On Twitter I’m Seeing Dozens Of Threads From Black Activists Warning People Against Burnout, Giving

Many christian families seem to almost block or discourage their children from reading certain books, watching certain movies, or just taking out tv and computers all together. Do you think this is because these parents believe that if their children are exposed to these influences, the children will form their own opinions and leave the family?

I sincerely hope not! Haha your question makes me wonder about your opinion of Christian families. :P

I personally think that the primary objective of any parent, whether Christian or not, is to protect their children. And any parent anywhere, at any time, of any religious affiliation, who forbids their child to read or watch something, is doing so because they think that the entertainment in question is somehow inappropriate for their child. This might include gratuitous sexual references, excessive violence, coarse language, or questionable thematic messages. There was lots of stuff I wasn’t allowed to read or watch a a child, because it contained one or several of the content “red flags” I just listed. The real reason parents put boundaries on their children’s intellectual diet is because children’s brains are very malleable, and they form world views based on what they see. And they will quickly become desensitized to anything they see or hear frequently in various media, and they will then assimilate it into their way of thinking and it’ll come out in their actions and speech. If you let a kid play super violet video games when they’re like, 6, they will be more likely to respond aggressively and violently to day-to-day situations. If a kid is watching shows everyday with the f-word in them, they will start saying it too.

What you will find is that parents who have more conservative beliefs (such as Christians) will put more restrictions on their children’s reading and viewing material because there are more things they want to keep their children from getting desensitized to.

However, I would never agree with the statement that this is to keep the children from forming their own opinions, or being able to think for themselves. In fact, children can’t really think for themselves. You don’t even develop post-conventional morality or abstract logic and decision making skills until after the age of 12, and even then your frontal lobes are still developing all throughout your teens. So especially for young kids, what we see as their “thinking” is really just a product of the input.

So you’ll find that a lot of the age restrictions parents impose are ages like 12 and 16. [sidenote: for me, cell phone was 12, Facebook was 16, and dating was 16.] that’s because these ages are in the period of life when people actually do start thinking for themselves.

Christians aren’t brainwashed; we know that following Christ is a personal decision, and your parents can’t make it for you. I imagine that every Christian parent’s fondest wish is that their son or daughter would think for themselves, make their own decisions, and choose to have a personal relationship with their Lord and Saviour. Lots of us do. :) and those who do..did it because we wanted to. Not because we didn’t know any better :P

Thanks for the question! Peace and love! -Katherine

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life continues. we still have the capacity to do good, important work. that matters

"I think that if you're a half decent person, you'll get into heaven."

So guys I was thinking today: 

If someone says they're a Christian and then they look at me and they're like "I just think that if you're a half decent person you'll get into heaven." .... I honestly have to wonder if they've read the bible. The phrase you just uttered undermines the entire foundation of Christianity. You can't "get into" heaven by being a "good" person.

I mean, first of all, NO ONE is a good person. We're human. We're imperfect. We're mortal. And by default, we are literally incapable of being truly good. I mean, you can be alright and not like, kill people and stuff. But how do you define sin? I mean, where's the line between good people and bad people? Can you still be a good person if you've held a grudge against someone, judged someone or lied? Cause see, all sin is equal in the sight of God. There are no degrees of sin to God. It's a yes or no question. Have you or have you not done something that is not of God? The answer will always, irrefutably be yes. Romans 3:23 says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

And so...and this is very important, so listen up...if you could "get into" heaven by being a good person, Jesus would never have had to die on the cross. 

So if you believe that you can get into heaven by being a good person, I guess you believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is completely meaningless. And if Jesus Christ, being fully God, stepping into a mortal body, bearing the weight of all the sins of all the people who ever were and are to come, going to Hell, stealing the key and coming back to life to give you eternal life means absolutely nothing then what do we even believe in? 

Do you get the fact that Christianity is ALL ABOUT God reconciling the separation between sinful man and perfect deity? Do you realize that that is literally EVERYTHING that we believe in? 

