FourFifteen

 Lie #7 - "We just fell in love!" Have you ever heard someone say this before? I have....often. Have you ever heard this as an excuse  before? Usually it's said along these lines: "I couldn't help it, we just fell in love!" It's as if this overpowering feeling of "love" can somehow explain away the worst decisions that a person could make. How many terrible  choices have been made this way? How many futures have ruined when guys convince young ladies that they "fell in love"? How many marriages have been destroyed when a husband "falls for" another woman? How many kids have had their homes torn apart because of this one phrase? Here's a secret...that is NOT love! Love would never try to convince a girlfriend to satisfy a selfish desire. Love would stay committed to a family, not abandon them. Love would set an example of a godly marriage for future generations, not rip that foundation out from under them.  Love Is A Choi...

 Lie #6 - "It's Just A Hook-up, It's Not A Big Deal." A recent survey showed that thirty to forty percent of people think the right time to begin having sex is around the third date. Ten percent of the people asked said they expected sex at the end of the first date! But this was from a poll taken from people who still decide to date. The reality is that more and more people don't "date" anymore. The current trend is to meet up for sex and then never talk to each other again. It's just not that big of deal anymore. Sex has become just a transaction...as if it were a "for sale" post on some website or app. " Restaurants near you! Coffee shops near you! Find someone to hook up with near you!" You're being lied to! Sex Is More Than A Physical Act We're talking about an incredibly emotional and intimate connection, for both  men and women. Sex isn't meant to be casual physical contact that is otherwise divorced from a g...

I'm Assuming You're Aware of Truth #4  If you have not read through it yet, read Truth #4 before you move on to this one.  Let me restate this concept: You must choose the right friends! This post is all about focusing on your responsibilities toward your friends. If you haven't already been intentional and picked the right kind of friends, then you'll find these responsibilities will keep dragging you down. You'll find yourself always fighting to defend your friends from stupid choices that they keep making. And you'll end up constantly making excuses on behalf of someone who does  inexcusable things. An example of this can be found in Joshua chapters 9 and 10. There you see the people of Israel make a friendship with the city of Gibeon...people that shouldn't have been their friends . They didn't consult with God first, but rather joined up with the people of Gibeon based on their "gut feelings".  That was in chapter 9. Then comes chapter 10...

 Lie #4 - "But They're My Friend!"  In my opinion, Facebook has totally cheapened the meaning of the word "friend". Someone is not your friend just because they follow you on a Social Media platform. They're not your friend because they liked your post or shared your meme. ( And the flip of that is true also - if they didn't do those things, that doesn't keep them from being your friend. ) Friendship isn't defined by the group of people you're popular with at the moment. It's a much deeper idea than identifying people that "know who you are." " Friendship " is a powerful word. It's a statement of covenant  - not to be applied to people you vaguely know or are acquainted with somehow. In real friendships, there are important responsibilities on both sides . So just because you don't have hard feelings toward a person - that doesn't make them your "friend".  Believe it or not - you can  choose your ...

 Lie #3 - "I'm A Christian Because..." There are a lot  of deceived folks in this country right now: good people, decent people, honest people - but deceived all the same. Religious and demonic forces in this culture have convinced them that they're "OK"...that they're "good Christian people." Although they don't meet the one  condition to be a Christian, they ignorantly think that they're still going to Heaven when they die. There are a lot of different criteria that our culture uses to define what a "Christian" is - but none of those criteria are correct. How sad it is to see multitudes of dedicated, religious people blindly marching to their own destruction while thinking they're just fine! It's one of the most dangerous  and difficult-to-break  lies that our enemy uses. The danger in this lie is obvious: Those who are caught in it see nothing that needs to change . Those who have bought into this lie will be the pe...

 Lie #2 - "Just Believe In Yourself This generation is being taught to put way too much  emphasis on themselves . Teaching about "self-esteem", "self-worth", and "self-love" is being poured out on our kids like never before. Don't get me wrong: Is it a bad thing for someone to see their own potential, set their own goal, and then believe they can hit that goal? Of course that's not a bad thing! Self-esteem, in and of itself, isn't right or wrong. It really depends on whether that self-esteem is  justified  or not. Here's the problem: this generation is being taught that "believing in themselves" is all it takes to succeed. They're constantly being inflated with a sense of self-worth, without the character to prop it up! Think about it, when was the last time you came across a statement like this?     " Anything is possible if you believe."     "You're perfect just the way you are."     "Have ...

Lie #1  - "All religions are basically the same and teach the same things."   ( Now,   I understand that Christians don't consider ourselves a 'religion', I agree completely that faith in Jesus isn't a religious thing. But I'm writing this from the world's point of view that Christianity is just one of the many religions of the world. ) Religions around the world are not " essentially the same ". They are not all equally valid in their beliefs. And they don't all teach us to become " more moral people ".  True, there are some religions that tend to be more moral than others. But there are also others that tend to be less moral. The question remains though: " More or less moral...by what standard? " If you're going to claim that all religions teach us how to behave ourselves - and that some religions do this better than others - then you're going to have to explain what moral standard you're judging them by...

 Acts 2:40 - " And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, ' Be saved from this perverse generation. '" Just A Little Twisted According to Scripture, this world is perverted. Now don't assume this means "nasty" or "disgusting" - because that's not what the word "perverse" means. This term actually defines something that is mostly right , but just  a little bit wrong . The concept is similar to a warped 2x4 board.  If the warp isn't that severe, it may look like it's straight when it's by itself. Only when you compare it to a truly straight board does the defect becomes obvious. If you've ever seen a stack lumber at a hardware store, then you've seen how a perverse  board sticks out from the rest. In my line of work ( aluminum extrusion ) we see this kind of defect all the time, and have teams dedicated to inspecting our product for it. When aluminum lineal are packed up to ship, they are ...