I'm taking a different approach with this post, and perhaps some others in the future. I've decided this time to express some of my thoughts in poetry, or in this case what might be termed "free verse". That is, I like to write sometimes in a way that doesn't necessarily have the rhyme or tempo of traditional poetry, although there are hints of them here and there.
I've found this to be an extremely effective way to basically throw some of my thoughts into words when I'm having a time of intense or abundant thought - when I can just close my eyes and type them out at break-neck speed (in my case around 70 words per minute) and not worry about making complete sentences.
For future reference, any post that I write in poetry will have the title IN BOLD LETTERING like this post. Here goes, and may God speak to your heart about what you read ...
The Blind Leading The Blind
Oprah Winfrey doesn’t have the answers
Eckhart Tolle doesn’t have the answers
Stephen Hawking doesn’t have the answers
Rhonda Byrne doesn’t have the answers
If they did, then why do they still seek?
Why do they never find?
Why do they lack peace?
Books and magazines
“Today’s special guest”
Self-delusion makes a name
Mass-delusion makes a profit
And the masses follow
Blind and led by blind masters
Too busy to seek Truth
Seeking riches, seeking youth
So they accept the lies of others
Without question, without thought
Together they stumble
They wander ever closer
To a pit, The Pit
Truly, they have their reward
Their reward is near
Nothing eternal
They live for right here
Choosing the wide path
That leads to destruction
God is too inconvenient
Bad for their name
Bad for profit
So they keep up the game
Of delusion, denial
“Put Him out of your mind
He’s dead, He’s blind
As if I’ll stand before Him one day
The Bible’s a lie”
Or so they say
They may be here now
But what about tomorrow?
What about death?
What about you – Who do you choose??
Showing posts with label Oprah Winfrey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oprah Winfrey. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
What's your source?
It's amazing how most people come to form an opinion or belief about something. Often, it's based upon what their parents believe(d). Sometimes, it's based upon that of another relative or a friend, or even upon peer pressure. But in all cases, it can be argued that most people form it based upon the opinions or beliefs of someone they look up to, respect, or simply hang out with.
When that opinion or belief is formed - or rather adopted - in this fashion, perhaps the greatest danger is doing so without questioning it, without subjecting it to scrutiny. Only years after the fact did I realize that all those assignments I did in school and university where I had to "compare and contrast" articles and viewpoints, or to provide references to varying sources in research papers, were not meant to torture me. They were meant to force me to consider alternate opinions, to support but also subject my theses to scrutiny.
Sadly, most people see taking the time to investigate something before accepting it as requiring too much effort. Or perhaps they haven't been taught how to compare and contrast, or how to research alternate opinions on something. Our educational system has certainly become worse in this regard as I compare my substitute teaching experiences with my experiences as a former student. In any case, most people trust that others have done this for them, and that the ideas they present must therefore be valid.
So what's the source of your beliefs? Is it the "latest and greatest" author or speaker who just appeared on the Oprah show? Is it a book like "The God Delusion" or one like "The Case For Christ"? Maybe it's a book that a relative, friend, or colleague just recommended.
In any case, you need to scrutinize what they're telling you instead of simply accepting it. For example, is there any scientific, historical, and/or legal basis to what they're promoting, even from multiple perspectives? How have people fared over a long period who've adopted these ideas and beliefs - the good and the bad stories - not just at the "good times" when they happen to write the book or make the TV appearance? And what of the people who claim to have fared badly: what is their motive in attempting to discredit a particular person or perspective, and does their reasoning stand up to scrutiny and cross-examination?
Most people think that doing things like this is a threat to one's current set of opinions or beliefs. However, if one is very grounded, considering alternate opinions can also be a way of solidifying those beliefs even more.