Don't get it twisted: I'm not telling you that you're a bad person. I'm not telling you that you can't get into heaven. I don't think that I'm better than you and that I'm going to heaven and you're not. Because believe me, I am acutely aware of my own deficiencies. I KNOW how much I need grace. I'm just telling you that we are all human, and we all need Jesus if we wanna go to heaven. If you don't wanna go to heaven, well..I can't help you. :P

Lots of love :) Peace y'all! -Katherine

Dearest,

Look at the scars on your wrists. Now look at the scars on mine. On my wrists, on my head, on my back. Look at the blade in your hand. Now, do you see the thorns?  Do you see the whip? Do you see the nails? Look at your own blood you spilled. Now look at mine running down the rugged wooden tree.

Do you know how much I love you?

When you feel worthless, remember that I love you individually and personally. Every part of you is familiar to Me and I love you deeply no matter what. You are the apple of My eye. You are priceless to Me. You are so valuable to Me that if you were the only person ever in the entire world, I would have suffered every horror of the cross just the same. I died for you.

When you feel like a mistake, remember that I made you. I do not make mistakes. You are perfect exactly the way you are. You are My masterpiece. When I look at you, I see My wonderful creation, and I see your soul shining through. I see a beautiful vessel of My Spirit which I placed in you, a spirit of freedom, a spirit of victory, a spirit of power.

When you feel like nothing good could ever come of you, remember that when I created you, I had a specific purpose in mind, and a glorious plan for you life. I will use you to impact lives and to change the world in your own special way and I equipped you with the exact right skills, passions, talents and experiences to do it.

Again I ask you, do you know how much I love you?

Every pain you feel, ever drop you bleed, every tear you cry, I wish you did not have to. That’s why I went to the cross. I took every single heartbreak, every single addiction, every single mistake, every single negative thought about yourself on my shoulders on the cross. I felt everything you feel…

…So that you wouldn’t have to.

I was crucified in the most inhumane way possible. Unendurable agony for 6 hours. And then, God the father turned His back on me. Every sin of this world was laid on my shoulders and I was completely alone. All that you feel multiplied 6 billion times.

My child, I took all of your pain. I conquered all your addictions, all your self-hate and self-harm. I am Lord of life and death. I went down into the depths of Hell and came back. I won the victory on the cross, I bought your freedom. I went through it so that you don’t have to. You are free.

That’s how much I love you.

I want to give you LIFE  and life more abundantly! I want to wrap my arms of love around you and never let go. I want to blow your mind with the amazing plans that I have for you. I want to fill you so full of peace and hope and love and joy that you’re overflowing. Will you let me?

-Jesus

P. S. Put down the blade. I say you’re better than that.

This is a really super cool project to make awesome leggings and make the world a better place! Totally worth supporting!

filthy leftist, you going to hell.

This is objectively hilarious 🤣

I think it's great to talk about stuff like this because the more uncomfortable you make it, the harder it is to address. This is a great treatment of the lust/porn/masturbation issue, and I wanted to share it with y'all! :)  -Katherine

Editor’s Note: I’ve received countless emails, messages and questions regarding about lust, porn and masturbation. I’ve had my tumblr since November of 2011 and I think it’s time that I write something about this very touchy and sensitive topic. What you’re about to read are things that I’ve learned in the past as I wrestled and struggled with this sin. These are things I’ve learned either from different people, from different books, and from God through His word and His Holy Spirit. I understand that every single guy and gal are on a different journey with this sin. So I’m not saying that what I  write on this entry is what you should do, rather the purpose of this blog entry is to encourage, empower, and enlighten others as to how to face this battle and come out victorious through Jesus Christ. My desire and prayer is that you would find encouragement, wisdom, knowledge and hope that there’s an answer and a solution. I can testify to that for I am a living testimony. There’s victory over this struggle and the answer lies in Jesus Christ and I pray that you would see that through this blog entry. Let’s get started shall we? :)

I was first exposed to porn when I was a little kid. I can’t remember exactly how old I was but I remember I was really young. How? It might’ve been when I was at my friends house and his parents weren’t home and we thought it was a good idea to mess around with his parents movie. I’m not sure how and where exactly I got my eyes exposed to porn but I was young. 

From that point I just started watching porn and it became a routine and I didn’t think it was wrong. I wasn’t a Christian either so I thought it was natural for guys to watch and masturbate. Little did I know that my foolish choices at that time was going to affect me when I became a Christian.

