Daily Confession

Sometimes the best devotionals come right out of the works of R.J. Rushdoony. Today I was reading a chapter in The Cure of Souls: Recovering the Biblical Doctrine of Confession. In the chapter entitled “Turning Ourselves In” Rushdoony writes:

When we turn ourselves in to the Lord, we do not see ourselves as victims but as sinners. We, redeemed in Christ, are then His agents of power and witness in a fallen world. We have a calling then to place ourselves and our spheres of activity under the dominion of God in Christ.

He adds that this is only possible if we turn ourselves in, not unlike a transgressor going to a judge and confessing a crime.

This is easier said than done, especially for homeschooling moms who spend a good deal of time teaching, correcting, and discipling their children. When the attitudes and decisions of our children don’t fall in line with what we hope for them, it is easy to start to believe Satan’s accusation in Genesis 3:1-5 where he slanders God by intimating that all men are victims of God, who could have created man free of sin, but did not. How convenient to view ourselves as victims of God, forced to operate in a sinful world, doomed to hard work among flawed, sometimes ungrateful, family members.

The other side of this coin involves our taking on the world and our problems as though it all depends on us. At these times we must disabuse ourselves of the notion that we can fulfill our callings as wives, mothers, and teachers in our own strength. The call to work out our salvation with fear and trembling really means to work out the implications of salvation by the obedience of faith.

Rushdoony states,

We confess our sins, and we confess our faith, that Jesus Christ is Lord. This confession continues in the work God does in and through us, so that true confession manifests itself always in God working in and through us.

So, the remedy to despair and discouragement begins with turning ourselves in daily to God in our private prayers. Included in the chapter is a prayer of confession by Thomas Wilson, one that “helps clarify our vision, prompts us to obedience, and makes us more zealous to be faithful.”

O God, who takest delight in helping the afflicted, help a soul too often distressed with an inward rebellion against Thy just appointments.

Who am I, that I should make exceptions against the Will of God, infinitely great, wise, and good?

I know not the things that are for my good.

My earnest desires, if granted, may prove my ruin.

The things I complain of and fear, may be the effects of the greatest mercy.

The disappointments I meet with, may be absolutely necessary for my eternal welfare.

I do therefore protest against the sin and madness of desiring to have my will done, and not the will of God.

Grant, gracious Father, that I may never dispute the reasonableness of Thy will, but ever close with it, as the best that can happen.

Prepare me always for what Thy providence shall bring forth.

Let me never murmur, be dejected, or impatient, under any of the troubles of this life;

but ever find rest and comfort in this, THIS IS THE WILL OF MY FATHER, AND OF MY GOD: this for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

Answering the Call

One of the best aspects of becoming affiliated with the Chalcedon Foundation back in 1984 involved meeting some fellow believers who had answered God’s call to put their faith into action. I eventually became one of those people after comprehending Chalcedon’s message –that the Christian faith is a faith for all of life. I began to team up with other like-minded believers to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in creative ways.

One such venture took place back in 1988 when I heard Judy Rogers sing Mama Please Don’t Cry – a song she wrote from the perspective of an unborn baby. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great to have a music video that dramatized the song? Before too long I had amassed a team of fellow homeschoolers who were ready, willing, and able to put this plan into action. Judy graciously gave us permission to use her music and our group of volunteers got to work.

The video* below is the result of our efforts. One viewer commented, “It’s a simple story, simply told. It encourages women to do the right thing.” It is my hope that you will share this video with many, but additionally that you will take the talents and vision that God has blessed you with and answer His call in new and creative ways.

To God be the glory!!


[* there is a 10 second lead time before it begins]

For Everything There Is a Season

My maternal grandparents lived downstairs in our three-story house when I was growing up. Grandpa was an Italian immigrant who came to America in his teens. He eventually made enough money to bring his mother and sister over from Italy. He was a professional tailor who ended up owning his own shop. My grandmother, also an immigrant from Italy, met him in New York when she was working as a seamstress.

One might think that having access to their genes and living in such close proximity would have made me a whiz when it comes to activities such as sewing, knitting, crocheting etc. Once I learned about genetics, I figured that I must have been “blessed” with the recessive genes in these categories, because no obvious talent ever manifested itself. As hard as they tried to teach me, my grandparents used to shake their heads in dismay when it came to my handiwork.

When I was in high school, my grandfather agreed to help me with a pair of culottes. By this time, both my mother and grandmother had passed away and he was happy that I was taking an interest in sewing. Every day after school I would spend some time with him and we worked on weekends. Before too long, my bright orange culottes were finished and I told Grandpa I was ready to tackle another project. Much to my disappointment, he told me in his rather pronounced accent,

“Andrea, I love a you very much. But I willa not sew awith you ever again. You make a me break every rule of a sewing. If a you wanta something, justa ask and I willa make ita for you. Don’ta ever aska me to sew awith you again!”

