The Lighthouse

Hey guys, I couldn't find this weeks video on youtube. So you're going to have to go to nbc's website to watch it. I am for some reason continuing my trend of videos from questionable sources :P. This weeks video is a sketch from Saturday Night Live. Ok, before you freak out: the video is completely clean nothing at all. The video is more economicly inclined and I thought it was really funny. It's actually more in the area of sad funny because if most americans used this principal we wouldn't be where we are today. But alas, we will continue with our trend. Hope you enjoy the video here is the link...

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/dont-buy-stuff/27169/


P.S. if you didn't check out our special edition of the video of the week I would highly encourage you to. It's a video of a 12 year old girl speaking on abortion, and it's quite moving. Thanks, have a great day!

Posted by The Lighthouse Admin

This special edition of the RVotW is a video of a 12 year old girl giving a speech. Not just any speech, but a speech on abortion. She won a school speech contest with her eloquent presentation of what is wrong with abortion. Whether you agree with her or not I urge you to listen. It is a very well done speech.

Here's a news article on the girl(edited some portions out)...

"Despite facing threats of disqualification, a 12-year-old girl took first place in a speech contest when she eloquently argued for the rights of unborn children – after an offended judge quit.

What made the 12-year-old choose to speak about abortion?

"It was really a family thing," her mother explained on the blog Moral Outcry. "I saw Lou [Engle] speak at a conference several years ago. I came back to my family with the Life Bands, and we all wore them, made our covenant, and prayed the prayer for abortion to end. … We were invited to participate in a 'Life Tape Siege.' Once my kids heard of this invitation, they all agreed: 'We have to do that!' Since then, Lia's passion for seeing abortion end has continued."

Despite Lia's enthusiasm for her topic, her teacher "strongly encouraged" her to select a different one for her class presentation or she would be considered ineligible for an upcoming speech contest.

"[S]everal teachers discouraged her from picking the topic of abortion; she was told it was 'too big,' 'too mature' and 'too controversial,'" her mother wrote. "She was also told that if she went ahead with that topic, she would not be allowed to continue on in the speech competition."

Lia's mother continued, "Initially, I tried helping her find other topics to speak on, but, in the end, she was adamant. She just felt she wanted to continue with the topic of abortion. So she forfeited her chance to compete in order to speak on something she was passionate about."

Lia's teacher was so impressed by the speech that she allowed her student to advance as the winner. Lia presented her speech to judges in front of her entire school on Feb. 10.

The school principal and teachers called Lia's presentation the "obvious winner" – but the judges suddenly disqualified her the following day "because of the topic and her position on abortion," her mother said.

Lia's father later revealed that the judges had a "big disagreement." One was offended by the speech and voluntarily stepped down while the others reversed their earlier decision – declaring her the winner.

Now Lia plans to take her message of life to a regional speech competition, and more than 130,000 visitors have viewed her presentation online."

Link to the original article

Posted by The Lighthouse Admin

Personal Devotional times. These words may either remind you of the private time you spend daily with the Lord, or they may stir up a sense of regret because of your lack of them. Or you may not be a Christian and they simply mean nothing to you.

In all honestly I have never been very good at keeping up a time of personal devotions. I mean we live in the 21st century, it's not like we have time to actually, you know, sit around(unless, of course, your sitting around at your computer)! I have done them on and off for the past several years with a, regrettably, blase attitude about them. I would try to do them, but it was half-heartedly. I would rather have been starting on school or reading a book other than the Bible. Then I got sucked into the phrase "It only takes 5 minutes a day!" which for some people it does. But if I'm only going to give God 5 minutes; He must not be very important. I give some people I don't like 5 minutes of my time just to shut them up.

The year 2007 was my first major attempt at keeping a constant devotional time, and it went fairly smoothly. I read the Bible in a little over a year, but it was in an unfamiliar translation and while it helped me grow some. I think I could have went about it better than I did because I was doing the devotional time more in duty to God then to prosper myself in Him.

During 2008 I continued the time to an extent using a devotional book that I had picked up the previous year and I would read random selections of the Bible. My devotional time was primarily at night, and I regret to inform you that most of the time I did not take more then a moment to pray. It got better as I grew in Christ during 2008; the times became longer and I even spent a few evenings praying for 30mins+ when I committed to a prayer journal. But I did not keep them as consistently as I should have, and eventually I stopped with the prayer journal all together. But during the latter half of '08 I did keep a fairly consistant time of reading the Bible to grow in Christ during the evening.

