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Expound to Confound

Secular psychologist Jordan Peterson has just written his most recent book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. This book is a follow-up to his best seller 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.

It has been said that the next generation, particularly young men, flock to Peterson’s simple advice on life. To many young men, Peterson represents the dad they never had. When Peterson writes about cleaning up your room and straightening up your life, many young people perk up and listen because they have never had anyone speak so directly to them about the importance of personal responsibility.

There is some value to secular psychology, however, man’s wisdom should never have the final say for the Christian’s directive in life. It is a lament that many children and youth grow up without caring parents and for some, no parents at all. The sad fact is that this phenomenon has led many in the next generation to view Peterson as a cultish god-like figure. In their adoration and adulation, this sect or fan-club has fallen prey to the temptation of idol worship. They have chosen to worship the creation over the Creator.

There was a preacher who used to tell his congregation, “I am about to confound you” every time before he preached. What did this preacher mean when he made this statement? Simply put, nothing less than “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Cor 1:25).

The preacher was talking about none other than the message of the cross. The gospel message is confounding because the wisest man in the world would never have guessed that God himself would have stepped out of heaven to come to this earth to die for the sins of mankind.

The gospel is the message we preach and it is through the “foolishness” of this message that God is pleased to “save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21).

Even Peterson is pounced on by his pundits when he speaks of maintaining personal responsibility in the face of suffering. After all, who likes to suffer? But this reasoning is where Peterson’s message has some resemblance to the gospel. In the face of the worst suffering you could ever imagine, Jesus resolved himself to go through with the punishment. The difference within these philosophies, however, lies in the fact that Jesus died the death we should have died because Jesus lived the life we never could have lived. Being the sinless Son of God, Jesus chose to die in our place to appease the wrath of God for those who would believe.

The question really is, “Will you follow Peterson’s and or other men’s life advice and principles?” or “Will you follow the Word of God?” Some of Peterson’s principles have merit, only because they are rooted in God’s creation-order or God’s law itself. No matter how you slice or dice it, 2+2 always = 4. All truth is God’s truth. But when it comes to the sinfulness of mankind, God’s math works differently: One sinless man, and his name is Jesus, died for the sins of all.

There is no self-help book or program that you can go through that will save you from your sin. You might “improve” upon some behavior or become a “better” person according to your own standard, but when it comes to being forgiven by a Holy God, you are in no better shape until you lay down the wisdom of man and accept the wisdom of God. Until you do so, you will continue to be confounded. You will persist to have a form of godliness, only to deny the power thereof (2 Tim 3:5). There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end, it leads to eternal destruction (Proverbs 14:12). I implore you to deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow Jesus (Matt 16:24).

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Faith and Culture Presentation: Part 2

A couple of years ago, I posted a Faith and Culture presentation that I did at my church. Now, I have added a second! I’ll let the video speak for itself . . .

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Ready or not, here We come!

Golden Gate Bridge | History, Construction, & Facts | Britannica

As the church goes, so goes next generation ministry. The two are so intertwined together that there is no escaping the fact. But is the church going in the direction that God wants it to go? That’s a question only you and your church can answer. However, I think I can provide you with some help as your team tries to formulate an answer.

Is your church gauging success by the 3 B’s – buildings, budgets, and bodies or is your church gauging success by the 3 D’s – decisions, disciples, and development of those disciples?

Is your church growing in Christ and not just growing in number? Are hearts being converted, disciples being made, and fruit being born? In other words, are lives being transformed by the written and living powerful Word of God?

Are your people gaining clean hands, a pure heart, and a sound mind?

Is your church growing in grace, godliness, and good works? Philippians 1:11 and Colossians 1:10 teach us that “the mark of a church that is growing in Christ is the fruit of righteousness and good works.”

In his book Growing True Disciples, George Barna writes, “True discipleship builds churches known for their culture of love, commitment, and service rather than for their events, information, and programs.” Does your church have this type of disciple-making culture?

If so, you can expect next generation ministry to flourish in your context!

Near the turn of the century, Robert Lewis wrote a book called The Church of Irresistible Influence. The book was prophetic in the sense that delineated what the church’s witness should look like in this century compared to last’s. Lewis realized his church in Arkansas had been burning bridges when they should have been been building them all along. He said, “my first error was in trying to convince a postmodern world of truth when it rejects truth . . . in our culture . . . truth is consistently and wrongly defined as a matter of one’s preference or perspective, if it exists at all”

In our century, reason gave way to experience as “I think, therefore I am was replaced with I feel, therefore I know . . . maybe.” Objective truth went out the window and was replaced with subjectivity on every level. Lewis writes, “To our age, truth is nothing more than talk — especially when you don’t show it. The eye, not the ear, is the decisive organ. Our postmodern world is tired fo words — it wants real. Real is everything. Real is convincing . . . We are trying to build bridges on truth alone, while the world is crying out for proof. Proof!”

