Are they schools or are they prisons? Kevin Probst

I’ve spent nearly 30 years of my life as an educator. Had I the opportunity to do it over again I would not choose any other profession. It has been a most enjoyable experience to help mold the minds and hearts of young people who will be tomorrow’s leaders. I’ve never dreaded Monday mornings like so many in the workforce. I was born to teach and I’m grateful I’ve had the opportunity to spend most of my life doing what I love most.

Would I advise my students to become teachers? I often struggle with that question. If they are Christians who choose teaching as a lifetime profession they may have to teach in government schools or universities where the environment is hostile to God

Christians in public institutes of education are now being punished if they don’t conform to the humanism being taught. Julea Ward, who was enrolled in the counseling program at East Michigan State University, was expelled because she felt compelled to counsel homosexuals using her own biblical worldview rather than the humanistic worldview of the university. Jennifer Keeton, a student at Augusta State University in Georgia was warned that the school would withhold her degree from her unless she ceased witnessing for Christ to the other students.

We like to divide our world into two realms, that which is sacred and that which is secular. Isn’t that really a misnomer? Isn’t God sovereign over his entire creation? All the world belongs to God and the two existing realms include that which is sacred and that which is rebellious. The ‘secular’ school system in America has revealed its rebellion toward God by embracing humanism. Our children are trained that the government is the Big Brother who will take care of them from womb to tomb. (Socialism) God is extracted from the science classes and history classes. They teach that the solution to our problems is not God, it lies in the ingenuity of man and his ability to use new technology. We put a man on the moon, we found a cure for polio, we’ve even developed an efficient, man-made heart to replace the one provided by God. Man has taken precedence while God has been relegated to the back burner.

Many Christian teachers are hopeful that their efforts in government schools can help bring about reform. They deserve much applause for their efforts but the religion of the schools is humanism and our institutions are so infested with it that reform seems impossible. When God saw that reform or repentance was not an option, he destroyed man with a flood. Many believe there is no reform option, the only hope for the present system is to deconstruct it and rebuild. The phenomenal rise in charter schools, private schools and homeschooling indicate the desperation in America for a better system to educate its youth.

I taught several years in an inner-city school. I learned soon after my arrival that it wasn’t so much about academics. It was more about monitoring disruptive classrooms. Your skills as a disciplinarian were far more valuable than your skills in academia. Some inner city schools seem to be in essence, de facto prisons. Students often park their cars in a fenced in lot that isn’t unlocked until 3:30 PM when they are paroled home. The inmates are herded from room to room at certain time intervals. They stand in line to receive food and eat off of plastic cafeteria trays. They are lined up during certain times of the day for a corporate visit to the restroom. The monitor decides who does and doesn’t speak. The inmates often fight with each other and there are certain ones always at risk to escape the compound. There is frequent rebellion against those in charge of the facility. Armed security guards patrol the passageways. Guns and weapons are confiscated along with drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Serious students must ask themselves: Just what am I being prepared for, prison?

There are better ways to educate. But they will be elusive until we truly put the child first and invite God back to the classroom.

http://kpprobst.blogspot.com/2010/10/are-they-schools-or-are-they-prisons.html  (For more on public schools)

How Do I Know God Has Called Me To Preach?

I sometimes have students approach me at Calvary Christian School and ask, “How do I know what God’s will is for my life?” I then ask them, “What do you want to do?” If they have previously surrendered to Christ I usually discover that God has preceded his calling in their lives by placing within them a desire. It’s not always a desire to preach or teach, sometimes it’s a desire to work with babies, to fix people’s teeth or to work with animals.

I was a junior in a Christian boarding school when I felt God calling me to preach and teach. There was no rebellion toward the will of God in my life. I set about preparing myself to answer his call with great gusto. I went three years to a Bible College and then went on to the university and achieved degrees in teaching and administration. After completing college, through a series of unexpected circumstances, I found myself preaching in a small church in Columbus, Georgia. I had said ‘yes’ to the path God had chosen for me.

