I read a piece recently that reiterated why I am so passionate about teaching students with a classical Christian approach.

The point of studying history is not dates, names, and facts…

The point of studying history is to drink the wisdom of the dead.

It is to recognize that the same trends of human behavior run through our veins.

Our students start studying the Great Works of Literature in 7th Grade and learn early on how to recognize these trends. Our 10th Graders read and discuss Thucydides, the “guy who predicted current events 2,400 years ago.”

They learn that we must remain vigilant, especially when we see old trends sprouting new limbs. And lastly, while history is wisdom, it’s not a savior–that title belongs to Christ.

~Isaac Hallgrimson, Upper School Dean

Thucydides describes the outbreak of civil war on the northern island of Corcyra in 427 BC:

So revolutions broke out in city after city, and in places where the revolutions occurred late the knowledge of what had happened previously in other places caused still new extravagances of revolutionary zeal, expressed by an elaboration in the methods of seizing power and by unheard-of atrocities in revenge. To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings.

What used to be described as a thoughtless act of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member; to think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one’s unmanly character; ability to understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action.

Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, and to plot against an enemy behind his back was perfectly legitimate self-defense. Anyone who held violent opinions could always be trusted, and anyone who objected to them became a suspect. To plot successfully was a sign of intelligence, but it was still cleverer to see that a plot was hatching. If one attempted to provide against having to do either, one was disrupting the unity of the party and acting out of fear of the opposition.

In short, it was equally praiseworthy to get one’s blow in first against someone who was going to do wrong, and to denounce someone who had no intention of doing any wrong at all. Family relations were a weaker tie than party membership, since party members were more ready to go to any extreme for any reason whatever. These parties were not formed to enjoy the benefits of the established laws, but to acquire power by overthrowing the existing regime; and the members of these parties felt confidence in each other not because of any fellowship in a religious communion, but because they were partners in crime. If an opponent made a reasonable speech, the party in power, so far from giving it a generous reception, took every precaution to see that it had no practical effect.

Revenge was more important than self-preservation. And if pacts of mutual security were made, they were entered into by the two parties only in order to meet some temporary difficulty, and remained in force only so long as there was no other weapon available. When the chance came, the one who first seized it boldly, catching his enemy off his guard, enjoyed a revenge that was all the sweeter from having been taken, not openly, but because of a breach of faith.

It was safer that way, it was considered, and at the same time a victory won by treachery gave one a title for superior intelligence. And indeed most people are more ready to call villainy cleverness than simple-mindedness honesty. They are proud of the first quality and ashamed of the second.

Love of power, operating through greed and through personal ambition, was the cause of all these evils. To this must be added the violent fanaticism which came into play once the struggle had broken out. Leaders of parties in the cities had programs that appeared admirable—on one side political equality for the masses, on the other the safe and sound government of the aristocracy—but in professing to serve the public interest they were seeking to win the prizes for themselves. In their struggles for ascendancy nothing was barred; terrible indeed were the actions to which they committed themselves, and in taking revenge they went farther still.

Here they were deterred neither by the claims of justice nor by the interests of the state; their one standard was the pleasure of their own party at that particular moment, and so, either by means of condemning their enemies on an illegal vote or by violently usurping power over them, they were always ready to satisfy the hatreds of the hour. Thus neither side had any use for conscientious motives; more interest was shown in those who could produce attractive arguments to justify some disgraceful action. As for the citizens who held moderate views, they were destroyed by both the extreme parties, either for not taking part in the struggle or in envy at the possibility that they might survive.

As the result of these revolutions, there was a general deterioration of character throughout the Greek world. The simple way of looking at things, which is so much the mark of a noble nature, was regarded as a ridiculous quality and soon ceased to exist. Society had become divided into two ideologically hostile camps, and each side viewed the other with suspicion. As for ending this state of affairs, no guarantee could be given that would be trusted, no oath sworn that people would fear to break; everyone had come to the conclusion that it was hopeless to expect a permanent settlement and so, instead of being able to feel confident in others, they devoted their energies to providing against being injured themselves.

