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Does today’s church believe in absolute truth? Does today’s church even know what absolute truth is?

There’s no doubt that the culture around us is on a downward spiral as far as morality is concerned. What worries me is that many within the church today can’t discern truth well enough to know where and if that downward spiral is taking place. The problem with deception is that it usually starts out small. Anyone can spot a blatant lie from a long ways away, at least you would hope so. However, when truth becomes blurry and lies begin to blend with truth, the result is a concoction that appears desirable yet actually is deadly.

In order to see this, all you have to do is look at modern media. Eat Pray Love, a movie starring Julia Roberts, is currently at the box office. Here’s what a reviewer at PluggedInOnline.com had to say about the movie and the main character, Liz:

Like so many before her, Liz has turned her back on a godly religious conviction and morality, and sought a less challenging spiritual system instead. A system that requires only vaguely sending “light and love” to others rather than buckling down and fighting for a covenant relationship’s survival and growth when things are emotionally difficult. A system that encourages sweetly masked self-indulgence over real self-sacrifice, and salvation without real repentance. Instead of God and His majesty, Ms. Gilbert wants cheap grace to help her get through her needlessly miserable days.

While people may be quick to discount this as only a “movie” or “mere entertainment,” the reality is many women have taken her advice and have attempted to find “themselves” through the same means as the character in the book/film. While there may be elements to the story that are uplifting, encouraging, and positive, there are also elements to the story that are self-indulgent and potentially dangerous. Is today’s society, especially today’s church, able to filter the good from the bad?

While some have blended elements of truth with elements other sources, many have attempted to ignore truth altogether and present sinful behavior as desirable. Take a TV show like Pretty Little Liars for example. The show has been rising in fame, most notable among teenage girls. It actually won the 2010 Teen Choice Award for “Choice Summer TV Show.” Teen show. Award winner. On ABC Family. Should be an acceptable show for teenage girls to watch, right? Not quite. The show has included storylines involving the main female characters “experimenting” with lesbianism. While some may say that they’re just portraying life how it actually is, I would beg to differ. I don’t believe that’s where we are yet. (Sadly, the keyword might be “yet”) Rather, I think that is where the producers and writers want to take our culture. They know they have influence. They know they have ratings. They know they can spread their agenda and people will listen.

Sadly, talk to any youth pastor in this country and there’s a good chance he’ll tell you that many of his teens are influenced by shows and movies like the ones I mentioned above. They get hooked in with the drama, scandals, sex, and provocativeness, and they sit through the agendas, propaganda, and blatant messages that the writers attempt to get across. Before too long, they believe THAT is reality and see nothing wrong with the sinful acts presented on TV because they look quite desirable and fun. To be honest, I think young adults fall into this same trap too.

What influence do these shows, movies, books, music, etc have on us? The truth is we can’t solely watch only for entertainment value because what we watch becomes part of us. It begins to shape our worldview. Don’t believe me? Then why do we get defensive when someone badmouths a show we watch or even objectively disagrees with what the show promotes and endorses?

To be honest, it almost seems like we’ll defend our favorite (trashy) TV show before we’ll defend the truth of Scripture. Sometimes we’ll defend our favorite TV show OVER the truth of Scripture.

My concern is that either we don’t know how to discern truth, or we’re refusing to because it would force us to change our guilty pleasures.

Sadly, I think truth is dying in many churches today. We may say we believe in the truth of Scripture, but in no way do we allow that same Scripture to direct our lives and shape who we are.

It used to be that we had teenagers in the church who had no sense of right or wrong. Now those teenagers have become parents and their skewed view of truth is what is helping shape the lives of their children.

When we don’t have a firm understanding of truth and what we believe and why we believe it, we will be influenced by anything and everything. Every new idea, fad, lifestyle, and “religious idea” will intrigue us. When discernment takes a backseat to intrigue and entertainment, we turn our backs on the truth in which we claim to believe.

Last week I posted some statistics about adults that texted while driving. Well new numbers have come out from the LG Text Ed Survey. You can find the results by click here. Here are some of the things that stood out most from the research:

• 44 percent of parents admitted to texting and driving.
• 28 percent of parents admit to engaging in some form of “sexting”
• 42 percent of parents admit to texting someone while at the dinner table; whereas 69 percent of teens admit to texting at the dinner table.

