wisdom

Leaving Your Wallet on the Dashboard

by Ben Zornes · Sep 19, 2022

Perhaps no other region of modern life is less scrupulously evaluated by Christians than their media choices. You may be a faithful churchgoer. Your kids may be getting a Christian education. You may read a Bible verse or two after supper. But many Christians apply next to zero discernment regarding their entertainment choices.

Any suggestion that we should rein it in is often met with accusations of legalism. But, your Netflix history, the Spotify playlists your children listen to, their internet access, the sort of online multiplayer video games played are not indifferent moral choices.

Watching smut movies to find the redemptive arc is like drinking raw sewage to refine your palate. Neglecting to keep track of your family’s technology and media consumption is like leaving your wallet full of cash on the car dashboard in downtown Philly.

The movies you watch, the music you listen to, the video games you play, the books on the shelf, the access to the internet you allow are the companions you choose for yourself and your family. What companions have you chosen? Wise counselors, leading to righteousness and truth? Or fools, seducers, traitors, sluggards leading you into compromise, bloodshed, and ignorance?

The selection of godly friendships requires diligence, wisdom, and discernment. Don’t build a tall wall around the castle of your home, and forget to shut the gate. This means resisting the magnetic pull of hype behind the latest blockbuster hit or the most popular tune. The world of media is hell-bent to entice you to join them in their flood of depravity.

This means vigilance and discipline. It means being renewed by the Sabbath rest the Lord gives, instead of the sluggards rest which Netflix gives. It means missing out on the trinkets, in order to retain the treasure of a clear conscience.

God’s Word calls us to set Him apart as Lord in our hearts. Yet, we often set Him aside, instead being pleased to be fancied and tantalized by the vain thoughts of the world. God promises perfect peace to him whose mind is stayed on Him, and it is no wonder when our minds and hearts are a tangled mess of anxiety, fear, lust, pride, and folly when we mindlessly give our attention to whatever message the latest movie, song, or show has for us. All too often we view entertainment as harmless, when it is more often than not a pack of hyenas determined to devour and destroy us and our families. May the Lord forgive us for leaving the gate of our mind unlocked in this matter, and grant us fortitude to wisely sift through the media which is allowed into our homes.

We often think that forsaking such sinful companions means forsaking fun and enjoyment. This just shows the weakness of our faith in God’s promise that in His presence is the fullness of joy. Never forget that when you forsake your sin and sinful companions, you are forsaking misery. This allows us to come and drink from the eternal fountain of Gospel joy.

The Treasure of a Christian Education

by Ben Zornes · Aug 29, 2022

As the school-year begins, it’s important to be reminded what we’re doing in the education of our children. Children, your education isn’t just something to keep you busy during the day. According to Scripture, the instruction of wise parents & teachers is better than silver & gold (Pro. 8:10). Thus, education is receiving the wealth of wisdom which your ancestors have accumulated. But not all forms of education are equal.

Some advocate for a child-directed form of education. This assumes a view of children that’s unbiblical. Children aren’t founts of wisdom & discerning innocence. There’s folly in children’s hearts which must be driven out through discipline & training.

Others think to treat children as widgets on an assembly line. Get them to pass enough multiple choice questions, and, tada, more federal grants. This dehumanizes children, treating them like consumable products instead of a blessed legacy.

Education, in biblical terms, is receiving wisdom from above. The key which unlocks this treasure chamber is the Wisdom of the Gospel: our redemption through Christ’s blood. The Gospel is the first treasure which unlocks all others, and wise instructors ensure their pupils have this key.

So children, diligently apply yourself to this work of sorting the treasures in this storehouse. Your schoolwork is the labor which God sets before you to do. So you’re commanded to work at it heartily & joyfully, as an offering to the Lord.

Parents, this task is yours to superintend. You must be diligent to ensure that your children are indeed receiving all the riches of all the wisdom & knowledge of God. You’re training them to spot the difference between gold & fools gold.

In short, an education is worthwhile only insofar as Christ is central to it. To repurpose a proverb of Solomon, a Christ-less education is like a golden jewel in the snout of a swine.

Book Review: “In Praise of Folly” by Erasmus

by Ben Zornes · May 11, 2018

Praise of Folly by Erasmus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Erasmus is a really intriguing figure of the 16th century. In many ways, he paved the way for the Protestant Reformation, while firmly insisting on taking no alliance with it. His book,Â In Praise of Folly, is a wonderful instance of his rhetorical powers of wit. The “hook” of this work is the Lady Folly writing to Erasmus’ friend Thomas More. The irony of it all is that we learn great wisdom from the mouth of folly. A really enjoyable read, from a colossal intellect.

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Some Quotes:

Do but observe our grim philosophers that are perpetually beating their brains on knotty subjects, and for the most part youâ€™ll find them grown old before they are scarcely young.

What man is that would submit his neck to the noose of wedlock, if, as wise men should, he did but first truly weigh the inconvenience of the thing? Or what woman is there would ever go to it did she seriously consider either the peril of child-bearing or the trouble of bringing them up?

What greater thing do [women] wish in their whole lives than that they may please the men? For to what other purpose are all those dresses, washes, baths, curlings, slops, perfumes, and those several little tricks of setting their faces, painting their eyebrows, and smoothing their skins?

If there can be any great entertainment without a woman at it, let others look to it.

Wisdom is a great obstacle to the true management of business

Few there are that rightly understand of what great advantage it is to blush at nothing and attempt everything.

For truth carries with it a certain peculiar power of pleasing, if no accident fall in to give occasion of offense; which faculty the gods have given only to fools.

I scarce know anyone in all mankind that is wise at all hours.

Nay, further, whereas the Church of Christ was founded in blood, confirmed by blood, and augmented by blood, now, as if Christ, who after his wonted manner defends his people, were lost, they govern all by the sword.

Fortune loves those that have least wit and most confidence.

Wisdom makes men bashful, which is the reason that those wise men have so little to do, unless it be with poverty, hunger, and chimney corners; that they live such neglected, unknown, and hated lives: whereas fools abound in money, have the chief commands in the commonwealth, and in a word, flourish every way.

In Defense of the History Major

by Ben Zornes · Jun 8, 2016

I Might Be a Joke, But My MajorÂ Isn’t

As the joke my brother tells goes, “how do you get a history major off your doorstep? Pay him for the pizza!” He is currently pursuing a lucrative career in business management & administration, and, back in the day, I chose to be aÂ history major; which is certainly a less lucrative enterprise.

I heard on the radio aÂ few months back that many school are electing to replace history class with courses that are more sensory and will actuallyÂ prepare students for a life in the globalist & tech driven economy of the 21st century. As the thinking goes, no one can provide a curriculum that presents a cohesive history of past events, and it is always going to be lopsided (after all those who write the history textbooks control the perception of what happened).

But, as a history major, I would very much resent the idea of a wholesale disposal of historic instruction. I think vocationalÂ preparation is of great importance and would highly encourage a return to a master/apprentice model. And I suppose I might add that I would also very much like a dissolution of the entire behemoth of the Department of Education. The DMV should be enough of a reminder that government has noÂ business overseeing the education of our children, nor do they have much skill in it. [Read more…] about In Defense of the History Major