Lewis writes next, “Our design is wrong. We need bridges that balance public proclamation with congregational incarnation. Bridges that are suspended by the steel cables of the Great Commandment as well as the Great Commission . . . [our age doesn’t despise] belief. Rather, it is an age that wants to believe, desperately so . . . But it trusts nothing except what it can see and, more importantly, experience.” This postmodern world needs not only to hear the Word of truth, they must see the Word made flesh — “A living proof — an irrefutable incarnation.”

This is where your church comes in and this is why the early church exploded in number. We can’t just do church. We got to be the church!

Lewis ends by saying, “What the world waits to see is whether what we have is better than what they have. Just think what bridges we could build if we truly followed the example of the New Testament church. We would go beyond seeker-sensitive to a new frontier of being community-admired. We would be known, not just by the corner we inhabit, but by the city with which we interact. And people would be drawn to God, not because of the weekly show in our churches, but by the irrefutable lifestyles we incarnate. On both sides of the postmodern chasm, there is a growing emptiness. For the church, it is due to a lack of radical, courageous, and sacrificial faith: If our Christianity is real, let’s live it. For the world, this emptiness is from a lack of captivating, life-giving proof: If your Christianity is real, let’s see it.

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In Christ Alone

Image result for Voddie Baucham Social Justice

If you work with the next generation, you need to be familiar with the concepts of “critical race theory (CRT)”, “systemic racism”, and “social justice”. You need to understand that leading evangelicals have different takes on these subjects. The topic has a complexity of factors which is why Pastors Voddie Baucham, John MacArthur, Eric Mason, David Platt, and Matt Chandler don’t all seem to be on the same page.

Whereas many public school systems now want to cram CRT into its curriculum and conversantly into its students while telling students how they should act upon its doctrine and creeds without being allowed to think for themselves, you need to study the issue and come to your own conclusions. I agree with Voddie that social justice is not biblical justice and I agree with MacArthur that social justice is a caveat for socialism. Justice needs no adjective.

The reason you need to understand terms like “intersectionality”, “equity”, and “disparity” is because your students will know them or will be learning them soon. It is sad that education has become overly political, but as I wrote in a previous post, we are not dealing with a mere political idea, but rather a rival religion. The strand of Cultural Marxism we are dealing with views Christianity, the family, and the Church as the oppressor and wants to level the playing field by undermining the “privileges” that come with being a part of these “groups”.

I know . . . this is heavy stuff . . . but you need to understand this ideology and the nuances that come with it. Not everyone is privileged to live in the state of Florida, where many traditional American liberties and freedoms are being maintained. How else will you be able to combat this ideology in the lives of your students if you don’t understand it? And trust me, the issue(s) will come up.

This ideology is not only dividing races, it is dividing families. Children are turning on parents and grandparents. This is a generational issue we all need to talk through. But when we talk, we must keep the gospel front and center. Explain why the gospel presents a better way, why the gospel paints a prettier picture. To a certain degree, structural or systemic racism has always been around and is in place today. But, even if Marxists had their full way, systemic racism would never be completely eradicated. We live in a fallen world, where things will never be perfect and where sin is our ultimate problem.

Christendom need not be split between woke pastors and non-woke pastors, woke churches and non-woke churches. Why? Because we are One in Christ! We are one race, all coming from Adam and Eve. We all bleed red. Politics will never be the answer to our sin problem, because only Jesus is. Christ’s blood and his blood alone has the power to cleanse us from our sins. We need to repent not of being white, or of being woke, but of being wrong. We have all messed up when it comes to obeying God’s standard (The Law) and we all need his forgiveness. Pastors, preach the Word! Don’t let CRT and woke-ism take over your pulpit. Exposit the Word, not the hot-button topic of the day. Scripture is sufficient. Let God through His Word speak for Himself. These are the “outcomes” we need to be concerned about.

