If I Had to Send my Kids to a Public School

Does the style of schooling we choose for our kids really matter? Of course it does. Instead of taking up a “hot” debate that the Scriptures do not speak clearly to, let’s ask another question: What are the essential Biblical principles Christian parents can and should use to guide their children, regardless of their choice in schooling?

Since Maki and I are planning to home-school and then gradually work our kids into the Christian bilingual school I work at, I was wondering, “What would I do if I had to send my kids to public school?“ What if we didn’t have the option, financially or otherwise, to send them to a Christian school? And what if Maki and I felt we were not being called or able to do homeschooling? Here are some general steps I would take as a parent in this situation:

1. Plan to disciple my kids at home regardless

Proverbs 13:20 says, “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”

Walking with other unwise children every day at school will do my kids some harm. Yes, even if they are from Christian homes. It is always easier to be pulled down than to pull others up. With little sinful natures kids are primed to go astray - especially if they are constantly surrounded by peers. That is why I must invest quantity and quality time with my kids. I must do this intentionally, with a plan. I must take time to “walk with them” through life, asking how they are doing and opening up to them about my life as well.

2. I, the dad, must take the main responsibility for teaching my kids about life and about God.

The buck stops here in God’s eyes. Men, we are to lead, even when we don’t feel like it. We are to lead in our labor of love and service not only at work but also in the home. We are to model to our kids what Jesus is like (Eph. 5) and serve our wives. In the same way, I must not leave the teaching of my kids mainly to the school or to the church. I must take primary responsibility for making sure that my kids know and love God and His Word. This is best done through life-on-life mentoring and adequate time spent reading and discussing the Bible together. For a good resource for very young kids, I suggest CBHministries.org – Keys for Kids. My kids love it!

3. Finally, I would make sure that I know what my kids are learning at school.

Don’t be naive, our kids in public schools will be picking up some garbage. Along with the good and the great things they will learn, they will also learn that God doesn’t have to be the center of learning. They will learn (I’ll just say it) sheer lies about the beginning of the universe and lies about themselves from peers and teachers alike. As a parent, I need to ask my kids about what they are thinking about, what they are learning, and know how to guide half-baked learning into something more helpful, full, eternal and glorious. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.“ Without the fear of the Lord there is a lot of foolishness that is going to be happening at school. (Prov. 9:10) However, with these commitments in mind, I believe almost any school can be attended to unto the glory of God and the good of our children.

Samaritan's Purse: Healing Japan

Update on CRASH Progress in Japan
Press Release - June 24, 2011 - June Update Released
Click here to get the PDF Report

June Update Released How CRASH Japan is offering hope to survivors. Mobilizing volunteers to aid in the recovery. Tattoos as a cultural bridge in God's plan to impact lives. The inspiration behind our New Life Starter Kits.

Fukushima: Still a Ticking Time Bomb
Please pray for the suffering people in Fukushima today.
Please pray for suffering people to come to the God of all hope.
I have heard many stories of how God is already doing a ton in this area. Churches are growing and people are asking the big questions of life. Many Christians are reaching out in love and people are noticing the difference. Please pray for Maki and I to know how to help this summer also.

WORLD Magazine's Book(s) of the Year
World Magazine‘s 2011 “Book of the Year” went to two books, both edited collections of essays and both on God and evolution:

• Should Christians Embrace Evolution: Biblical & Scientific Responses, ed. Norman Nevin
• God and Evolution, ed. Jay Richards

You can read Marvin Olasky’s cover story about the books here.

My favorite quote of the article:

Evangelicals who know what the Bible says may feel like ignoring the first two chapters of Genesis in the interests of evangelism, but if we are "successful" in growing churches by that method, to which God are converts coming?

(HT: JT)

Orphaned by the Tsunami

Orphans of the Tsunami

Japan Still on High Radiation Alert

Japan - 3 Months Later
The clean-up continues with some places going well, and some more slowly. Please keep praying for these precious people.
See before and after pictures here.

Louis Zamperini’s Story

Below is the incredible story of Louis Zamperini. He was an Olympian, Japanese war prisoner and overall inspiration. His story is in the process of being made into a major motion picture.

