We need to teach our people that there is a spiritual war, which is as real as the ground I’m standing on. There is a heavenly force. There is an eternal battle, which will be ended by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, when he destroys Satan just by the word of his mouth, and he will be condemned with all his followers, to the lake of fire, never again to bother God’s creation.

In the first part, we briefly surveyed the reality of suffering because of various causes, and we concluded by saying that as pastors, our responsibility is to prepare our people both by our teaching, and by modeling the things that we teach. In this part, we will look at truths which we should know and hold to as we prepare for and face suffering.
First of all, Christians should never be surprised by suffering, problems or persecution. From the very beginning of the Bible, as early as Genesis 3:14-19, we are told that as a result of an Adam and Eve sin, a curse was placed upon this earth, it is real, and it touches everything we do. A friend of mine always says, “The fingerprint of the curse is upon everything.” It is! It is upon our marriages, our health, our minds, the work of the Lord: it touches everything. This is a fallen, broken, cursed world. And we should never be surprised by problems or by suffering. We should see it as just a normal part of the Christian life. In fact, that is when the Christian life shines its best. When we face suffering, by being faithful as those young girls in Nigeria say, in the midst of suffering.
John 16:33 is a verse that comes to my mind many times, “Jesus said, ‘In this world, you will have trouble but take hard for I’ve overcome the world.’” So our Lord Himself said, you will have tribulations in this world. And then we have some other very, very important verses. We have 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” Now, there is nothing strange happening. This is what it is like living in the fallen world, and especially being a Christian. We face even worse suffering and trouble. And then James 1, “Count all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” And then a very important verse is 1 Thessalonians 3: 3-4, “You should know this well. But no one Let no one be moved by these afflictions. For you, yourself, know that we were destined for this, for when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand, that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, just as you know.” Then in Acts 14:22, Paul speaking to the very first Christians on the very first missionary journey, says, “Through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.” And 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So we are destined for trials, suffering, etc. The Lord has given us ample warning. And this is why we as leaders need to prepare the people by telling them what Jesus said, and what Paul said, what James said, what Peter said. Many people do not know these great statements or the promises, and the rewards that come which we’ll look at in just a little while.
As Christians knowing that the world is cursed, and that we are in enemy occupied territory, we should never say, “Oh! Why did this happen to me? Why did I get cancer? Why did my loved one? Why did my church go through this terrible trauma?” We shouldn’t ever ask that. What we should say is, “Why shouldn’t this happen to me? It occurs worldwide, why shouldn’t I get cancer? Why shouldn’t I see a loved one? Why shouldn’t I have serious divisions and problems in my local church? Why? Why shouldn’t it happen to me?” That’s the attitude we should have.
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Dr. Prather elaborated: “In the family that chooses to give their children more freedom in how they’re educated, that parent is now free to protect and advocate for their child’s freedom to learn. If the family is Christian, the parent has the freedom to disciple that child in the faith. If that family is Afrocentric, that family has the freedom to make all of their lessons geared to the child learning their African heritage.”

