How often do we think ‘September thoughts’? “Since the school year is starting, I will do ____” or “I can have 30 weeks to study ____ a little bit more.” It’s easy to think we can let our schedules and circumstances determine our life; to help our future along. It’s like living on autopilot: letting social life, full calendars, games, appointments, and homework become our purpose for living. And for us college women and beyond, it’s easy to think housework and college and chores is all that’s worth living for.
These activities are all worthy and many are necessary to living. Chores need to be completed. Homework must be finished. Doctors need to be seen. Teeth need to be filled. It’s life.
But, when we start to look to our calendars to determine what’s next, our lives are set to live on autopilot. And when a huge change comes (like graduation, for example), we aren’t sure what we’re supposed to do. We feel lost, like our social life has been stripped away; we feel like we have no reason to exist: like we have no purpose… like God has taken everything we liked to do away!
I confess I used to live on autopilot. Looking to the next thing on the list to determine what I should do. It is how we young single women start to feel discontent when we’re 18 or 21 or 30 and not married- or even seeing anyone. We’re too used to everything coming at us in an orderly fashion, being in control of our lives. When things like a job, marriage, or college don’t come our way, the discontentment sets in.
In reality, God is not taking anything away from us. WE are living without purpose.
“Our hearts are restless, Lord, until they rest in You.” Saint Augustine
So often, we’re caught up in living life to simply live life, we forget what we’re here for. We were made for God, not the next big thing! It is only when we live for God do we genuinely begin live vibrantly, wholly, and fully.
In our generation, we’re told to “dream big” all the time. We’re told to set goals and make plans.
Dreams are dreams, plans are plans, and goals are goals. We rarely see them accomplished- and if we do, they’re little things that don’t matter.
Because we’re too lazy to see thethem though.
Sure, we all have aspirations (like ‘become a lawyer’ or ‘get married’ or ‘write a book’) and dreams (such as ‘see the world’ or ‘meet the president’ or ‘live in Ireland’) and we all have plans (like ‘get diploma’ ‘hunt for a more fun job’ ‘have a party’ ‘go to Kings Island’).
How often are we seeing our goals through? It seems to me we’re told to dream big, but nobody really gives us a direction. Average adults sit back let us ramble through life, giving us vague advice. There’s nothing wrong with job hunting, and I love King’s Island. But how often do we see the big things getting done? Not often. We spend too much time in the small stuff. It’s good to live life with a metanarrative-ish plan, but… look at your calendar. How many of the things coming up in the next week really count for something? Will you remember what you did ten years from now? What could you be doing instead? It’s neccessary to get your haircut, or get your car’s oil changed; but do you really need to go out for coffee to “unwind”? How about shopping with the girls? Biking with the guys? What really matters?
So, my short challenge to you is to DO big. Don’t walk a tightrope or bungee jump off the Willis Tower, make an impact. Start a blog, write a book (and be sure to back it up someplace,189 pages of a devotional book I was writing and 78 pages of communism articles I was working on disappeared forever with a virus! Just warning you! BACK IT UP ON A DISC!), go on a missions trip, or teach a class. Mentor someone instead of being mentored for once. You will find you like it! Hey, if you’re a man and like speaking, try preaching when your pastor is on vacation this summer.
What are some “BIG” things you have done? What are some major things you’d like to do? How are you going to get there? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and you may inspire some other friendly folks along the way.
We can’t water down the gospel. Of course, we need to feed babies milk. We need to feed adults meat. However, a lot of what we’re being fed is milk. We’re not being fed much of spiritual meat; because we’re too busy debating milky things. We avoid strength and distinction because that is being critical.
”We must have options.”
“We must have uniqueness. ”
Says whom?
We must take the gospel as it is. And it does have distinction. Christ rose from the dead. Buddha didn’t. Christ fed 5,000 people from a kid’s dinner. Rajneesh didn’t. Christ ascended into heaven. Ghandi didn’t. Christ fulfilled all the prophecies to the letter- so far. He was predicted. He was anticipated.
To debate that is to be foolish.
He’s done so much more than any person of any religion ever did.
“If people see we’re really different, they will run away… We’re weird. We’re not like them. We scare them.”
When people want something different, they look for someone different.
Ever see a druggie wanting to quit drugs walk up to a person smoking hashish and ask “Hey man, I need to quit this habit I have…”
They do say that.
But that can’t.
So they talk about it.
We must make them realize we have something different. By offering them ear-ticklers and music like theirs (only with different, tamer lyrics), they will give up and think mediocrity is all there is to life.
No hope.
To be open-minded is to have no hope, and to offer no hope. Instead of sitting around and spinning our wheels talking, let’s start doing. It’s great to debate, don’t get me wrong, but we seem to throw around the idea of doing in our debates so often it becomes routine. “Should we? What if we offend someone?” “Why should we do anything about this? It’s too controversial.” “Can we pick something else to do? I can’t take sides on such a debated issue.” “Well I can’t take sides on the issue you’re suggesting…”
To not join in this kind of debate is to become a nobody. It seems seeking is all the rage. When do these seekers ever find? But when you’vefound something you know to stick to (truth, Christ) , it becomes uncool. Have you ever noticed God uses nobodys? The disciples were a majority of fishermen without formal education.
Why have church at all if nothing is different?
It’s amazing when some one from the “world” (as in unsaved) comes into church, gets their life in order and accepts Christ as savior. But that’s not the norm. Personally, I’ve heard of more people being saved from people going out to the world and telling them. Isn’t that what we are supposed to do? It’s the essence of the great commission. That’s not to say people can’t come into our church, but maybe the church was designed to go into the world. That’s why we’re not supposed to forsake assembling. We can encourage each other and pray for each other right on the spot if need be. Can you imagine the unbeliever doing this? Perhaps the church was indeed designed for the believers in mind. I know it was. I’m not against inviting the lost to come to church. In fact we have a neighbor kid who comes with us to the teen group every week. But I wonder why he hasn’t gotten saved yet. He seems to come just to get out of his house. He has questions, and we have answers, but he just flounders around when he’s asked if he knows for sure if he wants to go to heaven. My brother and the youth leader have been talking with him, but he doesn’t want to know for sure. I fear for this young man’s soul. I’m afraid he’s coming for a temporary escape from his house. He knows there is something different, but doesn’t want to hop on. Yet. I find the best time to minister to him is by asking him to join us for dinner, to talk walks with us to the park, to play basketball with my dad and brother. Fulfilling the great commission in some minds is standing on a corner in front of an old brick building, standing on a wooden crate, wearing a bowler hat with tracts in it; shouting about hell and damnation. You can fulfill the great commission by talking with a neighbor kid.
Church tends to take on routine. In our church, we are helplessly stuck in a rut. We open the service with the same theme prayer, sing three songs total, the choir sings, “special” music, 40 minutes of preaching. Once a month in the evenings, we observe communion and sing the same hymn on the way out. If I were to suggest moving communion to once a week, I’d get accused of being weird. No where in the Bible does it say “have communion at the end of your service once a month at the start of the month.” Ha! That’s how it ends up getting done. I can not remember if we ever had the communion service in the morning service. Why not have a special foot-washing ceremony? (“Groan…” “Laura!” “Why did you say that?”) It is hard to break tradition/routine.
Routine makes us feel complacent. It makes us uncomfortable when new ideas come forth. It also makes us unhappy to comply to new rules- as little they may be.
When people come into the church from the world, some things without explanation may seem a little weird. Why have an organ? What’s up with the hymns? I don’t understand this language. They are so used to their flesh being coddled 24/7 they can’t stand quiet. To sit still for an hour is nearly impossible. You can’t be checking your Facebook, your email, listen to music. It’s quietness. They have to think. Two things people are afraid of!
