7-30-07 Video of the Day - Tiger Woods Amazing Shot

Large Bodies of Water?

My wife and I are leaving tonight for a business trip, followed by an eight day vacation in Cabo San Lucas. I am very excited as this will be our first vacation without the kids since we got married (a whole three years!!!). Naturally, the question of modesty has been an issue that's been on my mind recently and I want to present it to you. Is it okay to put on a strip tease show when you are in close proximity to a large body of water? On the surface, this question sounds foolish, but when you look closely many of us act as if we think this is true. Why do our standards of modesty change simply because we are going to be getting wet? I understand that the type of clothing you wear must be different because when certain types of clothing get wet, they can cling and become more immodest than a bathing suit, but I don't think that justifies the amount of skin many of us reveal when we are at the beach or pool (some have more skin to reveal than others). I know this is a very unpopular subject, but it is one that each of us must deal with if we are going to decide where we stand on this issue. A lot of "Independent Fundamental Baptists" go through their lives bragging how they take a stand on dressing modestly, but when they are somewhere nobody from their church will see them they decide it's okay to compromise. That type of hypocrisy is exactly the kind of "religion" that their kids are going to want to have nothing to do with when they are teenagers. Children don't rebel against rules and standards, they rebel against hypocrisy and inconsistency. If you aren't going to live it, don't preach it. If you DO decide that you believe a certain way, have the guts to be a little bit different than everyone else on the beach for the sake of Christ. After all, He gave up a little something for you didn't He? I hope each one of us will examine our lives to make sure that how we act on vacation is the same as when we are at church.

Oh, and you won't hear from me for a while as I will be enjoying the Mexican sun...Adios!

7-26-07 Video of the Day - Shopping Cart

Advertising

Early this morning I got on the site and found that there was a lewd advertisement showing up. I have since removed and blocked the ad, but I want to apologize to anyone who may have stumbled upon this. If more instances such as this arise, I may pull the AdSense all together. Please email me immediately if you see something inappropriate. Thanks.

7-24-07 Video of the Day - Funny Cat Jumping

7-24-07 Video of the Day - More Greg Locke

Comment on "Sacrificial Giving"

The following is a comment to the Sacrificial Giving post:

Anonymous Said...

"Please tell me you people aren't serious about there being a right and wrong here. God loves a cheerful giver, true, but I think if the method of delivery was an issue to Him, He would have laid that out for us. Honestly, if someones going to hand you some money....would you really care how much needless work they put themselves through to get it to you. That's not sacrifice, that's purposefully doing something just to make it more difficult. Yikes!"

My Response:

Whether it would be wrong to actually give through electronic bank transfer is not my place to say, but I do think it makes a difference to God, and here is why. God doesn't need my money or your money to further His work. After all, the Bible says God owns the cattle on 1,000 hills, right? When Jesus was on this earth and needed money to pay His taxes, he didn't take up an offering or ask His disciples to tithe, He simply told Peter to go catch a fish and to look in the fishes mouth for the money. Miraculously Peter found the money just as the Lord said He would. So if God doesn't need our money, why ask us to give? Why doesn't God simply provide for the needs of the church miraculously? May I suggest it's because He uses giving to keep our hearts humble and open to Him? If God has control of your wallet, most likely you've surrendered every other area of your life also. Money is one of the hardest things for us to give up, but God wants to know that we are willing to sacrifice even our hard earned cash out of love for Him. So if God wants us to give for OUR benefit, in order to grow us spiritually, doesn't it make sense that this would only benefit us if we do it cognitively? For instance, my retirement plan is automatic. I don't have to think about it or do anything, and money gets transferred every month. This takes absolutely no thought, discipline, or sacrifice on my part because I don't have to make the decision to give that money every month, it just happens. I'm not saying that tithing in this manner would be sinful (the truth is I would really like to do it), but I do think we would be missing out on some opportunities for spiritual growth.

