Are you a subculture or a counterculture?? Or just blended in to the culture?

Where are you??? This is, as a Christian. Are you looking at yourself as a subculture. Just sitting there, doing your own thing, not really affecting anyone else. The Greeks are a subculture in America. They sit around and eat their lamb, listen to their music, have big families and in some areas dive for sponges. The Jews are a subculture in America. They all are lawyers and don't eat pork. They are wealthy and have their Sabbath on Saturday. Stereo-typing to make a point.... sorry guys.

Christians- Are we sitting around, going to church, singing our songs, sitting in our corner reading our Bible but not really doing a whole lot. Are we making an impact on society as Christians?

Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.."

Is there enough evidence in your life to convict you of being a Christian?? I pray there is in my life. Being a Christian isn't something that you do.... it's something that you are! You are the creation. God is the Creator! You are in Christ and Christ is in you. So your actions should emulate Christ in ALL things. By doing so you should be pointing others to Christ. Countering the decay of society around you brought on by sin!

OR.... are you blending in to society. People know there is something different about you but they aren't quite sure. You seem different yet you are the same in so many areas that they can't quite figure it out.

Titus 2:11-15"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in thepresent age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority Let no one disregard you."

Being a Christian shouldn't be something that you become to avoid Hell. It's not a choice of just Heaven or Hell. It's a choice of your life changing the INSTANT that you allow God to be the Lord of your life. You are no longer your own. You are moving in to God's perfect plan for your life. But free-will allows you to decide if you want to do that or not. "For God so loved theworld, that He gave His only begotten Son, thatwhoeverbelieves in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." -John 3:16

BeThecounterculture!!!You have the most important gift to share. There is a God!! No wait.... there is ONE GOD!

"The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God " Psalm 14:1

As you may have heard before. Don't go to church... BE THE CHURCH!!

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Mirriam-Webster

Culture--the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group;also:the characteristic features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time

Subculture--an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society

Counterculture-- a culture with values and morals that runcounterto those of established society

Counter--to act in opposition to

Wikipedia-

In sociology,countercultureis a term used to describe a cultural group whose values and norms of behavior runcounterto those of the social mainstream of the day

As understood in sociology, asubcultureis a set of people with a distinct set of behavior and beliefs that differentiate them from a larger culture as a whole of which they are a part of.

Woot!!

Bears and the Colts!!! The 2 teams I was rooting for won today!!!

No youth group the night of the Super Bowl!!! I was hoping that I wouldn't have a hard decision to make.

I've had enough of them in my life lately I didn't need to think about a hard one that is rather trivial.

Went through the story of Joseph in the Sunday School class that I sub-taught for today. WOW... to sit down and really think about that. In his life everything that by human standards looked really horrible (hated by brothers, slavery, false charges leading to imprisionment, the dudes in prison forgetting about him) turned in to something good (being put in charge of a household, second to Pharaoh, in charge of all of the food to helping out his family). God knows what the end looks like. Are you ready to put all of your trust in Him???

Snow

Ok.... once and awhile I figure I can post a random meaningless blog. That is not like my normal ones where I edge towards overthinking life. I say edge towards it because can you really overthink??

SNOW!! It snowed today. Not enough though. I still can't go snowmobiling :-( I want snow. I want to go snowmobiling. I want to go sledding. I want to go snowshoeing. I want to take my horse for a sleigh ride. I want to get cold wet feet when I walk the dogs at work in the morning........ Ok... maybe not the last one.... but I would live with it if it meant that I could do the afore mentioned activities.

Do you know that you can buy a snow maker on Ebay? You can really buy everything on Ebay....lol.

Pray for Snow!!!

Porn is a Pandemic in America!

Repost from Shelley Lubben:

Pornography is big business. It is evil. It is contagious. It is addicting. It is estimated that there are 4.2 million porn Web sites — 12 percent of the total amount of sites — allowing access to 72 million worldwide visitors annually. One-quarter of total daily search engine requests, or 68 million, are for pornographic material, where 40 million Americans are regular visitors.

People pay more money for pornography in America in a year than they do on movie and performing arts tickets. There were 11,000 porn video titles released last year verses 400 movie releases from Hollywood. The porn industry employs over 12,000 people in California and pays over $36 million in taxes every year. According to Websense, a company that tracks Internet content, the number of porn sites is 17 times greater than it was four years ago, growing from about 88,000 sites in 2000 to nearly 1.6 million in 2004.