In any case, simply accepting what you're fed can be dangerous, so make the effort and the time to check things out. Should you do the same with the Bible? Absolutely, whether you're a believer or not! Rather than close their minds off to the message of Christ (the Gospel), the citizens of the Greek city of Berea (or Beroea) who heard this message from the apostle Paul are commended in the book of Acts chapter 17 because
God even encourages his people in Isaiah chapter 1 to "Come, let us discuss this" or "Come now, let us reason together." God Himself is in favor of directly being asked the tough questions!
I encourage you to do the same. Whether you're digging through the Bible to interpret the Bible or through extra-biblical accounts to do so, don't just take the Bible on its own merit. Find out for yourself whether it's for real through considering other sources (ones that attempt to be objective) before you assume that it isn't for real just because you're too lazy or don't care. For that matter, you need to do this to any book or belief system that claims to have a new or different truth, whether the Koran, The Book of Mormon, or The Secret.
To not do so can cost you for an eternity.
When that opinion or belief is formed - or rather adopted - in this fashion, perhaps the greatest danger is doing so without questioning it, without subjecting it to scrutiny. Only years after the fact did I realize that all those assignments I did in school and university where I had to "compare and contrast" articles and viewpoints, or to provide references to varying sources in research papers, were not meant to torture me. They were meant to force me to consider alternate opinions, to support but also subject my theses to scrutiny.
Sadly, most people see taking the time to investigate something before accepting it as requiring too much effort. Or perhaps they haven't been taught how to compare and contrast, or how to research alternate opinions on something. Our educational system has certainly become worse in this regard as I compare my substitute teaching experiences with my experiences as a former student. In any case, most people trust that others have done this for them, and that the ideas they present must therefore be valid.
So what's the source of your beliefs? Is it the "latest and greatest" author or speaker who just appeared on the Oprah show? Is it a book like "The God Delusion" or one like "The Case For Christ"? Maybe it's a book that a relative, friend, or colleague just recommended.
In any case, you need to scrutinize what they're telling you instead of simply accepting it. For example, is there any scientific, historical, and/or legal basis to what they're promoting, even from multiple perspectives? How have people fared over a long period who've adopted these ideas and beliefs - the good and the bad stories - not just at the "good times" when they happen to write the book or make the TV appearance? And what of the people who claim to have fared badly: what is their motive in attempting to discredit a particular person or perspective, and does their reasoning stand up to scrutiny and cross-examination?
Most people think that doing things like this is a threat to one's current set of opinions or beliefs. However, if one is very grounded, considering alternate opinions can also be a way of solidifying those beliefs even more.
In any case, simply accepting what you're fed can be dangerous, so make the effort and the time to check things out. Should you do the same with the Bible? Absolutely, whether you're a believer or not! Rather than close their minds off to the message of Christ (the Gospel), the citizens of the Greek city of Berea (or Beroea) who heard this message from the apostle Paul are commended in the book of Acts chapter 17 because
"[they] were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."As an aside, why did they search the Scriptures and not some other non-scriptural body of writings? Isn't this being narrow-minded? Because the things concerning Jesus were foretold in the Jewish scriptures - what we now call the Old Testament - so it was only fitting that the Bereans searched them for explanations about how this Jewish Messiah could also be the savior of non-Jews like them.
God even encourages his people in Isaiah chapter 1 to "Come, let us discuss this" or "Come now, let us reason together." God Himself is in favor of directly being asked the tough questions!
I encourage you to do the same. Whether you're digging through the Bible to interpret the Bible or through extra-biblical accounts to do so, don't just take the Bible on its own merit. Find out for yourself whether it's for real through considering other sources (ones that attempt to be objective) before you assume that it isn't for real just because you're too lazy or don't care. For that matter, you need to do this to any book or belief system that claims to have a new or different truth, whether the Koran, The Book of Mormon, or The Secret.
To not do so can cost you for an eternity.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Old vs. outdated
Some people make the assumption that the Bible is outdated simply because it's old, because the last book accepted into the canon of Scripture occurred nearly 2,000 years ago. But when you think about it, being outdated has nothing to do with age but entirely to do with not being relevant to today.
