I wanted to let you know that I will have to be taking a break from blogging on here indefinitely.  For those of you that do not know, I have been asked to transition into the Executive Administrative position here at Perrow Church.  Rusty and Bonita Bonasso will be taking over leadership of the youth group. 

We have not yet determined if we will maintain the blog, but I do believe it is safe to say that we will utilize it to post updates and announcements. 

It has been enriching and enjoyable writing.  For those of you that benefited or enjoyed it, I will be helping out Jeremy Dys of the Family Policy Council with writing and research at www.familyvoice.wordpress.com.  You should come and check us out!

May the LORD bless you by continually revealing Himself to you through His Son Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit

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The following is taken verbatim from the Do Hard Things - Study Guide

Chapter 3 is titled the Myth of Adolescence: Exposing Expectations That Our Robbing our Generation

An elephant is an incredibly powerful beast that can be restrained by a piece of twine (No kidding).  And that powerful animal just might be you, say Alex and Brett.  Why?  Because teens today but into “the Myth of Adolescence.”  That myth is an assumption that the teen years can’t add up to much and are meant to be spent as some sort of vacation from responsibility.  Unfortunately, those low expectations end up trapping and limiting teens for no good reason.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  Even the word teenager, the authors point out, is a recent invention.  We can choose to live by higher standards.  We can leave childish ways behind and grow up.  We can decide to do hard things.  That, say the twins, is where the Rebelution starts.

Questions for discussion:

Have you ever visited a zoo, seen beautiful and powerful animals caged by glass or bars, and felt that something was terribly wrong?  If so, talk about it.  Why do you think some teens might identify with a wild but caged bird or animal?

Do you think that harmless-sounding lies about the teen years could be holding back both you and other teens you know?  Talk about it. 

What was your reaction to the stories of George, David, and Clarissa (pages 31-32)?  Have you ever thought you could accomplish a lot more than you are now?

What do your parents expect you to do at home in an average week?  Do you deliver?  Be honest.  How much time and effort does it take to do what’s asked of you?  Do you think your parents require too much or too little? 

Have you ever found yourself behaving very differently – and accomplishing a lot more – simply because someone expected you to?  Describe the experience.

Look forward to hearing from you SOON!

Over a four weekend period, we’ll learn to:

• Develop friendships with people far from God
• Discover the stories behind their life’s journey
• Discern what “next steps” will help point them to faith

Just Walk Across the Room will change your mind about sharing your faith with others. 

Pointing people to faith is something that all of us can do – and it shows up on the heels of a simple walk across the room.

You don’t want to miss this!

In commenting on the business of our lives, David Prince asks:

In the midst of our busy lives, who is given the responsibility of rearing the next generation in the Christian faith?  Who is given the responsibility of calling the next generation to hope in God?

Pause for a moment and think about this before reading below

In answering his own questions, Prince goes on to say:

First, let us begin by emphatically declaring it is parents (fathers in particular) and not the church who are given the primary responsibility for calling the next generation to hope in God. The church serves a supplementary role, reinforcing the biblical nurture that is occurring in the home. It is not the job of “professionals” at the church to rear the children of believers in the faith. Far too often, Sunday Schools, children’s ministries, and youth ministries have become substitutes for the home training of children. Christian parents have largely abdicated their God-given responsibility to insure that their children are instructed in the things of God.

 

The following is verbatim from the Do Hard Things Study Guide:

In this chapter, Alex and Brett tell the story of their journey from being bored teens to being Supremem Court interns, campaign workers, and blog hosts.  But before they had new experiences they had new ideas – big ideas like:

• Our generation is getting robbed!
• There has to be more to the teen years than goofing off.
• Ordinary teens can make a big difference in the world.
• Young people can handle big responsibilities.
• With big dreams come big challenges.
• What teens working together can accomplish is amazing!

They close the chapter by inviting readers to join them in an uprising “against a cultural mind-set that twists the purpose and potential of the teen years and threatens to cripple our generation.

Questions for discussion and reflection:

•  
  • Looking back, do you see a season, a book, or an event that changed what you believe or how you live?  If so, talk about it.  How are you different now?

•  
  • One teen told Alex and Brett, “Everyone I know at school is shackled by low expectations.”  Could you say the same thing?  If so, talk about why.

•  
  • Have you ever found yourself responsible for a task that seemed too big for you to succeed at?  If so, what happened?  Did that experience turn out to be a bad thing or a good thing your life?

•  
  • Did you identify with the story of shy Heidi Bentley (pages 19-22)?  If so, talk about it.

•  
  • History shows that youth movements against God-established authority have generally amouunted to much.  How do the authors set their message apart from such movements? 

The daily reading of God’s holy word, by a parent before his children, is one of the most powerful agencies of Christian life.  We are prone to undervalue this cause.  It is a constant dropping, but it wears its mark into the rock.  A family thus trained cannot be ignorant of the Word.  The whole Scriptures come repeatedly before the mind…No part of juvenile education is more important (Thoughts on Family Worship, pg. 62-63).

As parents/guardians we must understand that God’s words are powerful, and that they are more than capable to give us “wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3.15).  Not only do the Scriptures give us wisdom that leads to salvation, but they are good for “teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3.16). 

The reason that we read the Scriptures to our children is finally explained in 2 Timothy 3.17,

so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Therefore, we as parents/guardians are to read and integrate the Scriptures in the lives of our children on a daily basis (read Deuteronomy 6.4-9).  The integration of faith in the lives of our children is to be a daily affair that is based upon our involvement in their lives.  Since this is the case we cannot believe for one iota that sending them to school, children’s church, or youth group, will provide all that they need to become a Christian.  These should be a support to what is going on at home and not the primary means of instruction and discipline (read Ephesians 6.1-4)

Let me ask you parents/guardians, “What steps can you take right now to best incorporate the reading of Scripture with your family?”  “Does life need to be simplified?”  “Are there activities that need to be canceled to create more time for your involvement in the life of your children?”  “Should you go to bed earlier, missing the late night shows, so that you can get up 30 minutes earlier to read and pray together?”  “What steps need to be taken in order to have your family together for family worship in the evening?” 

