I have known Michael since he was born.  He has been in Sunday School and in our children’s clubs and youth groups;  I visited his family while they were in Switzerland with YWAM; I was kicked by him when he was in my care and did not want to do as he was told!  All the usual kind of stuff!  And I have seen him grow up and leave school.

This week it was so gratifying to have him with me at collective worship, playing his guitar and singing the praises of the Saviour before hundreds of boys.  Most of the lads will have little church experience outside of college.  Perhaps they think that Christianity is dull, old fashioned and only for the elderly – especially women.  Here a very credible young man affirmed, “In Christ alone I stand.”

Last week the Bishop of Lewis opened with a service of dedication a small college chapel.  At a moving ceremony, the Lord’s similitude of the wise man who built a house on a rock was read.  The image speaks to young and old alike.  The rock of the words of Christ are a solid foundation for an individual’s life; they are a basis for education.  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

If Christian theism is true and and the Triune God is the Lord of all creation, the secular model of education is folly. The fear of the Lord is only the beginning, but it is the beginning of wisdom.  Without the fear of the Lord, education is not really begun.

This means that for Christian believers the Bible in education is not a luxury but a necessity.