Our culture has sunk into an immoral abyss without even realizing that it is close the point of self destruction. It will not be from foreign militants that destroy our culture, it will happen from our living rooms through the media propaganda and immoral content of programs that have so easily enticed us. I was reminded of how serious this is in our culture when I attended an award winning play this weekend only to hear and see in the first ten minutes, crude profanity, and a very shameful scene of obscenity.
The Greeks restricted violence and intimacy on stage, not because of their high moral standards, but because of their understanding of aesthetics and obscenity. The word obscene means “off stage.” Violence and intimacy were considered “off stage” behaviors. Intimacy is ordained of God for marriage, not for public eyes. Public intimacy is obscene, not because it is evil but because it is sacred. Moreover, when an audience is captivated by the dramatic involvement of the characters, violence and sexual content break the aesthetic mood. The memorable vicarious experience is now overshadowed and disrupted by shocking violence or sensual provocation. Capturing the interest of an audience aesthetically requires the pen of a skilled word-crafter; shocking the audience with a violent scene or stimulating them sexually requires no talent. We are losing our taste for aesthetic beauty, becoming immune to inhumane and violent treatment of others, and dulling our sense of compassion, imagination, and conscience. The warning here is not that these things are hurting our children, they are ruining the lives of adults and our ability to enjoy things that are pure and holy; the things that bring true enjoyment. May we be guided by the words of God through king David, “I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.” Psalm 101:3
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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My plan was to visit my mom just for the day, but the forecast didn’t look good. As a new pilot I cannot fly into the clouds, so the weather governs when and where I can fly. I made it there safely but there was only a small “window” to fly out. So my mom drove me to the grass run way where I usually land, in to in time for me to make me getaway.
I did a quick pre-flight inspection then taxied on the short grass runway. As I turned the plane for my run up, I couldn’t believe my eyes! My mother was driving onto the runway, and there she parked the car—right in front of me! I waved for her to move, but she shook her head in defiance! I looked at the clouds, which were moving in quickly, and knew that if she didn’t move immediately, I would miss my open window. Well, there was nothing moving her. I missed my window and was stuck for five days.
Was I upset? Not at all. I recognized that my mom’s actions were all a part of God’s great sovereign design and plan. In fact, we had quite a laugh over the whole episode. I later learned that the cloud cover that would have been in my flight path had lowered to 100 feet, and the visibility was zero—for five days! Instead of a possible crash landing, I enjoyed my mother’s cooking, while she enjoyed my company.
And that’s when these selected verses in Psalm 143 began to mean so much to me: “Make me know the way I should go…Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” Sometimes, roadblocks are God’s messengers of safety…and sometimes they come in the form of your mother!
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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Growing up in a Christian home is no guarantee your kids will love God!
In fact, research suggests just the opposite. An alarming number of college students report that they don’t go to church – despite the fact they were raised as Christians and were active in their church youth groups.
Unfortunately, many parents make the mistake of believing the Church should handle their child’s spiritual education. And few of us feel equipped to have serious family discussions about our faith. Yet a majority of teenagers today report that the two most influential people in their lives are mom and dad.
So that means we as parents have an important job to do – because if we give our kids the impression that Christianity is little more than a social activity we participate in once a week on Sunday, they won’t take God seriously. Kids have an uncanny ability to see inconsistencies between our words and actions, and if our relationship to Jesus Christ isn’t genuine, they already know it!
Passing on the legacy of our faith requires a 24/7 lifestyle of teaching, modeling and training. We must let show our kids how we believe, serve, love and even make mistakes. There’s no better way to teach your children about God’s grace than by asking them to forgive you.
If you really want to see your child’s faith grow, start by strengthening your own relationship with God. That example will speak louder than any words you say.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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I have, many times, and they taste terrible! No not the bird, but the humiliation you bring on yourself when you hold firm to your pride and stubbornness.
The phrase, “eat crow?” was born during the War of 1812 when a British officer gained control of the musket of an American hunter. He made the hunter eat the crow he had just shot. After taking a few bites, the hunter regained control of his musket and then made the soldier eat the remainder of the crow.
