NEA to Back Homosexual Marriage

Onenewsnow.com is reporting that the National Education Association is set to back homosexual marriage and other homosexual agenda items at its convention this week. Those of you with children in the public school system take heed. The paganization of your child is already well under way.

I do see though an objection coming, much like that of people who are members of the mainline churches. They will say, "Oh, that is just the wacky higher up's. Most schools are not like that, especially we who are of the small town brand." This is to discount the fact that your personal associations define who you are and that the "higher up's" are the people who not only represent the "lower down's," but influence them too.

The old adage is true, "As the king goes, so goes the country." This can be applied to any "kingdom" or sphere of influence. Typically a parent's virtues or vices are going to be replicated in his offspring. A pastor's way of life is going to disseminate into the lives of those who sit under his teaching. The same can be said for denominations, political entities like the NEA (yes, it is politically driven. Just read the article that is linked above.).

The Coming Demise of Conventional Education

During my time at Westminster [Seminary] I became convinced that conventional education would be a dead end. Conventional education seems to be following an industrial model of education; students are educated in a cookie cutter fashion by large educational factories where mass production rather than individual craftsmanship is the norm.

--Fritz Hinrichs

Bible Classes Offered to Raise Money for Adoption

One of my heroes in the faith is George Muller. Muller is famous for the orphanages that he ran purely by faith in the city of London during the 19th century. What is not so commonly known about Muller is that he also founded the Scripture Knowledge Institute for Home and Abroad. The SKIH/A was a work that produced materials for disseminating the faith throughout the world.

I have an affinity for Muller because I share his love for children and desire to propagate the faith. That is why I am launching The Scripture Knowledge Institute of Ashland.

SKIA is designed to be a tool for home-schoolers and parents who wish to be aided in the discipleship of their Jr. and Sr. high level students. Through it I am offering classes such as basic theology and Christian Literature.

But I embark on this endeavor not just with the hopes of promoting a solid Christian worldview, but with the hope of raising money for adoption.

My wife and I possess a deep love for children and desire to raise as many as we can in life. Our first adoption has brought us great joy, and we have been longing some months now to have another child placed in our arms. But the cost of adoption is quite excessive as they run $15,000 and up.

I thank God for the church in which I serve, and I enjoy ministering among from week to week. But as our church is small, I am not able to earn much in terms of income. As a result adoption is not a feasible endeavor.

It is my hope that God will use SKIA to break this barrier and allow us to bring many more children into our own household and the household of faith.

Study Questions for Calvin's Institutes_3.12

On Justification (pt. 2)

1. Calvin is concerned that people “boisterously chatter over their righteous works.” Why does he say this happens? Or what is the cure for it? (section 1)

2. Explain why Calvin uses the imagery of the sun and stars. (section 2)

3. How should what Calvin says in sections 1-5 affect our church services?

4. How does Calvin define humility? (section 6)

5. What are the two extremes into which men can fall? (section 8)

Meditations on the Future Life

In his Institutes Calvin devotes a chapter (3.9) to the "Meditation on the Future Life." I believe this to be one of the sweetest sections of the work and quite an appropriate follow-up to the chapter on suffering (i.e. cross bearing). Speaking of those adversities we face Calvin says,

Since God knows best how much we are inclined by nature to a brutish love of this world, he uses the fittest means to draw us back and to shake off our sluggishness, lest we cleave too tenaciously to that love... For it is a shame for us to [think ourselves] no better than brute beasts, whose condition would be no whit inferior to our own if there were not left to us hope of eternity after death.

In fine, the whole soul, enmeshed in the allurements of the flesh, seeks its happiness on earth. To counter this evil the Lord instructs his followers in the vanity of the present life by continual proof of its miseries. (3.9.1)

Calvin compares this life to a sentry post "at which the Lord has posted us, which we must hold until he recalls us." (3.9.4) Even though the life to come is far better, our time to go there must be left to the Lord. So taking our own life in suicide is considered going AWOL. But, to the other extreme, Calvin has no tolerance for those who fear death.

But monstrous is that many who boast themselves Christians are gripped by such a great fear of death, rather than a desire for it, that they tremble at the least mention of it, as of something utterly dire and disastrous...

Let us, however, consider this settled: that one one has made progress in the school of Christ who does not joyfully await the day of death and final resurrection. (3.9.5)

Study Questions for Calvin's Institutes

Calvin’s Institutes (book 3 chapter 11 sections 1-4, 13-20) "Justification by Faith"

1. Calvin says we receive a double grace when we partake of Christ. What is this double grace? (sect. 1)
   
2. Complete this sentence: Unless you first of all grasp what your relationship to God is, and the nature of his judgment concerning you, you have neither a __________________________________ . (sect. 1)
   
3. How does Calvin define the concept of justification? (sect. 2)
   
4. In section 4 Calvin equates justification with two other concepts. What are they?
   
5. If someone wishes to obtain Christ’s righteousness, what must he do? (sect. 13)
   
6. What mistake do the Sophists and papists make? (sec. 14, 15)
   
7. According to Calvin, was Augustine correct in his view of justification? Of the depravity of man? (sec. 15)
   
8. Do the Sophists believe in justification by faith? (sec. 19)
   
9. T/F In Calvin’s view “works of the law” have no use. (sec. 20)

A Sermon for the President and the People of God

For such a time as this, "A Sermon for the President and the People of God." Hurrah, Pastor Bayly.