It is ok if we Christians don’t always agree. However, we must all agree on primary issues such as the gospel and the atonement. After all, Easter is coming! Unfortunately, “Progressive Christianity” is teaching a false gospel. You need to be aware of this separate ideology as well. Might I recommend to you books and or videos by Alisa Childers? The time is now for us to stand up against Cultural Marxism, Progressive Christianity, and the like.

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Jesus Talk

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Over the past half-century, talk has really taken off on all media platforms. When we used to think of talk shows, we thought of late-night television show hosts such as Jay Leno or David Letterman or daytime tv talk show hosts such as Jerry Springer or Oprah. But now, it seems every sector in culture and society has a talk show. You can listen to news talk, sports talk, or weather talk if you would like and with a seemingly different show and host every hour on the hour on any given day. When you get bored with all of that, you can listen to some food talk and then proceed to your kitchen and cook up that new recipe.

Besides the increase of talk, there has also been an increase in the amount of media platforms that you can listen to your favorite talk shows on (social media, podcasts, smartTV, etc.) But we’re doing more than listening to more talk than we used to. We’re also talking more ourselves. Today, it seems everyone has a voice that is heard, whether that be on their own website, blog, channel, account, feed, etc.

Freedom of speech is a good thing and being allowed to express yourself and your views on multiple platforms all at the same time is also a good thing. However, all this talk begs one question. What would Jesus say? If you were talking to Jesus face to face, what would he talk about? We know he would talk about repentance and the Kingdom of God, but what else? For those of us who know him, I think he would ask us a rather direct question: Are you talking about me as much as you’re talking about all these other topics?

In the day and hour in which we live, we must realize there are some people around us that are more willing and open to talk about Jesus than they ever have been before. There are some hurting individuals who need and want you to talk to them about Jesus. They are seeking hope, love, joy, and peace. You have the answer. Will you offer it to them?

With all of the executive orders President Biden signed in his first week on the job, I see some devastating consequences that could come our nation’s way. I don’t want to come across as a pessimist, but I do see a coming increase in crime, anger, and poverty. When people get angry enough with one another, wars are bound to happen whether they be foreign or domestic. No one wants WW III or another Civil War until they do. As followers of Christ, we are not only to pray for peace in and our city, state, nation, and world. We are to make peace and to offer peace to those around us who are seeking to find it.

The rhetoric from all sides needs to be toned down, but neither rhetoric nor tone is the primary problem today. The issue at stake is the issue of first being able to sit down at a table with people who hold different views than you do and have civil discourse. Until we can talk and listen to one another, headway cannot be made.

We talk to each other about weather, sports, and politics. We talk to each other about love, relationships, and food. At times, we’ll even talk to each other about race, religion, and creed. Yet the question remains: Will you talk to people about Jesus?

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In the Name of Progress?

Pluralism, Relativism, Marxism, Communism, Secularism, Humanism, Materialism , Scientism, Hedonism, Atheism . . . I have heard before if it ends in “ism,” it probably isn’t good. Not even positivism—the idea that science is the source of all authoritative knowledge and that history is a story of the advance of technology—is a positive “ism.” I am afraid all of these “ism’s” and more are contributing to a great schism in our nation.

In his prescient book, Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreyer makes a profound statement that Progressivism is not just another political idea, but rather a rival religion. In many ways, churches are seeing the next generation leave its institutions in droves and are left wondering why. I would say these churches are unsure why its youth are leaving because most likely, these churches are not keeping up with the times. Sure, these same churches may have the latest bells and whistles, what some churches may label as progress, but my belief is that Dreyer has it right: Most churches have been blindsided by Progressivism.

All gas and no brakes may sound good in theory, but it doesn’t work too well if you’re driving a car. The problem with postmodernism is that you can’t do whatever you want to do and go wherever you want to go. There are rules in life that must be followed and that includes stopping at traffic lights. Why has the church given into consumerism, seeking what man desires more than what God commands? Technology is good but it’s not all good. Church shouldn’t be minimized into a virtual rock show with stage lights that includes an occasional message from a hologram preacher. The church should be occupied by real people in a real place worshipping a real God. Maybe I went into a tangent here, but I am simply pointing out other “ism’s” that aren’t so good. Back to the “ism” that has blindsided the Church . . .