To have something different will create either a total rejection or a thirst. If the difference is rejected, obviously people weren’t as open-minded as they thought they were. If they begin to thirst, they will obviously have a need for discipleship from someone who played a part in creating it. Giving them something solid to chew on will help.
The thirsty person will end up wanting more and more… but the dissenters will think you’re foolish.
Again, the cross of Christ is going to offend people.
But, you will reap the benefits.
A strong example, a strong testimony, a strong track record. You will have answers to questions some people are still debating. Most people are followers. They need a leader.
You’ve created a contrast. You’ve set a new standard, opened a new way. To quote Eric Ludy once more:
“When the open mind is allowed to run wild and unrestrained, truth loses its definition. When truth loses its definition, we lose all perspective on what truth is even supposed to look like lived out in the world. And when we forget what truth looks like, we have no other standard to look to but ourselves. We rarely rise to a higher standard.”
5 common questions:
Why am I here?
Who is God?
Who is this Jesus and why is He the only path to salvation
Why the Bible and not the (insert the book of choice)?
Why should the Bible be the authority in my life… not me?
Answer these Biblically and you’ve created some thirst. Some want to find deeper meaning.
The Sunday school materials we still use are outdated. They aren’t thirst creating. They don’t provide answers. Like I said in my first post, they treat the Bible as a story. They don’t have a real backbone.
It’s time we stopped treating all kids the same as the times before and giving them some answers.
Other thoughts I didn’t quite fit in as I was writing, and thought of afterward:
Mark 7:6-8
2 Cor. 11:3 Attacks are coming, and we will have to fight to hold onto the simple gospel
“Ever since the perfect image of God was ruined when sin entered the Garden of Eden, mankind has been attempting to recreate God in his own frail image. Being incurably religious, we want a God we can comprehend and neat, finite, human terms. We want a God we can understand. A God we can predict and figure out… we want ‘religion lite’.
All this reminds me of the Kyoto, Japan temple where worshippers can literally choose their own deity. The temple is filled with more than 1,000 Buddhas, each one a little different than the rest. Worshippers can choose which one they like best.
We are giving God a makeover ourselves. We have made Him into a user friendly God who makes allowances for our sins and excuses for our backgrounds.”
Adapted transcript of the session “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by John Stonestreet: I’ve had to trim away quite a bit of this talk, but I’ve done my best to keep the important parts in, and to not add too much of my own explanation. This is from a CD we bought from Midwest Homeschool Convention. (My notes and two cents will be in parantheses with LN at the beginning for Laura’s Note) Here we go… (You may need to read this in sections…)
My name is John Stonestreet. I’m the executive director of Summit Ministries.
What I am about to tell you is profound. Bookmark it, write it down, keep it in mind, this is huge. Ready?
It is a sin to be dumb.
Now, that’s not to say the only option is to be brilliant- but we are to love God with our hearts, souls, and our MINDS. I think the one thing culturally that keeps us from loving God well with our brains and thinking well about the world is entertainment.
Let me frame this: I think Christians do a lousy job of understanding culture, and culture does a lousy job of understanding Christians.
I live in Colorado Springs, and there is a megachurch there called New Life Church. It’s well-known, but for a lot of the wrong reasons. Their first pastor had a huge moral downfall, it made national news, and the whole church was in turmoil, and a lot of other bad things happened. A new pastor took over, and he did a wonderful job of keeping the church out of the spotlight, shooing away cameras, and not doing interviews, and their church was back on the right track. A lot of people who were really hurt came back, and those who’d stayed were counseled, and the church went on as before.
Well, a few months later, another incident happened. A young man who used to work for YWAM was still deeply hurt by his Christian experience at this church and decided to open fire on the church on Sunday morning. He was armed to the hilt, ready to take out several hundred people, and he entered right as the 11 o’clock service was releasing and heading down the hallway. He shot several people before a security guard took him down. I was driving around town doing errands that afternoon and the radio was on a preacher, and the announcer cut in saying “Breaking News! There’s been a shooting at New Life Church.” So, I tuned in right away and listened as they had the man who saw the first shooting in the parking lot- and had called into the station to tell everyone about it. The lady who was announcing asked “Was Mass still going on when the shooting took place?” (Now, if you know anything about New Life Church it’s charismatic in its angle on things. They don’t do Mass). So this reporter was asking him “Was Mass still going on when the shooting took place?” and the guy said, “Huh?” She asked him again and he said “Huh?” Seven times this went back and forth. What makes this conversation interesting is that it’s taking place in Colorado Springs, CO -like the “mecca” of evangelicalism. We have 300 non-profit/for profit evangelical organizations within that town and suburbs alone. Focus on the Family, Ellerslie, Summit, Compassion International… it’s like if you want to be a true Christian, you have to make a pilgrimage there once in your lifetime and go down the Wit’s End slide. (haha)
So this lady is a reporter there, and she has no idea that this huge, popular mega church is not one that takes Mass, and the guy who attends the church doesn’t know enough about catholics and other secular “religions” to know what Mass even is!
This is what is going on today- Christians don’t know enough to understand their world! If we are not going to be deceived and if we are going to champion the cause of Christ we need to… not be dumb.
Here’s a model:
God has given us a text- and this text sets our agenda. It tells us what to believe, why to believe, what to do next, the metanarrative of the world (big story), and how to live- the contours of reality. The hard part is, though, this scripture, this agenda, this guidebook has to be lived in context. The context of our times and the context of when it was written are different. I’m not sure what you thought this morning when you looked outside, but I’m pretty sure you didn’t say “Oh no, the Philistines are coming- what am I going to do?” If the Philistines were encamped around your house, you’d be able to look at the Bible and say “Sweet! We know what to do!!!”
See what I mean?
What do we see today in the paper? Challenges about abortion, euthanasia, ethics wars, and things like that. There’s nothing about ‘abortion’ in the scripture. There’s nothing about ‘stem cells’ in the scripture. There’s nothing about ‘keep your ethics just so’ in the scriptures. There’s nothing about ‘Lady Gaga’ in the scripture- well I don’t think she’s a lady… but that’s beside the point. Our context gives us questions that drive us back to the text. One is foundational- and it’s not our context. We should find principles in our Bibles that will help us live in a modern world.
There are three questions that can help us understand the world better:
What’s going on- really?
Now, I want to mention that Christians often ask the wrong form of this question: “What’s going on?” and leave it at that. Then we have a tendency to respond in a panicked manner:
“What’s going on?”
“Muslims are going to take over the world.”
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
Well, the world is largely Islamic, but that’s not because they are killing and such anymore, it’s because of the death of Western Civilization because we are not having babies anymore. What’s going on is the growth of Islam, what’s going on REALLY is we’re not having babies. Cultures don’t get murdered, cultures commit suicide. What’s going on REALLY? We’re committing suicide with our values and lifestyle.
“What’s going on?”
“Harry Potter”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
~
“What’s going on?”
“Twilight.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
~
“What’s going on?”
“Justin Bieber”
“Really big AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”
What’s going on really is that after 150 years of secularism, the idea that there’s no God, there’s nothing to value; people are actually now wanting meaning and something to worship and value and praise so much they are turning to the wrong things. That’s why Harry Potter and Twilight were so popular for so long. What’s next? What’s next? Who knows? I don’t know. But I do know that we can change things.
It presents a crisis for the Christian: bad ideas to face and overcome. It’s time for Christians to re-enter the cultural conversation. It’s time we had something right to say for once instead of being the awkward kid who never has something to say. We need to start speaking up and saying the right things. Ask the right questions.
The second question is:
Why is it going on, really?
