This will be a short blog due to my work and school load, but I wanted to share this.
Today after lifting weights I was showering up and getting ready for the day. The same group of guys are always in the locker room at the same time and we have developed a bit of a relationship. There are usually a bunch of older guys who joke with each other about politics and sports and ask me every day how much weight have I lost. I love these guys. Well right as we are all about done getting dressed a certain man comes in who is a little bit grumpy and gives us his update about his cancer treatments. I always ask him how it is going and tell him I am praying for him.
One of the other members of my locker room changing game is a man who is a full-time minister. I noticed today that when the opportunity came open to share the gospel with this older gentleman he was all of a sudden in a hurry and left. The moment was lost and I wanted to get back to talking about it, but I did not know how. Then the head of maintenance for the Community Center came in and opened a conversation with the man and showed him he was concerned for him.
I left today with two thoughts in my mind.
So often Christians are disgusted by the story of the two priests who passed by the man on the side of the road in the story of the good Samaritan, yet practically they do it all the time to others.
Even when it is not your job to care for others and share the Gospel, it is still your job.
Thank you Tony Costa for helping me see this truth.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Some Ridiculously Romantic Thoughts about the Best Girl In the World, Tori Kjaer
So I started this blog to talk about the lessons that I have been learning during my seminary experience. On Mondays I write about the lessons I am learning in the classroom and on Fridays I write about the lessons I am learning in my practical ministry opportunities. I enjoy doing this because if I only focus on Theology then I fall into the potential trap of worshipping at the altar of academia and if I do not balance my ministry with theological training then I run the risk of being a person doing nothing more than running a program.
This morning though my mind is filled with nothing more than the biggest lesson I will learn during the next three years and all the subsequent years. That lesson is that I have the most amazing wife in the world. Although I do not get to spend as much time with her as I would like, I cannot help but be excited at the very sight of her. I feel like a puppy wagging my tail every time I see her coming into view.
So today I devote this entire blog to my best friend, hugest supporter, most awesome counselor, favorite taste tester, hardest worker, most beautiful companion, and most loving mother that has ever been made. Tori Kjaer I love you and here are the reasons why.
Best Friend
Have you ever been to a slumber party with your best friend? The sleeping bags, the late night conversations, the greasy pizza and silly jokes can never compare to the real excitement of the friendships that you are building and enjoying. Well that is how every day with Tori is. We go to sleep having late night conversations about anything and everything. In fact many times we fall asleep in the middle of a sentence. We do not eat the greasy pizza but nothing spices up a meal better than the opportunity to look across the table at the person I love more than anyone else in the world. Well the silly jokes are definitely there.
I remember hearing that I should marry my best friend in the world. As a young man I thought it was hard to understand that because all my best friends were guys and therefore not to be married. After I met Tori though I found out what that means. Every day I get to be with my best friend and I would never change that.
Hugest Supporter
If most husbands looked at their wife and said, “Ok well for the next three years I am going to be working in an internship, getting a master’s degree and rarely sleeping. So what I need you to do is to keep your job and work hard to pay the bills. Oh by the way I will be provided housing and utilities but I will not bring home a paycheck.” I had that conversation and she did not even think twice about whether or not she would support me. That is what is nice about having someone who is your biggest supporter. Did I mention the fact that when I am called upon to serve she is right there serving with me.
Awesome Counselor
So being in the ministry brings a large amount of stress into a person’s life. Every day you carry the burden of helping others be more like Christ. In my previous ministry before I had Tori as my support I turned to food to try to cope with this, but now I go home to a wonderful counselor who will listen, advise and love me no matter what the situation is.
Taste Tester
Ok so I am a self proclaimed cook. I love cooking for everyone and every occasion. I know that not every time do I put out absolutely delicious food, and it would be tempting for someone who loves me to pretend like it is good. I love Tori because she will never lie about the truth. If it does not taste good she will tell me it is gross and how she thinks I can fix it. This is in every area of my life, I can always count on honest answers that intended to help me grow.