Please understand what Dreyer is saying. Dreyer is comparing Progressivism to a rival religion, such as the likes of Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Confucianism, Sikhism, and more. If we, the church, don’t understand this, we’re not going to understand what hit us and we will be left out to dry. What we are witnessing isn’t politics as usual. Every sphere of life is being politicized today. 20,000 National Guard troops being called up to Washington D.C. is a political statement. Writing “Black Lives Matter” on NBA courts is a political statement. Cancelling social media accounts and censoring conservative talk at home, work, or play is a political statement. Whether its Big Business, Big Tech, or Big Brother, this political over reach is not good for our country because it strips us of our freedoms. Dreyer is right. Today’s America, in its soft totalitarian forms, resembles the former USSR. The progressives’ manifestos are no different than the 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union. I am not going to write much about this now, but don’t think that your church’s social media account or your pastor’s messages couldn’t be cancelled real soon. That’s what “Progressivism” is all about.

Dreyer’s book should be a wake-up call to the church. I only hope it’s not too late. Going, going, going isn’t always good. Forward-thinking sometimes means taking a step back and in the case of The Church and our families, it might mean taking many steps back. We must make time to stop, to pause, and to ask ourselves if what we are doing is what God wants us to do. We must take time to evaluate the results. In the name of progress, we handed our kids smartphones and tablets (if you have not, your kid’s school probably has). But should we have given a child the world at his or her fingertips when they are not ready or of age to see all that the world has to offer? We embraced social media full-scale, but should we have embraced social media without first finding out about the long-term effects it has on our health and well-being? We trusted Big Tech but should we have, seeing now that its leaders act as demagogues aligned with one way of thinking.

Not even the Left and the Liberals are on the same page. The Left and the Liberals are divided in their own camp, probably even more so than The Left is divided from the Right. I think we’ll see this divide even more clearly in and among the Democrats once President Biden comes into office. But that is not The Church’s ultimate concern. Our concern should be to be of One mind, the mind of Christ. We need to be unified. We need to be loving our neighbor and praying for our nation. We don’t need to be attacking our brothers and sisters-in-Christ at this time. Trumpism is another “ism” that isn’t good. I am not saying that it was wrong of someone to vote for Donald Trump or to support Donald Trump, only that we as Christ-followers should never turn Donald Trump into an idol that we worship. We don’t worship a donkey or an elephant. We worship The Lamb of God!

I am hearing of school teachers imposing their progressive beliefs on the next generation at school. I hear of students making fun of other students because they have conservative beliefs and hold conservative values. At the rate we are going, I can see Big Tech soon shutting down your social media account because of anything you have left on in that is pro-Trump or anti-progressive ideology. Church and ministry leaders, I implore you to not have your head stuck in the sand. See Progressivism for what it is: a rival religion that is taking the next generation away from us.

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Some good news

Catholic in Brooklyn: The Message of Ascension Thursday

Scripture teaches us that churches have five ministries or functions given to them by Jesus, the Head of the Church. Pastor Rick Warrren called these ministries the five purposes and wrote books that taught both churches and the lives of individual believers should be driven by Fellowship, Missions, Worship, Discipleship, and Evangelism.

COVID-19 disrupted church life as we know it in 2020. Fellowship was handicapped when events, classes, and meetings were postponed or cancelled. Missions or service to others was limited when people were mandated to stay-at-home. Due to state regulations and guidelines, Worship capacity in our facilities and buildings were capped at a percentile that drove down attendance and required us to physically distance ourselves from one another. Discipleship turned digital, unfortunately causing the discipleship ball to be dropped in locations that had not previously readied themselves in and for the coming digital revolution. Likewise, as human contact decreased, Evangelism took on new forms.

The ministries of the church have been hurt by the pandemic, but in more subtle ways, the ministries of the church have also been helped. Churches have been able to become stronger in ministry areas they were weaker in because well, they were forced to. One ministry area the church desperately needs to capitalize on in this time of crisis is Evangelism. Currently, medical companies are sending out vaccines to defeat the evil coronavirus. Are we being evangelistic and letting the world know that Jesus has already defeated sin, death, and hell?

Are we sharing The Story: creation, fall, rescue, and restoration? Are we sharing the grand narrative of the gospel story that takes the stories of our lives and begins to make sense out of them?

Creation: This world was a beautiful place at its inception. It was virus-free!

Fall: Due to man’s original sin in the garden, creation itself now suffers and we have to deal with viruses such as Covid-19.

Rescue: Thankfully, Jesus came to heal us from all our sins and one day . . .

Restoration: . . . We won’t have to worry about the virus called sin that infects us all or sickness such as the coronavirus!

In a world full of bad news, people are dying to hear some good news. Will you be the one that shares it with them?

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Get Vaccinated

Covid vaccine: When can I get vaccinated in the US?