• 45 percent of teens admit to texting and driving. And only 4 percent of parents believe their teens ever text while driving.
• 41 percent of teens admit to sending, receiving, or forwarding a text that said something sexual, while only 11 percent of parents thought their teens had ever sexted.

• 90 percent of texting parents felt closer to their teen as a result of the medium.
• 58 percent of teens said being able to text their parents made them feel closer.
• 83 percent of teens prefer their parents check in with them via text.

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/do-as-i-say-not-as-i-text-98497159.html

The evidence seems to be growing but now it’s hit a very weird point. Several months ago, reports came out from divorce lawyers that said Facebook was to blame for failed marriages. In a nutshell, spouses were reuniting with old flames, becoming too acquainted with friends of the opposite sex, or meeting new potential partners through Facebook. According to an article in USA Today, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says 81% of its members have used or faced evidence from Facebook, MySpace,Twitter and other social networking sites, including YouTube and LinkedIn, over the last five years.

As sad as that is, it’s probably not too shocking. However, the news has continued to get weird. According to an article from Lindsay Robertson of Yahoo! Movies, some women have nearly destroyed their marriages by neglecting their spouses in favor of Twilight-related activities.

It gets weirder. As if that wasn’t enough, apparently FarmVille and World of Warcraft are now to blame for ruined marriages. Men and women are neglecting their spouse and their children in favor of taking care of a virtual farm of fake animals and crops, or fighting mythological creatures in quests on the computer.

While it’s easy to point the finger at Facebook, Twilight, FarmVille, and World of Warcraft, I think we would be pointing the finger in the wrong direction if we passed the blame off on them. While all of those things take up our time and attention, ultimately WE are the ones who choose to spend time on those things. WE choose to get on Facebook. WE choose who we talk to, flirt with, meet up with, and pursue a relationship with. WE choose to spend all day on Twilight message boards. WE choose to give lunch to a virtual cow rather than make lunch for our own children.

When we pass the blame onto a web site or book or game, we’re ultimately removing responsibility from ourselves and placing it on some “thing.”

The truth of the matter is divorce happens because a person or both people fail to live up to their responsibility as a husband or wife. It’s not the fault of Facebook or FarmVille. Those things can be vehicles which help get us off track, but ultimately the responsibility falls on us.

That is why it is so important to have a marriage that is grounded in Christ. If anything else is the basis of our relationship or marriage, we’re building it on a weak foundation.

It seems like all of the PSAs, ads, commercials, etc. about driving and texting are focused at teenagers. From the sound of it, you would think 99% of teens text and drive, and all other demographics are innocent. Well, all you have to do is lift up your head from your phone to realize there’s a bigger problem at hand.

According to research from InformationWeek, adults text while driving more than teens. The study shows that nearly half of all texting adults say they have sent or read a text message on their phone while driving, compared to about one-third of teenagers.

Neither group is excusable, and this doesn’t give teenagers a reason to point the finger and pretend to be innocent.

Information from the rest of the study can be found at InformationWeek‘s website. You can find it by clicking here.

However, I don’t know if we can expect teenagers to abide by the law if their parents aren’t following it themselves.

Parents, set the example. Your teen is watching. If you don’t want your teen to text behind the wheel, set the standard by putting the phone away while you drive. Whatever it is you need to send or read can wait. It might save your life, as well as the lives of many others.

Via: Online MBA

Do you have a definition of modesty? Not like a dictionary definition, but do you have your own definition? A few years ago I heard a speaker talking about the issue of modesty. He said the sad thing is that many girls have the following definition of immodesty: “Anyone who is dressing more immodest than I am.” In other words, many girls have falsely convinced themselves that they are the epitome of modesty, but anyone who dresses less modest crosses the line into immodesty. What’s so sad about this is that many girls have convinced themselves they dress modest when they truly do not.