Hard Worker
In my life I have known some hard workers, but none can hold a candle to the girl who gives her whole life to working and serving for others. She goes to her job whether she feels good or not (and lately it has been more not). When she comes home she works tirelessly to keep our house running smoothly. I bet right now she is working on something.
Beautiful Companion
My wife is by far the most beautiful girl in the whole world. Just seeing the sun glisten off her red-blonde hair that is made of pure gold makes me know that I am about to experience something gorgeous. One glimpse of her smile will make my heart melt completely. I can honestly say that this is one dude who married outside of his league. I am so lucky to be married to a girl this beautiful.
Her looks are gorgeous, but just hearing the sound of her voice is enough to make all the problems in world right. The sayings that she has taught me and beautiful softness of her life fill my mind and heart at all times.
Loving Mother
In about 6 months we will get to hold the most incredible gift that God has given us as a couple. I am so confident that Tori will be the best mother. I have observed be a loving mother to our puppy and watched the way she has cared for the 2 International Students we have been able to serve in our home. I cannot wait to parent this family with her.
Tori, I love you more than anyone else, ever.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Convenience Store Christianity
I have noticed a growing trend among Christians these days. They are an incredibly fickle group of followers. If ever there was a time where we need some adjustment this would be the time. The church is struggling in a lot of areas because people do not want to sell out to following Christ. I call the current trend in Christianity, convenience store Christians.
Pick and Choose What You Want
One of the scariest trends is the idea of choosing what you want in a church, in a doctrine and in your God. I see a lot of Christians who jump from church to church as soon as they are approached about a sin in their life or they are confronted with a doctrine that they do not like. Let me lay out some specifics that I see.
Standards taught different than their personal standards
I see this in two different ways. First is the group of people who have standards that are higher than the church that they are leaving. Even though these standards may not be Biblical (i.e. pants on women, drum beats, mixed swimming). They attend a church and attempt to change the church but once they realize that is not going to happen they abandon or worse yet they destroy the church they are attending.
The second group feels that the standards that the church encourages are too strict. Obviously this happens quite a bit. I am not saying that you should go to a church that is unbiblical in their strictness, but I am saying if the church is teaching the Scriptures clearly and you just are not comfortable with the truths being taught then this is your category (homosexuality, abortion, drunkenness, gluttony, etc.). A lot of “Christians” fall into this category and will leave their church or even the church altogether.
The standards that you should be following need to be based upon the Word of God. The Bible does not clearly define what is right and what is wrong in some areas, but the principles need to be applied. For instance nowhere does the Bible say, Thou shalt wear culottes, but it does clearly teach that there needs to be modesty. Obviously modesty can be accomplished without forcing women to wear the old split skirt. The Bible also does not say that a person cannot drink alcohol (in fact in some places it seems to encourage it, but that is a different blog post), but it does say do not be drunk with wine. So a person can drink and not be sinning, but some people personally cannot drink and not be sinning. In other words if you have established your standards before God as long as they do not contradict God’s Word then you should follow them, but this does not give you the right to force them on others.
We have way too many church bouncers because of this issue.
The practical application of ministry
People leave churches all the time because they do not like the way this is run or that this program is not there. The purpose of the church is lead souls to Christ, disciple them, and equip the saints to repeat the process. The church does not exist to have the world’s largest Sunday School, or to run AWANA versus some other kids program. The choice of church is too often based upon whether or not the church does things my way or if it is possible to do it my way.
The biggest question is whether or not the church is fulfilling the mission that God has given them. If not this needs to change, which does not mean that it has to change to be right in your eyes. Follow the direction of the church, get involved with it and understand and embrace the vision of the church’s practical application.