Justin Taylor writes:

Zamperini has lived an amazing life and was rescued (in more than one sense) by the grace of God. The story is told in Laura Hillenbrand bestselling book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (see reviews by Collin Hansen and Tim Challies). To read more about Zamperini’s Christian testimony, see his autobiography Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian’s Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II.

[Note, at the end of the second and third video, there is a very loud static sound at the end of these videos.]

OR... click here for a BETTER picture, no interruptions and no loud static!

He is Worth It All
My twin brother Doug: Amen. This is powerful.

Lyrics:

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost
You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life
Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone
And live so all might see
The strength to follow Your commands
Could never come from me.
Oh Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose.
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You.

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI), by Jordan Kauflin

Why should God's Word Interpret Science?
At the outset it is important to make the distinction between operational science and historical science. O.S. is the science that allows me to type on my computer right now. It is the science that allowed Galileo to reveal the unbiblical notion that the sun travels around the Earth. H.S., on the other hand, is the science of extrapolating scientific laws into theories about the past that cannot be tested by the scientific method.

While God encourages operational science in his Word, ("Taste and see that the LORD is good." -Ps.34) He knows that we will absolutely need the Bible to clearly understand anything of what He has done in the past. (Heb. 1:1-2)

While the theory of Intelligent Design further reveals the obvious general revelation of God's creation, (Rom. 1:18 and Psalm 19:1), and reinforces the book of Genesis, it fails to give us the most significant details about who this intelligent Designer really is: What is He doing and what has He done throughout history? The Bible remains the only certain and reliable history book of the universe.

For example, the Big Bang theory has only been around about 50 years. Already many prominent scientists have found major problems with it. Science textbooks are continually rewritten (or should be!) because historical science is just not a very good way to reconstruct history. History books and biographies are never recorded in scientific journals!

The following are some other important points to keep in mind about historical science:
1. Historical science cannot accurately reconstruct history without "historians"or eyewitnesses. The Bible declares an all-knowing Eyewitness who was there and is not silent about His constant supernatural involvement.
2. No matter how much we know, even about the present, we realize that we will always see dimly as if through polished metal. (1 Cor. 13:12) However through the Word of God, and by His Spirit, we can experience clearly what no eye or ear has ever seen or heard. (1 Cor. 2:9-10)
3. Naturalism assumes all things have continued as they presently are. Disregarding the massive evidences for a world-wide flood, millions of years have given us all the fossils we see. Interestingly God knew this was coming, "...scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ... all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." (2 Peter 3:3-7)

Why is the Bible God's Word?
John Frame writes:
"How then do we know that Scripture is the Word of God? By its self-witness (normative), by facts and evidences (situational), and by the Spirit's working subjectively in our hearts (existential), enabling us to see the Bible's claims as evidences in their proper light."

Let's make that a bit clearer: Scripture is God's Word objectively, whether one sees it or not. The self-witness of God in his own Words proves to us that He is really speaking. The facts and evidence overwhelming show that no one could have made up this story and had it come out so perfectly, especially considering that it was written by over 40 authors in three languages over a period of 1600 years. Finally, without God's Spirit enabling us to see the beauty of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we are left blind in the face of the bright light of truth and glory. (2 Cor. 4:6)

Reinterpret the Bible, or Science?

Reading about the latest sad deception going on at Christianity Today, it reminds me that presuppositions really do matter. How do I form a worldview? With human knowledge? With the smartest theologians, philosophers and scientists by my side? Or with the Word of God? Where does the authority to discern reality really lie: with God or with Man?

Let's start with this simple fact that many stumble over: Science is not the Word of God. It never was and it never will be a sufficient means to give us clear knowledge of God or the world He made. (Rom. 10:14) It is only natural (pun intended) to conclude this when we realize that even the smartest of us own a mere six-pound brain and have a mere five senses to work with. No one can go back into history and do science there. All of us are stuck in the present with clues that are much more complex than anyone can imagine. To compound the problem, God is a supernatural God and has never confined Himself to working in a natural way only. In fact, the God of the Bible has often worked outside natural confines to accomplish His purposes and to reveal His glory.

Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell writes about the current debate over the historical Adam & Eve:

Search the recent Christianity Today article as much as you will, it never explains how the conclusion that there had to be 10,000 original people [to arrive at the genetic diversity we have today] was reached. Oddly enough, neither does the BioLogos website. The latter does tell where to find the information. According to a footnote in one of its articles, “The genetic evidence [of a population of several thousand people from whom all humans have descended, not just two] is explained in: Francis Collins, “Deciphering God’s Instruction Book: The Lessons of the Human Genome,” in The Language of God (New York, NY: Free Press, 2006).”²

So what evidence for this starter population does Dr. Collins provide in his book?

None. On pages 126 and 207, the conclusions presented about the required population size are simply repeated. They are said to come from “population geneticists” who “look at the facts about the human genome.” They assure us that “studies of human variation . . . all point to an origin of modern humans approximately a hundred thousand years ago, most likely in East Africa.” That’s it. And since the magazine article offers no new information, it seems this faith-shaking data is just a rehash of the mitochondrial Eve and Y-chromosome Adam data.

All scientific facts are interpreted according to the biases of the observer. Consequently, the things a scientist assumes are true will greatly influence his interpretation of the data. What does Dr. Collins assume is true?³ He says that “we [evolutionists] do agree upon descent from a common ancestor, gradual change over a long period of time, and natural selection operating to produce the diversity of living species. There is no question that those are correct. Those are three cardinal pillars of Darwin’s theory that have been under-girded by data coming from multiple directions and they are not going to go away. Evolution is not a theory that is going to be discarded next week or next year or a hundred or a thousand years from now. It is true.” Given that Dr. Collins plainly states his unswerving faith in the idea of common ancestry—the only reasonable explanation he acknowledges for similarities in genomes—and in eons of time, we know that he will necessarily interpret the data from the Human Genome Project in that light...

Bottom line: the science cannot possibly be wrong, so we must re-interpret the Bible. Find some way to let Adam and Eve be real people but just leaders among the population, the magazine counsels. “That suggestion has the virtue of embracing both a prehistoric couple and a prehistoric population.” That suggestion also has the “virtue” of embracing the Serpent’s words to Eve, “Yea, hath God said?” Either we trust what God said, or we don’t.

Read more here.

Word to the wise: Let us be careful of our starting points. This is not a small issue.

3/11/11

someday I will look back at the
time
i was given here on earth
and wish i had spent more of that
time
on things that advanced
His
kingdom.
because i carry a
name.
my name was given to me at
birth.
it tells people who i am.
it means something.
and there is a reason it was given
to me.
but it doesn't define me.
His name
does.
my name was given to me at birth
so people can get my attention.
nothing more.
there is only one name
that has the power to save, and
the world needs
Him.
those who believe carry Him
like i do.
i want to take that name
and make the earth shake- flood
the darkness
with His light
make that name
famous.

- By Eri Fujino (Japan Harvest, Spring 2011)

Outright Lies in Science Textbooks
The following "evidence for evolution" can be found in any biology textbook in any public school in the United States of America.
Read more here.

It is a tragedy that our children are being lied to by their textbooks and teachers.

The Duty of Delight
"Remember, O my soul,
It is your duty and privilege to rejoice in God...
Let God be all to thee,
and joy in the fountain that is always full."
- The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett

I love it. Self can't do it. Money can't do it. Nothing on this planet can do it. Nothing is meant to satisfy us fully but God Himself.

Jesus Daily
This looks like some good news for your day.

Japan - 2 Months After
This is definitely worth the time it takes to watch.

"Jesus Christ"(2months after the Earthquake in Japan. English ver.) from Dear.Japan on Vimeo.

Reasoning Away God's Word
This video was another reminder of how easy it is to exalt our minds above God and His Word. In the doctrine of hell, creation, predestination, you name it - am I trusting in my own logic or simply taking God at his Word?
He knows more than me.

Randy Alcorn writes:

I promise the nearly ten minutes it takes to watch this video will be a great investment. Listen to it thoughtfully and prayerfully, and look at Francis as he talks. These aren’t just sound bites or a sales pitch, even though a forthcoming book is alluded to. This is from the heart and vitally important. It embodies both grace and truth.

I agree with Zach Nielsen: This is one of the best responses I have seen to "Love Wins" by Rob Bell.