As a rule those who were least remarkable for intelligence showed the greater powers of survival. Such people recognized their own deficiencies and the superior intelligence of their opponents; fearing that they might lose a debate or find themselves out-maneuvered in intrigue by their quick-witted enemies, they boldly launched straight into action; while their opponents, overconfident in the belief that they would see what was happening in advance, and not thinking it necessary to seize by force what they could secure by policy, were the more easily destroyed because they were off their guard.

Certainly it was in Corcyra that there occurred the first examples of the breakdown of law and order. There was the revenge taken in their hour of triumph by those who had in the past been arrogantly oppressed instead of wisely governed; there were the wicked resolutions taken by those who, particularly under the pressure of misfortune, wished to escape from their usual poverty and coveted the property of their neighbors; there were the savage and pitiless actions into which men were carried not so much for the sake of gain as because they were swept away into an internecine struggle by their ungovernable passions.

Then, with the ordinary conventions of civilized life thrown into confusion, human nature, always ready to offend even where laws exist, showed itself proudly in its true colors, as something incapable of controlling passion, insubordinate to the idea of justice, the enemy to anything superior to itself; for, if it had not been for the pernicious power of envy, men would not so have exalted vengeance above innocence and profit above justice.

Indeed, it is true that in these acts of revenge on others men take it upon themselves to begin the process of repealing those general laws of humanity which are there to give a hope of salvation to all who are in distress, instead of leaving those laws in existence, remembering that there may come a time when they, too, will be in danger and will need their protection.

— Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, translated by Rex Warner (Penguin, 1972; pp. 242–245)

The post When A Guy 2,400 Years Ago Predicts Current Events appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

He and his beloved wife, Dawn, have been married for 22 years. The Lord has richly blessed them with five children; Silas (21), Liliana (19), Maran (18), Eden (14), and Elias (10). The Scotts are very committed to Christian education. In addition to Jeff’s ministry, Dawn heads up Classical Conversations in Roseburg. Covenant Grace Church meets 10:30 Sunday mornings at 3510 NE Douglas Avenue in Roseburg.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Raising our children to…

In a short tract he wrote on the duties of Christian parents, renowned 19th century British pastor, J.C. Ryle, made a distressing observation about the rearing of children in his time that could be said of children from Christian homes in our own. He wrote, “We live in days when there is a mighty zeal for education in every quarter. We hear of new schools rising on all sides. We are told of new systems and new books for the young, of every sort and description. And still for all this, the vast majority of children are manifestly not trained in the way they should go, for when they grow up to man’s estate, they do not walk with God.”

If we could say there was a stream of children from Christian households growing up and not walking with God in Ryle’s day, the volume of them who do the same today has grown to the width of an ocean. If we don’t want to see our children join the hordes of post- and anti-Christian young Americans posting their de-conversion stories on Twitter, we must figure out why this trend is escalating. And I believe, along with Ryle, that the answer is simple: “The Lord’s commandment in our text is not regarded; and therefore the Lord’s promise in our text is not fulfilled.”

I doubt any parent who reads this believes that sending their child(ren) to a Christian school is all there is to fulfilling the Lord’s command for them to train their child(ren) in the way he/she should go. More is required. But do we, as Christian parents, hold tightly to and live out the biblically-informed convictions necessary to complete the task?

Well, in this brief article, I want to point out the main assumption underlying the Lord’s command in our text. Then, I want to challenge us to embrace this assumption as our own personal conviction that should shape our approach to child-rearing. And all of this is to promote the goal that we would see our children walk with God all the days of their lives. I will sprinkle in some more excellent insights from Bishop Ryle’s tract along the way.

The main assumption that is critical to observe from Proverbs 22:6 is that Christian parents are told to train up their children in the way they should go, because our children don’t know the way. They will unavoidably go the wrong way. God’s Word says that “foolishness is bound up in the heart” of our children and they need the rod of correction to drive it from them (Proverbs 22:15). Proverbs 29:15 says that “a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.”