Pick it up when you feel you need it
Every once in a while I will be standing in the check-out line with someone who has been distracted by the brown glow of the snicker’s wrapper. The next statement always cracks me up, “I really need a Snickers right about now.” Now what changed from your daily routine of living life without a snickers to needing to indulge in one right now? Is the snickers bar the answer for your long term needs or is just a quick fix for low sugar, hunger or junk food fix? The truth is there is some need felt for a snickers and you went to it. This makes sense in the convenience store, but does it work out in the spiritual life.
I am often amazed by the number of people who want to have nothing to do with God’s Word and then when something tragic appears in their life they begin to beg for God to be there for them. What is even worse is when they doubt the validity of God’s existence but then when things go bad they blame God for not preventing this thing from happening. Often they fill their life with a bunch of positive quotes that have no real bearing in their life. Quotes like, God will send a guardian angel to watch over me, or I guess there is a reason why this is happening.
Romans 8:28-29 clearly teaches us that everything in life does happen for a reason, and that reason is to make us to be more in the image of the Son of God. This means that we are striving to be more like Christ and God is allowing situations to push us in our desire. Think about Christ’s life, it was not what we would describe as easy, in fact it was horrible. He was perfect and the people rejected Him as a blasphemer. He came to His own people and they rejected Him. He was beaten for sins He never participated in. He took my disgusting sin on Himself and hung and died the most brutal death that was known to mankind. And we think it is bad when we are faced with our tragedies that we deserve because of our sin.
My whole point is that we need to stop viewing God as our medicine. You cannot just take 6 John 3:16’s and fix all the problems in your life. The goal of the church is to help with your struggles, but also to help you prevent the sin from destroying your life. Don’t view God as something you can pick up whenever you need it, but rather view Him as the substance for your life.
Return it when you do not like it anymore
I recently read about a young lady who willingly disobeyed the Word of God, the instruction of her family, and conviction of the Holy Spirit and fell into a sin that caused her to have long lasting consequences. This young lady was angered with those who would be disappointed with her decision, show her the error of her way, and encourage her to please God from now on. The idea was that if people or God were not going to accept her for who she was then they are unneeded. The truth is God will accept you for who you are but He will desire for you follow His leading. When you do wrong there are consequences for the wrong and unless you submit to those as God’s direction you will have to decide to reject God.
A lot of Christians fall into this trap. They feel that because God or the church is not “meeting their needs anymore” they can return it for a refund. This is not a trinket, it is a life choice.
Maybe you are reading this post (and I know some of you fit this category) and you have rejected the notion of going to church or intentionally growing in God’s Word then let me ask you this question, What is the purpose of your relationship with God? I hope you will consider this.
What did God teach about this topic
Matthew 16:24-26 says,
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?[1]
The picture of taking up your cross was a picture that would have no possible confusion as to what the meaning was. The cross was the sign of death and not just death but of a torturous death. We may think of cute little jewelry figures or of a signal we make in the air, but the picture was clearly of death. God was not suggesting that people merely follow Him on their own terms He was specifically asking them to follow Him through death. You can take this figuratively to mean that He was saying they should die to themselves. They should lay aside all of their desires, dreams and goals in order to please God first. You could also take it to mean that they should follow Him even to the point of death. Both interpretations point to the same concept that God wants us to be sold out to Him. This means in every area in your life. Yet we want to pick and choose the areas we will give to God (like a person in a convenience store), but God says give me your all.
So where do you fit in? Are you willing to stop living a Christian life on your own terms or are you going continue being the driver of your life and tell God to take the back seat.
Christianity is not a part of life, it should be your life!
Monday, October 11, 2010
Come Ye Sinners, Jesus Ready Stands to Save You
This past Sunday our worship Pastor was out of town and the worship leader for the service was one of my best friends. He crafted a worship service that centered around the love of God for unworthy sinners. I was really moved by the very thought of His love and my unworthiness.
Later that night I watched Matt Chandler talk about The Rose and I could not help but be moved by God's Grace. To end the night I read Ephesians 2 which is all about God's grace and our inability for salvation.
I just thought of a couple of things that I would like to share with you.