We typically ask lame questions:
“What’s going on?”
“Girls don’t wear enough clothes.”
Why’s it going on?”
“Oh, they just want to be immodest.”
No! No!
Why is that going on REALLY?
Girls are not wearing enough clothes because they are convinced that their value is directly tied to what they look like. They don’t care or even KNOW that their value comes from being made in the image of God. One the most important things that dads can do for their daughters is to help them learn where their value really comes from.
Instead of being reactionary, be thoughtful. Be teaching. Greg Koukl says there are two problems with Christians today. We’re thoughtless and shrill. We need to be thoughtful and winsome. Not winsome as in cute and charming, but winsome as in winning people to Christ- in a kind, appealing way. We shouldn’t have to change our message- because that isn’t an option, but we should have to make ourselves more open to people. We can do that so much easier if we aren’t being shrill as in pushy and forceful. We can’t stop thinking. Ever.
Then the third question is:
What is this culture doing to me? Or, more aptly stated: What is this culture MAKING me?
The greatest example of this is from the life of William Wilberforce. He raised up all these new questions in the parliament of England during his life. “What’s a human being?” “What’s an African?” He reformed a whole culture through education, advertising, and so many other things.
So why are we performing exegesis (stepping back and asking questions) on entertainment? Hey, listen to this: It’s the number one force that shapes the culture! Entertainment is EVERYWHERE! Let me say that again: entertainment is EVERYWHERE! There’s no other force that even comes close to entertainment that shapes what we know and what we think about and how we think about it. In other countries, heroes make history. In our country they make CD’s and touchdowns. Every culture has had entertainment; we don’t not have entertainment. Do you get that?
We are so focused on entertainment that we walk into Wal-Mart and we notice right away when the TVs are off; then we wonder why they aren’t on! We’re like “Dude, turn the game on!” Or if you’re in the store and the music isn’t on you wonder if there’s a problem with their music system. Or you think “It’s too quiet. Let me whip out my iPod or I’m out of here.” Our culture is just so used to entertainment we’re not realizing it. We stop thinking.
Every culture has had entertainment. The Romans like to feed Christians to lions and it was a big thing because it only happened once a month. We have noise and images and funny stuff flying at us 24/7/365. It’s huge.
Michael Medford makes the astute statement: “There is no culture in America other than popular culture.”
Courtney Love “I feel like I have a duty. I, as an architect have a need to impose my worldview on the culture.” I’m just surprised that Courtney Love knew the word “worldview”.
Youth culture is a very modern invention. MTV has re-vamped the idea of youth. In almost all cultures, kids go from being kids to being adults. Some became adults while still being kids! Think of the pygmies! Here in the West, we go from kids to…
adolescence.
I do not believe in adolescence. (LN- Neither do I, really- we’re capable of doing adult things, but we CHOOSE the fun things, immature things, etc. Back to the lecture…)
Adolescence wasn’t coined until the 40’s. We used to have dances in the community where all the adults came and danced, and the kids came and danced like adults. Then, time went on and the kids danced and the adults sat around the edges of the room. Pretty soon we had adults not coming at all and these disillusioned “teens” coming by themselves in their own cars; later that night our parents came into early stages of existence, twenty years later we came and eventually we had this new idea of “youth culture”.
Of course, the idea of 13 to 18 year olds being adolescents isn’t new. Actually, adolescence has been re-defined by the Academy of Science as a stage lasting from 11 to 30. It’s all because of entertainment: because people realized if they could market to 13 to 18 year olds, they could market to 11 and 20 year olds too. If 20 year olds liked the products, why stop when they turned 21? 22? Eventually we had all these adults acting like kids because of what they liked, how they were living, and who they associated with. We suddenly have all these immature adults hanging around because no one has told them how to act. They’ve spent so much time in front of the screens that when they end up getting sick of the noise and leaving the screens after 21 years in front of them, they don’t know what to do. They can’t relate to anyone. So they turn to the wrong things again.
We have all these people in front of video games and phones and we say “Oh kids will be kids…” We’re talking about 15 and 16 year olds! In other countries, they would have been fighting battles by now. They would be married. They would be managing large crops. I don’t know if you realized this or not, but a few years back, when we went after that Somali pirate ship, the captured captain was 16 years old. Not to say we should be raising our younger adults to be pirates, but I’d say that’s way cooler than playing Halo all day. Can’t you see what these countries are aspiring to? They are aiming for a higher standard. They are raising what they think are leaders. (LN- Right, Uncle John! Our leaders march in bands that make music for… football games. Our leaders stand up against…bullying. Not to say that bullies are a good thing, but at the end of the day, does it matter that someone’s “self esteem” (which is a lie) or feelings or ego got hurt? We’re all a bunch of ninnies! “I’m bigger than you. – BOO!” “aaaaaahhhh!!! run away!” Toughen up!)
A quote to ponder: First art will imitate life, life then life will imitate art, then life will find it’s very meaning from the arts.
Don’t miss this progression. It’s huge. We saw this with the history of television. When the television first came out, there were news shows, then the entertainment shows. News and entertainment. The there was news about entertainment. We still have some of that. But now, it’s mostly entertaining news. Haven’t you noticed how the news is sold to you? It’s not “Tonight we’re going to have a really deep discussion of global foreign policy on the war in Iraq.” It’s “TO-night on FOX NEWS…. The war in Iraq (cue dramatic music)… will we SURVIVE? Duh-duh-duuuuh! (explosions, gun fire) POW! POW! (Melancholy scream: ‘aaaahhhhh!!!!’) See? Everything is SENSATIONAL-ized. Why? Because you have something hot in your little hands! What is that? The CLICKER! (ooh, aaah) And the first moment it’s quiet for you, you have to turn the channel. Everything has to be entertaining.
One big problem we face today is “how are we [and our children] going to find the truth?” Have you ever watched CNN and FOX at the same time? Flipping back and forth it’s like watching two different planets living their own life! There is a different good guy and bad guy and stories are different- one channel withholds facts, one gives too many, it’s insane!
If all you get out of life is what you see on TV, you will be dumb. You WILL be dumb.
It is a sin to be dumb.
Let’s get into the how. We’ve looked at the what shapes culture, we need to talk about how it shapes culture.
The first way is that it’s loaded with ideas. We live in the age of information, which is the age of ideas. Ideas have consequences. CS Lewis said that the most dangerous ideas in a society aren’t the ones that are being argued. They are the ones that are being assumed. Entertainment assumes ideas. There are so many examples of this. Entertainment is differing on the definition of the good guys and the bad guys. The Ocean’s Eleven movies. (Funny quote worth including following the bracket… —>) How many of you have seen those movies? Okay, you big bunch of sinners. By the end of the movie, who are you cheering for? Who are the good guys in Ocean’s 11? Men trying to rob a casino. Talk about bending a person’s perception of good and evil. Let me repeat this: The GOOD guys are robbing casinos. The BAD guys are the cops and others trying to stop them! Do you see the problem with this?
Sometimes the ideas we get in movies are obvious. For example, the Star Wars movies. The whole movies show people that are controlled by a “force”. Clearly New Age thinking. If you think the force is God, think again and read some books about yoga, Buddhism, New Age, and Wicca. Or the Golden Compass- the problem with the world is religion. But sometimes the ideas are more subtle. The creator of South Park said he wanted to offend as many people as possible. That just seems stupid. It is. But get this, if everything is being made fun of, what is sacred? Nothing!
Desperate Housewives …which I hope nobody here watches… the idea is that there is a beautiful neighborhood, it looks good and everyone seems good, but once you get inside, nothing is good at all. The housewives live such boring, dreadful lives, the husbands could care less, and the kids are falling apart. This show was designed and writted by… two gay men who wanted to destroy the idea of a happy traditional family.
