EVANGELIST SAYS 95% OF EVANGELICAL CHURCHES ARE LIKE COUNTRY CLUBS (Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In a recent interview, evangelist and motivational speaker Nick Vujicic says the vast majority of evangelical churches are “more like a country club.” “In 95% of the churches we have GenZ today swearing, sleeping around, and every knows it, but no one is really keeping anyone accountable. So I am seeing the fruit of no accountability and no meat being taught. ... I think we haven’t seen the [real] accounts [yet] of [the result of] addictions to technology, which really is scary. Seven and a half hours a day young people are on technology, and more than 65% of teenagers are doing self production of inappropriate photos of themselves. ... [A]s long as we don’t bring in boundaries that hold men accountable that starts at the leadership, I am very afraid of what’s ahead. A telling sign is how many more people prayed pre-election compared to now. I think that many of the conservative Christians are praying less now ... fasting less, when we think that a president is what we need. But he is not our saviour. ... In the end, it’s not about the president, it’s about the church” (“Nick Vujicic sounds alarm on church culture,” The Christian Post, Dec. 5, 2024). Though born without arms and legs, Vujicic has learned to live a pretty normal life and has traveled widely on speaking tours. He is married with four children. He is not a fundamentalist, to say the least, but he is willing to speak out about the terrible weakness he sees in the evangelical circles in which he moves, and we admire that. The fact is that a great many churches that consider themselves “Fundamental KJV-Only Baptist” are in no better shape spiritually than the evangelical churches Vujicic describes. Vujicic calls for more biblical depth, more godliness in leadership, more discipline, more separation, more heavenly mindedness than political/worldly mindedness. That’s exactly what the vast majority of fundamental Baptist churches need.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC BY DANIEL ZIESEMER (Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - “Tidings of Great Joy: A Christmas Medley” arranged by Tracey Ann Collins Biddle features Daniel Ziesemer on violin and Jacob Bernhardt on piano - [see YouTube Video]. Ziesemer Family Publishers produce sacred music recordings, sheet music, and music lessons - www.zfpublishers.com

U.K. EXTENDS BAN ON PUBERTY BLOCKERS FOR CHILDREN INDEFINITELY (Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “U.K. extends ban,” Standing For Freedom, Dec. 12, 2024: “The U.K. has announced that its ban on giving puberty blockers to those under 18 has been extended indefinitely, after finding the drugs cause significant risks to children while providing no benefits. In 2022 Dr. Hilary Cass released her interim report showing that professionals at the Tavistock Clinic, the nation’s primary gender clinic, were pushing children into transitioning even as they ignored their other mental health issues and the reality that almost all children will come to accept their biological sex later in life. In response, the U.K. permanently closed the Tavistock Gender Clinic, and in March it temporarily banned all healthcare providers from prescribing puberty blockers to anyone under 18 (except for those enrolled in clinical trials), due to the uncertainties surrounding the efficacy and long-term effects of the drugs. That ban was again extended in May following the release of Cass’s full review, which found that there was no evidence of a benefit to puberty blockers in treating children with gender dysphoria and there was evidence of potential serious harms. Yesterday, the U.K. made the ban indefinite. ... Health and Social Secretary Wes Streeting stated, ‘Children’s healthcare must always be evidence-led. ... It is a scandal that medicine was given to vulnerable children without the proof that it was safe or effective.’ The U.K’s decision comes one week after the Biden administration doubled down on its advocacy for gender-affirming treatments by arguing before the Supreme Court that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries are necessary, safe, and beneficial to gender-confused children.”

