Halloween in August?
Can you believe it? I went to the grocery store two weekends ago and they already had Halloween candy out for sale! That was August 16th! And today I went to another grocery store and they were putting up their Halloween display. That means for two and a half months we have to look at witches, headstones, jack-o-lanterns and all the other creepy evil things that go with it.
Halloween is becoming as much of a major holiday as Christmas. That is sad. We always complain that Christmas is too commercialized and is promoted way too early. Now it seems Halloween is getting the same treatment. But then people are now putting up Halloween decorations in their yards the same way we've always done for Christmas. Years ago this would never have been heard of. Does this mean in just a few weeks we'll start seeing mummies and ghosts in peoples yards?
Halloween is a pagan holiday and promotes evil and darkness. The wiccans (witches) celebrate this day as a holy day. I know of a wiccan that asked her employer for the day off because it was her religious holiday. I know we live in a country that gives us religious freedom but I sure am not looking forward to seeing the fruits of darkness every time I go to the grocery store for the next several months.
Looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas......
Is MySpace Safe?
Is MySpace safe?
Last year I joined myspace with the idea that I would use it as a witnessing ministry for the Lord. I worked hard on my profile adding many Christian links that would be both an interest to Christians and an enticement to seekers. Although it was a noble idea what I found was that instead of me being a light in the darkness the darkness was way too overwhelming.
It seemed like almost everyone that wanted to be my ‘friend’ had profiles so outrageous I couldn’t even look at them. The backgrounds were offensive, the language was horrible, not to mention the images people chose to put on their sites. As a child of God I try to stay away from things that aren’t pleasing to my Lord but on myspace that is nearly impossible to do.
One of the main attractions to myspace is the idea of making your own profile which is basically your very own webpage. To decorate your profile you need to find layouts, backgrounds, and images to place on your site. What I found was that the sites that offer the layouts were just as bad as myspace itself as far as offensive material, advertisements, etc. I think this should be a concern to parents. Even if you are working with your child to make his myspace safe he’s going to see offensive material while searching for profile decorations.
So how do you keep your Christian family safe on myspace?
- ALWAYS set your profile settings to Private. That way only those you know and trust will see your site.
- Only visit profiles of people you know and can trust. Profile surfing just to see what’s out there is how you run in to things you’d rather not see.
- Set your Comments to Approve before Posting to make sure nothing offensive gets added to your site without your approval.
- Stay away from the chat rooms. The subject matter alone can make you cringe, not to mention the language.
- Only visit sites offering layouts that are totally Christian oriented. There are ‘religious’ backgrounds, layouts and images on most all secular layout sites but visiting them subjects you to layouts and images you would rather not see.
- Don’t use a personal picture as your main profile image. That image is seen by the general public, not just your private friends.
- Don’t put personal information on your profile such as address, phone, school, work, financial, etc. even if your profile is private. If you get hacked all that info would be there for the taking.
- Only join Christian groups on myspace and even then be very careful as some groups are Christian in name only and, of course, not all members will be Christians, either.
- Be careful about adding slide shows, music players, avatars, etc. to your profile. Some have been know to contain malicious code that could harm yours or others computers.
- Only visit profiles that honors the Lord.
A better solution to myspace are the Christian social networking sites. Two that I personally use are Christian.com (formerly hisholyspace.com) and heavensspace.com. Both are excellent alternatives to myspace. Christian.com is closely monitored by two devoted brothers in the Lord who are always available if any problems arise. The site has a very good chat room setup where all profanity is deleted if typed and the rooms always have monitors. To find a good Christian myspace alternative just google “Christian social networking sites” or “Christian myspace alternatives”. Always check out their Terms of Service and Statements of Faith.
I ended up deleting my original myspace page and just recently started a new private page for personal friends and family only. I still use the computer to witness but not on myspace. I will leave that up to the many good ministries and Christian bands on myspace that are doing a great job sharing the gospel. I will continue to use myspace but only looking up people, ministries or bands that I know of personally and stay away from profile surfing.
Just wondering if any of you use myspace and what has been your experiences.
