the atrium of Sherwood Baptist Church where I served for 9 years.  Even though it is a new piece of art, it is the long-held belief of Pastor Michael Catt.  The picture below says it all.

What about you?  Do you agree that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH?  If not, what will it take for you to get there?  As we witnessed last week, it really is a matter of life and death!

We continue to look at several key goals of education through a biblical worldview lens.  I want to remind you that these goals must be pursued in the home, church and school so that God’s ultimate purpose for education (to prepare students to live a life that glorifies God) can be realized.  Last week we looked at how education should lead people to true worship of God.  The second goal of education can be stated this way.

Education must lead to transformed lives.

Most of us are familiar with Paul’s challenge in Romans 12.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2 (KJV)

Paul warns believers not to be conformed to this world.  Instead, Christians are to live transformed lives.  Transformation is not a minor change in one’s lifestyle.  It can be compared to the changing of a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.  In his 1828 dictionary, Webster defines transformation as a change of heart in man, by which his disposition and temper are conformed to the divine image; a change from enmity to holiness and love.

From the Scripture stated above, one sees that this type of change only happens when there is a complete renewing of the mind.  This verse also tells us why God wants every Christian to be transformed through the renewing of the mind.  It is so that every believer can know God’s will for his/her life.  A person can only know and discern God’s will for him/her if his/her mind is not conformed to worldly or secular thinking.  However, all people are born with a sin nature which also means that our minds are naturally filled with carnal thoughts that are in line with the world’s way of thinking and acting.  Our natural minds must be thoroughly made new so that we will think and act from a biblical worldview perspective.  This must be one of the main goals of the education we give our children and youth in the home, church and school.  John A. Hughes puts it this way.

God-honoring education will assist the Christian in this mental renewing process by providing a foundation of worldview assumptions and by cultivating logical thinking processes, habits or analysis, and patterns of evaluation that are distinctively biblical.

The reality is that all education has as one of its main goals the shaping of a person’s worldview.  There is no such thing as a neutral education.  Secular education is based on a man-centered worldview where God is either ignored or blatantly denied.  Man is the ultimate authority and every individual determines what he/she should become.  Secular education’s aim is to make all students function well in a completely secular society.  This is exactly what King Nebuchadnezzar wanted to accomplish in the lives of a select group of Hebrew young people.

…youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.  The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service. Daniel 1:4-5 (NASV)

Ravi Zacharias makes a bold statement about the goal of every educational effort in his book, Deliver Us From Evil.

And for centuries politics has dabbled in the deadly game of social engineering. The whole point of state-controlled education is that it gives to the government the power to shape the souls and write on the fresh slates of young hearts. This empowerment is the most important trust given to elected officers, and to assume that they accept that responsibility from a posture of neutrality is to live under the most destructive illusion. To elect one to the highest level of leadership, therefore, is to put into his or her hands the possibility and opportunity of shaping a nation’s conscience.

This is frightening to say the least when one considers that the majority of Christians have given the government control of their children’s education.  We can see the devastating effects of this in everyday life across the nation and around the world.  It is important that parents, church leaders and educators strive to provide future generations an education that will instill a biblical worldview in their hearts and minds.

This can only take place when the education our children and youth receive at home, church and school strives to achieve the goal of biblically transforming their lives.  Every subject and every activity must involve the renewing of the mind in line with Romans 12:2.  The question we must ask ourselves is, how does one’s mind be renewed?  We can discover the process of renewing the mind in one of Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (KJV)

Parents, church leaders and educators must understand that we are engaged in a spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of our children and youth.  The major front for this battle is being fought on educational turf.  No one involved in the education of others does so from a neutral position.  One’s worldview will always be transmitted to the child in some way or another.  We must ask ourselves some questions.

1. Is the education that your children are receiving at home, church and school based on a biblical worldview?
2. What are you doing to make sure that your children’s education is focused on the spiritual formation (transformation) of their lives?
3. What are you doing to make sure children and youth are having their minds renewed so that they can discern God’s will for their lives?

Last week I shared how the purpose of education must be seen in relation to God’s highest purpose for man.  Since God’s purpose for man is for man to glorify God, education must guide them to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes (character) that will enable them to glorify God in whatever they think, say and/or do.  To accomplish this requires several goals be set for the education of our children and youth.

The first goal of education must lead people to true worship of God.  Unfortunately, many Christians do not understand what worship is all about.  Worship has too often been relegated to the portion of a church service where corporate singing takes place.  It is true that singing praises to God is an act of worship but it isn’t the essence of true worship of God.

Consider the dialog that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well.

God is seeking “true worshippers.”  This type of worshipper is one who worships God in “spirit and in truth.”  True worship of God involves both the heart and the mind.  It is not simply a matter of the heart but it also engages the mind.  This means that worship is both an attitude and an act.