Let’s talk about one more example, it runs a little bit deeper. It’s from the movie “The Notebook”. Sometimes when I get done speaking, people like to come up and talk to me about the sessions. I really like that. Sometimes, I see the look on their face as they’re coming up to talk to me and I think “I don’t want to talk to them.” Well, I was speaking in a teacher’s conference in the Carolinas, and I made a sarcastic comment (because I have the spiritual gift of sarcasm- no no, I’m kidding…) about The Notebook. So I get done speaking and these ladies come up to me and I’m thinking “I don’t want to talk to them!” Eventually they caught up to me and one lady said “What’s wrong with The Notebook?” and I said “What do you mean?” and she replied: “You said it was a horrible picture of love and it is really a beautiful picture of love.” If you don’t know anything about the movie The Notebook, it goes like this: (LN- I’ve never seen it, myself, but have heard PLENTY about it)
There’s an older woman who has Alzheimer’s, and she’s in a rest home, and her husband comes to see her everyday. She can’t remember her life, who he is, who she is, so when her husband comes to visit her, he brings this notebook he’s written in over time about their life. He reads the notebook and by the end of the story, she remembers him again and they have a sweet, fond moment together, and they end up dying in each other’s arms. Yes, that’s a beautiful picture of love…but what happens in between is what is not a good depiction of love.
You see, in summer, there were these two teenagers who saw each other, as teenagers are want to do. They fall in love, the mean dad breaks them up, and eventually the girl ends up getting engaged to another guy. She hasn’t forgotten this other guy, and they end up sleeping together. They have a strong feeling of passion for each other. She breaks off the engagement and runs back into bed with this other guy, and after 50 years, that passion is still there and it hasn’t gone away… just like real life.
The battle for your heart and mind is the battle over definitions. We need to ask “What do you mean by that?” What do you mean by love? Get definitions! Entertainment in this case assumed a definition of love. Love is supposedly a strong feeling of passion that never goes away… Do the feelings go away sometimes? Yes!
Look what happens with divorce! Sometimes married couples don’t know how to deal because they have this idea of love being a strong feeling of passion that’s not supposed to go away…
Love is a commitment. Passion is a bonus. Don’t let your feelings determine the truth; when your feelings determine truth you’re in big trouble.
We have these new definitions for love. Like the oxy-moron “same sex marriage is going to ruin America”. Same-sex marriage is a sign that the country IS ruined. Same-sex marriage isn’t redefining love and marriage. We redefined those when we instated no fault divorce!
The Notebook not only gave you a bad definition of love, it assaulted the right definition of love. “If you have a strong feeling of passion for someone else, you can break commitments to someone else.”
——–If you would like to break and return later, you can stop here——–
What happened on 9/11 was a new era of television starting to depict life and reality in radical Islam. They were fighting against the enemy- which was Christianity, capitalism, etc. etc… Clearly, that is a worldview. Just as much as that reflects a worldview, something as “harmless” as “party music” can show a worldview. Something, more specifically, trivial as an album cover can reflect a worldview.
This picture (below) is from a controversial rap and hip hop artist called the coup.
This group depicts the WTC blowing up, the right guy has the button, the guy on the left is orchestrating it all, and they both look very satisfied and happy. This was scheduled to be released in November of 2001. They had decided on album art in the spring of that year. Of course, in September, we had the Islamic attacks on America, flying planes into the building; and the coup changed their album art shortly after that because they thought it would be bad taste. Not before the event happened; it became bad taste after the event happened. Later that month, they were on a TV show, and the interviewer asked “Why that picture? Why the World Trade Center?” And the reply was “Because I am a Communist. I am out to destroy capitalism.” Isn’t it strange and startling to hear that communism’s idea of destroying the West is the same as radical Islam’s? (LN- Isn’t it also startling to realize this guy is a communist trying to become rich and famous off a free market by selling and marketing the CD?!! Destroying capitalism by selling CD’s!! Missed an economics lesson…)
There was a Summit student who went home from the 12 day camp and decided to veg-out and relax by watching a movie. So he went, and all the time he was thinking to himself “Wait a minute, that’s Secular Humanism!” “Hey, how do they know that’s true?” “They can’t think like that, that’s not logical!” It ruined his movie- but he learned an important lesson that he could never turn his brain off during any kind of entertainment! He wrote to us saying that he made the choice to never turn his brain off and he is happy for that choice because he is stronger and his brain is stronger. His faith is stronger. He asks himself “What are they saying?” “What are they saying?”
The interesting thing about entertainment and why it’s so big in our culture, it actually changes us. All these images and sounds are coming at us so fast that we don’t think.
We live in a generation that has ideas coming at us ALL THE TIME! King Solomon said “There’s nothing new under the sun”. That’s true. The difference in your generation is that all the old ideas are coming at you ALL THE TIME, ALL AT ONCE, completely repackaged and completely decontextualized. It’s never quiet anymore. So it’s always noisy. You have the clicker and when it’s quiet you get uncomfortable. If this is true of your life, you need to take a fast. I don’t mean fast as in “I’m fasting from music, I’m just listening to Christian music.” No! Just take a fast from all music for awhile. I dare you to get in the car and don’t turn on the radio. (Huh? Gasp! Ahh! No way!) So all these ideas are coming at you , but now you are fooled into thinking about and caring about things that don’t matter. We feel distracted about things that really matter, wishing they weren’t bugging us. We’re stymied. We’re stupid!
If you went up to a random person on the street and asked them “Who’s your senator?” they’d never be able to give you a tangible answer! “Name a supreme court justice.” Huh? Huh? “Who went off of American Idol last night?” Rattle rattle rattle rattle they go!
When we know more about a TV show than our government we’re dumb!
Have you ever noticed that the airport terminals have the seats set around TVs? They just expect you to stare the screen all day. Well, it was between the holidays back in the year they had the tsunami, and I was in theCincinnatiAirport, and nobody was watching the TVs any more. The death toll had just reached the hundred thousands, and it was like 9/11 all over again. Everyone was getting sick of the news being repeated over and over; and they just had enough. Enough! They didn’t want to hear it anymore. So, I was at this little shop, and behind the cashier there was a huge flat screen TV that had the news on it, and nobody was watching it, and the cashier didn’t say much to the lady in front of me, and the lady wasn’t looking up… then all the TVs in the air port suddenly broke in: BREAKING NEWS! Immediately everyone looked up and was paying rapt attention to these screens. Breaking news! Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston have broken up. And suddenly all across the airport people are mumbling stuff like “Oh I thought they’d last forever!” and everyone is crowding around the TVs! “This is horrible!” The lady at the cashier is now in a deep conversation! Listen, it’s sad that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston broke up. Mm- nah, you know I actually don’t care. It’s not worth my time to think about. What happens when you put the death of hundreds of thousands of people at the same level as a celebrity couple who haven’t done half as much as some- or most- or all of those Indonesians? What impression does that give of America? Of people in general?
One of the most devastating things about people who get addicted to entertainment is that you stop thinking about what’s important. Let me ask you a question. Think about it: There are two levels we need to address: consumers (most of us) and the other level, the producers. Listen current and future producers: if you’re listening (reading!) to this, you’re probably feeling pretty beat up, attacked. I am not against art, not against entertainment if it’s for the glory of God. We don’t need Christian entertainment, we need Christian people who will use the arts in the right way to win people to Christ. We don’t need “Christian entertainment”- because entertainment makes us silly. Christian entertainment makes us silly Christians. You get the difference? You get what I’m saying? It’s triviality I’m against (me, too, Uncle John!). We need you to make movies that show the solid values being played out in life. We need you to make movies that share the gospel. We need you to act in a Christ-like matter. We need you to write songs. We need you to write definite Christian songs that don’t leave people guessing “are they talking about God or their girlfriend?” We need you to encourage through the arts. Entertainment ahs neutered the rightful power art should have. Plato said “let me write the music for a nation and I care not who makes it’s laws.” We are OWNED by trivial entertainment!