We are all unworthy
So many times in Christianity we tend to categorize who deserves to come to Christ and who does not. We tend to view that people are in different categories of sinners. There are the perverts, the violent, the thief and the petty sinners. Romans 3:23 clearly teaches us that all have sinned and come short of God's glory. It does not matter your sin it is all a reason for separation from God. But according to Romans 6:23 God has given us a gift of eternal life that we must accept.
I am so thankful that God loved me enough to rescue me when I did not even seek righteousness.
Reach out to the unworthy
I pray that every week our church will be filled with perverts, violent people, thief, and petty sinners. These are the people that need God. The purpose of our life is to reach these people and disciple them to follow Christ.
Your Church is Not a Country Club
Stop viewing the church as your comfort zone and reach others.
I Challenge you to read the words of this song and think about it.
Come Ye Sinners
Come ye sinners, poor and needy
Weak and wounded, sick and sore
Jesus ready stands to save you
Full of pity, love, and power
Come ye thirsty, come and welcome
God's free bounty glorify
True belief and true repentance
Every grace that brings you nigh
Chorus:
I will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Savior
Oh, there are ten thousand charms
Come ye weary, heavy-laden
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry until you're better
You will never come at all
Later that night I watched Matt Chandler talk about The Rose and I could not help but be moved by God's Grace. To end the night I read Ephesians 2 which is all about God's grace and our inability for salvation.
I just thought of a couple of things that I would like to share with you.
We are all unworthy
So many times in Christianity we tend to categorize who deserves to come to Christ and who does not. We tend to view that people are in different categories of sinners. There are the perverts, the violent, the thief and the petty sinners. Romans 3:23 clearly teaches us that all have sinned and come short of God's glory. It does not matter your sin it is all a reason for separation from God. But according to Romans 6:23 God has given us a gift of eternal life that we must accept.
I am so thankful that God loved me enough to rescue me when I did not even seek righteousness.
Reach out to the unworthy
I pray that every week our church will be filled with perverts, violent people, thief, and petty sinners. These are the people that need God. The purpose of our life is to reach these people and disciple them to follow Christ.
Your Church is Not a Country Club
Stop viewing the church as your comfort zone and reach others.
I Challenge you to read the words of this song and think about it.
Come Ye Sinners
Come ye sinners, poor and needy
Weak and wounded, sick and sore
Jesus ready stands to save you
Full of pity, love, and power
Come ye thirsty, come and welcome
God's free bounty glorify
True belief and true repentance
Every grace that brings you nigh
Chorus:
I will arise and go to Jesus
He will embrace me in His arms
In the arms of my dear Savior
Oh, there are ten thousand charms
Come ye weary, heavy-laden
Lost and ruined by the fall
If you tarry until you're better
You will never come at all
Saturday, October 9, 2010
When Your Ministry Requires More Than You Feel You Can Give
This last week here at Faith we hosted the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors annual conference. This meant the opportunity to have over 1200 people on our campus that are passionate about helping the hurting with Bible-based counsel. Part of the internship program that I am privileged to be a part of allows for us to get some practical training with hands-on work. This being said we were asked to be in charge of the facilities set-up, changes and tear downs for the conference.
Starting last Saturday afternoon we began an excursion that would require us to work 60 hours in the next five days. Including tearing down and restoring all the rooms to their school setup in 3 hours on Wednesday. Needless to say we functioned on ibuprofen and coffee as we worked hard. To make matters even more interesting we had our Greek midterm on Thursday.
It was interesting to say the least to see how my outlook on the event greatly affected my effectiveness. Here are 4 main points I came to realize over the last week.
Pray for God to Change Your Focus
On Monday morning as I began to unlock all the facilities I was thinking to myself here goes an incredibly long week with nothing productive getting done. I watched with interest as people began to poor in. I thought about how they were going to destroy the work I had spent so much time trying to make perfect. My focus was entirely on myself and the poor me syndrome was setting in.