As a twentysomething male, the issue of modesty is very important to me. As I engage in a daily battle to control my thoughts, I appreciate those girls who make the effort to keep from being a stumbling block. Sadly, from Wal Mart to McDonalds and even to church, I see many girls who have ignored the call to modesty. And yet I wonder how many of them think they are dressing in a modest fashion.

I’ve heard some argue “Well, if a guy can’t control his thoughts, that’s his problem.” That answer is 100% correct and 100% selfish. If I sin, it is my sin and I am responsible. However, if you refuse to help the opposite sex  in this battle and decide to be a stumbling block, you are basically saying “The attention my body gets is more important than your spiritual walk.”

So let me ask all of the females out there…do you have a definition of modesty? Not a dictionary definition, but do you have a practical definition of modesty that you abide by? Also, if you see a friend wearing something that is immodest, do you mention it to her and/or even ask her to change her clothing?

By now we’ve all heard about Balloon Boy. Every station is playing the story…over and over and over and over. When new details emerge, we hear those over and over and over and over.

Despite the story being a hoax, somewhere the crazy family behind the fiasco has to be smiling.

They did this for a publicity stunt. What has happened? They got publicity! Even though the story sounded fishy to begin with, the media jumped all over it. They were being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer before the smoke had even settled.

However, thanks to that interview, we now have valuable information that says the story was made up.

But for that family, you can’t buy this kind of publicity. Their appearances on Wifeswap didn’t generate a fraction of this. This morning, Mike Glenn, the Senior Pastor at Brentwood Baptist in Nashville, TN wrote on Twitter: I know it says a lot the Balloon family went to extremes to get their fifteen minutes. What does it say about us that we gave it to them?

Pastor Glenn is exactly right! We’ve made these people celebrities. At first they had our pity, then they had our shame, and honestly now they’re back to having our pity again, just in a different sort of way.

We love our celebrities and wanna be celebrities, don’t we? It doesn’t matter if they’re pure, true, crooked, crazy, or deceiving. As long as they stir up some sort of emotion in us, we either love them or love to hate them.

By now you’ve probably heard the answer to the question. Marge Simpson will be featured on the cover and in a centerfold of Playboy magazine. If you’re asking, “That Marge Simpson?” the answer is, “Yes, that Marge Simpson.” The cartoon character on The Simpsons.

According to the Associated Press, the average age of Playboy readers is 35. The purpose of putting Marge Simpson on the cover of the magazine is to try to appeal to younger audiences. most particularly the “20-something crowd.”

When this news first broke on TV, Internet, and print, it first came across as humorous. People found it funny that the cartoon mom off one of the highest rated TV shows was going to appear on the cover of Playboy.

But can we really look at what’s happening here? A “men’s” magazine is marketing itself by filling its pages with a naked cartoon character. Does that sound sickening to anyone else? I don’t care what your argument is, Playboy is pornography. And Playboy exists because lust exists. As if naked women didn’t do enough to sell the magazine, the company is trying to bring in a younger audience by including pictures of a naked cartoon character. Something is terribly wrong!

And do you think Playboy is only trying to market itself to the 20-something crowd? Do beer companies only market themselves at people who are over 21? Does Seventeen magazine actually try to target girls who are 17? No way. The target audience may be younger, but Playboy knows very well the idea of a naked Marge Simpson appeals to even young teen males. It may be illegal for them to get their hands on the issue, but Playboy knows they’ll find a way, whether through a friend, family member, or the Internet.

Ricky and Lucy couldn’t even sleep in the same bed together on TV. Now we’ve become desensitized that we have to put nude cartoon characters from prime time television in magazines. Ugh…

Here’s something a little different.

Today, Jacob Riggs and I recorded a podcast for The Brink. The Brink podcast is the audio arm of The Brink devotional magazine and small group studies for twentysomethings.

Today’s topics included The Bachelorette, steroids in baseball, a Christian’s view of torture, and your mom on Facebook.

If you’d like to listen, visit thebrinkonline.com or visit the direct link to the podcast by clicking here.

Also, you can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes. We’d really love you if you did that!

Enjoy!

