Leading to Life, Making Wise

In what seems to be an increasingly evil age, we need to encouragement of the Scriptures to guide us in the way we should walk and help us to guard against deception. 2nd Timothy 3 states:
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

There are many forms of deception, centered around the concept that humans are better able to control their lives than the One who made them. The world's ideas cannot help a person achieve the righteousness of God - but, the principles of the Bible can help us to receive it: To receive the nature of God into our hearts, to absorb the wisdom of God into our minds, and to walk in the ways that He has provided - these are what the Bible promises to us. 

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The Scriptures teach us about how to live in a way that pleases God - we come to know Him as we study and apply what we've read. Jesus taught in Matthew 7:
11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

At this year's National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, I had the chance to talk with Derek Stemen of LifeWise Academy, which offers a program through which public school students can receive Bible instruction off-campus during the school day.  I've also had the founder of LifeWise, Joel Penton, on the program. 

Lifewise has been in the news recently, but there was an attempt by a media outlet to distort the good news about this program.  Faithwire reported that:

Titled, “Christian group uses public school-adjacent Bible study program to breach church-state wall,” the video segment, led by host Alex Wagner, said LifeWise is “raising serious questions about the separation of church and state” despite Bible studies taking place during free periods and off campus.

“Penton’s LifeWise Academy is currently influencing the minds of public school kids in progressive cities like Columbus,” Wagner, who called Penton’s work “distressing,” said. She added he wants to reach every public school in America and warned of the impact on progressive ideals.

Well, it's the proliferation of progressive, unbiblical ideas in culture that have intensified the need for LifeWise. And, Joel Penton had a unique response:

“The MSNBC piece frankly, to me, was hilarious,” Joel Penton founder of LifeWise Academy, told CBN News. “It genuinely felt like an ‘SNL’ skit.”

Faithwire notes:

Even a brief viewing of the nine-minute MSNBC segment — which reportedly left out positive data from LifeWise showing academic improvements among participants — provides context to exactly what Penton is describing.

Penton is quoted on the LifeWise website, stating:

“NBC News did a national piece on our organization. I have to say, I’m a little disappointed because we invited them in, lined up people for them to speak to and they left out some of the most critical information.

“They left out the results … there are real results.

“When LifeWise is implemented in a school, attendance goes up. Schools are struggling with attendance post-COVID and with LifeWise, attendance goes up to the point that there’s a net increase in class time … Also, in-school suspensions go down and out-of-school suspensions go down, so there is clearly improved behavior.

The website also notes that LifeWise offers what the American public has indicated that it wants; it states: "Americans overwhelmingly believe that moral and character development is an effective way to address behavior and disciplinary problems at school, according to a new poll released by LifeWise Academy and RMG Research. The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted February 13 through February 14."  And, the organization is growing, according to Faithwire, which said: "So far, LifeWise has exceeded its goal of reaching 25 schools by 2025 and is already in more than 300 schools in multiple states — and the organization is only poised to grow."

And, despite the faux concerns expressed by Wagner on MSNBC, the Supreme Court has already ruled on the constitutionality of what is known as "release time."  Penton is quoted by Faithwire:

“We were inspired by a program that started in my hometown in 2012,” he said in a past interview with CBN. “People in my hometown started what’s known as a Released Time religious instruction program. Very few people are aware that, in 1952, the Supreme Court ruled that public school students can be released from public school during school hours to attend religious classes.”

Media types like Wagner believe that Christian activity seems to violate what they call the "separation of church and state."  But, progressivism, secular humanism, Marxism - these are all ideologies that have a religious element.  The God-centered absolutism of Christianity stands in stark contrast to the human-centered moral relativism that permeates our culture. It is perceived as a threat - OK, I grant that. Christianity is a threat - to the morality, or lack of it, that is dominant these days.  But, more than that, Christianity is a cure - to the evil of the human heart that runs rampant and manifests itself in the crime reports and the broken relationships.  Humanism offers moral degradation; the teachings of Scripture offer moral authority - principles that are effective in living a rewarding, satisfying life, out of a heart that is redeemed.

Who wouldn't want the peace that comes from knowing our Creator, who loved us so much that He died to save us? Yet, those who want to do things their own way can't stomach the thought of laying down their lives in order to embrace life at its fullest. So, Christian organizations like LifeWise that offer hope, are ridiculed because they're religious.  A circle is drawn around the expression of faith in public spaces.  Yet, the faith that is rejected is truly the faith that can redeem, the faith that can save, that can change a life and certify a place in eternity.   That is the way that leads to life, that makes a person wise.