At lunch time on Monday a call went out on the radios for the conference directors that a man was having heart attack like symptoms and kept fading in and out of consciousness. I rushed over to the area where things were happening to help open doors for the EMTs and to keep the crowds back. As the next 30 minutes unfolded I found myself having the opportunity to personally minister to man's wife. On my drive back from the hospital I could think of nothing else but how awesome God was to allow me to minister to this family.
When your focus starts to turn negative put your attention on the reason you are there. God obviously has a plan for you to be there. Nothing of value comes without a sacrifice of some sort. You may be making a sacrifice of your time, strength and study time, but that all pales in comparison to the sacrifice God made for you when you were undeserving.
Maximize Your Time
So a Greek midterm is a pretty big deal (especially with my history in Greek) and I needed some serious study time for it. Working 16 hours a day leaves no time for anything but sleeping. I learned this week that if you add up all the time that you are not physically doing something it can equal a pretty nice study session. I studied my flashcards and read through my books all when I thought I would not have time. There are a lot of holes in our time that we call our busy time. Learning how to maximize these times will allow us to be more effective.
Look at your schedule and find the natural holes that fall between your obligations and then use them for something productive.
Take Joy in the Good Moments
In the middle of all the craziness find the good moments and focus on them. This may be an opportunity to see your ministry affect someone else personally. Or it may be a totally unrelated incident that reminds you of the goodness of God. On Tuesday I slipped away from the conference to take my wife to the doctor. As I sat there and listened to the heartbeat of my precious little baby coming from inside of precious wife, I could not think of anything but how unworthy I am to have God bless me like this. I love my wife and I love my baby but most of all I love that God has brought them into my life to help me in ministry. After that doctor's appointment I could have worked around the clock for a month straight and never be discouraged.
Remember even the worse things that can happen in your life are better than what you truly deserve (eternal separation from God in hell).
Remember Your Role Is Important in God's Eyes
Whatever your hands find to do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto man. Even the mundane task of moving tables and chairs can impact the eternal future of other souls. By making sure that the tables and chairs were setup I allowed there to be an opportunity for 1200 people to go out and minister to others. If every one of them will go out and impact just 5 more people that is a total of 6000 people who will be helped. In no other capacity could I reach 6000 people in just 3 days.
Do it all for God's glory.
Starting last Saturday afternoon we began an excursion that would require us to work 60 hours in the next five days. Including tearing down and restoring all the rooms to their school setup in 3 hours on Wednesday. Needless to say we functioned on ibuprofen and coffee as we worked hard. To make matters even more interesting we had our Greek midterm on Thursday.
It was interesting to say the least to see how my outlook on the event greatly affected my effectiveness. Here are 4 main points I came to realize over the last week.
Pray for God to Change Your Focus
On Monday morning as I began to unlock all the facilities I was thinking to myself here goes an incredibly long week with nothing productive getting done. I watched with interest as people began to poor in. I thought about how they were going to destroy the work I had spent so much time trying to make perfect. My focus was entirely on myself and the poor me syndrome was setting in.
At lunch time on Monday a call went out on the radios for the conference directors that a man was having heart attack like symptoms and kept fading in and out of consciousness. I rushed over to the area where things were happening to help open doors for the EMTs and to keep the crowds back. As the next 30 minutes unfolded I found myself having the opportunity to personally minister to man's wife. On my drive back from the hospital I could think of nothing else but how awesome God was to allow me to minister to this family.
When your focus starts to turn negative put your attention on the reason you are there. God obviously has a plan for you to be there. Nothing of value comes without a sacrifice of some sort. You may be making a sacrifice of your time, strength and study time, but that all pales in comparison to the sacrifice God made for you when you were undeserving.
