My meditation has focused on the relationship between the goodness of God and the holiness of God. It seems to me that we tend to see God’s attributes in isolation from one another when in reality all of God’s attributes work together in His being in perfect harmony.  It is that harmony that I have been looking for.

To put it simply, I think God’s goodness is the harmonizing attribute that gives focus and meaning to all of His other attributes. What I mean by that is the goodness of God is His standard for all that He is, says and does. His other attributes seem to be a means toward that end.

For example, Grudem makes the observation that God’s love, mercy, patience and grace are all expressions of His goodness. But so is His peace, righteousness, jealousy and wrath! It is God’s goodness that is expressed by all of these attributes. Even God’s wrath is an expression of His goodness. To the degree that one loves one’s baby in the crib, he must also hate the rattlesnake that is poised to strike the baby. To say that you love the one without feeling rage toward the other is contradictory. God’s love and justice require His jealosy and wrath toward sin.

But, and this is where I think I may be on to something, this still leaves God’s holiness to be accounted for. Grudem offers the good, sound definition of holiness;  “God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own glory.” No disagreement on that. But could it be that God’s holiness also finds its meaning in reference to God’s own standard of ultimate, eternal goodness? Is the holiness of God better understood as His undistracted, undefiled, undiverted, unrelenting, laser-like focus to work all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called of God to be conformed to the holy image of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ?

If this is so, it has huge implications for our own experience of holiness. We are commanded to be holy as God Himself is holy. He disciplines us as His dear children so that we may share in His holiness. So, what would such holiness show up as in practice? It would be our own Spirit empowered progressive transformation into being undistracted, undefiled, undiverted and unrelenting in our focus to do good works for the glory of God and the good of others. Somehow, this way of thinking makes the whole idea of being holy more meaningful to me.

I have always understood that holiness meant being set apart for an exclusive purpose. And I have understood moral defilement as the mixing up of motives. I cannot love God and money. I cannot be the friend of God and the friend of this world. But by this insight I think I see more clearly why this is so. To be holy is to remain focused on what God defines as good; to overcome evil with good—to go about doing good, not in order to be saved, but because by God’s grace through faith I am saved.

God is good. He never changes from being good. So, He is holy in all that He is, says and does by remaining unflinchingly good. And He has made a way through the Gospel for us to join Him in His grand endeavor of being, saying and doing good as well.

We are calling this The Legacy Series and it includes:

The Basic Home Schooling Workshop
The Seasons of Life Seminar
The Noble Planner Time Management Seminar
The Households of Strength Seminar
The Family Business Seminar
The Family Storytelling Seminar, and most recently,
The Household of Faith Seminar.

If you are looking for practical help in life-planning, marriage building, child training, career planning and church reform, these seminars and workshops may be of help.

This new MP3 technology allows us to share the messages that helped to launch the international national movements in Christian home schooling, family restoration and age-integrated local churches (see Household of Faith Community Church). Each seminar set was originally $29 to $39 on cassette tapes. Now, due to the lower expenses involved with distribution the web, we are able to offer them at around $2 per session, and that with no shipping and handing fees. Amazing!

I hope you will make use of this material. I stand by what I taught back then, and though a few references are dated, the biblical principles and the basic ideas continue to stand the test of time and guide my own life decisions. They are certainly bearing out well in the lives of my children as they enter onto each new season of their lives.

One last thing to mention is that Noble Institute www.nobleinstitute.org, The Rebelution, Good News Project, and now this new commerce site, Noble Books all operate under Noble Institute as a non-profit 501(c)3 tax exempt educational organization. Therefore, any purchases and/or donations made will be used to develop new resources, launch new ministry projects and maintain and grow our sites for greater service. Thank you for your support. And thank you also for helping me get the word out to your friends and fellow enthusiasts on the web.

You’re up, but that’s about all. There are five different things you were supposed to do last week that are all staring you in the face. School work. Chores. Projects incomplete. So what do you do? Just thinking about it makes you tired. So you decide to take a break, finish that novel, or maybe catch up on your sleep. You can hit everything hard later this afternoon.

