If We Could Just All Love One Another Like Jesus Did....

Good morning! Thanks for all the emails and comments about my wall paper project. Someone suggested Windex and it does remove the glue residue so I am working with dueling projects. I spray the border in one room......spray the paper in the bathroom which happens to be next to the room with the border and then I scrape one while the other absorbs product and then I scrape the other. I am about one third of the way through and I know that you will notice my skinny arms next time you see me - Just kidding! I am thinking about having hubby take the bathroom mirror down while I am working on this project because I am tired of viewing myself in my jammies from every time I reach to scrape a bit. I mean, even Tyra Banks, would not look hot doing that would she?

Back to my title, I just finished reading my second book by Josh McDowell this week. I have personally heard him speak several times and most recently at the Apologetics Conference in the fall. Let me tell you, that man is on to something BIG. In the first book, he warns that if we do not teach our children to view the world the way that God sees it; then we may very well be the Last Generation that surrenders our lives to Jesus. Is that not a frightening thought? But it is oh so true, Ladies. Once I finished that book, I picked up another title by him: The New Tolerance. It is a MUST read for you girls.....especially if you plan to educate your children in public schools. He gives you advice for what you can do to guard your children's thinking when they are faced with a curriculum that embraces this new tolerance.

What is The New Tolerance? I am glad you asked. To adults, tolerance used to mean that we respected one another for having differences in opinion. It did not mean that we necessarily AGREED with them, but that we understood their right to a different opinion. The NEW TOLERANCE says that what is right for me is okay but may not necessarily be right for you. There is no longer a moral compass. It is a "Live and let live' philosophy....It is why a parent earlier this year stood in my classroom told me: "Mrs. Staples, I know better than to live like I am living right now. I was raised in this church and went to Sunday School in this very room BUT, it just doesn't work for young people anymore. Jesus loves me and I know he wants me to be HAPPY!" For those of you that are reading this, you know my response.....did I accept his theory of justifying his sin because Jesus wants him to be HAPPY? Absolutely not. But The NEW TOLERANCE that our culture embraces feeds him this line of baloney and a young man who was once raised in the church who claims that he knows better has bought in to this one size fits all type of thinking. Tragic, I tell you - just tragic.

According to the new tolerance, who you are is inseparable from what you do and think and believe; your identity is wrapped up in your culture and conduct. Therefore, if you express any disagreement over some one's beliefs, you are disparaging them! If you say that their behavior is wrong, you are judging them! If you criticize the culture, then you are criticising them! If you cannot accept their lifestyle, you are being intolerant of them! In other words, if you do not approve of a person's lifestyle, then you do not love the person.

My friend that could not be further from the truth, but our culture has embraced this and it seems as though everyone has rights today but Christians (and it is going to get worse) and it began with a multicultural curriculum that made it's way into our public school classrooms about 15 years ago.

Scripture does not teach that what we do constitutes the whole of who we are; the Bible says that "God created man in His own image....male and female He created them." Gen. 1:27 He created human beings as individuals made in His own image and with His own hands (Gen. 2:7) not just as products of their cultures and communities. Our beliefs and behaviors affect us, OF COURSE IT DOES! Isaiah wrote "Your iniquities have separated you from your God" in Isaiah 59:2, but his words how us a clear distinction between WHO we are and WHAT we do - in this case our iniquities. But praise God that what we do is NOT the same as WHO we are!

Yes, Jesus loves everyone but He loved them enough to tell them the TRUTH during His time here on Earth - remember the woman at the well? He spoke the truth....Do you/

Please read this book and talk about this with your children....our choice is simple - are we choosing the cross or the culture?

Have a great day in Him,
Kim