"A Tale of Six Boys"

Friends, I received the in an email yesterday and thought it would be fitting to share on a day we honor our Soldiers..God Bless

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI, where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, And each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.

Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?"

I told him that we were from Wisconsin. "Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."

(James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up.

I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)

When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. (Here are his words that night.)

"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called Flags of Our Fathers which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.

"Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.

Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old.

(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a photograph of his girlfriend.

Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.

"The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24.

When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'

"The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes,a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.'

He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?' So you take your fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes.

He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32... ten years after this picture was taken.

"The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night. Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy.

Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

"The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews.

When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back. My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.

"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.

"When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'"

"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."




Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.

We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice. Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom.

Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.

God Bless You and God Bless America.

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.

Have we gone too far with all these Czars?

I think so, sure I think it’s awesome that Baskin Robbins has 32 flavors of Ice Cream but do we really need 32 Czars? According to some sources that is exactly how many we have in the Obama administration. This means we have more czars than Imperial Russia. So what is a Czar anyway? According to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary a Czar is “one having great power or authority”, in government they are appointments of a few special officers to play a constructive role in a given administration. But the problem is they are not subjected to Senate confirmation and congressional oversight and pose a grave threat to our system of checks and balances. I found the next two quotes on another blog.

“Even Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd (W.Va.) was fearful enough to pen a letter to President Obama in February highlighting his concerns with the administration’s tactics. The Constitution mandates that the Senate confirm Cabinet-level department heads and other appointees in positions of authority — known as “principal officers.” This gives Congress — elected by the people — the power to compel executive decision-makers to testify and be held accountable by someone other than the president. It also ensures that key appointees cannot claim executive privilege when subpoenaed to come before Congress.”

“The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States.” — Sen. Barack Obama, March 31, 2008

“To say President Obama failed to follow through on this promise is an understatement. By appointing a virtual army of “czars” — each wholly unaccountable to Congress yet tasked with spearheading major policy efforts for the White House — in his first six months, the president has embarked on an end-run around the legislative branch of historic proportions.”

So what kind of Czars are out there you say? Here are just a few examples. The administration has a Mideast peace czar (not to be confused with the Mideast policy czar), a Sudan czar and a Guantanamo closure czar. Then there’s the green jobs czar, sometimes in conflict with the energy czar, who talks to the technology czar, who sometimes crosses paths with the urban affairs czar. We mustn’t forget the Great Lakes czar or the WMD czar, who no doubt works hand in hand with the terrorism czar. The stimulus accountability czar is going through a rough time right now, as is the TARP czar — but thankfully they have to answer to the government performance czar. And seemingly everyone falls under the auspices of the information czar. In a government full of duplicative bureaucracies, adding more layers with overlapping responsibilities hardly seems the way to go.

The car czar, who stepped down this month amid controversy over his former firm’s role in a scandal, had been managing government’s recent takeover of a huge swath of the domestic auto industry and making decisions for auto companies. The pay czar — also known in White House circles as the “special master for compensation” — has the power to reject or accept any current and future compensation for the top 100 earners at companies that received, in some cases under pressure, money from the Troubled Assets Relief Program. In the coming months he will decide the fate of $235 million in pending retention bonuses at AIG. And the health czar, meanwhile, has become as influential as perhaps anyone in the Obama administration, spearheading White House negotiations with doctors, hospitals and other health providers. She will play a key role in determining which medicines, treatments and cures are deemed necessary for the public.

You know I could of sworn we had cabinet heads (secretaries if you will) to cover all these areas. I think I want to become a czar. Maybe a video game czar, I can get a fat paycheck, have a staff and determine if some of these games are worth 60$ or not. Or I can be a college football czar and make it illegal for top ten teams to play against community colleges. An example would be #1 Florida playing Charleston Southern. Really? I thought preseason was over. So what kind of czar would you like to be?