The reason these observations are true is, as God diagnosis the situation in His Word, “the heart is deceitful above all else, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) This is why, as Ryle observes, we see in our children from their earliest days “violent tempers, self-will, pride, envy, sullenness, passion, idleness, selfishness, deceit, cunning, falsehood, hypocrisy, a terrible aptness to learn what is bad, a painful slowness to learn what is good, a readiness to pretend anything in order to gain their own ends—all these things, or some of them, you must be prepared to see, even in your own flesh and blood…Children require no schooling to learn sin.”

The wisdom and counsel of God’s Word on this point runs completely counter to nearly all modern models of parenting. The reigning paradigm today tells us it is not our job as parents to shape our children, but rather, we are to encourage them to follow their hearts from the youngest age, even if it requires the surgical removal of sex organs, so that the child’s body aligns with his/her dysphoria. The modern parent’s role is to facilitate their child’s happiness, while desperately trying never to have to tell the child “no.”

But if we wisely turn our backs on the ever-changing wisdom of the age and embrace the wisdom of God, we will recognize that we must not leave our children to the guidance of their own hearts. According to God’s design and instruction, we must show them the way God would have them go in every facet of life. Ryle reasons that Proverbs 22:6 advises us that our children need us to “think for [them], judge for [them], act for [them], just as you would for one weak and blind; but for pity’s sake, give [them] not up to [their] own wayward tastes and inclinations. It must not be [their] likings and wishes that are consulted. [They] know not yet what is good for [their] mind and soul, any more than what is good for [their] body. You do not let [them] decide what [they] shall eat, and what [they] shall drink, and how [they] shall be clothed. Be consistent, and deal with [their] minds in like manner. Train [them] in the way that is scriptural and right, and not in the way that [they] fancy.”

Again, one of the key assumptions underlying the wisdom of Proverbs 22:6 is that our children don’t know the right way to go until we show them. That is why, if we would see our children walk with God, we must parent them with the conviction that they need us to walk alongside of them in all of life, teaching them, as Solomon said it, to acknowledge the Lord in all of their ways, looking to Him to direct their paths (see Proverbs 3:5-6).

Once we come to the conviction that our children need us as their parents to train them which way they should go in all of life, it raises the question, “Where do we begin?” That will be the subject of my next article.

By Pastor Jeff Scott

The post Raising Our Children to Walk with God appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

They have bowed down and fallen;

But we have risen and stand upright.

Psalm 20:7-8

Dear Geneva Families,

There are yet a few days left in the school year, but we can observe with joy and thanksgiving that God has given us a remarkable and healthy year.  We addressed pandemic realities with care but not panic.  We complied with State orders where they did not infringe on parental rights.  We treated our children like children,  not like worrisome super-spreaders.  Parents that had greater need or desire for additional precautions were gracious and patient.

Disagreements over appropriate Covid responses did not split us apart, though good people came to different conclusions.  In short, what mercy and grace God has shown us!  We were able to give our students a full, robust year of instruction, and even now we are planning a Commencement and End-of-Year Soirees.  Let us remember the name of the Lord our God in this time of celebration and relief.

With summer break rapidly nearing, I would encourage parents to keep their children’s minds sharp in those happy months.  Keep them reading!  They should always be reading something.  Summer packets are being prepared to help young minds from forgetting things, but there is something I should mention in regard to that.

If a parent thinks, “Summer packets, bah!  We’re done with this business for three months and I won’t make my child do schoolwork in the summer” then that’s a parent with some bad thinking.  A child can forget a lot in three months, and if parents give their children the notion that “normal” life is the carefree vacation life, then grief awaits when school begins again.  

Homeschool parents know that EVERYTHING can count as educational, as long as there is purpose and thought given to the activity.  A child can and always should be learning.  It’s just that learning takes different forms in different seasons of the year.