Editor’s note: This article first appeared at The American Spectator.
Parents are taking their children’s education into their own hands in record numbers after a disastrously tumultuous school year.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s experimental Household Pulse Survey, which is an online survey recording social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrates a dramatic shift towards homeschooling within the past year and a half. The survey included roughly 22–23 million American households spanning from the spring of 2020 to the fall of 2021.
During Phase 1 (April 23 to May 5, 2020) of the survey, about 5.4 percent of households with school-aged children said they were homeschooling. By the fall (September 30 to October 12, 2020), 11.1 percent of households with school-aged children reported homeschooling. The number increased to a staggering 19.5 percent by May of 2021. Fall 2021 statistics on homeschooling have not yet been published.
This embrace of home education is diverse. The survey respondents indicated that homeschooling in black households increased from 3.3 percent in the spring of 2020 to 16.1 percent in the fall of 2020.
The possible reasons for such a monumental and unprecedented switch to homeschooling are numerous, and include pandemic shutdowns, strict masking, and critical race theory.
The profound failure of school shutdowns during the pandemic was evidenced by the drop-off in student test scores in reading and math and soaring rates of students attempting suicide.
Unscientific mask mandates for school-aged children also received outcry from concerned parents. Even though many young students have reported headaches, dizziness, and brain fog from masking for 8-hour or more school days, some school boards and states still require them. From Broward County to Loudoun County, parents have protested nationwide against mask mandates.
The immense, national backlash to critical race theory in schools may have also catalyzed the turn towards homeschooling. Parents across the country have protested against CRT at school board meetings, claiming the instructional tool promotes racism and hatred. Some states, including Oklahoma, Idaho, and Florida have even banned CRT from schools.
Dr. Anika Prather, a professor of Classics at Howard University and founder of the Living Water School, is an advocate for diverse classical education and a supporter of school choice. Prather told The American Spectator that personalization is a benefit of homeschooling, as parents maintain direct agency over their children’s education.
Dr. Prather elaborated: “In the family that chooses to give their children more freedom in how they’re educated, that parent is now free to protect and advocate for their child’s freedom to learn. If the family is Christian, the parent has the freedom to disciple that child in the faith. If that family is Afrocentric, that family has the freedom to make all of their lessons geared to the child learning their African heritage.”
Similarly, radical gender theory and progressive sex education have infiltrated schools, and have even reached preschools. Schools across the country have adopted LGBTQ+ curriculums, taught “porn literacy” courses, and embraced sexually explicit books accompanied by the use of “sex apps.”
Jeremy Tate, CEO of the Classical Learning Test, an alternative standardized test to the SAT or ACT with a classical approach, is an advocate for classical education. He told The American Spectator that parents are becoming aware of what their children are actually being taught. He said, “Parents are waking up to the reality that mainstream education has gone completely off the rails. It is now radically disconnected from the kind of education that gave birth to America.”
Parents may be flocking to homeschooling because what our Founding Fathers believed about education is now fundamentally lost, Tate said. He also echoed Dr. Prather’s insights on minority families and homeschooling, saying that “We have witnessed the largest exodus of black families from public schooling in American history. The founder of National Black Home Educators, Joyce Burgess, reports a three times growth in homeschooling among blacks. They are voting with their feet.”
Prather summarized this shift in education: “Homeschooling is powerful because it gives the parent complete authority in how their child is educated . . . There is a joy in being able to design the educational experience you want for your child. Our founders knew that this freedom was important, and the Constitution protects our rights as parents to choose the education we prefer for our children. That is something to be celebrated.”
Emily Burke is a Student Fellow for the Institute for Faith & Freedom. Studying English, Philosophy, and Pre-Law at Grove City College, Emily also serves as an Editorial Intern for The American Spectator through the Young Writers Program. Heavily involved in political writing, editing, and research, Emily aims to apply those skills in the fields of journalism and public policy concerning issues of constitutional government and the future state of education. You can follow her on Twitter @emilyfburke. This article used with permission.

What can we do to move our worship services in a God-centered direction—a worship that exalts Him and humbles us? Terry Johnson says: “The single most important step is to fill them with biblical content. Bible-filled services, services in which the songs, prayers, readings, and sermons are full of Scripture, will inevitably be filled with God as well.” This is to simply affirm that God calls the shots in worship. He sets the talking points. He is the Lord; we are the servants.

Christian worship takes place in the context of a covenant relationship between us and God. It is vital that we remember the roles we each take in that relationship: He is the Lord, and we are the servants. Therefore, worship should be an extremely humbling act, reminding us of our own creatureliness. After all, the god we are most tempted to worship besides the living and true God is the god of self. But real worship reorients us and corrects that idolatrous impulse by making it primarily about God and what He desires.

Does the corporate worship we engage in on a weekly basis impress on us our status as servants of the living God? Or do we implicitly think that we are in control, that we can call the shots in this meeting with God? I think there are at least three things that we should ask to evaluate if our worship meets the biblical criteria of asserting the supremacy of our covenant King.
Who Talks First?
The first question is simply this: Who talks first? Is it us or God? It ought to be God—it must be God. Why? Because it’s God’s Word, not man’s, that has the power to constitute a relationship with Him. If we are to come and engage with Him—which is what is happening in worship—then He needs to call us. The Westminster divines explain, “The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto Him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of Him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God’s part” (WCF 7.1). He is too great for us to grasp, unless He makes Himself available to us. This is why Reformed and Presbyterian churches have historically begun their worship services with a “call to worship.” The call to worship sets the stage and structures our services in such a way as to remind the worshipers that God is supreme, and we are His servants.
Who Talks Most?
The second question to ask is this: Who talks most? Is the service predominantly God speaking to us in the reading, singing, and preaching of the Scriptures, or is it us talking to Him? Both are important, but what are we implicitly saying if 75 percent—or even 50 percent—of a worship service is taken up with our words to God? Do we think what we have to say is more important than what God has to say?
Some U.K. readers will be familiar with the voice of Oswald Lawrence, though they likely do not know the name. Lawrence was a largely unsuccessful actor, albeit for one role: since the 1970s he was the voice of the London Underground, reminding commuters on the Northern Line to “mind the gap!” as they stepped off the tube. He served in that role until 2012, when the Underground phased out his voice in favor of an automated voice that would be used uniformly across the entire subway system. No one probably noticed, except for Lawrence’s dear widow, Margaret.

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