The Blessing of Christian Education

Last week the Christian school where Mum and I work finished for the year. A presentation day was held. Students who had done well or achieved a certain level received awards. The children also performed several items. The class of 7 that I have worked with for part of this year, ages 5 to 7, were cute when they recited part of Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. All the items had a theme of faith. There was a song and a mime about the Exodus. There was also a long Scripture recitation of part of Hebrews 11, about Moses, by most of the students.

This is a picture of the puppet play three students performed about Jesus walking on the water. It was great, and the little children especially enjoyed watching it.

Mum has done a great job with her students this year - getting them ready to perform the items, and encouraging them spiritually. It was exciting for her to see them come to know Jesus more. Also, one of her students completed year 12 and was accepted into university. This is the first time our little school has achieved this (only about 40 students from Prep to Grade 12). It only runs three days a week, and the students are home schooled for the rest of the week. Mum has been working three days as the secondary teacher, and she is looking forward to cutting back to two next year.

It is such a blessing to be able to work in a Christian school, and teach the children about God. One little boy was reading to me out of his workbook about Christ's death on the cross. Then he looked at me and said "Why did Jesus wash us with his blood?". I only had a few hours a week work at the school this year, but next year I will be working for three days a week in another campus of the group of schools this one is a part of.

Unfortunately, the topic of Christian education is a contentious one in this day between Christians. All kinds of arguments fly around. Many Christians use arguments against Christian education that have no basis in Scripture. For example, expressing concerns about the socialisation of home schooled children. I enjoyed reading Kim's post on Christian education, but it did raise a lot of controversy!

The protestant church did all Australians a huge wrong when they handed their shools over to the state in the middle of the 19th Century. Whatever possessed them? I guess Christianity was so ingrained in the culture that they figured the government would continue to promote prayer and the Bible in schools. The final fruit of this decision, however, is obvious. Unless a school is based on Christ, its fruit will be poisonous.

Read more...

God's Mercy to Me

It was only about two years ago when I first considered that the difficulties God had brought into my life could be his mercy to me. Yet the more I think about it, the more I do believe that. God sends us suffering in his mercy. This is real to me in relation to my ongoing back pain from a crushed vertebra in my spine. I was injured in a car accident six and a half years ago, and this injury still causes me a great deal of trouble. Yet when I look at where my life was headed before my injury, I can see his merciful hand in bringing me this. I was ignoring God, disobeying my parents, and involved in various dangerous and sinful behaviours. Could God have got my attention in another way if he wanted to? Of course. He is, after all, the God who says of himself in Isaiah 45:7:

I make peace and create calamity;
I the LORD do all these things.

God has infinite choices, and infinite control. If he thinks lying me flat on my back for months and following that with severe pain for years on end, possibly for the rest of my life, is the best way to sancrify me, that is his goodness to me. He could heal me tomorrow, or in a moment. I pray he will. Yet if he refuses, that is his mercy.

Now if anyone had said this to me early on in my Christian life, shortly after my accident when I gave my life to the Lord, I would have been mad! I am not advocating that you bluntly tell suffering people this truth, especially if you have not suffered much yourself. However, you can begin to embrace this truth in your own life. Even if your difficulties are only small, it helps to look for the mercy of God in sending them to you.

Read more...

Let God's Mercies be Joy to You

Life is likely to continue to hold many forms of torture and dismay . . . for all who refuse to receive with thanks giving instead of complaint the place in life God has chosen for them. The torture is self-inflicted, for God has not rejected their prayers. He knows better than any of us do what furthers our salvation. Our true happiness is to be realised precisely through his refusals, which are always mercies. His choice is flawlessly contrived to give the deepest kind of joy as soon as it is embraced. Elizabeth Elliot.

Read more...

Do Small, Hard Things

Over at The Rebelution they have an excellent guest post by Alex King. The Rebelution is an exciting site, becuase it challenges stereotypical and destructive ideas about what the teen years should be. This post, Hard Things Come in Small Packages, reminds us that to accomplish large and difficult goals, we must persevere through many small, hard things. Here is a section of the article:

"Without doing these small things, we can’t achieve those huge goals. Look at this line from the parable of the talents in Luke 19:17,

And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

This isn’t simply a kingdom principle that Christ is talking about; it’s also a logistical principle. Yes, for our own good, God will hold back the cities until we can handle the little. But we should also realize that if we didn’t do the little, then we’d never accomplish the cities anyway.

Doing hard things means being diligent in the small. Getting across an ocean means many strokes of rowing. Scoring a film means many mornings of getting up early. Changing the world means changing our everyday actions. These are the hard things that we need to be doing if we really want to make a difference - the small, seemingly unexciting tasks that we so often procrastinate on, or ignore altogether.

So when you run into something small and unexciting, and you feel like procrastinating or ignoring it, don’t! Get up that extra hour earlier to work on that project. Reply to that email that could wait, but shouldn’t. Write that blog post that you’re simply not in the mood for, but need to do. Change the way you behave around your family for the better. Do those little things that don’t seem important, exciting, or enjoyable at first – but that can get you to your goals.

We all want to accomplish Hard Things, but we often forget to get excited about small ones. If we can do the small things, then we’ll be on our way to the large ones, and ready when we get to them."

You might also consider voting for The Rebelution or another blog in the Weblog Awards. I can't vote because I don't have flash player version 7, but you might be able to!

Read more...

Turning Two

Recently my neice turned two, and I got permission to post pictures of her! She had a lovely birthday party with lots of friends from church.

