A Challenge to Consider the Person of Jesus

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

“I believe witnesses who get their throats cut.” – Blaise Pascal

I would like to issue a challenge to all skeptics: Try to think of a massive conspiracy in history where 12 ring-leaders maintained their storyline consistently in the face of the death penalty, refusing to recant even when threatened with beheading, crucifixion and being run through with a sword. I have a second challenge: Name one person who has been more universally regarded and admired over the past 2,000 years than Jesus of Nazareth. (Hint: The answer to both challenges is the same: "There isn't one.")

The point of the first challenge is to ask you to seriously consider the truth claims of the Gospels and indeed the whole New Testament. The second challenge should make you weigh why such a consideration should be valuable. Yet I have one more challenge before we proceed: Think of any movement, philosophy, value system, religion or political system which has no jerks, hypocrites, idiots and bozos in its ranks. Of course, there are none. Liberalism and conservatism, atheism and Hinduism, Islam and environmentalism, humanism and astrology all have deeply flawed followers. So does Christianity. It’s not fair to judge any belief system by the actions of its worst believers.

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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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Growing Readers

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

“Today a reader; tomorrow a leader.” – Margaret Fuller

“A home without books is a body without soul.” - Cicero

I’m going to let you in on a secret, if you promise not to tell anyone: Readers are made at home, not at school.

When I was 12 or 13 years old, I pulled an interesting-looking book down from my parents’ bookshelf. It was a collection of Mark Twain’s short stories and I read several with great interest and delight. Because my parents had a complete set of Mark Twain’s works, I was able to follow this reading with Tom Sawyer and then Huck Finn and, before long, I had read the complete set. I was in the cave with Tom and Becky, wondering if they would get out alive. I was floating down the Mississippi with Huck and Jim, wondering how Huck would make it back home and if Jim would make it to freedom.

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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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