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RP’s 10-day screen-fast challenge is going nationwide July 21-30

If you want to register for the July 21-30 nationwide challenge click here. If you want to learn more about why you should consider it, including some tips on how to go screen-free for 10 days, read on!

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How many times are you scrolling on your phone or tablet each day? Do you have any idea? What pulls in your children most: books, games, physical activity, or a screen?

Christian homes, including seniors, aren’t immune from the addictive nature of screens. Although screens and digital technology can be a great blessing, we have a very hard time keeping them in their proper place. But we want what should be our priorities – family, friends, and faith – to remain our priorities, don’t we?

So enough talk. It’s time to act!

The challenge

Are you, or is your family, willing to go 10 days without screens and/or social media? Do you have the ability to function without them? It is one thing to say so, and another to do it.

A 10-day social media and screen fast will open your eyes to the power that our devices have on our lives, and on our family’s lives. It will provide a window of time to experience what life is like without them. This break can also provide a fresh opportunity to very deliberately decide how you and your family will utilize these devices moving forward.

It may be fun to invite another person or family to do this with you. If you are willing to give this a try, encourage your friends, care group, or others to do the same.

Nationwide July 21-30

You can start any time you like, and there's no better time than now. But we're also trying to generate some positive peer pressure by having a nation-wide screen-free challenge for July 21-30. We can all do this together at the same time!

Some generous supporters have recognized how important this issue is, so for the July challenge they are offering up a little extra motivation for us all. They have pledged to donate $10 per day for every day you manage to go screen from from July 21-30. The money will be split between two fantastic kingdom causes – Reformed Perspective and Word & Deed –  to a maximum of $20,000 split between both causes. Go all 10 days, and that'll be $100 donated. Go just 8, and it will still be $80. If you manage just 1 or 2 days that will still be $10 or $20 donated... and a hard lesson learned on dependency. How long can you go? If you don't think you can, isn't that the best reason to try?

A few tips

  1. Commit. Don’t allow yourself to make easy exceptions, even if you are having a hard day. For example, just because you are at someone else’s home doesn’t mean you can enjoy screens again.
  2. If your fast includes screens, but you still need screens for basic functions that are essential, ensure that you are only using your tablet and phone for those functions. For example, if you need a phone for directions, don’t take the opportunity to scroll the news. If you need a computer at work, or to write a report for a committee you are on, don’t let yourself go to other websites or play an online game.
  3. Turn your devices off and hide them. Take the TV off the wall. Make them difficult to access.
  4. Log out of your social media accounts so that it isn’t easy to open them.
  5. Move the icons of your apps so that the social media apps (including YouTube) are hidden.
  6. Come up with a plan: whenever you find yourself wanting to reach for a screen or open your social media, what will you do instead? It doesn’t have to be hard. Perhaps say a prayer, take a drink of water, try to memorize a verse (keep some verses on a piece of paper in your pocket), do a set of 10 jumping jacks, or read a couple of pages of a book you’ve been meaning to get to.
  7. Have alternatives waiting and ready for you and your children: books, magazines, art supplies, a soccer ball, a walk to the park, etc.
  8. Invite accountability: let loved ones know what you are doing, and ask them to check in on you regularly to see how it is going. Tell them not to let you off the hook!
  9. Don’t read this and conclude a screen-fast challenge is only important for youth or young adults.
  10. Be sure to check out our article "What can I do anyways? 35 screen-free alternatives."

You can register for the July 21-30 nationwide challenge here.

The results

We would love to hear how this goes for you and what impact it had on you and your family. Please send the editor a note.

Or send us a good ol’ fashioned letter via

Reformed Perspective
Box 3609
Smithers, BC
V0J 2N0

We look forward to hearing from y’all, and sharing the results!