7-21-07 Video of the Day - Easter service at Global Vision Baptist Church - Locke

VBS

Today wrapped up a long and exciting week of Vacation Bible School at our church. It was a blast. I got the opportunity to preach the Wednesday night sermon (which was my first time preaching an actual church service), and that night the theme was the "mouth". I brought a cow tongue as a visual aid, which is what you see in the picture. I will hopefully have the entire message on video to post soon. The whole week was fantastic and there were a number of children that got saved, and even two mothers who accepted Christ. One of the things the devil always attacks me with during events like this is a bad attitude and a desire to not be involved, but by God's grace I was able to get past that this year and jump in, and God blessed me by allowing me to actually have fun! My wife played a HUGE part in our ability to serve as well since every night I would get home from work around 5:15 and she would have the kids ready to go and dinner on the table. We would eat and leave by 5:30 in order to make it by 6:00. We would not have accomplished this without her efforts. All you single guys out there need to be aware of how much the support of your future spouse can help or hinder your ability to serve the Lord. Praise God for a wonderful wife and mom!

7-18-07 Video of the Day - Billy Sunday on Booze

Subscribe

Want to stay current on what's new with Young Fundamentalists? You can subscribe to this blog via RSS feeds. Why subscribe to RSS feeds you ask? Click the link to find the benefits. When you are convinced, try it out! If you use internet explorer 7 (the new one), click the button that looks like the picture, then click "subscribe to this feed". This way you can monitor the latest posts of all your favorite blogs (namely this one) without going directly to their websites everyday to see if they've been updated. Personalized home pages allow you to do the same thing. In the screen shot below you will notice that I've added Young Fundamentalists to my content and the latest post names are showing up in the top content box. Not only will you never miss a post, but you will save time in not having to go to each individual page to check for updates. How cool is that?!!!

7-16-07 Video of the Day - 13 x 7 = 28

Pray for Brother Wade

A few days ago I commended Brother Jeff Wade on his leadership training he provided our church. Sadly, brother Wade has suddenly become very ill and needs your prayer. I don't have many details, but I know that he went into surgery for an existing condition and got septic poisoning. Please pray that God will spare Brother Wade. We need men like him...

UPDATES: http://caringbridge.org/visit/jeffwade

7-15-07 Video of the Day - Welcome to Pain! - Greg Locke

New Sermon!

For those who like the Greg Locke video clip, I've added an MP3 of his sermon I mentioned previously called, "Thank God For Trouble Makers". You will find it at the bottom of my post of the same name (click the link). This is an incredible message that you won't want to miss.

Sacrificial Giving

My wife and I were having a debate today before church about whether or not God would bless automatic electronic transfers from my bank account to the church's bank account for tithe, offerings, etc. The issue in question was whether God wants you to think about it when you give, or if the fact that money is going to the church out of my account is good enough (I think it would be awesome to automate it and never have to write a check again, but she disagrees). The debate continued until, as I hastily wrote out my tithe check and calculated how much easier it would be to simply type the amount into a paypal site, God weighed in on the matter. As I licked my tithe envelope the paper slashed my face open causing massive hemoraging and serious blood loss (not really, but it did hurt). Having never before received a paper cut from a tithing envelope, I simply said "yes Lord, I'll continue to write checks." It's tough when your wife is right and you're wrong, but it's tougher when God backs her up.

Sean Payne - Canadian Street Preacher

I recently discovered Sean Payne's street preaching site and really enjoyed it. Being the fiery young fundamentalist that I am, and since the nature of this blog is to encourage young people to get excited about taking a stand for God, I have to give a shout-out to Sean. Check out his site. Good stuff!

7-13-07 Video of the Day - Crazy Monkey

Thank God For Trouble Makers

Pastor and Evangelist Greg Locke preached a sermon called "Thank God For Trouble Makers" in which he used for his text Acts 16:16-20 "[16] And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:[17] The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.[18] And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.[19] And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,[20] And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,".

