Ben Franklin's Junto

...a meeting of the minds.

We are studying the life, inventions, and mind of the genius, Benjamin Franklin.  I discovered the coolest book: Benjamin Franklin: American Genius.  It has great experiments and activities.  It is 2 weeks overdue at the library and so it must go back and I am only just beginning to go through it with my boys.  So, I bought it.  It's just too cool to not own!

We read about Franklin's Junto meetings and Brandon just about came out of his seat.  He wanted to start a Junto immediately and gathered the family together for our first meeting.  He's the leader.  I am the secretary...or so he told me.  And everyone else has a job, too.  I keep telling him that he needs to start a meeting of the minds with his peers, but he is insistent.  He has big plans for a robot he wants to build that can help the soldiers.  He has drawn the blue print and distributed a copy to each of us.  My little inventor.

So, what is a Junto you ask?  It is a meeting where things are discussed.

Anything might be discussed at a Junto meeting, from "What is wisdom?" to whether or not indentured servants made the colonies more prosperous.  Franklin wrote a list of 24 questions for members to keep in mind.  (p. 30.  Benjamin Franklin: American Genius)

Other ideas for topics:

• Should a certain event or legislation come to fruition?
• The happenings around town.
• What can your group do that would be of service to others?
• In what manner can the Junto assist you in any of your ideas? 

I really love this idea.  It reminds me of the group that Sally Clarkson's daughter, Joy, is part of: The Inklings (modeled after a group of adored authors).  Opportunities to exchange thoughts and to brainstorm possibly life-changing ideas.   (Click here for another one of Sally's posts about The Inklings.)

Maybe your kids want to start a Junto, too?!

A happy and beautiful day to you!

wolves in sheep's clothing

Preach the Word!  Be ready in season and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. (2 Tim.. 4:2)

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Tim. 2:5) 

I recently had a back-and-forth with someone who claims to be a Christian but is, in fact, a heretic and not unlike the man who would be better off if he tied a millstone around his neck and hurled himself into the depths of the sea.(Mk. 9:42)  Why?  He leads people astray by boldly corrupting the Word of God, and advocates a false & blasphemous doctrine.   Not only is he dragging himself to hell, but he is taking with him his children and anyone else over whom he may have the slightest influence.  Further, those who support or cling to this particular person's "theology" and philosophy are accurately described in the latter part of this passage:

"For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son into the world that He might comdemn the world , but that the world might be saved through Him.  Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.

This, then, is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.  For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed." (John 3:16-20)

So, I imagine you can guess what type of folks side with a heretic:  those who don't want their actions exposed for the evil that they really are.

We must involve ourselves in a Bible-teaching church.  Are they teaching the whole Word of God or twisting the parts that aren't politically correct so that everyone can feel accepted and uncondemned? This isn't a buffet.  God doesn't make it when we order it.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, the will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. (2 Tim. 2: 3-4)

Eternal.
As far back as forever ago and as far forward as infinitude.  God is unchanging as is His instruction book for how we must live.

As my beloved Chuck Smith (Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa) once said (and I paraphrase):  "If you want to feel good about your sin and attend a church that helps you to feel good about your sin, then you'll feel good all the way to hell." (Emphasis mine.)

Just 'cause it sounds nice and welcoming doesn't mean it is.

For all the heretics and "tolerance" police who may be reading this:  I'm sure you are ready to accuse me of bigotry and narrow-mindedness.

"Enter through the narrow gate.  For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.  How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves."  (Matthew 7:13-15) 

I'll stick to the narrow path.  Because life is a vapor and not worthy to be compared to eternity, and so my soul is firmly set on an eternal perspective and not on pleasing the whims of the latest philosophical craze.

And I'll battle wolves in the meantime.

"Let him go. He's a big boy."

Personal responsibility.
Something I apparently push on everyone else but don't trust my own children with.

I hover,
I instruct,
I nit-pick.

We attended a memorial yesterday for my beloved great Uncle Bill.  It was at an Episcopalian church and so I prepped the boys beforehand with what to expect and brought along some quiet activities to keep idle hands and minds busy and to avoid the squirmies.

Later in the reception hall, Brandon wanted to get some food, but I was mid-conversation with a newly acquainted distant cousin, and so I implored him to wait.  This cousin said to me, "Let him go.  He's a big boy."  And then turning to both boys, she said, "Get a napkin and put a couple of things on it and bring it back to the table."

I guess I could have been offended that she was so forward, or angry that she stepped in front of the Mama Grizzly but I only pondered the moment and realized that she was right and I can't hover over them forever and expect them to make good decisions on their own and to do things properly and respectfully on their own.  Sure, my immediate thoughts were, "Oh no! What if they spill some thing or touch every little piece of food before they settle on the one they want?  What if they cut and push their way to the front?"  But, I said, "Don't handle all the food, but pick up the first thing you touch and take it with you."

Why am I such a control freak over my kids in public?
Because I want their safety and I want to monitor their behavior.  But, I think mostly because of my pride.  I want them to be well-behaved so I don't look like a neglectful mother.  Yuck!

So, off both boys went.  I observed that Si waited patiently for his turn at the table and Brandon returned to tell me, "Mommy, there was a lady in a wheelchair and she couldn't reach the cheese or the bread, so I got it for her."

Not only were they totally fine, but they had the opportunity to model good manners and service.

