“Speed” for Kids

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“Speed” for Kids

Posted in Statist and Professional Trends

To demonstrate the kind of hold the school system has on parents and children, here is disturbing bit from the Sunday Star-Times of 31 March 1996. A top psychiatrist is calling for a national investigation into the amount of a drug known as “speed” being given to hyperactive children to quieten them down. John Werry, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Auckland University, said …. it was worrying that every time an overseas expert visited NZ to talk about Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) there was an upsurge in cases.

We get a whole bunch of parents knocking on our door and saying their kids have ADD and need Ritalin,” he said….”The most reason for parents coming along is because the school has complained, the child is unable to sit still on a mat and things like that,” he said.

Normal active fun-loving kids wanting to be mentally and sensory stimulated so that they can learn about their world and move toward fulfilling their God-given task of having dominion over the earth have to sit through brain-dead, non-sexist, non-confrontational, non-competitive, value-free, politically-correct activities of total irrelevance. No wonder they start climbing the walls. So experts suggest they drug the kids to keep ’em in line. We have also had parents come to us to find out about home schooling after the teachers have suggested to the parents they may want to keep their troublesome children out of school permanently. We cannot thank the Lord sufficiently for leading us to rescue our children OUT of such chaos. Please continue to pray for our brothers and sisters who are still blinded to all this and who continue to send their children to these state institutions.

School Gate Chaos

An article in Education Today of August 1996, promoting the Kidsafe Week 96 of September 7-13 as New Zealand’s first national safety week devoted to child safety, had its focus on child accidents. In NZ each year 20 child pedestrians die and a further 350 are hospitalized. “Pedestrian injuries are the biggest killer of our primary school aged children — responsible for more child deaths than all infectious diseases combined. Since many pedestrian injuries occur in and around school — often while children are being dropped off or picked up, a key focus this year is school gate chaos.” I couldn’t have coined a better phrase myself: it really sums up the whole institution, if you ask me.

But that isn’t all. “Parents delivering and collecting their children are posing an increasing problem for schools.” There you go again. ..those pesky parents getting in the way of their children’s education, this time by posing increasing safety problems for school. It seems parents involved in state schooling just can’t win. Why do they bother? They should all home school.

One of my favourite dreams is watching all the state schools close down for lack of customers!! This lack of customers would not be due to a nil birth rate, but instead to a free market in education which would allow private and home schools to flourish unhindered, their standards of excellence impossible to resist. Now that I’ve said it, you know, I don’t think the state would ever allow such a situation to occur, since they would have to protect the investment in all those taxpayer-funded schools and tax-payer-funded teaching jobs and especially all those taxpayer-funded Ministry of Education positions. To protect its own existence and their own jobs the state education bureaucrats will have to clamp down on the growth of home schooling somewhere along the line. Just watch how they use these annual reports, the supervisory allowance and the recently amended teacher registration bill over the next year or two.

From Keystone Magazine
November 1996 , Vol. II No. 6
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

The Puritan Dilemma

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The Puritan Dilemma

Posted in Theologically Speaking

The early Puritan colonists in America of the 1600’s when formulating the types of government each colony should take, came up against what has been called the Puritan Dilemma. The “dilemma” question arose in the Puritan mind out of two fundamental tenets of theology.

First, the Biblical teaching that man was created in the “image of God,” and has been given a mandate from his Creator to advance God’s Kingdom and righteousness in every area of life (Gen 1:27-28; Matt 6:33). Thus liberty, peace, and security were seen as highly-prized preconditions for productive social and political life. (cf. II Tim 2:2-3).

Second, the equally important doctrine that man is a fallen creature, and as a sinner must be restrained from working out his evil intentions in society. This restraint is accomplished through several forms of Biblical “government”- -family, church, state but ultimately SELF-government. Yet (and here is the dilemma) these governments (and in particular the state) may, in the hands of sinful men, become dangerous enemies of righteousness and freedom.

John Winthrop, the Puritan governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sought to devise a political system that would adequately take account of both of these human realities–a political structure which would maximize freedom to admittedly sinful men while at the same time holding their evil tendencies in check. Winthrop uuderstood that the “Puritan dilemma” could not be solved in political terms alone. Two other items, a flourishing ministry on the part of the church a strong family structure would also be required to produce the desired social results. In many ways these latter two elements were the most important.

