Today's readings are Jeremiah 11.1-23 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+11.1-23 ), Matthew 24.1-28 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Matt.+24.1-28 ) and Jeremiah 12.1-19.15 (http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Jer.+12.1-19.15 ).
Today's post is an article I wrote based on today's reading for inclusion in a homeschool newsletter.
It is not uncommon, especially in a major election season, to talk about the candidates and the state of our government or society using biblical metaphors. Candidates we like tend to be protrayed almost as Christ figures while those we don't like . . . well, they aren't portrayed as the savior. And we have seen a lot of that in recent months, weeks, and days. Either our society will be delivered from destruction or it will most certainly crash and burn, with all but a remnant going "into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9.43-44, KVJ). Not exactly a nice place.
This apocalyptic fervor has been bubbling in my circles, as it may have been in yours. And to see a prime biblical example of that destruction we have to go no further than Matthew 24, where Jesus talks about the signs of the end of the age, the birth pangs of the end of the world. I was reading this passage today and considering where the Gospel could be, where the good news might come into this passage. If we are having birth pains for the end of the world, what is the good news our Lord has given?
In Matthew 24.13-14 we read, "...the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world ... " (ESV). And what is that gospel? This is the gospel we won't find in our society at large. We won't learn it from our government officials. We won't learn it from public programs. We won't learn it from the international financial community, the banking industry, or any other organization our elected officials claim as foundational to our society. That gospel is that Christ has died for our sins, the just for the unjust, atoning for sin once and for all by paying our penalty in his body. Our Lord and Savior himself is the Gospel. And he is seeing to it that this forgiveness in Christ's name is proclaimed to all the world.
What does this have to do with a home school? What place does it have in a homeschooling newsletter? It's intimately connected to what we are doing in our homes every day. Through distinctively Christian homeschooling we have the opportunity to exalt Christ in our homes every day and in every way, nurturing our children in the true hope of the Gospel of Christ rather than in their own wisdom and goodness. We have the opportunity to be used by our Lord and Savior to raise up workers for his harvest, people who will enter the broader society and bring Christ and his Gospel to light in their world. We have the privilege of focusing on the living Savior in everything we say and do throughout the day, rather than sequestering our children from the forthright discussion of the Gospel for hours a day in a government school.
As we move from a political season into the season of Thanksgiving, then into Advent and Christmas, let's look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and return thanks to him. Let us show that he is welcome in our midst, and let us celebrate the true unadulterated humanity and deity of this Lord, the creator of the Universe, come to us in frail humanity, found as an infant in Bethlehem. May the Lord bless us in our home schools. May the Lord use us to minister Christ in our homes. May the ripples of this ministry be God's tool to change the world, as the Gospel is proclaimed throughout the whole world.
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