The guy who predicted all this happening is dead. He has the best Christian book on entertainment, and he wasn’t even Christian. His book, however, is truer and bolder than any other Christian book on entertainment could ever be. He answers all the questions in a right matter: What’s going on, really? Why is it going on, really? He’s a guy named Neil Postman. His book is called “Amusing Ourselves To Death”- the book title I borrowed for the lecture title. The introduction is worth the price of the book. (I agree! It is an amazing book! Of course, you probably think “Laura’s such a nerd…” I may be, but make yourself read this book!). It goes as follows:
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another – slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions”. In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.”
That’s a homerun. Entertainment can make us very, very silly. You see, in our rightful attempt to mend entertainment, we replace it with “Christian enetertainment”. That seems to be the number one strategy. Don’t be against everything: “I’m against Christian entertainment.” Be against replacing entertainment with Christian entertainment. That does nothing. It misses the real problem. We need to be for something. It’s part of being winsome. Don’t use negatives. Say “I’m for…” not “I don’t do…”. Ever wonder why Christianity isn’t working for most people? We’re shrill. Anyway, back to the subject.
One of our Summit speakers says it this way: “If you’re still buying books from the front of the Christian book store, stop.” That’s the hard way of saying something that is deep. That is saying there is a difference between good books and bad books. (LN: Also, ignorant or lazy people don’t like looking for good books, so they buy whatever looks good out front!). There are bad songs and good songs. There is a difference. But we tend to draw lines and say “everything on this side of the line is good and everything on this side of the line is bad.” The problem is, not everything on this side of the line is going to be good, and not everything on that side of the line is bad! Life is never a line that you do or do not cross. It’s like couples who ask “How far is too far with my partner?” If you’re asking the question, you’re already crossing the line- or about to. It’s in your head, hinting at going over! Purity is not a line. Purity is a direction. It’s a mindset. If you want to participate in music and movies, don’t give us Christian replacements for what’s already there. Don’t feed and pay the stars salaries! Popular isn’t always good. Christians should not be copying culture, Christians should lead culture. This is how it used to be. Most of the founders of modern science were rooted in the Christian faith. Early musicians were from the faith. Our problem now is we’re off in a corner creating a sub-culture hoping to keep entertainment safe while not addressing the actual problem! We’re really creating more of a problem! It’s like putting a band-aid on a leper’s spot and telling him it’ll be okay now!
That is not a Biblical worldview.
Safety is not an option. Christians can be safe, but choosing to be safe and run away is not biblical! We need to come out of hiding and champion the martyrs and heroes of the faith. We can’t cower in a corner and hope that everything will be okay. We need to know why we believe what we believe and show that to the next generation through art. Stop throwing out Sunday School answers ‘Cause the Bible said so…’ and actually prove your beliefs are right. Show that to others through songs and movies. Tell people why you aren’t watching a certain movie. Don’t say “Oh, my mom and dad told me not to, I can’t go with you to see the movie…” Give them some hope and make them think with every word you say!
This is why what’s happening in the popular Christian music scene is so devastating. It’s not contributing to the world at all. It’s safe. It’s cool. It’s fun. It’s not dangerous. It’s trying to stay over on one side of the line. Eminem is popular, let’s make a Christian Eminem. Let’s have a Christian Britney Spears if she’s popular, just make sure she’s a virgin and a good girl. I’m still anxiously waiting to see what the Christian Lady Gaga’s going to look like. That’s going to be embarrassing. Think of all the triviality. Think of all the Christian boy bands. It’s a big game of copycat. What about Romans 12:2? Are we really renewing our minds? Are we seriously trying to be set-apart from the world? No!
Back to the boy bands issue: Why do people, meaning adolescent girls, like boy bands so much? Why are they so compelling? It’s because their music is so deep and rich and beautiful, right? (LN- haha, I honestly don’t think the Jonas brothers or NSYNC or Justin Bieber would be selling music if their faces were never revealed!). It’s because their dance is so excellent and choreographed and they are all on beat, right? It’s because their lyrics are so meaningful and it makes you think about life and the future and God and the world in a whole new way, right? NO! NO! Why do they like boy bands? Bluntly put, it’s because they’re HOT. I was talking about this to a group of students and I mentioned a “Christian” boy band and a girl said “Ooh, I like that group!” so I asked her: “Do you like them because their lyrics are so deep and meaningful?” “No, well, no, but I” “Why do you like them?” “They’re hot!”
There is no category of Christian hotness.
There was a teacher at the university I used to teach at before I came to Summit, and she used to drone on about the danger of Christian romance novels. She was particularly hard on her students about romance novels; they were a wrong view of reality, and this is what she said, not what I said. By the way, she coined the term Jeanette Okey Dokey. J (LN- The name which I use frequently when old ladies at church try to get me to read that trash). She said: “[Romance novels] are like pornography for women. Men go to porn for the visual stuff. Women go to books for emotional stuff. For the relationship they wish they had with their husbands.” She then gave this quote that blew me away. It applies to music and books and movies, and all other entertainment. Here is the quote: The difference between a good book and a bad book is that a good book takes you deeper into life and a bad book distracts you from life.”
Distraction. Escapism. We often use entertainment to distract from reality. Ever watch a group of students walk down the hall and they all have their headphones in? Are they all trying to hang out with each other? No, they’re obviously in their own little world. They aren’t talking to each other. Entertainment can steal our ability to have real lives and real relationships with other people. I’m not talking about the nudity, cuss words, and raunchiness of the movies and ads. These things are important to consider. I want to ask this question. It’s the most important question: Are we amusing ourselves literally to death? Are we so addicted to entertainment that we can no longer tell the difference between what’s important and what’s not. What reality is and what’s not.
Celebrity-ism. Psalm 135. David here gives us almost 15 reasons why we should praise God above and rather than idols. Then he says “The idols of a nation are silver and gold and made by the hands of men. They have mouths that can’t speak eyes that can’t see, ears that can’t hear…: we know that. We get that! We know it’s weird to see someone go up to block of wood, carve out an ear and start to talk to it. We know things like this video are not generally accepted. This is an actual video of a group in North Carolina. This is not a joke.
Of course, things today like to challenge normal and change our perceptions.
Yet, to know stuff like that is weird and not normal is actually not what David’s final point is! Verse 18 says: They that make them (the idols) are like unto them: so is every one that trusts in them.
We become what we worship. We’re a culture that worships celebrities and stars. We all want to be a celebrity. I read the newspaper. Six or seven years ago when we went into Iraq, there was a cover story the next day or so with Johnny Depp. Does Johnny Depp get security briefings from the Pentagon every morning? If politicians had something to say about the war, then they’d at least have something worth listening to. That’s because they are informed. Why do we care about what the pirate has to say about Iraq? He’s famous! We’ve made fame equal and synonymous with knowledge and intelligence.
