Family Pic 2024

Family Pic 2024
Scot, Lisa, Tim, Tucker(dog), Stampy(wild hair guinea pig) & Dan(guinea pig)

USA Weightlifting Youth Nationals 2024

USA Weightlifting Youth Nationals 2024
Tim got 4th Place at USA Weightlifting Youth Nationals 2024 with Athletic Lab Weightlifting Club.

Thursday, August 8, 2024

Sign of the Times...

It has been a way different Olympics this year.  They basically put on a 4 hour show for the opening ceremony.  In that show they mocked Christians by doing "the last super" scene in drag for the world to see.  So many Christians took to social media boycotting the Olympics.  I get their outrage over what was done.  I understand their making the stands they did and their righteous anger as well.  

I love the Lord with all my heart.  He is the center of my world and life.  I fully support making stands for what you believe.  Much of the world views the stands Christians make on a whole as hate.  That's where my heart has trouble with taking a stand verses trying to win souls for Christ.  It's such a thin line and one that many Christians can't seem to agree on.  I want those lost souls, that are so lost that they may not even realize how lost they truly are, to be won to the Kingdom.  I'm just not sure that I'm on the page of making stands that are seen as hate as a means to do that.  I'm not sure that boycotting watching the Olympics is the right answer to the problem either.  The Olympians have worked so hard to represent their country and most of them have worked for it for most of their lives.  I firmly feel that they deserve our support not our boycotting.

Then there's the issue of men being allowed to compete as women in sports.  There were two biological males that competed as women in boxing and one won gold and the other silver.  I don't see the fairness in the IOC allowing that to happen.  But our world as a whole is so messed up.  The extremes that are going on right now are insane.  We are looking more and more like Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible and if you are a Christian you know how that whole situation ended.  

Here's the deal though, I see so many confused young people today that have gone off the deep end with identifying as whatever floats their boat.  I see the masses just following the crowd just because they are followers not leaders.  I see them being led to the slaughter so to speak and it is so heart breaking to watch.  Most haven't ever had the opportunity to know real truth and be able to make a real decision that isn't influenced and wrought with so much evil.  I see the adults in their lives not even trying to help them see the error in what they are doing.  They are letting them be however they want to be and supporting it which makes them worse in some ways then the young people themselves who are so confused.  I remember a saying that was told to me years ago,

 "In the absence of genuine leadership people will listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.  They want leadership.  They are so thirsty for it that they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage and when they discover there's no water they will drink the sand."

Basically, people want leadership so badly, they need someone to hold responsible when things go wrong, someone to turn to when things are too confusing for them to handle.  They need someone to represent what they stand for as a nation and when they don't get exactly what or who they hoped for, they just settle for the ones they have leading them.  They crawl through the desert toward a mirage and drink the sand because they don't have a choice.

That is what is happening in our world as a whole.  Most don't feel they have a choice at all.  They feel trapped and they just end up following the crowd because after all the biggest crowd must be the right crowd.  

I'm searching my heart constantly because I want my life to honor my Lord and Savior but I also don't want to see anyone spend an eternity in hell either.  These days we are living in are difficult ones but how we handle them as followers of Christ will be the difference maker.  I just want people to see how much they are genuinely loved.  I want them to feel God's love poured out on them so that they will come to a saving knowledge of Christ.  This generation needs us to pour God's love on them like no other generation before ever has needed.  I don't see us winning them until we love them in spite of how confused they are with the lives they are living.  I don't see us winning them while sending messages of hate wrapped up in a message that I'm a Christian and I'm making a stand all over our social media pages.  I don't see that opening doors to win souls.  I get the righteous anger but the world doesn't see righteous anger.  All they see is we hate them.   

All I truly know is that I want to see people won for Christ not turned away.  While I'm also angry about how they mocked my Lord in the opening ceremony I just can't in good conscience jump on the band wagon of turning people away from Christ either. 

The days are evil and getting more evil by the minute.  It's not like it's a surprise to those of us who know Christ.  We have to continue to let our light shine in the midst of all the evil that's going on in our world today.  If we all let our lights shine that light will illuminate so bright for everyone to see so that they can make decisions for Christ.  This is what I'm going to do until Jesus returns to take us home to be with him.  

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