Turkey Bowling coming to The Plunge N2 November 18th at 7pm!!

Wednesday night November 18th @ 7 pm we will be engaging in Turkey Bowling. Don't know what that is...check out the video or better yet...join us!

Do you know what you are listening to?

Music is a powerful medium to convey messages to people. Think of your favorite song...bet you can sing the lyrics to it. How is it you can remember that but not the Pythagorean theorem? Oh I am sure you will say you can remember what you want to remember and that is true but you also can remember lyrics without even consciously thinking about them. Why is that? The power that music has to impact you is very real.

When is the last time you actually listened to the music that comes on your radio or is on shuffle in your ipod? You just might be surprised what those songs are really saying. We compromise in a lot of ways and say its just one song what is that? Little by little we are desensitizing ourselves to sin. We can rationalize it away but ultimately our music can change the way we think if we continue to fill our heads with junk. GIGO I call it...garbage in, garbage out...

I am no prude. I listen to a variety of styles of music from trance to hardcore metal music to country but I believe it is very important for you to pay attention to what these songs are saying to you. Take some time to look up the lyrics of your favorite artist. Look into that artist's beliefs...what they are about and why they sing the songs they do...you just might be surprised by what you find out.

You have heard the noise over what you watch on TV, Youtube, etc and how that effects your attitude but music has that subtle effective power to stay with us in our memory banks for years. I still associate a very bad breakup I had with a song that had the lyrics "you dropped a bomb on me" and every time I hear that song played, I think about that breakup. That is powerful.

Couple music with power of video imagery and you get a double dose of dangerous. I watch MTV (of course they don't play videos on MTV anymore much) and other video channels and I see so much more about the song than I ever could have imagined by the words alone. You do too. Except you are still learning what is right and what is wrong and developing a filter for the things the world throws at you.

I pray you will take some time to listen to the songs you like...pay attention to what that artist is singing about in your fav videos...I hope and pray God opens your eyes...

What does it mean to live on purpose?

So, what does it mean to live for a higher purpose?

God created you to please Him and live for Him. The purpose of the things we do should line up with this purpose for our lives. It is each person’s responsibility to do things that honor Jesus Christ, with motives that honor God, using methods that honor Him. God’s Word is given to us to help us learn how to do that.

Proverbs 19:21 says "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."

Why you do something...your motive is as important as what you do. Colossians 3:17 makes that pretty plain to me: "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

So the questions to ask yourself are this: Is what you are doing...will it please God and bring glory and honor to Him? Your motive for doing it...will it please God?

We have a purpose in life...each of us...are you fulfilling yours by God's standards?

You have meaning...God cares about you,

Larry

What is your story?

Everybody has a story...who are you? What has God done in you, with you and through you...what challenges have you encountered...what mistakes have you made? What are your successes? The more you think about it, the more of the story starts filling in like a jigsaw puzzle.

You might say well I am just 12! Yes that is true...now consider what Jesus did when he was 12...

It starts with your beginning. Most might label this a testimony but it is simply your story. A simple four step process should help. If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you should be able to complete these in some form:

Write your personal story using the following guide:

1. Briefly describe your life before Christ.

2. Write what you felt and experienced before you came to know Christ. Be careful not to get too detailed at this point. Don’t glamorize your past.

3. Describe your conversion experience. Include events and circumstances that led to you discovering your need for Christ. Many times we make the mistake of describing our baptism, not our conversion. Focus on when Christ became your Savior and Lord.

4. Describe the differences that accepting Christ has made in your life. How He changed your life? What has God done - and what is He still doing - in your life that has strengthened and affirmed your relationship with Him?

What about you? What's your story?

Don't have a story but you want one? If you do...email me!

What Are Middle Schoolers Afraid Of?

I admit it has been 30 years since I was in middle school so when this subject flashed through my head (and believe me, a lot of stuff flashes through my head) I tried to remember some things I was afraid of going into the middle school years.

I was afraid of getting physically beaten up. At least I had older brothers but they were not around in middle school and my mouth had a habit of writing checks my body could not cash. I remember being in several fights in middle school...some even with girls. I am not certain I "won" any of those. I think I had something written on my forehead that said bully me. I know some kids deal with bullies today. At least bullying has been brought out into the light and schools no longer tolerate that activity as much. In my day they said "if I didn't see him do it, it did not happen". I learned that on the occasion you cannot out-physical a bully, you can generally out-think them...strategy, logic, planning...all worked to my advantage. I am a better problem solver today for having to out-think those bullies.

I had a realistic fear that I would never have a girlfriend. I was not good with the ladies (thus the fights) and I felt kind of left out of the girlfriend/boyfriend mix. In fact most of the girlfriends I had were younger sisters of my brother's girlfriends. I know some kids today struggle with thoughts just like this. I want to tell you...don't worry about the bf/gf thing so much. I was a shy guy, I was a nerd and I believe I turned out ok. I have never been a ladies man but I watched how the "ladies man" type guys turned out and you are not missing much.