Not only was I not gifted in this area, I managed to sabotage professionals, undoing years of training and experience!

Recently, when the church bulletin announced the formation of a “learn how to knit” group, I thought twice about even considering it. But, having a daughter who always wanted to learn to knit, and feeling that I couldn’t do worse than 35 years before, I decided to give it a try.

Guess what!!! I can knit!!! Not only can I knit, but all those sessions with my grandmother decades before all started coming back to me. I’ve managed to whip out little squares faster than my coordinated 16-year-old daughter who sounds remarkably like me in my youth as I was attempting to learn. And, I’m jumping ahead of the class, looking up various stitches and variations on the internet where people demonstrate proper techniques.

What has changed? I attribute much of it to the years I’ve spent teaching my children. Homeschooling has helped me finally learn how to knit by allowing me to understand that the learning process involves periods of advancing two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, and two steps back. And, because I am more mature, teachable, motivated, and have developed a long-term perspective, I’m having a great time finally being able to seek wool and flax, and work willingly with my hands! (Prov. 31:13).

The most tender aspect of this is that as I knit, I’m able to think and pray and recall my ancestors who loved me and took time to teach me things that were important to them. They sowed, and the ladies at church have reaped. It encourages me that those things which I’ve sowed in my children (and now grandchildren) will bear Kingdom fruit in the decades to come.

Eternity

Yesterday my 86-year-old uncle passed into eternity. I received the call from my sister and went to share the news with my daughter. She was supposed to be finishing a research paper. Not in her usual locations, I found her asleep in her room. She heard me walk in, jumped up, and apologized for going to sleep. She had a panicked look on her face as though some grave verdict was awaiting her. I told her she could go back to sleep and when she was done with her nap I had something to tell her. Any inclination to scold her for failing to complete her assignment was overcome by the sense that someone we knew and loved was no longer alive.

All too often in the homeschool setting, we get concerned that our children are not meeting their deadlines or applying themselves diligently to their work. As important as these things are, they pale in comparison to eternity. In the grand scheme of things, the moments and days we share stewarding our children's lives before releasing them into the formation of new families are few. How foolish to succumb to the nearsighted goals of "the best schools" and "the best paying jobs" and fail to appreciate the blessings of God in time and eternity in the context of family life.

The biblical family is as much a gift from God as it is a responsibility. Parents and children should not take this endowment lightly but should redeem their time edifying each other and encouraging each other to unrestrained service in the Kingdom of God. For as Scripture says: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58).

The Word of Promise

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

Whether you are a homeschool mom who chauffeurs her children from co-ops to music lessons or athletic events, or a dad who has a lengthy commute back and forth to work, you probably could use that time in the car to better advantage.

Just recently, I purchased a copy of The Word of Promise New Testament -- an audio Bible (NKJV) presented in dramatic audio theater. I must admit I was skeptical at first. But, now that I have listened to most of the New Testament in my car during the last month, I find that I don't dread those hours or miles spent in travel, in fact, I look forward to them. I've even been known to take the long way home in order to finish a chapter!

Check it out for yourself. I think you will be pleasantly enriched.

Good Financial Sense?

Recently an e-zine came to my inbox that included advice from Dave Ramsey, a well-respected "financial guru" who is also a professing Christian. His column often deals with questions that have been submitted to him and his responses to them. Here's one on Christian education:

Q. We have three kids enrolled in Christian schools, and it's very expensive. We truly believe they're getting a great, faith-based education, but they're only in elementary school and already we've had to dig into our savings.

A. Private schools can have academic advantages, and in some cases a good Christian school can have spiritual advantages. But if you can't cash flow it, you can't do it. It's just that simple. My kids didn't go to private Christian schools, and they're all strong Christians. They went to public schools and learned to interact with people of no faith, different faiths and how to display their faith adequately in the marketplace. Lots of times people send their kids off to a Christian school, only to find out they still have to teach them about life – the good and the bad. And the fact is, you're just kidding yourself if you think sending them to a Christian school means they'll be in a perfect world where no one ever acts mean or nasty. I hope you can find a way to continue, since this is an important decision to you. But from what you've said it just doesn't make good financial sense.

This answer is wrong from the root outward.

First, God mandates that Christian children have a Christian education. The multitude of Christian parents who believe Christian education is an option they may choose for their children will be shocked on Judgment Day to find out how wrong they were.

Second, there are no neutral facts. A key component to a Christian education is accepting the reality that all facts come from God. Any educational enterprise that does not begin with God and celebrate Him as the foundation and fountain of all learning is based on lies.

Third, public schools do not provide a Christian education for Christian children. In fact, Christian children are often persecuted for making any public expression of their faith in the public school setting. Anyone who believes a public school is an acceptable environment for any child needs to read Bruce Shortt’s The Harsh Truth about Public Schools. I am glad Mr. Ramsey’s children survived it. Many children have not.