At the age of 15 I gave my life to Christ. I still remember coming home from that youth conference and just feeling so fired up! God now gave me new eyes, new mind, new heart and new life. I knew that any lustful activity just needs to stop because the bible tells me so and it’s wrong. I was on a good streak and I lasted at least 3-6 months of not watching, not doing. But something went wrong. All of a sudden the whole “I’m not suppose to do this because it’s wrong and the bible says it’s wrong” no longer held any weight or power to stop me from succumbing to a lustful heart and this is where my battle with lust started.  I remember hearing a good message and thought to myself, “Man, that message was so convicting, God I will never do go back to those lustful things. I’m done.” Or meet with my accountability partner and have a long “prayer session” and after that I would feel good. Or set up all these rules of do’s and don’ts but at the end of all these things I’ve mentioned, I would end up doing the very same thing I hate doing. Can you relate to my story? I’m sure most of you can if not all.  So what is wrong exactly? What is lust? And if you’re struggling with lust and any other forms of lustful activity how do you fight it? What do you do?

First you have to know that SEXDRIVE and Sexual Desire isn’t the problem nor the issue, LUST is. SEX isn’t the answer or the solution to your LUST problem, Jesus is. God created you and me with sexual desires and drives to be with someone. But the enemy twisted the truth about our sexuality through Lust. Lust is craving sexually what God has forbidden.To Lust is to go beyond attraction, appreciation of beauty or a healthy desire for sex. It is very self-centered and selfish and it makes these desires more important than God.

I mentioned earlier that in the past I’ve failed spectacularly in the area of lust even though I heard a powerful message, or met with my partners or even got rid of ‘stuff’ I found myself going back to the same patterns. Why? mainly because I’ve held the wrong standard for holiness. The wrong source of power to chance. And the wrong motive for fighting sin. My ideas and thoughts about being holy was completely twisted. I thought If I don’t watch/look at porn or masturbate for certain amount of time I’m doing pretty good. I thought I can rely solely on my partners and I’ll be fine. And I thought setting down some strict legalistic rules will help me stay on my toes I was wrong.

But the main reason why we pursue holiness and choose to deny lust along with it’s other forms is because of this: God created us for so much more. He designed us to be satisfied with Him and to translate that satisfaction and pleasure to someone through sex in marriage. He isn’t withholding our sex drives by not watching or masturbating, rather He is saving us for a life filled with love, joy, peace and satisfaction. He is saving us for something so much better. Yes it’s not easy and it’s a fight and a sacrifice but in the end it’s worth it.

As Christians we need to remember that nothing that we can do or add to make us justified before Him, Christ did all the justification. Not watching porn, or masturbating isn’t gonna add up a ‘points’ to God, or make us more worthy, rather it’s sanctifying us and leading us towards a life of holiness and purity.

If we understand this truth about how we stand in Christ, all of a sudden our motives and hearts towards lust changes from “I’m not gonna do it coz it’s wrong” to “I’m not gonna do it because I don’t wanna break my Father’s heart.” That’s a huge difference. The other one is motivated by legalism and will power and the other one is motivated by love and grace.  God’s standard of holiness is radical. Ephesians 5:3 says this:

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity.. because these are improper for God’s holy people.

God’s standard of holiness is this: Not even a hint! - That means if you struggle with lust then get rid any kind of triggering factors that encourages you to fall into that sin. If that means you need to get rid of your TV in your room, have your parents/spouse/friends create a password for your computer, throw away any provocative magazines that come to your mail, refrain from any movie that most likely have sensual sin, ANYTHING. Get rid of it, stay away from it, Not even a hint. 

So does that mean we can’t look at the opposite sex coz we fear of committing lust? No. Of course not. Truth is, it is not lust when we find someone to be so attractive, to have a strong desire for sex, to be excited about sex within marriage, to experience sexual temptation. It only becomes lust and sinful when we go past those things I’ve mentioned above. It is important to distinguish these things and to know what’s lust and what’s not. What’s natural and what’s sinful. it’s not about approaching your sin in a legalistic way, but instead it’s about being obedient to God and being good stewards of the life and the body He has given us.  Now what, how do you exactly face and fight this battle? What do you and how do you prepare yourself when Satan comes at you prowling like a lion ready to deceive you? Identify any lust trigger factors. There are numbers of factors that can trigger you. And when you identify these factors it will help you better equip and prepare yourself.

Time of day- Is it at night, after work, when you’re tired etc.

Locations- could be alone in your room, friends house, etc.