Yeah, right.

It’s called procrastination. And it gets everyone some time or another. But when it moves in to stay, when it becomes a part of your character, part of your personality, you, my friend, are a slacker, or what the Bible calls a sluggard. You are just plain lazy, or, to use the old English term, you’re a sloth.

“A sloth is a tropical mammal that lives much of its life hanging upside-down from tree branches,” writes John Ortberg. “When obliged to descend to the ground, sloths crawl along a level surface at the rate of ten feet a minute.. .Sloths are generally sluggish and inactive; they build no nests and seek no shelter even for their young. They sleep fifteen to twenty-two hours a day, rising in the late afternoon to eat whatever leaves may be close at hand. Being so passive, they are virtually untrainable, although occasionally you’ll find one working as a denominational official or on a roadside construction crew.”

The deceptive thing about procrastination and sloth is that it is not really a matter of being tired. It is a matter of being rebellious. The sluggard lacks energy only for those things he doesn’t want to do. As one Proverb puts it, “The lazy man does not roast his game.” (Prov. 12:27) In other words, he loves to hunt, but he’s too tired to cook his prey.

Again John Ortberg comes through with one of his zingers: “In the past I would have considered anything but sloth to be one of my problems because I seem to be so busy. Sloth doesn’t necessarily mean we’re doing nothing. Sloth is the failure to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done—like the kamikaze pilot who flew seventeen missions.” The problem is not with energy levels; it is with obedience levels.

Jonathan Edwards, the preacher of The Great Awakening in the early 1700s, had much to say about time management and especially about the sin of procrastination. In a sermon entitled “Procrastination OR the Sin and Folly of Depending on Future Time”, Edwards quotes Proverbs 27:1. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” He then elaborates on the fact that procrastination always assumes that there will be ample time in the future to do whatever is necessary. Experience sadly demonstrates how wrong this assumption can be. Teens are adroit at recognizing the sin of procrastination in their parents. “Dad never gets around to doing what he promised me.” But like their parents, they have difficulty seeing the same sin in their own lives. “I’ll do it! I’ll do it!, Why does Mom always have to be such a nag?” This is because we always have good reasons for putting things off until later. It’s just so easy to justify our lack of action in light of our special circumstances.

The hazards of procrastination can only be avoided by intentionally setting our hearts on making the most of the time we have. That means we have to practice some level of time management—not necessarily the level that business people typically use, but something simple that keeps us moving in the right direction and calls us back when we begin to drift away.

Time Management Basics for Teens

“Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things; Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings.”

This first verse of W. H. Walter’s classic hymn sums up beautifully the Greatest Commandment restated by Christ in Mark 12:30. It points to the need for a distinctively Christian theology of time-management. To “rise up” demands throwing off the chains of sloth, lethargy and procrastination. To “be done with lesser things” implies establishing a criteria for evaluating our priorities. To “give heart and soul and mind and strength” to serve God requires purposeful, zealous, intelligent and forceful action—all four components of the human personality working together. Simply put, loving God as we should requires us to manage our time differently.

Making the Most of the Time

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Be very careful then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:16 NKJV) Paul does not suggest that we save our time. Rather he urges us to spend our time more wisely. Because time must be spent, or it will be forfeited, wisdom requires us to invest it in those things that have enduring value—the gold, silver and precious stones of life, rather than the wood, hay and stubble. The evilness of the days refers to their complexity. Like God, it seems that every institution, organization and cause now “loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives”. If we do not begin each day with a clear sense of what God would have us do, we will be distracted by the competing demands. We must carefully choose how we will spend our time, or else that time will wasted. The decision of how we will spend our time confronts us with our need to know our purpose in life. How can we “be done with lesser things” unless we know what the greater things in life are? That is where the Greatest Commandment comes to bear so powerfully.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

Loving God is the greater thing. It is our ultimate purpose. But this wonderful purpose requires us to set goals and make corresponding plans. Even then, goals and plans alone are not enough. We must also have the self-discipline to follow through with our plans by taking action. Heart, soul, mind and strength result in purposes, goals, plans and actions. All four parts of our human nature come into play in the four phases of Christian time management.