Geneva parents, keep your children learning over the summer.  Find things that are delightful and intriguing, but that still require persistence , a good work ethic, and thought.  Keep their minds working amidst the pool parties, trips, and barbecues.  Read the Bible with them.  Set them up for success in September.

We look forward to Aidan Allen’s Commencement this Saturday at 10:00, and next week’s Soirees.  Do come!  And please keep the school in your prayers!  

Brian Turner | Headmaster

The post Cause to Celebrate, and Summer Thoughts appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

In this column you will see short pieces from myself or other teachers,  a few articles, and I hope a number of writings from local pastors.  Sometimes I give updates on current school issues.  Since there are a few news items, I will refrain from a longer reflection this week.

The first item I’d like to mention is the closing of Little Wellspring.  We’ve had many calls urging Geneva to step into this pressing local need, and it’s a compliment to our program that people hope we’ll do something.  Will we?  How does the school address such a thing?  As you might guess, this is a Board level decision because it involves the mission and vision of the school.  We started a daycare once before and closed it in the Covid lockdown days.  There is a Board meeting tonight, and the topic is on the agenda.  I will only add here, that it may be easier to run a K12 school than a large daycare program, and the government hurdles to operation are many.  It is a daunting task, very time consuming, and expensive.

Next, families have heard about UVC and Little Wellspring receiving OSHA complaints almost immediately upon opening.  We expected our own, and indeed we received it last Thursday morning.  The timing was suspicious.   I made a quick reply and expect to hear in the next several days if a further response will be necessary.   Please pray that the Oregon Department of Education and their fired up enforcement agencies (Oregon Health Authority and Occupational Safety & Health Administration) would respect the efforts we’ve made to mitigate the spread of COVID and will leave us alone to do our work.

In regard to  OHA/OSHA, I think it is important for school families to understand how the Governor is using these agencies.  She “directs” OHA to write rules to embody her public policy or pandemic policy decisions.  The OHA then uses OSHA to enforce the rules.  As you know, the penalties for violations have gone from steep fines, to extreme fines, to loss of livelihood or even the ability to operate.  The OHA/OSHA paradigm acts as a complete and separate government: it effectually legislates, it enforces, and it adjudicates.  It’s rules touch on personal liberty, livelihoods, the operating of business or organizations, personal property, matters of conscience.  No elected official can intervene on a citizen’s behalf if he falls afoul of OSHA.  My Sheriff, my Commissioner, my State Representative, my City Councilman…none have any sway or power over OSHA.  

This system is, I believe, unconstitutional.  “A false balance is abomination to the Lord”  (Proverbs 11:1).  A standard that can be manipulated to fall with power upon citizens without proper redress is a false balance.  Though it may only be “temporary” to deal with a pandemic, we’re going on two years now, and Governors, and even the President of the United States, are using this separate OSHA system to force their mandates on citizens.  We don’t know what the next crisis might be that “forces” the Governor to claim new emergency powers and send OHA/OSHA out to compel compliance to new mandates.

If you find yourself confused over whether our duty as Christians should be to comply out of love for our neighbors, or to not comply out of love for our neighbors, to comply out of obedience to God, or to not comply out of obedience to God, I suggest doing some careful research.  A good starting point is by watching a series of sermons by local pastor Jeff Scott.  You can find them on the Covenant Grace Media channel on YouTube.  I recommend the sermons “Speaking Truth in a World of Lies”, “Standing for Truth in a World of Lies,” and “Freed to Serve the Lord.”  (You can fast forward to the sermons).  These will help you avoid being mushy in your understanding of the relationship between Biblical imperatives and political freedoms.

“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”  Psalm 90:1

Praise God!  Our school year has started!

Brian Turner | Headmaster

The post Understanding the Relationship Between Biblical Imperatives and Political Freedoms appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

There is so much uncertainty, after all, so much turmoil in churches and the culture.  He replied that actually, “It’s a good time to be a pastor.  It’s a good time to be a Christian.”  I greatly appreciated his view.  