A century-and-a-half later, in a far less explicitly Puritan fashion, the U.S. Constitution sought to achieve the same balance between liberty for good purposes and the restraint of evildoing.

The Puritan “experiment” in North America succeeded for a time because it was supported by a cultural consensus which was rooted in the Bible. Despite many differences among the puritans on points of doctrine and church practice, they shared a common understanding of the Bible’s teaching about God, His providential dealings in history, the nature of man, and the role (and limitations) of humna institutions ordained by God to provide order in the affairs of society. Civil order was the fruit of this fundamental theological consensus.

Sadly, the “Puritan experiment” did not last. It was not overthrown by a foreign invader, or by domestic crises. It was by means of theological defection — a loss of Biblical faith.

Our social and political crisis is fundamentally a theological crisis. It will not admit of a quick fix. Our Puritan forefathers understood well that political liberty and social peace were fruit which grew on the tree of Biblical faith. To turn our nation back will require a restoration of a Biblical theological consensus which will support social and political reformation. As in Josiah’s day, the “Book of God’s Law” must be rediscovered, read, believed and obeyed.

A recovery of Biblical preaching, teaching and discipling is absolutely necessary. This includes Christian day- and home- school education and Christian publications which are true to the word of God. Those who profess Christ must become serious about radical and comprehensive obedience to the Word of God. Piety divorced from obedience plays into hands of the Enemy (cf. Col 2:20-23). Given the lack of self-government (“self-control,” Gal 5:23; “training in godliness,” I Tim 4:7) on the part of so many who claim to be Christians, it is small wonder that our civil rulers do not govern well. Lawless people cannot create and sustain a lawful political order.1

So where do we home schoolers go from here? What are we to do? We are already providing education and training far more thorough and consistently Biblical than we ourselves have seen. But this is no reason to relax. We can improve. For His sake we MUST improve. We parents must NOT ONLY continually seek a closer walk with the Lord, BUT ALSO a more conscious conformity to His Word in order to set the example for our children . We must NOT ONLY strive to see Christian politicians and Christian Political Parties in Parliament, we must ALSO encourage them to be ever more Biblical in their policies and public statements. We must NOT ONLY become serious about comprehensive obedience to the Word, we must ALSO know the Word intimately.

Now here I take my life in my hands and ask readers as sincerely and earnestly as I can: what do we perceive, what concepts came to our minds, when we say, “obey the Word”? I trust we will automatically answer, “The Bible, of course!” Amen! Now let me ask, “Do we mean ALL of the Bible?” Are we like some hyper-dispensationalists I have met who dispense with the Old Testament because it is, well ….you know…..it is OLD! OurLord said that man is to live by EVERY word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. (Matt 4:4). We must never treat the Bible like a smorgasbord.

Now, let me ask, for this is important, and what we believe in these areas we will pass on to our children and set the course for much of their lives, so we had better have it right. Do we believe the Bible ALONE to be the word Of God? Or do we allow for modern-day additions and alterations? What do I mean? Well, Jesus upheld and defended the Torah, God’s Word as delivered by Moses and the prophets. He constantly ridiculed and condemned the Pharisees because they taught as doctrine the traditions of men, that is, their book of additions and alterations often referred to as the Talmud. Do our prayer groups ever wait in silence for a “word” from God? Do the visions and bits of choruses that then come out get woven together as “a word from the Lord for us today”? Do such “words” or “prophesies” from the pulpit stand in our minds on an equal level with the eternal, life-giving Words of the Lord God Almighty? Are we moving toward the position of the Quakers who have dispensed with the Bible altogether because they have this “inner light”, claiming John 14:26 as their authority for doing so? Do not allow for additions or alterations to the Word of God! Read Revelation 22:18-19. “Sola Scriptura!” was the cry of the Reformation: “The Bible alone!“

The Westminster Assembly of Puritans (called by the English Long Parliament of 1643 to 1652 to reform the Church of England) consisted of 20 laymen from the House of Commons, 10 laymen from the House of Lords , 121 English clergymen plus a delegation of Scottish Presbyterians. They met in 1,163 sessions to produce comprehensive and definitive answers to questions such as we have raised…. to avoid as many future dilemmas as they could. They wrote:

The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined , and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures.

