Torch: what's the world is coming to...

First day of school is today.  (For those who don't know much about me, I am a network/software-development manager for a local community college in my day job.  I have been working there for over 15 years now).

As I was walking across the campus today, I couldn't believe what I see on the cover of our college's magazine Torch: a stripper!  And a subtitle for the lead article: "Not Your Mom's Part-Time Job: students strip to pay for school" (racy cover picture coming up soon - I forgot my webcam at home today).

Now this is too much!

I've been a very tolerable person at work.  Our diversity officer is an open homosexual person - she brought the subject up in our diversity/sexual-harassment training here at work.  When they invited gays and lesbians on campus to talk about diversity and discrimination, I attended - voluntarily - so that I could learn more about what's going on.  And the diversity officer generally has been doing a good job in making sure that swimsuit calendars are removed from cubicles, that offensive jokes won't be told in the classroom, that racial remarks will be deal with swiftly.

And now this?

We are living in a world where relativism reigns - "What's right for you is OK for you! But don't impose your standards on me!"  Even church goers believe that as well.

In the most recent communication about tolerance, TV came up with a show named "The Book of Daniel".  The show focuses on a drug-addicted Episcopal priest who has a wife who downs mid-day martinis, a 23-year-old son who is a homosexual Republican, a 16-year-old daughter who sells marijuana and a 16-year-old adopted son who is having sexual relations with the bishop’s daughter. The show, produced by a homosexual ex-Catholic, also includes a figure called “Jesus,” who wears a white robe and beard and casually converses with the main character.

The main character in the show, Daniel Webster, laid out an overly tolerant theology during the show’s premiere, saying temptation is not really a bad thing because if not for sin there would be no need for redemption. Furthermore, a person who has sinned should not ask forgiveness of anyone until he has first forgiven himself, Webster said.

And sadly, instead of what many might expect, some leaders of the Episcopal Church are not offended by the portrayal of their denomination broadcast every Friday night on most NBC stations. Instead, they embrace “The Book of Daniel,” as R. Albert Mohler noted in a recent commentary when he wrote Jan. 13 on albertmohler.com. (Mohler is the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. a conservative denomination, while the Episcopals in the US are the most liberal - they are even ordaining homosexual bishop in the name of love and progress last year.)

And an official at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, Calif., where the show’s first episode was filmed, said she was enthusiastic about the series because she thinks “it’s a realistic portrayal of a faithful man facing 21st century challenges.” She even expects it to attract new members to the denomination.

So, as the world begins to degenerate into incoherent chaos because of its rejection for moral absolute, what are we supposed to do as people who follow Christ?  We are supposed to take on the persecution for our belief.  But in the local sense, what am I supposed to do to counter the blatant wrongs I see display on my college's magazine here?  How am I to engage all this?

I had an idea about what I would be doing; but I am waiting for some of your comments first...

Reason to be Strong and Courageous: The Lord YOUR God Will Be With YOU

“Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:6-9, NASB It is strange that the phrase “be strong and courageous” was repeated here three times in these four verses while it didn’t appear at all in the previous verses yesterday. Why is it that they need to “be strong and courageous”? It is not to cross of the Jordan River, and it is not because of the “place on which the sole of your foot treads”. The first “be strong and courageous” refer to the responsibility we have: “for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.” Why me, you may wonder. Through out history, God has always chosen to work with people and through people, especially the ordinary and weak people. God is personal. To know Him is to personally get involved with Him. Let’s get more personal with God, shall we? Please fill-in the blanks below with your name and re-read the passages: “Be strong and courageous, for ____________ shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.” Oh my – what a responsibility and privilege! How shall we fulfill such a role? Re read what God spoke and imagine that it was directed to you personally and not just Joshua: “Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded YOU; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that YOU may have success wherever YOU go. This book of the law shall not depart from YOUR mouth, but YOU shall meditate on it day and night, so that YOU may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then YOU will make YOUR way prosperous, and then YOU will have success.” No matter how much we wish for a miraculous short-cut to answer all issues of life, Godly men and women pointed us back to the basic nutritional law from God: We are to read God’s Word (the text said “not depart from mouth”), we are to ponder about it (“meditate day and night”), and we are to take action (“be careful to do”) according to that Word. Think back on all the problems (not persecutions) you’ve encountered in your life, school, work, in your family or your church. There is no way you could say, “I/we have carefully read, studied, and followed what the Bible said, yet the problems were unavoidable.” We instinctively know the good standard, yet our natural tendency is to drift away from the Word of God. This is why God said, be “very courageous” when it comes to the renewal of our obedience to God. But then there is more than just your effort to follow God’s law. We can never attain righteousness by our own effort. God invites us to yet another level of being “strong and courageous!” He encourages us, saying, “Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God wants to travel with us on the journey, strengthen us to follow His way. God is with us – Immanuel. Will you trust Him enough to follow His way in every personal aspect of your life? Is the Lord your God? Fill out the final blanks with your name here: “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord _______’s God is with _______ wherever _______ goes.” Godspeed!