A culture that worships celebrities and cares about what they say is choosing style over substance. We want to look good instead of being good. You think this hasn’t crept into the church? We have Christian celebrities. It ought to appall us. It happens especially in music. We want to worship acting like the people we see in Christian music videos, jumping up and down with our hands in their air, trilling some notes a certain way because it’s cool…
Is it all about the Savior? Or is it all about the students up there leading the worship and how great they copy the real singers who performed the song? Just because a kid can play the guitar doesn’t mean he should lead worship. We give leaders a free pass and act like they don’t need theology. As long as they act and look cool, they can get up there. A lot of times, on Sunday morning, we sing heresy. We sing things that aren’t true. Jesus, I never let you go. I just let you go, if not, I will let you go in five minutes when that attractive person walks by. We should be singing things like “Jesus never lets me go.” We tend to make songs all about us. That’s wrong. We should sing about HIS glory. Not how well we’re doing. We’re not doing so well anymore. The music becomes a performance in church. A façade. Everything is okay, we’re doing good. We’re acting just like our favorite band. The problem is not the bad worldviews out there, the problem is the bad worldviews in here.
Addiction
We want more and more and more. We know longer know when to stop. A simple task like tuning off the TV becomes so hard in our generation. A lot of people come up to me after sessions I teach and tell me “You’re a really good speaker” and I try to do my best and point them to Christ. I hate it when people tell me “That was enjoyable.” “That was entertaining.” And walk away. I might as well have people throwing tomatoes in my face. If I didn’t make you think, then I’ve just wasted my time. I also hate it when kids come out of church and I ask them “Was that a good sermon?” and they say “That was boring.” I ask them “Was it a good sermon?” again, because boring doesn’t mean bad. It might have been really good. Of course, I believe it’s a sin to be boring and teach the Bible. But what I mean really is that the problem is often not with the speaker, but the receiver. But what really irks me as a speaker is that, some people are absolutely convinced that unless you are entertaining as a speaker, you have no value. You need to know how to receive information, even if it’s boring you to death. The truth cannot be hindered by boredom.
How much time is too much time in front of the screen?
Well, it depends on the person. If you’re going into an IT position, you will have to spend hours in front of computers. It all depends on the person. We want that line that says 4 hours. 30 minutes. 3 hours. The question is: how are you thinking and interacting with other people? How am I functioning? I think the question is the same as it has been for every Christian: How can I live faithfully to the gospel in my cultural context? To stay away from the world is wrong. It’s not an option. John 17- the greatest prayer in the Bible (not the prayer of Jabez, by the way)- Jesus prays “Don’t take them out of the world, take them out of the way of the evil one.” Acts 17, God says he determined the exact times and cultures we should live. Trust me, I’d rather raise my kids 80 years ago. I would. But God, in His sovereignty chose to place me and them in this culture and not another. Ever wonder why? Acts 17 clearly states we live here and now where we are for a reason. We have all this equipment now to work with and all these people to share the gospel with. The problem with this culture is not pleasure, it’s the problem we’re far too easily pleased. I’m part of the weirdest summer conference in America. Our motto is “What we’re teaching is major, deep theological stuff, and if you’re not getting it, you’re too short, grow up and we’re going to help you do that. It’s a place called Summit. It’s place where students come in and they sit for 7 to 8 hours a day from day one just listening to the world’s great speakers and theologians. They’re hearing things on economics, history, politics, culture, entertainment, and faith. We don’t tell them what to think, we tell them how to think. If they don’t like it at first, by Wednesday, they love it.
They can’t get enough, they follow speakers around just wanting to ask them questions, and they call on us later at night wanting to know even more. By Wednesday, they call home and say “Mom, Dad, send me more money, I already spent all of mine a bunch of really good books.” It’s really bizarre. I bring this up to say, that when young adults see a higher level, they want to reach up or jump up or climb up and get to that level any way and as fast as they can. It’s painful at first, but once the desire is there, they can’t stop thinking, learning, or grasping for better, higher things. They actually want knowledge, and that’s why we’re the weirdest summer camp. We offer fun stuff in the afternoons, but hey, most of the students there are wondering how long it is until the evening sessions, because they want more. We turn these entertainment addicted teens into learning hungry beasts! I’m not saying this to make Summit look like a place above all other places, but I’m saying this to tell you: they don’t just want a higher level. They yearn for it. They sit doww on Sunday night, when the sessions begin, and look at this 2 or 3 inch notebook in front of them and see how much time they’ll spend in class, and think ‘oh boy!’ By the end of the week, they don’t want to go home because everyone back there at school or at youth group is still at the lower level and they don’t want to spend time thinking about things that don’t matter.
Our place is weird because people who come actually want to grow up and mature in their knowledge and faith, and they do it beautifully in just two weeks. We believe in redemption on a cultural level. If we can pull this off with our kids, we can pull this off with our culture. It’s how we engage the culture. It’s how we ask questions. The best thing, the culture that’s amused to death is a VACUUM for leadership. This means, you don’t have to be popular to be a leader. You don’t have to be the best to be a leader. In a culture of followers, people like to follow leaders. When a leader rises up, you’ll have some kind of following. Don’t teach morals. Teach reality. Don’t teach them how to behave, teach them how to live.
People call me crazy. People also call me stupid. Let me explain:
A smattering of guys have, at one time or another, confessed their undying, hormone related affection for me. I don’t want any of it. It’s distracting, and once these young men started hinting blatantly at liking me, the friendship hurled wentdownhill. I still have a good friendship with one, but it is because of being careful. I don’t reply to flirtatious comments, look at him when he sighs loudly, or tell him if I like him back. For the most part, he understands. I think. I spend a lot of time praying about “Alexander” but he is not the foremost of my thoughts. People usually tell me to go after him, because after all, I’m nearly of marriageable age, and of course, they only want me to be “happy.” When I say that I’m happy without a boyfriend or the prospect of getting one, most pat me on the arm and say I’m deceiving myself and someday that will change. Ha. Far from it, folks.
Marriage is a beautiful thing, and I sure would like to be married sometime in my life. But God has given me a greater desire, a desire stronger than having a husby or a bunch of kids. That desire I have is from Him and for Him. God’s will takes over any thought I may have over Sir Charming the Gallant. If only more girls would stop playing the dating game and learn that contentment in Christ is the key to life!
“Who is this?” asked an old man of a 20-something woman.
“This is my boyfriend… Charles” the girl declared proudly.
It was amazing how much was said in those few words. This girl had been involved in my youth group for several years, all the while encouraging us not to seek after a guy but follow after the Lord. She should have led by example. While declaring she was not looking for a relationship, she started a singles group, researched ‘singles explosions’, and went to every event she could find where available men were. After three years, her search was successful. She has a boyfriend, and she talks of him all the time. Her identity is not in who she is in Christ, it’s who she is with her boy. You see, the young lady equates being fulfilled and human with being attached. Not so! What makes us human (profoundly human) is the Gospel! It makes us see our enormous need for help…and makes us become fulfilled after we’ve let Jesus fill that need. The Gospel is enough to satisfy. Stop living like it isn’t.
Those who “date around” want to have a great marriage someday, that’s unanimous! But, when it comes down to who they date, the standard is set quite low. Over the years, missionary dating has become popular at my church. It started with one couple, then it snowballed. Another couple started, and another, and then, this aforementioned girl found herself an unbelieving boy. The first relationship that started it all sadly ended when they found the “converted” girlfriend was fooling around at college.
It seems that dating is like a snowball. It starts out with a faithful Christian girl and a guy. She is serious about her walk with God, and every day is like a mountaintop experience. They date, get involved, and break up. The girl blames God for her problems, and starts look for another guy. The cycle repeats with several more guys, adding baggage, making the process of “backsliding” go faster. Things gain momentum. The snowball builds up more ‘junk’ and keeps rolling… downhill… faster and faster… until crash! The whole thing blows up in her face and her life is at the bottom of the hill. In order to get back to the top, she must get serious and start depending on God again for everything! Only then can she have a deep relationship with God and get back on the victorious mountaintop.
