Our family is scheduled for a work party this Saturday at Grandma’s house, so this Friday’s humor is especially timely! For those of you who are wondering… yes, they are wearing wigs.
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Laugh while you learn and retain 800% more! This Friday’s laugh is from Johnny and Chachi at IgniterMedia.com
Here is an opportunity to participate in a worldwide math race! Compete both for a worldwide record and also to be the fastest mathematician!
World Maths Day website states:
Last year a “new world record was once again set with 452,681,681 questions answered correctly in 48 hours. A staggering 1,952,879 million students registered, 38,058 schools participated from 204 countries”, and guess what… homeschoolers are welcomed!! All you need to do is register BEFORE Monday, then all you will need is an internet connection and you will be ready to go!
So what are you waiting for? Break up math monotony this week and participate! Then let us know how it went!
This Friday’s humor strikes a little too close to home for Dan F.
Dan, one of our employees, missed his bus earlier this week and found himself biking 13 miles to work!
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Laugh while you learn and retain 800% more! This Friday’s laugh by The Brothers Winn is titled, “Bike Pain.”
Brett and Jedd produce an innovative vodcast, What You Ought To Know, covering many and varied topics. Check back next Friday for the next informative installment!!
I read an article on AP News yesterday, titled “Testing Curbs Some Genetic Diseases” and was stunned by its blatant tone of support for diminishing inherited diseases at any cost, even abortion. Testing Curbs Some Genetic Diseases appears to celebrate the fact that most parents are choosing to forgo bearing a special needs child, by whatever means possible. And by implication leads its readers to believe, “There is nothing good about special needs, God would not want this for you.”
If after reading this article you are as disturbed as I was, then you may find these resources helpful:
CHASK (Christian Homes and Special Kids) – A wonderful resource both for families who cannot care for a special needs child and for the families who would love to.
The Works Of God (The volunteer disability ministry blog for Bethlehem Baptist Church) - John Knight shares an honest, practical, personal, and God-centered view of caring for those with special needs.
It is so important to have God’s heart on this! Talk about it with your children, explore what they believe and why and then lead them to discover what God’s heart is towards special needs.
Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz were arraigned in court last Tuesday, accused of murdering their 7-year-old adopted daughter during a discipline session which occurred the Saturday morning before.
Most disturbing? Apparently the Schatz’s are homeschoolers and their discipline methods can be traced back to Michael and Debbi Pearl’s child training book.
Here are two bloggers’ thoughts on this devastating event which I found helpful: Child Discipline or Child Abuse by Virginia Knowles, and When Parenting Kills by Katiekind.
Read, be informed, and share with your friends. There are many new, well-meaning parents who are looking for instruction and help in parenting. Use your knowledge to help them keep away from this dangerous path.
In honor of Valentine’s Day this Sunday… here you go!! 
Laugh while you learn and retain 800% more! This Friday’s laugh by The Brothers Winn is titled, “Women.”
Brett and Jedd produce an innovative vodcast,
What You Ought To Know (http://www.whatyououghttoknow.com/show/2008/09/05/women/), covering many and varied topics. Check back next Friday for the next informative installment!!
Simeon, one of our employees, has a 23 year-old brother leaving today for a short-term mission trip to Mexico. Titus, this one is for you!!
Laugh while you learn and retain 800% more! This Friday’s laugh by The Brothers Winn is titled, Mexican Standoff. Brett and Jedd produce an innovative vodcast, What You Ought To Know, covering many and varied topics. Check back next Friday for the next informative installment!!
Do you have family or friends for whom Super Bowl Sunday is the “Holiest Day of the Year?” Then you may find this article by Shepherd Press a helpful explanation for why this day is so important to them and why its perceived importance threatens the very happiness your friends and family seek.
Greg Doyle is a writer for CBS Sports. He is a good sports reporter and I enjoy his work. I also believe that he represents what many think about the role of sports in our culture. As you may know, Tim Tebow and his mother are going to be featured in an ad sponsored by Focus on the Family during this year’s Super Bowl. Mr. Doyle provides this description of what he thinks the ad will be like:
“Apparently the commercial has a beautiful, undeniable message. Tebow’s mother suffered a life-threatening infection during that pregnancy, and doctors advised her to abort the baby. She didn’t. She named him Tim. Just typing this paragraph gives me goose bumps. The commercial might just make me cry.”
Yet, Mr. Doyle is offended by the ad. Why? Because it is airing during the Super Bowl. Listen carefully to his reasons for not wanting the ad to run. His comments honestly reflect his priorities.
“And I’m not complaining about the ad because it’s anti-abortion and I’m not. I’m complaining about the ad because it’s pro-politics. And I’m not. Not on Super Sunday. If you’re a sports fan, and I am, that’s the holiest day of the year. That’s a day for five hours of football pregame shows and four hours of football game and three hours of postgame football analysis. That’s a day for football addicts to gorge themselves to the gills on football.
It’s not a day to discuss abortion. For it, against it, I don’t care what you are. On Super Sunday, I don’t care what I am. Feb. 7 is simply not the day to have that discussion.”
This is a clear statement of allegiance. There is deep passion voicing these thoughts. Sports is at the center of Mr. Doyle’s life. He clearly believes there is room for other things—just not on Super Sunday. This view would be fine in a world where man decided his own fate, determined what was moral and what was not, and God was not a jealous God who requires undivided worship and fidelity from man. But that is not the world we live in. We live in God’s world, in which he determines where we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:24-28). So issues like abortion, sexual purity, and personal holiness and righteousness matter every day, even on Super Sunday. The living God of the Bible will not be pre-empted, even for a day.
Despair and difficulty burden many in our culture because they have embraced Mr. Doyle’s worldview. To be sure, he is not the originator of this viewpoint, he is just a subscriber. But living with anything other than God at the center of life is living in the world of idolatry. Idolatry always leads to despair because it can never deliver on the promises it makes. To quote from Tim Keller’s latest book, Counterfeit Gods, idolatry can happen anytime someone takes a good thing and makes it the ultimate thing. In this sense, only God is ultimate, because no one or nothing else can compare to him. Idolatry may focus on things that are evil in themselves, but not necessarily. It can also result from taking something that is good in its proper context (like sports), and making that thing more important than anything else. If I make sports ultimate, to the point where I put aside issues of morality and holiness, then at least three things happen. The first is that sports will become the center of my life. The second is that relationships with others will be secondary to this primary pursuit. The third thing is that sports will turn out to be a cruel god, for it cannot deliver what it is that it promises. So all of the time that has been invested in the pursuit of this idol will come to yield emptiness.
Are Christians ready to state clearly what is most important in life? For Greg Doyle the ultimate thing is sports. But that answer won’t do. God demands all of our worship and attention each day. It does matter whether or not infants are killed in the womb. It does matter whether or not drunkenness is permissible when your team wins the big game. It does matter if you look at women to lust after them. It does matter whether or not God has first place in your life. It does matter whether or not men respond to the gospel.
Next Monday the game will be over. But the real, pressing issues of life will remain. There is only one path that allows you to live in harmony with God’s purposes. That is the path you must point out to your children each day. Jesus Christ is Lord of Lord and King of Kings. The spectacle that is the Super Bowl attempts to say that, just for few hours, something else is ultimate. But that is a lie, an idol that delivers only emptiness. In this sense, the idol of sports is symbolic of any pursuit other than living all of life for the glory of God. As Christians we need to live with fidelity to our King and Savior. We will not be perfect in our pursuit, but we must be consistent with it. May we show our children and people like Greg Doyle what is truly important and fully holy in life. May we take hold of life that is truly life.
—Shepherd Press, Newsletter 85
