Tag: Bible

Categories
Creativity

How do you see the world?

As we move beyond the mid-point of this year, we anticipate what is to come early next year. If you haven’t heard yet, the Apple Vision Pro is set to hit the market in 2024. As the iPhone reoriented our lives in and after the year 2007, the Apple Vision Pro will revolutionize our lives even more. The way we view the world and even each other will never be the same.

Of course, the starting price of $3499 will be too high to begin with for most people to afford. However, as the years go by and the price drops at the same time the tech increases, you will see more and more people wearing these virtual reality devices that wrap around one’s head.

In reality, it will be the best of both worlds. The headset will combine virtual reality, augmented reality, and real-world reality all into one. It could totally change the way we compute. Rather than sit at a desk, you can strap this headset on and begin “spatial computing” anywhere. The device may not so much replace our phones as much as replace our monitors.

One will be able to “navigate simply by using their eyes, hands, and voice.” Going to the theaters will continue to be a thing of the past as you will be able to create your own theatre experience, wherever you are. The lens will be a “3D formed laminated glass” screen that acts as an optical camera for its camera and sensors to view the world.

There is a lens already out there, however, that we can view the world through that is even more dynamic and revolutionary. It too changes the way we see the world and each other. It allows us to see our life story through His story. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I’m talking about the Bible.

God’s Word is a light unto our path and lamp unto our feet. It tells us the way we should go and what we should do. We may not be able to spatially compute with the Bible but we can physically and intellectually compute what it is God wants us to do with our lives on this earth.

The Apple Vision Pro will allow people to connect in ways not imagined before. God’s Word does the same thing. Through his Word, we are able to connect with fellow believers across the world. It is through His Word that we can all feast and fellowship at the same table.

The Vision Pro “will seamlessly blend digital content with our physical space.” When you live out the Bible’s teachings, you’re bringing God’s light into a dark world. You’re flavoring it with something that is both needed and new.

Let’s put on our biblical headsets and go out and change the world!

Categories
Articles

A Better Story

Image result for God of the bible

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!

Categories
Parenting Teaching

For History’s Sake

This past Sunday, my church celebrated Independence Day. I was asked before service if I could lead the congregation in the pledge of allegiance. I said yes and then two funny things ensued. First, I asked the church to place their hearts over their chests (your heart should already be in your chest). Now, everyone knows I should have said “hand over your heart,” but the more I think about it, I wonder if I wasn’t right after all. If you’re not going to say the pledge from your heart, why say it all. Secondly, I was late in saying the word “indivisible.” You might as well say I made the word invisible.

In our postmodern society, the next generation struggles with saying the pledge of allegiance, singing the national anthem, etc. In some ways, our nation’s symbols and values are becoming invisible. It’s not the next generation’s fault. What passes for being taught as history in some schools is not history at all. Our very constitution is being rewritten and revised to say something it never originally intended. This is why the next Supreme Court justice selection is such a big deal. We need Judges in office who will interpret the Constitution as it was written, not the way they want it to be said.

But we have got to do far more than select the right judges and teach American history to our children. We must teach the next generation biblical and church history as well! What is America after all without the Bible and our Christian heritage? Help them discover God! Tell them the stories of creation, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, the judges, kings, and the prophets. Tell them about the tabernacle, the temple, and Bible geography. Tell them about Jesus’ miracles, teachings, crucifixion, resurrection, and Pentecost. Tell them about the birth of the Church, missionary journeys of Paul, and the Revelation. Introduce them to the religious practices of Christians, Christian symbols, and the Christian calendar. Walk them through the time line of the history of the Church . . . destruction of the temple, fall of the Roman empire, the Crusades, the early reformers, the Reformation, the age of reason, and mass evangelists (many have never heard the name of Billy Graham). Talk to them about Christian missions and the Apostles’ Creed. Introduce them to Christian works of art, architecture, paintings, and music. Help them understand that science and the Christian faith are not enemies.

This takes time, but there are resources available to help you in the task. I recommend the Parent/Teacher Handbook series (4 volumes) by Dr. Edward Buchanan.

Have we all but forgotten the pledge to the Christian flag? Teach this to your children as well. There are many in our nation who would like to turn our red, white, and blue flag into a rainbow-colored flag. We must not. We cannot forget who we are, where we come from, and the price paid to get us where we are. American blood and the blood of Christ are what paved the way for the freedoms we enjoy today. History is after all His Story! Take time to study history and make time to share His Story with those you love.