Leaving a “Spiritual Inheritance”

Friends,


While preparing for my men’s book study “The man God Uses” I came up with a question for next week’s lesson. The question is “What does it mean to have a Spiritual responsibility to your children and grandchildren?” Now the book we are reading had some great examples but I also came across an article on the internet that talked about leaving a “Spiritual Inheritance”. I have never really given it much thought but I do know after Heidi and I were married my grandfather gave us a bible with a personal note and some scriptures that would help us in the future. I think that’s what their talking about. I can remember another time when my brother and I were talking about books and what to do with the ones we’ve read. How about leaving them for our kids? How cool would that be to see what your parents were reading and to look at things they highlighted or notes they may have jotted down? You know we are always worried about leaving our kids money but how awesome would it be to leave a “Spiritual Inheritance”? I would love to have more personal things like this from my parents and grandparents. So my challenge to you all is to start preparing your Spiritual Inheritance for your kids and grandchildren. Below is an article I pulled from the internet that has some great ideals. You might even want to save your blogs for your children as well.

http://www.spiritualdisciplines.org/inheritance.html


LEAVE A SPIRITUAL INHERITANCE

"A good man," says Proverbs 13:22, "leaves an inheritance to his children's children." Leaving a material and financial inheritance in a wise manner is good stewardship and can be a great blessing to your heirs. But have you considered ways to leave an inheritance to your family that will have a more direct spiritual impact on them?

These spiritual lives we're trying to simplify aren't lived for ourselves only. We also bear responsibility to influence others spiritually, especially the members of our own family. To that end, here are a few items to leave as spiritual time capsules with the belief that they will bless many generations of your descendants.

Prayers. The beloved old Bible commentator, Matthew Henry said somewhere that wise parents are more concerned about leaving a treasury of prayers for their children than a treasury of silver and gold. God can answer long after we are dead the prayers for our children and future generations we bring to His throne today. King Hezekiah's wicked son, Manasseh, repented and turned to the Lord many decades after Hezekiah died (see 2 Chronicles 33:12-19), but no doubt the father left behind a rich inheritance of prayers to God for his wayward boy. You may want to preserve some of your prayers for your descendants in letters or journals.

Journals. One hundred years from now, quite possibly all that will be known of you will be from photographs or videos, and from what you write. Despite your decades of life and labor, few, if any, of even your direct descendants a century from today will know anything about your spirituality. (What do you know about the inner life of your ancestors who, just 1200 months ago, were as alive as you are now?) Leave your heirs a clear, written testimony of how you came to know God through Jesus Christ. Provide them with a record of answers to prayer, remarkable providences, significant spiritual events, and other works of God in your part of their family history. Write letters to your descendants, urging them to trust Christ, to maintain a Christian heritage in the family, and to meet you in Heaven. Make a list of books that have influenced you.

Books. Leave a library—especially of Christian books—for your children and their children. The Lord may use the books to bring them to Christ and to give solid guidance to their spiritual lives long after you are gone. Collect good books for your children or grandchildren even before they are born. I've always bought books (both Christian and general reading) for my daughter, Laurelen, years before she could enjoy them. In fact, I started buying books for her future children when she was just six years old. So if I find a bargain on boys' books, I'll buy them—even though Laurelen will probably never read them—in anticipation of having grandsons some day. Who knows whether some of the great old used books I find for them today will still be available or affordable by then?

Daily planners. If you have the space, archive your daily planners. These reflect how you've spent your time and, combined with your journals, provide a fairly complete biography of your adult life.

Of course, your most immediate spiritual legacy is the life you live before the watching eyes of your children and grandchildren. However, some (all?) of your grandchildren or great-grandchildren may never know you personally. But if you leave them a rich spiritual inheritance, they may say of you, "He being dead still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4).

Don’t mess with the Bull you’ll get the horns!

One of my favorite quotes from the movie “ The Breakfast Club” besides “does Barry Manilow know you stole his wardrobe?” is “ don’t mess with the bull, you’ll get the horns”. Well that’s exactly what happened the other day in Spain during the annual running of Bulls festival. Here is some of the story from the AP

PAMPLONA, Spain - A charging bull gored a man to death Friday at Pamplona's San Fermin festival, the first such fatality in nearly 15 years. Nine others were injured in a particularly dangerous and chaotic chapter of the running of the bulls.

The San Fermin festival Web site said the unidentified man was gored in the neck and lung during a run in which a rogue bull separated from the pack, which is among the worst things that can happen at Spain's most popular fiesta.

My question is why do we even entertain doing stuff like this? I know I have done some crazy things in my past. But I always have to ask myself “what was I thinking?” I have to admit before this guy was gored to death I have always thought it would be cool to run with the bulls. Also have you ever noticed it’s always young to middle age white guys doing crazy stunts like this. Do women have these ideals and just not act on them? What is it about us that make us think things like this would be a cool ? Putting a lit bottle rocket in your butt is another example reckless behavior guys have engaged in. Is it the “Jack Ass Syndrome” ?