Consider the fascination with Shakespeare in drama and English classes worldwide hundreds of years after the bard's death. Think about how the original design of things like the light bulb and the camera are still recognizable in modern light bulbs and cameras over 100 years later. These things might be considered as old, but their modern relevance and influence prove that they are not outdated.
If you question the relevance of the Bible in our modern world, do the following:
The only difference between these modern acts and those recorded in the Bible are the fact that they are being committed by people in different cultures and nations using different technology and following different trends. Whereas in ancient times some cultures burned their babies alive in the arms of scalding hot idols, we allow girls and women in our civilized, sophisticated modern age to have their unborn child ground into bits and vacuumed from their innards using some of the most intricate surgical instruments and techniques. Such a practice is not considered barbaric because it is so methodical and sterilized.
Apparently, the accounts (actually disproven myths) of women using coat hangers in back alleys was too inhumane and gruesome for those in the women's liberation movement of the early 1970s to stomach, but I digress. History since that time has proven that the legalization of abortion was done to serve selfish political, financial, and scientific interests among others, but I raise this issue as an example of how the mere acceptance of this practice is one of countless proofs of how human nature - in this case lying, greed, and selfishness - have only changed in form, not in substance.
While I'm on the topic of relevance, I can't help but question that of the Theory of Evolution in our modern age. (You can look at the keyword archive in this blog for other thoughts that God has revealed to me about this and other topics.) Scientific understanding of the workings of the human body were elementary at best at the time of the publishing of The Origin of Species in 1859: scientists knew what was inside the body at a non-molecular level, but little was known about how body systems and organs worked and interacted. And nobody - including Darwin himself - had any idea of the unfathomable intricacy and sophistication of the workings of the human body that scream "Design!". In addition, apart from the human body and that of other mammals, the literally infinite vastness of the universe was unknown and atomic structure was unheard of.
Therefore, this theory at its core is based on outdated science despite all claims to the contrary, on assumptions based upon the scientific understandings (and misunderstandings) of the time that modern science has since largely disproven. Yet you'll rarely hear about anyone who lacks a true understanding of God, any non-Christian, questioning its relevance in this modern age. The modern proponents of this theory, who continually churn out new sub-theories to cover up the ones that modern science continues to disprove, gain influence and keep the dead horse of evolutionary theory alive as they wax eloquent and get the Oprah seal of approval for their new book about their new theory - as she has largely replaced God and His Word as the beacon of modern moral, spiritual, and scientific wisdom in pop culture, and apparently in the evolutionist community as well.
Yet begin to seriously ask objective, frank questions about their beliefs - which are different in substance but no different in magnitude from those of Christians - and you get accused of being what they themselves are: narrow-minded, subjective, and worst of all, "religious" (whether you actually believe in God or not). The saddest part about the believer of evolutionary theory is that they don't realize that they are themselves disciples of a religion, that of Evolution, the new religion of this relativistic and humanistic world we now live in.
So even though some things are considered relevant in this modern age, we see now how they can be outdated. Fortunately, anyone looking for something solid to stand on, something that won't be disproven 5, 50, 500, or even 5,000 years from now, need look no further than the Bible, the only true Scriptures and truth in existence. The Bible is the only body of writings whose truth and claims have withstood all persecutions, all examinations, and all other tests of time. (If you think you've found a new way to poke holes in its truth and absolute integrity and sink it once and for all, I urge you to do so, but I can guarantee that you cannot do so with an objective mind.)
If you haven't dug into the Bible because you believe that it's outdated and therefore irrelevant and a waste of time, or because you believe the hype that it's a book of fairy tales or riddled with "internal contradictions" and so forth rather than just letting it speak to you on its own merit, then you're missing out on the greatest adventure of this life and the one beyond. But don't just take my word for it: be objective and find out for yourself.
Consider the fascination with Shakespeare in drama and English classes worldwide hundreds of years after the bard's death. Think about how the original design of things like the light bulb and the camera are still recognizable in modern light bulbs and cameras over 100 years later. These things might be considered as old, but their modern relevance and influence prove that they are not outdated.
