Loving God with All Your Mind: Intellectual Rigor and Biblical Faithfulness

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

Harvard and Yale were both founded with the primary mission of training faithful pastors for ministry. The founders of these schools knew that men needed the highest quality education in order to properly handle God’s Word and apply it to the cultural context of their day. They expected their students to be fluent in Hebrew, Greek and Latin and also to be well versed in the intellectual and philosophical ideas of the day, so they could engage them intelligently and Biblically.

One of the first presidents of Princeton University was Jonathan Edwards, a Yale graduate, who has been called by some the greatest thinker in American history. Edwards is also known as the leading theologian and one of the central preachers of the Great Awakening. As recently as the early 1900’s, Princeton was a leading center of Biblically faithful scholarship, having trained some of the best theologians and pastors in American history.

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Why It ALL Matters To God And Should Matter To Us

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

Several years ago, Richard Carlson wrote a book called, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff... and it’s all small stuff! In this little book, he espoused a carefree, detached sort of lifestyle. A year later, Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz answered with God is in the Small Stuff and It ALL Matters. Bickel and Jantz were giving a distinctly Christian answer to Carlson’s essentially Buddhist philosophy. These two little books represent two different approaches to life and the difference between the two makes all the difference indeed!

Last night, my wife and I were watching a Paul Tripp DVD series on marriage called, What Did You Expect? In the first session, Tripp recalls an incident in their married life when he was giving his wife a hard time about running late for a church breakfast. His nine year-old son politely asked if he could ask something and then came out with, “Dad, do you think this is the way a Christian man should be speaking to his wife?” Ouch! Paul Tripp’s reaction, after he calmed down and collected himself, was to be amazed that God would care enough about this mundane moment in their lives to confront him with such a blunt reminder of truth.

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The Paideia of the Lord, Part 2

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction (paideia) of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4)

It is God's charge to parents, and to fathers in particular to bring up their children in the instruction (paideia) of the Lord.  This work happens primarily at home and only secondarily at school.  If that's true, what are we supposed to be teaching our children exactly?

Fathers, let's suppose you wanted to teach your children about football. (I know that's a real stretch, but hang with me.)  Where would you start? Most likely, you would start by watching a game together and get your children interested in watching football.  You would likely share your passion for your favorite team.  Then, so your child could understand what was going on in the game, you would explain the rules and the roles of the players so that, as you watch the game, your time together would be more meaningful.

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The Paideia of the Lord

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

I’d like to take a moment to speak as a father to other fathers. Dads, have you read Ephesians 6:4 lately? As a husband and a father, I am always convicted whenever I read Ephesians 5 and 6. In Ephesians 5:25-31, God commands me to love my wife as Christ loves the church, to lay down my life for her well-being, for her ultimate good. Then, in Ephesians 6:4, God commands me with these words, “do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

As I reflect on this verse as a dad, I think of all the things I do that tend to provoke my children to anger. God isn’t telling me to just give my children everything they ask for as soon as they ask for it so they’ll never be upset. Actually, that kind of spoiling and over-indulging usually leads to kids who are even angrier because the answer cannot always be yes. Children are provoked to anger when their dads are inconsistent, hypocritical or overly controlling. As a sinner prone to all three of these faults, I find great reason to pray for forgiveness and grace when I examine my own behaviors.

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The Bible's Definition Of A Good Education: Part 3 - Wisdom

By Jason, M.Ed., M.A.R., Headmaster

“For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:6, NKJV)

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10, NKJV)

Knowledge, understanding and wisdom.  These are the three words the Bible uses over and over again to describe the development of a mind and life that honor God.  Yet what do these words mean and what picture can we paint from them of the education that God would desire for our children?  We explored knowledge and understanding in previous articles. To summarize, we can define knowledge and understanding in this way:

Knowledge: The facts we know about something.  The information we acquire about God and His world. 

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