Hopefully I have grown out of this stage of my life but I have to worry about my son and his buddies and I pray they won’t try to act out some of these things they see on you-tube. What are some of the craziest stunts you have ever done? For me it would be running over a junked car with a tank, and driving 125 Mph on the Autobahn in Germany. What was I thinking?

Church: Love It, Don't Leave It

Friends,


I found this article in the Washington Post and thought it was worth sharing. Seems like lately we have been trying to come up with our own style of church instead of following the example Jesus set for us over 2,000 years ago. I am all for meeting at houses or coffee shops for some fellowship and worship as long as it's not taking the place our weekly Church services. As a matter of fact I think we need to spend more time together in fellowship and worship. I am really encouraged when I see how our Westwood youth get together and just hang out at Church. What do you all think? Are we too caught up in the world to give more than 2 or 3 hours a week worshiping with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ? I know I spend that amount of time just goofing off at the house everynight. So while I am taking the plank out of my own eye let us try to come up with some ways to get together and fellowship more..What says you? Below is the article from the Washington Post



Church: Love It, Don't Leave It
By Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

Here's what Bono, Oprah, and the guru speakers on PBS won't tell you: Jesus believed in organized religion and he founded an institution. Of course, Jesus had no patience for religious hacks and self-righteous wannabes, but he was still Jewish. And as Jew, he read the Holy Book, worshiped in the synagogue, and kept Torah. He did not start a movement of latte-drinking disciples who excelled in spiritual conversations. He founded the church (Matt. 16:18) and commissioned the apostles to proclaim the good news that Israel's Messiah had come and the sins of the world could be forgiven through his death on the cross (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:14-36).

For almost two millennia, it was axiomatic that Christians, like, actually went to church (or at least told other Christians they did). From Cyprian to Calvin it was believed that for those to whom God "is Father the church may also be Mother." But increasingly Christians are trying to get more spiritual by getting less church.

Take a spin through the religion section at your local bookstore. What you'll find there is revealing - there are "revolutionary" books for stay at home moms, teenagers, and Christian businessmen. There are lots of manifestos. And most of the books about church are about people leaving the church to "find God." There are lots of Kerouacian "journey" stories, and at least one book about the gospel according to Starbucks. It used to be you had to overthrow a country to be considered a revolutionary, and now, it seems, you just have to quit church and go pray in the woods.

We've been in the church our whole lives and are not blind to its failings. Churches can be boring, hypocritical, hurtful, and inept. The church is full of sinners. Which is kind of the point. Christians are worse than you think. Our Savior is better than you imagine.

But the church is not all about oppression and drudgery. Almost every church we know of visits old people, brings meals to new moms, supports disaster relief, and does something for the poor. We love the local church, in spite of its problems, because it's where we go to meet God. It's not a glorified social/country club you attend to be around people who talk and look just you do. It's a place to hear God's word spoken, taught and affirmed. It's a place to sing praises to God, and a place to serve others. It's a place to be challenged.

The church is more than plural for Christian. It is both organism and organization, a living thing comprised of a certain order, regular worship services, with doctrinal standards, institutional norms, and defined rituals. Without the institution of the church nurturing the flock and protecting the faith for two thousand years, there would be no Christianity. If Gen Xers (like us) and their friends want to be against something, start a revolution. If you want to conserve truth and grace for twenty centuries, plant a church.

We love the church because Christ loved the church. She is his bride--a harlot at times, but his bride nonetheless, being washed clean by the word of God (Eph. 5:25-26). If you are into Jesus, don't rail on his bride. Jesus died for the church, so don't be bothered by a little dying to self for the church's sake. If you keep in mind that everyone there is a sinner (including yourself) and that Jesus Christ is the point and not you, your dreams, or your kids, your church experience might not be as lame as you fear.

Perhaps Christians are leaving the church because it isn't tolerant and open-minded. But perhaps the church-leavers have their own intolerance too--intolerant of tradition, intolerant of authority, intolerant of imperfection except their own. Are you open-minded enough to give the church a chance--a chance for the church to be the church, not a coffee shop, not a mall, not a variety show, not Chuck E. Cheese, not a U2 concert, not a nature walk, but a wonderfully ordinary, blood-bought, Spirit-driven church with pastors, sermons, budgets, hymns, bad carpet and worse coffee?