I had an all consuming fear of failure. I failed 6th grade math. I should have failed a couple of other subjects along the way. One year I did not make a baseball team. I did not make the cut on the junior high basketball team. I really thought of myself as an utter failure many times. People wonder where I get my competitive drive...it is literally because I so greatly feared failure that I try so hard to succeed. There were few things I could find that I do well. Strangely that has not changed in my life. What has changed is my focus. I spend more time and effort focused on those things I do well in and less on those that dub me a failure. Oh I occasionally dabble in those things I am not that good at hoping I might somehow have gotten better but no.

So I have listed three from my days as a junior high schooler/middle schooler (and if you have not heard, I went from junior high to high school to middle school and then back to high school and did not fail a grade...you figure that one out.) The fear of physical beat-downs, the fear of loneliness, and the fear of failure. What about you? What are you (or were you) afraid as as a middle schooler?

Middle School Trials and Tribulations

It is troubling to me that I see a lot of kids struggling in middle school with the same issues my almost 19-year old daughter struggled with late in the high school years. There has been a fundamental shift to everything happening earlier in kids lives. Not just teenage pregnancies but drugs, sex, alcohol, and bullying. The full gambit of bad stuff now invades at the 6th grade level rather than waiting for that mythical high school experience.

That simply means we as parents have to educate ourselves even quicker to the culture and the issues at hand. We cannot leave those things to someone else. Even though I work with middle schoolers on a regular basis, I am not with them for the length of time to make the kind of impression on them they need. 4 hours a week just does not cut it. The world in which they live has changed. It is not the same as it was when we were in middle school, in fact, it is not the same as when my oldest daughter was in middle school 4 short years ago.

At times, I scratch my head and ask what happened. Then I remember, sin happens. No matter the age, it grabs a hold of our kids and will not let go. Parents, we must be on our knees in prayer for these kids. We must be prayer walking the schools. We must be praying with them at home and teaching them what is right from the Bible at home. It all starts at home. If our country is imploding, it is happening first in the home. No stable family, no consistent home life, a world full of busyness, and tweenage imagination are dangerous combinations. Do not abdicate your parental responsibilities to someone else. We make the time for soccer, baseball, golf, dancing lessons, school functions, and our own recreation...why not time to pray with our kids? Do you have time to teach them some Biblical principles? If you claim you do not have time, then do not be surprised by the problems you are dealing with years later.

I am no perfect role model myself. I have a long way to go but it is evident, as I have two more children creeping up on middle school age, that I have not done enough to prepare them for what is ahead. It is never too late to do what is right. Start afresh with your kids today.

Relationships: Parents

The days in which parents are the most influential relationship in a child's life has almost passed us by. Not by accident but by abdication. Many parents have surrendered their parental authority to teachers, ministers, friends, or anyone else that has an interest in their child's life. The difficulty in maintaining a normal family structure of mom, dad, and kids has only muddied the water further.

Many kids are struggling with the relationship with their parents. This is not unusual. This has been happening for years. The difference now is that the conflict starts much earlier and goes much deeper than it ever used to.

Leaves us to ask why. The simple answers are communication, independence, time, and the obvious relationship factors. Look deeper. Parents are not passing on any morals to their children anymore. It may be because they don't have any... Parents have a lack of respect for authority figures so it is no surprise they raise children who also suffer from that. Parents did not grow up in church so they have lost the moral basis and center for their lives. Churches have also failed parents along the way too. There is enough responsibility to go around. Make no mistake, I am not innocent of what I see either.

I have to get the log out of my eye before I can see the speck in yours. But I believe we are all walking around with 2x4's in our eyes and we are afraid to point it out. There is an elephant in the room and we just don't see it..

Parenting has never been more of a challenge but you know what else...being a kid has never been more of challenge either. Yet we are running away from the very thing that can help us.

The bottom line is having a respect for authority and that authority starts at the very top. If you do not have a relationship with God...you have no respect for His authority, we certainly are not going to have any basis to respect any other authority. It just will not seem right or add up to us. We settle controversy and disputes by what seems fair and right in our own eyes. That will always change based on the situation (which is a subjective standard) or even what many call moral relativism. That line of thinking simply states that YOU define what is moral and right in each situation. As long as we do that and our kids do that, we will have what we see now. When we lived according to God's righteous standard, we were much better off across the board...not perfect, but better.

So parents, what am I saying? If you have a bad situation with your children...your know likely where it began? Not with them and their willfulness. But with you and your own unwillingness to do as Proverbs 22:6 says "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

Sadly it may be too late for some of our kids. A generation has passed and you have lost all authority over them. But its not too late for the rest of them. Its time to take up the mantle of Biblical Parenthood. Biblically, it should start with the men, the head of the family but it may not.

Young people....just because your parents are the way there are does not excuse you from personal responsibility. God holds each of us accountable for our own actions. If you have God honoring parents...thank God and honor your parents accordingly. If you do not, then set an example for them...challenge them with your honor and respect for them because God says you should and maybe you will see a change in your parents. Too many people are buying into the Dr. Phil excuses that your parents messed you up for life and that is why you are this way. God did not make you that way. Everything you do still boils down to your choice. God has a plan and a purpose for your life and even your experiences with your parents can be used to benefit others.

I pray God removes the 2x4's before it is too late for all of us.

In His Name,

Larry