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Temptation and Original Sin: The Perfect Couple

I was just being tempted to do something I shouldn't do. And instead of doing it, I came over here and wrote these lines.

It is amazing to see how your brain starts coming up with excuses for you to do the thing you don't want to do and should not be doing.

Psychologically speaking - temptation doesn't make sense?

Theologically speaking -- it sure do...

As James and the rest of the Bible saints tell us ... A test of Faith.

Congrats to Brazil - ConFed Cup Champ Over USA

Brazil beat the USA 3-2 in a match that was really tough for Brazil that struggled to catch up to the USA 2-0 lead. And I'm really glad Brazil for two reasons:

ONE: In Soccer - a Mexican can't root for the USA, and
TWO: we wouldn't have seen the "I Love Jesus" t-shirts that a few of the Brazilian players wore (including Robinho whom my son described as "The boy who sucks his thumb"). You gotta be bold for Jesus!

Photo Courtesy of fifa.com.

Photo Courtesy of daylife.com.

Ann Coulter says: Tiller Murder a ‘Termination’

Ann Coulter was on Bill O'Reilly's show and had the following to say about the murder of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.

"I don't really like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd trimester."

"I am personally opposed to shooting abortionists, but I don't want to impose my moral values on others."

In the words of the great Deepak Choprah - Gold Jerry. Gold!.

The role and function of women in early Christianity (both canon and post-canon)

Henry over at Hundie Jo [dot] Com seems to have a good read on early church History (one of his passions). I like Henry because he's someone I can ask questions from time and time and he's pretty good about answering them for me (a layman).

Anyway, the other day Henry blogged about the early role of Women in the Church and I really enjoyed both of his posts. I'm always afraid I'm going to run into an Elaine Pagels or Dan Brown conspiracy theorist out there so, though Henry may be pushing it (haha!!!), he ain't no conspiracy theorist...and he actually dug up some of his dusty books and looked up some Early Women in the Church references -- and the Epitaphs one is pretty cool.

Below are the links for all of you early church history lovers.

Part ONE: Early Christian Leaders who happened to be Women |

Part TWO: Epitaphs of Early Christian Leaders, who happened to be Women

p.s. Congrats to Henry & His Family.

A must see video: Our Brothers in Adam in their own words.

The title of the video below is simple: An Alarming video every Westerner should see. Click here to watch. You'd be the judge.

PBS: anti-family & anti-babies.

At the Sanchez' household, Sunday is family day and we try to do things together as much as we can. The summer is also a special time because baseball is on. It adds to our family day experience as we cheer and jeer for our lovable losers: the Chicago Cubs.

Image Courtesy of The Chicago Cubs & MLB.

Baseball makes a great family sport because you don't have to pay attention to it. You can do other things and then jump back on the couch when something exciting happens and watch the repeat...

So it's Sunday -- I'm waiting for the game to start and I'm browsing the channels on the Comcast OnScreen TV Guide and then I read: Now on PBS The ramifications of the slaying of Dr. George Tiller. And with such a title, how can one refuse to click and watch, right?

Well - the few minutes I caught were a pitiful display of "baby killers" telling us how horrible they have it behind their bullet proof glass doors, their U.S. Marshal bodyguards, and their crocodile tears of: life is tough. And of course, I hear nothing about the killing of babies. Nor do I get to hear about who's attacking these abortion providers. Why all the protection and distress? After a few minutes, I got a bit uncomfortable watching the PBS sponsored propaganda and switched back to WGN for the cubs game. But don't go away yet, it gets better.

The game is on. The wife and kids are coming and going ... we're all sort of watching the game ... my six year old daughter and me are sitting down and - during one of those baseball boring moments (and there are plenty), I switched to the On Screen TV Guide again and see that PBS is running Emile Norman: By His Own Design.

I thought - "I wonder who this dude is." And be it my luck, I switched to the PBS channel and -- lo and behold - the first word my daughter and I hear is "gay" and then some speech about J. Edgar Hoover. And I'm thinking - "come on. What's going on with PBS..."

I mean - I love the arts but -- if PBS is going to use the gay word around 2PM -- give me a warning or something. I don't expect my children to live in a bubble but I seriously didn't expect PBS to deal with such subjects at such early times. I would expect such topics to be discussed during PBS' primetime line up.

