We receive news of our world in a number of ways: newspapers, other print media, TV, radio, internet, speeches and conversation.  Is that really true?  Do you believe what you read, hear, and see? And if your response is “sometimes,” then how do you discern what you believe and what you discount as a lie? C. S. Lewis, one of the most brilliant Christian writers and scholars of the twentieth century, once wrote what he thought of newspapers, “I never read the papers. Why does anyone? They’re nearly all lies, and one has to wade through such reams of verbiage to find out even what they are saying.” That was 1955. I can only imagine what he would think today.  He also wrote, “To abstain from reading—and… from buying—a paper which you have once caught telling lies seems a very moderate form of asceticism. Yet how few practice it.” The most prominent newspaper in America today is constantly caught telling lies, yet people still buy and read it…and most unfortunately, in too many cases, believe what they read.

Every day in our technologically advanced world we receive (it might be more accurate to say we are flooded with) information which we will accept, filter, or reject. There doesn’t even have to be an immediate decision what you do with it; information purposefully sifted and tucked away or not even dealt with when heard can still influence your thinking somewhere down the road, framing your perceptions rightly or wrongly. This is especially true of the person who is not constantly sharpening and maturing his or her world-view, empowering a capacity to discern good from evil. Being a professing Christian is obviously in itself not enough to guard you from wrongly discerning the truth or lie of information, since the author of Hebrews in writing to an audience of Christians bluntly said some of them had become dull of hearing, needed to learn the basics all over again, and in regards to the knowledge and discernment of truth were still “babes in the woods” who could not handle a diet of “meat.” This evaluation had nothing to do with how long they had been Christians. It had to do with how skilled they were in the Word of righteousness.  This skill will not be gained or improved by spending more time in the newspaper or before the TV than you do in the Word.  It’s fairly simple logic. Lewis wasn’t dumb.

Living as we do in an information world, more so than all our predecessors, a trained and practiced world view is absolutely essential to every Christian who desires, in Christ’s words, to overcome the world, and not be overcome by it. Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Hear what? “What the Spirit says to the churches.” And where does the Spirit speak to the churches, to individual Christians, and to the world that has an ear to hear?  God’s Word. The message of the Word is not PC (politically correct), nor inoffensive or tolerant. In fact, it is an offensive stumbling block to those who are dying. It declares a world-view (a God-view) concerning matters of controversy contrary to the now-accepted norm of the culture no longer condemned. Rather, those who hold to the teaching of God’s Word are themselves condemned in the public square, becoming the prey of those who call evil good (Isaiah 59:15 above). Numerous attempts to acculturize the Scriptures to allegedly “bring them into the modern age” fulfill the prophetic warnings of Paul, Peter, Jude, John, and the Lord Himself.

Will your Christian world-view meet the test? Because the waters are rising fast, the winds are blowing into a gale, and your foundation is being exposed (Matthew 7:24-27).

Frankly, I cannot relate to this deadening of the mind inscribed with the words “I’m bored!” My mother might beg to differ with me, but as far back as I can stir my memory, I cannot remember ever being bored; and I was reared for a time without, God forbid, TV, video games, or movies.  I spent a great deal of time as a PK (pastor’s kid) in church which for most of the bored is the epitome of “Boresville.” Still, when I consider the world in which God has placed us to live, while not the paradise of Eden prior to the curse, I/we can still in this sin filled world exclaim with the Psalmist, “How manifold (numerous, abundant, complex, exciting, fascinating, et cetera) are your works, O God.” Or the entire 8^th Psalm! I always had a curiosity about life and the world and even alone was well occupied. Bored was just not a part of my vocabulary in describing me or my life. I never cease to thank God for a heritage of godly parents and a home infused with spiritual purpose and service. I have to say that I now understand that having the presence of the Creator within one’s inner being is the compelling inspiration of the soul to be curious with awe and wonder about a world so intelligently made. The bored are not so blessed as to have this environmental incubator from which to be hatched into adulthood.

