Cultural Warfare

Sometimes I hear a lot of complaining and "hand wringing" about our society - our American culture. As Christians, we have a delicate balance. God commands us to not "love this world" yet He also directs us to be a light and reach it.

1John 2:15 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

So where is that balance found?  It is important to take a stand for what's right, even though doing so opens a person up to being accused of 'judging' others. For the sake of our children, and our country, we must be willing to be secure and confident in our God and our beliefs and decide where our lines will be drawn. Taking a stand might make you unpopular, but it is the only way to please God and pass on a Godly heritage to your children.

 

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 

~ Edmund Burke

Recently, we again had the privilege to hear Bro Duane Motley, the founder of New York Family Research Foundation and New Yorker's For Constitutional Freedoms. He preached a message on Cultural Warfare that was SO relevant to helping Christians and families decide how to be involved in influencing our world.  I took careful notes and wanted to share the main points here, because I think it is so important for Christians to let God use them to influence our culture and see people get saved.

New Yorker's for Constitutional Freedoms

The law is a powerful shaper of the culture. Whatever a governmental jurisdiction legislates, future generations believe is morally correct. –Rev. Jason J. McGuire
 

Many Christians also think that it is not their duty to be involved in politics. Some adopt a very laidback, hands-off belief that since God is in control, we can't really do anything to influence our government. This is simply not true. I believe God wants us to do everything in our power, including seeing Godly Christians running for office, to perpetuate our American way and Christian morals.

While being moral doesn't make someone a Christian, there is obviously a benefit to having a sense of morality in society, where the Bible and Christian ethics are supported, embraced, and sought after. One deep look at the founding of this nation supports that statement.

So what exactly is cultural warfare?

First, it is spiritual.

Ephesians 6:10-18  "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;"
  

 image taken from the website God's Pure Love For You

There are Seven Spheres of Influence on our culture:

1. The home
2. The church
3. Business
4. Government
5. Education
6. Media
7. Entertainment Industry

All of these influence us as individuals. Some are optional, others are not. (You can choose to not have a TV and eliminate much of the modern entertainment industry, but you really cannot choose to not have government influence you)

All of these also influence families, some to the extent that we allow. They also are the ways that our society is influenced.

It used to be that the church had a much greater influence on the culture, but Christians have really allowed that sphere to be weakened, through apathy, hypocrisy, or carnality - embracing as much of the world as they think they can get away with, rather than being sold out to God.

We must get back to the point, as Christians, that we take back some of the sphere of influence that we can have on society.

It will first start with individuals, being truly saved and submitted to God in their own lives, and allowing God to do a work in and through them. Then, strong individuals will naturally make strong families, working together to have an atmosphere of Godliness in the home, and raising children who know and love God with all their hearts, and wish to perpetuate that as they grow up. Strong families bond together to make strong churches.

Good Christians would make good and honest businessmen. They would make wonderful pastors, teachers, government officials, etc.  We have even seen a sharp uptick in good Christian media being produced. We need to support those types of endeavors as much as we can, with our voice and our money.

In order to fight this war, we need a few things:

1. Christian soldiers
2. Christians who know their weapons!
3. Preparation!

What are our weapons?

1. The Word of God - the foundation of the Christian life.
2. Words - Use the power of words to influence ideas and actions in public policy
3. The armor of God - see Ephesians 6:10-18 and remember that this is a spiritual war!

Our enemy will take advantage of us when we are not prepared.  We will not win any battles in this war if our preparation is haphazard. We must be in our Bibles, studying them everyday! We must study other aspects of society as well, such as history. If we don't know history, we are doomed to repeat it. We must be in a constant state of prayer - spiritual warfare is serious business! We must be attached to a church that is fervently working to spread the Gospel, and be part of an organized effort to minister in this society.

Cultural war is focused on Christianity and what it stands for. If the influence of Christianity can be removed from our culture, then there will be little chance for people to be saved or know God. That is the goal our enemy, the devil, is seeking after. He does not want to lose ANY of his children! If we have any heart at all for the lost, then we MUST fight this cultural war, just to keep the opportunities of Gospel ministry open and available to reach the lost!

Here's what Christian soldiers need to do:

1. Know your enemy - Satan will use anything he can to wage war against us - be it discouragement, temptation, government oppression, media - the list is pretty endless!
2. Know your equipment - We have a two-edged Sword - the Word of God. We must know it and use it!
3. Know your mission - To defeat Satan's army.
4. Put on your armor daily and take a stand!

It is important for us to do all we can to do our part in waging this cultural warfare. We cannot lose heart when a battle is lost here or there. It IS worth every effort! Lost souls hang in the balance, and we must do all we can to reach them, including influencing our culture and getting involved!

Copyright 2012-2013 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.

Blogging Through the Alphabet: A

One of my fellow Crew members on The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew sent out a call for bloggers to join up with a link to "Blog Through the Alphabet" for the next 26 weeks. All this blogging stuff is still so new to me, and sometimes I need a bit of direction for topics to write about, so I thought this would be a great motivator to help me explore some new blog topics.  I hope you enjoy the weekly journey of random things in my life, as I blog through the alphabet!

A - Abbott and Costello

If you have never had the opportunity to enjoy some good, clean, old time comedy with Abbott and Costello, then let me say that you are really missing out! My family has really enjoyed most of their stuff (I say most - let me just give this disclaimer that while they are old fashioned, they are not Christian, so it is important to sift through the material and discard what doesn't mesh with your values). There are a few old video clips that we like to watch over and over, that will always have us roaring in laughter no matter how often we have seen them!