I’ve been thinking about that remark, noting that it’s a good time to be a Christian school.  We’ve never seen such clear contrasts between the road that government schooling is taking, and the road that Christian education takes.  The State of Oregon is going all in on Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ+.  Even the feeble support ODE gives for the Constitution and the Christian history that shaped it will be supplanted.  Public education will be all Agenda.

So it’s a good time to be a Christian school, whether it’s Geneva, or UVC, or your homeschool!

Coupled with that thought is appreciation for what Geneva has accomplished this year.  We have a few weeks of school left, but now seems a good time to highlight some successes, made possible by God’s grace and provision, and good people He’s given to serve Geneva families:

• We have served students in-person the entire year without a stop.  Normal instruction has been provided.  Our children have been spared the loss of academic progress and the sometimes debilitating effects of being confined at home.
• We were re-accredited for 5 years.  Our Accreditation Review was accomplished despite the extra challenges of this year.
• Mrs. Winder initiated our first K4 class!  A blessing to families and so well done.
• We pulled off a full bells and whistles with Science Fair!  And Speech Meet!
• We implemented our new Bible, Literature, and History courses in the secondary program, shifting away from our past Omnibus classes.  A major change, but an important improvement.
• Miss Turner initiated a new Kodaly based music program in grades K-6!  It has been content rich and is building a strong base for music education. 
• We implemented new Writing curriculum in both Grammar and Secondary Grades.  We reviewed our Phonics program and designed ways to track reading progress better.  We’ve reviewed Mathematics curriculum and are preparing improvements there, too.  It’s been a steady push to improve, led by Dr. Kester.
• Mr. Suhr taught new Computer Aided Design electives in the Senior High, even without the infrastructure that heavily funded public schools enjoy.
• The Auction Committee, under the Chairmanship of Mrs. Geyer, in just a few months, planned and pulled off a very successful spring event, grossing well over the $200,000 goal.  Many volunteers gave many hours to make that happen.
• And, not least in the list, is this: the Scriptures were taught, the praises of God were sung, the Word was memorized, Christ our King was lifted up.  

It’s been a very good year to be a Christian school.  Praise be to God!

Brian Turner | Headmaster

The post A Remarkable Year appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

The Parliament building is formally known as the Palace of Westminster, and it really isn’t very old.  The old palace burned down in a spectacular fire in 1834.  (The great English painter J.M.W. Turner painted the scene in one of his most famous works; people lined the river banks to watch the great blaze).  The new palace wasn’t completed until the late 1860’s.  They were working on it during our Civil War.

Before building the new home for Parliament, there was a competition to decide the style of the building.  Various architects submitted plans and there was a furious debate about whether the building should look classical, taking cues from ancient Greece and Rome, or whether the building should look more Gothic, taking cues from England’s medieval Christian heritage.

The winning design was submitted by Charles Barry.  Yet Barry had significant help from Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the leading advocate for Gothic design.  Pugin could not submit drawings in his own name because he had converted to Catholicism, and in London in the 19th Century that was a disqualifier.  Barry won the competition, but the 23 year old Pugin was named as co-architect and in fact drew thousands of designs for interior rooms, furniture, details, and exterior decoration.

Pugin had published a book in 1836 called Contrasts.  The book was polemical, meaning it was an attack.  Pugin was attacking the loss of quality Christian architecture and its replacement by pagan and commercial ideas and/or shoddy workmanship.  It is fair to say that Pugin strained his argument in places, or overstated the contrasts between an idealized Middle Ages view and a modern industrialized reality.

Nonetheless, his core idea was that buildings of Great Britain’s medieval past were more noble and more Christian than similar buildings of Pugin’s time.  He strongly advocated a return of Christian, and specifically Catholic, virtue in public buildings.  

Listen to his advocacy of Gothic architecture:

     “Pointed or Christian Architecture has far higher claims on our admiration than mere beauty or antiquity…in it alone we find the faith of Christianity embodied, and its practices illustrated.

