I Know Jesus More Today Than Yesterday

The older I get, the more central to my life Jesus becomes. Mercifully. Thankfully. It is not my good looks, my "wits" or my charm that make me or break me. It's Jesus, his message, and his mission. Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2,

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ... My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Despite my efforts, however, I often fail. My pilgrimage, my walk "in the light" can become a dark nightmare of a journey. I have so many pits that I can fall into. Legalism can set me on a course away from the Holy Spirit. Pride can make me shine until I'm blind to everything else, even the most basic, open pit. Whenever I trip in my walk, self-pity and depression can snag my feet and pull me in. Yet God has given me tools and blessings that can defeat each one of these pits, allowing me to walk around or even above them without falling into them. His grace is undeservedly mine, but mine nonetheless. And it can be anyone's too. All we need to do is move from being a fan of Jesus towards being a follower. It's a choice we all have, each day, every day.



I need Jesus every day. I need his power to carry my cross that I bear. Others have their cross, I have mine. I don't need to nail myself to it. I just need to follow Jesus wherever he leads. As I follow, I find myself drawn closer to him, knowing both his pain and his comfort. It is not an easy, wide, smooth road. It's a narrow, jagged, rough trail. But I believe that the end is truly the beginning and it is worth all I might suffer.



Jesus of Nazareth is the very Word of God and the life we can have through him, both here and hereafter is worth the price to pay. I choose him, daily, hourly, sometimes by the minute, but I choose him because I know enough about him to trust him. He will be with me forever. How can I say no to such a wonderful offer?

Homeschool Students Continue To Pass the Test

If you're worried about whether your child will be able to go to college without a transcript from the local high school, you shouldn't be. From ACT scores to GPAs to social habits, on the whole, it seems that homeschoolers have the mastership life requires.

You have the right to educate your children at home. Although it is not for everyone, but if your child is struggling in an area, bored, or just plain unhappy with the school they're in, you owe it to your child to examine homeschooling, whether they're 4, 7, 14, or 17. Even one year can have profound results!

Remember, public schooling advocates that there is one way to teach children, and that's in the classroom. That would work if kids were standard issue pieces of inventory. Any parent can tell you that their child is as unique as they are and that they don't all learn the same way.

What magical transformation happens at 5 years old when we send them off to Kindergarten? What does a parent not have to guide their child through their education? The answers to both these questions are "Nothing." Home education was far more daunting in the 1980s when few if any curricula existed that were designed for study at home. Today, homeschooling magazines are filled with ads for curricula as diverse as the students themselves and as detailed (or not) as the parent needs.

The Old Schoolhouse is a great place to start looking into homeschool. Try "How to Homeschool," or consider attending a homeschool conference or even their online conference. It will be time well spent, because your children are worth it!



PS: But, wait! There's more! Consider,

• National Home Education Research Institute - Dr. Brian Ray shows how much better students educated at home perform when compared with their public education peers
• Take a look via MSNBC at what life is like for a homeschooling family

Trout: Are They Ticklish?

As a trout fisherman in Colorado, I've caught everything from itty-bitty brookies barely big enough to swallow the hook to mean-looking brown trout that have scarcely seen a lure in a decade to lake trout too long for most of our cooking gear. I have fished from Steamboat Springs to the Rio Grande headwaters. I have heard fish stories and I've heard true fish stories. Until recently, I considered myself a decent docent of the salmoninae family. Then I hit Wikipedia and I heard of this activity which, to my amazement, has been done since antiquity. You might say it had me reeling.

The One Thing That Changes Everything Else

I have a friend who is struggling with the doctrine and work of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I have another dear sister who is struggling--quite literally--for her life, against alcoholism. They have one common characteristic that is at the core of their respective problems.

Both have a malformed image of their Creator.

The Two Christmases of 2010

When I was in retail, it always amazed me how the last quarter of the calendar year seemed to hang in the minds of the store managers and owners. From October through December, they could expect to equal or exceed the preceding three quarters, essentially doubling their profits for the entire year. I'm not sure that this holds true across the industry, but if Christmas didn't happen for our store, we'd close our doors.

Christmastime In Our Homeschool

I posted about homeschooling during Christmastime on my Dad @ Homeschool blog. Christmastime is a wonderful time for both parents and children in our homeschool. Home education offers so much freedom compared to the rigid secularism in our schools. We can offer our children, and our God, so much more!

Messiah In the Mall

The Messiah, and the story of G. F. Handel, is an amazing testimony to God. Its "Hallelujah Chorus" has become one of the most well known classical pieces in the world. The message of the Messiah is obvious, but it consists of scripture alone. The most well-known parts are the Old Testament prophecies about Him. What an amazing work!

Organizers in Philadelphia brought this piece to life recently by staging a "random act of culture" in a department store gearing up for the Christmas rush. Complete with a pipe organ, the sound of the praises of our King, especially in a temple of materialism, is music to my ears!

Who Am I, Again?

It's beginning to look like Christmas around here. Advent has started. We're still waiting for our Advent Book on order. Tabitha's Travels is en route, I'm told.

I just had a delightful conversation with a 3 year-old. She proclaimed that Santa Claus was coming to give gifts to all the children. Of course, I pretended not to know anything about it. I asked if you had to be a certain age, which she didn't know. I asked her if she thought I could get a present too, even if I'm all grown up. Karen, my wonderful wife, chimed in, "Because he's still a kid at heart."

To which she replied, "He's not a kid! He's a boy!"

Rats.

Thanksgiving Special

My family has enjoyed Focus on the Family Radio Theater for years. The Chronicles of Narnia and A Christmas Carol are often listened to, almost as much as the Adventures in Odyssey, also from Focus. Radio Theater engages your mind much more than TV or movies. Your mind creates the stage for the performers, and the drama is perhaps even more real as adventures and drama unfold.

So, I'm thrilled to tell you that today, Focua on the Family Radio Theater is offering the Thanksgiving story of Squanto for FREE! I really love this story! Visit CBD to complete the download. You will need to complete a CBD order (and obtain an account if you don't have one), and you will likely need to download and install a player from Akamai to play the content on Quicktime.

It's a neat way to bring the story of Thanksgiving home tomorrow!

Escaping the Homeschool Matrix ....Follow this link!

Hi there, everyone!

I just found out that Nancy Carter of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine mentioned me in her e-mail. Some of you may have landed here, expecting to find the story. This is just my personal blog. If you're wanting to skip to the story,

It's actually right here, TOS: Escaping the Homeschool Matrix, 

or here, the original with artwork.

Thanks for reading! If you're interested in what else I have to say about homeschooling, or whatever else is going on, please make yourself at home! 

I'll be lion around here if you want to comment in.