If you question the relevance of the Bible in our modern world, do the following:
- Read the first ten verses of 2 Timothy chapter 3 and ask yourself if this doesn't with absolute precision describe the world of today, "the last days" that the Bible repeatedly refers to.
- Read Romans chapter 1 from verse 18 to the end of the chapter and ask yourself if the moral abyss the world currently finds itself in has ever been better explained than in this portion of Scripture.
The only difference between these modern acts and those recorded in the Bible are the fact that they are being committed by people in different cultures and nations using different technology and following different trends. Whereas in ancient times some cultures burned their babies alive in the arms of scalding hot idols, we allow girls and women in our civilized, sophisticated modern age to have their unborn child ground into bits and vacuumed from their innards using some of the most intricate surgical instruments and techniques. Such a practice is not considered barbaric because it is so methodical and sterilized.
Apparently, the accounts (actually disproven myths) of women using coat hangers in back alleys was too inhumane and gruesome for those in the women's liberation movement of the early 1970s to stomach, but I digress. History since that time has proven that the legalization of abortion was done to serve selfish political, financial, and scientific interests among others, but I raise this issue as an example of how the mere acceptance of this practice is one of countless proofs of how human nature - in this case lying, greed, and selfishness - have only changed in form, not in substance.
While I'm on the topic of relevance, I can't help but question that of the Theory of Evolution in our modern age. (You can look at the keyword archive in this blog for other thoughts that God has revealed to me about this and other topics.) Scientific understanding of the workings of the human body were elementary at best at the time of the publishing of The Origin of Species in 1859: scientists knew what was inside the body at a non-molecular level, but little was known about how body systems and organs worked and interacted. And nobody - including Darwin himself - had any idea of the unfathomable intricacy and sophistication of the workings of the human body that scream "Design!". In addition, apart from the human body and that of other mammals, the literally infinite vastness of the universe was unknown and atomic structure was unheard of.
Therefore, this theory at its core is based on outdated science despite all claims to the contrary, on assumptions based upon the scientific understandings (and misunderstandings) of the time that modern science has since largely disproven. Yet you'll rarely hear about anyone who lacks a true understanding of God, any non-Christian, questioning its relevance in this modern age. The modern proponents of this theory, who continually churn out new sub-theories to cover up the ones that modern science continues to disprove, gain influence and keep the dead horse of evolutionary theory alive as they wax eloquent and get the Oprah seal of approval for their new book about their new theory - as she has largely replaced God and His Word as the beacon of modern moral, spiritual, and scientific wisdom in pop culture, and apparently in the evolutionist community as well.
Yet begin to seriously ask objective, frank questions about their beliefs - which are different in substance but no different in magnitude from those of Christians - and you get accused of being what they themselves are: narrow-minded, subjective, and worst of all, "religious" (whether you actually believe in God or not). The saddest part about the believer of evolutionary theory is that they don't realize that they are themselves disciples of a religion, that of Evolution, the new religion of this relativistic and humanistic world we now live in.
So even though some things are considered relevant in this modern age, we see now how they can be outdated. Fortunately, anyone looking for something solid to stand on, something that won't be disproven 5, 50, 500, or even 5,000 years from now, need look no further than the Bible, the only true Scriptures and truth in existence. The Bible is the only body of writings whose truth and claims have withstood all persecutions, all examinations, and all other tests of time. (If you think you've found a new way to poke holes in its truth and absolute integrity and sink it once and for all, I urge you to do so, but I can guarantee that you cannot do so with an objective mind.)
If you haven't dug into the Bible because you believe that it's outdated and therefore irrelevant and a waste of time, or because you believe the hype that it's a book of fairy tales or riddled with "internal contradictions" and so forth rather than just letting it speak to you on its own merit, then you're missing out on the greatest adventure of this life and the one beyond. But don't just take my word for it: be objective and find out for yourself.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
"Indoctrination!"
