From a successful Preschool Disco, NAPLAN testing, excursions, dancing, assemblies, sporting events, frost, rain and mud to winning the regional Science and Engineering Challenge, we’ve had it all again in the past two weeks - never a dull moment.
With the pride and joy that we so often feel in the successes of our students, we acknowledge that these are deeply marinated in a dependence on, and in thankfulness to the Lord our God. His abundant blessings are showered upon us. Please give thanks regularly and continue to uphold the school in your prayers.
As usual, this newsletter will be jam-packed with news and pictures of the past two weeks. Enjoy!
For an article about Parent Induction that I recently wrote for the Christian Teacher’s Journal, please click here. You may find it interesting to read about the history of this induction and some of the pioneering work that went into this. For anyone interested (that means those parents in the school who have not done it yet), please feel free to sign up and attend the next course. It is also PIP accredited.
This week I want to reflect with you on the words ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’. The world knows these words and the Bible knows these words. What are the differences?
Ray Ortlund Jr.: “Wisdom is more than brains. It is more than morals. We could memorize the whole Bible, and mean it from the heart, without wisdom. Wisdom is skill, expertise, competence that understands how life really works, how to achieve successful and even beautiful results. We see a picture of wisdom in Exodus 35:31, where the word translated ‘wisdom’ in Proverbs 1:2 is used for the skill of an artist adorning the tabernacle. We see wisdom in Jeremiah 10:9 where the expertise of goldsmiths is called ‘the work of skilled men,’ or wise men. We see wisdom in Psalm 107:27 for the know-how of sailors, who use the winds and tides to make their way through the sea to their destination. Whether craftsmanship working with the materials of life or seamanship steering through the currents of life, so to speak, wisdom understands how real life can work well. Wisdom knows better than to walk onto the football field and hope the game will go well somehow; wisdom draws up a game plan that will score more touchdowns than the opponents because that plan takes into account not only the rules of the game but also psychology and timing and strategy and everything it takes to win. That is wisdom.”
In Colossians 2:3 Paul says that “in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Part of God’s wealth is the infinite wisdom and knowledge he has. Treasures are to be searched for, mined and refined.
Dr John Piper answers the question on the difference between wisdom and knowledge in this way: “Sometimes in the Bible they are almost interchangeable. But generally knowledge is awareness of facts and wisdom is awareness of how to use those facts for good goals.
Paul says that God’s knowledge is unfathomably deep. He knows all recorded facts—all the facts stored in all the computers and all the books in all the libraries in the world. But vastly more than that, he knows all events at the macro level—all that happens on earth and in the atmosphere and in all the farthest reaches of space in every galaxy and star and planet. And all events at the micro level—all that happens in molecules and atoms and electrons and protons and neutrons and quarks.
He knows all their movements and every location and every condition of every particle of the universe at every nano-second of time. And he knows all events that happen in human minds and wills—all volitional and emotional and spiritual events—all thoughts and choices and feelings. That includes past, present, and future. He knows every event that has ever happened and ever will happen at every level of existence: physical, mental, volitional. And he knows how all facts and all events, of every kind, relate to each other and affect each other. When one event happens, he not only sees it, but he sees the eternal chain of effects that flow from it and from all the billions of events that are unleashed by every other event. He knows all this without the slightest strain on his mind. That is what it means to be God.
And Paul says that not only God’s knowledge but also God’s wisdom is unfathomably deep. God is infinitely wise. That is, he has always been able to conceive and carry out plans that have good goals and that make use of all that knowledge to bring to pass what he purposes. He knows how to use all the facts of the universe and guide all the events of the universe to achieve the best end, namely, the display of the fullness of his glory magnified in the white-hot worship of a blood-bought people. All the treasures of this wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:3). Christ is the Creator of all created reality: “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). And Christ is the sustainer of all created reality. Colossians 1:17, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” And all created reality is for the sake of making Christ known and loved: “all things were created . . . for him” (Colossians 1:16).
Therefore, all knowledge and all wisdom and all riches originate in him, and are held in existence by him, and are for the purpose of making him known. Therefore, Christ is the final and ultimate meaning of all reality.”
May this be the reality that will be found in the core of our teaching and learning…and at the centre of our lives.