So here I am in 2009. What's changed from '08 you ask? Well a lot more than I'd like to admit :P. During the first week of February I committed to doing a week of media fasting, but I set it up weird so in the end it was more like a laziness fast :P.(Meaning I scheduled things out more-so and allowed for some internet/tv time). During that fast I wanted to connect to the Lord better so I scheduled 3 times of personal devotions.

The first was as soon as I woke up. It tends to take me a few minutes to wake up. So I usually just sit there on the floor in front of my heater for 10mins or so and once I wake up, I pray(tends to last 15 mins or so depending on how well my attention stays, lol.) Then I read a chapter of the Bible. My passages of choice started with Hebrews and I read onto Jude(stopped at Revelation because I did a class on it for school.) And then I also started Exodus(which the first half was awesome, and now I'm onto some harder reading).

The second is right after I finish school because I have noticed my tendency to forsake thinking about that time and just sit on the computer. So I thought this would be a good time to put what I want to do aside and give some time to God. This one tends to be a little shorter, about 20 minutes, but it helps me to remember that God is with me throughout the day and not just when I wake up and go to sleep(For this time I read a chapter from one of my two selections after praying).

The third and last, is right before I go to sleep. As long as I start going to bed by 10:00 or 10:30 this one is easy to keep, but I have to admit that the later it gets in the evening, the harder this one is to keep. But it is a good time to ponder over the day and pray, and then read a chapter before I go to sleep. This is the slot that fluctuates the most on time. It could be anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.

I have continued to keep these 3 times of devotions over the past several weeks and the blessings have been tremendous. I have never felt so close to God. In fact last weekend I did some small thing out of selfishness and the sense of loss was incredible. Not loss of anything earthly, but I did not feel close to my Heavenly Father, and that was a truly horrible feeling. I hated myself so much for that and it was such a little thing.

I guess the point I am trying to get across is not that I am pious or that God needs you to do devotions for Him. Because as much as He wants you to, you will get little out of it when it's done out of duty. No, you have to want to do it, but when you do, do it and you truly try to hear his voice and follow His commands: The blessings are so much more than you could ever hope for.

It is not always easy, it is not always comfortable, but it is always amazing. And if you aren't a Christian I just want to tell you that you're missing out on one amazing God.

Written by The Lighthouse Admin

Jude is one of those odd books that gets looked over a lot because it is small and a quick read, so it could be easily skimmed and forgotten. Tonight during my personal devotional time I read Jude and I thought it was very interesting. I'm going to post the entire book, but give my thoughts as I go through it...(As I was writing I decided to segment this into two blogs, so look forward to the second half of this devotional within the next week!)

Jude 1:1-4
1Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,  To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:  2Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The sin and doom of Godless men 
3Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

My commentary on these verses:
I think this part is interesting, because what could be a book about the our salvation isn't. Because Jude felt led to write about our faith that was entrusted to us rather than what he wanted to. He then proceeds to talk about how ungodly people have slipped in among us. I personally feel this is a very relevant topic.
(I feel that I sometimes give the church too hard of a time, but please hear me out here.)
In this day and age our culture is very worldly, and I feel that sometimes people slip into churches and think they have it all together, but in the end they do not. They believe in Jesus, but as one verse in the Bible points out; so do demons, and they shudder. They have no hope.
According to the verses above, the ungodly people have used their "faith" Christ as a license to do whatever they wish, some even deny Christ, but they are still among us.


Jude 1:5-11
5Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. 7In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.
8In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" 10Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them. 11Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion.


My commentary on these verses:
Several interesting points made about beings who reject God. Then God compares those beings to the people among us. So here we can see God's judgment made completely clear. God judges those who use Christianity as a "Get out of Hell free" pass while denying Christ, the same as the sexual immorality of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah--one of the most recognized examples of God's hatred towards sinners in the Bible.
The second half of these verses, I admit, I'm more reluctant to comment on since I am not learned. But I think one interesting point to make about them is the fact that Michael did not say any slander against Satan, who is considered to be basically the manifestation of pure evil in many people's eyes. He just told him "The Lord rebuke you!"

Hope you enjoyed part one! Hoping part two is just as good, but we'll see.

Written by The Lighthouse Admin

Hey everyone, this weeks video is a music video, Slow Fade by Casting Crowns. A real thought provoker and very well made.  Hope you enjoy it!

Posted by The Lighthouse Admin

Hey all, this video is pretty funny. I honestly debated a bit about posting it, but it made me laugh so hard that I decided I would post it anyways. It's a video of the Ellen DeGeneres show where she calls an 88 year old woman named Gladys Hardy. Enjoy :).