Maximize Your Time
So a Greek midterm is a pretty big deal (especially with my history in Greek) and I needed some serious study time for it. Working 16 hours a day leaves no time for anything but sleeping. I learned this week that if you add up all the time that you are not physically doing something it can equal a pretty nice study session. I studied my flashcards and read through my books all when I thought I would not have time. There are a lot of holes in our time that we call our busy time. Learning how to maximize these times will allow us to be more effective.
Look at your schedule and find the natural holes that fall between your obligations and then use them for something productive.
Take Joy in the Good Moments
In the middle of all the craziness find the good moments and focus on them. This may be an opportunity to see your ministry affect someone else personally. Or it may be a totally unrelated incident that reminds you of the goodness of God. On Tuesday I slipped away from the conference to take my wife to the doctor. As I sat there and listened to the heartbeat of my precious little baby coming from inside of precious wife, I could not think of anything but how unworthy I am to have God bless me like this. I love my wife and I love my baby but most of all I love that God has brought them into my life to help me in ministry. After that doctor's appointment I could have worked around the clock for a month straight and never be discouraged.
Remember even the worse things that can happen in your life are better than what you truly deserve (eternal separation from God in hell).
Remember Your Role Is Important in God's Eyes
Whatever your hands find to do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto man. Even the mundane task of moving tables and chairs can impact the eternal future of other souls. By making sure that the tables and chairs were setup I allowed there to be an opportunity for 1200 people to go out and minister to others. If every one of them will go out and impact just 5 more people that is a total of 6000 people who will be helped. In no other capacity could I reach 6000 people in just 3 days.
Do it all for God's glory.
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Internet: Good, Bad or Both
So lets be honest you like to use the internet. That is obvious because you are here on the internet reading this post. Obviously there are some really good things that you can do on the internet, there are some really bad things you can do on the internet and there are some really good things that you can do way too much on the internet.
This week in Youth Group we had a guest speaker who talked about a Biblical View regarding the Internet. This made me do some thinking about the internet and the things we do on the internet.
The Good
Well when Al Gore or whoever invented the internet, I wonder if they knew how much this constant stream of information would be used. Everyday people pour on to the internet for many different reasons. The newspaper industry is slowly collapsing because why would anyone wait til the next day to read the newspaper when with two clicks they can have immediate coverage. Social networking has become the biggest user of the internet. 1/3 of internet users are going to social networking sites. In fact if Facebook were a nation they would be the 3 largest nation in the world (500,000,000 users). Social networking is good but do we really need to know that you ate three large chimichangas and now you are bloated? I also find value in research on the internet. Obviously I have to be careful to use a trusted source, but if I have a question about the average size of the human head I can type it in and immediately find out the answer (proving Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have larger heads than others, hmmm :).
The Bad
There are a number of bad things that are involved in the internet. Every day thousands of people have their financial and personal world rocked by the lack of security involving their credit card numbers. Sometimes people use the information in your bio on facebook to find out pertinent information about you that they can use harm you. There is always the problem of inappropriate content on the internet. Every minute of the day there is estimated to be over $3,000 dollars spent on adult only sites. It does not just stop there, because even You Tube is able to provide junk for free. The internet can also provide a sense of boldness for people to say things to others that they would never say in person. I find it sad to read new stories about a tragic event that has happened only to read someone making extremely insensitive comments immediately after it in the comment section.
The Really Good Things that We Do Way Too Much
As is the case with everything in life, we have a tendency to take good things and overdo them causing us to have an inappropriate need to have them for our satisfaction. Families literally sit in the same room on different computers and never really pay attention to their family. Husbands learn more about their wife by reading their statuses than by talking to them. Children develop their worldview because of the constant flow of media in their life as opposed to the Bible. Many companies have blocked certain websites because the production of their company has gone down because of the staff constantly networking. We must be careful not to get so connected we lose touch with reality.
So What Should I Do with the Internet
1. Shut it off. That's right when it means taking away time from people who are their with you in person, turn the stupid thing off. Life can go on without you on facebook. I have told my wife that unless I am doing schoolwork or sending a work related email I will stay off of the internet when I am with her.