HEART: Embraces God’s Purpose
SOUL: Sets Passionate Goals
MIND: Makes Informed Plans
STRENGTH: Takes Forceful Action

Good Point! But I’ll Have to Think About It Awhile.. .Maybe Tomorrow

All of these insights accomplish absolutely nothing unless our strength, which is the sum of all our ability to influence events around us, is exerted at the moment of decision. You look at that list of stuff you have to do and you decide, “I’ll do it now.” Faith without works is dead. Good intentions are not enough. Saying “Yes” to God without following through only heaps up more guilt and shame. “Later” is not guaranteed. You may not live to see another day. And in a sense, “later” will never really arrive because we must always take action in the moment that is present. We live forever in a place called “now”. That is why the author of Hebrews pushes the point, “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” All action must be taken “today”.

Be Strong! Take Action!

What we are talking about requires strength, the fourth aspect of loving God. The kingdom of God, like all kingdoms, can only be established and maintained by some kind of force—but in this case it is not the force of guns, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. God’s kingdom is one of liberty because its power is primarily the force of self-discipline motivated by sacrificial love. “The kingdom of God,” Jesus said, “is taken by force.” (Matt. 11:12) Only the forceful are able to deny themselves and lay hold of it. This is the strength that is needed in order for us to overcome procrastination and follow through with our plans to accomplish our goals and so fulfill our life purpose. This point is made very clearly by the Apostle Paul to one of the most athletic and competitive cities in the ancient world. Corinth was the sight of the second largest organized Games at that time.

Only the Olympic Games were larger or better known. To this “No pain, no gain” audience Paul writes, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27) The Christian life requires the strength of self-discipline.

Join the 2% Who Get Things Done

Out of 100 people today, surveys show that only 67 are likely to have defined goals, goals they can explain. Of those who do, only 10 have made realistic plans to accomplish their goals. And of those 10, only two have the self-discipline to follow through with their plans and actually succeed. In other words, 98% of all the people you meet each day lack the integrity to live out what they believe. Heart, soul, mind and strength do not line up in their lives. Satan, the god of this world, has blinded the hearts of those who do not believe the Gospel. And without faith, they can have no passionate purpose or goals. Nothing to serve as an anchor for their souls and minds, only a perpetual drifting on the tides of culture and circumstance.

The question is, are you still drifting aimlessly along with this crowd? As a Christian, you certainly don’t have to. By responding in faith to God’s word, you can experience His transforming power. Begin by renouncing procrastination as a sin. “Boast not yourself of tomorrow.” Do whatever you have to do, today! Rededicate yourself to really obeying the Greatest Commandment. In doing so you will bring all four aspects of your personality into line with His will. That alone will allow you to make wiser and more effective use of your time. You can be part of the two percent who act consistently with what they believe.

It’s never easy to make the most of your time. It’s always easier to “cut yourself some slack” by taking another break and putting off your work for later. But of course, that’s why they call ‘em “slackers”.

GREGG HARRIS is a former public school slacker who is now serving God as Director of Christian Life Workshops and teaching a time management seminar whenever he finds the time.

Appropriate Goals for Teens

The teenage years are primarily years of preparation. The wise teenager will establish goals, make plans and follow throughin each of the following areas: Spiritual: Establish haibts of Prayer, Bible Study, Church Attendance, and Ministry. Emotional: Develop passion about what you believe is truly important—God, souls, relationships, family, liberty, virtue, art, etc. Intellectual: Develop study skills —language arts, basic math & communication skills as well as academic skills and knowledge. The Liberal Arts are literally Arts of Freedom. Vocational: Learn homemaking, interpersonal skills, office equipment skills, entrepreneurialism, management and any vocational skills needed for your career. Physical: Establish good habits and routines related to nutrition, athletics, hobbies, and personal grooming.

