Well Done

by Dick Buckingham

Administrator

Some of you may have just thought of your favorite cut of steak cooked to perfection.  The juicy thought makes your mouth water in anticipation.  However, that is not the kind of “well done” I had in mind.

Last week, Faith Christian School had the privilege of hosting an accreditation site visit team from Christian Schools International (CSI).  This was the culmination of a years-long process to provide outside certification of what we have been faithfully doing for our 25 years of existence.  Being accredited, while not required for private Christian schools, does provide a number of benefits for students who attend when it comes to applying to colleges and universities and transferring credits to other high schools around the country.  While it was not a critical step to take in the earlier years of our school existence, it has become increasingly more important over the past couple of years.  With the onset of many other educational choices for students such as charter schools and online schools, accreditation is the simplest way for a school receiving a student to have confidence that the previous educational institution was doing things well and up to acceptable standards.

We rejoice that the team from CSI voted unanimously to accredit Faith with no exceptions or provisions.

While that is really wonderful and something we praise God for, far greater were the words the team spoke to us in commendation about what they observed as they intensely looked at our school, examined our staff and students, and asked some deep, probing questions for two days.  Essentially, the team said to the Faith Christian School board, administration, staff, parents and students, “Well done.”

Well done.  How incredible those words are!  What life they give to our soul!  This year’s spiritual theme at FCS comes from I Corinthians 9:24, “Run the race in such as way as to win the prize.”  What we have related to our students is that the race we are running is our lives and the prize we are seeking is nothing less than to hear our Lord God say to us at the end when we finish, “Well done!”

Those two little words carry such great impact on us as they recognize what we have done and express the contentment and pleasure of the One who is speaking them to us.  I can say without hesitation that it is not the praise of men that I long for.  It is not to make a name for myself or to have some legacy that memorializes my life.  The one thing I want more than anything else is to hear the voice of my Savior say, “Well done!”

Yet, when I heard these words from the accreditation team, I realized how I much I benefit from hearing that from others.  These words not only justify what I have done and the sacrifices I may have made, but they propel me to strive for even greater heights.  They empower me to try things I may have only dreamed of doing before.

Well done.  Two little words, very easy to say.  Two words we all have in our vocabulary and available to use as often as we like.  Two words that will lift the spirits of the people in our lives and cause them to seek loftier goals.

When was the last time you said “Well done” to someone important in your life?  Your children?  I am in my mid 50s and my dad is over 80, yet I love when he tells me that he is proud of me.  Your spouse?  Nothing means more to me than to have my wife tell me she appreciates some small thing that I have done for her.  Your pastor?  Your teacher? Your boss?  Your co-worker or classmate?  You can add to the list.

You have an incredibly powerful tool available to you to bless and encourage others.  Who will you say, “Well done” to today?

Stamp of Approval

by Jennie Smith
Secondary Assistant Principal

When I first came on staff at Faith 17 years ago, we began working towards the process of accreditation.  Next week, all the work will be celebrated when five professionals in the field of education visit our school and decide whether to recommend us for accreditation.  Recently I was asked to explain accreditation and the only thought that came to mind at the time was "stamp of approval."  An organization comes in, looks at everything, and says, "Yes, this school is doing what it needs to do to educate young people."

In the few days the team will be on campus, they will interview teachers, parents, and students.  They will observe in our classrooms.  They will spend time reading through our documentation:  our handbooks, our manuals, pages and pages of paper.  They will get to know our school from every angle and at the end of the week they will tell us what we are doing well and where we need to improve.  Then they will make the recommendation for or against accreditation.

As this process of accreditation has been prominent in my thinking, I wondered:  is God in the business of accreditation?  When He looks at me, and sees all my documentation, do I measure up to His standard?  Alone...there is no way!  "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).  "All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:3).  On my own, in my state of sinfulness, I am not accredited by the Lord; I cannot meet His standard.

But there is hope! "God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8), and if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead we are saved (Romans 10:8).  It is through this faith that we are accredited.  Genesis 15:6 says "Abraham believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness."  Paul brings that home by telling us in Romans 4:23-25  "The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." 

There is only one step in God's process of accreditation and that is faith in Him alone.  I only have to present one piece of documentation...the Lamb of God.  I am so glad that when God looks at me, I already have his stamp of approval...not because of anything I've done, but because when He looks at me, He sees someone who did everything right:  Christ himself.

A Glimpse of Heaven

by Dick Buckingham, Administrator

In my 11^th and 12^th grade Bible class, we read a chapter in the Word each day devotionally.  Currently, we are reading through the book of Revelation, at a student’s request.  Having studied and read and mediated and taught from God’s Word for many years, I often hesitate when students want to read through Revelation as a class.  At the end of the reading each morning, I typically say, “Are there any comments?”  I realize the book of Revelation will produce more questions than comments and the students will be looking to me to make sense of this glorious, but difficult, book of prophesy.  Though I have come to grips over the years with a reasonable understanding of the book and its imagery that suits my satisfaction, students often are not satisfied with the broad strokes that I believe the book paints with and want to know specific details of everything the chapters describe.

Yet I relish the opportunity to bring them to one of my favorite chapters in all of God’s Word, chapter 4.  Here in this early chapter of the text, the Apostle John is transported to a place we all long to know much more about, the presence of God that we call heaven.  Once there, he begins to describe to the best of his ability the incredibly awesome experience that he encounters.

2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”  Revelation 4: 2-11 ESV

I love this chapter because it depicts the focus and primary activity in heaven.  The focus is God and activity is worship, real worship.  The first thing John saw when he entered into heaven was the throne and person of God.  He does his best to describe the experience in terms of things he and his readers have experienced, but no doubt even the language John uses isn’t adequate to fully grasp what he is seeing.  He then sees that there are others present, 24 elders and four unusual creatures.  Who and what these are is not my focus, but rather what they are doing.  John sees that the creatures are declaring God’s holiness over and over again.  And every time the creatures speak, the elders fall before him and worship God by casting their crowns before him and proclaiming His worthiness.

I am both awed and convicted by this vision of John’s.  I am awed because I get a glimpse of what it will be like when I shall at last see Him face to face.  I am convicted because I understand this is what I was created for and I fall so far short of this incredible offering of worship.  My worship (and perhaps yours) tends to be so self-centered.  It seems so much more about me and what I get out of it.  Does the music move me?  Is the message relevant to my life?  Worship as John’s sees in heaven is entirely God focused.  Those present are not concerned with anything, but are wholly given to the worship of the great and awesome God who is seated on the throne.  My worship is also so infrequent.  The creatures in Revelation “day and night…never cease to say…” and every time the creatures give glory to God, the rest join in to worship.  It is a continual, never ending, all-out expression of praise to God.  It is a strong reminder that our very lives are to be a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual act of worship.  Everything we do, everything we say, every thought we think, ought to be God focused and a declaration of His holiness and His worthiness.

I have got a ways to go in this.  Yet for a moment, I can pause with John in his awesome vision of heaven and I can imagine what it would be like to be doing all that He has created me for!