Danger of the American Culture Part 2

         In my previous article, I explored the dangers of the American interests in the media. However, there is another thing about America that concerns me, the American culture. Many aspects of this is in pop culture, television, and advertising. The American media and other things for entertainment such as cell phones, and even some books, are endangering the minds of today’s teens. These things aren’t necessarily bad, but they can be. A lot of teens will imitate what they see on television, and what America is showing us may not be exactly what teens need. We see these shows (and sometimes read books) with inappropriate jokes and bad influences, and we always want all the hottest stuff because society tells us we should. Is this what God wants? (More on this subject in my next article). We sometimes listen to music with good beats and bad lyrics. I use to listen to country music, which is ok; in fact I still like it, but there are some bad words and even a song on drinking that I use to enjoy because of the beat. This goes back to Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” This verse basically means to focus on pure things, and some of those shows and songs aren’t exactly what God calls pure.

        One thing I noticed really saddened me. I got a new phone a few months ago, and it is a Rumor Touch. It’s a nice phone and I like it, but think about that name. Are we proud of rumors? Are these good things on our eyes? I surely hope not. And along with teens imitating others, are the phone companies actually encouraging us to rumor? The cover of the box had a girl covering her mouth (as if she must be quite about the rumor) and on the picture of the phone it actually refers to a “rumor”. I am against rumors, but that is another subject. The point is that the American culture actually has a phone named after it. This is only one example of the American Culture’s fallibility. This saddens me, and I hope that this is not the direction America is headed. The truth is, America produces many things that are unhealthy for us. We as Christians should not watch movies that are unpleasing to God or listen to dirty music, even if the beat is good. I know some people who judge music based on the beat, and there is nothing wrong with that, we just must be wary of the lyrics, because some will be unpleasing to God. This is not a theory or opinion, it is a harsh reality.

          We as American Christian teenagers must be aware of an even more dangerous concept that is present in America. We say to the above paragraph, “well, I do not watch movies like that are against God or have a lot of cussing”, but we are referring to outright terrible things, like those that despise God. There is something else, however, that is just as bad, if not worse. This is the subtler dangers, those found in “acceptable” movies or songs or any other kind of media. These things are accepted, and are even accepted among Christians. We must guard against subtleties in Christianity often, but this is one that slips by in America. I always see my Christian people indulging in things of this world that I do not think God favors. We must guard against the things of this world, but America has made is very hard to do that. For guidance from very wise men to help guide you through this jungle known as the media, go to www.pluggedin.com.    

          More on the American culture in my next article.

Danger of the American Culture Part 1

This is the first article in the three-part series on the American Culture.

Red. Lethal Weapon. 3:10 to Yuma. Live Free Die Hard.

       These movies are all violent shooting movies. I’ve seen most of them and enjoy them, and chances are, you have too. But not even these, also other movies and shows, things that we think look cool or are funny. For example, in Red, there are several lines about killing that are somewhat amusing. In Live Free Die Hard, there are several shooting scenes that captivate audiences all over the country.

        I’m not necessarily saying that this is bad, in fact, I like the things mentioned above, as does many teens (and non-teens). This frightens me a little. We enjoy things like shooting, or maybe you get a kick out of a horror movie. This does scare me, are we falling into a trap, laughing at things like people getting killed in “humorous” ways? Is this what God wants us to do?    

             A story told by a friend of mine. He was in the theaters watching “Saving Private Ryan”, and there was a bunch of teenagers in front of him and a bunch of war veterans behind him. The teenagers were laughing at all the killing and blood and shooting. The war veterans were weeping. What does that mean? The veterans were actually there, what happened in “Saving Private Ryan” probably happened to them too. The teens had no concept of real war.

            Philippians 4:8 says “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praise worthy-think about such things.” Paul is saying here to think about pure things and not think about corrupting things. While I fall into this trap of American television and movies, I can’t help but think if all this shooting and killing and amusing lines about shooting and killing is God’s will or not. I don’t know if these things are “excellent” or “praiseworthy” or “pure”. And the thing is, I’m afraid to find out. If I explore this, what if I find a truth that will tell me to not watch these cool shooting movies? I enjoy them. But I feel that if it is God’s will, then it should not be hindered for evil, human desires. And what may be a sin may not be a sin for someone else, it depends on how God built you (this is not an excuse to sin).

           So what is the verdict on this? Are we to cease watching these movies, or can we go on with these habits? It depends. I am not ready to give a direct verdict, so I am going to end on this note. When you watch “Saving Private Ryan”, do you find it cool and laugh like the teenagers in the front row, or do you weep like the war veterans in the back row? My next article will go a little more into the dangers of the American culture. For more on this topic, I encourage you to read the book “Radical” by David Platt. His website is featured on my homepage. God bless.

Spiritual Advice

If anyone has a question about God or  Heaven or anything Spiritual, contact me at Christiansoldier007@gmail.com and I will try to answer your question to the best of my God given ability. Tell me if you want the question to be private or something to post on the Blog.