For a moment it looked like she was going to blow out her own candles . . .


When everone began singing Happy Birthday, though, she was enjoying it so much that learning about blowing out candles was all too much. Mummie blew them out, while Esther gave big smiles to all her friends.


Here is Esther on her birthday with Mummy and Daddy.


It was a great privilege to meet Esther shortly after her birth, and to hear her first cry while I was sitting outside the room where she was born. It is such a blessing to have Esther in our family. What I love most about her is her laughter, and the expressions of total joy that sometimes come over her face. Her curls are great too. It has been exciting in the past year to watch her develop speech (she can string two words together now!) and learn to walk. She has also learnt to throw tantrums, which seem very funny even though they shouldn't be! Esther has also learnt to say a name for me. I always ask her, "Can you say Aunty?". Then she responds with "Tunty". Her attempts at Sherrin seem to come out more like herring or herrin.

What we want most for Esther, as Lyndon prayed at her party, is that she will know Jesus.

Read more...

When Two become One

On the weekend I had the honour of attending the wedding of some good friends, Jonathan and Evelina. I get very excited about weddings! When I attend one like this, I think "why would anyone settle for shacking up when they could have this!". Tragically in our culture many people have not even been to a wedding, because less people are marrying. Events like this wedding remind all who attend that God's ways are best. We can have a hopeful vision, and be inspired about all that He intends to do through the marriage committment that he has commanded.
Evelina had a beautiful dress with a train. I love wedding dresses with trains. The only problem is that it rained heavily all day, and trains can be a little inconvenient in those circumstances! Not to worry - it looked amazing!

The minister said that Jonathan and Evelina had thought and prayed more than any other couple he had counselled, in considering how to honour God in their lives together. What a compliment! His counsel to them was based on Ps. 37, the first Psalm I tried to memorize.

Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity,
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither like the green herb

Trust in the LORD and do good,
Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness,
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And he shall give you the desires of your heart.

When I began memorizing it in November last year, I didn't quite register that it was a very long Psalm to do as my first one! It has been wonderful to meditate on the 40 verses, even though I can't remember how they all string together.

It was exciting to hear this Psalm read and spoken on - but most exciting to see Jonathan and Evelina declared husband and wife! I am looking forward to seeing what God will do through them as a couple.

Here they are at the reception. They also had an afternon tea at the church for all those who came to the wedding. So it ended up being a long day - 1pm at the church until after 11pm at the reception! The reception was a beautiful time, and it was especially encouraging to hear the bride and groom thank their parents from raising them in God's ways.

Here are Josh, Ellen, Geoff, and Sam Downes. Josh was best man. He gave a good speech, both short and funny!

I first came to know Evelina through youth group and Girls Brigade when we were teens. I renewed my friendship with her after many years, when we both visited the Downes' to listen to tapes on theology and discuss God's ways. It was a long drive to Downes', and I got a lift with Jono and Ev. We had plenty of time to discuss all kinds of things during those trips, and it was both edifying and thought provoking. A big thanks to the Downes' for hosting us, and always being so willing to lend out their excellent books, CDs, and magazines.

I will end with a quote from Jennie Chancey about the movie Pride and Prejudice. This quote reminded and inspired me about the realities of what God intends for marriage.

"A marriage modeled on Christ and His Church is truly a piece of heaven. It's a shame that Hollywood sees it as a fantasy from another age. It's amazing that they don't understand that such a story would never make sense set in our times, when fornication is pretty much the rule--and when a girl's "patched-up marriage" would never be considered a scandal or even raise an eyebrow (in fact, today anyone would wonder why she needed to bother getting married at all--why not just shack up?). These filmmakers are looking back upon a culture steeped in Christianity (not perfect, of course), and they feel compelled to make constant apologies for the "restrictions" and "dour morals" of the time--little realizing that those boundaries and beliefs are the very things which give birth to a Mr. Darcy willing to work and wait for his bride and to a Lizzy whose own integrity and purity are the very guarantors of her lifelong happiness as Mrs. Darcy . . . It may look like fantasy on film, but I am here to tell you that it is as real as my husband's warm glance across a busy room and the touch of his hand when he helps me into the car or guides me through a crowded street."

Read more...

"The Deeps"

This prayer is from a book I want to get, The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan writings from the 16th and 17th centuries. Although “The Deeps” is a long prayer, it is well worth reading.

“The Deeps”

Lord Jesus,
Give me a deeper repentance,
A horror of sin,
A dread of its approach;
Help me chastely to flee it,
And jealously to resolve that my heart
Shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,
That I may lose myself to find myself in Thee,
The ground of my rest,
The spring of my being.
Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself
as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,
More sweetness in Thy Word,
More steadfast grip on its truth.
Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action,
and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord,
Heavenly Husbandman,
That my being may be a tilled field.
The roots of grace spreading far and wide,
Until Thou alone art seen in me,
Thy beauty golden like summer harvest,
Thy fruitfulness and autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee,
No law but Thy will,
No delight but Thyself,
No wealth but that Thou givest,
No good but that Thou bestowest.

No peace but that Thou makest me,
I have nothing but that I receive from Thee,
I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.
Quarry me deep, dear Lord,
And then fill me to overflowing
With living water.

I took this photo during my trial as a teacher’s aid at a Christian school on the North West Coast in October. The farming country there reminds me of the work of our “Heavenly Husbandman”, who so ably works in us to create a “tilled field” of grace.

Read more...