Porn is a pandemic that is spreading across America fatally weakening the population. Men are losing their families and jobs. Wives are totally devastated and in shock their husbands of twenty years are addicted to porn. Women addicted to porn are having adulterous affairs and catching STD's. Teenagers are learning sexuality from porn and practicing oral sex on each other. Young girls dream of becoming porn stars and living the "glamorous" life. But the truth is...

Porn is Not Glamorous.

Excerpt below from Shelley Lubben's upcoming book "The Truth Behind the Fantasy of Porn":

Many believe the widespread fairytale that women enjoy making porn movies but in reality there are no happy endings for the women of porn. Women do NOT enjoy making porn movies and a closer behind-the-scenes look will show you several reasons why.

In the world of hardcore sex, an average day on the set for a porn actress is a long and tedious process. Women are told to come in around 8 am for makeup but it's only to make sure porn actresses arrive on time to work. Porn stars have a habit of arriving late because they're often hung over from drugs or alcohol from the night before.

After make up, porn actresses usually wait around long hours until it's their turn to do their scene. Some scenes take an hour and some take several hours to film. It really depends if the male actor in the first scene could "perform" or not. It also depends if female actresses have to stop the clock because they can't handle the pain of a hardcore sex scene.

While waiting around, jaded porn performers usually end up in the rest rooms with bottles of alcohol and lines of speed or outside in their cars for a heroin fix or gathered in the back yard with other actors to smoke marijuana.

To add to the mind-numbing process, women are never able to experience sexual pleasure because of the continuous cutting during sex scenes. In the background the director constantly yells, "cut" and the flow of action is interrupted in order to get a better shot, adjust lighting or to wipe up bodily fluids. Repeatedly pornographers stop the scenes and ask actors to "freeze" in position during very hardcore sex acts, which causes great physical and emotional pain for porn actresses.

I speak from personal experience when I say to be in the middle of a hardcore sex act with several actors at the same time and told to "freeze" in position for several minutes while lighting or cameras are adjusted is extremely painful and degrading. It's also very humiliating when scenes are stopped in order to wipe up bodily fluids such as semen, feces and blood.

Despite the fact that women do not enjoy making porn movies, they continue to lie to their fans and proudly insist they enjoy making porn movies. Of course they do. They get paid hundreds and thousands of dollars to lie because this is their occupation. Porn stars are paid professional liars who know how to "act" and they do it well. In fact, because porn stars spend a great deal time in front of the camera and never step out of character, they usually have greater acting abilities than mainstream Hollywood actors.

I used to brag endlessly to fans and pornographers about my extreme "Italian" sex drive and how I loved making porn movies. I would go on and on about how I needed more and more to fulfill my insatiable appetite. I lied 100% of the time to 100% of the people. Lying is the native language of porn stars because they can't afford to tell you the truth. Not only would it ruin the fantasy for their fans but more importantly, it would ruin the amount of their paychecks. Don't believe porn actresses when they proudly proclaim they enjoy making porn movies. They're ACTING.

Don't believe the lie. Get help for porn addiction now.

Porn

Well, basically all sexual sins. Ticks me off and makes me mad. Oh how the devil can use it to destroy lives. I know he tried in mine with mastrubation, porn and homosexuality. Praise God that that Holy Spirit dwelling inside of a Christian is more powerful than anything the devil can throw at you.

Pornography is adultery. "but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Lust: an intense longing, wish, craving

If this is something that you struggle with.... Go to the Lord. Also check out my Top 20.

Ephesians 5:1-3 "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints;"

Deer Story Part 2

So on December 21st we got a phone call. Someone we know had gotten some deer and wanted to know if we wanted the meat. My parent's said yes. So several days later we packaged up ~40#'s of roast and chops that had already been boned out. All that needed to be done is the fat cut off, cut them in the right sizes and wrap for the freezer. God is good and faithful!! When I was out in the shed and we walked past the meat, dad said "Did you see the meat?". I said "Yes, see...". He stopped me.. "Don't even start". I said "Sorry, I did already.

See, God is faithful".!!!!