The reason for unbalanced relationships is the preset standard (or the lack thereof). Most people have no standard or even the slightest idea what they’d like to see in Prince Charming. As young women, we shouldn’t swoon over what our dear Johnny should look like. We should be praying for his character, his strength, and his spiritual well-being!
As I looked into qualities of husbands, I found absolutely no standard of any sort out on the Internet. Not even a bare minimum or a few requirement ideas. Sure, every girl is different, but there’s the need to set a standard and a few expectations to get her thinking about the kind of man she’ll marry someday.
Hence the big surprise. (No, it’s not that I’m getting married, but thanks anyway to those who asked!!) It’s a list of potential qualities that you should think about. This isn’t final gospel, and I’m only a weak, finite human, so it’s not a law to follow. Rather, this is a list to get you thinking. Take ideas from this list and start building your own. Tell me about some of the qualities you came up with on your own!
From Vision Forum’s “How To Think Like A Christian” {paraphrased}
You have arrived at college and are walking around campus. Suddenly, a masked man jumps out in front of you and says “Your money or your life.” He points a knife in your face, waiting for you to act or refuse.
Well, knowing you would have days like this, you remember you have a loaded gun on your person. So, you say to your would be mugger “I’m sorry, but I have a gun, and I will shoot you.”
To this, the mugger says “Well, I belong to a knife club and I don’t believe in guns!”
So, you put the gun away and he takes your money and runs away.
Sound ridiculous?
Okay… let’s try this scene:
You have arrived at college and are walking around campus. Suddenly, a masked man jumps out in front of you and says “Your money or your life.” He points a knife in your face, waiting for you to act or refuse.
Well, knowing you would have days like this, you remember you have a loaded gun on your person. So, you say to your would be mugger “I’m sorry, but I have a gun, and I will shoot you.”
To this, the mugger says “Well, I belong to a knife club and I don’t believe in guns!”
So, you tell him to wait and you scramble to find all sorts of information about how guns usually kill and that 90 some percent of people die after being shot and how effective guns are…
But he doesn’t listen and mugs you anyway.
Okay, that’s not realistic either.
Try this scene:
You have arrived at college and are walking around campus. Suddenly, a masked man jumps out in front of you and says “Your money or your life.” He points a knife in your face, waiting for you to act or refuse.
Well, knowing you would have days like this, you remember you have a loaded gun on your person. So, you say to your would be mugger “I’m sorry, but I have a gun, and I will shoot you.”
To this, the mugger says “Well, I belong to a knife club and I don’t believe in guns!”
Pull the trigger and make him a believer!
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In the same way it sounds ridiculous to banter with the mugger, or just give up and let the guy win, think about who the mugger is and who you are.
Mugger= Humanist/Unbeliever/Atheist
You= The church
The church is afraid to stand up for what they believe! They try to be nice and not hurt the unsaved’s feelings, or read books about the Bible without reading the Bible itself, but they never use the Bible (gun) directly. The truth is, the Church is afraid of “legalism” “being radical” or “offending” someone. Well, hear this: God’s Word is unchanging. It won’t change the truth to “appeal” to people. It will offend those who fear being holy in the light of it’s radical stance. They usually aren’t offended by you. It’s the message you bring.
Can you imagine God changing his Word every other year to update it and bring it to date? Doing that would make it unreliable. The Bible is reliable no matter how you look at it. Historically verifiable prophecies, little details and parallels that cannot be ignored, and wonderful teachings that still ring true for us make relaibility a fact! So why are Christians so afraid of using it? Maybe they don’t really know what the Bible really says. Maybe they are afraid of being hurt or getting embarassed. God will give you the strength you need- not a textbook about God!
Though I don’t advocate shooting at unbelievers, please use the Bible when witnessing and arguing. Not Wikipedia.
Don’t give up!
Never ever ever!
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Last night, I cut out the pattern for my sewing project. Here is the material I’m using. It took me about an hour to decide on the fabric at Hobby Lobby~ they must’ve thought I was a very indecisive young woman… I think I’ll have to make a bunch more aprons so I can use all the pretty material!
It looks a li’l yeller, but that’s because I didn’t change Herbie’s settings
And the pattern: we got it on sale for $1.99!
I’m using the one on the far left, with the lobster fabric. I’m not doing the frilly edging on the hem and neckline, nor the pockets.
I’ll start sewing soon, Lord willing. (sigh)
Also, my mom and I made cookies on Sunday, and here is how they turned out~
We were trying to imitate SweetHearts from Necco, and I’d say (other than the smooshed writing from being stacked on one another) they came out pretty well!
My mom has a cookie business that she uses to bring in extra income. We bake nearly 200 cookies every Tuesday and package them into 3′s- and sell the packs of threes for $1. My dad actually takes them into work and his coworkers buy them! We usually sell about 60 packs a week. We save up the money and use it for hotel rooms whilst travelling, curriculum, savings, etc. It’s an easy way to save up extra money!
I think I spent 4 hours shoveling yesterday. At least my snow removal business is booming. At least I burned over 1500 calories.
Oh yes, I’m used to a fresh inch or two of snowfall overnight that just dusts off your car every morning…but 12 inches at once. Sigh.
Any whoo, I did my devotions this morning with Lydia Brownback’s “Trust” (I got all four in her series for Christmas). It talked about clearing sin and putting faith fully, openly in God. I sat down at my desk and began to write this post when I was through:
When you get snowed on (like what happened here), the first thing you should naturally do is dig yourself out. If you don’t, you won’t get very far. You’ll sit and spin your tires, and not go anywhere.
But it can get worse.
When snowplows go by, the end of your driveway gets 2 or 3 feet of extra snow piled in, making passage impossible. The end of your driveway is the outlet to freedom…but when the little red truck with a giant blade swipes the snow in your way, you end up (as in our case) with 2 1/2 feet of snow blocking freedom. Dig yourself out.
The same goes for sin. Let me tell that little tale again.
When you start to backslide and let your faith go, the only thing you can do is choose to stop being complacent and lazy and get growing again. If you don’t do anything and choose to ignore the Holy Spirit’s prompts, you’ll go nowhere. You sit and whine that you don’t feel as on fire for God as you once did. You start living for yourself. How wonderfully useful your life becomes (not). Your faith is your outlet to the narrow way. Let your heart harden, and your faith stands still, the sin piles up, blocking the way to knowing God intimately. There is no freedom in this! It is up to you to CHOOSE to obey the little voice in your head. The voice that is saying “Come back!”
You can dig yourself out of the pit with asking for forgiveness and for a desire to grow.
This pressure comes from Satan, who is always looking stunt someone’s spiritual growth.
I know I’ve been feeling this pressure lately. I haven’t been keeping up with studying the 1,000 verses I’ve set out to memorize. I’m only at 77 at the time of this writing. I’m about 10 behind. I’ve also felt the temptation to read romance novels very strongly as of late. See the connection? I did, and I’m working hard at getting passages in my head again!
On the lighter side, my dad made cookies this past Sunday for the first time… and nobody died {yet}!
Also, I know some of you have done Mrs. Morecraft’s writing course a few months ago. Well, I hear she’s having a new course soon! I’d like to do this, but it looked kind of … umm, confusing? The syllabus was all relating to food (language and eating… is there a connection?), and her style came across as eccentric. (Like she’s a few fries short of a happy meal) But, what I was able to understand looked like it was worth looking into. So, what was your opinion of the past class, what’s she like, did you learn anything, and are you doing the next part? I’d like to know!
Don’t stand in the mirror and say “I love my _____” until you’re blue in the face, because it does nada. Well, strike that. You’ll end up with laryngitis, because you’ll have to say it a long time before you believe it. If you ever believe it…
Remember when I shared the statistic “Only 2% of women think they are beautiful” ? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: WHY DON”T YOU FEEL GORGEOUS WHEN YOU CAN BUY BOTOX/LIPSTICK/TUMMY COMPRESSORS/[random beauty product]?