Notice Who we are to heed: the Holy Spirit of God, not the spirit or voice of mere men. Therefore are we told to test the spirits (I John 4:1). And also notice the medium through which we hear the Holy Spirit of God: the Scriptures. So let us make the Scriptures, the Written Word, first and last in our home education, just as our Saviour, the Living Word, is to be first and last, the Alpha and the Omega, in every area of our lives.

Note:

(1) Excerpted from article by Rev Roger Wagner in Penpoint, Southern California Center for Christian Studies, PO Box 328, Placentia, CA 92871, USA.

From Keystone Magazine
July 1996 , Vol. II No. 4
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

Delight Yourself in the Lord, and He Will Give You the Desires of Your Heart

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Delight Yourself in the Lord, and He Will Give You the Desires of Your Heart

Posted in In line with Scripture

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.-Psalm 37:4

He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.-Psalm 145:19

A poor man had wanted to go on a cruise all his life. As a youngster he had seen an advertisement for a luxury cruise, and ever since he had dreamed of spending a week on a large ocean liner enjoying fresh sea air and relaxing in a luxurious environment. He saved money for years, carefully counting his pennies, often sacrificing personal needs so he could stretch his resources a little further.

Finally he had enough to purchase a cruise ticket. He went to a travel agent, looked over the cruise brochures, picked out one that was especially attractive, and bought a ticket with the money he had saved so long. He was hardly able to believe he was about to realise his childhood dream.

Knowing he could not afford the kind of elegant food pictured in the brochure, the man planned to bring his own provisions for the week. Accustomed to moderation after years of frugal living, and with his entire savings going to pay for the cruise ticket, the man decided to bring along a week’s supply of bread and peanut butter. That was all he could afford.

The first few days of the cruise were thrilling. The man ate peanut butter sandwiches alone in his room each morning and spent the rest of his time relaxing in the sunlight and fresh air, delighted to be aboard ship. By midweek, however, the man was beginning to notice that he was the only person on board who was not eating luxurious meals. It seemed that every time he sat on deck or rested in the lounge or stepped outside his cabin, a porter would walk by with a huge meal for someone who had ordered room service.

By the fifth day of the cruise the man could take it no longer. The peanut butter sandwiches seemed stale and tasteless. He was desperately hungry, and even the fresh air and sunshine had lost their appeal. Finally, he stopped a porter and exclaimed, “Tell me how I might get one of those meals! I’m dying for some decent food, and I’11 do anything you say to earn it!”

“Why, sir, don’t you have a ticket for this cruise?” the porter asked.

“Certainly,” said the man. “But I spent everything I had for that ticket. I have nothing left with which to buy food. “

“But, sir,” said the porter, “didn’t you realise? Meals are included with your passage. You may eat as much as you like!”

Lots of Christians live like that man. Not realising the unlimited provisions that are theirs in Christ, they munch on stale scraps. There’s no need to live like that! Everything we could ever want or need is included in the cost of admission-and the Saviour has already paid it for us! (From: Our Suffiency in Christ, by John MacArthur, Jr.)

I think Brother MacArthur may have waxed a bit lyrical on that last line when he said, “Everything we could ever want or need.. . “, because it leaves the door wide open for the deceitful heart of even us redeemed Christians to make demands that are totally self-centred rather than Christ-centred. Never underestimate the sinfulness of sin or the deceitfulness of our own hearts. (See Jeremiah 17:9 and I Corinthians 10:12). We have NOT been perfected by our conversion and if we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves (I John 1:8) Our sanctification toward perfection in heaven is a life-long task.

However, we must agree with what Brother MacArthur is saying, because the promises of God prove true, and He has promised us “such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.” (Malachi 3:l0). I don’t know about you, but I am definitely a starter for THAT kind of blessing.