Janie B. Cheaney in a recent article in World Magazine wrote, “Boredom is less a matter of what’s going on around us than what’s happening, or not happening, inside.” It is a difficult task, as we at the Paul Anderson Youth Home are well aware, to expel the boredom from young people’s minds, by exciting their souls to the wonder of the world and its majestic Creator. Boredom is actually an integral element of sorrow and depression which can lead to loss of desire to even continue living. Consequently, teen suicide is on the rise. Again we catch the drift of Postman’s premise “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” Typical amusements become boring with time when they do not nurture an eternal purpose or feed what God has put in us: a hope for eternity. When in our work or play we cease to be engaged in eternally purposeful activity, or do not understand how and why what we do and think is eternally meaningful, hope is drowned in the boredom which is the result. Boredom is the absence of any confidence that what we do and think is significant for eternity.

Are you bored? There is not the least bit of spiritual logic for the Christian to live in boredom other than being blinded by his own sin. I well remember when in the 7^th grade I was fitted for my first pair of contact lenses. In my vanity I had refused to wear glasses before and did not understand that I was missing a whole lot. A new world opened to me. It was astounding. I could see details that before were not there. This is not unlike what we who are Christians are to be about. Our own genuine wonder and delight in God’s amazing world ought to be “eye-opening” and intriguing to the bored people we engage daily. They need to meet and you need to lead them to your Optometrist.

Scriptural Basis:

[Jesus said], “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” John 16:32
“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:16

Application:

Kristopherson focused on it as he wrote “Sunday Morning Coming Down”: that familiar, palpable loneliness which in one way, place, or time or another everyone experiences. Just consider how much of your life, even in a large city, in a family, in a marriage, wherever, you spend alone. That in itself doesn’t make you a lonely person, but it does remind you of your distinct “separateness,” your own inner world; some shared with another or others, much private. And yet there are times when you do experience genuine loneliness, if only a glimpse, or in other cases, much, much more. “Sunday Morning Coming Down” starts off with a sense of physical loneliness, but its burden becomes the heaviest when the awareness of spiritual loneliness kicks in. In his song Kristopherson senses there is something he lost somewhere along the way. In a few longed for moments of his past, he remembers the drawing of his spirit in another direction, but other things always took preference in his choices.

It is spiritual loneliness that most haunts the atheist or agnostic, even as it compels the seeker. In the solely material universe of the atheist, a universe seen through his own presuppositions while ignoring certain glaring evidences, a universe without any external influence or power, without creator or designer, a sense of loneliness eventually engulfs him; deep within there is something, something crucial, something essential that is missing. He isn’t satisfied; he cannot find rest; he is incomplete. Augustine called this unsatisfied, restless, imperfection a God shaped vacuum within every person; a vacuum producing infinite restlessness until it finds rest in the One whose imprint is all over our DNA. 

Sent by His Father, Jesus was unambiguous in proclaiming His identity and His mission. ”I and the Father are One.” “No man can come to the Father except through me.” And in the Gospels He reveals a singular habit in His life: conversation and fellowship alone with His Father! A close friend of mine frequently ministers to career missionaries. One of the common elements he found in them was that their demanding schedule in meeting the needs of those they served precluded them from time alone with God; that is, consistent, significant, and contiguous time alone with the One who called them to be His missionaries in the first place. And since it was not a habit they had ever cut out and protected from the busyness that inundates us all, where to begin and how to use the time? Consider Jesus’ schedule as the needs of the people pressed in upon Him constantly, yet He always found time to get to “lonely places” for conversation and fellowship with His Father. We do not expect the atheist or the agnostic to pursue such a habit, or understand it; nor the seeker to be at such a point. But what of the professing and committed believer? What of the person who professes to be a life-long follower of Christ? If we claim to be imitators of Him, how do we continue to neglect such a prominent habit of His life in ours? Loneliness is not just an experience of the atheist or agnostic, believers know it as well. And it will invade our lives if we do not nurture the habit of time alone with our Father and Savior in places where we cannot be distracted; filling the God shaped vacuum!