Posted by The Lighthouse Admin

"This, is why we're doing this!" As I peered through a little window on the outside of the Auditorium this was the only thought my mind could muster. I saw many people raising their hands in response to the speaker asking how many of them had just accepted Christ. There were dozens in the packed auditorium, many more than I could see. But I was not interested in counting them. I was just prayerful and over-joyed that today I had seen many brothers and sisters enter the kingdom. Not just seen, but been a part of. You see, I was working a local event. I have to admit when I signed up to help, the band that was playing and getting into the event free were far higher up on my list of reasons why I was working that day than the scores that came to Christ. But as I stood there, that was the only thought that mattered. And slowly I realized. My mind doesn't want to just apply this to this event, but also being a Christian!

So often in life we are content to live in our own bubbles and we forget what we have been called to do. I know that I struggle with it sometimes. But our real duty is to make disciples, both within the church and outside of the church. But we are comfortable and don't always live out God's commission for us to be his witnesses...

Acts 1:8(NIV)
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

We need to remember the first place God has called us to be witnesses is Jerusalem. Also read as, where you live, it could be New York, London, San Diego, Miami, Moscow, Tokyo, some small town who no one has ever heard of with 50 people, or somewhere inbetween. But we are first called to be witnesses to the one's around us. If we fail there then why are we spending thousands of dollars taking short term mission trips out of the country? I don't mean to knock short-term mission trips. I know people who have made great impact on them. But why are we continually failing to be witnesses to the people around us and not making an impact on them? The popular opinion of our country is to respect each others view points and not press matters. But I think this philosophy is from Satan. We have the redeemed, the Holy one of God and yet we do not want to share him because it might make someone uncomfortable. Well if they are sinners then they should be uncomfortable for a reason; and if I remember right, we're all sinners.

I want to caution you though. If you go out and try to make disciples and you are doing it for selfish motives or because you feel pressured to. Then that is not right. We are called to do this to bring honor to God because we want to. For He is the only thing worth living for.

So whether your living life on a daily basis, volunteering for something, committing something to God, or whatever else it may be. Remember, bringing glory to God is why we're doing this.

Written by The Lighthouse Admin

This should keep us all thinking...

Posted by The Lighthouse Admin

I am proud to present our first devotional from our newest admin, Wookiee!

Read Acts 12:1-9(NIV)
(KJV) (ESV) (NLT)

"Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church." -Acts 12:5

"I looked at my watch. To my dismay, it was 1:45 in the afternoon. I had promised my daughter Lisa, who was playing the piano in a competition for college scholarships at 1:30, that I would pray for her. I got busy, though, and forgot all about it. By 1:45 I knew she had already finished.
I sat at by desk with a feeling of lingering emptiness. I felt as if I had failed her. I knew the only possible way I could have assisted Lisa during her competition was to ask God to calm her and help her recall the music she had practiced so long and hard to master.
As I contemplated this situation, I was reminded of how important prayer is as a link with those we cannot reach. By talking to the Lord about a friend or loved one's needs, we have a unique opportunity to make a difference in their lives-even though we can't be with them in person. What an amazing concept!
No matter what the circumstances of our friends or family members who are away from us, prayer is always an effective way we can support them and be of help. It worked for the people who prayed for Peter (Acts 12), and it can work for us." -Written by JDB

"No greater help and care is givenTo others in their needThan when we bear them up in prayerAnd for them intercede." -Written by DJD

"When you can't be there,You can help through prayer."


Last night, my heart was aching for a friend of mine. My friend is going through something extremely difficult and last night I longed to be there for my friend. I hated the fact that I couldn't be with them physically. I felt so helpless. I knew all I could do was pray but I wanted to do more than that. Then I remembered this article and I went back and read it. It gave me peace. Because I knew that even if I was with this person physically I'd still be just as helpless, there is no way I  could take my friend's pain away myself. No matter how much I want to. Only God can do that. I never forget the fact that only God can truly free someone of their pain, but sometimes there's moments where you're so down and aching for someone you love and care about that you want to do something other than just pray. We forget that it's all in God's hands and the only real help we can give anyone is through prayer, that is a wonderful comfort. If we care for this person, how much more does God care? A million times more! One of a billion reasons why God is so good and great.

I still feel sad for my friend and they are in my prayers constantly, but I have peace and know that no matter what; God will come through and that my friend will get through this because God is by their side.

A song to go with this blog:
"Pray for a Friend" by Casting Crowns

Written by Wookiee