According to the CIA World Factbook
December 20th, 2007
According to the CIA World Factbook (proof, I suppose, that spy agencies have a positive role to play on earth), around 27% of the world’s population is under 15 years of age. And according to the constantly escalating World Population Clock, at the time of this writing earth had 6,638,512,622 inhabitants. Which means that approximately 1.7 billion residents of this planet are under 15. Twenty percent of them live in What’s that have to do with Christmas and the approaching of a new year? Beyond the obvious—that this holiday season is always the season of children (a reality not missed by Madison Avenue with its relentless marketing blitz for toys and video games and other childhood accoutrements)—this 27% demographic slice of humanity is surely a silent cry for the world of adults to invest its best energies in saving our children. Not just spiritually, but also physically and emotionally. A new study, published in the January issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health and released this past Tuesday, has found that the simple matter of sex education for our children dramatically reduces (71% for males, 59% for females) the likelihood of their becoming sexually active before the age of fifteen. While the study does not research or report abstinence beyond the age of fifteen, those who care for children certainly can celebrate these results as an incremental victory in the war to protect our young. (http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/536167/) The matter of childhood poverty concerns us all, too, doesn’t it? Hershel Sarbin quotes “Voices for Christmas is the season of children. After all the Hero of his-story and our story came to us as the Child. And because he did, heaven’s agenda to save all earth children (young and aged) was both ratified and secured. Knowing that the Christ Child is the lover of all children, why not look for an opportunity every week of the new year to make a difference in the life of one child (a smile, a note, a word of affirmation and encouragement, a listening ear, an offering to a children’s fund, a contribution to a church school or a public school, a gift of volunteer service at school or at church—God’s list of opportunities must be endless)? Thus in our own “adultish” sort of way, we can make the new year be for us what it already is for God—the Year of the Child.
Three Ways to Give
December 14th, 2007
I’d like to share with you three new ways you can partner with me in reaching this generation for Christ through cyberspace, television and the radio. If you are one of the hundreds of people who read my blog each week, or one of the thousands of people who subscribe to the sermon podcasts, you may be willing to consider one of the following three levels of support for this ministry as the Sprit leads and you are able:
- Editor’s Choice club member at $25/mo. As a token of our appreciation we will send you our current Editor’s Choice sermons—the sermons our editorial staff feels have an unusual appeal and application for the times in which we live.
- Supporter at $50/mo. In addition to the Editor’s Choice sermons, I would also like to send you my book, Outrageous Grace.
- Partner at $100/mo. Our thank you will include a subscription to all of the current sermons I preach for broadcast at PMC and my book Outrageous Grace.
Your monthly contribution can be set up easily by clicking here. Withdrawals will occur at the beginning of each month.
But even more important than your contribution, I earnestly solicit your prayers for this ministry. These are momentous times, so please be praying that all of our messages via internet, radio and TV will be empowered by the Spirit of Christ to lead people on every continent of this earth closer to Jesus. As we say here at Pioneer—forward on our knees.
It’s like the Grinch who stole Christmas
December 6th, 2007
It’s like the Grinch who stole Christmas. That was the observation of Sheriff Kent Harris in explaining the actions of a thief who struck Danny Tipton’s Christmas tree farm in eastern So much for “peace on earth, good will to all.” But then again hasn’t that “Christmastime crime” been on the police books for decades, even centuries now? Not the misdemeanor of pilfered firs. But the lopping off the top of the towering tree planted on that Somebody in that dark and starry night resolved to hack off the top of God’s planted tree, so that whenever the birth of the Christ Child would be celebrated, it would be forgotten or neglected, the tree Christmas really is all about. Oh it’s true—over the two millennia since there have been ornamental trees aplenty—decked with blinking lights and spinning baubles and twisting ribbon. But who remembers any more that old rugged tree that was first planted at “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many . . . and a sword will pierce your own soul” (Luke 2:24, 25). The Christ Child is not only about the birthing of Heaven’s Baby; he is also the truth about the piercing of God’s heart. Born so that he might die—a manger for the sake of a cross. When the twin realities of God’s sacrificial Gift are separated, their union is sundered. And we forget. In the midst of all the gaiety and tinsel, we forget. This year, this time, shall we not guard against that “Christmastime crime” and protect the top of Calvary’s tree from being lopped off and stolen away . . . by remembering Christ’s death that remains Love’s most resplendent reason for his birth long, long ago?