This is a yucky topic but pornography is a destructive force. Researchers are saying the average age of exposure to pornography is 8 years of age. The jumps in technology we’ve experienced over the past 15 years have made possible in homes what simply didn’t exist before.
Porn is an epidemic and ignored will affect our children in ways that could destroy them. So, what’s your plan? What are you currently doing to protect your children? What will you do? Hoping for the best isn’t enough. We must act. Setting up internet filters is a start but we must talk with our kids about this.
Only you can decide the appropriate age to have this discussion but it’s probably younger than you’d think. Knowing that our 3rd graders are being exposed should help us in determining how to address this issue in our homes. The little ones only need to know there is a lot of gross stuff on the internet and that if they see something they need to let mommy and daddy know. As our kids get older we need to explain how deadly sin is and explain the possible consequences of looking at pornography.
This isn’t just a problem for boys. Pornography affects women too. Our little girls need to be taught the dangers of this topic as well.
Sin lives in the dark so if we shine the light on this issue and point out its destructive end to our children we’ll be living the reality of 1 John 1:7.
At the heart of this issue is the beauty of Christ. Make Jesus beautiful to your children so that everything else appears drab and lacking in comparison.
What do you think about when you think about what your kids will do in the future? Whether we realize it or not, our kids will change the world! Some for the better, some for the worse. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 we must glorify God in all we do. That being said, our kids don’t have to be pastors or missionaries to glorify God. The following video is a great reminder there are no limits when it comes to ways to change the world “to the glory of God.” Share this video and 1 Corinthians 10:31 with your kids and help them to dream about glorifying God.
Planned Parenthood’s website states, “For nearly 100 years, Planned Parenthood has promoted a commonsense approach to women’s health and well-being, based on respect for each individual’s right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning.”
Planned Parenthood has boldly and publicly turned the corner in their apparent boundless quest to promote a woman’s rights.
During a recent committee hearing held by Florida legislators, a Planned Parenthood lobbyist argued that a child who survives a botched abortion should not be protected. She claimed the decision of what to do with the human being that is alive and outside the womb “should be left up to the woman, her family and the physician.”
This shockingly evil admission by a lobbyist of this organization reveals there are no bounds to its disregard for life. It’s not enough that they advocate the taking of life inside the womb, they’re now brave enough to seek laws that would keep doctors from attending to the needs of a living, breathing image of God lying on a table.
The legislators have called Planned Parenthood’s bluff. Planned Parenthood’s evil and ugly philosophy has been dragged out into the light for us all to see. Chaos exists where there is no regard for human life. In a world where Planned Parenthood rules what’s to say you, at 45 or 78 or 10 aren’t expendable? At what point does that child become protect-able by law. Played out, Planned Parenthood’s philosophy results in anarchy.
We’ve gotten to this point in American history because we’ve been too busy pursuing happiness as opposed to godliness. The lie we’ve bought into is that our happiness is maximized when our personal freedoms are maximized. True happiness can only be found in godliness. This happiness rooted in godliness is one that seeks to put others above ourselves and calls for self-sacrifice.
If we are to exist in a world run by Planned Parenthood and opposed to godliness, God help us all.
Just how picky should we be when it comes to language about God? After all, the way we talk about God reflects what we think about him and has the potential to affect the way others think about him. So, is it important that we speak correctly of him? I’d argue it’s not only important, it’s of utmost importance. What we know of God has been revealed by him to us in his Word. We should not then neglect that revelation by speaking of him in ways that do not accurately portray who he has said he is.
Many who know me know I’m leery of much of what passes for “Christian music”. If it’s on the radio, chances are I don’t want anything to do with it. This is nothing new. I’ve long been distrustful of the whole genre. I couldn’t articulate why I thought something was wrong like I can now, nonetheless, I didn’t appreciate who Christian culture passed off as our musicians. Enter David Crowder and other Passion/Sixsteps artists. Crowder, Tomlin, Redman and others were real artists who spoke of God the way I understood he was to be spoken of. I began to identify with their worship and for the first time found that I could listen to “Christian music” without throwing up.
I support artists who create and perform art that speaks carefully of the God we worship. I have found that I can trust a number of artists for their fidelity to distinctly Christian art. As mentioned earlier, I have been brought closer to our Lord in worship through the music of artists who serve as worship leaders of the Passion Movement.
In listening to the new album recorded at this year’s Passion conference I was struck by the lyrics to one of the songs on the album by Chris Tomlin. The song is entitled “Once and for All” and it makes a shocking claim. The chorus is as follows:
We believe our God is Jesus
We believe that he is Lord
We believe that He has saved us
From sin and death once and for all
What are we to make of this confession? Is it accurate to say, “We believe our God is Jesus”? This statement is insufficient at best and incorrect at worst. I’m not questioning Tomlin’s orthodoxy but I am questioning his choice of words here. He most assuredly has a proper understanding of the triune God. However, his singing these confusing lyrics endorses a view that is not distinctly Christian. You might say, “Come on, we know what he means.” And while that may be true there are plenty of college students and others singing these lyrics who don’t hold a distinctly Christian view and are shaped by the words to this song. After all, the only tool many folks use to form their theology is the music they listen to.