Last night I had the opportunity to go street preaching with our church, much like Paul and Silas used to do, and we had a time. I'm always a little nervous and, yes I'll admit it, embarrassed when I first start out. Yesterday, though, I began thinking about this passage and Greg Locke's sermon and it gave me boldness knowing that I was simply doing that which the Bible gave us as an example of public evangelism. We met some mild opposition such as teenagers ripping tracts up in front of us and people jeering or laughing, but we also had some gather to listen to what we were saying. I had four teenagers stand in front of me the whole time I was preaching to hear the message, and when I finished I jumped down off the wall on which I was standing and went through God's plan of salvation with them. One was already saved, but the other three were catholics. Unfortunately peer pressure got hold of them and they were too embarrassed to pray publicly. I can only hope they got right with God when they went home. The others that were with us got to give the gospel to many people standing around, hundreds of tracts were passed out, and one of the ladies led two teenage boys to the Lord! It was a real blessing, as always, to leave knowing that not only did we make a public profession of our belief and faith in Jesus, but God used it to change the lives of some individuals whom we will now see in Heaven. If nothing else, two people got saved and the rest of them know that there are still Christians who aren't ashamed of Jesus, and who care enough about them to bring the Gospel to a lost and dying world. Thank God for Trouble Makers!

7-9-07 Video of the Day - Star Wars Fever

Is Abiding With Christ REALLY Your Top Priority?

When you go to bed at night and the things you must do the following day begin to play through your head, many times important meetings, events and appointments are the things that standout the most. We tend to categorize and prioritize without even intending to. Often there are one or two things that we absolutely must do, a few things that we would really like to get done, and many things we will do if we have the time. Where does spending time with the Lord fall in your thought process? Here is where the problem lies: we say that God is our number one priority and if you look at our schedule chronologically, He is. Spending time with God is the first thing on our list time-wise, but not priority-wise. If we don't hear the alarm clock and accidentally sleep in, He is the first item crossed off the list. If you think of something you need to get done right away or an unexpected event happens, God is immediately on the back burner. God doesn't want to just be your EARLIEST priority, He wants to be your TOP priority. He wants you to lay your head on your pillow at night and think, "If I don't eat a single meal tomorrow, I'll spend time with God". We need to make sure that He is the main event and everything else are simply side shows. He needs to be our main course and all the other priorities are simply appetizers. Don't skip a day with the Lord, because He doesn't skip a day wishing you would pay attention to Him.

Jeff Wade On Leadership

Our church has had the incredible experience of having Dr. Jeff Wade, Associate Pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church in San Diego and his wife Mary Wade as our guest speakers all week. Brother Wade preached a series of awesome messages to us on surrendering to God and leadership in the church. I was truly inspired and it gave me a renewed motivation to do something big for the Lord. One of the points he made really caught my attention. He talked about how Church is unlike any other place because if you want to do something for the Lord, as long as the Pastor is behind it you are free to make it happen! Where else do you have the freedom to come up with a creative idea, implement it and oversee the growth and expansion of that idea? Few of us have jobs where this is a possibility and most would agree that unless you are in charge, most organizations and businesses maintain a tight control of what is allowed and what is not. The work of God, however, is not limited by any one person's creativity, but is an open platform for anyone who is willing to step up to the plate to build a ministry for the Lord! What a thought! If you get a chance, check out this brother's website. You will find many helps and resources as well as a very valuable newsletter to which you can subscribe. He has been a blessing to me and I'm sure he will be to you.