There are places where the King James Bible remains superior to the best modern translations and where it conveys a hidden nugget of truth the up-to-date English vocabulary may miss. Thus Philippians 3:20 reads in the KJV, “For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “citizenship” may not at first glance lead us to the thought. While your life is still in this world, how much of your conversation is in heaven. In other words, when you converse and fellowship with the Father and the Lord alone in a “lonely place,” such may be a conversation in heaven. Jesus chose to make it happen regularly. You can as well, if you choose. We do not want the words of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” to be true of us when we can do something about it now: “And it took me back to somethin’, that I’d lost somehow somewhere along the way.” 

Encouragement:

“I need thy presence every passing hour; What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power? Who like thyself my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.”

(3rd verse of Henry Lyte’s hymn, “Abide with Me”, 1847)

Read Sunday Morning Coming Down: Part 1

I had been smoking marijuana for 2 years but pot wasn’t doing it for me anymore. II was failing school, lost all my real friends–I hated everything. So one night I got 5 Vicodin and was drinking vodka. I remember thinking that if I do this, I may never wake up. It was funny, the thought of never waking up didn’t scare me as much as the thought of facing my life sober. So I took the pills and guzzled the vodka. I didn’t try to die — I just didn’t try very hard to live.
–James a 16 year-old high school student.

Today’s teens live in a stressful and often dangerous world. Easy access to drugs and alcohol combined with the enormous social pressures conspired to create an epidemic of stressed out, depressed teens who routinely “self-medicate” their sadness and low self-esteem. Like amateur pharmacists, some teens eagerly experiment with new drugs, frequently combining them alcohol. This dangerous attempt to alleviate the stress and pain in their lives always creates more problems than it cures. As abuse of drugs and alcohol escalates, so does their risk for overdose. For many depressed teens, drinking and drugging are a slow, quiet suicide.

Causes
Research shows that substance abuse increases the risk for depression. And, conversely, depression increases the risk for substance abuse. Here’s how. All drugs of abuse, including alcohol, act upon the same area of the brain involved in the regulation of mood. Experimentation with drugs or alcohol alters the balance key of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) in this part of the brain. Regular use of mind altering drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and alcohol cause temporary surge in these neurotransmitters resulting is a short–lived “high.” If the young person is already depressed, the “high” will feel like a vacation from his or her emotional pain. But what goes up must come down — so the highs are followed by dramatic lows and the cycle starts over again. Tragically, most young substance abusers erroneously believe that the solution to their dark moods and life’s problems is to use more drugs or drink more alcohol.

What to do
If you are depressed or abusing drugs or alcohol take heart because these problems are highly treatable but you will need help. Talk with someone who can be objective and honest with you like a parent, trusted friend, pastor or family doctor. Treatment usually involves counseling, medication and 12 step meetings. Whatever it takes–do it. You life is precious and God has a purpose and plan for you.

We are promised in Proverbs 22:6: “if we train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Chuck Swindoll’s interpretation of “in the way he should go” means more than training our children in spiritual virtues. It means discovering their particular calling or “bent.” What has God placed in our child’s personality? What are his or her abilities? What is the “bent” of his or her heart and mind reflecting his or her peculiar gifts? We as parents need to look for his or her “bent” and pray this into reality, so that when he or she grows older, he or she will answer God’s call and be used for His glory.

God has given us covenant promises concerning our home and our children. A covenant has two parts, blessings and curses. God tells us if we obey His precepts and keep His commandments, He will bless not only us but also our children. However, if we do not obey Him, not only we parents, but also our children and future generations, will be cursed instead of blessed. (Genesis 9:9, 17:7, 18:19, Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 103, Luke 1:50, 72-75, Acts 2:39, 1 Corinthians 7:14)

All parents have had fears about losing their children, as when walking in a crowded mall or their innocently wandering away from home. We have worried about accidents that might potentially affect them and sometimes fear their moving far away. This often arises because we fear that we will not see them or our grandchildren as much as we would like. From the time they are infants, we should pray for God’s will in their lives and that He would use them for His glory. That may mean that He will call them to be missionaries in a foreign country. It may mean that God will choose to call them home to heaven at a young age. In any case, we must remember that they are the Lord’s. Our prayers for them should reflect that truth. We must entrust our children back to God. They can be in no better hands.