Why is it insufficient to say, “We believe our God is Jesus”? It’s because we believe our God is Father, Son and Spirit. It is true to say Jesus is God but woefully insufficient to say God is only Jesus. Whatever Tomlin is saying here, he’s not saying it well. We see in the Gospels Jesus revealing his love, respect and dependence upon the Father and Spirit.
While we see Jesus as God’s ultimate revelation and, as Christians show love and devotion to him without fear of neglecting or upsetting the Father and Spirit, we mustn’t leave them out when considering who God is.
Words matter. They’re important. We can’t afford such costly confessions that speak of God in a way that is insufficient of who he has said he is.
Science can sometimes tell us the “how” but we must look to Scripture for the “why”.
The short little video that follows is helpful however it falls silent on a key question. My inquisitive mind doesn’t stop with knowing how something works. Beyond that, I’m more interested in knowing why something is the way it is.
Genesis 2:17 recounts God informing Adam of the one boundary in the garden. Adam could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” In other words, as soon as Adam and Eve took a bite from the forbidden fruit, we became “programmed to die.” Science is testifying to the fidelity of Scripture.
A mother asked me this morning how to talk to her children about death. Grandmother had passed away and the child was asking why God let her die. The mom went on to say the child was questioning God’s goodness.
My encouragement to her was to teach that God is good; that he hates sin; that he hates death and that he sent Jesus. Furthermore, we ushered in death when we took the bite from the forbidden tree. The Good News however is God, in his goodness, provided a way to defeat death. Death does not have the final word and we know this because our bodies will be raised from the dead.
Take a look at this informative video explaining the Jewish holiday Purim.
I post this video because for some reason the answer to this question was not impressed on me until I was grown and was informed by Scripture. It’s amazing that I, as a church-going kid, was not sure of how to answer this question. Ask your kids tonight, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” If they’re not sure, share Genesis 1:21 with them. Compare the explanation given in this video to that found in Genesis 1:21. God simply spoke and created. There is simplicity in God’s sovereignty.
Nearly one year ago I wrote this article and received a great deal of criticism for my suspicions. Now there’s a little research to suggest Facebook is indeed taxing on our emotions.
Though the world is turning inward and the dynamic of communication is changing at warp speed it is clear there is no healthy alternative for real community. What are you doing to balance your online interaction with the real kind?
As I watch Piers Morgan and his guests on CNN argue for and against guns I realize no one is talking about the obvious. The one correct observation being made however is, “America has a culture of violence.” Granted, every country on planet earth has a culture of violence because violence is a bi-product of sin and sin knows no boundaries. But “America has a culture of violence” makes for a good sound bite because it fits the issue at hand, namely that guns are responsible for all that ails us.
The real issue gripping us is evil. After all, this latest push for gun control has come about after the mass shootings in Tucson, Aurora and Sandy Hook which were all fittingly described as evil. So, it’s interesting to watch secular society attempt to handle evil with no theological grid.
Morgan and others suggest all of our troubles will be no more by banning semi-automatic assault rifles. They are wrong. A secularist trying to solve this culture of violence issue is like a surgeon trying to diagnose and fix his car’s engine. Secularists, though intelligent they may be, are trying to remedy a problem they’re not equipped to diagnose and/or fix.
The root cause of our culture of violence is sin. There are at least three major problems contributing to this culture of violence. 1)Destabilization of the American family – As goes the home, so goes the nation. The family was God’s idea so it’s no surprise God would choose to mete out blessings through the family. The failure of the family as God designed it, one man, one woman living in covenantal marriage offers this country no hope as it diminishes God’s ideal. 2)A loss of the sanctity of life as seen in television and film and heard in pop, country, rock, hip hop and rap music. We don’t embrace the fact we were created in the image of God. We are quickly losing any regard for our fellow man. The two greatest commands we were issued were to Love God and our neighbor. As goes the Great Commandment, so goes the nation. 3)Loss of intentional parenting – The minds of our children are fragile and what we allow into them forms their world view. Much has been made of the fact that mental illness played into the mass shootings mentioned above. What hasn’t been discussed at length is the role violent video games played in the lives of the shooters. When we turn our kids over to R-rated media, whether film, music or games we should expect nothing less than for their minds to be bent toward evil.
We do have a culture of violence and the root cause is sin. The problem is there is no quick fix. No presidential mandate or executive order will fix this problem. The remedy to our culture of violence is a long road of us, as a post-Christian nation, turning to God and repenting of our trying to live apart from Him.