A delight-directed study is like a wonderful fire in the mind of a student. It starts small, but as it grows, it begins to consume vast amounts of information until it bursts into a roaring blaze of insight, understanding and creativity. It takes on a life of its own.

In a delight-directed study, a child’s interests are fanned to flame and supported in ways that increase his interest in his studies. The child’s delight is the spark that ignites everything. Once established, like a fire, it is self-sustaining. The student begins to study for his own personal satisfaction, and the fruits of his study begin to flow outward to others.

This approach is especially helpful for the child who has been “burned out” on school. It helps restore his love for learning. But delight-directed study is more than just a method of remedial instruction. As we shall see, it is the foundation for all true scholarship. Once the basic concepts of delight are understood, the approach itself is easy to implement.

Is this anything like unschooling?

At first glance, delight-directed study, with its emphasis on enjoying study, may sound a bit like the unschooling approach mentioned earlier. [See my book, The Christian Home School, from which this post was excerpted.] Unschooling, developed by the late education reformer and author, John Holt, emphasizes the child’s freedom from adult control. It takes a more or less non-directive approach toward instruction. Like Rousseau, Holt viewed adults, and especially parents, as the major defilers of children. The result of his liberal bias abandons children to their own limited resources and further disarms parents in the face of child rebellion. There is little place for discipline in unschooling. [I was talking here about "unschooling" in its original or typical context at the time c. 1988; not necessarily what some Christians have now "re-defined" it to be, within a godly context.]

Delight-directed study is child-responsive, but still parent-supervised. Dad and Mom remain fully in charge, and discipline is a constant part of the mix. Delight-directed study strategies are more responsive to the interest of the student, without being indulgent. Rather than allow the student to study whatever he sees fit, however he sees fit, delight-directed study urges parents to guide their child’s studies and establish clear accountability for his work. Also, whereas unschooling is deeply humanistic and therefore disdainful of the Scriptures, delight-directed study is based on a distinctively Christian worldview and has substantial support in the Bible.

The foundation of delight-directed study is the Goodness of God. While most of us agree that God is good, we may not realize just what that means to our day-to-day experience. But the Bible is clear that God is good. “How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?” (Ps.116:12) The word good means “beneficial.” A good God does everything He does for good reason. That means there are real benefits in every aspect of God’s activity. When God observed, in the first chapter of Genesis, that everything He had made was good, it meant that everything served a good purpose.

But when it comes to schooling our children, we Christians doubt God’s goodness. In a fit of uninformed conservatism, we bring out the “hickory stick” and demand that our students submit to their instruction without regard for their enjoyment or pleasure. School attendance is compulsory. Teachers must be stern and mean. We suspect that something must be wrong if our students are actually enjoying their studies, because we didn’t. “It’s not supposed to be fun,” we say. “Studying is a discipline.”

Is it really? Granted, children need discipline for their disobedience, and they are as likely to disobey in school as anywhere else. And there is, of course, a general need for self-discipline in their studies, just as there is in their development of skills in music, art or sports. But nowhere else do we find it necessary to make everything so joyless and compulsory. In every other area of human need, the wholesome pleasure of satisfying what is needed draws the person into the activity.

Why is there so much emphasis on teaching young people to endure hour after hour of boring, disjointed and generally uninteresting activity? Why is schooling such a deadening experience for so many, even in high school and college? Is it possible that the main objective of our school system, with its passion for responding to school bells, blindly following instructions, and fitting in to the social pecking order, is not academic at all, but rather preparation for the labor force? Could this be the education of pawns? John Taylor Gatto, former New York City and New York State Teacher of the Year, believes it to be so.

Excerpted from the chapter on “Delight-Directed Study”
in Gregg’s excellent book The Christian Home School.
Used with permission from Gregg Harris.

C.S. LEWIS ONCE OBSERVED that God is not so much offended that we want too much as by the fact that we are satisfied with so little. Though He offers us the highest of adventures in our Christian life, we settle for the stale mediocrity of our lukewarm religious routines.