The Church, because it is Christ's church, will outlive American Idol, the NFL, and all of our grandkids. We won't last, but the Church will. So when it comes to church, be like Jesus: love it, don't leave it. As Saint Calloway once prophesied to the Brothers of Blues, "Jake, you get wise, you get to church

Addicted to Entertainment

Friends,

My name is Chris and I am addicted to entertainment! I never really gave it much thought but its true. A couple of weeks ago my friend Shawn mentioned he was cutting off the TV for awhile, another friend Benita mention she was giving up “Farm Town”. I have had other family members mention packing up their TV’s and video games. So it looks like I am not alone. I am addicted to all these things! Now with today’s technology, we have enough media at our fingertips to be able to watch thousands of hours (days/Months) of TV shows and Movies. With Netflix and Hulu alone you can spend every min of the day watching something new for the rest of your lives. Wow! Sometimes that’s enough to stress you out. I have about 30 hrs alone on my DVR that I don’t have time to watch. Let alone the hundreds of DVD’s I just had to have. Am I really going to have time to watch all 5 Star Wars movies again? I don’t think so.

But is all this bad? That’s the million dollar question. I think if it controls your life, keeps you from worshiping God and spending time with your family it is. I was thinking about this the other day. I have recently decided to start doing some extra activities at Church (couples class on Sunday evenings and Men’s book study on Wed). All of this combined with the services on Sun and Wednesday adds up to about 7 hrs a week. That’s a lot! But then I thought about how much time I spend on entertainment I felt ashamed. I can’t even give 7 hours to worship and fellowship with other belivers?

So what’s the take away? For me it’s balance and prioritizing. It’s about putting God first, and then your family and anything left can go for entertainment. For the longest time I have had these in the reverse order and trust me it’s a daily struggle. But if you read the attached article there are some good tips from Tim Challies and John Piper on overcoming this addiction. Another thing I would suggest is to take it slow and wean yourself off these addictions. Look at it like steering an 18 wheeler that you are trying to turn around. Make a slow gradual turn. A lot of people want to get radical and go cold turkey. Examples being, taking out the TV or shutting off the cable. It never works. Like Brother Steve said the other night about good intentions being the path to you know where! Remember “I was gonna” died and didn’t make it to Heaven because he “was gonna” and never did. The below excerpt comes from Tim Challies’s blog http://www.challies.com/ Hope you enjoy…Chris


Addicted to Entertainment (II)by Tim Challies

Yesterday I looked briefly at entertainment addiction and attempted to propose a definition of entertainment. I said that entertainment is an escape or distraction from normal life. Perhaps I should have added that it is an “enjoyable” escape or distraction. While this is an imperfect definition, I think it is useful, at the least. We seek entertainment to take our minds off the stresses and strains and reality of life.
Today I want to offer a couple of ideas that may help you see the impact entertainment has on our lives.

QUALIFY ENTERTAINMENT

I think we need to first qualify our entertainment. We need to figure out what constitutes entertainment and this may well vary from person to person. A lot of what we may think is news or information or otherwise beneficial information may really be entertainment thinly disguised. Do you check Drudge Report eight or ten times every day looking to see the newest headlines? If so, I suspect you are being entertained more than you are being informed. That little bit of information you get from glancing at the headlines and skimming through the stories should probably be filed as entertainment. The same is true of much of the evening news or the blogs you read. Are these things really integral to your life and faith? Or are they really just a form of entertainment? In Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman asked when the last time was that you read a news headline and were compelled to take action. He realized that the vast majority of the news that comes to us is news which demands no action; instead, it is mere information that entertains us but without edifying or challenging us. Even news is often entertainment.

So my encouragement here is to take a look at your day and especially the time you spend in front of screens to determine how much of it is genuinely useful, genuinely applicable to life and how much of it is really a form of entertainment. Which of the shows you watch are entertainment and which are genuinely useful? Which of the web sites you read are entertainment and which actually impact your life? Which of the books you read are amusing and which are edifying? Just pause briefly to think about it.