I soon discovered that it may be easier to choose the right path than it is to stay on the right path. Satan began to do a work on me. The church was difficult, in need of major changes but with huge obstacles preventing change. I was young, immature, and wondering why I was in a small church in Columbus instead of preaching in a Billy Graham Crusade. I then began to feel the lure of materialism. I had friends who drove nicer cars and lived in bigger homes. I felt like I’d never ‘be known’ if I didn’t leave the church and strike out on my own.

I left the church and entered public education and spent 15 or more years taking the path most traveled. I followed the crowd. I turned my back on the will of God and I suffered heavy consequences. I frittered away my relationship with God. With God absent from my marriage it soon ended. I fled Columbus and spent two years teaching in North Atlanta where God pulled the rug out from under me and showed me just who I really was. In my moment of greatest despair and deepest loneliness, I realized that doing life my way wasn’t going to bring peace or satisfaction. Doing it my way had already cost me way too much. So, I surrendered to God and returned to Columbus to seek his will once again.

What I discovered was that the callings of God are without repentance. The first thing God began to speak to me about after restoring my relationship with him was my call to preach. Sermons began to come to me. I began to listen to sermons on the internet and on television. I attended church and left every service feeling that I should be in a pulpit somewhere proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I thank God for second chances. I am now an associate pastor of a Nazarene Church here in Columbus. I have ample opportunity to preach and teach the word of God. I have a wonderful wife who is very supportive of my ministry. She would tell you that if I didn’t have a willing congregation come hear me on Sunday mornings I would preach to the empty pews and the lofty rafters.

How do I know I am called to preach? God placed an overwhelming desire within. I have to eat, I have to sleep, I have to breathe and I have to preach. I can say along with Paul to the Corinthians (9:16) “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

I am compelled and I desire to preach but the paradox is that it is not a pleasant thing. The responsibility of accurately preaching the truth is weighty on the soul. The burden of being chosen of God to share a message of salvation that may very well determine the eternal destiny of some who listen is not a burden I would wish upon anyone. The feeling of unworthiness is a constant battle. There is a constant awareness that I am too small for the job, that I am imperfect. I’ve got such a long way to go. I’m not all I wish to be. I’m not even near what God wants me to be. I may not be all that I should be but, praise God, I’m not at all what I used to be! I am reminded daily that there are more things I don’t know than there are things I know. But one thing I know for sure, God has called me to preach and I’m going to do what he has asked me to do.

Environmental wackos pitch cutting carbon emissions...disturbing.

Very Disturbing pitch from environmental wackos to cut carbon emissions. Didn't want to post it but if you interested go to the website. Not for children. Gives you a glimpse into the minds of this people.

Abortion Survivor: Gianna Jessen

The man who tried to abort her had to sign her birth certificate!! "I have aborted over a million babies and I consider it my passion". The Born-Alive Infant Protection Act was not around to save her.  George W. Bush signed the act into law in January of 2002.

Soap Opera in the "Church"

Soap Opera in the “Church”




If you live in the Atlanta area you are probably becoming weary of the whole Eddie Long saga. Bishop Eddie Long is pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church which has a reported 25,000 members. Four young men have come forth recently to accuse the pastor of sexual improprieties. Long seemed to be preparing his followers for more revelation yet to come by saying that he is not a perfect man. But there may have been a streak of defiance in his tone when he compared himself to David, slayer of Goliath, “"I have five rocks and I haven't thrown one yet."

That should be enough “soap opera” drama to satisfy reporter from TMZ. But the drama just keeps giving and giving. Amos Dotson, 26, a rapper and producer of “rock alternative” music declared that he was a “son” of the Bishop in 2003. He was “sat down” by the Bishop and reprimanded for sleeping with several women in the church. What is troubling is that Dotson was told that his actions reflected poorly on Long and the church. Shouldn’t there have been some mention that his actions reflected poorly on the image of Christ whose name he claimed?