In his book The Secret Battle of Ideas about God, Jeff Myers acknowledges five non-biblical worldviews that have unfortunately become widely accepted by Christians. Myers compares the ideas of secularism, Marxism, postmodernism, new spirituality, and Islam to viruses that have infected many churches today. In 2015, Barna Research stated that only 6 percent of US adults held to a biblical worldview.

Myers believes the meshing of non-biblical worldviews to the biblical narrative is so pervasive in the church today that, “Chances are you’ve already been infected without even realizing it.” In the foreword to the book, David Kinnaman says, “In order to thrive as exiles in what I’ve come to call ‘digital Babylon,’ we need a shot in the arm . . . to inoculate us against the worldview viruses that suffuse the cultural air we breathe.” Myers goes as far to offer individuals, families, and churches a Worldview Checkup at www.secretbattlebook.com/checkup that can help identify “five fatal worldviews [that] may have made their way into your heart and mind.”

I find Myers’ book to be almost prophetic in the sense that it was written years before Covid-19. I think we would all agree that the coronavirus is one virus we all want to defeat! But Myers goes farther saying that we need to learn how to immunize ourselves from these five other highly contagious and sickening idea viruses. I say “prophetic” because Myers says “Bad ideas can multiply out of control, like the spread of a virus that becomes a pandemic.” Just as the first vaccine was released a few days ago to help prevent Covid-19, so too does the church need to be releasing its own spiritual vaccines against the five idea viruses.

It is too much for me tackle all five viruses in this post, but I do want to touch on one: “new spirituality.” I would prefer to call this new age spirituality. I find this idea virus oftentimes makes contact with another idea virus, secularism, combining to make what I call secular Christianity. New age spirituality typically combines itself with eastern religion or philosophy and is thus heavily inundated with Buddhist and Hindu influence.

Barna says that America’s “Judeo-Christian (biblical) moorings have given way to a new moral code — the morality of self-fulfillment,” and backs up its research with findings such as:

-91% of US adults and 76% of Practicing Christians say the best way to find yourself is by looking within yourself

-89% of US adults and 76% of Practicing Christians say people should not criticize someone else’s life choices

I will not list all of the statistics, but I think its important to note that Barna also found that “61% of practicing Christians agree with ideas rooted in new spirituality.”

The face of new age spirituality may be Oprah Winfrey who believes she is a god and that everyone else is too. New age spiritualists don’t condemn Christianity; rather they say its just one more religion that is equal to all the rest. However, that is not what Jesus said as he laid claim that he alone is God and that he is the only way to the Father.

The truth is new spirituality could easily overlap with all of the idea viruses that Myers lists. For instance, Trevin Wax in his new book Rethink Your Self: The Power of Looking Up before Looking In touches on how new spirituality coincides with many popular postmodern slogans of today such as “Follow your heart,” “Chase your dreams,” “You are enough,” “You do you,” and “No matter what, be true to yourself.” Trevin debunks these ideas in his book by pointing out that people should not use God as an attachment to their spirituality, but should rather start with Jesus at their core.

New spirituality would say that the self should vanish away into the world at-large. Postmodernism would say the self exists, but what’s it matter. Secularism would say the self exists and live it up. But Jesus says to deny yourself and to follow Him and to lose your life so that you can find it. In other words, Jesus said he came to give you life and life to the full, but before you can have it, you must denounce your sin, yourself, and all other teachings that run counter to his. Jesus never said this would be easy, but he did say he would leave you his peace. If Jesus gave up his life so that we could find it, why wouldn’t we be required to do the same?

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iRobot?

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Just when I thought I heard it all . . .

“Sex with robots” . . . Yes, you read that correctly. It is not a misprint. In her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, author Sherry Turkle talks about how “relationships with robots are ramping up” while “relationships with people are ramping down.”

“Relationships with robots are not as risky.” Though robots are less moody and more predictable than women and though robots are less distracted and more present than men, are we sure we humans are ready for such a trade-off?

Turkle speaks of the “robotic moment” as the time when we humans find ourselves ready to make “our robots not only pets, but potential friends, confidants, and even romantic partners.” Believe it or not, there are some who have gone as far as the “proposal and defense of marriage to robots.”

David Levy, a British-born entrepreneur and computer scientist, sees robots as performing a therapeutic role on humans in the future and being able to to substitute where people fail. Levy argues that robots will teach us to be better friends and lovers because we will be able to practice on them. No cheating. No heartbreak. “The machine will be preferable for any number of reasons—to what we currently experience in the sometimes messy, often frustrating, and always complex world of people.”

