Life Here and There

Today, President Barak Obama addressed public school kids across America. The video…

(more…)

I’ve been saying for weeks now that I’m totally okay with Ella starting Kindergarten. Today was the day. We arrived in plenty of time to fight the terrible traffic mess that had gathered in front of the schools (someone thought it would be really bright to place two elementary schools right next to each other on a neighborhood street). We found a parking place and took a deep breath. Ella did great all the way into the classroom and over to her seat. Then the tough moment came…

We had to leave. You’ll notice in the photo that Ella’s hands are on her ears. This has been her sign of trepidation for quite some time. We’re not sure what she’s hearing, but we’re sure she doesn’t want to hear any more of it! As Angie and I headed across the classroom and out the door, Ella turned her head away from everyone else and began to cry softly. She wouldn’t call out, as that might attract attention. She just cried.

Now I have to tell you the strange part of what I’ve been feeling since that moment. I’ve been divided in half. On the one hand, I think this is a very important step for her. She’s been painfully shy and quite fearful of uncertain situations, but life is full of uncertainties. She’s going to be meeting new people in every class and at every job for the rest of her life. She’s going to have to face new challenges and learn to stand up and speak up when the time comes. I was shy too, just like Ella. It never got easy, but interacting with others is just what we do from now until the grave.

Then, there was the other side of me. For a brief moment, homeschooling crossed my mind, not for any spiritual or religious reasons but only because home is the one place where we can shield her from anything of which she will ever be afraid. Bugs and bees are outside the door, people and academic challenges await her at school. Bullies and boyfriends will be her lot as she grows through the grade levels. All of this terrifies me just a bit, as the Daddy whose little girl needs my protection.

Somewhere in the middle is perhaps the place where our hearts ought to lie. We must love them, and release them. We must prepare them for evil, and shelter them from it. We must make home heaven for them, and launch them into the real world. Our hearts should break over our children’s fears, but we are right to let them go, to force them to face each next step. Life is really made of those steps.

As for me, I’m okay. As for Ella, I’m pretty sure it will be several weeks before she adjusts, if not several school years. As for Momma, I admire her more today than ever as a Mom, and as a little girl in a grown up body who doesn’t want to be left alone. Here I am, one guy placed on this earth to protect two precious girls, a Momma and her daughter. I suppose my only recourse is to depend fully upon the grace of our magnificent God to carry me and my family along. Maybe Ella might catch that vision, and find her fears released as she learns to trust the Father more each day.

I have work to accomplish today, but I can’t wait for 3:00 to come!

Today marks our tenth anniversary as a married couple. I’ve done quite a bit of reflecting back on that very special moment when we were pronounced husband and wife by my father-in-law. I showed up at the church a few hours before the wedding and it was pouring down rain. I wanted to wait until it slacked off and until I could be sure I wouldn’t see Angie a moment too early. She was inside wondering if I was re-considering!

I wasn’t re-considering, and I haven’t since. I wouldn’t trade the last ten years for anything in the world. We’ve had a precious daughter, served a couple of great churches as Pastor and wife, Angie has earned two degrees (I’m on the very long-term educational plan), and we’ve made a whole lot of great friends along the way. We’re thankful to God for the fruitfulness of these years and can’t wait to see what God has in store for the decades to come.

A marriage, when lived out biblically, is designed to show the world how much Jesus loves His church and how much they can accomplish together in the redemption of lost mankind. I wouldn’t dream of putting forth the image that we have one of those perfect, never-had-an-argument, syruppy-sappy, always romantic relationships. If you do that, nobody believes you anyway and you probably get on everyone else’s nerves. Nonetheless, I’m proud of the marriage we have. We don’t ever have to question one another’s faithfulness and commitment, and we’re slowly learning to communicate and to compliment one another in a way that glorifies God. I’m so very thankful for all God has blessed us with… to Him be the glory!

HSLDA – Support Grows for Southern Baptist Resolution on Exodus from Public Schools

Is it just me, or are we getting a little pushy with some personal agendas? I’m a realist and I know that there is some “bad stuff” in the public school system. I also know that there are some very liberal people in the leadership of the National Education Association. And on the other side of the coin, let me say right up front that I support parents who choose homeschooling and private education. Now to my point? It’s not my place to decide what is the “holy” option for any other parents.

My daughter is four years old and one year from now, we’ll be making this huge decision ourselves, and we haven’t ruled out the alternative of public school. I refuse to demonize the entire system and every faculty member in it. I further refuse to believe the myth that sending my child to a Christian school or homeschooling will guarantee that my child will automatically be more holy because of a lack of exposure to the world’s value systems. I once read a report (wish I had a link for you) based on solid research that demonstrated that the worldviews of kids coming from public schools and Christian schools were essentially the same.

