Dear Parents and Friends of CCS,
I pray your year has begun well, and that you are experiencing the grace and goodness of God!
I want to take a moment to share with you some thoughts about a well-known verse, Habakkuk 2:14, and it’s implications for a Gospel-Centered Education.
“For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14 ESV
First, some context.
This fascinating prophetic book begins with the prophet giving his attention to God, listening for all he’s worth. Habakkuk wants to hear from His LORD.
And God condescends to meet with him, and to share yet another chapter of the historical progress of what would become known as the gospel of the Kingdom.
In fact, early in the book God reminds His hearers of the fundamental truth of that gospel: “The righteous shall live by faith.” Hab. 1:4.
Living on the other side of the cross, we know that this faith will be tested many times as the tides of nature, politics, the schemes of the enemy of our souls (the devil) and human frailty batter it to and fro over the ensuing years.
Yet mankind is reminded at crucial waypoints that God can indeed be trusted to remain faithful and true to His promises.
Beginning in verse 6, God speaks a violent tale of the fate of the Chaldeans, a feared military power of that day, who have so recently wreaked havoc upon the Israelites, God’s chosen people. Yet there also rises a wisp of hope, a distant glimmer of a light not yet fully released.
Hear the voice of commentator Matthew Henry as he describes his astonishment regarding this story:
See what good God brings out of the staining and sinking of earthly glory; he thereby manifests and magnifies his own glory, and fills the earth with the knowledge of it as plentifully as the waters cover the sea, which lie deep, spread far, and shall not be dried up until time shall be no more. Such is the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ given by the gospel (2 Co. 4:6), and such was the knowledge of his glory by the miraculous ruin of Babylon. Note, Such as will not be taught the knowledge of God's glory by the judgments of his mouth shall be made to know and acknowledge it by the judgments of his hand.
And right in the middle of this narrative we abruptly arrive at verse 14. Strangely (or so it seems to us), God has planned from the beginning that the monstrous waves we so commonly fear are specifically designed to a) give Him maximum glory and b) provide a context for our deepest joy, one that is literally unsinkable.
This can also be seen as a supporting subtext of the concept of “practicing resurrection”, a phrase probably first coined by Eugene Peterson. Briefly put, this refers to our pursuit of maturity in Christ, something that paradoxically only He can actually give as He blesses our sincere efforts in His direction, even and especially in the face of suffering.
And this is indeed a central goal of Gospel Centered Education: to lead children and young people to hunger for God, and to pursue maturity and joy in Him, though the journey be long and “two steps forward and three back” at times.
This “daily-ness” is a beautiful characteristic of our walk with Christ, and provides the milieu that can be tilled into rich soil for our growth, not only spiritually, but physically, socially, intellectually and in our stewardship of God-shared resources.
Gospel Centered Education plays freely on this ground, challenging us all to seek the LORD for a fresh vision of teaching and learning, one that is shot through with a quiet, vibrant joy and a deeper satisfaction that transcends our earthly definitions and standards.
Simply put, we learn together every day to walk in the sure hope that God’s love and care for us will see us through, whatever the future may bring. As we learn and as we grow, our foundation can remain unshaken as the Kingdom of God is realized in small ways every day.
Astoundingly, as a believer in and committed follower of Jesus, you and I have all the resources we need, through his word and Spirit, to actually choose this course for our lives and to “pursue resurrection.”
And if that’s not glorious, I don’t know what is.
May God cover us with His glory, even as the “waters cover the sea”, and may He be seen as the Perfectly Marvelous One by all who cross our path this week.
Fo CCS and the Kingdom,
Tom