Fourth, Mr. Ramsey does not suggest that the parents look for ways to economize and cut expenses to keep the children in the Christian school. This would require more personal knowledge of the family and its finances. Usually there are always ways to cut expenses so that a family can pursue something that is a high priority. In this vein, he does not even mention homeschooling as a viable option for pursuing a Christian education with a minimum of expense.

Fifth, apparently having a "sound" financial footing is a more important priority for Christian families than pursuing a God-mandated Christian education. I do not know a living soul who would not like to be financially secure. And many have won financial security at a great cost. God promises to give us the things we need, not the things we want. And the Bible teaches us over and over that the true path to blessing is obedience to the law-word of God. Disobedience always brings God’s curses. This is a fact that cannot be escaped.

Yet, Mr. Ramsey has pit debt free living (a Biblical principle) against rearing children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (another Biblical principle) and in the process has ostensibly likened Christian education to a decision to buy a new car or a vacation home. Do it, but only if it is in your budget.

The result of such a mindset and the worldview it presupposes was astutely described in a recent article in Faith for All of Life when Martin Selbrede used the phrase Grand Theft Doctrine to identify what happens when the faith is “skeletonized” -- pieces cut away, on various grounds and pretexts -- leaving something less than the whole behind .

The Kairos Journal in an e-zine essay, “Teenagers Losing the Gospel,” coined a phrase to describe the actual religion of many young people who profess to be Christians: "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism." The article listed five basic tenets to this modern counterfeit of Christianity:

1. God created and watches over human life.
2. God wants people to be nice and fair.
3. Life’s ultimate goal is for each person to be happy and to feel good about himself.
4. God does not need to be intimately involved in anyone’s life—He is just there for emergencies.
5. Good people go to heaven.

"Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" is the sort of religion easily adopted after a steady diet of 12 years of 5 day-a-week menu offerings of humanism mixed in with Sunday smatterings of Scripture. But, God will not be mocked. Those who take His commandments as mere suggestions (and encourage others to do likewise) will bear the consequences of compromise and spiritual malaise. They will continue to support the strongholds of rebellious man rather than tear them down. They will continue to fail to cast down the imaginations of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Rather than bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, they will continue to learn how to be more adapted to being slaves of sin.

Christian education is not a luxury. Christian education is not one choice among many. Christian education is a mandate and one when embraced and obediently carried out, reaps greater treasures than any financial guru can ever help you attain.

Fed Up With Shooting Blanks

Most people don’t think of India as a big contender in the Olympics to be held in China this August. The one team that might have had a chance to medal for the second most populous nation in the world is their marksmanship squad. But due to lack of funding, the team has only been practicing by shooting with blanks. According to the secretary of the National Rifle Association of India, there is little reason to send the team because they are so ill-prepared to compete.

Before we laugh too loudly at the ludicrous situation these athletes face, consider children of Christian families who are “educated” in the state run schools without the benefit of the Way, the Truth, and the Life as the focal point of all that is taught. Isn’t this equivalent to sending Christian children out to fulfill the Great Commission armed only with blanks?

The halls of academia in secular, humanistic schools are filled with deception, blasphemies, and moral decadence. Yet Christian parents refuse to remove their kids and homeschool them, place them in Christian schools, or begin a co-op with other Christian families. They send their children into battle without the necessary tools to win or even survive.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 states:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Emphasis added)

Since the most important weapon of our warfare is the Word of God, failing to make this the center from which all other knowledge and education emanate amounts to preparing our children to lose the spiritual battles which prevail in our culture at this point in history.

How will parents justify this sort of neglect as they stand before God and give an account of their failure to properly steward their children’s lives? In the battle we fight, there is much more is at stake than a gold, silver, or bronze medal!

Performance

Homeschooling families can sometimes lose sight of the fact that the end result of our efforts involves much more than merely producing better educated graduates than our secular counterparts. Whether as a teacher, student, athlete, or breadwinner, if we allow ourselves to wallow in discouragement because we haven’t measured up to the next guy, we have lost sight of our highest calling: to seek first God's Kingdom and accept the outcomes He has ordained for us. Failing to run our appointed races with patience and allowing ourselves to become discouraged when accomplishments are not realized in our own timeframe, is a good description of living in the flesh. Seeking first the Kingdom of God sets us up to hear the welcoming words of Our Lord, "Well done, good and faithful servant."


All we can strive for is to do better than we have done. (This is a gift from God.)

If in an individual event or action we achieve this and yet are dismayed, our upset is not with the individual performance, but rather it is with who we are. Since we are not self-created, our upset is actually with God Himself.

It is the depth of this unsuspected darkness that can awaken and return the Christian to the foot of the Cross. (~Anonymous~)