MESSAGE FROM OUR MANAGER
Your Christian Education for this Decade
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 2020 academic year!
I want to bring to your attention a critical issue relevant to committed Christians of all variations at the commencement of this decade – the 2020s.
Ezekiel 44:23 gives us clear instruction to how we should educate our children. We are to teach them the DIFFERENCE between what is holy and what is profane.
And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
At this point in our history, secular materialism and atheism has colonised and is shaping our universities, our media and our law and thus our popular culture.
We see the vilification of committed Christians who make a stand for God’s way, such as Margaret Court and Israel Folau. Martyn Iles of the Australian Christian Lobby has stated that there are currently, in Australia, over 70 cases in law, where Christians are being unjustly discriminated for being Christian.
Francis Schaefer entitled his famous book which deals with Christians living in a secular setting “How should we then live?”
I encourage you as Christian home schoolers to consider the following as an answer to this question “How should we then live?”
- Commit to teaching your children the key tenants of the Christian faith;
- Use Christian curriculum, written by committed Christians as key resources in your home education;
- Teach and model the Christian disciplines of prayer, faith, Bible reading;
- Limit and control carefully your children’s screen time and access to social media;
- Attend a Bible-believing church, where your children can learn to love church and grow up in it;
- Do not become heavily legalistic or obsessive about Christianity and religion as this produces resentment about God in children. Commitment is not about fleshly obsession;
- Our way of living is by love and truth – to our families and to the world;
- Above all, love God with your whole heart and soul and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5-7).
It is true that atheists are shaping and in many cases in control of our institutions such as our universities, the law and the courts and the various media platforms. Ironically, history tells us that these institutions were mostly founded and developed on Christian principles, by committed Christians. This is just the state of play we find ourselves in today. Some key Christian intellectuals put it this way that the Barbarians are in charge of the city!
However, all is not lost. God is not to be mocked. There are many positive signs where committed Christians and social conservatives are pushing back on many fronts back into the realms of Christian values and what Australians call “common sense”.
For you as parents, the key is to be faithful in your family; to be strongly committed to God and to your faith and to train your children in God’s ways.
Jesus however, does not require us to become exclusive. We are not to entirely isolate ourselves from the world. Jesus said that we are in the world but are not of the world. He wants Christians to be “salt and light” in the world.
Your home is to have strong protective walls to ensure the safety and the godly instruction of your children. HOWEVER, those walls are also to be porous so that we can reach out to others. We are instructed by Jesus to reach out to our needy communities with the love, grace and truth of God.
This is a great challenge to you, to my family, to our grandchildren. – how to:
- Resist the onslaught against God’s truths;
- Educate our children with God’s truths and ways;
- Educate our children in high literacy, numeracy, the sciences and the arts;
- Share God’s truths with a world where the “Barbarians” seek to be in charge of the nation and use the law to suppress dissent.
We at Australian Christian Home Schooling are pleased to support you in this your educational challenge at the commencement of this decade.
Yours for Christ and Christian home education,
Terry Harding
Manager.