Tried With Fire

I have a few posts scheduled, but I'll be taking a much-needed internet/blog break. See you when we get back from the great white cooler and slightly rainy Northwest.

and nowadays  the fingers  ... In the sermon on James 3:1-12, Pastor Ryan stated that although the Internet wasn't alive in James' day, electronic communication isn't exempt from the charge to bridle our tongues.  Therefore, we should consider well what we "say" even if it isn't with our mouths. Tweeting, Facebook, blogging, etc. are all venues which have elevated the volume of idle words to new heights. Don't get me wrong. I think these forms of media can and have been used for the glory of God. But it's a lot easier to fire off an electronic missive without a second thought or taking the time to consider its impact. One could say, "It's my blog, so I can say what ever I want." But just because I have a pulse and an electronic soapbox doesn't necessarily mean that my opinion is beneficial. I'm not advocating milk-soppishness and politically correct "niceness" when it comes to robust declaration of the truth or de...

I've been thinking about the implications of Piper's blog post . (I hope this semi-stream of consciousness is semi-coherent.) We don't watch TV. I haven't watched TV for about 15 years unless you count the kiddie programs we watched when my daughter was a toddler and the occasional programs on PBS. Actually, we can't watch TV now because we don't have a signal converter. We don't watch many movies and stick to "family friendly" only. We listen to Christian (theologically sound not CCM) and classical music. I used to read a lot, but I have cut out almost all contemporary fiction because of immoral content. Given all that, we're doing pretty well, right? I don't know about that and probably would be self deceived if I thought that was all it took. And yes, there is horrible stuff out there, mind numbing, zombifying, trivial stuff, and everything in between. So what to do? One of the first things that comes to mind is filtering with discernmen...