The concept of eating or not eating crow really goes back to the time of Jesus. He said, “Agree with your adversary quickly.”
This is never easy, but it is God’s prescribed way to end conflicts, which opens the door of your heart to be free again. To be shackled in conflict is a burden that is avoidable if we would just follow this simple step: “Agree with your adversary quickly. Listen to the whole text from Matthew 5:25:
Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are with him in the way, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
You don’t have to have full-blown legal action against you to respond quickly with your adversary. No. This principle of agreeing with your adversary quickly, applies in marriage, resolving conflict with children, at work, with your neighbors, and at church. Agreeing quickly will help you avoid the bitter taste of crow, and allow you to enjoy the savory taste of God’s grace. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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Marco Andreoli was 32 years old in 2002 when Italy’s Highest court ordered Marco’s father to pay him approximately $1000 per month until Marco found a job that quote “fit his aspirations.” What was this court thinking? And that is what Marco’s father asked after the decision. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, “The judges said that a parent’s duty of maintenance did not expire when their children reached adulthood, but continued unchanged until they were able to prove either that their children had reached economic independence or had failed to do so through culpable inertia.” If that was me, my father would have given me inertia at the end of his boot. What was not reflected in the newspaper was that Marco held a law degree, a house on a posh street in Naples, and a joint ownership of an investment fund worth more than $390,000. Yet, it was his father’s legal responsibility to fund his son’s lifestyle until he landed the perfect job!
And you might ask, “How is this possible?” It starts with departure from a biblical world view. Whenever a nation departs from biblical truth for its governance, it opens the door to socialism, Marxism, Nazism, Communism, and just plain out stupidism—even to the removal of the 10 commandments from public sites.
In the book of Isaiah we read: “My people go into exile for lack of knowledge… Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” A Biblical world view doesn’t come through osmosis…we need to be men and women of the Word…If you haven’t read Isaiah, I would highly recommend it. My 77 year old mom just read the book of Isaiah for the very first time and she loved it.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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I hate injustice – especially when the injustice is against me!
One incident I clearly remember was when my family was young. I was attending seminary and trying to make ends meet as a caretaker for a very wealthy woman. My plan was to work hard, be a godly testimony, and show her the love of Christ.
I was barely making enough to survive. While raising sheep and horses and maintaining farm equipment, water treatment and several hundred acres of hayfields, I made a whopping $160 per week! She had agreed that I could sell the extra hay to supplement my income—that is, until we had a bumper crop! Then she insisted that I give her 50% of the hay income. But I stubbornly refused—her word was her word!
Well, after that she made my life miserable. I was given extra duties to carry out, and I was told that I must pay to fix her antiquated equipment whenever it broke down! But I wasn’t going to back down because I was in the right!
Needless to say, my plan to be a godly example had failed. If only I had considered the life of Joseph, who not only endured hardship, false accusation, humiliation, and injustice—he did so faithfully and humbly. He trusted God, and as a result, God used him in a mighty way. Though they meant it for evil, God meant it for good…
Just as Joseph was lifted from prison to the second highest position in Egypt, we will see God lift us up if we yield and trust Him. Vengeance belongs to God. And if we’re willing to humble ourselves, he promises to lift us up.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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In his book Friendly Dragons, Moral Nightmares: A Battle for Your Child’s Imagination, Michael O’Brien writes that scientific studies have shown conclusively that within thirty seconds of watching television, a viewer enters a measurable trancelike state. This allows the material shown to bypass the critical faculty, so that images and ideas are absorbed by the mind without conscious reflection. Television beguiles many of the senses at once, and the viewer is locked into its pace in order not to “miss anything.”
When one listens carefully to many of the programs made for children, one frequently hears the strains of modern Gnosticism: that knowledge is power and salvation. On any given Saturday morning you will hear the subtle allures: “if you watch this, you will know more, be more grown-up, more smart, more cool, more funny, more able to talk about it with your friends, and more powerful.”
