“Some Christians who do know Christ are in great doubt as to whether they know him. This ought not to be. It is too solemn a matter to be left to chance or conjecture. I believe there are saved ones who do not know of a surety that they are saved. They are raising the question often that never ought to be a question. No man ought to be content to leave that unsettled, for mark thee, my hearer, if thou art not a saved man, thou art a condemned man. If thou art not forgiven, thy sins lie on thee. Thou art now in danger of hell if thou art not now secure of heaven, for there is no place between these two. Thou art either a child of God, or not. Why say ye, ??I hope I am a child of God, yet I do not know; I hope, yet not know that I am forgiven??? In such suspense ye ought not to be. Thou art either one or the other ? either a saint or a sinner, either saved or lost, either walking in the light or walking in the dark.” Charles Spurgeon
The Children’s Story Bible, by Catherine Vos was recommended to us by our friends Neil and Krista Joiner. I haven’t yet seen it, but from the looks of it on Amazon, it seems like it’s holding it’s own over the years. It seems a bit more wordy and might be difficult for younger children, but perhaps it’s a good habit to challenge the children to listen and challenge the parents to teach in a way that will communicate the stories of the Bible to the children.
Jenn and I are currently heading down a home-schooling route with Matthew and Claire. The main motivation is to provide them a learning environment that is spiritually nurturing as well as intellectually. We want to provide Matthew and Claire opportunities to gain wisdom and have communion with God throughout the day, rather than simply gaining facts about different subjects. There are so many reasons and so much more I can say on this subject, and there are good reasons to have our children in the public school; but for now, we have decided that home-schooling is the direction we think would be best for our children.
Now, do you think the government should have the right to tell us we are wrong? What if one of the government’s objections was that they thought our children should have the opportunity to consider other sources of wisdom from other gods. What if a court judge required that you send your children somewhere else for the purpose of opening their mind to other ideas. And what if you believed, as a parent, believed that those other ideas were in conflict with what you believe and would confuse and damage your child’s spiritual development? I grant, that it is a reasonable view to consider it beneficial that your child is aware of these other views and tolerant to living in harmony with other views in a peaceful co-existence; but what if the judge objected to your uncompromising views and beliefs on the source and the substance of truth? And shouldn’t a parent have the right to make these decisions, even if perhaps it would be better for the child to go to public school? Is it proper for a judge to require a parent to send their child to public school based on a judge’s objection to someone’s religious views?
I posed all the above in hypothetical questions, but the news is reporting that a court judge has perhaps acted in such a manner. Granted, it’s media reporting and it seems that the parents in this case are in a less than ideal situation; they are divorced and fighting over custody. Click here to see the article, Home-schooler ordered to attend public school, at Washington Times
Here’s a handy tool for printing out verses to memorize in a business card format. It’s called the Verse Card Maker by Michael Scott. I have yet to try it, so I’ll update this post after I tried it. Verse Card Maker
The trutone material is a new thing for Bibles. I don’t know exactly when they started making them, but it seems like it hasn’t been more than a couple years. When they are new, the look and feel is very impressive, however, it seems that they are not doing well with age. J. Mark Bertrand has been reviewing Bibles for years and keeps an eye out for quality Bibles. This time he’s discovered the Trutone covers are not surviving with age. Read his article and the comments on his blog, you’ll see that many people are experiencing the same thing with these Trutone bibles. Looks like they are a waste of money and resources. Click Here for J. Mark Bertrand on Trutone Bibles
Isn’t it interesting that God had designed our bodies such that we begin to have intense physical attraction to the opposite sex in our high school and teenage years and at the same time parents are doing their best to avoid having daughters that become single teenage mothers or sons who become dead beat fathers . I’ve often wondered if perhaps God’s timing for marriage is not the same as our culture’s timing for marriage; it has been shifted not based on biblical reasons, but based on worldy reasons such as education, career, aquisition of a house, or other wordly things. On the other hand, God has designed our bodies such that they are ready for marriage and family much sooner.
I totally agree that we should be celibate before marriage, but if you don’t have the gift of celibacy—a life of celibacy for the purpose of serving God—then perhaps it’s unwise to try to force a gift that God has not given. Instead parents can plan for their children to marry earlier and experience the gift of marriage.
It seems that the wider evangelical world might be in for a bit of a shake-up in this respect. Christianity today’s cover story is “The Case for Early Marriage” and Albert Mohler is blogging and supporting it too. I’m all for it too—with a healthy portion of wisdom and discernment. Click here to see the article: “The Case for (Early) Marriage” on Albert Mohler’s blog.
