Category: Christian thought

Growing in Getting Up!

Posted on by RLAdmin

This week in our men’s group we had a great talk which started in 1st John.

I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on
account of his name. 13 I write to you, fathers, because you have known
him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you
have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you
have known the Father. 14 I write to you, fathers, because you have
known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men,
because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have
overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:12-14

Knowing that your sins are forgiven is huge! Especially for those that are sensitive to their sin. The idea behind the, “your sins have been forgiven,”
is the idea of continuing to be forgiven! Little children need all the encouragement in the world. We do too.

On account of Jesus we are forgiven. We fall a bunch, as babies tend to do, but we get back up, and try again. “For though a righteous human falls seven times, they rise again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.” Proverbs 24:16

What does the number seven signify in the Bible?

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I
forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.
Matthew 18:21-22

When the deciples heard Jesus teach on forgiving a person who sins again you seven times in the same day, they asked for something! Do you know what it was?

Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” 5The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”… Luke 17

They said, “Increase our faith!” They understood that walking in fellowship with another takes faith. Faith to forgive. Jesus assumes that we will sin. And we will sin many times even in one day!

Do we trust God to walk with other humans in this kind of way? Do we trust God by giving forgiveness to those that seek it from us?

Many times we think that a good relationship is predicated on a lack of sin, yet Jesus indicates that even the act of giving a gift to our kids can be sinful!

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

That hits us a bit don’t it! You mean even my good deeds aren’t that good?

But think of this; if it is true that Jesus taught that we are sinners who sin, and would need mercy and continual forgiveness as we learned in 1st John, then do our relationships bear the mark of believing such a teaching? What would that mark look like?

The deciples knew in order to be like Jesus in our forgiving of others, we would need a ‘increase in faith!’

But think about it. Does your relationship with your spouse, your kids, your friends etc… bear the mark that you are a follower of Jesus? If so, then you will be asking for forgiveness regularly, and also forgiving those that sin against you. In doing so, we are showing our need for forgiveness and also giving forgiveness to those who need mercy. Showing our need for forgiveness takes a willingness to admit fault. This can be difficult as there are many excuses we can make for our behavior. And many of us do.

People struggle with hearing our sins, but God does not. God actually wants us to come to him in brokenness. You can bring your heart to the throne of grace the Bible tells us. Is your heart burdened by your sin? Bring it to the one who can forgive you completely. You family might not be able to! Neither your friends! But God will! Why? Because the Father loves the Son and will forgive anyone who comes to him in His Son’s Name.

We live in a culture that is unable to grant forgiveness well. Mercy and Grace have been removed words from our vocabulary. What a shame we could say. Jesus faced a similar culture in his day. And the culture that removed forgiveness, mercy and grace from there minds is the same one that crucified him. Maybe all we are left with is self righteous hate when void of these behaviors. Forgiveness, mercy & grace.

Looking to Jesus we are given wings to rise up from our despair to new heights that we could have never imagined. We can get up and we can help other get up as well! Praise God for His Son!

Pride Month 2021 Part 1

Posted on by RLAdmin

Peter and I were stoked to sit down and discuss the LGBTQ community, especially the word equality. It is a word that is used often, but what does it mean to have sexual and gender equality? This might seem to be a dumb question, but when we don’t ask questions we tend not to get answers. Noam Chomsky once commented in a small book on the propaganda distributed by mass media:

“You want to create a slogan that nobody’s going to be against, and everybody’s going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn’t mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something.”

Well, we want to know what is mean by equality, and that might take some time; or in our case, some podcasts!

As we discuss equality, we quote GK Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Noam Chomsky and Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s super awesome write up called, “Harrison Bergeron.”

G.K. Chesterton said, “There is a thought that stops thought, and that is the only type of thought, that ought to be stopped.”

Sometimes when trying to ask questions about what is meant by the word equality on sex or gender issues you can be immediately shut down. This is unfortunate.

The Bible talks about equality, but how does it talk about it? In what way are we equal and it what ways are we not?

Check out this Episode hope it challenges you intellectually and spiritually.

Sex Ed For the Really Young?

Posted on by RLAdmin

May 2021 Already! Can you believe it! This week on the BP Podcast from Running Light Ministries we share our commentary on the sex educator Justine Ang Fonte and her video for six year old’s!

Do you remember being six years old? It’s difficult to remember much of being a little kid let alone thinking about an erection that you might have had! Our point being made was ‘are young children even ready to discuss sexual organs?’ Isn’t it enough for parents to simply be fearful of having your kid in kindergarten/1st grade? Now we need to discuss there genital’s?

The video brings up many questions! What are appropriate sexual topics for a teacher to share with your student? Are you comfortable with the new ideologies that today’s sex educations have? (Intersectional, LGBTQetc…, Social Justice, Gender Identity etc…) This is not the health class of 1985!

In the video that we listen to on the show, Peter points out that a moral judgment is being made on masturbation. The concept of what is right is subtle but in the video. And if there is a right, then there is a wrong. Can kids contextualize sexual pleasure as a recreation?

In the video, a cartoon boy is asking, “Hey, how come sometimes my penis gets big” and points in the air. A cartoon adult responds “That’s called an erection.” The boy then adds, “Sometimes I touch my penis because it feels good.” A cartoon girl responds “Sometimes, when I’m in my bath or when Mom puts me to bed, I like to touch my vulva too.” The adult cartoon character then intimates the little girl, “You have a clitoris there, Kayla, that probably feels good to touch the same way Keith’s penis feels good when he touches it.” She then adds: “Have you ever noticed that older kids and grown-ups don’t touch their private parts in public? It’s okay to touch yourself and see how different body parts feel – but it’s best to only do it in private.”