QUANTIFY ENTERTAINMENT

Once you have qualified what you do to entertain yourself, try to quantify it. Here you simply attach a number to your entertainment—a number of hours or minutes every day in which you enjoy entertainment. I suspect that, almost invariably, you will be surprised at how large that number is.
As of 2008, the average person between the ages of 18 and 24 spent 8.5 hours every day in front of some kind of a screen—whether computer, cell phone, television, or any other. Mom and dad (aged 45 - 54) fared better (or is it worse?), clocking in at 9.5 hours. These are incredible statistics that give a sense of how digital technologies are reshaping our world. Consider that in 1940 the average would have been 0 hours per day. In just 70 years we have radically reshaped our lives.
How much of this screen time is entertainment-related? In most cases I suspect that it would be the vast majority. Almost 5 hours of the 8.5 for that 18 to 24 year-old are spent watching television (with mom and dad tallying over 6). Can any of that be deemed something other than entertainment? Not likely. How much of the computer time is related to work or school and how much is chatting or browsing or looking at pornography? And even when we seek to be productive on our computers, how often do we switch quickly to email or Digg or Facebook, even if just for a moment or two at a time? How much of the time spent texting and chatting on the cell phone is for entertainment purposes? And even when we do sit back on the couch with a good book, do we keep the television on, just within our peripheral vision?

Even when we look exclusively at screen time we find that people must spend several hours a day being entertained. And this does not include all the other means of entertainment available to us. So quantify your entertainment. For just a day or two track what you do and define appropriate categories. Keep an eye out for how often you switch from work to entertainment, school to entertainment, even if for only two or three minutes each time. I suspect you will find that you are demanding hours of entertainment every day.

WHAT TO DO?

Before we continue, I wish to emphasize once again that entertainment is not inherently evil. In fact, I am sure that God created us so we desire and pursue times of entertainment. However, I do think we live at a time when we pursue entertainment with reckless abandon and when we demand it in unprecedented quantities. And for this reason it does us good to think about it, to qualify it, to quantify it.

Now we return to the question that triggered these articles. Somebody wrote to John Piper and asked “I believe I do love Jesus, but most of the time I’d rather spend time being entertained than spend time in God’s word. How do I break this hold that entertainment has on my heart?”

Here is Piper’s reply:

1. Recognizing it is a huge step in the right direction.
2. Seek the Lord earnestly about it. Pray like crazy that God would open your eyes to see wondrous things out of his law.
3. Immerse yourself in the Bible, even when you don’t feel like it, pleading with God to open your eyes to see what’s really there.
4. Get in a group where you talk about serious things.
5. Begin to share your faith. One of the reasons we are not as moved by our own faith as we are is because we almost never talk about it to any unbeliever. It starts to feel like a kind of hothouse thing, and then it starts to have a feeling of unreality about it. And then the powers of entertainment have more sway in our life.

What I have sought to do yesterday and today is give some guidance, some context, to this first step. I want to help you recognize if and where entertainment has dominated your time. If you quantify your entertainment and find that you are spending four or five hours a day being entertained, you may will identify with this person’s honest statement: “most of the time I’d rather spend time being entertained than spend time in God’s word.”

At this point I’d encourage you to pursue Piper’s remedy. I know there is much more that could be said at this point but his suggestions are, at the very least, a great place to start. Pray like crazy, immerse yourself in Scripture even (and especially) when you do not want to, talk with others about serious things and share the gospel. Let God’s Word shape and mold you, showing you what really matters.

Son's messy room leads to dad's 911 call

Friends,

I found this on MSN this morning.

“BEDFORD, Ohio - An Ohio man who argued with his grown son over a messy bedroom says he overreacted when he called 911.Andrew Mizsak called authorities Thursday after his 28-year-old son — who's a school board member in the Cleveland suburb of Bedford — threw a plate of food across the kitchen table and made a fist at him when told to clean his room. The son, also named Andrew, lives in a room in his parents' basement. The father declined to press charges and told police he doesn't want to ruin his son's political career. The son, who also works as a political consultant, says he's lucky to be living in the house rent free. He also promises to keep his room clean.”

How many of us can relate to this guy? I know I can. I also know if I had a dollar for every time we have told our Son to clean his room we could pay our house off. But you know this really got me thinking about how our Heavenly Father is doing the same thing with us. Using our “Room” as an analogy for our “lives” I am sure our father is constantly telling us to clean up! Do we listen? A lot of times we don’t but he loves us anyway and doesn’t give up hope that one day we will change. I often equate being a parent to the way God is our parent. I often tell my Son that I love him and that I would give my life for him just like Jesus did for us. I tell him that God forgives me when I mess up and I will do the same for him. He still has a messy room but has a closer relationship with his parents and for that I am eternally grateful

Father thank you for the Mercy and Grace you have shown us in dealing with our “messy Rooms” We know we are undeserving of your Love and Forgiveness but you give it freely anyway. Father thank you sending your Son to die for our sins and thank you for not giving up on us. It’s in Jesus name we pray Amen!