It’s no secret that “Sunday School” is failing in many churches. Numbers are down, it’s being repackaged and remodeled in many churches, and being discontinued in some churches altogether. But why is Sunday School failing? Here are a few of my ideas on the issue:

1. It’s Boring!
Call me unspiritual if you want, but this is the case with many Sunday School classes. Kids, adults, etc. go in, sit in a chair for 45-60 min, and hear a teacher lecture about the Bible. Yes, it IS the Bible, but couldn’t we gain the same knowledge by reading the Bible or other historical book on our own. Hearing someone bring forth biblical commentary for more than 3 minutes puts us to sleep. We don’t want to hear a classroom lecture, or a sermon before the pastor’s sermon is preached.

2. Too Early!
For many people, Sunday School is just too early. If we get up at 6 AM 5 days a week, we don’t want to get up early on a Sunday to come and sit through a 45 minute lecture (see above). Why sleep in Sunday School when we can sleep in our bed? Right or wrong, most people go to bed later on Saturday night than most other nights. By Sunday morning, we’re exhausted!

3. Not Relevant
Part of this falls in line with the “Boring” category. When the truth of the Bible is not made relevant to our lives, we don’t connect with it. Instead, it becomes Bible Trivia that we could find in a bargain bin at a used bookstore. People want to hear how God’s truth affects their life. People want to know how God’s Word should affect the way they parent, love their spouse, treat their mailman, serve coworkers, drive on the highway, etc. People crave discipleship; not Bible Jeopardy. If Sunday School isn’t relevant, it might be just a waste of time.

4. No Connection With Others
People want interaction and want to be able to connect with one another. We want to be grouped with people who are like us and going through the same experiences in life. That mindset should carry over to Sunday School. People need interaction. They want to discuss the difficult issues with one another. They want to question those who are wiser, seek advice, wrestle with difficult issues. If interaction isn’t taking place, why even show up? We could find the same information online or in the teacher’s notes. If we’re not learning from anyone but the lecturer, how much are we actually learning?

5. People Aren’t Comfortable
This can take many forms. Have you ever attended a Sunday School class in a tie and khakis, and then played a game where you had to move around, get down on the floor, and maybe even get a little sweaty? It’s miserable! Have you ever been in a classroom when the temperature was 85 degrees inside…and 75 degrees outside? I’m sure we’ve all had to sit in our fair share of uncomfortable chairs that still continue to give us back problems and maybe even folded up on us when we sat down. Am I saying we shouldn’t play games? Am I saying we should relax the dress code? Make the room more appealing? Make things more comfortable? Buy better chairs? Am I saying all of that? No…but maybe it’s something we need to think about.

6. No One Is Invited
It’s very simple: many people don’t come to Sunday School because they’re not invited. Unfortunately, we’re often ashamed to invite them…because of the other elements on this list.

7. Lack of Preparation
Ever been to a class where the teacher wasn’t prepared and had to read straight through the teacher’s guide because he/she didn’t have time to look at it on the drive to church? If it’s not obvious enough, it becomes crystal clear when the teacher mispronounces names and starts reading the teacher’s instructions out loud. If teacher’s aren’t preparing until Saturday night or not preparing at all, things will flop! You may be able to say “I’m great at winging it,” but how much can the Holy Spirit lead us if we’re “winging” it every Sunday. A teacher needs to put great value in preparation; not only for the lesson, but with prayer for the students. If you’re not prepared, people will know…and that’s when your teaching becomes boring and irrelevant.

8. No Training
Sadly, we often throw a teacher’s book at someone like a Johan Santana fastball. We want to get it out of our hands as quick as possible. In a nutshell, our thought process is, “No one else wants to do this, so I’ll ask someone who will feel bad about saying ‘no.’” We forget about training people to teach, or even finding qualified people to teach. We just need to find “someone/anyone” who will teach. It doesn’t matter who they are, how good they are, or what they know. “Praise God he/she is taking over and it’s out of my hands!”

9. Poor Curriculum
“Is he really going there?” Yes I am! But as an editor of curriculum, I’m not going to call anyone out. I’m simply going to say it’s important to find the best curriculum we can for our students. We need to avoid looking at what seems to be the hottest and flashiest curriculum out there. We need to focus on what teaches the Word of God, follows our doctrine and system of beliefs, and is relevant.