Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010                                                             by Ben H

Many churches are proud to have a group of youth in their church but are not challenging them or teaching them how to live for Christ. Churches cannot be satisfied that their young people simply have said the sinners prayer, or are playing music, singing in the choir, dancing to the praise and worship music. Recognize that they ALL have struggles of some kind. Some may shock you! But they ALL have them.  

Satan hates them. He places them on his top priority list. Why? Because as they are, so will the church of tomorrow be. If he can get them to believe the lies of the culture and swallow its idolatrous values, relativistic ideas, and post-modern philosophies, eventually so will the church. He will have the church exactly where he wants it, looking like, sounding like, smelling like the world.  

Many churches have frantically tried to keep young people inside the four walls of the church, so they have stood on their head and done back flips to entertain the youth or get them involved. But they have failed to teach them how to live, how to walk, how to become more like Jesus. Our music is great and they are jumping, but what about when the youth camp/rally is over. How do I live? I’m being tempted, I’m struggling, I’m falling into sin, I don’t understand, I’m confused. Where does the rubber meet the road as far as our Christianity is concerned. I have real problems when I go to college and high school. I have real friends, real temptations, real feelings, real professors telling me really weird and confusing things. If our faith is not based in reality then it is just another religion.  

See, Jesus became flesh and is well acquainted with out infirmities. Jesus was a mentor of his disciples. He knew they would carry the responsibility of declaring and building the kingdom when he was gone. They were clumsy and confused; they had wrong ideas about many things. So He had to teach them, correct them, warn them, be an example to them, and most importantly interceded for them (John 17). 

Paul, in turn, said follow me as I follow Christ (I Cor. 11: 1). He became a mentor to Timothy. In II Timothy 3, he warned Timothy about the spirit of the last days (men loving pleasure more than they love God) and charged Timothy (14-15): “Continue in those things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith that is in Jesus Christ.”  

Rewind, if you will, to the dark days of Elijah. Elijah was pillar, a radical in His culture. He came at a critical time in Israel’s history. Israel was supposed to be beacon, but it was more of a blasphemy. Baal worship appeared more real than the worship of YAHWEH. What most people do not know is that Israel never stopped worshipping YHWH, they just hooked on the worship of Baal. Baal was a fertility God of the ancient world. He made crops grow. YHWH was the Sunday God, if you will, while Baal was the Monday-through-Friday God. Elijah drew the line in the sand. It was time to prove that YAHWEH was not only real, he had all power. He prayed, he heard, he acted in radical faith, and God answered by fire! God has to be made more real than this world if our youth are going to bear the torch across the floodtides of this dark age. 

Where are they getting their values and cues from? If not from the Word of God than you can bet they are getting them from the secular culture. Who will stand up for what is right if not the church; and when the pillars and fathers of the church are gone, who will be the next leaders and fathers if this generation is not rooted and grounded in the Word of God. When the Billy Graham’s, James Dobson’s, and Ravi Zacharias’s have passed on to glory, who will carry the torch of righteousness. Teach us how to be an Elijah and a Daniel in our generation. When we fall, don’t act shocked, pick us up and teach us how to walk wiser, teach us how to overcome our struggles and fears, teach us how to be disciplined and then how to disciple, teach us how to give an answer in season and out, and teach us how to be the voice of righteousness in an ungodly culture. When you pass us the torch, we don’t want to the flame to die.

   Posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2010                                                            by Liza M

A few weeks ago I got a jury duty summons and like some of you closet-jury-duty-lovers I have something to confess: I actually do like jury duty and hope every time I go to get picked. There is just something about hearing and seeing convincing evidence that really interests me. Actually, one of the reasons I have begun to love teaching reading is because I require that the students show me proof for why they picked a certain answer. It’s just exciting to see them play detective and for me to pretend I’m a judge or a juror. 

Anyhow, today, the day I had been waiting for finally came, so I happily headed off to do my American duty. During the voir dire or time that the lawyers ask questions to get to know the prospective panel they also explain a few things that help us understand how the law works. They said many interesting things, but the ones that stood out to me was the differences between the burden of proof  in different trial settings. I was surprised to know that there was a difference in the amount of proof needed in different trial courts. 

For example: during a civil trial the defendant can be convicted if there is a “preponderance” of evidence against him or her. That means that there was more than a 50% chance that the defendant caused the plaintiff’s injury by negligence.  

However, during a family court trial in which the state want to terminate parental rights there needs to be “clear and convincing evidence” in order to be able to take action. That means that the state’s evidence has shown about an 80% chance that what they are accusing is true and that alone is enough to take a child away from negligent parents. 

As the defense attorney made very clear to us, in a criminal trial the burden of proof is upon the prosecutor and the evidence that warrants a guilty verdict is convincing beyond a reasonable doubt (or 98-99%).  

After this was explained the prosecutor then asked “Is anyone going to hold me to a higher standard than “beyond a reasonable doubt? Anything higher than that would mean that you saw the actual crime and if that is the case you would not be here as a juror but as a witness. It’s like buying a used car” she continued, “you check it thoroughly and buy it because you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that it will be a good car. You can’t know with 100% certainty.” 

Since this was a criminal case involving animal cruelty, the jurors would have to decide beyond a reasonable doubt that the man did in fact commit the crime.

This discussion made me begin to think about the evidence there is for the assertion that Jesus Christ is in fact God. I want to share one argument with you and would like to for you to decide on a verdict (guilty- He is God or not guilty – he is not God) based on this one argument. 

When Jesus died on the cross, the Gospels clearly narrate that his disciple were terrified and hiding from the authorities because their ringleader had just been put to death. Jesus’s death was not what they had been expecting. They thought that Jesus would establish His kingdom on earth and that they would reign with Him at that time. This is why the disciples would argue about who was greatest in the kingdom, and also why John and Andrews’s mother had asked for special positions when Jesus came into His kingdom.

This reason explains one reason why the disciples were completely shattered, disappointed, and crestfallen when Jesus was murdered. How then can we explain the complete turnaround the disciples had as soon as they discovered the empty tomb and saw the risen Savior other than they really did see Him alive? Think about it, about 500 people saw him alive, all of this after they had seen him dead and buried! Not only did they lose their fear, but history shows all 12 disciples were killed because they believed and taught Jesus’s resurrection with a conviction that only comes from having been an eyewitness. 

To recap, the disciples saw Jesus die and saw Him in His risen body. Jesus had foretold that one of the miracles attesting to his deity would be His resurrection after 3 days. So convinced were the disciples that the resurrection did indeed take place, that they gave up their lives for it. Based on this one argument (there are many more) would you say there is a possibility that Jesus’s claims to be God can be true beyond a reasonable doubt? 

Sadly, I did not get picked for jury duty, so I went home and took a nap!  :)

   Posted on Wednesday, May 5, 2010                                                          by Crystal R.