Convert a TV into a Scripture
Frame!
How it all started.
I think the year was 2009, received a
call from my wife, if I remember correctly I was at work; she said:
"the church is having a missions yard sale and they're here to see if
there's something we can donate...", after finding out the location
where the sale would be conducted, I said: "give them the TV", which
resulted in a few seconds of silence on her end followed by an "Ok."
So the TV left the house, our kids were 10 and 13 years of age at the time, there was a minor change in the atmosphere after that, it was more on the neutral side though, one of the questions I remember from my 10 year old boy then, was: "what are we going to do now?", to which I answered, "you can read a book, play outside..."
We never had "cable TV" since that time, eventually I bought a projector, which we sometimes use to watch a Christian movie, the kids grew and are no longer under my direct guidance, but looking back, I don't regret letting the TV go, in fact I count it as one of my best descisions for them.
I've come to understand something obvious, TV's themselves aren't harmful, but that which interacts with our beliefs may be. And when a TV is on, it has the potential to influence our beliefs, and the beliefs of our children, when this happens, the awareness of what their identity is begins to take shape; so if there's ocassion to fall, pray that it be removed from you, but if you have the blessing (capacity) to walk away from it, that's even better, that's sort of what we did by letting the TV go.
These days we have about 4 TVs in the house, but none of them are connected to "cable TV", I plan to use a couple for a camera system around the house, one is in my office, which I've been using to test the truegrace.net/tv website and the other is in our living room, already set to display scripture.
So what got me started with Scripture Frame? Well, the roots may be more on the theological side, however I think their essence (of the roots) is the lack of love; let me explain: I do believe, as Christians, we're not bound by old testament law, instead we dwell in old testament law, what this means is that what we do now should be based on love, not on having to love.
I believe the 10 commandments stand out from the other 600 plus commandments of the law in the old testament in the sense that in a special way, they carry right into the new testament, and we do have the option to do them or not, but if we do, we do them out of love, because we know, we understand, we belive that they are awesome, they're more than needed, they're part of our makeup and the foundation to love one another correclty; in fact our current law system derives from several of those commandments.
So what does that have to do with TrueGrace.Net? These days the word Grace is being stretched a little much, perhaps it has been used as a generational rubberband; now taking into account my previous paragraphs, I belive that we're greatly lacking when it comes to the First Commandment, again this is a matter of love, not of work or having to do.
Love is not something we're born with, if anything we're all born with a sense of self preservation, but love needs to be taught, when we're young we believe we have to live in our parents house and can't wait to be an adult so that we can leave, later on in life we learn that we didn't have to live there, it was love that kept us there.
We don't have to love one another, we don't have to love the Lord, but I hope you understand that even though we're not bound by love, we want to dwell in love. I remember learning throughout the years how the love I had for my mom increased as I matured, and towards other people as well, there's a scripture that comes to mind:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. -- 1 Corinthians 13:11
So after seeing our direction in regards to the First Commandment, I thought this isn't something that can be forced on people, you cannot force people to love God, it would defeat all purpose, love must be taught, and what better way than through God's Word, as a parent provides for his child, meals, clothes, shelter, so does our Heavenly Father provides us with our needs, and He teach us in amazing ways what true love is:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Troughout the years and through God's grace, I came to understand that even though the First Commandment stands, obedience/loyalty/love has to start within, not without. The natural tendency for people is not to "drift" towards God's Word, in as much as possible, we must make it available to them, so the unfolding of TrueGrace began as the result of those experiences and the awareness.
Many times throughout my life I seek nature as means to calm my being, and I believe it works to a certain degree, of course; nature sort of prepares the stage for the peace that surpasses understanding, God's Word not only nurtures the intrinsic in us, but it also help us sail through the storms of life; for this reasons I came to believe that displaying God's Word on the canvas of His creation is a beautiful and perhaps effective way, not only to reach people for the glory of the Lord, but also to guard against that which is not pleasing to Him.
We need to learn to love our Heavenly Father, we need to learn to honor Him, by honoring His Name, we're not perfect, but the love we say we have for Him should be the starting point of that effort, and just like Bibles and Churches are available, we still, just like everything else, have to make the intentional descision to take the first step.