Comparing the Apocalyptic Mindset & The Evolutionary Mindset

Many Christians are sad or upset about Mr. Camping and the recent major neglect of verses such as Matthew 24:36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

However as I read the following article I was amazed by the similarities in the belief structures of those who fall for apocalyptic theories and with those who fall for the theory of evolution.

Lorenzo DiTommaso writes:
"Historically, failed prophecies tend to result in disillusionment, with members deserting the group, or, more typically, a faith-saving (and face-saving) statement to the effect that while divine revelation remains infallible, human calculation is not. In short: The math was off, and it’s back to the drawing board. If the logic seems a bit self-serving, recall that in the apocalyptic mindset, faith precedes theory, and theory informs the evidence." (Emphasis mine)

How about the major failed prophecies of evolution?
1. Darwin predicted a fossil record filled with transitional forms of life. What was found? Nothing. There are missing links in the fossil record within every branch of Haeckel's prophetic "evolutionary tree". Perhaps "wood pile" would describe the facts more clearly.
2. Darwin predicted that we would continue to discover that the simple cell could be easily formed by itself. Even today scientists continue to be amazed at the amazing complexity and design structures of the anything but "simple" cell.
3. The famous Miller experiment of the 50's was the first attempt to make good on the prophecy that life could form on its own. Today the inability of even the most intelligent scientists to make even the simplest life forms on their own demonstrates the absolute failure of this prophecy.

What do the evolutionists say in response?

In short they say, "The math was off...", but of course it is never the theory.

I am happy to say my science and faith rests on eyewitness, first-hand accounts from God himself in his own Word, and not on the mathematical equations based on the philosophy of naturalism. God's "theories" have never changed and remain fixed forever as promises for all who would seek to know Him.

Safes Wash Up on Shores
Interesting theme God seems to be teaching me here...

The earthquake and tsunami disaster of March 11 is the most expensive natural disaster on record. But current figures don’t take into account individual losses from home-held cash savings washed away by the powerful waves.

There are no cars inside the parking garage at Ofunato Police Headquarters. Instead, hundreds of dented metal safes, swept out of homes and businesses by last month's tsunami, crowd the long rectangular building.

This will likely be true in many other towns and cities and the safes are likely to keep on coming every day.

A safe could hold someone's life savings.

The police are trying to find the owners of the safes washing up along the tsunami-battered coast - - a unique problem in a country where many people, especially the elderly, still stash their cash at home . There' s even a term for this hidden money in Japanese: "tansu yokin" or literally, 'wardrobe savings'.

As workers and residents pick through the wreckage, they are increasingly stumbling upon locked safes and cash.

Police departments, already stretched thin now face the growing task of managing lost wealth.

Identifying the owners of lost safes is hard enough, but it's nearly impossible when it comes to wads of cash being found in envelopes, unmarked bags, boxes and furniture.

Associated Press, T Hosaka, 2011-04-10

Possessions are here today and gone tomorrow! So let’s follow the sound advice of the Bible and invest in eternity!

Command those who are rich in this present world
not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,
but to put their hope in God,
who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Command them to do good,
to be rich in good deeds,
and to be generous and willing to share.
In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves
as a firm foundation for the coming age,
so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life
(1 Tim. 6:17-19).

While we still have the opportunity, let’s be extravagantly generous!　
- By Neil Verwey

Lessons from Touhoku
My co-worker Kami Alexander writes:

As I shoveled my way through the debris and bagged away the washed out remains of broken homes, broken dreams, and broken families, I found a treasure hidden in the piles of junk. The treasure was the realization of just how very little and just how very much we need. We need very little of the "precious" things most of us covet, horde, and slave away to buy. Those precious things have all become rubbish, shoveled into bags and piled into mountains and heaps. In contrast, we need so very much of God.

I was so "blessed" to find the contents of a fish shop that had washed into a ditch. As I uncovered the pile of six-and-a-half week old stinking rotten fish teeming with maggots, my stomach and I vowed to stay clear of sushi for a very long time. My gag reflex has still not recovered from the trip even now- the slightest whiff of fish makes me nauseous. That's alright, though. I could go the rest of my life without sushi. I could not go a day without Jesus.

What strikes me to the core is how this community has suffered the loss of everything they built their lives upon- success, homes, family, work, cars, material things. If you've built your life on those things, and they wash away, you need to find a better foundation! That is what I want most desperately to offer them. A foundation built on a relationship with God. God's love will never change, shake, or wash away. It is the only thing which we can have both here and hereafter.