It is never too early to begin praying for a godly spouse for your child, a life’s partner who would walk with him or her in the faith and be an encouragement to his or her growth in grace. If God has not called your son or daughter to be single, the most important human relationship he or she will have in life is the one in which Christ’s relationship with His bride, the Church, is to be reflected. Marriage is ideally a testimony of the way Christ loves us and sacrificed Himself for His people (Ephesians 5:21-33). Parents know personally how important the relationship of husband and wife is to every other relationship, and to the joy and fulfillment of life. Earnestly asking God to show your son or daughter the best tools of godly discernment in choosing a marriage partner is a critical element in seeking the righteousness of not only your “child” but also his or her children (Psalm 103:17-18). Our children and their children are a treasured object of God’s covenant promises to believing parents. We parents bear a vital responsibility in the development of our children’s discernment in the choosing of a life’s partner. This partner will be the father or mother of our grandchildren, as well as our “child’s” most intimate companion for his or her life. Our praying for this from conception onward will cause your heart and mind to be attuned at the appropriate times to those specific godly truths you can teach and exemplify in helping them grasp and treasure romance, marriage, and family.

Our children have an enemy. He seeks to steal, kill, and destroy the life and the plans that God has for each one of them. This should spur us on to daily lift up our children in prayer to the Father. If you knew that someone was harassing or physically harming your children, you would do everything in your power to protect them. It should be more of our concern to protect their spiritual well-being than their physical health. We parents have the same enemy they do: an enemy who does not want us to pray for our children.

You and I would never send our children out in the cold without a coat. Yet, on a regular basis, we send them out into the world without spiritual armor. In Ephesians 6:10-20, we read about the spiritual armor, which is essential for each member of the body of Christ, regardless of age. I have a dear friend in the Caribbean who never allows his children to leave home without prayerfully placing each piece of armor on them. Because we are often in a rush so we won’t be late, this spiritual exercise sounds a bit tedious. Would you go out or allow your child to leave home naked? The reality of spiritual warfare should cause us to pause and consider the importance of our prayers for our children.

 For instance, if a salesperson gives you too much change, do you go back to the store and return the correct amount, or rationalize: “It was his/her mistake, not mine.” Deceit is one of those behaviors that uncovers a deep root of dishonor which, if not checked, will grow into a major character flaw that will destroy every aspect of a person’s life.

As parents, we should not tolerate deceit in any form from our children. If left unchecked, it will be a major flaw in your child’s interactions with others.

This requires us as parents to be very alert to deceitful behavior at any age. Does your child embellish the truth? Do they tell you they are going one place, only to find they were not there at all? Do they tell you what they think you want to hear, and then do whatever they want to do? Some parents say, “Sure, my child lies occasionally…but he’s basically a good kid.”

There IS no occasional lie. Even the smallest one belies an internal character flaw: a lack of honor and integrity. Their word not only means nothing…but worse, he does not care. At the Paul Anderson Youth Home, after the first instance of deceit, we may opt for counseling rather than punishment, to explain God’s principles of character and honor, and then issue a clear warning that there will be severe consequences if the behavior continues. If it does, we follow through with holding the young man accountable. By clearly communicating your standards and expectations, you can begin to develop a trust relationship based on their character.  But if they are deceitful, there can be no trust, which is foundational to all relationships.

The first five years are critical in a child’s overall development.  Within this time frame, a child can embrace one of two realities:  he/she grows up experiencing love and security and trust in his parents or he/she is not held and nurtured… he/she is placed in the arms of strangers who are not connected to him/her… his/her family is torn apart by rancor, insecurity, turmoil, abuse, alcoholism, divorce… he/she lives with step-parents in whom he/she feels no bond and step-siblings whose presence threaten his/her place with his natural parent.