SAYING “NOPE” TO TEMPTATION (Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2024, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - In dealing with temptation, Emeal Zwayne uses the acronym NOPE - Not One Peek Even. He says, “I saw a couple of very scantily dressed women jogging near my car as I drove through my neighborhood. As soon as I caught sight of them in my periphery, I automatically exclaimed, ‘Nope!’ I instantly felt a strong resolve rise up in my heart, and it flooded my whole being with a mixture of unwavering determination and satisfying joy. I remember that as soon as this happened, I wished I could somehow come up with a meaningful acrostic that would help focus my mind and strengthen my resolve anytime I’m tempted to lust. About five seconds later, four words instantly popped into my mind--Not One Peek Even. ... Peeking is where it all starts. And peeking will definitely result in piquing your interest when it comes to the area of lust. ... If you think about it, you’ll realize that there is an edgy flare associated with the word NOPE. It comes loaded with tenacity and attitude. ... No other attitude will do when dealing with the temptation to lust. A flavorless no is insufficient. Our will must bellow out a thunderous NOPE. When possible, I recommend saying the word aloud. ... If you’re really serious about fighting like a man, brother, then you’re going to ... need to be brutal about how you deal with what comes across your eyes and what crops up in your mind. ... When I say NOPE in times of temptation, I combine it with five declarations associated with love and directly correlated to five fingers on one of my hands. As a citizen of God’s kingdom, I imagine myself extending my hand toward a plow, as Jesus referenced in Luke 9:62, and determining not to look back toward any sexual temptation that would lure me away from my God. As I envision myself reaching out to grab the plow, I say the following five things in successive order, as I systematically wrap each of my corresponding fingers, one by one, around the handle: ‘Not One Peek Even--because I love my Lord, I love my lady (wife), I love my lineage (my children and grandchildren), I love His lambs (other Christians), and I love the lost (unbelievers). and then I hold on tightly with a firm and unyielding grip” (Fight Like a Man).

SOCIAL MEDIA THE GREAT TIME WASTER (Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - Many who have written to us about Facebook and other social media forums mention this problem. Social media is scientifically designed to grab your attention and keep it. “I find the biggest hindrance of Facebook is that it can be a very big time waster. There are so many connections that can be had with Facebook that if a person is not careful they will spend more time on Facebook than they do in their Bibles and on their knees.” “I have struggled with letting Facebook control too much of my time, and I do regret a lot of time lost to Facebook. I’m not even tempted to use Facebook anymore because I remember how depressing it could be to sit and scroll looking at the same stuff over and over knowing that there were other things I could and should be doing with my time.” “Facebook is very addicting. Next thing you know you have wasted time going throughout posts reading comments. I have had to limit myself to checking mine only a couple of times a week if that.” “Facebook is like a black hole sucking productivity away.” “YouTube is a trap. Instagram is a trap. Facebook is a trap. If you’re still here, that’s because they have been designed to hook you. I went for a 10-day retreat and realised how much time I had been wasting on these platforms. They distort the perception of reality and above all eat up the precious time that you have.” Consider “35 Things You Do that Waste Your Time”: “Popping by YouTube and getting sucked into something totally irrelevant. Watching random videos that scroll across your feed about someone’s child or cat or checking Facebook or Twitter ‘real quick’” (“35 Things,” ProlificLiving.com). “There is no better late-night activity than trawling through the dregs of Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to see what your followers have been up to. You’ll find things you never knew or wanted to discover: arty photographs of colleagues’ Christmas dinners overlaid by ridiculous filters, endless irritating videos of cute animals, and catty exchanges between TOWIE celebs accused of stealing each others’ boyfriends. Problem is, IT’S A BOTTOMLESS PIT. There is, quite literally, no end to the meaningless waffle of the web--and, once you start...” (“The 7 best ways to waste time on the internet,” The Telegraph, Dec. 30, 2014).

SUNFLOWER DANCE (Friday Church News Notes, December 20, 2024, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “Crowded sunflowers dance,” Israel21c.org, Aug. 29, 2024: “According to the universities’ research [Tel Aviv University and University of Colorado Boulder] published in Physical Review X, sunflowers optimize their growth in cramped conditions by ‘dancing’: using a combination of random movements and responses to neighboring plants’ shadows to maximize their collective exposure to sunlight. TAU’s Prof. Yasmine Meroz, who led the study with CU Boulder’s Prof. Orit Peleg, explained that sunflowers grown in dense environments exhibit a zigzag growth pattern, because it allows them to grow side by side without overshadowing each other, ultimately maximizing photosynthesis for the entire group. ‘In fact,’ she added, ‘plants know how to distinguish between the shadow of a building and the green shadow of a leaf. If they sense the shadow of a building, they usually don’t change their growth direction, because they know that will have no effect. But if they sense the shadow of a plant, they will grow in a direction away from the shadow.’ ... The researchers used time-lapse photography to observe sunflowers grown in high-density conditions. They discovered that individual plants engaged in what they described as a ‘dance,’ making random movements ranging from tiny shifts to displacements of up to two centimeters every few minutes.”

CONCLUSION: The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this obviously does not imply an endorsement. We trust that our readers will not be discouraged. It is God’s will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mt. 16:3) and that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The News Notes remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the Lord’s coming. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you living for Christ? “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Ro. 13:11-14).