I find it interesting when non-believers accuse Christians of "indoctrinating" their children to believe in Jesus, as though this is some great injustice. I touched upon this idea several months ago when I referred to "brainwashing" in another post, but now I'd like to expand upon this in the context of raising children.
As a Christian parent, I realize that unless I make some radical (i.e. counter-cultural) and tough decisions to "indoctrinate" my children to believe that they are each a unique and special creation of the one true God, they will by default be indoctrinated by our culture via the schools and especially the media (the puppeteer of most modern cultures) to believe that they are each a purposeless mammal whose present form has resulted from billions of years of random mutations, natural selection, and blind chance. If there is any good in this world today, it comes almost exclusively though people in communities across this globe, especially parents, who teach Jesus Christ and Him crucified AND THEN LIVE OUT THE LOVE OF CHRIST to their family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and complete strangers.
Anyone protesting this claim that Christians living out their faith are primarily responsible for the good in this world might point to the Oprahs and Dalai Lamas of this world and their contributions in the form of humanistic feel-good messages and pleas for a better world. But these people, despite their popularity and good intentions, are not in the trenches feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and protecting the weak. They also do not have the power to cleanse my heart so that I am renewed from the inside out in order to have compassion on the poor, naked, and weak. And they have not proposed a way for me - or for themselves or for the poor, naked, and weak - to 'get right' with the one and only God who created them in order to be forgiven and made clean and thereby enjoy an eternity with Him. This is because they do not preach about the one and only Mediator between man and God, Jesus Christ - the only Mediator who can give us the forgiveness, love, and peace that we are all really seeking.
Their message is instead one of human well-being here and now, on this side of eternity. They speak about finding peace and fulfillment here on earth without considering what will happen after a person dies. They believe the lie that human efforts and intentions that are good and righteous will be enough to get them into heaven "if" God should happen to really exist. The problem is, their idea of God is not that of the one true God - the God described in the Bible as having a Son whom He sent to save believers in His Son from eternal torment. Their God is not the capital-g God but any "god" contrived in the hearts of men. They have the audacity to think that somehow we humans have the power to create gods that in turn have the power to determine whether we live for an eternity or cease to exist after we take our last breath. Since they assume that the one true God is likewise a figment of human imagination, they create their own gods based on this false assumption, mostly in order to not feel that they have to be accountable to their Creator. They would rather be accountable to a god on their terms instead of finding out that they have offended and sinned against the one true God.
This concept of "create-a-god" then transmits into how these people and their masses of followers live their lives. Since there is no one true God in their minds, there can be no one absolute truth and therefore no right or wrong ways of thinking or living. So Ms. Winfrey, for example, will invite a smorgasbord of guests onto her shows over the course of a year representing all schools of spiritual thought - including sometimes the most sincere Christians - because in her mind, sadly, Jesus is not God in human flesh that He repeatedly proved Himself to be in the historical Biblical accounts. He is instead, in the mind of all humanists and not just Oprah, demoted to the ranks of simply a "great teacher" or "prophet" and not one of the three persons comprising the one true God described in scripture as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Because there is no absolute truth, more and more people swayed by humanist teaching become less sensitive to practices like euthanasia and abortion while ironically decrying murder and capital punishment and war. They think that it is justice for the homosexual lifestyle to gain legal and social acceptance but nearly have a heart attack wondering what people will think if one of their children declares that he/she has become a homosexual. Because there is no absolute truth, no right and wrong, those who are indoctrinated by humanist philosophies and teachings get tossed by the seas of life and wonder why our culture and society are spiraling downward into greater depths of confusion, chaos, and violence.
