Family Man, Family Leader first presents the vision of biblical household leadership. Next, it addresses the many practical issues necessary for achieving victory as a man, from learning and acting upon God’s priorities, to decision-making as a father, to growing in oneness with your wife, to personal accountability before the Lord and victory over secret sins. Whether you are a veteran visionary father, or a dad just beginning the journey of patriarchy, we hope you find Family Man, Family Leader to be a source of inspiration and practical help.

Tending Your Garden - Wisdom for Keepers at Home By Denise Sproul, Foreword by Carol DeMar

Restoring Daily Worship to the Christian Household

Since moving to Australia in 1999 it has been interesting to observe how the average Aussie bloke operates. Very interesting. We could look into our society/churches and complain about the enormous feminist movement in this country. In doing so I think we miss the point. Should we men look to our own actions first? An ideological movement is an easy scapegoat. Real self examination, repentance and new action is needed. Biblical masculine leadership, the servant hood type, would close the door on feminism. Well perhaps there is more to this. A deep commitment to the Scriptures, as our only basis for not only faith but all of life too, is foundational to revival in this land. Now I don’t mean a commitment to Scripture in a wooden, literalist sense. The Bible ought to be accepted for what it is. Primarily, the very Word of God. Secondarily, this leads onto how we accept the Scriptures. We ought to accept how the Bible is written. Many different literary devices are evident throughout its pages. Poetry ought to be read, understood, interpreted and applied as poetry. Likewise history, prose, prophecy etc should be viewed within their own literary genre. Nicodemus sought to take Jesus’ words in a strictly literal sense. He missed the symbolism used by the Lord. This is tough. How ought we to go about?

It is important to tell your children stories. They love to hear dad's voice. Telling stories of how God has worked in and through you will change their little lives. Reading to your family is also vital. The torch of Christendom is faithfully passed to the next generation via story telling, reading and living faithfully. As fathers, we must re-learn the Scriptural art of story telling. We must be willing to read to our children regularly. They will love hearing you, their father, read aloud. It is powerful stuff. Choose good books to read. It will create sweet memories. It will envoke their imagination. It will fill their minds with the wonders of God and how He has worked throughout history. If you read regularly to your children you will inspire them to love the Lord their God. Through learning about faithful men and women of old they will seek to emulate. Sons will want to be brave and courageous, battling the enemy and protecting their family. Daughters will delight in caring for children, keeping the home and helping.

Through this series of articles (one, two and three) I have sought to answer some difficult questions surrounding education and schooling. I have highlighted some of the history and pitfalls of our government controlled school system. Allow me to recap on the statistics. Australian research shows that 95% of children, who are raised in the Church, turn their back on the Christ. These children walk away from the faith of their fathers when they reach an age of accountability. I am not pretending that this is not a complex, multi dimensional issue. I have built a case for what I believe to be a major reason for this appalling statistic. Worldview battles have raged since the beginning of time. Eve accepted false wisdom and knowledge. She accepted a humanistic value system; man is autonomous. Adam did not protect her from the serpent; he failed in his headship. Thus humanity spiraled away from worshipping in the presence of God. Humanism has early roots. Man was meant to obey the Lord and then go out, down from the garden, into the world and take dominion for the glory of God. Instead, man groped at sovereignty. Thus he was removed from the garden and servitude dominion was not accomplished. Until the Lord Jesus Christ, no man walked perfectly before the Lord. Every single man failed to humbly serve and thereby receive dominion/true wisdom. Every man, in one way or another, sought to take dominion. That is until the Lord Jesus Christ. He humbled Himself, took on sin affected flesh, died on the cross. In this act of servitude He defeated Satan and muted the sting of death. He did this knowing that glory and dominion were on the other side of the cross. We must learn to die in order to receive life and power. Christ rose again and ascended on high to be the first man to enter the highest heaven/the Holy of Holies. He received His kingdom. And He rules over the world until all His enemies are subdued. His bride is to obediently go out from the new garden, each Lord's Day, down into all the world and take dominion over all the nations. This is accomplished by the converting power of the Holy Ghost, through the means of the preaching and living of the gospel. God is seeking godly offspring. He desires fathers to pass their faith on to their children. Educating our children in a way that glorifies the King must be our primary concern. Fathers, the battle lines have been drawn for a long time; but God haters have blurred the points of engagement. Atheists (of all types and forms) realise the importance of winning the next generation. They think the game is over. They believe victory is theirs. It is not. Fathers who faithfully apply the Scriptures to all of life will bring revival. Not because of their efforts. Rather, Christ has won the victory. Men, it is time to see the battle for what it is. We are to be faithful and courageous. Scriptural principles must be applied to the education of our children. See humanism and its classroom (state schools) for what it is; a false religion parading as objective truth. Don't be fooled by the lie. Sending your children to government schools will open the door for receiving back a secular humanistic child. If you give your child to Caesar for education don't be surprised when a Roman soldier returns.

