Monday, December 7, 2015
Homeschooling Surpasses Public Institutions
At a political banquet several years ago I was placed next to a man who was running for governor of Oregon. When he found out that I was an homeschooling advocate, having home schooled several of our children for a short time, he had several of the obvious and traditional questions for me, one of which was the following;
"What about socialization", I said "Oh, you mean drugs, alcohol, disrespect for authority and filthy language, I don't think my children need that, they have people at home that they interact with every single day."
He didn't ask me any more questions!
The Two Prodigals
Notice the father of the prodigal son allowed him to wallow in the pit until he was repentant, changed his mind about his sin and came back to confess his sin, humbly asking to be counted as a servant, rather than a full fledged son.
He was restored fully as a son, but came back not expecting that, because he knew what he really deserved. This is the mentality we should have in ourselves and should see in others when we have sinned. Admitting the sin, confessing what the sin is and accepting whatever the response is from those we offended.
The offended parties should forgive quickly, desiring for the relationship to be restored.
This account of the prodigal son and his father is a picture of our Father in heaven and us as the prodigals. We should be ashamed of our sin, never defending or excusing it, but rather broken over it, broken enough to be willing to be treated whatever way we deserve.
Anyone making excuses, expecting to be fully restored and angry when we do not receive the expected response, then it is a sure sign we are not sorry, our mind has not been changed, we are just tired of the struggle and want everything back that we lost.
Luke 15:11-32
Don't forget, there was more than one prodigal in this story. There was the jealous and rebellious son that stayed, but remained disobedient, even though he never left. It was really a story of the two prodigal sons.
Mixing Paganism with Christianity Leaves Only Paganism
Mixing paganism with Christianity only leaves us with paganism. A perverted and tainted version of Christianity is no longer Christianity.
Galatians 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
And, we wonder why we are under discipline?
Galatians 6:7 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
And, we wonder why we are under discipline?
Santa is Not Harmless Fun
In regard to the Santa craze, he is not a harmless fun cartoon character!
He is even worse than a lie, he is treated with god status, children pray to him, ask and expect miracles from him, look at him with longing worshipful eyes and every other form of adoration.
When we lie to children about Santa and the Easter bunny, we are teaching them to distrust us in subtle ways. Is it any wonder that children are not very interested in Christ when He brings a message of repentance and salvation through faith when we cannot see Him with our eyes, while Santa teaches them to be materialistic and base their assessment about relationships on how much someone gives to us and he is in every mall.
Christ is not on the lips of family members in the home frequently, but Santa is, which personality would we expect the children to love?
As a nation we are training our children to love a false god while ignoring and negating the One True Savior.
He is even worse than a lie, he is treated with god status, children pray to him, ask and expect miracles from him, look at him with longing worshipful eyes and every other form of adoration.
When we lie to children about Santa and the Easter bunny, we are teaching them to distrust us in subtle ways. Is it any wonder that children are not very interested in Christ when He brings a message of repentance and salvation through faith when we cannot see Him with our eyes, while Santa teaches them to be materialistic and base their assessment about relationships on how much someone gives to us and he is in every mall.
Christ is not on the lips of family members in the home frequently, but Santa is, which personality would we expect the children to love?
As a nation we are training our children to love a false god while ignoring and negating the One True Savior.
Christ Alone Can Save
God said:
Hebrews 13:5 "5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5 "5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
"I will never leave you nor forsake you", I believe Him!
God said:
Deuteronomy 31:8 "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Deuteronomy 31:8 "It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
"he will not leave you nor forsake you", I believe Him!
God said:
Ephesians 2:8-9 "8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9 "8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast."
"For by grace you have been saved through faith" I believe Him!
Anyone who tries to add works to their salvation on any level at any time, is living a salvation by works. We do not work to gain salvation, we do not work to keep it, to attempt to keep our salvation by not sinning would be saying that the sacrifice of Christ was not enough and we must help Him.
A "desperately wicked man" would have nothing that they could offer to help in their salvation.
Jeremiah 17:9 ""The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?"
The sacrifice that was acceptable to God could only be the perfect sinless God, nothing else would suffice. To think that any work we could do would help us, is the same as declaring Christ's sacrifice as insufficient.
Isaiah 1:11 ""What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats."
When Christ said "it is finished", that's what He meant, there is no more sacrifice for sin that could help anyone to "stay" saved. To say that we must work to keep what we didn't earn in the first place is to say that Christ is no capable of full, complete and eternal salvation on our behalf.
Jude 1:24 "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,"
Christ was the only acceptable sacrifice for sin, the only One who could have paid the penalty that we owed. NO human effort of any kind could begin to pay for our sinfulness.
The Father of Lies
Satan is the father of lies, his lies are growing and more covert than ever. He disguises himself so cleverly to make the godly people think they are doing wrong while enabling and helping evil people to prevail.
Don't be discouraged by these people it is an end times problem designed to debilitate the Christian who is on fire for Christ. If we do not allow these people to control us, we can remain strong, serving God in obedience to Him.
If we allow the evil people controlled by the devil to influence our decisions or keep us in a state of doubt, we will be ineffective for Christ. Our best defense is to know the Word of God, pray continually and move ahead in our obedience no matter what these evil people are doing.
See the link below to learn more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLr4ZKJMHvo
Don't be discouraged by these people it is an end times problem designed to debilitate the Christian who is on fire for Christ. If we do not allow these people to control us, we can remain strong, serving God in obedience to Him.
If we allow the evil people controlled by the devil to influence our decisions or keep us in a state of doubt, we will be ineffective for Christ. Our best defense is to know the Word of God, pray continually and move ahead in our obedience no matter what these evil people are doing.
See the link below to learn more!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLr4ZKJMHvo
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