Time goes on and the Emile show comes to an end and ... you guessed it: a new PBS show is coming up. What could it be about? Well - it is: Anyone and Everyone: a show about parents of gays and lesbians talking about their experience. Unreal.

Thankfully by this time, my daughter had had her share of baseball and had left the room - but I was thinking: not again - what is going on with PBS?

What adds to my frustration is that PBS shows you just their one perspective. A perspective that is anti-family and anti-babies. If you support PBS, you're contributing to the deterioration of the family. Say no to PBS, and try to use all of their free services.

Related: 4 Reasons Homosexuality cannot be Genetic | Survey: Should Homosexuality be taught in school? | Obama's View on Homosexuality

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

A few months back, my friend Larry sent me a link to this great video from The Onion (a fake news site) called: Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

It is very funny but true. Enjoy.

New Urbanism & The Church

I came across this video this morning and I thought the philosophy behind "new urbanism" is something The Church can also endorse. New Urbanism promotes walkable, neighborhood-based development as an alternative to sprawl. Amen to that...

I grew up in a neighborhood where the grocery store was three houses down mine. We never bought things in bulk. If we needed a tomato, we walked over to get one at the store. If we needed eggs, we just sent a little kid (usually me) to get one at the store. A banana? You guessed it. Down three houses to the left.

A close community builds better neighbors and creates a healthy ecosystem for sharing our worldviews and our values and also helps prevent crime by us knowing our neighbors.

Last year, I took our 5 foot fence down and put a 3 foot tall white picket fence... my neighbor called it: "more secure" because -- now -- nothing is hidden.

New Urbanism is a good thing and the Church can use it to spread the Good News that is all about Jesus.

myScene, EverythingGirl & Barbie

Ever since my daughter was a baby, she's seen me at the computer hour after hour -- especially when I get to work from home. Over the last few years, she has developed some great skills with the computer, and now that she knows how to write, she's become a dangerous force at the keyboard -- not maliciously -- but she's good at reading merchandise fine print, extracting the WWW bit, and trying it at the computer. Did I mention she's only six years old?

Most of her internet browsing revolves around pbskids, kungfu panda, bolt, disney and nick jr. but just last week -- I saw her playing at Barbie's website (EverythingGirl.com) and I was really disappointed. I mean - my daughter was just playing some games there but the web girl characters were half/naked and much older looking than she is. At least one character (if I remember correctly) had a cell phone or something. Definitely not the type of message my daughter needs.

sample screen courtesy of femtalks.com

I sat down with my daughter and had a chat with her. I asked her to show me some of the games she liked there. She showed me the one in which she had to dress some web characters. Simple enough, right? Well, the outfit choices were pretty "grown up" types such as mini-skirts & tube tops... Definitely not appropriate for a six year old.

Our talk continued. Tears followed (a little bit). But we remained best friends and she promised not to visit that web site again. She's kept her promise so far.

If you have any web site recommendations, I'll appreciate if you share them. I promised my daughter I would find her some new sites that are good for her age group.

And of course, stay away from barbie.com, myscene.com and everythinggirl.com.

State Farm Young Driver: Parenting 101

As some of you know, I'm the blessed father of a 6 year old girl, and fatherhood is a scary state. The older she gets, the darker* my vision becomes. I just hope one day to be so cool - like the dad in this commercial.

If you have any parenting advice, do share!

*darker as in - I can't predict much in life...

The Obama Card. Touche!

Check out this video: The Obama Card. Priceless.

hat tip: Tim

The Obama Card. Touche!

Check out this video: The Obama Card. Priceless.

hat tip: Tim

Questions for Moslems

Trish commented on our Answering Islam post and she asked:

Question: Can you please provide me with the most significant and remarkable prophecy that Muhammad made that was fulfilled? A prophet means one who gives prophecy about future events in light of God's will and purpose.

Question: Why was Muhammad allowed to marry at least 12 wives when Koran limits to 4? Is Muhammad above the law he gave in Koran - isn't that a definition of sin?

Question: Explain Surah 25:4-5

Question: Why is Koran considered from God based on scientific evidence such as Embryology when doctors much prior to Koran already discover this? In print by 3 doctors (Galen (130AD), Samuel ha-Yehudi (150AD) and Hippocrates (400BC). Please explain this?

Question: Please explain Surah 86:6-7 - do you then reject modern science for this?

