What Kingdom Does Your Heart Live In?

Jul.17,2010

I frequently check Pete Wilson’s blog at WithoutWax.tv. Especially lately. Today I found a gold mine there. He published a quote that puts everything into perspective. Perfectly.

G. Cambell Morgan said:

“You are to remember with the passion burning within you, that you are not the child of today, you are not of the earth, you are more than dust; you are the child of tomorrow, you are of the eternities, you are the offspring of Deity.

The measurements of your lives cannot be circumscribed by the point where blue sky kisses green earth. All the fact of your life cannot be encompassed in the one small sphere upon which you live. You belong to the infinite. If you make your fortune on the earth,– poor, sorry, silly soul,– you have made a fortune and stored it, in a place where you cannot hold it.

Make your fortune, but store it where it will greet you in the dawning of the new morning…. We cannot lay up our treasure on earth, it is not characteristic of those in His Kingdom. It was characteristic of the Pharisees. In a sense He was saying to them, “This is just another indication that you are not in My Kingdom no matter what you claim. People in My Kingdom don’t lay up treasure on earth.”

We should be living in a different Kingdom than the people all around us who haven’t made Jesus the Lord of their lives. Some people have called it “the Upside-Down Kingdom”. We humble ourselves, He exalts us. We give to others, He provides for us. We die to ourselves, He gives us life abundantly now and eternal life from now on. We obey Him, He gives us authority. But if we don’t live these principles, we don’t get the promised rewards.

It’s a different kind of life. We should seem kind of strange to the majority. We should appear foolish to those who are storing up their treasures on Earth.

Our family learned how to do this by losing every earthly treasure we had. We willingly gave it up for the spiritual blessings that we knew God wanted to give us. We knew that we had to pay that price. You may not have to, but that’s how God worked it in our lives.

The point is God wants our hearts to be willing to give up everything that pertains to the kingdom of this Earth, just like He said to the rich, young ruler. He may not demand it of you, but He wants you to have your heart in heaven. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Being willing counts for a lot with Him. Consider Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac. It counted for righteousness. His obedience showed his faith. His treasure was obviously in heaven. He was willing to do whatever God asked of him, because his treasure was in heaven. Radical, child-like, extreme, foolish faith is what God is after. Is that how you would describe your faith in God?

When (Jesus) comes back will He find faith on the earth?

Luke 18:8

If your treasure is truly in heaven, you will have this kind of faith.

Two of the comments on Pete Wilson’s blog struck me. One person said this quote reminded him of a Charlie Peacock song that had a line, “What if we lived like heaven was a real place?”

The other thought-provoking and clarifying idea among the comments went something like this:
God wants and needs to be in that place in our heart that is filled with “things”- worldly treasure- and the more of that stuff there is in there, the less room there is for HIM.

It makes you wonder about the validity of the American Dream.

Another Favorite: A Charlotte Mason Companion

Jul.17,2010

A Charlotte Mason Companion

Yet another wonderful resource to help you understand how to use Charlotte Mason principles in your homeschool and in your family life. This book really helps mothers learn to live life with their children and to use life experiences as education. Karen Andreola leads us into the wonders of natural learning and making education an atmosphere in your life.

Favorite Homeschool Book – For the Children’s Sake

Jul.17,2010

For the Children’s Sake

This is the book that gave me my start in applying Charlotte Mason’s principles. I wrote about my experience with this book here. I highly recommend reading this book whether you’re just beginning to homeschool or you have been homeschooling for a while, and you’re starting to experience burnout. I have loved our mode of homeschooling for all of these years. Anyone who only uses textbooks and workbooks should really check this out to see if you and your children would enjoy some of the methods that CM suggested and the concepts that Susan Schaeffer Macaulay lays out in this book. You might just adapt a few things in your homeschool day and find that the burnout is gone and delight has come to your homeschool.

Thomas Jefferson: Champion of the People

Jul.15,2010

Thomas Jefferson was truly a champion of the people. He helped set up our government so that our people had a voice. He believed that our country would be better with strong individuals who were educated and owned their own land. They would be able to independently govern themselves. They would have more control over their own lives, and they would care more about what’s happening in the whole nation because they would feel like they have a part in it. He tried to improve the quality of life for all Americans.

Jefferson believed that people were capable of ruling themselves. In the Declaration of Independence, he wrote that all men are created equal, which was a new concept at the time. He did not believe in the class system or that some people are born superior to others as was commonly accepted at the time. He believed that the people had a right to vote for their leaders and that they had the capacity as human beings to make wise decisions for the nation. One of his primary concerns was the promotion of education for all people so that they would be able to responsibly govern themselves.

Jefferson championed individual rights and state sovereignty. He insisted that a Bill of Rights be added to the Constitution so that the government would protect freedom of religion, speech, and the press and the right to privacy – all protected in the Bill of Rights. He considered the 10th Amendment the foundational amendment for the protection of the rights of the states and the individual by preventing the Federal government from taking any power over matters that were not specifically allocated to it. The Federal government would have to get permission from the states and the individuals to add an amendment giving that authority to the Federal government.

Jefferson favored a small central government that would not interfere in people’s lives. He believed that people should be able to live as they choose. He believed that everyone has the right to worship as they please. He valued creativity and a good work ethic. He was very creative and inventive himself and always did his best in serving his family and his country. He believed that the key to success would be having people who were creative and diligent working to establish our country and make it great. This could only be accomplished under a government that was not overly controlling. The documents he authored such as the Constitution of Virginia set up general laws that allowed people to govern their own lives without government regulation limiting their freedom.

Without Jefferson’s influence we may not have gained the rights that we have in our country. In consideration of all he did in his life in public service and his role in shaping our government so that it would preserve the rights of the individual, the verdict must be that Thomas Jefferson was a champion of the people.

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My six oldest children and I wrote this essay together after studying Thomas Jefferson for about a month. I wanted them to go through the process of writing an essay in a non-threatening, enjoyable way, so I got the inspiration to write an essay together, with me as the leader and scribe and them as the contributors of ideas.