Passing down our Christian Faith to our Children

I loved this post by Mrs. June Fuentes, from A Wise Woman Builds Her Home. This has been my prayer for myself as a mother, to be so intentional on instructing my children in the word of God and to be a godly example to them. What a high calling, but an incredible one the Lord has given to me. Here's a little snippet of what she wrote...
"I cannot emphasis enough the power of Christian instruction in the home. Many Christians do not know where to begin with this, especially if they are first generation, so I am offering this post for them. The purpose of Christian instruction and education is so that our children will learn about God correctly from us, hide the Word in their hearts, become saved as a result (not always but many will), be eventually able to defend the Word and contend for it, make disciples and eventually help to reform culture as a result of what they know."
If you would like to read the rest go here... http://proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/2009/07/christian-instruction-in-home.html

Brief History of Education

-Article from: Considering Homeschooling Ministry, http://www.consideringhomeschooling.org/publicschools.html
For the first 200 years of education in North America, the primary goal of schooling was to foster religious devotion. The original Puritan and Separatist colonists, inheriting the Reformation's concern that everyone be able to read the Bible, opened schools for the purpose of teaching children how to study the Scriptures. A biblically literate population was seen as the best insurance for a successful society. Our founding fathers recognized that education should primarily serve to encourage faith in Christ. They acknowledged that civilization's health and very existence depended on people who understood and lived Christian principles.
George Washington said, "True religion affords government its surest support. The future of this nation depends on the Christian training of the youth. It is impossible to govern without the Bible." Noah Webster wrote, "The education of Youth is an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success."
In the 1830's, however, secular concepts began infiltrating the worldview of US citizens. Horace Mann, the "Father of American Public Education," conceived of an educational system without any religious creed (faith). This was the beginning of a long process of excluding God from public education. From this time on, education was seen increasingly as a tool to indoctrinate the public with secularism and humanism. Secularism seeks to remove God's existence, or at least His relevance, from reality. Humanism centers the universe on humanity, making man, rather than a divine creator, its most important being.
"Education is thus a most powerful ally 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?" wrote Charles Francis Potter, signer of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto & author of Humanism: A New Religion. Consider a Christian Home Education for your children. No other environment can provide the safety of a whole Christian worldview and Biblical education.

If I Were the Devil...

If I Were the Devil...
By Paul Harvey, Syndicated Columnist

I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world.I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man's effort, instead of God's blessings.I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around.I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue.I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to leadership.I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies.I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life, and invent machines to make it convenient.I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that the life of animals are valued more than human beings.I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit.I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them.I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the mind of every family member for my agenda.I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation.I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation.I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art.I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled.I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agenda as politically correct.I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, and the Bible is for the naïve.I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional.I guess I would leave things pretty much the way they are.

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Prayers for Our Children

Jesus prayed to His Father. Jesus prayed for His disciples. Jesus prays for you and me. How much more should we pray for our children.I will pray for my children:

1. That they will know Christ early in life. Psalm 63:1; 2 Timothy 3:15

2. That they will hate sin. Psalm 97:10

3. That they will be caught when guilty. Psalm 119:71

4. That they will be protected from the evil one in each area of their lives; spiritual, emotional, physical. John 17:15

5. That they have a responsible attitude in all their personal relationships.Daniel 6:3

6. That they will respect those in authority over them. Romans 13:1

7. That they will desire the right kind of friends and be protected from the wrong friends. Proverbs 1:10-11

8. That they will be kept from the wrong mate and saved for the right one.2 Corinthians 6:14-17

9. That they, as well as those they marry, will be kept pure.1 Corinthians 6:18-20

10. That they will learn to totally submit to God and actively resist Satan in all circumstances. James 4:7

11. That they will be single-hearted, willing to be sold out to Jesus Christ.Romans 12:1-2

12. That they will be hedged in so they cannot find their way to wrong people or wrong places and that the wrong people cannot find their way to them. Hosea 2:6

(Source by Carl and Audrey Broggi)

Comfort and Pleasure: Lukewarm Christianity

This post written by Mrs. June Fuentes (A Wise Woman Builds her Home blog) really was a convicting one, but so good and so true. It's so very easy to get so distracted by everything we have and become too comfortable, sinfully comfortable.

"America is the land of wealth, plentitude and prosperity. We have been blessed by our forefathers who have sacrificed and lived out godly lives before us for they had paved the way.Today we have our big homes, multiple automobiles, cushy furniture, entertainment galore at our fingertips----what does this make a Christian?We are too comfortable. Sinfully comfortable.In the legendary classic The Foxes Book of Martyrs, Christians gave their lives on behalf of the cross. They were thrown alive into boiling oil--they were bound in bags of scorpions and poisonous snakes and thrown into the sea. There were people who's stomach were cut open and corn was thrown onto their intestines and while they were still alive pigs would eat the corn right out of their bodies.And we have trouble just calling a Christian friend and encouraging them.We have trouble even remembering to pray for someone let alone reaching our lost neighbor for Christ. (How many times have people come to you and said 'thanks for praying for me' when you know full well that it totally escaped you?)We are too engrossed in our 'toys' (computers, playstation's, tv, etc.) passions and pastimes to make any kind of dent on Satan's kingdom. In fact, I'm sure Satan is quite ecstatic that we are so distracted.We don't like to do things that make us feel 'uncomfortable'. If it is too much effort, it is not worth the work. We complain about our churches because they are not meeting our needs. We gossip about and judge our Christian brethren because we have too much idle time. We spend our days in glorious abundance and indulgent complacency. We are consumed with being like and impressing the Jones'. Our happiness lies in our luxurious conveniences and they rule our lives. Our fulfillment is not seeing lost souls gain salvation but instead, we are motivated in increasing our surrounding creature comforts.It is just too much trouble to move out of our comfort zones and truth be known, we actually like it here. Here we can enjoy our lukewarm Christianity. You know, the type of faith that Jesus spits out of His mouth:"So because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." Revelation 3:16 Besides, we have our splendid toys to tend to. Why should we bother with anything else?

Are You Worldly?

This bit is from a book, called Worldliness, edited by C.J. Mahaney. The content he highlights about how the world influences believers was so insightful and scary. Like this portion for example:
"So often we're ignorant of the signs, the symptoms of worldliness. People can be attending church, singing the songs, apparently listening to the sermons...
But inside, that person is drifting. He sits in church but is not excited to be there. She sings songs without affection. He listens to preaching without conviction. She hears but does not apply.
A love for the world begins in the soul. It's subtle, not always immediately obvious to others, and often undetected by the people who are slowly succumbing to its lies.
It begins with a dull conscience and a listless soul. Sin does not grieve him like it once did. Passion for the Savior begins to cool. Affections dim. Excitement lessens for participating in the local church. Eagerness to evangelize starts to wane. Growth in godliness slows to a crawl."(page 20).

Does this make you think about how you spend your week? Do your daily pursuits affect your Sunday worship? Do the shows you watch, the music you listen to, and the things that occupy your time (e.g. friends, conversations, etc.) serve to draw your attention toward the world or toward Christ?
It's interesting to think about. It's important to think about. It's frightening to think about. At least, it is for me.

The Church: Different From the World

I loved this excerpt from A.W. Tozer. What a great reminder of what it truly means to be different from the world.
By A.W. Tozer,
"The church's mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes.
This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can miss it. But miss it we do, for we hear constantly that the Church must try to be as much like the world as possible, excepting, of course, where the world is too, too sinful....
Let us plant ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them. The cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with a cross. The cross separated between the dead and the living. The timid and the fearful will cry "Extreme!" and they will be right. The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final. The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God. "