Moments With Dallas: Different Kinds of Nerds

Moments With Dallas: Strange Voices

Just some thoughts on an aggravating subject

So a couple of weeks ago I was doing some research on a project. While in the midst of my research I happened upon a series of blogs and articles that really aggravated me. There is an ignorant war going on right now. I say now, but really it’s been going on for many years just recently it’s been getting on my nerves. What is this war? Should Christian parents homes school or send their children to some form of private/public school?

As soon as you read that line, immediately something began to swell up in you. Some of you sarcastically and arrogantly went “Of course Christian parents should ….” Right now your own defenses are rising up, preparing the usual arguments you present or have been trained to present. But before you lose your dignity please read on.

You see I’m really sick and tired of this debate. Both sides I hear people say “It’s the only Godly thing to do!” However, if I may, I’d like to share with you a secret. The only Godly thing is as follows… if the Lord has placed on your spirit the idea of either sending your child to public school or to home school, then you should do that. Plain and simple people.

I get sick and tired of the anti-home schoolers using arguments like “Your child won’t have adequate education,” or, “Your child will be socially inept.” It’s simply not true. Are there cases where it’s true? YES! Trust me I met plenty of those type of home schoolers when I went to bible college. I saw plenty of kids who had absolutely no concept of what life in the real world was like. However, I have come to know far many who are perfectly normal people with an IQ far surpassing mine. Not to mention the benefits of not have the massive class sizes that public school systems have. You also have the fact that when home schooling you don’t teach to the test, you test to the child’s needs.

I get sick and tired of the anti-public schoolers making claims about how public school will turn their children in to atheistic degenerates. I have known MANY kids who have grown up in strict Christian homes who have turned so far away from God it’s not funny. Many of which have gone on to have had gotten knocked up before marriage and are not with their baby’s daddy. The argument of “You don’t know what they are teaching your kids” is flat out ignorant. If you don’t know what your child’s teacher is teaching your child then that means you are not involved with the process or your child’s life.

So please people, both sides have their upsides and their down sides. So stop acting all pompous and putting “the other side” down. If the Lord has placed in your spirit to home school, then please by all means home school, and do it with the excellence our Lord demands! If the Lord has placed in your spirit to send your child to public school, then please by all means do so and be as involved in your child’s school with the excellence our Lord demands!

As for me, I honestly feel that my children will be public school. I learned to own my faith because while at public school I had people who would ask me the hard questions and that made me think. Even in elementary I was asked, and I asked, hard questions about faith and God. I thank God I had a mother who took time to answer question when she could, I thank God for a youth pastor who didn’t mind being called up on his off day to answer questions when he could. Thanks to them I learned to own my faith.

Then because I owned my faith I was able to reach out to people around me and bring God’s life change presence into their own lives. Every so often I’ll get a message or I’ll run into someone from high school and from BPCC and they’ll tell me, “hey man thanks for being there for me, for showing me what God is like.” I will do my best to raise up Godly children, and I look forward to the day when they get a phone call from friends who say , “thanks for being there, for showing me who God is.”

What is Christmas All About?

Hey Christian parents who have children with questions about Christmas, also Christians who struggle about the traditions of Christmas. Check out this series of videos that are very informative, fun, and short

Speak It Out Mixtape

Hey Guys check out my new mixtape - Speak It Out Mixtape -

Featuring

Rabbi Curt Landry
Turn This Up – T-Bone
One Sixteen Anthem – Trip Lee
Gimme Dat – Ambassador
Glory To God – Shai Linne ( West Coast Remix by DJ Roam)
To Da River Side –
Gangnam Jesus Style - Trip Lee (Skerrit Bwoy x Electric Gospel)

As always i post these up so that people can give me some constructive reviews so i can become a better DJ. So comment and let me know!

I do not personally own any of the music on this track.

Reset Student Ministries Sermon - Being the Paint Brush

So I wanted to share with everyone about what happened last night in Reset. Decided to do something a little different and we all went outside to have service. We waged through all kinds of night time bugs as we pressed into worship.  Though it was difficult with the distraction our students really started to press in and worship God.

I then went into the sermon. As I begin I had one of my leaders pull out this broken white plastic table and had him put it on the wall behind me.  I started off by explaining the atmosphere of the world we live in. As I shared statistics I wrote them on the table.

I shared things like how 55 million babies have been killed since abortion was legalized. We talked about how the world is trying to redefine what marriage is. I pointed out that it’s not just the fact that the world is trying to say marriage between two people of the same gender is ok. It’s also how they diminish the role of the father. I shared that 71% of teenage girls and 64% of teenage boys believe it’s perfectly fine for women to get pregnant and have children yet there be no father in the life. In fact 40% of babies born have no father in their life!

I talked about the liberalization of the media. Not just how tv is pushing a “liberal agenda” but even in written formats. I mentioned how “50 shades of grey” is a top seller even for teenagers and yet it’s really nothing more than pornography in book form.

I talked about how 2 million of the US population is in prison. I talked about how 91% of teens report being bullied and how that has helped to lead to the fact that the 3^rd most common cause of death in teens is suicide. I also mentioned how 20% of teenagers have reported that they have sent nude or seminude pictures to other people via their cell phones.