News

Saturday Selections – July 12, 2025

Josiah Queen's "A Garden in Manhattan"

On the crowded streets,
all the people that I see
Want them to know the Jesus that I know
If I'm the closest thing to a Bible that they read
Let the words they read be what You wrote
Father, help me to go

I'll be a garden in Manhattan,
be a river where it's dry
When my friends can't find the road,
I'll be a roadside welcome sign
Sunshine in Seattle,
be a cool breeze in July
Light in the darkness
I'll be a garden, a garden in Manhattan

Florida after dark,
I know it ain't quite Central Park
There's souls in my hometown You wanna reach
Oh, God, use me where You have me...

Climate hypocrisy tells us what the elites really believe

When global warming proponents like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos all jet off to an exotic locale to celebrate a wedding, you can know they aren't really worried about CO2 hurting the planet... or they wouldn't fly a hundred jets to a party. And as this article explains, EV cars are another hypocrisy gauge. They might make sense in some instances, but if they are being pushed whether they help lower CO2 emissions or not, then you know this is about show, not substance. As Bjorn Lomborg writes:

"In some parts of the world, like India, so much of the power comes from coal that electric cars end up emitting more CO₂ than gasoline cars...."

Now, to be fair, Lomborg himself is worried about global warming. But, as he highlights, the actions most governments take are not what would be needed to solve the issue if it did exist.

Parks Canada staff privately doubted Kamloops "graves" claim

“$12M spent by @GcIndigenous to find purported 215 children's graves at Indian Residential School was instead spent on publicists & consultants with no graves found to date...”

The legacy media is betraying Canada (10 min. read)

Soviet Union President Nikita Khrushchev is credited with saying, "The press is our chief ideological weapon." In contrast, US President George H.W. Bush is said to have said, "We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.” The dictator wanted to own the press so the government could use it to direct public opinion, while the US president touted the need for a press independent of government so it could hold those in power to account.

Our Canadian government spends massive amounts of money funding the country's largest media outlets, and these outlets not only don't denounce the proposition, but take the money. That tells you a lot about which direction our media is heading.

While readers likely won't mind this article's anti-Liberal Party bias, some might be put off by just how loud it is. But read it anyways for the money trail.

The Scopes Monkey Trial is 100 years old!

In 1925, a Dayton, Tennessee high school teacher named John Scopes was put on trial for violating a state law that forbade teaching evolution. The case made big news then – across both the US and into Canada – and made big news again in 1960 when a movie version called Inherit the Wind was made, which portrayed the town of Dayton as a bunch of creationist hicks who wanted to storm the jail to get Scopes. That film was then shown in classrooms across the US for generations, convincing many students that only idiots like those onscreen could ever believe Genesis is literal.

But the truth is, the whole town was in on it – they challenged the law to get some attention for their hometown, and recruited Scopes, who agreed to be charged, and in an ironic twist, he probably never even taught evolution in his classroom. In another ironic twist, as this article lays out, much of the scientific evidence marshaled for evolution during the trial has been overturned since (ex. vestigial organs, similar embryonic development). So, even if it had been a bunch of dumb hicks, dumb hicks siding with God are a lot smarter than a gaggle of reporters and scientists siding against Him.

Is Trump doing good or is he doing bad? Yes.

Jeffrey Epstein was a sex trafficker with ties to many of the most powerful people in the world. This, then, was a man who could name names, and topple empires... and then he died mysteriously in his jail cell – a purported suicide but one that happened when his cell's video cameras were broken. The country's reaction was telling. No one was buying the coincidence. This past week, Epstein's client list was supposed to be released and the news now is that there was no client list. As the video below details, this has a lot of conservatives, Christians among them, feeling crushed. They don't believe it, and want to know where the justice is.

Part of the disappointment comes from the tendency we have of making politicians our dividing lines. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were monsters... so we should love Trump? That doesn't follow. Canadian prime ministers Trudeau and Carney have a litany of sins, most recently trying to push murder as a treatment for mental illness. But does that mean we have to look past the shortcomings of Pierre Poilievre? Christians don't have to. Our dividing line is not a Trudeau or Trump, because our unswerving loyalty lies only with God (Josh. 5:13-14). So, yes, Trump continues to stand strong against gender nonsense, but the missing Epstein list has people wondering if the swamp can ever be drained, and as Mindy Belz (sister-in-law of WORLD magazine founder Joel Belz) highlights, his results-now approach has undercut processes that protect everyone from government overreach.