These are just some preliminary questions.  I will provide some other thoughts on family worship later.

This chapter entails how Alex and Brett Harris came upon the idea of beginning the “rebelution.”  For me I am always encouraged by reading the stories of others and how the LORD works in and through their lives.  It seems as if the LORD always does more than we could ever think or imagine (read Ephesians 3.20) when we step out in faith to do what He calls us to do.

After reading this chapter I was really encouraged by the example of Heidi in her work in the political grass-roots level in Alabama.  In commenting on her introverted personality and how she arose to the challenge that was set before her, Alex and Brett said,

She had always been extremely introverted.  She hated talking on the phone, her family told us, even with people she knew.  Yet we had put her on the phone with strangers almost constantly.  Throughout the entire campaign, her family watched in amazement as Heidi jumped way outside of her comfort zone and did things that would have seemed impossible before (pg. 20).

If we believe that salvation is possible only through the life of Jesus Christ (read John 14.6) and that God empowers us to be a witness for Him to others (read Acts 1.8), then why do some of us use our “shyness” as an excuse to not connect with others for the purpose of introducing them to Jesus Christ?  Also, if God has promised to empower us to be a witness by sharing Jesus Christ with others, then how can we say that it is true if we do not step out in faith on His word? (you so have to check-out the example of Peter in stepping out in faith upon the promise of God in Luke 5.1-11). 

What can we take away from this?  What we can take away from this little blurb is that we cannot cop out on personal responsibility by using our personality quarks as excuses.  We cannot place anything in our life in a position that is greater than God.  As if it has more power over us than what God is working in us.  The power of God that is at work towards us is so much greater than any personality trait, physical deformity, or speech impediment, that we may or may not have (read Ephesians 1.18-20).

There are two reasons that I have been thinking about this.  First, I just recently started a facebook page for myself and have been stupefied by how many people claim that they are “Christians,” yet post countless pictures of themselves drinking, partying, and what character from Sex and the City best represents them. 

Secondly, my wife and I were…

 just talking this weekend about a particular television show that Peyton was watching.  Jessica vociferously objected to him watching it and I asked, “Why?”  To this she responded, “Because” (Well, I will admit that she was very tired and didn’t have the energy to really engage in this conversation).

Since Peyton was sitting there, I said something along the following lines, “It’s important for us to teach him why he should and should not watch certain programs, or even listen to certain music.”  The reason that I see this as so important with Peyton is for the fact that he is getting to age where he has to have the ability to determine what is or is not good for him to watch when he is in a situation that provides more freedom and access to television, interent, and music 

Therefore, if we simply tell him no, without giving him the ability to determine for himself, based upon principles derived from God’s Word, then he will succumb to watching or listening to things that he shouldn’t for two reasons.  One, he is a kid and two, he is a sinner like the rest of us! (read Proverbs 22.15 and Romans 3.23) 

Any who, it is vitally important for all of us to be aware of what we are watching and listening to.  Just because something is dubbed as “entertainment,” this does not mean that we have to check our Christianity at the door and watch or listen to whatever our sinful heart so desires (read Jeremiah 17.9).  We, as well as our children, must have our minds renewed and transformed by the very words of God, so that when we do watch or listen to anything we will have the ability to determine if it does or does not please God (read Romans 12.1-2).  For all that we do must be done for the sole purpose of God’s glory, fame, and honor (read 1 Corinthians 10.31).

I could keep going on, but I am done ranting for now. 

Since this song is number 1 on some charts (at least I believe it is or has been) it’s important to address it from a Biblical position.  For a Biblical review of Kay Perry’s, I Kissed a Girl, go here. Here are two quotes to wet your appetite:

The video clearly depicts a current cultural reality related to our fallenness as human beings, particularly how the fall effects our God-given sexuality. The Scriptures tell us that God made all things and pronounced them all “good.” In Genesis 3:6 all things are polluted by sin. “I Kissed a Girl” offers lyrical and visual evidence of this brokenness and how it is being uniquely embraced, expressed, and celebrated in today’s youth culture through distortions of sexuality. 

 

Because it serves to direct young viewers and listeners, “I Kissed a Girl” is more than a song kids will listen to. It actually serves as a map to life, guiding impressionable kids into accepting and practicing the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are depicted and promoted in the song. This includes a postmodern ethical relativism, and homosexuality. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I noticed this past year that many youth have a difficulty with taking the first step in evangelism, which is simply just walking across the room and beginning a conversation with somebody, befriending them as an expression of God’s love, and asking the right questions to see where God may be working within their life in drawing them closer to Himself through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Here is an excerpt from Publishers Weekly,

His form of evangelism is relational, what he calls “Living in 3D.” Hybels enlarges on the three Ds—develop friendships, discover stories, discern next steps—in a clear, conversational way, all the while challenging Christians to move beyond their insulated “evangelism-void vacuum.” He encourages Christians to explore “the power of story” and to learn how to tell their own spiritual narratives concisely and effectively. Readers will find inspiration and honesty in this book that mirrors Hybels’s personal convictions and those of his church as well: “It really is true: the spread of the gospel… boils down to whether you and I will continue to seek creative ways to engage our friends, inviting them to explore the abundance of the Christ-following life….” (bold mine)

So get ready to work through this series and may the LORD utilize this training to better equip and prepare all of us to simply walk across the room