As Beau listens to the video a second time he points out that there is not a direct reference to masturbation being made. But why do young kids need this kind of education? Is it due to the free distribution of pornography in our world? Do young children need to know about how their body works and its relating to sexual pleasure? Even though I (Beau) was a sexually adventurous young lad growing up in Southern California, I am glad that I didn’t know much about how my genitalia worked. I wonder what would I have done if I did know the functionality of my genitalia. Sometimes when we are unsure, we do not pursue. When young people are confident about the sexual organs then they tend to feel comfortable using them. That rings true from posteriori knowledge in my crew growing up! The young boys I hung out with that knew there body parts better then others tended to use them.

Peter points out that we have laws that assume that youth are not able to consent to sexual decisions. Statutory rape is the example Peter gives. What are the consequences if we did assume that kids could make the right decisions regarding there sexuality? Are there topics that kids are not ready to understand at six years old?

Sharing this kind of sex education in a classroom in front of all kids of kids with all kids of backgrounds has its problems as well. Some kids will know more about there bodies then others. Peter and I have spoken in many public school classes on sensitive topics and half of the students in the Jr. High class are oblivious to the things we are talking about. We at times have felt bad that we brought up topics that could have sparked a curiosity in the kid!

What is the agenda behind this kind of sex education? Is there? Take a listen on the Running Light Better Pleasure Podcast!



LGBTQ…H is in us all?

Posted on by RLAdmin

We are all capable of anything. Do you agree? One thing that human history has shown is that this is true. With sexually it is true too! Any kind of sexual behavior seems to have been done before. Today’s pornography is a great way to understand this. Popular porn has changed as time has moved forward. What was once ‘fringe’ is now common. Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Questioning etc.. is all popular porn (well maybe not questioning). And you need to remember that porn is just a reflection of the human mind.

We all need to remember too that LGBTQ has always been in the world! There is nothing new under the sun. In the United States our history is largely influenced by a religious purity movement which currently is being replaced by humanism. Just look at the educators of the country (i.e. John Duey). What was considered right sexual behavior has changed. But don’t get this wrong; it is not new! Could it be that the reason that the purity movement gained a following is due to the LGBTQ movement of old? Of course, I understand that LGBTQ lifestyles were never mainstream or having the legal rights of a man and his wife. But when you look into the different societies of the past, all of them had various legal issues regarding sexual behaviors. True autonomy was not a part of most societies. Though LGBTQ behavior was tolerated on some levels, they were not accepted lifestyles. True human autonomy needed to be allowed, plus the integration of medical/technological advancements. (Don’t underestimate how technology has played a role in the LGBTQ movement. It actually might be the main reason the movement has a voice today.)

When given the opportunity to move any way we want in our sexuality humans will go in every way possible.  There is nothing that we won’t do if allowed. Nothing! LGBTQ is the norm of human beings when given the allowance. The more autonomy we are given the greater the vastness of our sexual behavior. This is normal. What is not normal is resisting the urges to do what you want to do. Do you think there is a rightful place in your life to resist any “temptation?” Do animals resist? Or do they indulge? Is there a government that is holding them back from acting out on their sexual instincts? But we are different aren’t we? We can act out on our sexual urges in every way possible when given the allowance to do so. But do you realize that human beings have something more than instinct that we are working with? We have an interesting capacity to not only follow our urges but also resist them. We can even think through things, using our reasoning ability! We are amazing in this way. But if you want to live like an animal and move away from resisting our sexual urges then what would the outcome be in a society? In the animal kingdom which animals dominate? Do we shame them in how they dominate?

LGBTQ is normal, as is heterosexual sexual relationships. But to live with reason means to have an ability to think through our sexual desires, to resist or choose what is the right thing to do about them. How does my actions affect the future of the species? This is a question we can answer, but we can ignore as well. What questions are we wanting to answer and what questions are we wanting simply to ignore. To reason through our sexual behavior will lead to resisting various actions, which at some level most humans do. But to ignore the ability to reason will move us into fulfilling our urges like an animal does, whether you identify as LGBTQ or heterosexual.. This is what we will do if we have total say as to what we desire to do sexually. Every human has the ability to be base. It is unfortunate that we even have to have LGBTQ as a movement. But it makes sense if a society has been legislating against a particular sexual behavior. Our country’s purity movement has maybe dulled our understanding of human nature. It is hard for me to believe that humans are shocked by the sexual desires of other humans. If there is one thing that pornography shows us is that it is a reflection of us! What is in our hearts, our minds, the cravings that go on in secret is all in pornography.

When sexual desires are legislated and humans are criminalized for all but the “norm” over long periods of time then culture will become shocked, appalled and violent of what is actually the normal tendency which follows our hearts sexual desires. But when laws are implemented to suppress our desires the general public will find it appalling to desire in the first place, only to shame a person for such an action. This is how things have been done (Nazi Germany and Mao in China) and continue to permeate the planet. We are a bit in between worldviews in our country today. It blows my mind that a famous person cheating on their spouse or a person of popularity watching porn would be ‘news’ and given air time. We humans cannot simply allow everyone to do what they sexually desire to do yet! There is a great fear of what could happen, or actually what would happen. We wear clothes for a reason don’t we! It’s not only the weather that keeps clothes on us isn’t it? We all could have a deep understanding of what it was like in our past history of being taken advantage of when naked. Perhaps we hold a remnant in our minds of a time of such sexual atrocities. Like the animals we did what our instincts said. Nothing more, nor less.

Without any restraint, what would we do?