Ansible-One

Wednesday night Bible Study has been an awesome series diving into Daniel.  If you are interested in hearing it, the majority of the lessons are on www.fbcfb.org under Ministries\Audio.  I will try to add the more recent items over the next few days.

After seeing the bumper stickers yesterday, and hearing the message last night, I decided to skim through our TV channel line up to see just how bad things are.  My criteria was fairly strick.  If the show had cussing, suggestive content, violent content, or anything that I as a Christian father would consider detrimental, I would moved to the next channel.

I know this isn’t exactly scientific, but I skimmed through the channels hoping…for something.  On the TV, note that I disabled all of the spanish, government, local, and PTL channels.  So out of a possible 70 or so stations, the TV would hit maybe 45 or so.

Starting on 3, cussing.  4, fowl humor and cussing. 5, news, violent crime reports. 7, sitcom with suggestive content. 8, news, violence, 9, sitcom with with even more suggestive content.  It had been maybe 2 minutes and I had almost cleared the network TV stations.

By the time I got to cable, the content was even worse.  What am I suppose to do?  How can I combat this?  As an American the first thought is with my money.  I can show I don’t want it by not paying for it.  So I called the cable company on a mission to find out how much it would cost to drop cable TV and keep the internet.

The costs would increase!  Needless to say, we are keeping the setup we have, but we will be changing some things around the house.  Its kinda funny.  I told the sales rep that we were tired of the content that is being distributed.  That it is full of material I don’t want to see or let my family see.  That the only station that I was able to stop on last night was the Weather Channel.

His reponse was this.  “Well, I know what you mean.  But at least there are channels like Discovery and History that have good content.”

Really?!  I told him they couldn’t even stand up to the standard I was expecting.  Those channels are some of the worst.  They constantly bombard the watcher with material they state as fact like, the big bang started it all, or crime shows with bloodied bodies and violent reinactments.  They fail my test in a big way.

As high as my standards are, I know that God’s standards are higher and impossible for me to live up to.  But I try.  I try to do what He wants.

Thank you, Lord, for loving me and forgiving me even when I fail.

What a beautiful morning!  As I drove into work I watched the sun rise and the haze created a truly picturesque setting.  Traffic started build, ok no problem.  I exited and took the back way into work.

Right after I exited, I noticed a big white truck in front of me with a series of bumper stickers that all retorted some sarcastic or aggressive statement.  Then I noticed one on the bottom of the tail gate.  A bit more difficult to see, on purpose of course, this one was the most offensive of them all.  Using a curse word that is a favorite of many people I work with and commonly used on TV.

Well, it fit the profile of the truck.  Big white truck, insulting stickers on the back, it is Texas after all.  Our paths continued to parallel as I approached work.  At the next light I saw another sicker that prompted me to take the picture in the post.  It read, “Nerds for Jesus.”

Well, it could be anything, I know, but how does having 4 or 5 offensive messages posted on the back of your truck have anything to do with Jesus?  One of the greatest struggles Christians are dealing with today is hypocrisy in our ranks.

I searched out Nerds for Jesus on the net and found a small site.  They have the right idea.  Geeky people are Christians too.  Have a community, attract others, plant seeds, grow.  But the story of this truck gets worse.  As I pass the truck, I see the father inside tending to the child in a car seat in the back.  Now my heart sinks another notch.  All I can think now is the kid and how that duplicity will be built into how he is raised.

Maybe they should reread James chapter 3.  I reread the whole chapter, but these verses really stood out for me.

James ch 3:9-10 NIV
9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.

I censored the picture, but here it is anyway.  You get the idea.  If you really want the whole thing I will email it to you.

Can you see how this hurts Christians?
Will you see how it hurts God?
Make an effort to control your tongues!

Yahoo Article

Well…we can either start passing blame or blame ourselves, but it really doesn’t matter.  Obviously Christians are not getting in their Bibles and not learning anything in their churches.
There is not an alternative way to salvation.  Jesus died for my sins so I can have eternal life.  “50% still agreed that other faiths might offer a path to eternal life”.  What?  Are you people kidding me!
Our Christian culture and society is losing this subvert war.  “Christian” is no longer someone that is saved by Christ and has faith, etc.  It is now simply any nice person.  Oh, she must be a christian because she helped the guy cross the street.  Wrong! 
Take a moment to read Rev 3:14-19.  (I’m going to read into the Church in Laodicea.  Sounds a bit familiar.)

Scripture Reference;

I was telling my wife about a new PC game I have been playing called Sins of a Solar Empire (SoaSE).  There is a game feature that allows you to passively defend and attack other space empires.  Oddly enough, its called Culture.  Basically we watched an entire movie together one night as I left the game running and unattended.  To my pleasant surprise, the majority of the map was covered by my empires culture and I had great wealth stored.  All I had to do to finish the game was wipe up a few planets with my overwhelming fleets.

After reading this article, here is her reply…

[15:01] k: It is like your game
[15:02] s: with culture? ya.
[15:02] k: Satan plays the game and then sits back and lets his cultural destroy everything

Yeah, she hit the nail on the head.  That’s why I love her so much and thank the Lord everyday for her being in my life.

The big difference is that this is real life.  And billions of souls hang in the balance.  The good news is that God never looses.  I’ve picked a side.  Jesus Christ saved me.  He saved you.  You just need to accept it.  There is no other way to be saved.