Oh if people only understood what is available for them today. Did you know that the knowledge of God has been reduced from 72% to only 4%, among our youth today. Peter understood the power that the knowledge of God produces when he wrote in his second letter: Grace to you, and peace be multiplied by a full knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. As His divine power has given to us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the full knowledge of the One calling us…” I like what Chuck Swindoll once said as he ended his sermon, “Without the knowledge of God, you’re sunk!” Let’s turn off CNN, Fox News and Saturday morning cartoons and begin doing the math: grace and peace are multiplied by a full knowledge of God…and there’s so much to learn…the abundant life is waiting for us! If you don’t know where to start, I would suggest starting from the beginning!
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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I was reading in Matthew 20 this morning and came upon the scene when Jesus cursed the fig tree because it bore only leaves. Looking at the tree he said, “May no fruit come from you ever again.” This may seem a little bizarre. Jesus is hungry, the tree has no fruit, it gets dusted! At least it would appear that the tree did nothing to deserve this but the text says it bore ONLY LEAVES. You see, in the spring time there is a certain kind of fig tree that bears figs first and then leaves. Not only is this a fruitless fig tree that looks good on the outside, full of leaves, but Jesus just returned from the cleansing the temple, saying “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Can you see the link yet? There you have the praying, yet fruitless Scribes and Pharisees in the temple. Next you have a fruitless fig tree that Jesus withers because it had only leaves. It looked good on the outside but upon closer examination it revealed that it had no fruit. Jesus came to the tree to be fed. It is through our life, a fruitful life, that Jesus is refreshed. Now we can look at what Jesus says next and see that it makes perfect sense: “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” In the gospel of Mark he adds, “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Can you see it now? Answers to prayer come as the result of a fruitful life. A fruitful life is the result of a life of faith. Faith grows in direct proportion to our forgiveness of others.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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Is God responsible for grief in our lives?
According to Lamentations chapter 3, “God causes grief.”
In fact, Jeremiah, who had been reeling from false accusation, starvation, and abuse, writes that “God bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.”
It sounds like divine target practice! So what’s the purpose behind these divine arrows of grief?
- Sometimes God sends arrows to bring our true nature to the surface.
- Other times they come to protect us or instruct us. David in Psalm 119 writes that it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.
- Divine arrows can be used to draw our eyes away from a dangerous desire and back to God. In the book of Hosea chapter 2 the prophet writes, “Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.”
- But most often, divine arrows build spiritual character and maturity that will be needed for the future as Paul instructs us in Romans 5: “suffering produces endurances, and endurance produces character.”
Now I realize that there are some of you listening who will not like this idea of God setting us up as target practice. So before you get a wrong impression of a loving holy God, let’s see what else Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3: “though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies, for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.” God has our best interest in mind. He’s more concerned about us being holy than happy.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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Discerning God’s will is no easy task. Sometimes God puts up roadblocks and detours to help us reach our final destination. I found that to be the case when I was trying to decide which seminary to attend. During this decision-making time, roadblocks and unexpected alternatives helped the process of elimination.
Through a series of “hedges,” God began to show me why attending Dallas Theological or Master’s Seminary was not the best choice for my young family, though they were my desired destinations. There was a seminary only a few hours away, but that didn’t fulfill my dreams. But God was hedging me in through a number of roadblocks and, for a change, I was observing and listening. So, against my personal preference, I decided that the more local destination would be best for my family and me. And it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. What an incredible theological education I received, and what a great place to raise my family.
A story that has helped me to discern God’s will is The Hedge of Thorns. It teaches that God might use a hedge of thorns to keep us on the right path. It also acts as a safety net of protection. In Hosea 2:6, God uses a hedge of thorns to keep a wayward wife from following her own path: “Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.”
Respecting the hedges in our lives not only directs us in discerning God’s will, but it also keeps us from the path of sin and the memories of regret.
Written by Mark Hamby, founder and president of Lamplighter Ministries. For more information on Lamplighter’s popular collection of inspiring, biblically based, character-building literature, or the new dramatic audio’s from Lamplighter Theatre, please visit our website at www.lamplighter.net or call toll free 1-888-246-7735.
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