My children may be young, but they already seem to have a keen sense of the one true God because of the non-religious, biblically-based notion of this God that they have been exposed to since day one. They realize that they are not perfect, but also how God doesn't expect them to be on their own strength because we all mess up our relationship with God ("sin") no matter how hard we try not to. But they also know that believing in Jesus means they have been cleansed of their sin, and by this simple act of belief they are new creations; they are no longer condemned by God even when they do mess up and sin because God sees them through 'Christ-colored glasses', as some Christian teachers have put it. They have been forgiven once and for all (Hebrews 10: 11,12), and nothing can separate them from the love of God (Romans 8: 38,39) after they have put their faith in Him.
So does this mean they deliberately don't care about whether or not they sin, since they know God has already forgiven them? Because my children know the incredible love of God in their lives, they in turn love Him and out of this love naturally wish to please Him by being obedient to not only Him but also their parents whom God has entrusted as their earthly guardians and teachers. Are they perfectly obedient? No more than their parents, who are continually tempted to think they know better than God and have to live with the consequences of foolish decisions made apart from asking God for wisdom and direction.
Most people in western societies today fail to realize that it was Christians living out their faith who established the first hospitals and universities, not to mention the compassionate aspects of government operations and systems such as the legal system. It was also Christians living out their faith who created organizations of compassion like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Y.M.C.A./Y.W.C.A. that probably all westerners have heard of and benefited from in some way. The original intention of all these institutions and organizations was to act as means by which the love of God through Jesus Christ could be acted out and preached. Unfortunately, now that the western world is post-Christian, only the former is true. These are now humanistic in the sense that they only help people on this side of eternity instead of also preparing them for the reality of meeting Jesus face to face (whether Christian or not) after they die.
So by "indoctrinating" my children about the one true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - I believe that I am doing the greatest possible service to my local community and to our society as a whole. I don't believe that my actions will restore our society or world to a place of openness to hearing the message of the Gospel, but I do believe that they will do so - plus slow the rate of moral decay - at least in our sphere of influence.
We as Christian parents may not have the exposure that the Oprahs and Dalai Lamas enjoy, but at least our message is one that will actually change lives for real instead of trying to bandage the gaping wounds in our lives and society through humanistic feel-good thoughts and ideas that ultimately benefit no one - except for the pocketbooks of those who blindly or willingly spread these messages of false, empty hope apart from those found in the Bible.
As a Christian parent, I realize that unless I make some radical (i.e. counter-cultural) and tough decisions to "indoctrinate" my children to believe that they are each a unique and special creation of the one true God, they will by default be indoctrinated by our culture via the schools and especially the media (the puppeteer of most modern cultures) to believe that they are each a purposeless mammal whose present form has resulted from billions of years of random mutations, natural selection, and blind chance. If there is any good in this world today, it comes almost exclusively though people in communities across this globe, especially parents, who teach Jesus Christ and Him crucified AND THEN LIVE OUT THE LOVE OF CHRIST to their family members, friends, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and complete strangers.
Anyone protesting this claim that Christians living out their faith are primarily responsible for the good in this world might point to the Oprahs and Dalai Lamas of this world and their contributions in the form of humanistic feel-good messages and pleas for a better world. But these people, despite their popularity and good intentions, are not in the trenches feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and protecting the weak. They also do not have the power to cleanse my heart so that I am renewed from the inside out in order to have compassion on the poor, naked, and weak. And they have not proposed a way for me - or for themselves or for the poor, naked, and weak - to 'get right' with the one and only God who created them in order to be forgiven and made clean and thereby enjoy an eternity with Him. This is because they do not preach about the one and only Mediator between man and God, Jesus Christ - the only Mediator who can give us the forgiveness, love, and peace that we are all really seeking.
Their message is instead one of human well-being here and now, on this side of eternity. They speak about finding peace and fulfillment here on earth without considering what will happen after a person dies. They believe the lie that human efforts and intentions that are good and righteous will be enough to get them into heaven "if" God should happen to really exist. The problem is, their idea of God is not that of the one true God - the God described in the Bible as having a Son whom He sent to save believers in His Son from eternal torment. Their God is not the capital-g God but any "god" contrived in the hearts of men. They have the audacity to think that somehow we humans have the power to create gods that in turn have the power to determine whether we live for an eternity or cease to exist after we take our last breath. Since they assume that the one true God is likewise a figment of human imagination, they create their own gods based on this false assumption, mostly in order to not feel that they have to be accountable to their Creator. They would rather be accountable to a god on their terms instead of finding out that they have offended and sinned against the one true God.