The answer I gave you was MEDIA.
But now I’m going to get on with the problem of comparing yourself to others. I’m not going to lie… I do this myself sometimes. I used to do this nearly everytime I met someone who looked somewhat smaller than me and wonder “Is she thinner than I am? Dang it!” I’m still learning to accept God’s design for me, but I thought I’d share what I do know…
Life is NOT a competition! If somebody’s skinnier than you, so what! Either they are sinfully anorexic or God made them to be that way! If your friends can run faster and farther than you, God didn’t make you to run like them. I think if we all were 5’7″ 110 pounds, brown hair, green eyes, with the same athletic abilties, life would be very BOOORRRIIIIIINNNGG. God made variety and diversity…
Your worth is not in your ability/looks. You do not have to perform well to be valuable. Just being yourself (‘being yourself’ as in your own genuine talent) is acceptable to God. Do try to look or act like somebody else. I’ve noticed in ballet class some younger girls will start copying the older ones in the motions. Since we elder ones have been dancing longer, we know the steps well and add our own ‘flair’ to them (such as a head tilt or a flick of the wrist). I believe trying to be just like somebody else is wrong (unless you’re playing Simon Says, and life ain’t a game of Simon Says!!!).
God made man and woman and said “It’s very good!” (Until the sin nature came into play… ) By good, I think He meant “I like this” or, “Hey, I’m pleased with how this turned out and don’t want to change anything about it!” Well, if your waist is 36 inches around, know that God doesn’t want you any other way! If you’re too short for basketball, know that God made you short for a reason. I’m learning to rejoice that I am the way I am. I find myself happier and more content when I am rejoicing.
If you’re thinking you want to lose weight, ask yourself “Do I really need to?” Seriously… if you’re at a healthy weight, don’t try to diet. But if you really think it’s time to change a few habits and shed some pounds, the key is self control. Also, look at the sodium on packaging. Try to keep your main dish to 500 mg. or less of sodium, eat lower sodium food, and don’t salt your food. We started doing this three years ago and I dropped three sizes. (I was heading towards chubby and actually lost 20 pounds of pure water weight!) You’ll realize how bloated you used to be and think “Man did I really eat that stuff?” BIG PS: It won’t be easy for a while, you’ll crave salt like MAD!
Your size is just a number. I have a little trouble with this one! I find it hard to buy a pair of jeans if the size is bigger! Even though I know brands vary in their sizing, I often will not buy a larger size. I am learning to let it go and just buy things that are modest, nice, and feminine. This is a toughy, but you must realize your size is just a number.
Knowing God has designed me to be the way I am is sometimes hard for me to accept. Chances are, it’s hard for you, too!
What are your thoughts on these thoughts? I’m sure you have something to say!
Yesterday, my family and I were at Cedar Point, an amusement park about 75 miles from our house. It has several thrilling, hair-raising coasters for all types of people. I happen to be the family coaster daredevil. I don’t think I have a comfort zone. There are two rides (the Mantis and Power Tower, if you were wondering) I will not ride! But, I did go on the ride I used to think of as insane. It’s called The Top Thrill Dragster. It’s 410 feet tall and goes from 0 to 120 mph in 2 seconds. I rode it at night, under the lights. It takes about 18 seconds to get through it all. It was totally worth the wait, but now there’s nothing more to trade up to.
Now my coaster comfort zone is huge.
As Christians, we should try to be that way in all things Biblical. We shouldn’t have a comfort zone when sharing the gospel is concerned. Bust through those zones and eventually, you may have a very large or even no comfort zone at all! That’s the type of Christian we should be. Can’t you think of something you should be doing and aren’t? I think we can. It’s something we should work at! It won’t happen overnight, either. It took me years to work up to the Dragster. Don’t think you can simply say “Hey, I’m going to speak to thousands of people today. They’re going to hear the gospel.” Nope. You start with a friend, alone in your room. Then you work up to groups. You may never reach the point of thousands of people- it takes patience and a lot of stamina and hard work.
(Our comfort zone with sin should be so tiny. We should have discomfort knowing we have done something wrong).
Some other thoughts:
God’s timing is perfect when we let Him take over. It’s true! You are sure to end up with a better experience and some great stories to tell.
Patience is important. Often, God doesn’t plop down $2000 for a new fridge right when you pray about it.
God uses others to accomplish His will- like the IRS in my case providing for camp. (The IRS isn’t that bad, you know. Come live with my family!) ( )
Another little reminder: this week is Women of Faith week at Melinda’s blog. My interview will appear there at some point this week. Check the link in the sidebar on my blog!
Children are so special. They are always bringing a smile to my face with their cute words, innocent giggles, and chubby legs attempting to match their parent’s strides. Even though they don’t quite understand the adult world and thinking- what they say can often be so relevant.
Last Sunday, as I sat in church, I noticed a little 5 year old girl sitting in front of us. She was listening very intently to pastor and nodded in agreement with his words. She is the cutest young lady in church- and to see her desire to listen to Pastor instead of going to Jr. Church is a blessing.
Our neighbors (mentioned in my barking dog post ) may be annoying sometimes, but one of their kids is just downright CUTE! He has some developmental issues, but his smile is worth a million bucks! Another one of those blessings you don’t expect . His smile can brighten anybody’s day.
There is one little girl named Nicole who has a very imaginative brain. She has boldly stated that she is going to be a woman farmer- and plant baked beans (I’m not sure where you get those seeds- let me know if you have any, though). Her husband, for some odd reason, is going to live in another house across the field. She insists I come to help her paint her Disney Princess barn. She is learning to spell and write words- with a touch of humor. The other day she gave me a folded paper with a stick girl drawn neatly on the front. I opened it to see the words and the oh-so-cute-yet-misplaced-punctuation scribbled on the inside: ” I, am a boy.!” Oh the blessing to laugh at a child’s humor!
A young lady in my Bright Lights group has begun writing letters to me. It is such a blessing to her how her life has been going along, and what she has learned recently. It’s surprising to know really how much she has learned!
Sadly, most of us teen girls often do not stop to give the little ones attention or answer their questions. We simply give them a little nervous smile and keep walking. We are afraid to get involved and ask them questions for fear they do not undestand. Many girls at my church tell me they don’t even know what to say to a 10 year old! Say what you would to your best friend (using discretion, of course). Just because someone is shorter, younger, and less educated doesn’t make them totally clueless. A few even pat the tops of little ones heads as if they were a little cat or dog! They want to romp with you! Be tickled! Chase you! They look up to you and long for the day they will be old as you.
Children are a blessing- not only to their parents, but to those around them. You may be surprised at how many blessings you miss out on if you don’t interact with the young!
“Youth is such a wonderful gift. Too bad it’s bestowed upon the young.”
Hi! I'm Lauralea- an ambidextrous uber-joyful Christian who apparently blogs. I enjoy reading, the 40's, deep thinking, drinking mochas and worldview study.
A Word of Warning…
In four years of blogging, one's view of life is molded and shaped by God's Spirit and much learning. Please note that I no longer agree with everything, or advocate some ministries I spoke of in my first years of blogging. Thanks for understanding!
-- Lauralea--
) By good, I think He meant “I like this” or, “Hey, I’m pleased with how this turned out and don’t want to change anything about it!” Well, if your waist is 36 inches around, know that God doesn’t want you any other way! If you’re too short for basketball, know that God made you short for a reason. I’m learning to rejoice that I am the way I am. I find myself happier and more content when I am rejoicing.
