Tool? Or Toy?

I trust you would rebuke me.

I mean, if I let my son Daniel use that humongous chainsaw for a toy, you would rebuke me wouldn’t you?

660 Stihl chainsaws are a very efficient tool for milling logs like the one Daniel is standing on. In about six minutes, I could cut off a board 22 inches wide by eight feet long.

But you need not rebuke me: I never let Daniel play with that saw, other than to hold it up for the picture perhaps. Faster than you could say “Be careful with that saw, son!”, it could rip off a little boy’s leg. In fact, that saw was so powerful that I was almost afraid to run it myself!

I say all this to make a point: tools are tools, and toys are toys.

The Internet can be a useful tool. I myself have used it to find a manual for my wife’s sewing machine, got a good bargain for a vehicle on an online auction, located hard-to-find parts for small engines, and other practical uses.

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Satan’s Secret Playground

Several recent experiences have propelled me to write on the hidden (and not so hidden) dangers facing even our little people when they are out in our local communities with us.

I call these areas, where perils lurk but are covered with a sugar coating, Satan’s secret playground. For just as he enticed Eve with beautiful fruit, so he would like to entice our dear little ones with that playground appeal.

I’m not talking about ugly and frightening pictures or toys, satanic looking creatures or half-animal, half-people toys and pictures. Most of our children would stay clear of those things, treating them as they should, like the poison they are. I’m not even talking about the cute looking but loaded with sorcery characters such as Cinderella, Care Bears, mystical unicorns, or spell-casting princesses. The parents who have studied what God’s word has to say on sorcery, spell casting and necromancy cannot be fooled by such witchcraft wrapped in innocent looking surroundings.

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The Moravian Mission Machine

Revival, by its very definition, implies something is brought to life that was once sleeping or dead. Throughout history, God has repeatedly sent revival to awaken His church from sleepy self-indulgence to an active, world-changing force. It is interesting how history repeats itself, and it becomes apparent that we will never “arrive” at any destination on this earth in which we will outgrow our need for this continual, life-changing phenomenon we call revival. The church lives or dies in direct proportion to the measure in which it operates under this Holy Spirit anointing. In Acts 2 and 4 when revival came at Pentecost, it didn’t just usher in great feelings; it was the birth of the church—a gathered, called-out people.

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