Today's Devotional

July 15 - A new creation

“And you know that He was manifest to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” - 1 John 3:5 

Scripture reading: 1 John 3:4-9; 2 Corinthians 5:12-20

John uses some pretty strong statements in our passage today.  He says that, "Whoever abides in Him does not sin” (v.6) and “Whoever has been born of God does not sin” (v.9).  John >

Today's Manna Podcast

Manna Podcast banner: Manna Daily Scripture Meditations and open Bible with jar logo

The Great Healer

Serving #904 of Manna, prepared by Rev. Richard Aasman, is called "The Great Healer" and is based on John 9:1-3.













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Drama, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Hidden Blessings

Drama / Christian 2024 / 107 min Rating: 8/10 Gregory Davidson is kind of like Willy Wonka of chocolate factory fame. Both men are creative artists, with Davidson being the painter behind the series of "Hidden Blessings" canvases that were so popular not so long ago. Like Willy Wonka, he stepped away from the public eye entirely, even as everyone was dying to get a glimpse in to his "factory" to see how the product is made. Now, for the very first time Davidson has invited a documentarian into his house, a young filmmaker, Lydia Drake, who contacted Davidson about a painting gifted to her in her mom's will. The canvas had Davidson's signature, so, she was initially only hoping to find out if the painting was genuine. But then the two started texting back and forth and, eventually, Davidson put out the invite to do a documentary on his work. Like Wonka, Davidson is a quirky, frantic oddball, bouncing across the room, breaking into song, doing impressions. He is quite the character, and you'll want to get to know him. And like Wonka, he's entirely fictitious. That is not clear at the start – this is a drama convincingly presented as a documentary. To the film's credit, it was about 50 minutes in before my girls started suspecting this might be fiction rather than fact. Only when the storyline started aligning with some key points from the Prodigal Son parable were their suspicions raised, so it was impressive and entertaining how the film pulls off this genre subterfuge for so long. While there are a few different mysteries that documentarian Lydia Drake is trying to solve, the biggest relates to the "Hidden Blessing" series of paintings that brought Davidson to public attention. Each one involves a "painting of a painting" but with the interior painting always somehow obscured – a married couple stands in front contemplating, a couple of passersby just happen to be in the way, a repairman is replacing the bulb just above it, or maybe a whole crowd has gathered to see what we can never quite glimpse. It's a gimmick Davidson plays out innumerable ways, and while the public loved the series it left them with questions. What was the painting in the painting? Was it the same one in each instance? Might it be a picture of his wife? What was the "hidden blessing"? It's a lot of fun to see this mystery played out, and you're going to love the final reveal! Cautions Part of this story addresses the problem of pain: why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? That's such a tough question there is probably no entirely satisfactory answer – when you are suffering, you might know intellectually that God is going to turn this to your good, as we are promised in Romans 8:28, but it is hard to emotionally grasp it to the same degree. That promise is a big part of the answer on offer here, with Davidson's sister pointing to God's faithfulness and trustworthiness to make that transformation. But the film also offers an Arminian take, trying to divorce God from responsibility for our pain by blaming free will instead. Not to give too much away, but when one of Davidson's sons takes a Prodigal turn, we can see how his choices – his "free will" – leads directly to the pain he experiences. His injuries are self-inflicted. However, the most painful cut of all for the Davidsons – still impacting them two decades later – is the death of Gregory's wife. Her death was not the consequence of choices she made so "free will" doesn't suffice as an answer. A part of the answer to pain is that, as RC Sproul might note, there are actually no good people since if it was up to us we would all be rebels against our Creator. Thus any pain we experience is merely what we deserve, and any goodness, undeserved. But that's too edgy and too Calvinist an answer for most evangelicals to consider. One other warning would be for younger audiences – one character dies. While it happens offscreen, it is unexpected, and therefore might be quite jarring to the under ten set. Conclusion This is an incredibly creative film, and the credit there is due to the star, James Arnold Taylor, a long-time Hollywood voice actor, who does the heavy lifting, offering up a memorable performance. And while he's onscreen 90% of the time, that isn't the limit of his involvement. He was also the writer, producer, and co-director, and he even created many of the dozens of paintings we see throughout – those are his works. Hidden Blessings will be too preachy for some. These kinds of sermons-wrapped-in-cinema stories always have their contrived moments. But if you can appreciate a Kendrick brothers' Facing the Giants or Courageous then that a little subtlety is sacrificed for the sake of the sermon won't put you off. I waffled between giving this a 7 or 8, because as much as I enjoyed it, it would have been better about 15 minutes shorter, and those cuts could have also helped it make its point more subtly. But I settled on 8 because it is just so creative. This is James Arnold Taylor showing us all his gifts... and they are a multitude. Seeing him offer up his best to the glory of his God is such a delight to experience. Check out the trailer below, and watch it for free at RedeemTV.com. ...

