Jun 15, 2021 | Teachers Talking
Found in the King
TS Eliot said “In my end is my beginning” (Eliot, 1952, p. 129)
When Alice in Wonderland came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in the tree, she asked ‘which road do I take?’. To which the cat asked ‘where do you want to go?’ Alice replied ‘I don‘t know’. ‘Then’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter which road you take’.
When we commence a journey we usually do so with a destination in mind. In the current culture, it seems any road that leads to happiness defined by myself will do. And that road can be constantly changing.
As Christians, we have a destination – life, lived both individually and communally for the glory of God. And this well-marked way, is the way of Jesus the King. Through His Word, and the leading of the Spirit, He guides us into truth, pointing us back to the pathway of life we were designed to walk. The poet Gerald Marley Hopkins expresses beautifully the mystery of each life he creates for His purpose.
“For Christ plays in 10,000 places lovely in eyes not His, to the Father through the features of men’s faces.” (Hopkins, 1967, p. 90)
Hearts transformed by God’s grace takes us beyond what we can’t accomplish by our own wills. The call of Jesus that we extend to our students is a gracious invitation to trust Him, to surrender to Him and to live in the freedom and riches of that relationship. When the crucified life of our Saviour is seen in the lives of their teachers, over the long haul, students are given a foretaste of the power and truth of the Gospel. God’s Word is embodied in living examples of the way of Jesus.
Christian schools need to immerse students into the Bible’s God-story and invite them to belong to a school community and classroom that embodies the stories, practices and patterns of life that resonate with this reality. For over the past 2000 years, unfolding God’s story and enacting it out is at the heart of Christian formation and the passing down of the story from one generation to the next.
School leaders and teachers must ask:
- Will this generation remember the Lord and His ways?
- Will our schools be signposts to the reality of God’s Kingdom life?
The Bible is always foundational for our schools in every generation as its narrative is the interpretative framework on how to live well and provide education that enables our students to flourish.
So, let us be challenged by the call to engage our children in the Scripture for such a time as this.
“Biblical reflection is foundational to all the Christian life, education included. But this requires an ongoing serious, passionate and loving engagement with Scripture. And this must be an engagement that allows our reading of Scripture to be full of questions and to be patient enough not to demand answers too quickly … What I am talking about is an indwelling of the biblical narrative in such a way as this story, with all its tensions, plot confusions and dead-ends, and in all its historical oddities, is, nevertheless our story. We find our identity as the people of God in this narrative, it shapes our character and it forms our vision.” (Smith et al, 2002, p. 95)
“For followers of Christ, breaking with idols and living in truth are finally not a test of orthodoxy, but of love…. .Love is the final expression of truth, just as loyalty to truth is the vital test of love.” (Os Guinness, 1992, p. 216)
The Lord bless you in the ministry of His Word.
Grace and Peace
The Excellence Centre
References
- Eliot, T.S. (1952). East Coker: in the Complete Poems and Plays. Harcourt Brace & Co.
- Gardiner & Mackenzie (Eds) (1967). The Poems of GM Hopkins. Oxford Press
- Smith, D. & Shortt, J. (2002) The Bible and the Task of Teaching. The Stapleford Centre
Jun 8, 2021 | Care Conversations
Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom from the Bible
We started this series by considering the disturbing data showing the disconnection by youth from faith and faith communities.
I am convinced that one of the reasons for this drift is that we have not provided a full and true picture about who God is through our homes and schools.
Thus, the abandonment by many young people is a rejection of a false or incomplete understanding of the Triune God. This is directly related to a poor understanding of the scriptures that tell us about Him.
We have become trapped in wrong thinking and therefore wrong responses and actions.
Here is the trap. We observe that young people are being turned off faith in the Triune God. The solution? We must be careful not to speak too much of God otherwise there will be greater rejection.
Outcome: We project an incomplete, insipid, understanding of God that is worthy of rejection. This is because we place ourselves at the centre of our understanding. This results in questions such as:
- “How do you feel about the text?”
- “What did you get out of it?”
- “What does the text mean to you?”
- “This is a safe place to share your thoughts on the text. There are no wrong answers.”
Greg Morse has written an interesting parody based on C S Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Screwtape refers to God as “The Enemy”:
“Let them commune with their feelings and opinions while the Enemy’s book lies open on their laps. Make the apostles’ teaching the occasion to tell stories about how tough their week has been or to soapbox about whatever makes them most passionate. Never let them be confronted with the words of Moses, Isaiah, Paul, John, Peter, or, through them all, the Enemy himself.”[1]
As I interact with schools across the world, I see a degree of confusion about the role of the Bible in the Christian School. There is a lack of clarity that can become numbing.
There are many reasons for this. We need to take a look at some of them, not so that we can justify our lack of enthusiasm and practice nor condemn ourselves for a less than hearty approach. As always, our analysis needs to be focussed on increasing, hope, intentional purpose, and therefore good practice. Let’s begin.
Blessings
Brian
[1] Morse, G. (2018) https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-sabotage-a-bible-study
Jun 8, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
The world spins on the finger of God. I’ve been to several basketball games where the Sydney Kings team have danced up and down the court entertaining us with clever play and triumphant slam dunks. One of the talents of these professional basketballers is their ability to spin the ball on one finger. It fascinates me. I’ve tried it and failed miserably. It got me thinking about another King, God and the magnitude of who He is. Look at Him; look at His magnificence. The world spins on the finger of God and it just so happens that He is also our personal King. Forget the Sydney Kings, as talented as they are! Our God is the ultimate King and the mere fact that the world spins perfectly on His finger with ultimate precision, means we have immediate and confident hope that no matter what comes our way, He is in control. That thought really matters for us as we live our lives in the confines of time, space, and our fragmented world.
