Many of us have seen the extraordinary capacities of ChatGPT. A few months ago, a couple of friends plugged in my preaching into an AI (Artificial Intelligence) piece of software, sampling my voice. Then I cut and pasted random text from the internet, and hey-presto, it was my voice – so uncannily similar that I myself could not distinguish it – saying things that I had never said. It was a fun and amusing moment. I asked them if they could get me to speak in a different language. Off we went to Google Translate, translated a text into German, and had me speak in perfect German. To test the model, one of them tried my German speaking on a friend of theirs who is a native-born German. His verdict? Josh speaks perfect German but with a British accent! So the AI had not only got me to speak perfect German but had kept enough of my intonations to indicate my British accent origins. 

Most of us would admit that when our emotions get the best of us, we say things we don’t mean. Other times, we say exactly what we mean but we don’t choose our words carefully and end up implying something that just isn’t true. This offense seems particularly common when a person dies, something I know to be true from personal experience.

Parenting teens in today's world can feel beyond overwhelming - kind of like trying to stay cool when you're a piece of dry wood tossed into a dumpster fire. Many of us elder Millennials and Gen X'ers have parented teens through the evolution of smartphones, Snap Chat, and X-box Live. We have no earthly idea what we're doing. Yet, we're meant to serve as master-class-level digital police, culture war moderators, and spiritual warfare ninjas in an increasingly ludicrous world. Deep. Breaths.

An old adage states there are two things a polite conversation never includes—religion and politics. But in the past forty-five years, religion and politics have meshed to the point of syncretism. Political ideals have replaced many Christians’ zeal for the Lord with fervor for a Christian nation via politics. At what point does politics become an idol, and what are the warning signs this is happening?

Sharon is a talented hairdresser with a can-do spirit and a candid tongue. She doesn't take no for an answer. She says what she thinks.

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

As Christians, we are to leave vengeance to God, but He made us inclined toward action. To say a prayer for justice can feel like inaction, but what if we were granted an audience with the most powerful leader in the community, state, or nation in the face of wrongdoing?  We would go and make our appeal, and it would not feel as if we’d done nothing. When we pray for justice to our Creator God, we are making our case before the Highest Power in the universe.

In a world filled with complex choices and moral dilemmas, we all need God’s guidance to make the best decisions.

Up the excitement by giving away small rewards for hitting work goals. Go to the dollar store and buy prizes. Wrap them and put them in a reward basket visible to the children. Give each child a goal that fits their individual needs.

The sky is falling!