     The three great doctrines, of the redemption of man by the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross; the three equal persons united in one Godhead; and the resurrection of the dead, –are the foundation of Christian Architecture.

     The first–the cross–is not only the very plan and form of a Catholic church, but it terminates each spire and gable, and is imprinted as a seal of faith on the very furniture of the altar.

     The second is fully developed in the triangular form and arrangement of arches, tracery, and even subdivisions of the buildings themselves.

     The third is beautifully exemplified by great height and vertical lines, which have been considered by the Christians, from the earliest period, as the emblem of the resurrection.”

Later on, he really gets going, questioning the thinking and morals of the advocates of Greek design:

“In their considering the symbol of our redemption and the images of saintly personages more suitable to the residence of a Christian, than the statue of a lascivious Venus, or the representation of heathen fables?

….In their following the architecture that emanated from the faith itself in the erection of churches, instead of adopting a bastard imitation of Pagan edifices, unworthy and unsuited to so sacred a purpose?

     In fine, by their setting forth the self-denying, charitable, devout, and faithful habits of the ages of faith, as far more admirable and exemplary than the luxurious, corrupt, irreverent, and infidel system of the present time?”

What Contrasts did, and what Pugin did, was lift up to a nation an impassioned explanation of two choices.  On one side was what the nation had been, and what it stood for.  On the other was the direction it was heading.  He underlined very Christian principles and meanings to the debate.  His was the world of architecture and design, and his argument largely prevailed.

I think there are many lessons here for Geneva parents and all who are supporting our Christian educational mission.  One is that study of the past, informed by a Biblical worldview and Christian history, helps us see more clearly the truly good and beautiful, and the falsely so.  Another is that even in “technical” fields, there are underlying assumptions about the universe, humanity, and morals that guide the outcome of work in those fields, and that Christians better be in them!  I could add the impact that a single, convicted person with gifting might have on an entire discipline and even country.  Or the importance of actually doing something about what’s important, rather than leaving it to others to hopefully figure out.

In closing, and with a change of subject, may I ask you to be praying for God’s provision of new faculty for the year ahead?  God has wonderfully rewarded the work and prayers of our fundraising team, and He has answered to date our prayers for health and safety at the school.  We need more teachers to take the place of dear ones leaving, and for expanding grades into two classrooms.

I look forward to next week’s Capstone Defense, and then in rapid succession Commencement and our End-of-Year Soirees.  Hope to see you soon!

Brian Turner | Headmaster

Pugin’s quotes above are taken from the Cambridge University Press’s 2013 reprint of Contrasts, Or A Parallel Between the Noble Edifices of the Middle Ages and Corresponding Buildings of the Present Day, pages 1,2, 19.

The post A. W. Pugin & the Usefulness of Contrasts appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

Thursday is what is traditionally called Ascension Day – the day that is forty days after Easter when Christians around the world celebrate the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God the Father.  This glorious fact of the ascension is recorded at the end of Mark and Luke’s Gospels. It is also recorded at the beginning of Luke’s Acts of the Apostles. It is the universal testimony of Christians across time and space. It is so simple to understand a child can get it, and so sublime a speculation that it has kept theologians busy for millennia.  It has inspired beautiful Christian art and imagination and music for decades.   

Why celebrate the Ascension – so Jesus went up to Heaven. So what?! The Ascension is special because it sets the scene for Christianity. It separated early Christ followers from the secular Ceasar worshipers. The Caesars had cults dedicated to worship of themselves as sons of God, and as Gods themselves. They also claimed to have ascended to Heaven itself. If Jesus is the only Way, Truth, and Life then both of these claims cannot be true. That continues to have importance today, to those who would continue their reign in their stead, even if not in name.  