Let me say honestly, I know God can bless the family that chooses homeschooling so that their kids will be sheltered from the “isms” of a godless world. I also know that God can bless families that choose a Christian school so that their kids will be exposed to education from a biblical worldview. But let me finally say that God can bless the families who choose to place their kids in public school, oversee their education, teach them about Christ at home, and lead them to be salt and light in a darkened world. Further, may God bless Christian teachers and faculty members who choose to leave the safety of the saltshaker to make a difference in the world for the glory of God. I don’t write you off!

Should education start at home? Absolutely. Should we endeavor to see that our kids grow up with a biblical worldview? Sure we should! But should it be resolved that we make an “exodus” from the public school system? Well, we may be slouching toward Sodom, but we’re not there yet. My pastoral influence will be to lead parents to get involved in their kids’ lives with an awareness of their social, intellectual, and spiritual development regardless of their specific educational choices.

Have you heard a teenager say, “But all my friends are doing it?” Our usual reply is a sharp rebuttal such as, “If all your friends jumped off the Empire State Building, would you do it too?” The darker side of my humor enjoys the cartoon depicted by Gary Larsen in which an enormous pile of bodies is mounting next to a building where a person is poised on the edge, ready to leap. The caption reads, “If everybody jumped off the Empire State Building, after a while it wouldn’t hurt so bad.”

The message of the church to young people today is so often, “Don’t go with the flow, dare to be different!” We realize the serious mistake of giving wholesale assent to whatever popular opinion dictates. We stand on issues such as abortion, homosexual rights, and gambling no matter what the majority rules. All of this is very biblical considering the mountain of Scripture that speaks to us about the doctrine of personal separation from the world.

What happens, however, when we call people to forsake their following of popular secular opinion merely to exchange it for a blind following of ecclesiastical opinion. More simply stated, is it wise to declare null and void any possible argument against what mainstream Christian culture establishes to be so?

We live in an age of media giants who use marketing to shape popular opinion far more than even our most powerful educational institutions. The Christian subculture, unfortunately, follows this trend, even if unintentionally.

John MacArthur has often commented that one of the most neglected Christian virtues today is that of discernment, and he is absolutely correct. To question is to be disagreeable, and to be disagreeable with Christian pop-culture is paramount to being heretical and downright odd! Perhaps we should realize that if many heroes of the past had not presented their questions, we may not have many of the great confessions and creeds that helped to preserve a biblical faith against the work of cultists.

Personally, I’m rather concerned with the swelling tide of Calvinism that is sweeping Baptist seminaries and churches. I’m upset about the number of Bible translations produced each decade under the guise of giving modern readers a more pragmatic rendering of the old, old story (note: Since each publisher seems to want to have their own translation, or two or three, we might go so far as to question the motives behind this translation pandemonium). I’m alarmed at how quickly certain philosophies of ministry take root which seek to strip the Bible of any specific guidance in any area other than theology proper. Heaven forbid we question whether a Christian music artist should be an exact replica of a drug-ridden punk rocker, whether Christian teenagers should really be getting fashion advice from porn-producers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, or whether the Nude Reviled Substandard Perversion is okay as long as it’s understandable!

I say, let’s be discerning! Let’s “try the spirits, whether they be of God…” (1 John 4:1) Let’s “withdraw [our]selves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received from us…” (2 Thessalonians 3:6) Let’s “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

We need to return to discernment, to thinking, and to a willingness to express and debate these and other issues rather than blindly accepting whatever is handed down from the day’s most popular Christian resource providers. Let me think on my own two feet and if I don’t show up at the next “Christian rock” concert waving a neon green copy of the newest translation and covered in pseudo-Christian/gothic tattoos, you’ll know I have good personal reasons!

”Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” –Ephesians 6:18-20

Paul completes his discussion of the armor of God with a final thought about the greatest resource of all, the resource universally applied to the Christian life with all the other pieces of armor… prayer. Look at the words he uses to emphasize this tool, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication… with all perseverance and supplication for all saints…” My how little we pray and how weak our prayers.

Then Paul makes a personal prayer request that reflects the request of my own heart. He requests that the believers pray that he would have the words and the boldness with which to preach the gospel in the power of the Spirit. There are many things that may aid a Pastor in his work such as education, training, and fellowship with others, but no aid is so powerful as the prayers of his people.

This is my request to anyone who will receive it, that you might pray for your Pastor on a daily basis, that God would give him utterance (the ability to speak) and boldness (the power to speak it with passion) as he steps into the pulpit each week. Pray for God’s provision and protection for his family and his ministry. Pray that God would use him as a change agent in the lives of countless souls.