My kids also like to take their favorite Abbott & Costello routine ("Who's on First?") and adapt it to different situations. We have had "Who's on First?" scenarios involving doctors, church staff, and characters in their history books, to name a few.....

Laughter is a great medicine, and a great distractor, especially when times are tough.

I am including a short video clip.  Hope it gives you a tickle in your funny bone today!

To read some other fun "Blogging Through the Alphabet" posts, click the button below.

    

Copyright 2012-2013 - "Be The One" - www.aclassofone.blogspot.com  All rights are reserved. No text, photos, or content may be reproduced without direct permission from the author.

Review: Essentials In Writing

As a part of The Old Schoolhouse Review Crew I received the 11th Grade DVD program from Essentials In Writing to review with my high schoolers!  I have heard SO much about this program. Every year that I have homeschooled, it seems that I hear positive things about Essentials in Writing, so I was very happy to have the program here in the house to see what all the buzz was about!

While writing has been easier for some more than others in our homeschool, it still has been a challenge for all. Heather's agony of writing all those essays for college and scholarship applications is finally over. I think she stressed more over those essays than even over her SAT's! For some reason, everyone here loves their reading, and they are all top notch sentence diagrammers, but hand them an essay and you can almost feel their pain!

We watched the videos together, and I have to confess, we skipped around quite a bit. (Although as part of the review crew, we were encouraged to try out all the aspects of the program, not just start at the beginning, which would only allow us to review the grammar lessons).

The way the DVD is set up is that the beginning goes over basic grammar and sentence structure. It is designed so that this section can be skipped if the student does not need the review. My students watched portions of it anyways, even though none of them needed grammar review. They wanted to see what it was like, and of course, they wanted to compare it to their current workbooks.

My high schoolers are huge fans of interesting video learning. They found the videos to be a little dry and thought the teacher spent a little too much time writing on the board during the lesson time. They thought that the teacher could have been a little more engaging with the students.

Personally, I like video instruction because it has that 'classroom' feel. I know that is not popular with many homeschoolers, but I have found it to be very effective with the way my kids think and learn. My kids would rather be taught than sit and read material and be left to 'figure it out' on their own, and they like the variation of having other people teach them, not just 'all mom-all the time'.

I think the Essentials In Writing program does a very good job of 'covering all the bases' that a high schooler will need to prepare them for college writing, or even just to prepare them to write good letters. I was very impressed with the way it is laid out. It has a very logical progression from easy to harder assignments, and builds a good foundation of writing. The student starts off with learning (or reviewing) the writing process, and then just keeps expanding those exercises until before they know it.....they are writing different types of papers, culminating in a full blown research paper!

All the main types of essays are covered in this grade level:

• Expository Essays
• Persuasive Essays
• Process Analysis
• Cause/Effect
• Literary Reviews
• College Prep Essays
• Research Paper

The research paper does double duty as a career study, which is a great assignment for a high school junior.

The lessons are set up for the student to have video lessons approximately every other day. The video lessons seem to average about 15-20 minutes. They are informative but not too long or repetitive. Then the student completes the writing assignments, typically over 2 days. There are about 150 days of lessons in a single grade level, and 72 video lessons on the 11th grade DVD.  It seems like a typical student would be completely done with the curriculum in about 30-40 minutes on any given day.

To see a sample of an Essentials in Writing 11th grade syllabus, click here.

One element of this program that I found absolutely outstanding was the grading rubric that is included for the teacher. Writing can be so subjective, and I have always found it difficult to grade my student's writing assignments. I know what I like to read, but feel that it can be so hard on them if I take points off just because I may not like the style, when in essence, their paper might be just fine. Several times, I have given their papers to others, asking for constructive criticism from a different source for another perspective. This grading rubric lays it down in a very black and white style, which makes grading writing assignments almost easy! If x,y,z is included, then they are given a "4", but if they wrote x and y but forgot z, then they get a "3", and so on!

One other thing to note is that this program focuses primarily on writing. While there is a small amount of grammar and sentence structure review (clauses, etc.) it is not going to be the meat of the lessons. There is also not any overlap with literature, vocabulary or other typical high school "English" themes. Some homeschoolers would appreciate this opportunity to fill in their own interests as far as literature and perhaps some SAT vocabulary prep, while others might really miss that structure of a complete "English" package. If you have a student who is strong in grammar, is a good reader, and can diagram sentences just fine, but only needs help and encouragement in writing, then I think this program would be a perfect fit.

Essentials in Writing has a high school creative writing program which looks very interesting and is available for purchase on their website.

Essentials In Writing has curriculum available for 1st through 12th grade. When you purchase a complete grade level, you will receive the entire grade level on DVD, as well as a CD-ROM to print all the worksheets and teacher information. If you do not wish to print all your own printed material, you can order a pre-printed book for an additional $20. The downloadable lessons are convenient though, especially if your student will be skipping over the grammar review at the beginning. A full grade level costs $40. It is my understanding that Essentials In Writing is converting all their programs to downloadable PDF files that you can access immediately as soon as you purchase the material, rather than waiting for the CD in the mail.

Since Essentials in Writing includes curriculum for all grade levels, click the banner below to see what other Crew members thought of the grade levels they reviewed!


  Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the 11th grade Essentials In Writing DVD Program through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions expressed are my own, or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC regulations.