2. Get some accountability. You need to determine what form of accountability you need to help your internet usage to be pleasing to God. In your office you may need someone to remind you to do your work. In your house you may need someone to remind to pay attention to your family. In your private use you may need to use an accountability tracker to make sure you are not going to inappropriate sites. I have installed X3 watch to send accountability reports to one of my friends.
3. Use the internet for the right reasons. Set a goal for every time you go on the internet. Check your email, read the news, check your social networks and then get off the internet. Too many people get in trouble because they drift with no purpose and end up doing foolish things. There do not need to be any more Facebook stalkers.
4. Identify if it has become an idol. Do not just blow this thought off! Did you spend more time with God or with the internet today? Do you read more posts that verses? If you answered yes this will help you answer your idols question. Get your Bible out and read about the One who died for you instead of someones taco dinner recipe.
This week in Youth Group we had a guest speaker who talked about a Biblical View regarding the Internet. This made me do some thinking about the internet and the things we do on the internet.
The Good
Well when Al Gore or whoever invented the internet, I wonder if they knew how much this constant stream of information would be used. Everyday people pour on to the internet for many different reasons. The newspaper industry is slowly collapsing because why would anyone wait til the next day to read the newspaper when with two clicks they can have immediate coverage. Social networking has become the biggest user of the internet. 1/3 of internet users are going to social networking sites. In fact if Facebook were a nation they would be the 3 largest nation in the world (500,000,000 users). Social networking is good but do we really need to know that you ate three large chimichangas and now you are bloated? I also find value in research on the internet. Obviously I have to be careful to use a trusted source, but if I have a question about the average size of the human head I can type it in and immediately find out the answer (proving Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa have larger heads than others, hmmm :).
The Bad
There are a number of bad things that are involved in the internet. Every day thousands of people have their financial and personal world rocked by the lack of security involving their credit card numbers. Sometimes people use the information in your bio on facebook to find out pertinent information about you that they can use harm you. There is always the problem of inappropriate content on the internet. Every minute of the day there is estimated to be over $3,000 dollars spent on adult only sites. It does not just stop there, because even You Tube is able to provide junk for free. The internet can also provide a sense of boldness for people to say things to others that they would never say in person. I find it sad to read new stories about a tragic event that has happened only to read someone making extremely insensitive comments immediately after it in the comment section.
The Really Good Things that We Do Way Too Much
As is the case with everything in life, we have a tendency to take good things and overdo them causing us to have an inappropriate need to have them for our satisfaction. Families literally sit in the same room on different computers and never really pay attention to their family. Husbands learn more about their wife by reading their statuses than by talking to them. Children develop their worldview because of the constant flow of media in their life as opposed to the Bible. Many companies have blocked certain websites because the production of their company has gone down because of the staff constantly networking. We must be careful not to get so connected we lose touch with reality.
So What Should I Do with the Internet
1. Shut it off. That's right when it means taking away time from people who are their with you in person, turn the stupid thing off. Life can go on without you on facebook. I have told my wife that unless I am doing schoolwork or sending a work related email I will stay off of the internet when I am with her.
2. Get some accountability. You need to determine what form of accountability you need to help your internet usage to be pleasing to God. In your office you may need someone to remind you to do your work. In your house you may need someone to remind to pay attention to your family. In your private use you may need to use an accountability tracker to make sure you are not going to inappropriate sites. I have installed X3 watch to send accountability reports to one of my friends.
3. Use the internet for the right reasons. Set a goal for every time you go on the internet. Check your email, read the news, check your social networks and then get off the internet. Too many people get in trouble because they drift with no purpose and end up doing foolish things. There do not need to be any more Facebook stalkers.
4. Identify if it has become an idol. Do not just blow this thought off! Did you spend more time with God or with the internet today? Do you read more posts that verses? If you answered yes this will help you answer your idols question. Get your Bible out and read about the One who died for you instead of someones taco dinner recipe.
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