Should all else wash away in my life, I would still be able to praise God for his mercy and love. Should even my life be required of me, I would go into the presence of God knowing I will meet his love and mercy. Nothing else, NoONE else, can promise that to me.

Like Paul says in Philippians 3:8: "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ."

Christ Jesus. Only Christ Jesus. May this be the foundation of my life.

These and the maggoty fish are the reason I am staying away from sushi for awhile.

Comfort for Japan from Long Ago

Justin Taylor writes:

The lyrics to William Cowper’s final song are worthy of deep reflection, especially when you know the backstory of his pain and struggle:

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

David Ward’s contemporary rendition and adaption, “You Are Mysterious,” can be listened to online. Bob Kauflin also has a version of the song on the Worship God Live CD, which you can sample here.

Status of Global Mission 2010

1. The total global church member annual income is $28.8 trillion ($28,800 billion).
2. Of this, $513 billion (1.73 percent) is given to Christian causes.
3. Of this, $29 billion (5.7 percent of the 1.73 percent) goes to Foreign Missions.
4. Of this, 87 percent goes for work among those already Christians; 12 percent goes for work among already evangelized non-Christians, and one percent - $290 million - goes to the unreached.

See more here.

John Piper writes, "If we, like Paul, are content with the simple necessities of life, billions of dollars in the church would be released to take the gospel to the frontiers. The revolution of joy and freedom it would cause at home would be the best local witness imaginable."

Made for Global Missions
Piper: Just reaching your city or your own country will make you sick.

Tsunami Power

Yomiuri News:

The massive M9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, 2011. It laid waste the world's deepest breakwater and carried with it a momentum equal to that of 250 jumbo jets flying at 1,000 km per hour!

The colossal two-kilometer-long breakwater at the mouth of Kamaishi Bay was 20 meters thick, at depths of as much as 63 meters with its top rising 8 meters above the water's surface to protect the port. It was recognized by Guinness World Records as the deepest breakwater in the world, but it was obliterated by the March 11, 2011 tsunami. Many of the coastal levees - the final line of defense between the breakwater and the shore - were swept away by the tsunami as if they were pieces of cork.

Another 10-meter-high levee at Miyako that stretched along 2.5 kilometers had been nicknamed 'The Great Wall of China’ by the locals, an apparent reference to their belief that it would protect them. However, the powerful tsunami breached the levee within moments and destroyed the city transforming it into a muddy swamp. The town is now covered with fishing boats, and its damaged houses stick out of the gray mud.

There were some traces of seawater from the tsunami found at places as high as the 37.9-meter point.

"The wave’s power was far beyond our predictions.” Tomoya Shibayama, professor of ocean engineering at Waseda University, confessed. “The whole country needs to revisit its disaster measures."

What is scarier than this?

There is a larger tsunami warning sounding out for those who do not want to know God!

No matter what the situation might be -- God promises to look after those who flee to Him.

In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence:
and his children shall have a place of refuge
(Prov. 14: 26).

The Power of Praying over God's Word
from Colossians 1:9-14

...we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
- so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
- fully pleasing to him,
- bearing fruit in every good work and
- increasing in the knowledge of God.
- strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might,
Why?
- for all endurance and patience with joy,
- for giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

Foundation for this hope
"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Detailed Report from CRASH Japan
I have been looking forward to this kind of news for a long time. I am happy to see how CRASH is helping with the recovery in so many ways. Please don't forget to keep praying and giving!
Read more here.

God Loves Using Small Things - Like Us

From a fellow missionary in Japan who volunteered in the devastation area:

It was rewarding to see the encouragement 10 people can bring to a family helping over a 2-day period. We spent another day cleaning up around the greenhouses of a strawberry farm. But as we looked at the extent of the devastation from the earthquake and tsunami, our contribution seemed like a drop of water in the ocean.

I feel like Philip and Andrew when asked by Jesus how to feed 5,000 people.

John 6:7-9 Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9"Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

The Kansai Earthquake in 1995 probably covered an area with a 20-kilometer radius. The East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami covered an area 500 kilometers in length.

Please pray for a multiplying of our small efforts for God's glory in Japan!