Hi. This is my Pastor Tom Rodriguez, his wife Deborah, and his family. The children are as follows: Leah (18), Jonathan (16), Andrew (12), Joel (9), Elizabeth (7), and Joy (4). The church is South Milwaukee Church of the Nazerene. God providentally lead me to Pastor Tom when I was here to do my internship in radio. Although it is a Nazene church in name, Pastor Tom and his family as very conservative. God is giving me the privilege of working along side of them, while I am be discipled in ministry. The church's average attendance is around 30 people. Currently I am leading the men's Bible study, and helping to disciple others. I thank the Lord for being a small part in His vineyard.

I have Seriously neglected to update this blog. Part of the reason has been I don't have internet access at home, but still that is a lousy excuse! I am going to try to start this blogging thing again, and hopefully keep it current!

I have just read an interesting post on Michael Wright's blog on Technology. You can find it at http://mjwsjw.wordpress.com/ . I found it thought provoking and interesting. I have given considerable thought to this subject and wanted to inject some thoughts. Blogging helps to lay out some thought I have had on numerous subjects. Like Michael, I believe that we need to form principles from Scripture that last beyond our generation and stand the test in our children's lifetimes and the future. I believe we often do not give meaningfull, reasonable, Scriptural answers to DVD's, Internet, Computers, and Television. In our conservative holiness circles, I'm afraid we often only discuss on the surface of the issue, and fail to plumb what I would call the root cause of the issue. Neither can we ignore these issue as Michael pointed out, because they are here to stay, and there will be even more issues tomorrow. First of all I do not believe it is good enough to say that we will only have "good" entertainment and leave out the "bad" entertainment. We must then distinguish what is good and what is bad according to Scripture. Often we might not might ok what we think is good clean entertainment. One of the biggest reasons I do not have a television is not that there might be some good educational material, but that what many would allow is good is actuall detrimintal. Let me explain. I might watch a perfectly good National Geographic program with no inherent bad content. However, their is so much humanitic, evolutionistic bent that is so opposed to what I believe. I might be able to shrug it off, but will my child be able to set there and do the same? Often the message behind the message on TV corrupts the program. This is very evident with DVD's as well. This media is so powerful because the message is often subtily woven throughout the story line. Of course this excludes some documentaries. The storyline often is the only thing that we see, but the message is the important part of any movie. Because of the visual content, the message is directly fastened in our minds with very little critical thinking required. . That is why Jesus said that "if the eye be single, the whole body is filled with light". The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Matthew 6:22 The eye is a gateway to the mind. Now this can be a very good or bad depending on the message of the producer. Unfortunately there are very few Christian producers with a Biblical worldview. One such producer is Dave and Rich Christiano. Rich made this point one time with an audience. He randomely picked a person out of the audience and asked him what his pastor had preached on the last Sunday. The man embarressedly struggled to remember, and then turned to his wife next to him for help. She didn't remember either! Then Rich asked it he had every seen the movie the Wizard of Oz. The man replied that he had. Rich asked how long it had been since he had seen it. He replied that it was probably 10 or 15 years. Then Rich asked him if he remember certain details. The man clearly remember specific events of the movie that he had not seen for years! Rich makes the point that movies are very power mediums to capture our imaginations, and shape our thinking. The message is often then in the medium. Therefore if our eye is to be single to God, then we must evalute every medium and see if the message is compatible with a Christian's worldview. Secondly all our thinks, words, and actions must aline with the spirit of Christ. I Cor. 10:31 says, Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. This should be the principle that governs all our life. I have been moved deeply by some use of the video. One such video was the life of Hudson Taylor. To see his trust in God and his struggles helped but my life in perspective at the time. On the other hand, some may evaluate these technologies and decide not to use them. I can see their point. However I believe it is possible to use technology and live a life of complete holiness unto the Lord!