The object of one’s worship is also very important.  For Christians, the object of our worship must be God, Himself.  We are to worship God and Him alone.  It is important to understand that according to Hebrew thought the human being was an indivisible totality.  There was no compartmentalization of life into the secular and sacred, which was the thinking of the Greeks.  This means that one was to worship God with his/her intellect, emotions, personality, senses and physical body.  Therefore, even work and play became a part of one’s worship of God.

Piper states that worship is a full-life response to who God is and what He has done.  Another writer puts it this way.

Worship is to honor God with extravagant love and extreme submission.

The goal of the education we give our children and youth must lead them to become “true worshippers” of God.  This is to take place throughout the entire educational process — at home, church and school.  It must lead them into a deeper knowledge of who God is which will, in turn, lead them to fulfill their purpose of glorifying Him in all that they think, say and do.

Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19:1 tell us that the very nature and character of God can be seen and understood by what He made (God’s creation).  Every academic subject is derived from some aspect of creation. The study of any and every subject should cause the learner to better understand and appreciate the character and work of God.

When God spoke the world into existence, He actually expressed who He is.  Creation testifies to God’s “eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20).  The study of the various sciences should “shout out” the very existence of God.  I pursued a biology major and chemistry minor in my undergraduate work.  The more complex these areas of study became the more amazed I was by the complexity and detail of the universe that an omnipotent and omniscient God literally spoke into existence (Genesis 1).

The study of human history, when it is taught through the biblical worldview lens, leads the learner to worship God in a greater way.  This is because one sees the eternal, only wise King (1 Timothy 1:17) orchestrating the rise and fall of nations in order to accomplish His purposes for His glory.

This is also true in the fields of art, music and literature.  As students delve into these areas of study, they should develop a mind to know and worship the true God who is full of beauty (Psalm 27:4).  These areas of education should cause every person to understand the beauty and creativity of God.  In turn, it should cause them to praise God in a deeper way because they will come to realize that He has gifted men and women with creative ability because all people have been created in His image.

The reality is that all education will lead a student to be a worshipper.  The question is what will he/she worship?  Will it be money, power, possessions, appearance, prestige, athletics etc.? Or will it lead them to be “true worshippers” who worship God in spirit and in truth?  This will only happen if parents, church leaders and educators set this as an important goal for the education they provide for future generations.

It is hard to believe that another year is almost over.  Two thousand and eighteen years have gone by since Jesus entered the world as a baby.  Tomorrow we will begin a new year — 2019.  2018 was a milestone year for me as I marked 50 years of teaching and celebrated 50 years of marriage to my amazing wife.  As I enter 2019, I find myself wondering what the new year will be like and what does God have in store for me, my family and my ministry.

Last week I was reading in the Psalms and a couple of verses jumped off the pages and caused me to stop and reflect for a moment.  I read,

The days of our years are threescore years and ten (70); and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years (80), yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Psalm 90:10 (KJV)

Of course, I gave this verse a close look because I find myself somewhere between threescore and ten and fourscore years.  It is true that life here on earth is brief and passes by so quickly and the years are filled with labor and sorrow.  I continued reading and paused at another very familiar verse.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Psalm 90:12 (KJV)

It is important to pay attention to every single day that God gives us here on earth.  As I numbered my days, I found myself humbled to have been blessed by God in so many ways over the years.  God wants us to take careful account of our lives because that will cause us to acquire a heart filled with wisdom.  When we do this, we would quickly realize that, apart from Him, we can accomplish nothing of eternal significance.

So how should we enter 2019?  To answer this question, I want to reflect on two other verses that I read the other day.  These are found in Psalm 92.

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: to shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Psalm 92:1-2 (KJV)

Another translation says that we should declare God’s lovingkindness in the morning and His faithfulness at night.  These verses have guided me over recent years on how to start and end each day as I number them.  I wrote in the margin of my Bible next to verse 2 the following thoughts.

At the beginning of each day ‘look forward’ with HOPE!

At the end of each day ‘look back’ with THANKS!

When I start a day, I should focus on God’s never-ending lovingkindness.  This gives me hope no matter what circumstances  I might face throughout any given day.  When the day ends and I look back on all that took place, I become thankful because I am always amazed that He was fully faithful to His Word.  He never fails!

I believe this is a great way to not only start and end a new day but also how to start and end a new year!  As we enter 2019, let’s do so declaring God’s lovingkindness.  I am convinced that if we did this throughout 2019, when the year comes to an end and we look back, we would find that God was completely faithful and we would end the year with thanksgiving in our hearts, singing praises to His name.

I encourage you to take a few minutes and reflect on 2018.  I am sure that we all faced some minor and major challenges over the course of the year.  There may have been a time when you may have wondered how you would even survive to see another day.  As I look back on 2018, I can only give praise to the One who was with me each step of the way.  What an amazing God we serve!  I pray that God will show forth His lovingkindness to you each day of 2019.

Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Philippians 4:20 (KJV)