In the News – What does success look like?

A new type of school was started recently in Albuquerque and the first graduating class is this year. The news was doing a story on it and the Mayor declared the school is a success.

His basis for this?…All 26 graduates are going to college!!

Uh, if high school graduates enrolling for college is the criteria for success…I know many unsuccessful high school graduates.

My point to this and many other blog posts is not to be critical and negative. There is more than enough of that out there. Instead, I want to look at what is being done out there and challenge us to be different. To be godly. To be salt and light. We need to have a different mindset (Colossians 3:1, Romans 8:5-8) and be challenged and encouraged to live differently.

It is easy to get caught up in the thinking of the world. Hey, going to college is great. Wow, all graduating students are going to college. That’s fantastic…and so on. We may even get so excited we want to send our kids to that school. Of course, there is much more to look at before sending your kids somewhere.

So, do we consider things and look deeper than what the world is feeding us? Have we considered if we should send our kids to college, and if so, what does that look like? Which college, what area of study, what about taking on debt to send them? Factors like that and many others weren’t considered by the Mayor. It should be considered by me. How about you?

The Philosophical Christianity

I’ve noticed more and more people talking about what is right and not referencing scripture. When they do mention scripture, it is not very much of it for all the points they are trying to make.

Carrie Prejean, Miss California and Miss USA contestant, has been in the media a lot lately for her answer to a question and her treatment because of it. There are a lot of points to make about all that, but unlike her supporters, I say she did NOT answer as she should have. She had a great opportunity to mention the Bible and a scripture to back up her view. She didn’t. She gave a philosophical Christian viewpoint. I understand she was in a tough place and there is great stress and nervousness so I am not putting her down for not saying something better or being able to quote a scripture. What I’m getting at is all the praise she is getting from many and no one seems to care she still has not shown a grounding in scripture at all from what I’ve seen. I even listened to a lot of an interview with Dr. James Dobson from Focus on the Family with her and it was all praise about her response and they never discussed the Word of God from the many minutes of conversation that I heard.

Here is a post starting to circulate:

http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/our_witness/

I like the post and the idea it presents from a certain perspective. But there is no discussion of God’s calling based on scripture and I’m seeing people say “preach it”.

Are our sermons based on scripture anymore? Are your beliefs based on a philosophical Christianity? Do you know why you believe things are right and wrong based on The Bible?

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Ephesians 6:14-17 – Stand therefore, … And take … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Luke 4 – Satan tempts Jesus Christ. And, how does Jesus defend from that attack? With scripture.

Colossians 3:1-3 – We are suppose to set our hearts and our minds on things above. Where is your heart and mind? Scripture tells us where our treasure is there our heart will be also. Where is your treasure? What do you value? What consumes your time, resources, energy? Are you setting your heart and mind on Hollywood, on movies and TV, on music and video games? Are you spending more on non-essentials than you are giving to reach the lost and help those in need?

Do you “know” what is right, but can not reference scripture? Often times, that is the case for me, because I have a philosophical Christianity, not a Biblical Christianity.

In the News – Paid to Play

I read yesterday that some law firms are paying graduating students up to $80,000 a year and even benefits, to just stay home.  Apparently, they do not need the students now and are not wanting to pay them a full-salary but they do not want to loose them so they are making them an offer to basically be on standby and hopefully in the near future they can bring them in full-time.

This has huge potential for problems.  It is likely they will not need the new lawyers in the near future, so they will have wasted a lot of money to keep them on hold, but end up just letting them go anyway.  That is the best case scenario.

A student who has put a lot of time and energy focusing on the books and exams, suddenly gets a nice paycheck and nothing to do.  They are going to have a lot of fun for awhile and waste a lot of it, thinking they can because soon they will be employeed full time and will make more money but will have little time to enjoy it.  So they’ll just put off the bills for now and have some fun.  After all, they earned it.  Then they wake up to find they aren’t needed after all.  Ouch.  Bad news.  Even if they do end up going to work for them down the road, they will likely have a big ego and quickly miss the freedom they had before or even try to live to much and work, but still play hard and end up wasted.

A person should work to earn money.  Getting payed so you might not go work elsewhere is not work.

2 Thessalonians 3:10