| Editor: David E Marlett Th.D. | |
| October 24, 2001 | Vol II, #34 |
Here are some test questions. Question 1: Which of the following is equal to a quarter of a million? (a) 40,000 (b) 250,000 (c) 2,500,000 (d) 1/4,000,000 or (e) 4/1,000,000? Question 2: Martin Luther King Jr. (insert the correct choice) for the poor of all races. (a) spoke out passionately (b) spoke out passionate (c) did spoke out passionately (d) has spoke out passionately or (e) had spoken out passionate. Question 3: What would you do if your student sprained an ankle? (a) Put a Band-Aid on it (b) Ice it (c) Rinse it with water.
Having reviewed the questions, guess which school grade gets these kind of test questions: sixth grade, ninth grade or 12th grade. I'm betting that the average reader guesses: sixth grade. You'd be wrong. How about ninth grade? You'd still be wrong. You say, "OK, Williams, I can't believe they're 12th grade test questions!" Wrong again. According to a School Reform News (Sept. 1) article "Who Tells Teachers They Can Teach?" those test questions came from tests for prospective teachers. The first two questions are samples from Praxis I test for teachers, and the third is from the 1999 teacher certification test in Illinois. And guess what. Thirty-one percent of New York City public school teachers fail teacher certification tests.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 6) 5,243 Illinois teachers failed their teacher certification tests. The Chicago Sun-Times also reported, "One teacher failed 24 of 25 teacher tests -- including 11 of 12 Basic Skills tests and all 12 tests on teaching learning-disabled children. Yet, that teacher was assigned to teach learning-disabled children in Chicago. That's classic: the blind leading the blind.
[ CNS Commentary October 24, 2001 ]
When a couple announces that they are going to have their first child, both family and friends excitedly congratulate them on their future blessing. The same holds true for the second child, but when the third, fourth, fifth, etc. child is announced a strange phenomenon begins to take place. The joy and enthusiasm from those same friends and family members changes into concern and even admonition. It has made me curious - how many children does it take before they are no longer a blessing but a curse?
It is interesting that if a child were to become deathly ill, any normal parent, no matter what their income, would give all that they had in order to see their child get well. Yet many of these same parents would give you a limit to the number of children they would like to have. I can't help but wonder - are children a blessing or a curse?
Rather than get the latest opinion poll on this question, why not consult our standard the Word of God. We could list many testimonies from Bible personalities to show that they believed children were a blessing from God (e.g. Genesis 33:5). Yet the clearest and loudest testimony can be found in the familiar Psalm 127: Children are the heritage of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is His reward, happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. We can say dogmatically that God considers children to be a blessing and not a curse. Notice also, that according to Scripture, a full quiver is better than an empty or even partially full quiver.
So, how many children make a full quiver? This can only be determined by God, for it is not in our power to conceive a child without His blessing (Genesis 1:28). In other words, God is in control of the womb. When Rachel complained to Jacob about being barren he said, "Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?" The Patriarchs knew that God is the One who opens and closes the womb. It is very important that we grasp this truth: you cannot have more children than God wants to bless you with. Job had exactly seven more sons and three more daughters giving him precisely twice the number of sons and daughters he began with, fitting perfectly with God's blessing him with double of everything he originally had.
Why is it then that the attitude of most Christians is so contrary to the Word of God?
Unbelief Many believers simply lack the faith it takes to trust God to give them the number of children they need. They think that without birth control they will have too many children or that they will have them too close together. Have you ever noticed that many missionary families tend to have lots of children? Perhaps this is because most missionaries have had to learn to trust God in so many areas of their life, and therefore they have less difficulty trusting Him with the number of children in their quiver.
Selfishness. There is no doubt that children are expensive, they require a lot of time and work to raise them, and often parents must make certain sacrifices for their children. Some believers would simply rather spend their time and money on themselves.
What a shame. If only they could realize how great a blessing children are, and the tremendous investment they can be. Truly they are as "arrows are in the hand of a mighty man". I have never seen this more clearly illustrated than in the Nichols family, missionaries to Brazil. Bro. Nichols involves all of his children in his ministry and they are a real blessing everywhere they go. His older children are even soul winners, multiplying his effectiveness in the work.
Laziness. Some believers are too lazy to properly nurture and train their children.
Some do not take their children with them outside the home and so they never learn how to behave in public. They end up with children that no one else wants to be around-including the parents. If this is you, don't blame God because you have turned his blessing into a curse.
As a final comment, those who choose to have an abortion obviously see children as a curse. How can we as Christians turn these people from choosing abortion when so many believers by their actions show that they, too, think children are a curse? In their eyes, what is the difference between preventing children with birth control and terminating children before they are born? It produces the same result and is derived from a similar attitude. It seems to me that the salt has really lost its savor in this area! Let's get our hearts right in this matter - children are a blessing from God.
