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!