If I Die Today

Alex and Brett Harris, two teenagers (now in their twenties) wrote a book called “Do Hard Things” that talks about teenage rebellion against rebellion. More specifically, rebellion against low expectations. We tend to meet the expectations we are given. Adults have very low expectations of teenagers, therefore, teens meet them. We need to raise the bar. How? By doing hard things for God.

    This inspired me, and I was eager to do hard things for Christ, but soon, I was discouraged. The book talked about teens doing amazing things for God, but I am just thirteen. What could a young teenager possibly do?

     Mid winter retreat. One of the lessons was on tithing. A powerful atheist, Peter Singer, said that one good idea Christians have is tithing.  He calculated, DOUBLE CHECKED, that if all Christians in America tithe 10% of their income, we will raise $156,000,000,000, or one hundred fifty-six billion dollars, A YEAR!!!!!

     We would have five billion to stop most children’s death from sickness, and 7 billion for education for most children. That would leave part of the remaining $144 billion to start the largest evangelical movement the world has ever seen-and that much a YEAR. I know this is probably not going to happen, but what if it did? If all American tithed, then we could END WORLD POVERTY. Think about that.

     BJ Higgins and Rachel Scott. Two ordinary names, right? Not exactly.

     BJ Higgins was a kid who knew. He knew to share the word, and he would share as much as he could. He got it. He wrote amazing papers found after his death. He understood what it meant to be a disciple. At age fifteen he died. But even after, his ashes were spread over a hill overlooking a Muslim town. No one there thought as they recounted his story that anyone non-Christian noticed-except the tour guide, who after hearing about this kid’s dedication to Christ, became the leader of a very large underground church. Even long after his death, BJ impacted people.

     Rachel Scott too died at an early age. Papers were found in her room also. They talked about a chain reaction of kindness. Now there is a whole organization with her ideas.

     Now we’re at the center of this whole thing. This is based off a mid winter retreat service, but I’m gonna take it a little further.

     Even after death, these two amazing kids impacted hundreds of lives, if not thousands. What would happen if I die right now? Would I impact a single soul? Would anyone be impacted if you died? What would you do if you knew you only had a week to live? What would you do? Only what you think funnest? Would you have a good time? I last meal kind of thing? Or would you do whatever you could to impact as many as you could? Does fun matter when you are about to spend eternity having fun? What would you do? Probably the former. It’s ok, you’re not the only one. Many would. And if you say “well, I know I’m not going to die in a week”, then I’m not done here.

     2 Peter 3:8-“A day to him is like a thousand years.” Well, what if you treated life that way? What if, you said, instead of “I got a whole lifetime”, you said “I only have a lifetime”? What is a lifetime of work compared to eternity of being in Heaven with God? What if we said that we would spend our life impacting people, and maybe even after life?

     The only question is, are you willing to make that sacrifice? Are you willing to surrender your life to God, and do His will? Are you willing?

     I’m a sinner. I’m not being all righteous, telling you what to do. I’m a wretched sinner, just like you and everyone else on the planet. And it’s your choice whether you are willing to make the sacrifice. So, will you? Are you willing to take your cross up and follow Christ?

     God bless you.

How Selfish am I?

Hey everyone! I'm starting a series of articles. The first one, There Must Be More To Life Than This, was posted in my last blog post. Here is the next article in the series.

My name is Joshua. I am a perfect Christian who always obeys the Lord and I do his will all the time. Ok, not really.

     I try to do His will as much as I can, but the truth is that no one is perfect except Jesus. Right now I’ve been growing in Him spiritually, so that He can use me as He sees fit. It started at Summer Camp 2010. This time was inarguably the best time of my life, and I can’t wait until next year. Since then, I’ve been a “disciple in training”.

     It’s been about 9 weeks since my last TRUTH service because of holidays and busyness. TRUTH is every Sunday evening, with worship and a great lesson from the youth pastor.

I learned that I couldn’t go to a specific one, which frustrated me, especially because my second youth commission meeting was then. This was Wednesday, and it turned out there was no church that night either. So I was very mad. Another thing that contributed was that the weekend before was the mid winter retreat at church, and I was on a spiritual high. I was hungry for the word.

     Is this a pity party? Am I pouring out my difficulties? Am I whining? Is that what this is about? No.

    In the midst of this anger, I came to a realization. How selfish am I, to be mad about missing a few days of God, when Christians are persecuted in other places, when they risk life, and lose life, daily? How selfish am I to be mad when I have so much homework, while kids around the world get no education? How selfish am I, that I’m devastated when I can’t go hang out with my friends because I must see my boring family, when people around the world, many younger than me, have nothing, not even a box, no single family member or friend? Something to think about. The next article, if I Die Today, follows up and will challenge you to take a new radical standpoint on life itself.