Luke 22:54-62

Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak! (Matthew 26:41).

In this devo, I will write about a subject of which I must say—with great confidence—is an area of expertise. Yes, I will be boasting here. For I’ve
been well-trained and have lots of experience in it. My subject? Failure. No one wants to experience it, but you and I have both come to know it up close and personal. The apostle Peter knew what it felt like to fail Jesus.

Hours before Peter caved, Jesus warned the disciple that he would deny Him (Luke 22:34). This was more than simply a prophetic possibility. It was a done deal.

Later, Jesus took His disciples out to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and to prepare for “the time when the power of darkness [would reign]” (v.53; Matthew 26:36-45). Prayer strengthened Jesus as He surrendered to God’s will (Luke 22:41-43; Mark 14:36). It could have also provided Peter with God’s peace and power, but he slept instead of praying (v.37).

Peter had underestimated the severity of his trial. His self-sufficiency, self-confidence, and self-dependence ultimately led to self-deception, which fueled his pride (see Isaiah 2:22; Psalm 62:9). Pride was the cause of Peter’s failure (Proverbs 16:18). He boasted too much and prayed too little. Rejecting Jesus’ warning, Peter didn’t seek God’s power, provision, and protection through prayer (Luke 22:32). In the end, the impulsive
disciple denied Jesus three times.

When the rooster crowed, Peter was reminded of the sovereignty of Jesus and the infallibility of His Word (v.61). Peter’s word was
proved fallible, but God’s Word is infallible.

The crowing of the rooster signaled the dawn of a new day. It also ushered in a new beginning for Peter as he wept bitterly over his failure and repented of it (v.62). What failure against Jesus will you confess to Him today? —K.T. Sim

Years later, Peter wrote down some wise instruction that reflects what he learned the hard way (see 1 Peter 5:5-9).

How do his words help you?

What does “denying” Christ mean to you in your life?

What are some ways Christians are tempted to “deny” Jesus today?

from Daily Devotional, April 22, 2011 Good Friday

John 12

After the triumphal entry, the multitudes herald Jesus as their Messiah.

INSIGHT:

It is easy to get someone to talk about God, but try to talk about Jesus, and it is not so easy. People will often talk about “feeling close to God.” But mention Jesus, and people start to get uncomfortable. Say that Jesus is the only way to God, and people get downright offended. But Jesus says that if you accept Him, you accept God; and conversely, if you do not accept Him, you do not accept God. When someone talks about being close to God but wants nothing to do with Jesus, you can be sure he is not yet close to God. Regardless of anyone’s unbelief, here is the simple truth: Jesus is God the Son, and He is the only way God has provided for sinners’ reconciliation with Himself.

PRAYER:

Praise God for His merciful provision of a Savior:
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27).

Quiet Walk Daily Devotional April 21, 2011

Parents monitor their kid’s activity on Facebook

Article from Pittsburgh Tribune Review by Kellie B. Gormly  April. 2011

Requiring that youngsters “friend” them is one way of keeping an eye out – often risisted.

Cara Drum allowed her son, Kevin, 13, to join Facebook recently, on three conditions: that he “friend” his mother, give her his password, and not accept friend requests until she approved them.

Kevin, who had switched schools and missed his friends, celebrated Facebook as a good way to keep in touch. After he finishes his homework, Kevin is allowed to check Facebook once every evening on the family computer, which sits in the middle of the kitchen.

“Nothing is hidden from me,” says Drum, 33, of Indiana Township, who says Kevin was respectful and did not put up a fight. “I think that if you’re going to have a Facebook page and interact with people online, your parents should be involved with that. … My hope is that if I can show him that I’m not going to be too overbearing with it, if I build his trust with the little bit of privacy … then I won’t have to fight the battle.”

Drum and her husband, David, serve as youth pastors at their church – Real Life Church, an Assemblies of God congregation in New Kensington – and they hear from some kids who are adamant about not friending their parents.

In the modern, digital age, millions of kids and young adults love using Facebook, a social-networking site, to communicate with their friends. But, when parents step in and want to friend them, many kids might call it a buzzkill. If the kids accept their parents’ friend requests, then the parents will see the children’s posts. With their parents watching, teens may feel inhibited and as if they have to edit themselves.

Perhaps teens should be editing themselves more, anyway – and having parents as Facebook friends can encourage this, experts say. Many don’t think about how their acquaintances and, sometimes, strangers can read what they post on Facebook, and teens tend to have looser boundaries of privacy with people, says Steve Jones, professor of communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Teens might share personal things with Facebook friends that many adults would share only with close friends, he says.

“Kids tend to have a different conception of privacy than adults,” Jones says. He is a social historian of communication technology and has studied social networking sites closely.

“They really don’t see any problem with posting personal details or personal opinions and emotions,” Jones says. “They are likely to be unhappy if mom or dad looks at their stuff, but they won’t think twice about letting the whole world see it.”

Few kids are happy about their parents following them on social networking sites, he says. A search on Facebook illustrates this. Many anti-parent pages pop up, like “Ban Parents off Facebook” and “Parents Don’t Need Facebook.” One of the ways kids get around this awkward situation is by creating a separate Facebook account for their friends, unknown to their parents. They might use an alias. But that’s just a high-tech version of a classic teenage thing.

“That’s really no different than what kids have done over the years, before we had the Internet,” Jones says. “They always have their own language.”

Parents who friend their kids often monitor the kids and their friends for a short period, then back off, after they see that everything is fine, Jones says. Many parents are afraid of overstepping with teens, who naturally want more privacy.