If seeds of love, security, and trust are planted early, the child’s inner spirit is literally welcomed into life, which can be seen in his/her face.  He/she is a child who knows within the depth of his/her being that he/she is cherished and wanted.   The other type of child; however, like many of those who come to the Paul Anderson Youth Home, grows up with an emotional vacuum or hole in his/her heart, and by the time he is a teenager, that vacuum is filled with rage.  That hole will be filled with something.  Often that something is drugs, or sex, or food, or anything, that will seemingly cover the emptiness, but without love, security, and trust, that emptiness will remain.  To be a diligent parental steward, you must invest into your child’s life.  If you do this during the first five years, you will reap the dividends of that investment as your child goes through the difficult teen years.

In Matthew 13, Jesus gives us the parable of the sower. The sower sows many seeds, many of which never reach their designed growth. Only a few good seeds thrive. The question arises: what can we do to better our chances of having a good seed grow instead of a bad seed? Ask any gardener…he knows.

A fruitful garden takes time and patience. The ground needs to be carefully tilled and prepared; the right nutrients must be added to enhance each seed’s growth. The rocks must be removed, and furrows made to guide the growth of each individual seed. Once the seeds are planted, even greater care is required to maintain proper growth of the garden. The gardener needs to regularly water it… uproot the weeds that spring up… protect the garden from insects and wildlife,… carefully examine each plant, to make sure it is free from disease. He knows the painstaking work that goes into each planting season and has good reason to give thanks when his garden produces a bountiful crop. This is a perfect picture of the eternal principle of sowing and reaping. When we sow good seeds and nurture them properly, we WILL reap blessings. That is God’s way…and His promise.

We have to ask ourselves: are we giving such meticulous care to our families? Are we planting the seeds of truth, righteousness, integrity, values, and character? Are we liberally watering our child with love, prayer, encouragement, and consistent discipline? Then the toughest question of all: are we taking the time day by day to nurture these precious seeds, stand guard over them, ever-diligent to ward off even the slightest threat to their maturity? If we are, then our child will turn out OKAY.

Visit Paul Anderson Family Ministries

The lady had briskly left her seat about midway in the center section of the church pews and had taken her nine year old son by the hand and removed him from his seat on the front row. At first I thought her action meant on the spot punishment for the boy or at best his longest reprieve would be until she got him out the front door of the church.

My assumption concerning the woman’s intentions proved to be one hundred percent wrong. Her anger was not directed toward the boy she was now leading out the door of the sanctuary: it was toward me. The unmistaken evidence of this was not only the icy stare she had given me as she had glared at me behind the pulpit but also her verbal outburst as she walked out the door. “No one is going to talk to MY child like that!”

My words had triggered this incident in the packed church where I was speaking. I had performed several feats of strength and was about eight minutes into my message when it became absolutely necessary to speak to the group of boys on the first pew concerning their conduct. They were progressively getting out of hand and beginning to disturb the entire service. The apparent leader of the misbehavior was the lady’s son who was offended by my mild scolding, which went something like this: “Fellows, settle down. Remember you are in the Lord’s house.”

I am always reluctant to correct young people in the audience, because I know there is a possibility that it will be embarrassing for their parents or the audience as a whole. Regardless of my feelings in this matter, if we were to continue the worship service, my reprimand was necessary. When the woman retrieved her son and chastened me with such a fiery tongue lashing, I realized a direct rebuttal from me was essential in order to salvage the remainder of the service. I knew there was a possibility that the other boys’ parents might follow the outraged lady’s example, which would destroy the entire evening. After a two second prayer for guidance, I said, “We can protect and even rescue our children from situations brought on by their misbehavior when they are small and the transgression is minor, but, we cannot deliver them out of a prison when they grow up.”

Now came the critical time. What would be the congregation’s reaction to my remark? Would they all walk out? Could I expect a silent and “zombie-like” audience for the remainder of the service? No! I immediately heard several loud “amens” from all over the building and the rest of the evening was “spiritually enthusiastic,” to say the least.

As parents, we need to know how other adults see our children. Other adults are not blinded by the love and protective instinct we possess. By listening to the way teachers, coaches, spiritual leaders, and other interested adults see our boys and girls, we will be better equipped to guide and direct them.