Refined by Fire

Being a *ahem* thirty-something now, I don’t hear about this topic too often any more. Being the father of a 9-year-old girl, It’s certainly still a concern.

I found a great site that encourages teens to act their age when comes to sex: StayTeen

It’s apparently becoming quite popular – the site that is. The only thing that gets me is that they’re not overt in their communication with respect to abstinence. At least not right off the bat. “Safe-sex” education is not the answer to stopping teen pregnancy folks, abstinence is.

They do get into some facts about abstinence under a couple links, here’s the direct link: Abstinence at Stay Teen.org

While I’m at it, figure I’ll share another great group: Dads and Daughters. Their mission is to promote healthy relationships between fathers and daughters. Surprisingly, many fathers distance themselves from their daughters not even realizing it and are more likely to connect and bond with their sons. Fact is, daughters need this relationship (among tons of other reasons) because more often than not, it’s this relationship that sets the grounds for their future husbands.

There are a lot of great sites publishing on these topics. If you have any you’d like to share please do.

The creative energy that perfunctorily comes from Madison Ave is positively mindboggling. The abundance and flow of the characters I’ve been coming across this past year has me enamored at times.

The lifestyles of these folks, however, are not the choices I would encourage someone to make: Many smoke and drink, and revel in their drunkenness. Many of the men glorify porn. Most use sex to sell in some capacity. And often they tempt the unfortunate to purchase that which they cannot afford. And the list goes on…

Now, I don’t dispute religious issues because having a relationship with God is not something to argue about, but this week, I almost got into a bit a theological debate with a colleague and it got me thinking…. and convicted.

My point is that even in these dark cultures, Continue reading A Christian on Madison Ave.

Materialism. We spend much of our days running about trying to satisfy our wants. What is the point of it? When we were young, we didn’t do things because we had to, we did activities because we enjoyed them. Today, I reflect on my life and ask myself. What am I running after? To what end am I trying to attain. And who’s defined “the end” anyway?

Continue reading Still Running the Race for Cheese

In the trenches against pornography over at Godbit, Nathan Logan, got it right: IT IS A BATTLE. One of the biggest for us Christian men. We all need to guard our hearts. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matt. 6:21). Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Eph. 6:11)
Be even more aware, though. I have found some Christians who got tripped up on the issue and used erotic art to promote a purity conference. (??)

Continue reading Godbit Takes on the Frontline of the Man’s Battle

[tag]9Rules Network[/tag], a quality-conscious aggregation of blog authors, publishes a (now) monthy spiritual thought-provoker called Ping:Homilies in their Religion Community. Every month, they encourage writers to challenge themselves by creating a message on a spiritual topic. February was the first month this Ping was rolled out and has now closed with the announcement of the winner: Nathan Smith. Congrats, Nathan! Continue reading 9 Rules Announces February’s First “Ping:Homily” Winner