RESURRECTING MY WORDPRESS SITE

 

My personal blogsite died for some reason. Thus, I am temporarily resurrecting this site.

Will post here for the mean time.

HOW FAR HAVE WE GONE

I was speaking to a man one afternoon. Hearing him, I could figure that he was getting the filter for all his experiences from media – particularly movies and current TV series. He patterned his values from certain characters from specific movies and tv shows.

It’s interesting how we can get ‘discipled’ by our culture.

Bill Hull defines culture as “the belief systems of a society and its outworking of those beliefs through music, painting, writing, films and television.”

He says that the typical person today spends 8 hours on the job, 7 hours sleeping and nearly 5 hours absorbing media messages.

Media is discipling many today, both old and young. The media today is able to erode the moral base of our land, desensitizing you and me to what is sinful and blurring the line between right and wrong.

Hull further continues his thoughts,

​”The people sitting in the pew are products of television more than the Word of God. Their worldviews are not scripturally based; rather they are disciples of their culture. When the media mentions responsibility, they are not talking about moral responsibility, but about using contraceptives. Termination of pregnancy (murder) is the woman’s right; being sexually active (fornication) is all right as long as you practice safe sex; having an affair (adultery) is expected sooner or later in normal, uninhibited people…

​The Christian community is slipping away from moral absolutes. What the pastor declares rubs against the cultural grain. The Word of God is abrasive when clearly presented in the present atmosphere…”

Jesus declares in Revelation 2, “You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

Balance

‘Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them- work, family, health, friends, spirit- and you are keeping all these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friend and spirit- are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.’- Brian Dyson, former COO of Coca Cola

250 in 20?

Never really grew up reading.  Never liked it.  Never enjoyed it.  I know, I’m such a bum.

While my classmates would read Hardy Boys and Sweet Valley High (yes, they were boys… I know, weird, right?), I would be out playing basketball, tumbang preso, baseball and getting smelly.

However, through the years, I’ve ‘forced’ myself to like reading because I realized I can’t grow (spiritually, intellectually, leadershipically… making up words now) if I don’t read.  Started as a “have-to” but now becoming a “love-to”.

I still read veeeerrrrryyyyyy sssslllloooowwww, but I think I’m making progress.  Much of reading is a discipline, not really a natural inclination, at least for me.

But if I read 250 words a minute, this would mean that in 20 minutes, I could read 5000 words.  An average book has about 400 words to a page.  So in 20 minutes, I could read about 12 1/2 pages.  So if I discipline myself to read 20 minutes a day, six days a week, that would be 312 times 12.5 pages for a total of 3,900 pages.  If an average book is 250 pages long, this means I could read 15 books in one year.

Achievable?  Definitely.  Now all I need is discipline.  So help me, God.

“MOM’S DEAD, DAD’S IN PRISON…”

Bernard Marquez introduced me to a young girl who’s story gripped my heart.

Arlene (not her real name) is 12 years old.  A couple of years ago, her mom was stabbed with a knife.  Unfortunately, the knife went in too deep that it reached the heart that caused her death.  Sadly, the man she got into an argument with was her husband.  Now, Arlene has no mom and dad’s in prison.  She currently lives with her grandmother.

But since then, she has found hope.  She met Jesus.  At a very young age, she gives her life to Jesus.  With the KC bucks she gets as prize in Kids Church, while everyone saves up for a nice toy or gadget, she saves it to buy her very first Bible.  She devours it and reads it day after day, walks to church every Sunday and gets her life radically changed.

She attended our Boot Camp (preteen camp for 10-13 year olds) a couple of weeks ago.  While her situation remains the same, her faith has been amazing, focusing on her relationship with Jesus who alone can bring hope, security and identity.

Reaching the next generation has never been easy but hearing testimonies like these inspire us to continue to do whatever it takes to bring the gospel to young people like Arlene.