Gospel Living

2            Out of the mouth of babies and infants,             you have established strength because of your foes,             to still the enemy and the avenger. Just as stunning as knowing the name of God (v. 1) is being used by Him!  Often, we feel inferior, being intimidated by believers who seem more mature or educated in the faith.  We may feel that our knowledge or holiness is too lacking for God to use.  Of course, we should use such insights as opportunities to seek the Lord for continued growing graces.  Even so, understand that the Lord often uses us despite what we bring to the table. God speaks through the young.   This verse obviously refer to the very young (cf. 1 Kgs 3:21)—how we as Christians start our spiritual lives.  Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 that we must repent, ...

Whether its licking peanut butter from armpits , grown men singing "Call Me Maybe," or doing the Harlem Shake , peppy youth groups seem to prefer the silly rather than the sanctified.  Perhaps churches think this is so deep it will change kids' hearts: This Sunday, find a church that upholds the sufficiency of Spirit-inspired Scripture rather than this cheesy corn.

From Rick Thomas: Life Lesson 1  -  Your starting point will determine how you end. Start here: your parents are not perfect . Life Lesson 2  -   Life is not fair – get used to it! Life Lesson  3  -   The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself. Life Lesson  4  -   If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. Life Lesson  5  -   Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. Life Lesson  6  -   If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Life Lesson  7  -  Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you...

" Divided ," a film raising interesting points and claiming to have solutions, might not provide all it advertises.  Lyndon Unger provides us with a fitting critique of it as well as his thoughts as to the real problem: youth pastors .

AT&T (for all its flaws) has developed an excellent documentary you need to share with the younger people in your life: (HT: Counseling Solutions )

No, not really.   Kevin DeYoung evaluates an example of misleading headlines . (Of course, this is not to say that our Christian counselors should not be ready to help these students as they struggle with their sins.  Please, no angry letters.)

This looks very interesting. Britt Beamer (researcher from America's Research Group ) and Ken Ham (of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum ) have come together to write " a shock and a wake-up call for the church ." And no, it is not specifically on the topic of creationism. Here is the teaser straight from the AiG blog: We interviewed people aged between 20–29 who went to church when they were younger, but no longer go to church. And we only included participants who attended conservative evangelical churches so that the results are the best they could possibly be. But we discovered that in the church things are much worse overall. The purpose of the research was to find out why they left church—what caused them to do this. The results are shocking and a real wake-up call. If God’s people take this research to heart, it could revolutionize our churches. Here are just a couple of the many things we found: 1. Over 40% in the survey had decided to leave the ch...

I first heard this story on Wretched Radio, but couldn't find it online. HT to the Rebelution for posting it. It was a documentary posted on BBC3 on 10 March, 2009. I really recommend youth as well as parents watch this for some possible inspiration. I've posted all six parts below to save you the temptation of reading the comments left on the YouTube videos. According to the YouTube blurb: Documentary about 13-year-old Deborah Drapper, who, unlike other British teens has never heard of Britney Spears or Victoria Beckham. She has been brought up in a deeply Christian family and her parents have tried to make sure she and her ten brothers and sisters have grown up protected from the sins of the outside world. Deborah is a bright, confident girl who has big ambitions for her life and the film spends a summer with her as she ventures out in the world to see what life outside her family could be and starts putting her beliefs forward to a wider audience. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:...