So how do we cash in? What do we have to do to inherit all these goodies? Perhaps we had better stop right here and realise that I have already asked in the same spirit as the rich young man who approached Jesus and left quickly and sadly when he found the price too high. He didn’t want to give up that which he could not keep for that which he could never lose. (See Matthew 19:16-22).

Look at our opening verses. Note that these promises, like virtually every other promise of God, have conditions attached to them. You see, our Lord and Saviour is not a big sugar-daddy in the sky just waiting to write us out blank cheques whenever we want them. He is King of kings and Lord of lords, Absolute Sovereign of the entire universe. We play by His rules or we are out of the game. Here is the One to Whom it is quite correct to say, “Your wish is my command.” But here also is the “secret” to inheriting all He has: When we take delight in the Lord, when what He wants is what we want, when my inmost delights and desires come from seeing His will accomplished in my life, in the life of others, in the society around me, THEN I am assured of receiving the desires of my heart! You see, it is clear that whatever God wants, God gets. Now we know from Scripture that His time frame is not what we would organise, but we know that no person or being or circumstance is going to thwart God’s will…. He will get, He will accomplish that which He desires. If we are totally in tune with Him, our desires will be same as His.. ..and just as He gets what He wills, so will we! Now we may not see some of these things in our life times. But they WILL come to pass and we can know the joy of having contributed to the accomplishment, the furtherance of His purposes on earth even though we may not live to see some things come to fruition. Have not most of the saints through the ages lived and laboured in exactly such hope? Do not go around praying for or proclaiming that thus-and-so will take place because you’ve been praying faithfuIly for that …you may well be setting yourself up for a faith-shattering disappointment. Which of these attitudes are we displaying for our children to emulate? Which of these are we training them to have?

This does not mean we do not plan big or expect big in this life. You bet we do: set goals and have your 5-, 10-, 20- year objectives in mind. And pray about them, that they be in the will of the Lord. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was to piously “wait upon the Lord” for several years as a young man and let career & educational opportunities slide right on by. Then Proverbs 16:9 came crashing through: “A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” See? The promise has a condition. He will direct our steps, but we must at least make some plans for moving in one direction or the other, not just SlT there. You cannot steer a car, a ship, a horse or anything until it is MOVING. Are we teaching our children to be pro-active in seeking out God’s will? Do they see us doing that?

Since my will is to do His will, when He directs my steps in a completely different direction than I had planned, I don’t get all frustrated, bitter and twisted (well, not for long, anyway!) because I know this change of direction is from the LORD! I mean this change of plans may not be the least bit convenient. It may actually cost me money, seem to have wasted time mucking about in this other area I am now leaving, and even make me look a bit inconsistent or indecisive in the eyes of my peers. Well, just call to mind the lives of people like Moses, John the Baptist, and even Christ Jesus Himself.

Years ago, when single, I was planning a trip to South America. I had saved up a nice sum and was praying that God would confirm it. I was also shopping for a car, and had decided on the size of down payment I could handle and therefore what price vehicle I could afford to look at. I found the perfect car: one owner, a little old lady who only drove it on weekends. As soon as I signed the papers it dawned on me that she wanted the full payment not just a down payment. It took all the money I’d saved, plus a withdrawal penalty fee, plus all but $20 of my next pay to buy that car. Well, God clearly confirmed that I WAS to have that car, but that I definitely WAS NOT to go to South America. Maybe that doesn’t sound like too spiritual an experience, but I want you to know, I had total assurance and peace of heart that God had organised every detail. Recall events like these from your own life and recount them again and again to your children.

This is how we are to train up our children, in the fear of the Lord. Note how our other verse above promises fulfillment of desires to those who fear Him. We do what He says not because we are afmid, but because we don’t want to do anything else! I’ve lived long enough now to know that when I obey the Lord I am the one who gets blessed, not the Lord. I am not doing Him a favour. No, No! He is doing me the favour by graciously allowing me to know His will in His statutes, ordinances, commandments and precepts. As parents it is our duty to FORCE our children to do what is right …to so train them in consistent obedience to God and His word that they take delight in it AND KNOW NO OTHER LIFESTYLE. By this we will set them up for a life of true blessedness to themselves and true blessing to others.

From Keystone Magazine
July 1996 , Vol. II No. 4
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz