Planning for the Never-Been-Planned-Before Pt.2

I asked in my last post, "Where does a rookie even begin to plan how to do all of this and to do it excellently for the glory of the Lord, to honor the parents, and to help grow the kids as God would have them?" And I said that I would share more in my next post, well here is me following through on that.

As I said, I really was a rookie with some school and little classroom experience, but what I did know was that the families that started the school were family to me, and they loved and trusted me.  That makes things easier but also way harder because giving up is never an option.  So with the help of our Headmaster, and my friend and brother, Jonathan Sarr, I jumped right in with shirt and tie and all, and boy did I get soaked.  Talk about learning by full immersion.

Once we had chosen what curriculum we were going to teach, we then had to figure out how to actually teach it to a multi-grade classroom.  Like how do you keep everyone interested and challenged when some can barely read and write while others are looking to be challenged and pushed with more difficult concepts?  That was and still is a hard question to answer.  

It has been said that as a Christian, if you want to know how much sanctification you need, then get married, and if you want to know more, have kids, and still more, become a teacher.  Man was I stretched and pulled and poked.  I had to learn the subjects with the students for the most part, well at least how the curriculum presented it, and then process it enough to be learned at different levels.  This was/is hard.  Sometimes you have no idea how it is going to work out, so you admit that and go for it.  This is where planning comes in.

I knew that I needed to be really prepared for each and every period, but one of my weaknesses and fears is the possibility of failure, but as we all know if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  My tendency is to get paralyzed in the details, you know "paralysis by analysis," and because of this I started out giving the kids way too much and too hard of work, especially with the pre-polly kids (K-2nd graders) like making them memorize crazy amounts of science facts for our sound-offs, which they did well but not without exasperation and tears.  I also gave the 5th grade ladies tons comprehension questions on top of the 10 plus novels they were reading that year, and all because I thought I had to do all of what the curriculum offered.  By the way this also meant I had a lot of grading to do also.

I am thankful that this did not go on too long.  Our Headmaster and Sean K. Higgins stepped in with some timely reminders that less is often more, and with some helpful tweaks to help my planning align more with how each student learns at different stages of development.  I am very thankful for that reminder.  I am reminded of that daily.

I'll have to share some more of my joys and trials from our first year at ECS in another post soon.

Planning for the Never-Been-Planned-Before Pt.1

So three years ago I had the privilege of helping to start Evangel Classical School.  I had never done something so bold or so crazy ... ever! I already had a BA in History and Master's in Teaching but had not done any official teaching other than a few substitute gigs. But I had ZERO experience teaching classically or in a classical christian school. So really the only clue I had was from reading some books on the subject and visiting an information meeting of another classical christian school in area.  Thankfully I wasn't the only one doing this, but we were/are convinced that this was/is the right and best way to educate our children.  All of us who started the school had children who needed educating or will have that need, so we said why not start a school. 

At this point I bet you're rightfully asking why not just send your kids to the classical school in the area that you visited, well that school is 45 minutes to an hour away depending on traffic, certainly not ideal, and no other schools were closer.  We saw a BIG need, we were overwhelmingly convinced that classical christian education was the right and best approach to educate our children, and we saw it as a great opportunity to have a multi-generational impact in and on our community. So we went for it.

But here is the scary part, I was clueless, but I was eager and excited.  How do you plan for such a monumental task? You know, no big deal educating and enculturating my children, my friends' children, and those-who-partner-with-us' children. YIKES! This is the most important task a parent is given.  You know--to raise them up in the nurture in admonition of the Lord; to train them up in the way that they should go; to teach them to glorify God in all that they do. Oh yeah no big deal--right!

Thankfully, we had some to helps from the Association of Classical & Christian Schools.  They have a whole start up manual which was vital, but that really didn't help me with how to plan for each day, or how to teach in a pseudo one room school house.  We started off with 12 kids day one and two weeks in added two more to make 14.  We also started in the basement of a farm house and started with kids from kindergarten through sophomore, which wasn't ideal but was needed.  I was tasked with the lion share of the teaching because was getting paid for this after all.  So if I recall right, I taught logic to our three secondary kids, 2nd grade Saxon math (2 students), 5th grade literature (4 girls), 5th grade Saxon math with two different levels of math (4 girls), K-5 history and science.  All of which I had never taught before. Can you say overwhelmed and excited? Which by-the-way is right where I am supposed to be.

Where does a rookie even begin to plan how to do all of this and to do it excellently for the glory of the Lord, to honor the parents, and to help grow the kids as God would have them?  Well more on that on my next post.

Beginnings

Beginnings are always new, for no two beginnings are exactly alike. Beginnings are gifts, but can also be groundhoggish if they never lead to satisfying endings.  Many of my beginnings are out of my control and many I have started but have never completed. Beginnings to me are glorious and can be quite frustrating.  But I am a child of one who loves to begin each day with a new and abiding dose of overflowing grace.  This grace is poured out from a never-ending source of Life. The Life-giver is always giving me new beginnings and has and is always providing the Way to the ultimate satisfactory finish.  My first beginning and my daily beginnings are Jesus, and my eternal finish and completeness is Jesus.

I am beginning again; beginning a series of blogs with the purpose of giving to others; giving of my story of beginnings.  I was challenged today by my brother, tohu va bohu, to begin blogging again. So with the motive of being a resource to others, I am beginning again.

I hope to give by sharing my story particularly of one of my favorite beginnings, the beginning of Evangel Classical School.  We are about to begin our fourth year, and I have been blessed to serve the families of our school by being its first full-time teacher.  This year we have the blessing of adding another full-time teacher.  So my goal through this series of blogs is to share my story of beginnings at ECS.  I hope to be an encouragement and resource to many over the years.

Here's to beginnings.

The first three letters of "Luck" are also the first three letters of "Lucifer."

The is post is a response to a challenge from the epitome of blogging - Chuck Weinberg. It is also a way of communicating the nasty taste that is in my mouth, that the world and many Christians eat without notice or care.

The title of this post used to be a joke that I would tell when Christians I know would use the words "luck" or "lucky." It used to irritate me then but never to point that it has now. Many people will think that I am just playing a semantics game and are taking this way to serious, but let me explain to you why the use of this is an affront and form of blaspheme to God.

I believe, as the Bible says that God is the Creator of all. He did not just create, and then step away from time and history and let a series of coincidences determine the outcome and destiny of His Creation. The kind of god that is idle, reactive, capricious, and laissez-faire is not a god at all but an idol. A dead worthless figment of man's imagination. This god is product of false doctrine and lies. This god is not the God of Scripture nor my God.

I believe the words like, "luck, lucky, luckily, fortune, fortunate, fortunately, chance," or any other synonyms are words used to give someone or something the glory and the power. These words are so pervasive in our language, even the most ardent Calvinists use them without thinking. Often, if a person does not believe in "luck", they will substitute "fortune" for it and think that is acceptable. This maybe acceptable for a dead person, but for the redeemed of Christ, it is ignorant, foolish, and blasphemous. In saying this, I have said both, but we must be very careful with our words, they say alot (no pun intended ... well maybe). Sometimes when I have called people on using "luck" or "fortune," they have, with a hint of mocking, said "providentially." That is better, but is the providence of God something we are really to be mocking or not taking serious?

God will not be mocked. He is a Jealous God. All that He does is for His glory. If somehow something was out of His control then, He would cease to be God and something else would become God or at least His equal. If God is omniscient, and He is, then nothing else has ultimate control or power over some part of His creation God destroys or will destroy anything that tries to usurp His power and glory. The first example is Lucifer/Satan and second is Adam and all mankind that follows. We are all guilty of defaming, blashpheming, and rejecting God's sovereign reign, power, and glory. We are destined for His destruction, that is ... without a mediator, a propitiator, and a justifier, and there is only one - the Man and Son of God - Jesus the Christ. I thank God that He is always pleasing God on my behalf and His death and resurrection are all-sufficient to fully glorify God. God's plan of history is about His glory and He brings ultimate glory to Himself through His sovereign plan of redemption and nothing, I say again nothing is outside of that plan, and it all culminates with the Jesus Christ.

So let us give God the praise with our words and go out of our way to praise Him in every situation and circumstances, the good and the bad. Praise God for His sovereignty and His goodness.

BTW, in my Webster's New Dictionary "luck" comes right after "Lucifer."

The Problem with Turning to Philosophers for Answers

I know I haven't posted in a while, like six months, but here is something that I wrote, during one of my classes, in response to a lecture on epistemology.

"The problem with turning to philosophers for answers on why and how we know what we know is that they tend to take God out of the equation (not all, but many do).  They tend to make faith in the Almighty and His infallible and perfect Word, the Bible, secondary.  God is not secondary and He is absolute.  We have all we need to know in His Word, everything else we learn from the myriads of human thinkers must be filtered through God's Word.  When we start playing around with what we as man can do on our own and not trusting and obeying Scripture, then we always head straight to error and chaos.  God is not opinion and simply choice, but a fact and the reality, and all knowledge that we think we know and have mastered can only be truly understood if God's Word is the benchmark, the map, and the compass (I would add now, thinking about it later, the Way).  We can only think because God made us to think, now give God that glory."

Submitting to One Another

As the very few who read my very limited work probably know, I spoke in ONE28 last Sunday and spoke on the topic of submission and humility as presented in 1 Peter 5:5-7. During my Bible reading this morning of 1 Corinthians 8, I started thinking about what Peter meant when he tells us to submit to one another and be clothed with humility. 1 Cor. 8 gives me a very clear picture of what submitting to one another looks like.

First of all, the Apostle Paul reminds in v. 1 that "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." If we were to remember this in our daily interactions with others we would have far less conflict in our relationships with one another. But we tend to think, or at least I do, "I understand this, but I have to be right and so must (whomever I am thinking about or talking to), because we are to work towards Christ likeness which is perfection." In saying this, I assume that I have it all figured out and that is when my attitude turns to pride and selfishness, which leads to anger. Working and fighting for truth and perfection in all things is right, but as Paul continues on in v. 2, "If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know." Talk about a smack down by God's proverbial hammer of a right hand. We will never have the mind of our Almighty Father and as such we will not know everything perfectly. He did give us the truth we needed, His Word, but we must be diligent to work through it and go to it for our understanding and lean on it instead our own understanding. This is when I get puffed is when I think that I have a firm understanding of the concept. I think this because I heard some sermon on it, or read a something about it, but did not really search the Scriptures for myself and gain a firm understanding for myself. So I force my poor understanding on others with a hypocritical and proud attitude. This is not submitting to one another in humility.

Paul continues on in chapter 8 and is talking about liberty in the Church and specifically about eating meat that has been offered to idols. In the Corinthian church, many new believers were struggling with those "who have knowledge" because they were eating in meat offered to idols, which was against their sensitive consciences. Paul admonishes his hearers to not cause those with weak consciences to stumble by flaunting our understanding and liberty. When we act this way we are not thinking of our brothers in Christ. Paul questions us by asking in v. 11, "because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?" He goes on and says in v. 12, "when you thus sin against brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." When we do not submit to one another and seek to edify each other, but instead use our "knowledge and understanding" as a stumbling block, we are committing a grievous sin. We are sinning against ours and their Savior.

If we are to submit to one another in humility then we should be willing, as Paul purposes and commends in v. 13, to "never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble." Paul sets the example by willingly setting aside his desires and freedoms to edify and show love and compassion to his fellow brethren. This is how we are to submit in humility to one another, willingly lay down our life, in death and life, for our brothers, whom Christ died to save.

Things that are Rightfully God's

I know that this is a long over due blog and that I am a blog booger for not blogging more often, but take what you can get and be thankful.

I have been dwelling lately on the supremacy of God in all things and the need for all of our life to be completely centered, focused, and dependent on Him. I have realized that it seems like most of the modern Church does not think this way. Most believe that God is not sufficient in things of science, math, relationships, auto repair, etc ... . You name it people will find a way to give into the temptation that God is not able, or not involved in the little things, or worst yet, that He does not exist. This thinking comes from an improper view of Him and a lack of knowledge and faith in God's Scripture. I want this blog to be a reminder to you all that this is a very dangerous and horrifying place to be. If you think this, and in many areas of life we betray that we do by our actions, then you must be warned that God is a jealous God and will do whatever it takes to regain His glory and preeminence from our lives, whether that means judgment in hell, or discipline as believers.

For the last year or so, Jonathan Sarr, Curtis Wentling, Sean Higgins, and myself have been reading John Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion." John Calvin's mission was to glorify God in all that he did and for his readers to do the same. Calvin believed with everything that he was that the Lord, alone, is to be preeminent among His people, and as such has the right to exercise complete authority over them. This is the purpose, in his discussion of the Ten Commandments, he states for giving us the First Commandment in Exodus 20:3, "You shall have no other gods before me." He goes on to say that "we cannot "have" God without at the same time embracing the things that are His. Therefore, in forbidding us to have strange gods, He means that we are not to transfer to another what belongs to Him" (Institutes, 2.VIII.16). All things belong to God because He is the Creator and Author of this world and us, and He is the only sovereign, omnipotent, and perfectly righteous one. Not only this (which is sufficient by itself), but for those of us who believe and reap the benefits of His salvation, He gave His only begotten Son, for our filthy, sin filled, depraved, wicked, and God hating souls. As such we are obligated and should with great joy and willingness to humbly give all we have to Him. Calvin being the great teacher that he is, "conveniently" groups the "innumerable things that we owe to God" under four headings: Adoration, trust, invocation, and thanksgiving. Here they are for edification and reminding, with definitions:

Adoration: the veneration and worship that each of us, submitting to His greatness, renders to Him. A part of adoration is that we must submit our consciences to His law.
Trust: the assurance of reposing in Him that arises from the recognition of His attributes, when--attributing to Him all wisdom, righteousness, might, truth, and goodness--we judge that we are blessed only by communion with Him.
Invocation: the habit of the mind, whenever necessity presses us, of resorting to His faithfulness and help as our only support.
Thanksgiving: the gratitude with which we ascribe praise to Him for all good things.

One last thing to leave you with from Calvin, it is not enough to "abstain from a strange god," but if we are to ascribe to God what He will not allow to be transferred to another and must be rendered solely unto Him, we must pursue "true religion." True religion is "steeped in the knowledge of Him." We must "aspire to contemplate, fear, and worship, His majesty; to participate in His blessings; to seek His help at all times; to recognize, and by praises to celebrate, the greatness of His works--as the only goal of all the activities of this life."

May we all aspire to live this way and to fight for God's glory in our hearts, minds, and actions, and to also fight for the same in others. God is playing for keeps and so should we.