The parental counterpart to this idea is that most mothers and fathers actually want too little for their children - they settle for success in this world’s terms. But God would have us aim higher, not like an ambitious stage mother pushing her mildly talented children into the spotlight, but like a fine jeweler making the best possible use of each bit of gold, silver, and precious stone he has. My children are priceless treasures, and I want God\’s highest and best for them.

What does it mean to aim high in this way? What am I really trying to accomplish in the education of my children?

Is it enough that they read well? No, not for me. I want them to commune with great authors from throughout the ages and be able to comprehend the profound ideas and truths that God has used to change the course of history. Let them be voracious readers of truly great literature.

Do I want my sons and daughters only to write and spell correctly? No, I want them to correspond with fellow enthusiasts in their chosen areas of endeavor. If they have the gifting, let them eventually author intelligent, superbly written works concerning the important issues of their day. Let them be prolific writers, whether privately or publicly

Do I want them merely to know enough history to pass a written test? No, I want them to understand the times in which they live and to be able to pass the real tests of life they will face in voting booths and on battlefields. Let them be like the sons of Issachar (\”who had understanding of the times,\” 1 Chron. 12:32) in the unfolding dramas of future events.

But education is so much more than mere academics. It is primarily matter of character development. Self-discipline may be out of style, but it is never out of work. Do I want my children simply to be nice, well-behaved, and safe from peer pressure? Not at all! Aslan, in Lewis\’s Chronicles of Narnia, is not a tame lion, but he is good. I prefer my children to be like that - good but not tame, men and women of integrity, not conformity. Let them be so influential and contagious in their faith that they turn the hearts of their companions toward God. Let the world grieve that its best and brightest have become Christians.

What about marriage and children? Are these things only a matter of personal comfort and enjoyment? Is a lifelong marriage aiming too high? Is the average number of 1.5 children per family enough? No, I want each of my sons and daughters to have a marriage and a family like that of Jonathan Edwards - enduring, large in number, and deeply devoted to God. Let each future household be devoted as a team for ministry as an effective embassy of the kingdom of God.

On an economic note, will it be enough if my children manage someday to find good jobs, regardless of how restrictive and disruptive their work schedules may be? No, I would like to see my adult sons provide for their wives and children through family business ownership and entrepreneurial stewardship. Contrary to the best efforts of the ACLU, there are still millions of public school students praying secretly to find decent jobs someday. Why not prepare our homeschool students to hire them?

Ultimately, neither academics, nor character, nor a strong marriage, nor a large family, nor financial freedom will matter if my children are still dead in sin and alienated from the promises of God. God help me never to raise up \”civil men, lost in sin,\” as the Puritans would call them. Salvation in Christ is more than merely foundational. It is everything.

Deep within the secret counsels of God\’s sovereign decretive will lies the very real responsibility I bear as a father to train up my children in the way that they should go (Prov. 22:6). Only God can save my children. Will He do so? The very fact I care at all for the salvation of my children is good evidence that God is already at work on their behalf. Our God is a covenant-keeping God and His sovereign election is the norm, not the exception, when parents respond in faithful obedience to His Word.

As I read the biographies of great men and women, I notice that godly parents often do make a difference. \”As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.\” Our sovereign God, working by concurrence through His created order of parents training their children and children obeying their parents, has ordained that special instruments of His grace will be forged on the anvil of a mother or father\’s heart. If I am both wise and diligent in my child training, it may be evidence that something extraordinary is brewing in the heavenlies - perhaps my children will be special gifts to Christ\’s church in their generation.

But if, like Eli of old, I am passive and negligent in this matter, it bodes eternal ill for me and my children. Insight is not action. Knowing is not the same as doing. Faith without works is dead. Think about it. Taking the easier path of conventional schooling is by any measure taking unnecessary chances with the souls of my children. Willfully sending them off to an institution that denies my authority, where the dominant social life is ungodly, where God is not feared and His Word not taught, where I cannot protect my children from falling into dangerous activities that could ruin a young life in one casual act of foolishness, where I cannot even vouch for the moral character of the teachers and administrators, seems to me an odd way of being diligent. The spirit of Eli is upon our nation and our churches as we rationalize with all our rational lies. That is why I ask God for grace to understand and obey Him in all of my obligations. Then, strong in the grace of God, I exert myself to do what He has commanded, even when it is not easy.

