“The end is near!” “Repent!”
Have you ever seen a statement of prophetic warning spray-painted on a wall or in a subway station? got to be honest, I don’t take much notice to such warnings. But what if those warnings were for me and for you?
Has religion disappointed you? Has God let you down?
How do we make sense of God and the world when we feel so hurt by them? Doesn’t the world make more sense without a God who would allow the evil that we see and experience?
Friedrich Nietzsche, a prophet ahead of his time, saw the allure of the modern rejection of God. But he also recognized the serious consequences of such a conclusion. If Soren Kierkegaard demanded the Christian to take a “leap of faith” toward God, Nietzsche demanded that the atheist take a leap of faith into the abyss.
Is your fatherhood like a Rubik’s Cube? This equally pertains to moms, “I call this The Rubik’s Cube Effect. One side starts to come together, but in the very act of bringing order there, something else is thrown out of place.”
The paradox of the brightening path: Trevin Wax begins, “There’s a paradox you’ll encounter the longer you walk with Jesus. The more you experience the light of his love, the more clearly you see the remaining spots and stains in your life. Progress seems lacking. Stumbles continue to mark your journey. The more you know the Lord’s love for you, the more you feel your unworthiness and your dependence on his grace.”
Over and over again belief is directly connected to us becoming children of God, being given eternal life, being saved, and pleasing God.
But that raises an important question: what is belief? Most of us, when we think of belief, we think of it as accepting something as true. Merriam-Webster offers three definitions of belief. The second and third definitions reinforce our instinct: (2) “something that is accepted, considered to be true, or held as an opinion.” (3) “conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon, especially when based on examination of evidence.”
The case against social media: Jon Haidt and Zack Rausch say, “Across surveys in multiple countries, many young people report that social media has harmed them directly and indirectly. They describe widespread experiences of cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, sleep disruption, lower confidence, and worse mental health. They also express strikingly high levels of regret toward the major platforms they have used for years. In a Harris Poll survey of members of Gen Z, nearly half reported that they wish that TikTok, X (Twitter), and Snapchat were never invented — despite using those platforms for several hours a day.”
Six selfish reasons to have kids: Kevin Kelly says, “Now after only two generations
“In 2025, the average person worldwide [spent] 6 hours and 45 minutes staring at screens every single day — almost half of all waking hours.” For Americans, 3 hours of that time were spent watching TV and videos and 1.5 hours were spent on social media. We would do well to heed the wisdom of Author Annie Dillard who reminds us that, “How we spend our days… is how we spend our lives.” Her observation is not just poetic, it’s diagnostic.
We just launched a sermon series entitled Feedback Loop, inviting us to live wisely in an age of foolishness.
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