What do I make of all this talk? Is it even plausible? As I peer into the future, I think Turkle is right. It’s not only possible; it’s highly probable.

This is where it will become imperative that we have a theology of robots. Does all this sound too far-fetched, too out-there? I don’t think so. Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. I havn’t fallen out of of my rocker, yet. I never thought our world would change as fast as it did in 2020, but along came Covid-19, political overreach into every aspect of society, and a soft totalitarianism that is steadily rising in our dare I say, democratic nation (for more information, read my last post). Thus, sex with robots may not be as distant as you might think.

I will let someone else write the theology and ethics handbook on how to view and relate to robots. For now, all I will say is that humans are made in the imago dei and robots are not. We may soon make robots into our image, but that does not change the written Word. In the future, man may own many robots, but I see no biblical basis for marrying them or . . . his robots.

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A Better Story

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Much of the next generation has become enamored with the promises and perks offered to them by a political ideology that is propagated and promoted by mass media, big tech companies, and incessant ads. This soft totalitarianism has traces of socialism, marxism, and communism in it which is mixed together into a woke capitalism that catapults itself off of a materialistic and consumerist culture like ours. It’s harder to identify than communist regimes of the past because it masquerades and disguises itself in a form that the normal American is not used to seeing.

We eat, live, and breathe in a world like this 24/7, but up until this point, I have not understood why America’s next generation has bought into this semi-foreign ideology hook, line, and sinker. That is, until I read Rob Dreyer’s book Live Not By Lies: A Manuel for Christian Dissidents. In chapter two of his book, Dreyer lists some interesting quotes:

“Totalitarian movements are mass organization of atomized, isolated individuals.”

Due to the next gen’s growing isolation and anxiety in a highly “connected” world, “it is no coincidence that millenials and members of Generation Z register much higher rates of loneliness than older Americans, as well as significantly greater support for socialism. It’s as if they aspire to a politics that can replace the community they wish they had.”

“A polity filled with alienated individuals who share little sense of community and purpose are prime targets for totalitarian ideologies and leaders who promise solidarity and meaning.”

“Why are people so willing to believe demonstrable lies? The desperation alienated people have for a story that helps them make sense of their lives and tells them what to do explains it. For a man desperate to believe, totalitarian ideology is more precious than life itself.”

Did you catch the “why?” It’s really not that hard. The next gen has been swept into a narrative that promises them a utopian future for a better world and though they may not live to see everything they dream of and about this future world, they have a significant part to play.

The next gen is willing to acquiesce to socialism and surrender their hopes, their energy, and even their finances to Big Brother and Big Business because of the utopian worldview that it offers. Those who believe in this ideology will stop at no costs and even no means to— violently, if need be—set the wheels in motion for this belief system to take off in America.

This explains much of what we have seen in 2020 with Antifa, Black Lives Matter Global Network, and even police defunding all becoming prominent issues. History nor the constitution matter to these ideologues. Dreyer writes, “In 2019, The New York Times . . . launched the ‘1619 project,’ a massive attempt to ‘reframe’ American history by displacing the 1776 Declaration of Independence as the traditional founding of the United States, replacing it with the year the first African slaves arrived in North America . . . It’s goal is to revise America’s national identity by making race hatred central to the nation’s foundational myth.” Is there any need for me to mention all of our national monuments that were pulled down?

Ok, you already knew all of that . . . so, what’s the point of this post? The point is The Bible offers both you and the next generation a better story. The Bible is a book of 66 books written over thousands of years by many different authors in many different genres which has stood the test of time. Your story, my story, everyone’s story can be found in the Good Book! But, you and I must take time to read it, to share it, to teach it, and ultimately, to live it. Unlike the multitude of instantaneous satisfactions offered to us by the world, the God of the Bible is someone to be experienced and someone you can never exhaust. God, unlike man, does not even get exhausted, though he may get exhausted of his creation constantly bypassing him for ideologies that pale in comparison to his far-weightier glory.

I challenge you and I challenge the next generation to shut off all social media outlets, all of the news coverage, and all of the high-tech advertising and marketing ploys long enough to read His Story. Reading the Bible cannot and will not happen in a day. But, what you will find as you dig into it over time is a history that is proven and a man named Jesus that stands in the beginning, middle, and end of it all. This man offers a better way because He is The Way!