Mansfield school in cash for grades controversy

Picture taken from: http://www.qeacademy.org.uk

‘Furious students at a failing Mansfield school are demanding money owed to them after they were promised cash for grades – and not paid’. This is the opening sentence of a story featured in the CHAD local newspaper. It would appear that students at the school were offered cash incentives to improve their grades at GCSE but have not yet been paid.

 

For many, this would seem a strange state of affairs. Why should students be offered payment for results? Is it necessary to offer money to ensure that students work, and fulfill their potential? Yet aren’t such questions denying the whole thrust of society? The government and its advisors have argued that teachers should be paid by results for a long time. Bank employees, particularly at the highest levels, have had some considerable bonuses, based upon results so-called. Isn’t that the way the economy works? Why apply it to adults, if it is considered to work, and not children?

 

This is one way in which the Christian gospel message goes against the thinking of so many today. That message tells us, guilty sinners, how we can be forgiven by God, cleansed of our sin, and made fit for heaven. How is that possible? Do we have to work for it? No! Will we be forgiven based upon our effort and results? No! Do we have to pay for it in some other way? No! Do we have to attend church and become “religious”? No! How, then, can guilty human beings, you and I, be forgiven by a holy God?

 

The Christian gospel message is about a person, Jesus Christ, God’s Son. It tells us that He died on a Roman cross some 2000 years ago. He died there to provide a sacrifice for sin, to pay the penalty that was rightly due to us. On Calvary, outside of Jerusalem, God judged His Son in my place that I might go free, be forgiven, be cleansed, and received into God’s presence. He bore God’s punishment for my sin. What about you? Have you accepted God’s Son as your Saviour?

 

It would seem that some students at the school above feel they have been cheated – they have not yet been paid. Promises were made but not kept, or that is how it seems. Let us be clear that when God promises He keeps those promises. He cannot do otherwise because He is God. What are you trusting in for heaven?

Happy New Year

http://www.nocturnar.com/fotos/wallpapers-hd-happy-new-year-2014/

 

Yes. I realize that I’m a bit late. We are ten days into the New Year. Hardly, on time am I? However, there is a point in my delayed welcome to 2014 and greetings to all the KGH blog readers.

 

There used to be a slogan – New Year, New You. I can’t really remember what the slogan was attached to, but the phrase has stuck in my mind. Many people see the start of a new year as an opportunity for a new start. New lifestyle? New diet? New relationship? New hairstyle/makeover? All these are considered and discussed. I suppose that the idea is that we must shake off the shackles of the old year. We must forget the misfortunes of the past and focus on the possibilities for something better in the future. I wonder, now we have reached January 10^th, how many of the best laid plans are still being followed, and how much optimism there still is now most of us have returned from the holiday period back to the routines of life.

 

What do all these failed resolutions and plans tell us? They tell us what we are really like. Even if you’re still sticking to your resolution and achieving some success in whatever it is, there is still the lesson of what we can hope to achieve. The best we can achieve will still leave us short of God’s standard for our life. We may be able to lose the most weight and achieve our target. We may be able to change jobs and have a really successful and prosperous career. We may be able to turn our life around and become the best partner, parent, or friend anyone could want. However, we can never reach God’s standard of perfection. The Bible says we are sinners – all of us. We need God’s salvation and blessing to fit us for heaven.

 

What we seek to tell our readers through this blog is that God has provided a Saviour and a way of salvation. All we have to do is admit that we are sinners and accept God’s gift of salvation through faith in His Son. As the Lord Jesus Christ died some 2000 years ago outside the city of Jerusalem, He died there for your sin and mine. God judged His Son for our sin. However, the importance of that sacrifice of Jesus Christ can only be applied if we accept it and believe it was for us. Salvation is not automatic. It requires my faith, my willingness to accept it. Will you? That would make 2014 a New Year – the start of a new, Christian life!