This concept of "create-a-god" then transmits into how these people and their masses of followers live their lives. Since there is no one true God in their minds, there can be no one absolute truth and therefore no right or wrong ways of thinking or living. So Ms. Winfrey, for example, will invite a smorgasbord of guests onto her shows over the course of a year representing all schools of spiritual thought - including sometimes the most sincere Christians - because in her mind, sadly, Jesus is not God in human flesh that He repeatedly proved Himself to be in the historical Biblical accounts. He is instead, in the mind of all humanists and not just Oprah, demoted to the ranks of simply a "great teacher" or "prophet" and not one of the three persons comprising the one true God described in scripture as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Because there is no absolute truth, more and more people swayed by humanist teaching become less sensitive to practices like euthanasia and abortion while ironically decrying murder and capital punishment and war. They think that it is justice for the homosexual lifestyle to gain legal and social acceptance but nearly have a heart attack wondering what people will think if one of their children declares that he/she has become a homosexual. Because there is no absolute truth, no right and wrong, those who are indoctrinated by humanist philosophies and teachings get tossed by the seas of life and wonder why our culture and society are spiraling downward into greater depths of confusion, chaos, and violence.
My children may be young, but they already seem to have a keen sense of the one true God because of the non-religious, biblically-based notion of this God that they have been exposed to since day one. They realize that they are not perfect, but also how God doesn't expect them to be on their own strength because we all mess up our relationship with God ("sin") no matter how hard we try not to. But they also know that believing in Jesus means they have been cleansed of their sin, and by this simple act of belief they are new creations; they are no longer condemned by God even when they do mess up and sin because God sees them through 'Christ-colored glasses', as some Christian teachers have put it. They have been forgiven once and for all (Hebrews 10: 11,12), and nothing can separate them from the love of God (Romans 8: 38,39) after they have put their faith in Him.
So does this mean they deliberately don't care about whether or not they sin, since they know God has already forgiven them? Because my children know the incredible love of God in their lives, they in turn love Him and out of this love naturally wish to please Him by being obedient to not only Him but also their parents whom God has entrusted as their earthly guardians and teachers. Are they perfectly obedient? No more than their parents, who are continually tempted to think they know better than God and have to live with the consequences of foolish decisions made apart from asking God for wisdom and direction.
Most people in western societies today fail to realize that it was Christians living out their faith who established the first hospitals and universities, not to mention the compassionate aspects of government operations and systems such as the legal system. It was also Christians living out their faith who created organizations of compassion like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Y.M.C.A./Y.W.C.A. that probably all westerners have heard of and benefited from in some way. The original intention of all these institutions and organizations was to act as means by which the love of God through Jesus Christ could be acted out and preached. Unfortunately, now that the western world is post-Christian, only the former is true. These are now humanistic in the sense that they only help people on this side of eternity instead of also preparing them for the reality of meeting Jesus face to face (whether Christian or not) after they die.
So by "indoctrinating" my children about the one true God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - I believe that I am doing the greatest possible service to my local community and to our society as a whole. I don't believe that my actions will restore our society or world to a place of openness to hearing the message of the Gospel, but I do believe that they will do so - plus slow the rate of moral decay - at least in our sphere of influence.
We as Christian parents may not have the exposure that the Oprahs and Dalai Lamas enjoy, but at least our message is one that will actually change lives for real instead of trying to bandage the gaping wounds in our lives and society through humanistic feel-good thoughts and ideas that ultimately benefit no one - except for the pocketbooks of those who blindly or willingly spread these messages of false, empty hope apart from those found in the Bible.
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