I hope you find TrueGrace.Net edifying and thank you for taking the time to learn more about us. Feel free to send us your questions/comments and sugesstions, thanks again!
So the TV left the house, our kids were 10 and 13 years of age at the time, there was a minor change in the atmosphere after that, it was more on the neutral side though, one of the questions I remember from my 10 year old boy then, was: "what are we going to do now?", to which I answered, "you can read a book, play outside..."
We never had "cable TV" since that time, eventually I bought a projector, which we sometimes use to watch a Christian movie, the kids grew and are no longer under my direct guidance, but looking back, I don't regret letting the TV go, in fact I count it as one of my best descisions for them.
I've come to understand something obvious, TV's themselves aren't harmful, but that which interacts with our beliefs may be. And when a TV is on, it has the potential to influence our beliefs, and the beliefs of our children, when this happens, the awareness of what their identity is begins to take shape; so if there's ocassion to fall, pray that it be removed from you, but if you have the blessing (capacity) to walk away from it, that's even better, that's sort of what we did by letting the TV go.
These days we have about 4 TVs in the house, but none of them are connected to "cable TV", I plan to use a couple for a camera system around the house, one is in my office, which I've been using to test the truegrace.net/tv website and the other is in our living room, already set to display scripture.
So what got me started with Scripture Frame? Well, the roots may be more on the theological side, however I think their essence (of the roots) is the lack of love; let me explain: I do believe, as Christians, we're not bound by old testament law, instead we dwell in old testament law, what this means is that what we do now should be based on love, not on having to love.
I believe the 10 commandments stand out from the other 600 plus commandments of the law in the old testament in the sense that in a special way, they carry right into the new testament, and we do have the option to do them or not, but if we do, we do them out of love, because we know, we understand, we belive that they are awesome, they're more than needed, they're part of our makeup and the foundation to love one another correclty; in fact our current law system derives from several of those commandments.
So what does that have to do with TrueGrace.Net? These days the word Grace is being stretched a little much, perhaps it has been used as a generational rubberband; now taking into account my previous paragraphs, I belive that we're greatly lacking when it comes to the First Commandment, again this is a matter of love, not of work or having to do.
Love is not something we're born with, if anything we're all born with a sense of self preservation, but love needs to be taught, when we're young we believe we have to live in our parents house and can't wait to be an adult so that we can leave, later on in life we learn that we didn't have to live there, it was love that kept us there.
We don't have to love one another, we don't have to love the Lord, but I hope you understand that even though we're not bound by love, we want to dwell in love. I remember learning throughout the years how the love I had for my mom increased as I matured, and towards other people as well, there's a scripture that comes to mind:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. -- 1 Corinthians 13:11
So after seeing our direction in regards to the First Commandment, I thought this isn't something that can be forced on people, you cannot force people to love God, it would defeat all purpose, love must be taught, and what better way than through God's Word, as a parent provides for his child, meals, clothes, shelter, so does our Heavenly Father provides us with our needs, and He teach us in amazing ways what true love is:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Troughout the years and through God's grace, I came to understand that even though the First Commandment stands, obedience/loyalty/love has to start within, not without. The natural tendency for people is not to "drift" towards God's Word, in as much as possible, we must make it available to them, so the unfolding of TrueGrace began as the result of those experiences and the awareness.
Many times throughout my life I seek nature as means to calm my being, and I believe it works to a certain degree, of course; nature sort of prepares the stage for the peace that surpasses understanding, God's Word not only nurtures the intrinsic in us, but it also help us sail through the storms of life; for this reasons I came to believe that displaying God's Word on the canvas of His creation is a beautiful and perhaps effective way, not only to reach people for the glory of the Lord, but also to guard against that which is not pleasing to Him.
We need to learn to love our Heavenly Father, we need to learn to honor Him, by honoring His Name, we're not perfect, but the love we say we have for Him should be the starting point of that effort, and just like Bibles and Churches are available, we still, just like everything else, have to make the intentional descision to take the first step.
I hope you find TrueGrace.Net edifying and thank you for taking the time to learn more about us. Feel free to send us your questions/comments and sugesstions, thanks again!