We are returning to the important topic of your children and their education. This is the third, of four articles on the topic. Please read part one and two for context and background. The landscape of Australian education prior to the 1840s was largely in the hands of the Church denominations and families. Catholics and Protestants taught their children in many Church based schools and at home. However, it was found that “the wealthy alone could enjoy higher branches of knowledge.”[1] This was a time of great change in the history of Australian education. A committee commissioned by the NSW Legislative Council in 1844 recommended a government funded and centralized Board of Education to be established. The board would compile sections of Scripture to be used in the instruction of literacy and morals. Once a week a pastor, or person approved by the parents would be permitted to teach the children. This system met much opposition from the Protestants and Catholics alike. Anglican Bishop of Australia William Broughton fought tooth and nail against the introduction of such a state controlled secular education system. Bishop Broughton argued before the committee that; “education without doctrine would lead to a permissiveness in moral behaviour, and a republicanism in politics, which would bring ship-wreck to Christian civilization...he was not prepared to teach Christianity without a creed. He would rather not teach at all than be guilty of encouraging the belief that all forms of religion were equally entitled to support, because under such a system there was a danger that truth would ultimately be driven from the world.”[2]

Your children’s education is of utmost importance. This should be stating the obvious. However, many Christian parents are not aware of the many agendas lurking behind our education system. The government recognises the importance of school. It knows that you win a generation through discipling them. I demonstrated this in my first article. You must understand why. In doing so you will recognise the battle line and thus know how to fight. The false religion of secular humanism is taught in our schools for a reason. This is no mistake. Governments that do not pay reverence to the Son of God (Ps 2) grope for sovereignty. Thomas Paine (1739 – 1809 A.D.) stated it this way; “The Nation is essentially the source of all Sovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it.”[1]In other words, secular governments take counsel and deride (Ps 2:2) the “ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev 1:5 ). All imposter sovereigns seek to influence their disciples. The common method of discipleship is education. Through education every religion/philosophy trains its adherents in a world and life view. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) knew the importance of discipling children via government controlled education. He stated it like this; “[n]o one will doubt that the legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be moulded to suit the form of government under which he lives….Neither must we suppose that any one of the citizens belongs to himself, for they all belong to the state.”[2]There is a goal behind every curriculum. It either glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ or not. Our educational aims must be to lay claim of Christ, not the government, over the child’s acquisition of knowledge and wisdom. Secular humanist government schools seek to mould our youth according to the philosophy of the government. Why? Those seeking to usurp God’s sovereignty assume possession of their subjects and their children. God, as the sovereign Creator, owns you and your children. Secular humanist governments seek to assert their ownership over you and your children. They are the imposter trying to usurp your inheritance and God’s sovereignty. No one denies the power of education in the area of ownership and discipleship. This is an old battle line. It has been a major battle since the beginning of creation. There is a sharp antithesis. The usurper wants to take power and control his subjects. Christ is working to disciple the nations through the work of His bride (Matt 28 ). Much of this work is accomplished through parents discipling/educating their children (Deut 6 , Mal 2:15 ).

We are embarking on a series regarding the education of our children. This is an important worldview issue. Education cannot be held in isolation. It is a piece of the worldview jigsaw that influences the entire makeup of our worldview puzzle. As Christians we are engaged in the battle over worldviews. It is a war “between...biblical Christianity where the infinite and sovereign God of the universe reigns and rules and the worldview of the many varieties of man-centred belief systems where finite and dependent creatures work to rule and reign independent of God.”[1] What exactly is a worldview? Greg Bahnsen defined it this way; “A worldview is a network of presuppositions (which are not verified by the procedures of natural science) regarding reality (metaphysics), knowing (epistemology), and conduct (ethics) in terms of which every element of human experience is related and interpreted.”[2] Nothing is neutral. “You must not set aside your faith in God when you consider anything.”[3] Your worldview must be consistent with the revelation in the Bible. A house divided cannot stand. When parts of your worldview do not comport with the Scriptures things need to change. “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matt 12:30 ).

Many Yims felt that although the Community Meal Halls (CMH’s) were serving suspicious ingredients and an unbalanced diet, it was not bad enough to warrant any extreme changes in their daily routines. “We can fill them up with nutritious food at supper time", they would argue and that way "the poisons will not have any effect." Besides, it is our job to teach the community about health and nutrition as the Master taught. How can we reach the Chefs and parents of other children if our children aren’t attending our local CMH? If we have to work in our own gardens and orchards again we won’t have time to talk to other Yims.” They watched as their friends planned and prepared family meals. They noted that the children no longer attended the local CMH and they shook their heads. How could these children learn current table etiquette and menu ideas if they were eating at home? How could they share the Master’s Instructions if they weren’t up-to-date with the Chefs latest ideas and theories? No, these ‘extremists’ as they came to be known, were surely misguided. The Master wanted the message of good health to reach all Yims. The children must learn to have the poison on their plates but not eat it. They must work in the CMH beside their parents to bring health back to the people. But it wasn’t always easy to distinguish each individual ingredient in the different meals. The children couldn’t always know if the food was acceptable. It was on their plate, all mixed together. The children weren’t sure. Their parents weren’t there.