The Letters of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians

If you are new to the Alert, let me give you the 411. About 14 months ago, I started reading The Apostolic Fathers by Michael W. Holmes and -- unfortunately after six month of reading -- I realized that on my haste to finish it, I wasn't really paying attention to the actual text in the pages so I decided to go back and re-read the book from page numero uno.

Little by little, I've been making my way through the book, and today, I bring you my latest report: Ignatius letter to the Ephesians.

St. Ignatius of Antioch is a mysterious figure we meet briefly through seven letters he wrote sometime between 98 A.D - 138 A.D (Dates are debated but 138 A.D. is the upper most range) as he was led to his death somewhere in Rome where it is assumed he died a martyr since he's never heard of again and Polycarp (we'll meet him later) and others refer to his death later on.

To the Ephesians, he wrote:

• He calls Jesus "Our God" and "Our Savior" (p. 137)
• He warns that "whoever" doesn't meet with the congregation, is arrogant and separates himself from God (p. 141)
• He regards the "bishop" or "church elder" as "The Lord" himself (Ibid).
• He reminds us that there are many who "carry" the Name but are "unworthy of God" (ib.)
• He (at least from my reading) is one of the first ones to mention Mary outside the New Testament. He says: Jesus "was born from Mary and From God" - [quoting Matthew] (ib.)
• He quotes Paul: Those that are "Carnal" cannot do the things of the "Spirit"
• He alludes to trinitarian formula as follows: [we are stones of a temple] "prepared ... for the building of God the Father, hoisted up to the heights by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, using as a rope the Holy Spirit" (p. 143)
• He encourages us to pray for non-Christians that slander against us
• In discussing the end times he says, "For Let us either fear the wrath to come or love the grace which is present, one of the two; only let us be found in Christ Jesus, which leads to true life." (p. 145).
• St. Ignatius says: "faith is the beginning, and love is the end, and the two, when they exist in unity, are God." (p. 147)
• Addressing unbelief and asking rhetorically: where is the wise?, where is the debater? he quotes Matthew saying "Christ was conceived by Mary according to God's plan" and discuss the birth narrative.(p. 149)

Stay tuned for my notes on the other six letters from Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch.

Source:

The Apostolic Fathers by Michael W. Holmes

Related: I Clement | II Clement

The Best From Shift Conference 2009

Last week, I attended the Shift 2009 Conference at Willow Creek Church.

Below are the two sessions you need to watch.

	Click Here to watch Francis Chan's Breaking Free from Complacency.
	Click Here to watch Harvey Carey's Becoming the Epicenter of Change.

For the entire Shift 2009 archives, click here

Shift Conference 2009

I'm attending the Shift Student Ministry Conference 2009 @ Willow Creek. The conference will focus on forging long-term transformations in the lives of young people. I'm looking forward to it.

Netflix: The Terri Schiavo Story

If you have Netflix, check out The Terri Schiavo Story DVD.

Read The Alert's Terri Schiavo Story DVD review.

click here to order the DVD from Netflix.

Oak Park Illinois Keeping Kids Alive

A couple of weekends ago, my wife and I had a dinner and a movie night at Oak Park, IL. While navigating our way to my parents' house(so that we could drop off the kids at their home before our romantic evening), we noticed the signs for keeping kids alive. As I looked at the signs, I couldn't help and think back to last year when most of the signs said: Obama for President.

Talk about "keeping our kids alive".

Watch Kathy Ireland Give Her Testimony

@Melinda: Kathy Ireland shares her Christian testimony and her pro-life convictions very effectively and extremely graciously.

The Shroud of Turin: Faith, Proof and Relics

The Wall Street Journal posted a really interesting (should I dare say good?) article on the Shroud of Turin. Of course, by Good I don't mean - Christian good, I mean - interesting reading good -- except for a couple of digs such as this one:

But maybe so much focus on explanation misses the point. Belief -- any belief, whether in God, the Resurrection, even the Force -- requires a partial abandonment of the rational. This does not mean that faith is irrational, only that it involves a recognition that there are some things that can be explained only through acknowledgment that proof is not always the highest good.

I wonder if the author (PETER MANSEAU) believes any of the stuff he wrote, because belief, any belief - requires the abandonment of the RATIONAL (Aha!).

Read the entire article at WSJ Online