7-7-07 Video of the Day - Bill Cosby "The Boss"

7-5-07 Video of the Day - Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon

Youth Conference Tales - Volume 1

The air was fridged, yet stale. I awoke suddenly to the harsh, dischordant beeping of an alarm clock signalling that 5:00am had arrived...a few hours earlier than it should've I thought. Dragging my weary carcass from the comfort of the hotel bed, I stumbled through the dark searching for the bathroom. WHAM!! My foot struck an incredibly hard object, sending shock waves of pain reverberating up my leg. The loud snort and heavy breathing that followed told me that the hard object was Preston's head. He didn't budge. I finally found the light and began my routine hygiene ritual. Even after my shower, my eyes were burning from lack of sleep, and the razor with which I shaved felt like I was scraping my face with the dismembered lid of a tin can. I exited the bathroom desperately trying to stop the bleeding I had induced from multiple lacerations in my flesh (who invented shaving anyway?) only to find all three of my roommates still sound asleep. Not wanting to awaken them too harshly lest they be startled and disoriented, I screamed at the top of my lungs, "HEY, TIME TO GET UP!!!" (not really, but that would have been cool). The four of us finished getting ready for the sessions that day, and I clumsily made my way downstairs in search of however many shots of espresso would fit into a medium paper cup. While offsetting my lack of sleep, the Quad Con Panna (thank you Brother Frank) gave me a burst of energy that could only otherwise be found in illegal substances. I was suddenly a changed man! I went charging back upstairs and burst through the door, cheerfully encouraging my young compadres to make haste with their preparations lest we miss the 6:30 shuttle.

The coffee did other strange things to me that week, but one of the most notable was our invention of "Freeway Preaching". Not to be confused with it's close and much older cousin, street preaching, freeway preaching is the art of screaming the Romans Road as fast as you can out the window of your bus as other cars drive by with their windows down. Our biggest audience was drivers of convertibles who often would speed up very quickly to avoid the conviction of the gospel. Once I had successfully influenced the Junior High boys sitting around me to join with me on this variation of Biblical Evangelism, we realized that a shortened message was necessary if our audience was to gain anything from our shouting, and began focusing on such verses as Romans 10:13 and Romans 6:23. We had many quizzical looks from passers-by, but sadly none of the hearers of our invitation for salvation pulled over and repented. I'm glad my wife wasn't with me because she has a bad habit of quenching the spirit when I begin such activities as "freeway preaching". She says she is quenching the caffeine, but I disagree. One good thing that came from all this was a few 13 year-olds who are going to go back to their home church with a new sense of boldness for which I'm sure their youth director will LOVE me. I hope none of those kids know my real name...

Teaching Sunday School

Acts 28:30-31 "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, 31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." I am really enjoying having my own Sunday school class. Brother Jones has split our class 4 ways (JH Boys, JH Girls, SH Boys, SH Girls) and last week was my first week teaching the junior high boys class. We are currently in the bus, but I told all three of them that my goal is we get so big that we outnumber Pastor's adult class. Anyway, we had a time and I'm really looking forward to what God is going to do through our class. It is really challenging me to look at how my walk with the Lord is and make sure I'm right with God. I don't think anything compares to being in a teaching or leadership position because you are forced to live what you teach if you are to maintain any credibility. These guys keep me on my toes and continually challenge me with their excitement and enthusiasm about the things of God. I can't wait until next Sunday!

7-4-07 Video of the Day - The Perfect Day

...Which Things the Angels Desire to Look Into.

1Pet.1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
Tony Hutson preached at us about the Holy Ghost while we were at youth conference, and it really impacted me as I thought about how often I go through the day without the power of the Holy Ghost on my life. What's interesting is I'm beginning to realize that there is a whole other facet of Christianity which I've never before experienced. It is more than just knowing that you are pleasing God, it is living life in a VIP status with God. John 15:7 says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." Too often we assume that prayer is ineffective because we see so few of them answered, but I think it's because we aren't abiding in Christ (my lesson today is on abiding, which is why it's on my mind). James 5:16 says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." If you leave out the part about being a righteous man, your prayers probably won't avail much. Another though I had was how much I would like to abide in the love of Jesus on a daily basis. John 15:10 says "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." While I know Jesus loves me, many times I don't really feel like I'm abiding in His love because I haven't been keeping his commandments. How exciting would it be to master this thing of being filled with the Holy Ghost and abiding with Christ? Let's find out!

6-30-07 Video of the Day - Who's on First?