I explained how this is the world that we live in. I then went into my own personal testimony. As I did I begin to write on the board the different things that had become part of my life; things like rage, hatred, forgiveness, and hurt. I explained how growing up I was destined to become an alcoholic, a drug addict, a woman abuser. 

However! Christ had other plans for me. I explained to the students how we cannot get people saved. As much as we love people, as much as we hate the evil in the world we cannot personally save the people. The only person who can save people is Jesus Christ! So where does that leave us as believers?

I picked up a paint roller and talked about how that roller could not change the look of that table. Rather it was the instrument used to bring the change! You and I are, if you will, a point roller in the hands of God. Our job is to carry God’s presence to the world and to the people around us that it can be Reset to the way that God had intended.

I pointed out how the only thing that can cover sin is blood. I showed them Hebrews 9:22

Indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and with out the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

I then pointed to Christ, how he was the spotless lamb. He lived perfectly yet He went to the cross for us! I showed them 2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake He[God] made Him[Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God

Christ literally took on every sin, every vial evil, then went to the cross, suffered and died so that we wouldn't have to. He did this because He loves us.

I then had one of my leaders step up to the table and run the roller over the statistics and the notes from my testimony. That red paint covered those things so well that you could not see them! They were gone! I explained how that table represents the world and our personal lives. When we allow the painter [God] to use the roller[Us and other Christians] to bring the paint [His presence and His Son] then things change dramatically!

I asked the students “is there something in your life that you've been fighting, some anger, some pain, some sin; that you’ve been holding on to? Do you feel God calling you to release it so that it can be placed under the blood of His precious Son? If so I invite you to come up, take this marker and write it on this board.” I explained that we are going to worship while they do this and when they were done we were going to go up and paint over it.

 

 

 

 

I was nearly in tears as nearly everyone of them went up to write on the board, symbolically giving up whatever it was they were fighting, over to God.  We they were done one of my volunteers walked up with the roller and he covered that entire board with a thick layer of that beautiful red paint.

Now that sounds like a good stopping point for this sermon… but it wasn't.

I explained how this broken table was probably going to be thrown into the trash. How when people see things that are broken that their first instinct is to trash it. Similarly people believe that if they have all kinds of stuff in their past that they are worthless to God, that they have no purpose. But that’s not true!

You see we are taking that broken table and we are going to re-purpose it. We are going to turn it into  a game for our fall carnival.  A game that can be used for our kids camp. We are turning it into something that will be a blessing to our kids. We are giving it a new purpose. A purpose that could no one would had ever thought about it when they saw it mere broken table. In the same way, after we allow God to paint over us, He re-purposes us. He gives us a mission, He gives us importance.

I then explained to the students that they are called to be the paint brush in the hands of God. I explained how if they allow Him to use them to bring His presence to their friends, to their schools, to the world around them, then all the junk, all the sin, all the guilt can be covered. People and the world can be re-purposed to the glory of God.

Pump You Up Mixtape

In case you haven't seen it check out my Pump You Up Mixtape i made! i made it for while i work out. just something to keep me going

What is Your Weakness?

So the other day I picked up DC Comics’ re-release of “Legends of the Dark Knight.” For those of you not in the know DC Comics reset the entire DC universe reverting every title back to Issue 1. The just started “Legends of the Dark Knight” last week. I personally really enjoy LDK because it exists out of the normal Batman continuity, simply telling great stories about Batman.  One of the stories in issue 1 really caught my eye.

::Spoiler Alert::

In “The Butler Did it,” written by Damon Lindelof and beautifully drawn by Jeff Lemire, Bruce Wayne has a very interesting conversation with Alfred, his butler.  In this conversation he basically informs Alfred that he has not weakness. That he’s better than all the other Superheroes out there because there he is supposedly invulnerable.  Alfred, however, assures his mis-guided master that he in fact vulnerable.

To prove this Alfred arranges for Batman to come across a mugging of a family. This mugging instantly reminds Batman about the mugging and death of his own family and so blindly jumps in to save the family without properly assessing the situation. As he does so he quickly finds out that he was set up and has the stuffing knocked out of him! At the end Alfred picks up his now humbled master and leads him away simply saying “Lets draw you a hot bath shall we?”

In that moment Bruce realized that he was vulnerable. He learned that his weakness is the very thing that he the holds closest to him, the thing that spurred him to become what he was today.

As I read that I thought about myself as a Christian. What is my weakness as I walk with God. I also thought about all of the other great men and women of God who seemed so impervious to anything yet fell so hard.   

We can never allow ourselves to get to a place where we believe that we are invulnerable. Moment we believe that we are in way saying “Jesus I don’t need you anymore. I don’t need your hand of grace, I don’t need your protection. I’m good all on my own.” 

As men and women of God we must cling to the cross, holding firm to the promises that God will protect us, that the Holy Spirit will guide us, that the blood of Christ has redeemed us, and has given us the grace to walk in righteousness and holiness!  

Welcome To the Academy

Watch "Welcome to the Academy Mixtape Vol 1 Competition" on YouTube