How to be a revolutionary
When a Christian conference is titled “How to enrage the culture” you might think it would be encouraging radical and revolutionary means. And you’d be right, when you consider that getting married, having kids, and raising them in the fear and love of the Lord are pretty radical and revolutionary ideas these days. How radical and revolutionary? Well, one of the conference speakers, Pastor Toby Sumpter, shared this illustrative anecdote:
“A few years ago, I’d come home from work, and my wife was finishing making dinner in the kitchen, and I was reading. She gets a phone call….some kind of alumni survey, and at the end they’re doing the demographic stuff. And I hear her say: ‘Homemaker….homeMAKER…HOMEMAKER!!! I’m a wife and a mom – that’s what I do!’ She gets off the phone a couple of minutes later and she shares, ‘The girl I was talking to had never heard of a homemaker.’”
Hitler had help
We raise our children to be obedient and to respect those in authority. But have we also taught them that a time may well come (doesn’t it seem inevitable?) that their country, their boss, their co-workers, union, friends and maybe even their parents, may ask of them something that the only proper response will be “No, I cannot do that, because that is contrary to what God has said”?
In this book Hitler, God, and the Bible, author Ray Comfort explains that the only reason Hitler was able to kill as many as he did was because he had so many obedient followers.
Almost every part of Germany’s bureaucracy had a hand in the killing process. Churches and the Interior Ministry produced the necessary birth records identifying those who were Jewish. The Finance Ministry confiscated Jewish wealth and property. The Postal Service delivered the notices of deportation and denaturalization. The Transportation Department arranged for trains to transfer Jews to concentration camps. Even the private sector cooperated in the efforts. Businesses fired Jewish workers. Pharmaceutical firms tested drugs on camp prisoners. Companies bid for contracts to build the crematoria. Universities fired Jewish professors and expelled Jewish students. It seems that the whole country unified to make the procedure work like a well-oiled machine.
One of the lessons we must pass on to our children – a lesson for all time – is that it is no excuse to say “I was just following orders” when you know those orders are evil.
Why you should quit
“Cigarettes are like squirrels. They are perfectly harmless until you put one in your mouth and light it on fire.”
Source: a meme circulating the Internet
11 words that should exist
Arghument – assertions back by vehemence, not evidence. Also, a debate between pirates
Caffé’d – as in, “he was sufficiently caffe’d to finish off the paper.”
Chick-fil-A’d – to be cut to pieces for all the right reasons
Friendzy – involves inviting everyone ever encountered to be your Facebook friend
Heil’d – Damned with faint praise by noting that he/she probably isn’t a Nazi
Lastest – the latest and last draft
Questian – someone in search of their next cause
Trans-fluid – a vital engine lubricant, or someone who both does, and doesn’t, identify as gender fluid
Complimentarianism – the view that husbands and wives need to say more nice things to each other
Squarcle – a square circle. See “gay marriage”
Oopsidentally – “accidentally” may already cover it, but isn’t this way better?
Losing Hell undermines the Gospel message
“[A] bestselling Christian author says…the preaching or teaching of hell is
‘misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world so desperately needs to hear.’
“If his viewpoint is true – that ultimately everyone ends up in heaven – then preaching eternal punishment subverts nothing. If we all end up in heaven, why do we even need to find forgiveness here on earth? Even us monsters who believe in hell will end up in heaven. I find it interesting that many contemporary preachers want to save people from the idea of hell, rather than from hell itself.”
– Thor Ramsey (in The most encouraging book on Hell ever)
Teaching media literacy
In his free e-book Parenting the Internet Generation, author Luke Gilkerson talks about the steps we can take to teach our children discernment when it comes to the various forms of media they watch and interact with. Gilkerson writes:
Media literacy can be taught starting at any age, but starting around the age of 7, children start to become ripe for more critical analysis of the media they see. Prior to this, the focus should be primarily on selecting good media for your kids. After this, the focus should start to be more on discussing media with your kids. Media literacy is vital in our media-rich age for many reasons, but especially for parents who want to prepare kids well for our over-sexualized age. If our children aren’t used to thinking critically about any of the media they consume, then this will extend to sexually charged and objectifying media as well. When kids lack media literacy skills, it is like death by a thousand paper cuts. Will one uncritical, passive viewing of a video or movie with poor values ruin your child’s life? No, of course not. But if our children develop a habit of merely passive media consumption, if they aren’t trained to think about media messages, they will eventually soak up the values they consume.
Download Parenting the Internet Generation here (you do have to give your name and email address) – it’s highly recommended!
