Jackson Kicking a Ball

Here's some fun we had yesterday.

I think my wife's a Calvinist

Those in "the know" will appreciate this video

Share Your Bibles

For Christmas, Emily and I got our fathers the study bible of study bibles, The ESV Study Bible. But do you know they both probably already own multiple bibles? In fact, most American Christians have a proliferation of bibles at their disposal. This fact alone is an embarrassment when you think about how for centuries many Christians never even saw a Bible. Now one can own many, let alone just one.

That's why I'm excited to tell you about Christian Resources International. Did you know the average Christian church-plating pastor of a third-world country owns ZERO bibles? Tha't right. Now, there is something you can do about it:

"...we have launched Operation Bare Your Bookshelf, a project to make it easy for American Christians to send a Bible (and a Christian book or two) overseas.

Just enter your name, address, and denomination in the form below, and then we’ll send you—free—all the mailing materials you need to send a Bible to a specific pastor, Christian worker, church member, or seeker overseas. We’ll send you the recipient's name and address, so you can pray for the recipient by name.

Because the mailing materials bear CRI’s return address, you need not worry that you’ll be personally contacted by anyone overseas. But CRI will personally pass on to you the thank you letters generated by the packages they send. You will be matched to a recipient who is a member of a denomination most similar to yours, ensuring that the material you send will actually be used in the recipient’s church."

So, clean out your bookshelf and send those bibles that you don't read anymore to someone who really needs one. Imagine the people that can be reached through a Bible that was just sitting on a shelf collecting dust...

Thanks to Challies.com for the link.

Thank God that He is not like Santa

The Baby Jesus

As I sat and held my 2-week old daughter, I reflected on the miracle that God came to this earth as a baby. Just like my 2-week old, he was born the same way. However, his mother did not have the luxury of nurses attending her every move, or the luxury of being able to have drugs dull the pain of childbirth. This morning, I'd like to pause and reflect on the humanity of a baby Jesus...

Baby Jesus experienced the extremely terrifying process and moment of childbirth. Contrary to a famous Christmas hymn (Away in a Manger), Baby Jesus no doubt cried moments after emerging from the womb. Upon his delivery, Baby Jesus was immediately wrapped in swaddling cloths to keep his body temperature regulated. Baby Jesus needed to have his umbilical cord snipped. After 8 days, Baby Jesus was no doubt circumcised as was the Jewish custom. Baby Jesus cried when he was hungry. Baby Jesus cried when he wanted to be held and loved. Baby Jesus cried when he was hurt. Baby Jesus did not cry out of selfish sinful motives. Baby Jesus probably experienced some type of diaper rash. Baby Jesus probably urinated on his parents during a diaper change. Baby Jesus pooped. Baby Jesus slept. Baby Jesus cooed. Baby Jesus was a baby.

As Baby Jesus grew older he did things that ordinary children did. He ran and played. He got sick. He probably got the stomach bug - especially hanging out with all the other children at the synagogue. He had to blow his nose from time to time. He experienced all that we experience, minus the sin. This is the humanity of Jesus...and it was humiliating to an all-powerful God. In fact Phil. 2 is called the "humiliation of God" by some scholars:

The Apostle Paul writes, "...though he was in the form of God, (he) did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:5-11 ESV, emphasis added).

I want to reflect on something here...Scripture says that He made himself nothing. NOTHING.

Jesus was 100% man.

But He was also 100% God. And this truth makes his birth, life, death, and resurrection all the more troubling as well as magnificent. It is troubling because even though God did all this for his creation, people still hate him and spit at him and tear out his beard every chance they get. It is also troubling that He would do this knowing that his creation would reject him. No, reject is not a strong enough word. Despise him. Abhor him. Desecrate him... that's more like it.

It is magnificent in knowing that his children will humble themselves as he did and will receive His eternal life...those that love Him and not themselves...those that humble themselves as he did and do not exalt themselves...those that recognize the humanity as well as the deity of Jesus.

Jesus: a God-man that was incarnated on this earth as a baby...complete with spit-up.

Merry Christmas.

