talkin bout my generation

we are failing. the price is going to be great, perhaps more than we are willing to bear. what are we failing? we are failing our kids. our youth are being thrown to the wolves with no weapons with which to defend themselves. what wolves? the wolves of the secular society. we are becoming a society that is increasingly less godly and more secular humanistic.

what are we doing to combat this? the same thing we have done since the 1950s. and we stand back with our chests puffed out and rest on our "blessed assurance" thinking that we are preparing them for the world. after all, we send them to church, and to youth camps, and teach them to have a "quiet time". the problem is, it's not working. let me say that again, it's not working!

why isn't it working? because we have dumbed down kids and give them fluffed up Bible stories that are so shallow they make a bathtub look deep. the Bible says to "train up a child in the way he should go." it does not say to tell them a bunch of stories with morals to them. those are called fables people. aesop has some very good ones. and consequently, when our youth stand before a humanistic professor demanding to hear proof in the existence of God or that the Bible is true, all they can do is spout Bible stories.

we teach kids to compartmentalize their lives, where church and God fits in one, school fits in another, family fits in another, etc. or to "prioritize" their lives. you know, God first, family second, school third, etc. these are both flawed ways of thinking. we should teach them that Christ permeates and should be the center of all we do, not sitting at the top of our priority list. when we do that, He is excluded from the other areas of our life.

we are even failing in our so-called Christian schools. they come out with an education that is comparable to a public school, but with a Christian spin on things, and they have no depth, no change in thinking, no worldview perspective. just a trumped up religious private school education, where we can all feel good about ourselves and say "i sent my kid to Christian school!" in the end, it's all about appearances and feelings.

make no mistake, unless we abandon the kumbaya mentality of the 1950s and start preparing kids to face the challenges of today's intellectual and secular society, our churches will dwindle. the numbers of professing Christians will diminish. and it may just be a precursor to the prophecy in the New Testament concerning the many that will leave the faith. the book of James is very specific. those who teach will be held to a stricter judgment. that goes not only for pastors and youth pastors, it also goes for parents, teachers, grandparents. i think i may have to go and cover up my mirror, because the finger i'm pointing ends up pointing back at me.

can your mirror remain uncovered?