Living Youth Podcast now available on Spotify!

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By moderately popular demand, the Living Youth Podcast is now available on Spotify! Thanks for all the encouragement! It will be a while before the backlog of old programs is fully loaded onto the platform, but going forward we hope to get each new one on Spotify. For now, we’ve just selected a few and we hope to load a few extra of the old ones each month as we load new ones. Our next target is the Apple Podcast app, but let us know if there are other platforms we should consider.

Our thanks to Mr. Jonathan McNair for helping us figure out what we needed to do, based on what they’ve learned in Living Ed by getting Mr. Frank’s up and running. We appreciate it!

The Spotify page is below for those who are interested. And, again, please feel free to share any feedback, ideas, or questions at [email protected].

P.S. It looks like our podcast about how Captain America: Civil War helps demonstrate how the world needs Jesus Christ is flagged as “Explicit”! Oops! I was all ready to blame Spotify, but the error was ours (sneaky checkbox accidentally hit). Rest assured, it’s totally not “explicit” and is fully Colossians 3:8 compliant! The incorrect label should rectify itself in 24 hours or so. And believe us, the last thing we’d want to do is have Cap say “Language!”

Volunteer for Music and Choir at Camp!

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Editor’s Note: This will be announced this Sabbath in services, but it seemed like it would be helpful to include here. We look forward to hearing from our talented teens and staff members at the teen camp this year!

This Coming Monday, June 20: Deadline for Texas Teen Camp Talent Show and Camp Choir

The deadline is approaching for all campers who would like to participate in the Texas Teen Camp Talent Show! We are looking forward to an evening of entertainment provided by campers for the whole camp to enjoy. Selections should be vocal or instrumental music reflecting godly values of wholesome, positive, and uplifting entertainment in words and/or music, avoiding worldly themes or messages. If you would like to participate, please fill out the participation form by this coming Monday, June 20. The form can be found when you log in to your MyLCG account, and it takes about seven minutes to complete. All participants must submit this form in order to be considered for the Talent Show. If you have any trouble accessing the form, please contact Mr. Rod McNair at [email protected].

We are also planning to have a camp choir. Campers and staff members are all invited to participate. If you would like to be part of the camp choir, please fill out the participation form by this coming Monday, June 20. You can access this form through your MyLCG account, and it only takes about a minute to complete. If you have trouble accessing the form, contact Mr. Rod McNair by email at [email protected]g.

A Proper Gander at Propaganda

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As you can probably tell, the world is getting really political. And the more political it gets, the more people throw around the word propaganda. But not very many people are bothering to actually define that word—and, as Mr. Sandor recently said, definitions are important. 

So, what even is propaganda? Well, the most recent issue of the Living Church News just so happens to have an article by Mr. Paul Kearns on that very subject. Mr. Kearns goes into what propaganda is and, more importantly, who’s really behind all the propaganda out there.

Intrigued? Just click the link below to be instantly transported to Mr. Kearns’ article through the mysterious power of the internets (which seems to run on some form of electricity).

Whiteboard: Seven Proofs God Exists

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As mentioned in our “Five Questions” interview with Mr. Mike DeSimone, the creator of the TW Whiteboards (that interview is right here, if you haven’t seen it), the new one that went up Thursday evening is “Seven Proofs God Exists.” Mr. DeSimone, Mr. Jonathan Riley, and the whole Whiteboard team did a great job, and we hope you like it! If you didn’t see the interview where we talked about this one, click here for that post and video.

A Couple of Tips on Meditation

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Here’s a basic question for you: How do you draw close to God? 

If you’ve heard that one before, you might know some of the answers. The Church of God helpfully focuses on four big actions we can take to draw close to God: Christians can pray, study their Bibles, fast, and meditate.

It can be a little tricky to start doing these things regularly. Thankfully, the Church provides plenty of help on how to get the most out of prayer, study, fasting, and meditation. When I tried to start doing these activities regularly, it was a slow process, but I gradually felt myself get better at prayer, study, and fasting. Little by little, I felt like I was getting more out of these things. Some days were better or worse than others, but generally, these practices seemed to be going in the right direction in my life. 

Meditation was different—I rarely felt like I was getting much better at it. I knew the basics: think about a godly concept deeply. True meditation is not emptying one’s mind, as some religions teach. Philippians 4:8 tells us that “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” That’s a great list, but what does it mean practically? How exactly are we supposed to think deeply about those things?

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Thinking Biblically: Definitions

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When I think about what it means to “think biblically,” I usually think, “How do I look at situations with the Bible as my guide?” And that’s fine! Most of the content on this website takes that approach: “How do we think biblically about entertainment? About dating? About current events?” 

But sometimes we also have to think biblically about something much more basic, like the definition of words. This might seem too simple, but you would be surprised by how many contentions spring from people not even agreeing on how words are defined. 

“Come on, Mr. Sandor,” you might think, “we know what dictionaries are. They give the same words and definitions to all of us.” Well, you have a point—to a degree. While dictionaries give us the opportunity to uniformly define words, it’s still not uncommon for people to just ignore dictionaries and use whatever definitions they have in their heads. 

But there’s a bigger problem: Dictionaries don’t use the Bible to define words. The Bible provides definitions for sin (1 John 3:4), righteousness, (Psalm 119:172), faith (Hebrews 11:1, 6), and a host of other words—and these definitions are different from what you’ll find when you google a word (or dig out a hardcopy dictionary). 

For this post, let’s briefly consider the word love. How should we define that? Well, if you’re still reading, you’re about to get some answers. 

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Interesting in applying to Living Education–Charlotte?

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Living Education is still taking applications to join the on-site educational program for the 2022–2023 academic year, where students spend a year in Charlotte at the Church’s Headquarters, getting grounded in the faith and working part-time at the office. If you are interested in applying or have questions, you can start by clicking right here!