It is important to note that there are a lot of countries where prayers are not allowed in public schools and the number is growing everyday (John 15:18). Some people are not even allowed to worship God in their own homes let alone in public places. The fact that people want God out of public lives is not new, at least not to people like Lot and the city of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:32); Noah and the Ark (Genesis 6:11); Joshua and the children of Israel; etc. People like these led Joshua to say what he said in Joshua 24:15. This statement made by Joshua is still used by Christians today as the bible verse for courage. Whenever the world seem to be in a turmoil and when serving God becomes undesirable to many, we hold on the God's unchanging hand.
- "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” - Joshua 24:15
Christians dislike the fact that God and prayer was taken out of public schools. I was one of those that wanted or demanded answers and that's putting it lightly. I had to reel myself in and remind myself that our calling should not only be fulfilled when life is good and smooth with no opposition from the government or people. No one can live a godly life without persecution (2 Timothy 3:12); it is impossible. We are just lucky and ought to be thankful that it isn't worse like Stephen who was stoned to death for his belief (Acts 7). Not to mention, the government opposed Peter and the other apostles way more than we can ever imagine today (Acts 5:17-32). People want comfort and safety 100 percent of the time but I personally want it, to be honest, maybe 110 percent of the time. I would even take 1000 percent of the time if possible but as a Christian, we should know that we cannot allow our cravings for personal satisfaction to corrupt our judgement of what is real about our journey. We all already know that our battle is not of this world so we cannot take the physical fight to the government and start throwing punches.I once told myself to see the Church that Christ died for as ONE BODY as described in the bible, instead of focusing on one local congregation in a city, state or country. This means that when Christians face persecution in Germany or China, I should feel as outraged, prayerful and hurt for them as one body. No, I'm not in anyway saying there is anything wrong with local autonomy (Revelation 2&3) but sometimes we use it as an excuse not to look at the bigger picture. We all know that Jesus is coming back for His church, which is His bride and not for a local congregation(s) (Ephesians 5:22-32) in a specific country.
As humans, part of our selfish nature is to be comfortable in this life. It makes me wonder what will happen when all our wealth and comfort is taken away from us, just like it happened to Job and his family in the book of Job. How many Christians do you think will be left in this world? We want to serve God in "comfort" and in a "safe" environment but we take for granted the fact that such comfort and safety is NOT readily available to many of our brothers and sisters who are part of the one body. It is not even suppose to be available to us (John 15:18) and will not always be there - it's just a bonus that we forget to be thankful for most of the time. Maybe this is why we do not appreciate it as much.
- Can we speak up on issues affecting our freedom of worship. YES, we can!
- Should we be ready to find bible ways around it if we don't get our wishes? YES, we should!
- Did Jesus promise us the freedom of worship from the government of any nation where we may find ourselves? NO, he did not. In fact, he promised and guaranteed some form of suffering through persecution.
1. Is there something wrong with playing video games?
- Yes and No. No emphasis needed because each individual should know their own habits and limits.
- The answer is a resounding NO, if it's not corrupting your mind. Just like money is not evil until it becomes our god.
3. Is the average hours of consumption outrageous?
- The answer is a big YES and the number is growing daily.
- The truth remains that excuses are easier to find than solutions so we quickly reach for it. Most parents will even double down by buying more video games to appease their kids instead of putting their foot down and make the kids use some of those times to study the bible.
Some adults even play video games at work or at home more than their kids do. Imagine if half the time is spent studying God's word or doing community services? Imagine where our kids will be spiritually. We can't save them all but we sure would be better off just with this one example. It's sad that anything that prevents our Christian growth is "OK" if it satisfies our human cravings but when it requires effort on our part for us to look for alternatives for growth, we raise the alarm. Here comes my answer.
Now here comes the big challenge with the "but" I promised. How committed (as Christians and adults) are we to making sure these great values we are trying to instill in these kids and in public schools are upheld first by us? When people can't tell the difference between Christians and the unbelieving world, we all get thrown in one basket. If the character of our kids are worse than the kids of the unbelievers who we are trying to change, how can we make an argument to the schools or government that they should allow our kids to be an influence on the others? Our persuasion is sadly weak and getting weaker everyday because our priorities are misplaced most of the time. Maybe we should first get our priorities straight both in our homes and churches before "crying foul."It's sad when I hear people blame the government (I blame the government too) for their contribution to the growing problem of removing God from the minds of our young ones. However, using it as the only, only, only argument for why our kids are going astray, is baseless to say the least. The work starts at home. Does taking God out of public school make our jobs as parents, teachers and church tougher? It sure does. I guess it's part of carrying the cross because cross carrying is not easy and comfy. Let's do the very best we can and let God take control.
