...That in all things he might have the preeminence...

The talk was called 'The Need for Christian Education' and it was great, but I found the Q & A that took place afterward to be excellent, so much so that I had to post it.

(Check it out --> HERE)

If you have never heard of the Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity please check them out -->  HERE

Founded by apologist and pastor Joe Boot the EICC - "is an evangelical Christian organization committed to reaching skeptics and inquirers and to the recovering of a distinctly Christian system of thought and action for God’s Covenant people."

I love all their material, and highly recommend that you take a look at some of the teaching lectures and sermons available on the website.  Great stuff, all based on God's truth from God's word.

I believe this event took place at Hespeler Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario. After Joe had spoken about the need for Christian education and the current cultural crisis we find ourselves in the first question in the Q&A period asked "We can see we are in a cultural crisis, so how Should we as Christians respond?"  The answer was brilliant and biblical.  I will summarize (paraphrase) below, but please take the time to listen for yourself (link above) as these are not all direct quotations but written from my memory and notes:

God's means of transformation (societal or otherwise) is not revolution but regeneration!

We need the cultivation of a Christian life and worldview in every area.

What aspects?  

Begin with -

Self:  What areas of my life am I not living in conformity with the word of God?  Which areas of my life have not been brought into subjection to Christ's rule and reign?

Then moving outward the next level is -

Marriage and Family:  How are we modelling Jesus lordship in our marriage relationship, and how are we aligning our self with the lordship of Jesus in the education of our children?  Is our married life a model of Christ's the glory of Christ's reign to the community around us?

Further out we reach the -

Church:  We need to provide a community of faith that will cultivate the minds of the young in the faith.  The church needs to take on the roles to which it has been Biblically mandated, this includes; forming Christian schools, providing health and welfare, tithing to provide resources for the growth of the kingdom.


As more people are impacted by the gospel the changes the face of the social order, eventually society will say: we want Christian laws.

This does not meant that we are not responsible citizens in the mean-time.  It is both/and - we need to write letters, run for school board and perhaps become an M.P..  In our day and age however, the question is: How do you get voted in without being popular and how do you get popular without denying the faith?

We need to create a parallel public that will leaven the whole loaf (Matthew 13) it is not about seizing government power.  Consider that people have said 'We just need to get a christian president or prime minister and we'll be fine' well, we have as our prime minister a professing  christian and he is not even prepared to discuss the issue of abortion!

All we have to is be obedient!  God does the rest.  We are not responsible for the results, we are responsible to obey God here and now and leave the results to him; and he tells us, the results will be glorious.

Be faithful in the small things, and when we are faithful with the small God will give us responsibility for the great.

We are rebuilding from the ground up, because in reality we are missionaries!  What they do, the missionaries that we send overseas whom we are so proud of?  They preach the gospel, they build schools, and they provide welfare.

It is illogical that here in Canada we are living in a de-christianized, pagan culture and we simply send our kids to the state schools and we don't do the things that we do overseas.  We are accustomed to thinking "We are christians, we don't need that, but they do because they are not".  We need to wake up because the reality is that we are in a mission right now.
 
That's it for now, I am off to bed, but please listen, wake-up, and go.  We are in a mission and there is no stopping until the earth is filled with the knowledge of glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea - so that in everything He might have the supremacy!