This was a good lesson for me to learn.

drive and pray

I love You, Jesus.  I deeply love Your word.  You are the Word!  Hallelujah!  I love that I can come to You at any given moment.  Thank You for being my Healer.  Thank You for being my everything! 

Driving home tonight over the mountains and listening to Casting Crowns, Cindy Morgan, Toby Mac, the Gaither Vocal Band...  I was completely overwhelmed with love for Jesus that I was brought to tears.  He is too wonderful for words and so this post falls so desperately short.

equally yoked: it ain't just for marriage anymore

This post does not have the article in its entirety.  I have only taken sections of it.  Mostly for my own reference about the "inclusive" mentality so many religions are attempting to attain in our current culture.

Based on an "inclusive" religious Thanksgiving service put on by an organization called Mission Mississippi, this article addresses Hinduism, but any false religion is applicable.:

How inclusive should Christians be?  (by Ed Vitagliano, AFA Journal staff writer) 

But give thanks to whom?  For Christians, what is the purpose of a Thanksgiving service if not to give thanks to Jehovah through Jesus Christ?  And if Christians are giving thanks to the God of the Bible, why are they including the followers of false religions?  Hindus aren't thanking Jesus.  And if we are not giving thanks to Almighty God, then why go through the motions of pretending we are?

But why should a religious service be inclusive, when the participating religions themselves are mutually exclusive?  For example, Christianity and Hinduism hold to mutually exclusive views of God, man, sin, and salvation.  While participation in a joint religious service might be inclusive, what the practitioners are actually doing is just the opposite.  Each representative is praying to a separate god in defiance - and denial - of the other deity.  To pretend this is inclusion is just that - pretense.  More fearfully, it is the embrace of a spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:1-3) precisely because Hindus deny Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul warned Christians to avoid situations in which they were "bound together with unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 6:14).  While many Christians rightfully relate this passage to questions of interpersonal relationships - should a Christian, for example, marry an unbeliever - that is not the primary application of Paul's warning.  The apostle's admonition is zeroed on religious and spiritual cooperation.

 "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord.

Now, agreeing to disagree with the practitioners of other religions is fine.  The First Amendment right of every person to free exercise of religious expression is a wonderful privilege.  We can respect that and should tolerate other religions.

Taken from the AFA Journal, February 2011  

Dance Your Shoes Off!

He's ALIVE!

taught to pray by an unbeliever

An unbelieving woman taught me the priority of prayer.

My fondest memories of bedtime were in the upstairs bedroom of my grandparent's house.  Two twin beds with white bedspreads and clean, crisp, cool sheets.  Walls papered in pink and white with large, happy sunflowers.  Collections of playful nick-nacks in the shelved headboard.  Grandma tucked my sister and I each tightly in our beds so we could barely move "cozy, ozy, ozy," she would say.  She then sat on the edge of one of our beds and led us in prayer.  One I imagine she prayed as a little girl and took the liberty of altering.

"Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  God bless (and here the long list from the hearts little girls could go on forever) Mommy, Aunt Toby, Uncle Troy, Uncle Todd, Gramma, Grandpa, Ingrid (their dog), my teacher, my best friend... (until Gramma finally decided, 'Honey, let's just say, "God bless everybody,"' probably so she wouldn't be trapped in the sunflower bedroom for an hour while we listed every person we ever knew that we wanted God to bless.) Amen."

And so an unsaved woman (hopefully not so today as I trust her to have been safely welcomed into the arms of Jesus from her deathbed) taught me to always, always pray before bed and before mealtimes.  And I am thankful for this lesson in what's important.


The other night I saw an interview with Andrew Breitbart and he said that our culture by default is liberal.  Though this is definitely true today, it wasn't always so.  My Grandmother, not a Christian in reality, was a morally conservative by default...because the culture in which she was raised was a God-fearing one.  I often sarcastically joke that if you're born in America or eat a hamburger, then you must be a Christian...as this was the mentality of many Americans for so long.  This is not wholly true any longer.  Now, if you are born American, you are an immoral liberal by default.  That is the setting for which we fall into.  Which is indeed what scripture says of those who do not follow Jesus.  You are either for Him or against Him.  There is no complacent or neutral place in the middle. (Rev. 3:16)  I have quoted it many times and here it comes again: "In the absence of Biblical conviction, people will go the way of culture." (Sally Clarkson)
To the credit of those previous generations who claimed to be Christian but in actuality were not, at least they deeply desired goodness, truth, and morality which resulted in a blessed society.   Why did they have this foundation?  Because prayer and Bible were a regular part of their day as they were growing up.  Removing these two pillars has only resulted in a culture of relativism (everyone doing what is right in their own eyes), destruction (a million unborn per year murdered), irresponsibility and passing the blame, an entitlement mentality, and a rampantly bold flaunting of the most horrific sins of men...and pride therein.

"Pride goes before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall."  

~Proverbs 16:18

I recently read that, though people aren't turning to God in droves, there is becoming a greater contrast between light and darkness in our culture. This means that those following righteousness and truth are following it boldly and not lukewarmly.  I think this is incredibly encouraging that people of Jesus aren't just getting in by the skin of their teeth, but are committing with full devotion with their heart, soul, mind, and strength.  This is what changes a generation for real.

Let us not settle for mediocre.  We have a greater purpose in Him!  We must influence others toward righteousness and eternal bliss by lovingly exposing them to the deep, deep love of Jesus.

"All great change in America and (if I may add) the world begins at the dinner table." ~Ronald Reagan (...and a teeny bit of me)

Bless you,