The Ascension is important for other reasons too.  It not only sets the scene, it inaugurates the session where our Great High Priest not only reigns, but intercedes. Session is the name for the reign of a Sovereign.  In Christs Heavenly session, He not only intercedes for us as only a priest in the order of Melchizedek can, he also sends the Holy Spirit. Not only that – as if that were not enough – in the divine session, he sets a place for us at the Table for the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and prepares for us a room in his Fathers Mansion.         

When we look at the whole counsel of Christs Gospel, we will be struck by how central the Ascension is to the person and work of Jesus that we take for granted.  Do not take the doctrine of the Ascension for granted! It is under attack today. Scientists claim to have scoured the whole heavens, so this is supposed to disprove the ancient dogma. Nonsense!

Scientists can no more disprove the Doctrine of the Ascension with a telescope than elaborately designed biogenesis experiments prove life arose by chance without intelligence.  But the point of the Ascension is not mere head knowledge, it is to be combined with love and lived out to the greater Glory of God and good of our neighbor.  Orthodoxy must be combined with orthopraxis!  What better way to do that than wonder at the majestic mystery that is the burning fire at the heart of the Ascension.   

The wonder of the Ascension is that even now our humanity is seated at the right hand of the Father, in the glorified human nature of Jesus Christ. In Christ, heaven broke in, and is even now breaking into our own reality and turning wickedness to His Holy purpose for us and our salvation.  Our God reigns! We can rest confident in his wise rule, because He has ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father.  Hope you and yours have a happy Ascension! 

~Dr. David Kester

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We are giving thanks this week for the wonderful provision of God at our Annual Auction.  Facilitated by many volunteer hands, who worked sometimes into early mornings and through weekends, the school met its lofty fundraising goals.  Other communications are going out to donors and families about that, so I needn’t go into more detail on that here.  But what a joy!

What I’d like to remember here is the admonition in Deuteronomy 8 to look to God as much after His blessings as before.  God told his people, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.”   (A thought arises: I often give thanks before a meal, but have I ever given thanks after?)  Of course, God is not talking about a single meal here, but about a wide provision… not just about one prayer, but about an attitude, a posture.

God did not want His people, after they had built houses and lived in them, after their herds and wealth increased, to forget Him.  Verse 13 continues, “And when… all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”

God did not want His people to do this: “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.  But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers.”

We should celebrate!  And we should be humble.  We should rejoice!  And we should repent.  God is infinitely holy, and we need to continually look to Him.  

We are at the wonderfully busy season of the year where students are completing final units and book reports.  They are going on their fair-weather field trips and readying for final tests.  A Capstone defense is coming up.  End-of-Year Soirees are being planned.  Let us, as a Geneva family, thank God for His grace this year and for His provision at our Auction.  Then let us humbly remember His Kingship and ask for His further mercy to finish our year well, and with joy and holiness.

Brian Turner | Headmaster

The post Thou Shalt Bless the Lord thy God appeared first on Geneva Guardians.

The term Janissary comes from the Turkish word “yeniceri,” which means new troops. In the early 1300s, Bey (or Sultan) Murat 1 of the Ottoman Empire established the Janissaries. This was an elite corps of soldiers who elicited terror in opposing armies because of their ferocity. These troops were primarily Balkan Christians who were put in an intense monastic environment and subjected to strict Islamic training.

In the late 1300s, the devshirme system was used to recruit boys and young men, ages eight to twenty, into the Janissaries. Devshirme was an Ottoman tax upon Christians. One boy from every forty families was conscripted. The Turks primarily selected boys from villages and small towns because they considered boys from the city to be too soft. They assessed them both physically and intellectually; they only wanted the best and the brightest.

The Janissaries were considered slaves, but they had a higher status than what we understand a slave to be. They proudly bore the name of kul, which was a slave of God (Allah). The boys were given Muslim first names and circumcised as part of their initiation into Islam. Initially, they served on Turkish farms to learn the Turkish language and Islam. Top students were selected for the Royal schools and would receive the best education in the empire. The rest would still learn Turkish, Persian, and Arabic literature, music, and basic mathematics. All were trained for combat—horseback riding, archery, and basic infantry skills. At the end of the training, they were selected for various positions, from serving in the Sultan’s palace to being a basic infantryman.

