Manners are getting worse. This trend is no doubt due to a number of factors cited in the article including the fact that parents are not teaching manners to their children, there is a lack of discipline in the home, and there has been a breakdown of society related to a prolific lack of respect for authority. But, there is more...

How often do you go to the Scriptures when faced with a difficult decision, an ethical dilemma, or when in need of simple advice? Do you realize just how practical the Scriptures really are? Would you first consult the bible when faced with a co-worker’s question concerning a problem he’s having with his teenage son, or would you first consult an “expert,” a secular book on the subject, or another friend?

What do you believe and why do you believe it? Such a question is basic to our very existence and all people must answer it in some way whether consciously or unconsciously. To answer the question unconsciously is both to answer it and to ignore it at the same time. To ignore the question is to answer it along these lines, “I only believe what I feel like believing at any given moment.” In other words, this individual has no coherent philosophical grid by which he approaches life in general except that he acts merely upon circumstantial feelings. This individual will live with philosophical inconsistencies and contradictions within his own mind without really caring or perhaps even knowing such to be the case.

One of the exhortations that can never be issued to the evangelical world too often is that Christians must learn to think, and to think biblically. Of course, not only is such a dynamic demanded by virtue of our allegiance to Christ, but right thinking produces right living, gives weight to our witness, and glorifies God. And yet, the sad truth is that too many who name the Name of Christ are not only failing to think biblically in connection with their own spiritual walk before God, but they are failing to do so in such a way that not only are they unable to engage our pluralistic culture for Christ, but they are actually given to embracing cultural, worldly, wisdom. How can we expect to impact not only our culture but the nations if we cannot or will not think biblically? How can we have eternal impact in the lives of others if we fail at this very point?