TV- be responsible on what you feed your eyes.

Books/Newspapers/Magazines- Be radical about what your read.

Music- Be mindful about the songs you listen to.

Internet - this is obvious.

People/relationship- are you in a healthy & godly relationship or not?

Now that you have your list, pray and ask God to give you solid brothers/sisters to help you in this fight. People who would be genuine about your struggle and will faithfully strengthen and build you up. You can have all these lists but unless you genuinely repent from this sin and have strong hatred towards this sin and a strong and burning desire to be victorious in this area, nothing will happen. Unless you  seek friend and get someone to keep you accountable and really take action, you will only find yourself stumbling over and over again. You weren’t meant to fight your battles all by yourself. Jesus sent his disciples always in pairs that means we are meant to work with people and encourage others in our walk.

I have to say one thing though, accountability is great but you have to set your mind and heart on the right place with this. In the past I’m afraid to act on my sin because I don’t wanna disappoint my partner or I want to have a ‘good thing’ to say whenever we meet. This is a wrong mindset. Accountability isn’t meant for that. It’s about partnering, walking, and encouraging the other person not relying. At the end of the day you rely on Jesus’ grace & love and His Spirit to empower you and strengthen you daily. 

In my own experience and walk, here’s some really practical ways to develop and cultivate a godly lifestyle:

Spend time with God through prayer, reading His word and worship. - Pick a book in the bible. Start your day with prayer and asking God to give you a hunger for his word daily. Read one chapter a day and journal your thoughts and what God has revealed to you that day. Make it a habit to memorize a short passage. Pursue intimacy with Jesus and make it your priority.

Be in community. Serve in your local church & community. - by doing this you are being proactive and getting out of the house and cultivating a healthy godly lifestyle. Talk with other Christians and just get out there instead of staying home.

Cultivate godly habits. - Read books that encourages you to love and go deeper with God. Listen to songs that encourages you to fall in love more with Jesus. Whenever you’re at a store, coffeeshop, etc, ask for the Holy Spirit to give you opportunities to minister to people either through praying for them, encouraging them with simple words or buying them lunch or coffee. The pleasures that you get from these things are priceless.

i’ll close with this one. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. You’ve probably failed in the past but I know deep down inside your heart you’re disappointed but you’re not close to giving up. There’s still a part of you that wants to strive for victory and there is coz God is working in your heart already as you read this. So even after you read this blog and still find yourself stumbling, get up and start all over again. Godliness and Holiness isn’t an overnight fix, it’s a lifetime and it’s a process. The last thing you want to do is give up. Don’t listen to the enemy, and grab onto Jesus right away. He loves you and will never give up on you. Ever. As long as you’re alive and breathing, you have a chance to change, and repent. His grace is sufficient for you are His child and He’s got his grip on you and will never let you go because He has called you to be a vessel and instrument to this perverse world. 

If you want to cultivate a lifestyle of walking in purity and holiness, then you need to abide in Jesus Christ. In John 15 Jesus talks about us abiding in him coz apart from him, we can’t bear any fruit. Apostle Paul talks about how God can’t be deceived, what we sow either in the Spirit or flesh, then that’s what we will reap. You can’t expect to bear fruits of the Spirit or come close to victory over porn, lust and masturbation if you’re daily sowing in the things of the flesh instead of the things of the Spirit. But If you abide in Christ, set and fill your minds with godly things, and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His presence everyday, I promise you, and it may even surprise you but the urge, desires and cravings of lust will slowly and eventually start to fade away because it will be replaced with the Fruits of the Spirit. We will bear the fruits of Christ and the fruits of godliness and holiness but that’s only possible if we abide in Christ daily. Look to Jesus, He is greater and powerful  than any of your present trials and struggles. 

Grace and Love in Christ, Mark Muldez.

What if everyone everywhere woke up this morning,

Feeling collegial?

What if their very first inclination was to trust one another,

And their strivings toward kindness, rather than rage?

Our country has sunk its teeth into rabid defenses

Refusing to yield

Jaws locked around its...

For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son to die for your mean neighbor and your crazy roommate and the picketing bigot and the racist blogger and your gay friend and all the politicians and our crazy parents and the pastor down the street and the uptight religious folk and the girl at work you can’t stand, because Jesus didn’t just die for the people you like, but for people like you and me.