Kevin Drum says he doesn’t mind the parental controls on his Facebooking; he’s just happy to be on there, though he has moments when he wishes for more privacy.

“I actually like it because it’s nice to have [Mom] on Facebook,” he says. “It’s pretty cool.”

Even when they are no longer minors, teens and young adults may feel awkward about friending their parents on Facebook. Amanda Wishner, a student at Waynesburg University, encouraged her mom, Lisa Wishner, to join Facebook and friend her. Although she hears from peers who are wary of letting their parents onto their Facebook pages, Wishner, 19, says she thinks it’s a good idea.

“Honestly, coming from a college kid’s perspective, eventually employers are going to be looking at your Facebook,” says the Canonsburg native. “So, I think anything you wouldn’t want your mom to see is something you wouldn’t want an employer to see. If you can say it to your mom, you can say it to anyone.”

Dana Sheehan of Springdale has young children, but will require them to friend her when they reach the Facebook age. Sheehan, who manages the website and social media for Shady Side Academy in Fox Chapel, says teens don’t always realize the consequences of posting personal things on Facebook: potential embarrassment, loss of reputation, and bullying, for instance.

“Parents should be able to see everything,” Sheehan says. Teens are “still minors, and I still think they need to have that guidance.”

Sharing Facebook with teens “gives parents insights into the daily happenings of your kids’ lives.”

However, parents shouldn’t pry too much or practically stalk youngsters online and interrogate them about everything; this can create resentment, she says.

Katie Mihm of Fox Chapel says that her children – Claudia, 14, and Henry, 13 – know the household rules about Facebook.

“For our children to be on Facebook, I need to be their friend. That’s sort of a condition,” says Mihm, 46.

Mihm says she checks in on her kids’ Facebook pages periodically, rather than scrutinizing everything.

“I’m there because I need to be there to help my kids stay safe,” she says.

Facebook – which accepts users starting at age 13 – offers these tips for those concerned about safety. Parents should:

Consider that online freedom is a privilege children must earn by demonstrating responsibility.

Teach kids to be wary of Facebook applications and to avoid clicking on anything that they don’t want to advertise to every friend on their news feed.

Keep contact information private by adjusting privacy settings.

Join Facebook, and friend their child.

Use privacy settings to remove their and their child’s Facebook profiles from public search engines.

Examine settings regarding tagged photos, so only certain people can see pictures of their child.

We live in a culture that’s attacking our roots – our faith root. Our culture is antagonistic to things that are absolute, which includes our faith. Since it doesn’t like to listen to anything absolute, it’s trying to rewrite history- with the intention of getting us to look at history and the world through a lens without faith. Let’s get a more accurate view of what has gone before.
America is a beautiful place, we’re a melting pot of cultures – you can tell that simply by looking at all of our food options. There’s Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Thai, Indian . . . The choices go on and on. People’s roots from other cultures have made our country more beautiful.

Just like America is a melting pot of different cultures from around the world – which has plenty of benefits and gives life great beautiful variety – there’s a movement to create a melting pot, of spirituality. It’s a movement to lump all faiths together and say they’re all the same. But there’s a critical problem when trying to create a melting pot of spirituality- not all beliefs systems are the same. They make very different claims about truth. You can make a melting pot out of preferences and non-absolutes like food choices. But you can’t create a melting pot on truth- truth is truth; it will not blend with lies.

We live in a culture in which the highest virtue is tolerance and inclusion. The goal is to blend the culture together so that everyone can get along- like the COEXIST bumper sticker with all of the religious symbols tries to illustrate. Sure, getting along is a great idea, but there are some legitimate, important, and significant differences between us – like our belief systems and the truth claims they make.

In the big picture, our culture is trying to edit out anything that’s absolute. That’s why it’s cool in our culture to say that you’re seeking the truth, but it’s not cool to say that you’ve found it because that’s being exclusive. And Christianity makes absolute claims about the truth because it is the truth. Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 is one that our culture really has a problem with: “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” While the offer of salvation is open to everyone, our culture doesn’t like the truth that Jesus is the only way to God.

You can’t get a melting pot culture of faith unless you chop the root out from under people’s distinctiveness. Under the guise of tolerance, our culture is attempting to do that with Christianity.
We swim in a culture that’s uncomfortable with our faith and the absolute claims it makes. Because of that, Christianity is often edited out of the stories of the past, even though it was an important part of it.

Take U.S. history for example. Nearly all of the founding fathers were believers in God on some level- deists (believe in God) at the least. George Washington was a devoted Christian who sought God fervently. During meetings of the fledgling American government, the leaders would pray, seeking God’s guidance and help. The U.S. Constitution created the only modern government and judicial system to be based on the Ten Commandments. These are historical facts. But you won’t read about them in most public-school history books. Our culture is uncomfortable with the claims that Christianity makes, so the stories that are told about the past aren’t necessarily the whole truth.

We’re not sharing this to be alarmist, but to paint a picture of where we are. Consider it a “You are here” arrow on a mall directory. This is the culture that you swim in.

Since this is where our culture is, what are we to do about it? Since our culture is promoting rootlessness, we have to be more intentional about building our roots back in. Part of that is getting an accurate view of history and learning to recognize some of the lies that are being thrown at us.

In Acts 17:10-11 the noble Bereans determined what was true by “examin[ing] the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Excerpt from Youth Walk Devotional April 2011 issue, p.19