[ Greg Allgood (father of five, deacon, Faith Baptist Church, Laurens, SC) ]
While the United States and its allies are rounding up terrorists, the persecution of Christians at the hands of Muslims around the world appears to be intensifying.
Muslim extremists in the Philippines are threatening to behead an American missionary couple. The radical group Abu Sayyaf is warning they will kill Martin and Gracia Burnham if the Philippines Army doesn't back off.
On Monday, a man identified as Martin Burnham told Radio Mindanao Network that he and his wife are both very weak and tired. "We both have lost a lot of weight from walking a lot, we're very weak," Burnham said.
According to an escaped hostage, Martin Burnham is tied up every night and his wife Gracia cries at night. But he told the network they're being treated fairly well. They get food and water but are sleeping on the ground and being bitten by insects.
The rebel group, suspected of having links to Osama Bin Laden, had a message for government officials in both the U.S. and the Philippines. Burnham said, "They're asking me to relay that Americans everywhere are in danger, that we are being targeted because we are Americans and because Americans have given aid to the Filipino government and they are oppressing the Palestinians."
As America rounds-up terrorists many Muslim nations are rounding-up Christians. In Osama bin Laden's home country of Saudi Arabia, at least six Christian men have been arrested in recent days in the coastal city of Jeddah. According to the United Churches of Saudi Arabia, the Saudis are raiding private homes of Christians, seizing their personal articles and putting the men in jail for undetermined reasons. Officials believe the arrests are an attempt to track down Saudis who have Christian sympathies.
In Afghanistan Americans Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer are among eight foreign aid workers on trial for allegedly preaching Christianity. President Bush called on the Taliban to release the innocent people being held hostage.
Muslims and Christians rioted in the streets of northern Nigeria killing at least a dozen people. The riots came after Muslim extremists clashed with police during protests against the U.S.-led airstrikes on Afghanistan.
Muslim hard-liners across Pakistan have vowed to wage a war against the so-called "infidels" following the U.S.-led strikes. Several Christians and their homes have been attacked in the city of Quetta. Many have had to flee the city.
[ CBN.com ]
One principal at a northeast Mississippi elementary school has given every child in her school a button displaying the national motto "In God We Trust."
For several months, the American Family Association has been involved in a nationwide campaign to get America's national motto "In God We Trust" into every public school classroom in the country. Toward that end, the Tupelo, Mississippi-based group has distributed almost a quarter-million posters displaying the motto to schools, churches, and individuals from coast to coast.
While surfing the Internet last week, Alcorn County (Mississippi) Elementary principal Stephanie Clausel came across the AFA website and noticed that the national motto posters were also now available as buttons. That motivated her to do something for her school and her students.
"I saw the little poster that said 'In God We Trust', and underneath it said 'Buttons Now Available'," Clausel says. "So ... I decided I'd get buttons for all the adults. I'm telling one of the teachers about it, and she said, 'Oh, why can't we get them for the kids?' "
So Monday morning, Clausel personally gave out buttons to every elementary school student -- all 511 of them. Fourth-grader Jake Waldrop plans to wear his button every day, a button he says sends a strong message. "God's our Savior, and when we pray He helps us out," he says. Nine-year-old Desire Hamm says she plans to wear her button "across my heart ... because I want everybody to know I'm going to trust in God."
Clausel says the buttons, in addition to being a patriotic gesture, provide "opportunities for these children to grow not only academically, but also to become the good citizens the [nation's] Founders envisioned."
And that, Clausel says, is much more important than the possibility of any legal action by any group that may be upset because of the distribution of the free buttons.
Significance of Motto
AFA founder and president Don Wildmon concurs with Principal Clausel. "For too long, groups like the ACLU and People for the American Way have used a mythical 'separation of church and state' argument to drive the knowledge of God out of our classrooms," Wildmon says. "As far as I'm concerned, their misdirected efforts -- and the failure of God-fearing persons to challenge them -- are a major reason our schools, and our society, are in the fix they are."
"It has been shown time and time again that faith in God was a major component in the founding of this country," he says. "And our own Congress voted in 1956 to make 'In God We Trust' our national motto. It's a patriotic issue, not a religious issue."
"There's no reason in the world why the motto should not be taught to every child in our schools and posted in every classroom," he says. "I hope every teacher in the country will buy enough buttons to give to every one of their students.
Wildmon and libertine groups like the ACLU have battled in the past over conservative and pro-family issues. He says he finds it intriguing that such groups have been "mysteriously silent" of late during the swell of patriotism following the terrorist attacks and the war on terrorism.
Steve Crampton, chief counsel for AFA's Center for Law & Policy, says the national motto reflects the foundational belief of the American people in God. "In our nation's charter, the Declaration of Independence, the Founders placed 'a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence' and made their appeal to 'the Supreme Judge of the world'," Crampton says. "Such trust in God undergirded the Founders, and is needed now more than ever."
[ AgapePress ]
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