Enter another character in the saga. Reverend Dennis Meredith is pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Atlanta. He has strongly criticized Bishop Long and compares him to Goliath rather than David. Meredith urges Long to “come out with the truth”. One could easily question Meredith’s motives. Is he defending the truth of God’s word and Jesus Christ, the bearer of that truth or is he simply defending several young homosexual men in the church? Meredith, claims to be a messenger of God and a bearer of truth yet he lives a lifestyle that God’s word declares to be an abomination to God. (See Leviticus 18:22). Rev. Meredith is openly gay and bi-sexual and 85% of his church is gay, lesbian and bi-sexual. Can you say, “Sodom and Gomorrah?” Meredith makes an outrageous claim that he is trying to help the “body of Christ” while living in gross sin.

Someone who reads this post will peg me by saying I have no right to judge another. I would never trespass into that area that belongs to God alone. God is final judge of the actions of all men and he warns us not to presume that we can do his job better than he. But Christians and fellow ministers in our politically correct world have been neutered by their fear of lifting a voice to oppose those who do more harm to the gospel than good. If Bishop Long is guilty as accused then he should confess his sins and resign his position. Rather than throwing stones, Christians should rally around him in an attempt to restore a brother who has fallen.

A similar thing was happening in the church of Corinth when Paul gave them godly advise: “I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” (1 Cor. 5:9-13.)

The sin in the Corinthian church was as shocking to the unbelievers as it was to those who were followers of Christ. How shocking that Reverend Meredith would throw stones at Bishop Long. What’s more amazing is that it seems those looking on are more shocked than those within the church.

Paul didn’t mince any words. We are to expel those in the church who are involved in sexual immorality. It’s not judging, it’s being obedient to God’s command to keep the church pure. Bishop Long says he is an imperfect man, if that means he has been involved in sexual immorality while preaching against such sin, then he needs to come clean and confess his hypocrisy and resign his church and seek restoration.

God’s heart is grieved when he sees the church polluted with such sinfulness. Be mindful that anyone can start an organization and call it a church. The true church of Christ is still “spotless and without blemish.”

I want your money

"We could say they are spending like drunken sailors but that would be unfair to drunken sailors because the sailors are spending their own money." - Ronald Reagan

Should Christians takeover? Or Serve?

As a conservative Christian I strongly favor conservative Christian candidates to fill positions in our government. But I often ask just how might our politics and culture change were Christians running the government? Would we then be restored as a Christian nation or would we be defined as Christian because we have Christian leaders rather than because our citizens are born-again believers. Having a Christian leader doesn’t mean we embrace his Christianity. I think we are sometimes lured into the ‘mission’ of electing Christians to political office and then we believe the fallacy that by doing this we will become a Christian nation. We will only become Christian if we have a reviving of God’s Spirit, if we repent of our sin and a turn back to God rather than to a conservative government.


Augustine of Hippo proposed in his City of God that there are only two cities, the City of God and the City of Man. He didn’t portray these two cities as corresponding to earthly institutions. The church does not represent the City of God nor does the government represent the City of Man. The cities he referred to were invisible.

All true believers belong to the City of God. They love their Creator. They live their lives to bring glory to him and they expect to live eternally with him.

All those who reject Christ as the Savior belong to the City of Man. They love the creation more than the Creator. They love themselves more than God. Everyone on earth is a citizen of one city or the other.

I believe Christians are obligated to vote their conscience. I believe Christians should be actively seeking to reform our government and point others to Christ. But I believe we must take care not to equate reforming the government with evangelizing the lost. Should our major effort not be in building the City of God rather than the governments of men?

Some would take Augustine’s analogy a step further. They would say we are actually citizens of two kingdoms. This earthly kingdom belongs to God because he created it and he is sovereign over it. But his main focus is on the establishment of his church. The church is made up of those who have been redeemed, those whom he has called out of this world. As dual citizens we have obligations to both his earthly and heavenly kingdoms.

Jesus recognized that we have a mission to accomplish in this earthly kingdom because he prayed this in John 17:15 “My prayer is not that you take them out of this world but that you protect them from the evil one.” While I believe Christ wants us to live in this world , I believe he wants us to demonstrate a Christ-likeness to those who are lost by obeying His command to come “out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."

We are temporary citizens living in a very sinful culture. Rather than spending so much time trying to reform a kingdom that will one day pass away, should we not be much more committed to building a kingdom that will last for all of eternity?