Restoring a Brother

In the book of Matthew (chapter 18) Jesus gives very explicit instructions at how to deal with a brother (or sister) in Christ who is in unrepentant sin. This process has become known as "church discipline" although the word 'discipline' never appears in the text. Nevertheless, the process of restoring a brother who is in unrepentant sin is a loving one. Quickly, Jesus gives three steps:

1. Confront the person about their sin and ask them to repent. If they refuse...

2. Confront the person with two or three other church leaders and do the same. If they refuse...

3. Bring the matter to the church's governing body.

Can you imagine how churches would look/function if we actually obeyed Jesus in this regard? One, it would show that we genuinely care about each others' spiritual life. Second, it would give everyone a chance to become clean and repent of sins that have taken a hold of their life. Third, the church would be blessed by God as discipline would enable a church to function without prayers being hindered.

Click this link to read a sample letter that was written to someone who rejected all three restoration attempts

Unfortunately, Fox News has named the link "church extortion." Geez...

Here is some additional commentary on the matter

How Much Do You Hate People?

Saw the following video first on Ed Stetzer's blog. It is a videoblog from Penn of Penn and Teller. In it, Penn states that he is an athiest. However, you need to hear his story of how he was 'proselytized.' He says something that should convict every person that calls upon the name of Jesus as their Lord and savior:

"I don't respect people who don't proselytize. If you believe that there's a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, and you think, 'Well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward'... How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?"

Merry Christmas from the Wallace Family

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas from the First Kids Team

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tumblr.

Found a new blog/scrapbook thing. Tell me what you think.

http://charliewallace.tumblr.com

Your Discipline Has Eternal Consequences

"A parent who will not discipline a child for disobedience, or who is inconsistent in doing so, is teaching that child not to expect consequences for behavior. In short, a parent who will not discipline is denying the doctrine of hell." - Dr. Russ Moore

Your disobedience to God's Word in parenting leads to your children not fearing consequences, and possibly the ultimate consequence of disobedience and rejection, Hell. Don't allow them to do that. Discipline your children and "save their soul from death."

Too Afraid To Touch?

I recently read an extremely insightful article concerning the culture of fear that pervades this country. What is that fear of? It's the simple fear of a lawsuit - also known as 'fear of man.' When we fear man, we do not fear God and his sovereignty. Additionally, in the 'land of the free' which we live, we are not really 'free' at all. Most of our decisions that we make, whether conscious of them or not, are made with litigation in mind. For example:

"We are all so terrified of child sexual abuse that we have outlawed taking photographs of children at nursery school without parental consent. And adults are terrified that their motives will be suspected if they talk to a child or, even worse, hug one. So, a few years ago, when Clive Peachy, a bricklayer, saw two-year-old Abigail Rae walking down the road after she had escaped from her nursery school in Warwickshire, he did not stop and help her because he thought people would think he was trying to abduct her. The result? She drowned in a pond."

I've seen this fear of man play out in the children's ministry world. I must admit, I hug and touch kids a lot less then I should for fear of being accused of something. Did you know that all it takes for me to be all but eliminated from working with children is for a simple accusation? The first question that is asked on SLED checks is "Have you ever been accused?" If an applicant answers 'yes' then questions and suspicions abound. Read also,

"So what is all this about? First, there is a real fear of being sued, far greater than the actual numbers of cases would warrant. Second, there is a fear of what others might think. We have begun to internalize the messages that people might think we are abusers when we are not. Third, we are fearful of our children being injured, being killed, being abducted. Yet, in terms of ordinary accidents happening to children, the numbers have gone down dramatically rather than up over the last 30 years.

Nevertheless, our children are frightened to go outside because, as the think-tank Demos and the Green Alliance demonstrated a few years ago, they fear the outside world. They think the streets are full of terrorists, murderers and child-abductors. Worse, they think they know what they look like. They are white, male, middle-aged, wear horrible clothes and have a funny look in their eyes."

I must agree that as a child I was scared to death of "strangers." Why? I was taught frequently, "don't talk to strangers." Therefore, I became shy and rude.

However, as parents we help foster this type of thinking in our children.

"But children would not feel like this if adults did not encourage them. It is adult fear, stoked by government and insurers, by risk assessors and hospital and school managers. If we aren’t careful, the next generation will consist entirely of wimps. They will go off on adventure holidays abroad, but they will not walk down the street or get on the Tube alone for fear of attackers. The net result will be not only a lack of life skills, but overwhelming fear: of predators, of accidents, of life itself."

Our fear of man is creating a culture of spineless wimps who are too afraid of man to live the free life that God has called them to live. In fact, our fear of God is so low we actually believe and internalize the lie that we can control the suffering and evils that happen to us. And...

