The Heart of Education is the Education of the Heart
Nearly 15 centuries before the followers of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:46), the Lord himself codified his will regarding religious education. The religious education God ordained for his people was not left to any heart-felt desires and spiritual sensibilities systematically defined by human reasoning, but by God’s own Word revealed and written down by Moses.
God emphasized that religious education is the divine responsibility of parents. To this day, we parents must know that God does not just advise or suggest but DEMANDS that our children are to be raised in the nurture and admonition of God’s Word. We parents must answer to the Lord in this responsibility.
To the ancients, the Lord outlined his educational strategy with these words:
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up…” And then followed these guidelines with this divine assurance: “Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11:18-21 New International Version)
God knows what he created, and that the love of a father and mother for their child would be the most powerful love between humans. God knows that the heart of educating the child in God’s truth and wisdom is the education of the child’s heart. And who would have that powerful love and concern for the welfare of children than their parents?
The founders of our own country knew and believed this. Wherever our nation’s pioneers and founders established communities, their first concern was how they could implement the Lord’s will for them and their children. Life on the frontier managing the heavy chores of merely surviving the American wilderness left little time for “home schooling.” In addition, not all adults were adequately trained to teach. In establishing their settlements, they gave top priority to the building of a church and a school. There the godly disciplines required since ancient days could be provided. And to assist them they called and supported trained ministers and teachers for the purpose of educating the hearts of their children. The heart of education is the education of the Christian heart!
But Satan does not sleep. What was once a great nation inhabited by a people who recognized God as our Creator, many communities found it convenient to defer the responsibility of the education of children to the oversight of government. Consequently, over the past two centuries our blessed “one nation under God” has seen our schools, and even our religious institutions, infected with the destructive toxin of an irreligious ideology historically called “Secular Humanism.” Secular Humanism replaced God with the worship of human reason. It is a combination of atheism and freethought governed by reason and logic and rejects religious dogma and matters of faith in an invisible god.
The disastrous effects of Secular Humanism on our culture, our religious beliefs and moral behaviors are evident and deserve its own discussion. But its spiritually destructive effects upon us have increased the strong desire among Christian communities to return to Christian education through the establishment and support of Christian schools with teachers whose own hearts are governed by God’s Word.
For this purpose, the Christian Education Growth Foundation was established. Please study thoughtfully who we are and our purpose. “Our mission is to empower Christian churches and schools by providing the necessary financial resources to build, expand, and sustain Christian education. We are dedicated to removing financial obstacles, enabling institutions to achieve their educational and spiritual goals.
We believe that Christian education represents the gold standard in educational excellence, and we are committed to assisting Christian schools in upholding and advancing this standard.” See WHO WE ARE.
Will the Lord support our work? We have his Word and written assurances, such as in 2 Chronicles 7:14-15:
… if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. NIV)
You can be part of our work and this “healing” of our blessed nation. Consider supporting the Christian education efforts of our land and the Christian schools our Christian citizens are building to educate the hearts of our children with the values and faith that God would have us know, believe, and follow.
God bless your support, and God bless his people and the USA!