But imagine if God had limitations. What would it look like if He just happened to drop the ball? Life would be catastrophically impacted and creation as we know it would be no more. The fact that He is limitless and omnipotent has a direct bearing on all of life. So, let’s join the dots together. The same finger that spins the world also has His finger on the pulse of our lives. In other words, the immeasurable greatness of who He is as sovereign King gives us an irrefutable reason to trust Him with every thread of life. He is also unfalteringly dedicated to us and holds us tightly with all our frailties. There is no circumstance of life, good or difficult, that is not within the realm of His control and His ability to impact it. He is continuously weaving the intricate and delicate threads of our lives together to be worked out for our good. How can this be that a King so immense, with unfathomable power is also capable of being so tender and intimate? Our minds can scarcely take it in. God is utterly transcendent and so majestic as He exercises control, ruling creation, but also immanent as He comes in close and picks us up, puts His cheek against ours and loves us; every inch of us. It is breathtaking and reassuring all at once. We are utterly dependent on Him. Utterly!
The world spins on the finger of God is beautifully unpacked in Isaiah 40:1-30. The rhythm of God’s immensity and His intimacy is reflected in the passage (read it). God stretches out the heavens with His hands and calls for the starry hosts. Then He speaks tenderly to His people, raising them up to soar like eagles, sowing love and assurance into their hearts, enabling them to journey in life on the pathways of His unbreakable promises. The world spins on the finger of God spins me out because it truly is beyond my capacity to fully comprehend it. Yet, aren’t we grateful He holds all things in His mighty hands?
So, friends, get your “God finger” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Jun 1, 2021 | Wens Pen
Hello Everyone
“Today” has been gift-wrapped by God. Psalm 118:24. Each of us has a journey to be lived out. We have a past, and we have a future. Yet, we also have today. Living in the shadows of the past or basking in the light of the future will rob us of life today. The gift of life today does not mean we don’t value the past which has helped shape the moments we are currently inhabiting. Nor does it mean we can’t anticipate all God has for us in the future. The problem arises when we linger too long in the past or constantly dream of the future at the risk of not treasuring the miracle of each moment that makes up the offering of life today.
Think for a moment about the heart of the giver, God and all His intentions in giving us the gift of life. “Today” has been gift-wrapped by God as an extraordinary, extravagant gift, tied with a red Calvary ribbon. There is a gift tag tied to the gift of “today” and it has your name on it. It has been hand-picked, with love, just for you. Are you excited to receive God’s gift of “today” and eager to treasure what is in the gift box? How will you unwrap this precious gift of “today”? Will you tear it open like a wide-eyed, excited child, revelling in the excitement of this offering and make the most of it? Or will you unwrap it like a spoiled child who looks at a gift, puts it aside and moves on to the next present, missing the miracle of the moment?
“Today” has been gift-wrapped by God with 86,400 precious seconds that make up the gift. Assuming we sleep 8 hours, that still leaves us 57,600 seconds to be fully present in the present, using and enjoying our gift to full capacity. When we measure this gift of “today” on God’s eternal timeline and realise the brevity of our time on earth, it should motivate us to unwrap God’s gift of “today” with great thankfulness, enthusiasm and a desire to steward it wisely. Yet we are so often caught in the rhythm of everyday routines that we become acclimatised to the miraculous nature of every moment. Today has been gift-wrapped by God, yet our “todays” are at risk of dripping away so quickly, and moment by moment poured out into a river of time where the currents in that river carry away the gift of “today” and it’s gone forever. The value of “today” is the miracle of life and the time we are granted to live it out. It can only be experienced second by second. Will we waste it or embrace it? “Today” has been gift-wrapped by God and it’s a big ticket, valuable present, full of unique possibilities and it’s yours for the opening.
So, friends, get your “today” on today.
Best days to come.
Wen
Jun 1, 2021 | Care Conversations
17. Essential Components of the Faith Journey
Christian faith is a gift of God which informs, and gives meaning, to everything.
In our encouragement of faith development, we must be holistic, addressing the whole person.
What might some of these things look like?
We need to encourage an increasing knowledge of the complete Biblical Narrative leading to an understanding of the Triune God through Christ. (Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom).
We need to model and foster a deep devotion to the pre-eminent Christ who restores us to the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit (Relational Connection).
We need to assist in developing an understanding that all things have their origin, purpose, and destiny in God. The Christian faith is a complete world and life view (Permeative and Holistic).
“The Christian mind remains unsatisfied until all of existence is referred back to the Triune God, and until the confession of God’s Trinity functions at the centre of our thought and life.”[1]-Herman Bavinck
We need to embolden our young people to be responsible and responsive disciples of Christ leading to acts of humble service and respectful, redemptive engagement. (Action and Service).
We need to enable an understanding that the Deep Needs such as Meaning, Identity, Purpose, Contentment, Freedom, Hope can only be found in relationship with the Triune God (Personhood).
We need to provide space and opportunity to question, express doubts, critique and grow without judgement (Responsibility).
Blessings
Brian
[1] Bavinck, H. (2004) Reformed Dogmatics, 2:330. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