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Drama, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Sue Thomas F.B.Eye

Drama / TV series 2002 / 41 minutes Rating: 8/10 Twenty years back when it first hit the airwaves, this sure was a crowd-pleaser in Christian households. Based on the real life of deaf F.B.I. agent Sue Thomas, it combined the intrigue of police investigations with the unique comic pairing of the courageous but somewhat naive Sue and her lovable but not-always-so-well-behaving hearing dog Levi. The shows were generally tame, but not lame; a Christian series where the acting might not have been Oscar-worthy, but was never cringe-worthy either. In the pilot episode Sue starts her new job in the FBI and concludes that she was just a diversity hire, and isn't happy about it. But her lip-reading abilities soon catch the attention of agent Jack Hudson, who realizes that Sue has just the skill-set their surveillance team needs. Cautions When Jack Hudson first learns Sue can read lips, he challenges her to tell him what one of his colleagues 50 feet away is saying. It turns out he is making weekend plans with the woman he is sitting with. But, as Jack shares with Sue, that woman is not his girlfriend. This two-timing is a minor plot element, but makes what might otherwise be an all-ages show something better suited to older teens and adults. Conclusion I've only rewatched the first episode to this point; it was as charming as I remembered, and I look forward to watching the other 56 episodes. Canadians and Americans will be able to watch the pilot episode below (unfortunately, the video won't work outside of North America) and find more on Encourage TV on YouTube here (you'll have to use their search function to find the others). You can also watch it for free on RedeemTV here, though you'll need to sign up for a free account. The advantage to doing so is that it is much easier to sort through the episodes there. ...

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Animated, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

Torchlighters: the Martin Luther Story

Animated / Family 2016 / 34 minutes Rating: 7/10 The strength of this film is its short length. At just 34 minutes, it can be shown in the space of a single school period. For the pre-teens this is intended for, that might be just the right length, with the quick pace, and colorful animation sure to grab most students’ attention. But the biggest weakness of this short film is….its length. It is far too short to tell this story with the gravitas it needs – Luther’s spiritual wrestling is dealt with in just 7 minutes! It also ends abruptly, with Luther busy translating the Bible into German in Wartburg Castle. The narrator then spends just a single minute summing up the whole of the second half of Luther's life. And then the credits role. I should note a couple of inclusions that might have been better left out. Luther is told that the very night he nailed up his 95 Theses, his long-time protector, Duke Frederick, had a dream about a monk writing on a church door with a quill that was so long it extended all the way to Rome "where it toppled the crown off of a lion." This is presented as the reason Frederick was willing to defend his rebellious trouble-making monk: God had told him ahead of time that his monk was going to topple the pope. But while the movie portrays this as fact, there is reason to think this might just be a popular myth. Also, at the film's conclusion, there is a passing, two or three second shot of a title page illustration from one of Luther's books depicting Christ on the cross, with Luther and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony kneeling below. I make mention of it, for any who consider this a violation of the Second Commandment. That said, this is a great film for children who don't yet have the attention span for a longer Luther film – it will certainly keep most children engaged, and does give a good overview. You can watch it for free at RedeemTV.com (you do need to give your email to watch free) and down below. ...