But salvation must lead to sanctification, and as a father I have a part to play in that as well. It is not enough that my children confess faith in Christ and go to church. Luke-warmness will not do. I want to see the fire of passion for the presence of God safely burning in the doctrinal fire place of each child\’s Reformed faith. A perpetual state of spiritual childhood, or even of spiritual adolescence, is not acceptable to God. Why should it be acceptable to me? I want my children to grow up to full maturity in Christ. I want them to bear the fruit of the Spirit and one day be qualified to serve as elders and deacons in a strong local church, with the courage and faith to roll up their sleeves and plant that church themselves if they have to.

To those who ask, \”But what about socialization?\” I can only weep. Socialization has always been a double-edged sword; it cuts both ways. \”He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm\” (Prov. 13:20, NASB). What my wife and I are doing in our home school is positive, biblical socialization that makes our children become wise. My children walk with me, and though I definitely have a long way yet to go, I try to be an acceptable companion to my children.

Most of our modem school-based socialization is of the foolish, harmful sort. Pooled ignorance leads to poor taste in clothing, music, films, and TV - the kind of people who read the grocery store tabloids and believe them. But the harm is far more than cultural. Disinterest in school, disrespect for teachers, rapacious dating, promiscuity, substance abuse, and gang violence also come in waves– pounding waves of youth culture that erode moral standards. Even a small population of these poor creatures requires that high schools be run like youth prisons.

Good socialization is primarily age-integrated. It occurs when the young are included in the lives of older and wiser people, especially parents and other family members at home and the spiritual family of one\’s local church. Walking with the wise is a lifestyle, not a program. It is a club of fellow enthusiasts, not a class of uninterested age-mates. It includes working together, eating together, playing together, worshiping together, and studying together, This is where God placed the responsibility for child training and education, and it works very well in aiming children at God\’s highest and best targets in every area of life.

That is what I want for my children - God\’s highest and best - and that is my purpose in homeschooling them. Forgive what may seem my audacity, but I don\’t want my children to be merely counted among the Reformed. I want them to stand with the Reformers.

Gregg Harris is the author of
The Christian Home School and the director of the Noble Institute in Gresham, OR.

Reprinted from TABLETALK, August, 1999.

Noble Institute for Leadership Development (NI) is the organization founded and directed by Mr. Harris as a vehicle for ministry projects that take him beyond the sphere of his own local church.

The purpose of NI is to “nurture biblical leadership for every area of life in every season of life.”

In addition to his service as Director of NI, Gregg serves as a Teaching Elder of Household of Faith Community Church, Gresham, OR (see www.hofcc.org). He is also an internationally known pioneer advocate of Christian home schooling, author a best selling book, The Christian Home School, the husband of Sono Sato Harris, and the father of seven wonderful children.

This website is by nature a work in progress. There is so much going on and so little time to report on it. Several new ministry project sections are still under construction. But we hope you will see in the stories and images posted here the vision of our founder and Director, and more importantly the purpose of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to who be all glory and honor in heaven and on earth.

For those who are new to this teen ministry blog-site, “The Rebelution” is defined as “a teenage rebellion against the low expectations of an ungodly culture.” It’s motto is “Do Hard Things.” Is this another example of teenagers trying to change the world? Well, yes. But this time there is a lot more maturity behind it.

Young adults in every generation tend to swerve into one ditch or the other—lawlessness and rebellion on the left and legalism and self-righteousness on the right. If you try too hard to avoid the one you are likely to swerve into the other. The road itself is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is only maintained by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit in the light of God’s Word, the Bible and showing your love for God by the way you love others, and especially those He has placed in your life—as family, church, friends and neighbors.

That is sound doctrinal zeal. May God bless The Rebelution and preserve them for their good and His eternal glory. Happy first anniversary!