Many Christian families volunteered their sons because they would receive a good education and live a better life. They became the Sultan’s elite shock troops–they would attack in a dense V-shaped formation that overwhelmed their enemies. They were experts in siege warfare and were the primary force used to conquer Constantinople, Belgrade, and other European cities. These boys who were given to the Sultan became the primary tool used to defeat the Christian lands from which they came. Some of these boys killed their own Christian families who had given them to the Turks.

We do not want to become the Christian parents who turn our children over to the Turks and have our children be the ones who destroy the church in America, but we often place our wants and desires ahead of our children’s spiritual lives. Too many of us choose the easy answer and turn our children over to ungodly teachers, coaches, or leaders because it is more convenient, costs less, ore seems to offer better opportunities. These are all arguments frequently given for putting our children in the public, charter, or elite private schools.

Ephesians 6:4 tells us that we are to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, as as parents, God holds us responsible for fulfilling this charge. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (ESV) beings with the Great Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” It tells us we are to teach this to our children as we go through our lives and these words are to always be in our minds and on our lips. To accomplish this, we must ensure that our children are in a Christian environment with Christian teachers, coaches, and leaders who can partner with us and help us to raise our children with a biblical worldview.

We need to recognize that the world we live in is not friendly to gospel-centered living, and it is actively working to destroy our children’s faith in Jesus Christ. Music, television, movies, and computer games, and education–some attacks are overt, but most are subtle and difficulty to recognize without training. Our children need protection as they mature in their faith and their worldview. If we turn them over to the Turks for the sake of ease, cost, or opportunity, then we should not be surprised when they turn against us–when they become the new Janissaries.

Turning Our Children Over to the Enemy
by Dr. Donald Larson

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To those who have ears to hear, we can almost hear the music of the spheres in the singing of the birds, and the laugh of playing children. To those with eyes to see, clouds look whiter and fluffier, and the sky a little bluer. It is part of the natural rhythm and order God has designed into his finely tuned universe.

Our God is a God of good and beautiful order, as he tells us in 1 Corinthians 14:33. We can and ought to rest in the fact that our God has a plan for his people, and it is to order our loves and make us more Christ-like so we can be a blessing to the world – like our Father Abraham. God calls us to lose ourselves in this work, only to finally find our best selves in His work of perfect freedom, in the glorious law of liberty.

In a world that is fallen into sin, and upside down (down the rabbit-hole so to speak) what does this ordering work look like? God’s ordering of our loves, to be more like the love Christ had for his beloved bride the church, will appear as disorder to the wicked who rule in high places. Christ’s Truth, Goodness and Beauty appears as error, ugliness, and evil to the world the flesh and the devil. To the principalities and powers, having principles makes you a threat to their power!

Living through 2020 has confirmed my belief in this fact. God has graced Geneva with the ability to meet and continue to give the parents the good and Godly education we have covenanted together to provide. The benefits of this covenant faithfulness on the part of God, in the midst of the world going crazy, will continue to be felt by your children throughout their entire lives. Federal Reserve studies project billions of dollars of lost earnings as a result of lost learning. What will Geneva students do with this situation?

Many in the world will resent this fact. Many Christians will be tempted to respond to the resentment of others with their own tit-for-tat bitterness, anger and alienation. But, this is not what makes for Holy and happy warriors that winsomely witness to the love of Christ that lures others to Himself. This is not what Christ did for us while he was on earth.

Our God is a God who loved us when we hated him. This is the love he calls us to share with others, in the good news of the gospel. The gospel may not be greeted as good by the world, but that fact must not tempt us to waver in our commitment to it.

I pray Geneva students and families will be thankful to God for the blessings of this year, in the midst of the many woes. Only then we can be the people of God the world needs during these dark times. After all, it was for such a time as this that we were not only born, but reborn. Happy Easter!

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