"Meanwhile, the sexual predators will carry on just as before — largely in the family — because no system of checks will root them out completely. And we will have created a whole generation of unhappy people. We need to be sensible, not risk-averse; we need to look out to see where we can help others. And, sometimes, we may even need to touch them."

And herein lies the irony. Most of what we are afraid of takes place in the home. Yes, there are isolated incidents of abuse, etc., but the vast majority of these acts are done behind closed doors.

It is a sad day when we realize that many decisions are made, both individually and corporately, for fear of what may happen. Are we really so naive and arrogant to believe that we can control and eliminate all suffering and evil in life by taking innumerable precautions? Yes, we are.

How big does this practice make our view of a sovereign God? Extremely small when, in reality, He is so much bigger and in control than we can imagine.

Bush: Evangelical? In His words, "probably not"

First of all, let me preface this post by stating that I have never published or said anything negative about our current president. However, take a look at this interview about exactly what he believes when it comes to Christianity:

Here is a snippet:

Q: Is it literally true, the Bible?

BUSH: You know. Probably not … No, I’m not a literalist, but I think you can learn a lot from it, but I do think that the New Testament, for example is … has got … You know, the important lesson is “God sent a son.”"

*Throwing up*

She's Here

She's here! Abigail Easterlin Wallace was born at 1:17 pm yesterday afternoon. She was 6 lbs, 11 oz, and 19 3/4 inches long. Some of you followed along on my twitter feed on this site. If you did, you were as shocked as I was at how quickly things progressed after being stalled for hours. Emily had not been checked in a while so I went downstairs to grab some lunch. Before I had even paid, Emily's dad came down and told me, "She's at 8 cm and they're talking about pushing." I hurried up to the fourth floor and 20 minutes later we had new girl. Wow... Here are some pictures. Enjoy.

Your Children Are Immersed in Media

And you know it. What are you doing about it? Albert Mohler gives seven suggestions on how to manage your children's media barrage and its effects. For the entire article click here.

"1. Limit the total media exposure experienced by your children. The statistic that the average child and adolescent is immersed in the media for 45 hours a week should be sufficient motivation for parents to hit the brakes and gain control of media exposure. Access to entertainment media should be a privilege earned, not a right assumed by the child.

2. Do not allow children and teenagers to have televisions and Internet-connected computers in the bedroom. There is simply too much danger in unsupervised media exposure, and too much temptation in terms of both quantity and content. No child needs a television in the bedroom, and a computer connected to the Internet is an invitation to disaster.

3. Make entertainment media a family experience. There is a massive difference in the experience of a child watching programming alone and that same child watching with a parent. Parents should be in unquestioned control of media decisions. Parents should also be eager to discuss what is seen with teenagers and children, helping them to grow in discernment and judgment.

4. Parents have to do the hard work of actually knowing what their children and teenagers are watching, playing, hearing, and experiencing through media exposure. No one said parenting was supposed to be easy.

5. Realize that a revolution has taken place in the lives of children and adolescents. The emergence of social media technologies means that children (and adolescents especially) now expect to be in constant communication with their peers. This is not healthy, sane, or helpful. All of us -- children and teenagers included -- need a break from this immersion. Put a charging dock in the kitchen and confiscate cell phones as the kids come in the door. That will send a message the old fashioned way -- in person.

6. Take a regular look at what your child is posting and what others are posting on his or her social media sites. Look at the instant messaging exchanges and emails. You are the parent, after all, and your child's access to these technologies should come with the open and non-negotiable requirement that parents see it all.

7. Remember that saying "no" is a legitimate option. I do not believe that saying "no" is always the right response. The media bring opportunities for good as well as for evil. Children and teenagers who are never allowed access to media technologies and entertainment will emerge into adulthood with no powers of discernment. But "no" is sometimes the best and only appropriate answer, and parents should always be ready to use it when needed."

Reading Dr. Mohler's commentary we realize that we cannot simply afford to be a hands-off parent. We should not crush our children under our watch, however, we should know what they are doing and they need to remember that God has placed them under our authority for a time and for a reason.

Pregnancy

My wife's induction date is Friday morning. Pray for her and for our new daughter. Also, pray a prayer of thanksgiving to God that women get to be pregnant and men don't...

Michelle Obama - The Stay at Home Mom

Michelle Obama's recent announcement that she plans to stay at home (home=The White House) during her husband's presidency has sent shock waves through her electorate - those women who claim that she is "letting down the team" by not being woman enough to work and raise her family.

Click here for commentary