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______________________________________ If you enjoy this email service, I encourage Be sure to check out our inspirational list just for teenagers!
Visit the link below to preview the book! Personalized autographed copies are available at no extra charge and we pay the shipping for you! An E-book version is also available for just $3.25! http://www.hearttouchers.com/books Be sure to let us know who you would like it autographed for and then allow about two weeks for us to sign it and send it on its way to you.Credit card, PayPal, Checks, and Money orders accepted! The book is also available through Amazon.com, Borders.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Booklocker.com _____________________________________
by Chuck Colson
"Without MTV," the Associated Press points out, "you might not have reality television. Commercials wouldn't have vertigo-inducing quick cuts. Musicians wouldn't need to look like models to survive. Kelly Osbourne [of the reality show The Osbournes] wouldn't have gotten near a recording studio. And only seamstresses would know about wardrobe malfunctions." If that were my legacy, I'm not sure I'd want to call attention to it either. But that's not really the reason MTV is playing down its anniversary. As the Associated Press says, "When your average viewer is 20 years old . . . perhaps it's wise not to mention you're 25. MTV wants to be the perpetual adolescent." The Washington Post puts it more succinctly: "At MTV, it is always about the now." Perpetual adolescence and living only for the moment are just a couple of the twisted values that MTV has foisted upon us over the past twenty-five years. There's also exhibitionism, voyeurism, promiscuity, greed, and a host of other vices. Through its style as well as its content, MTV has done all it can to promote the cheap, the vulgar, and the flashy over the good, the true, and the beautiful. I'm not saying that MTV has added anything to the culture that wasn't already present. All these elements have always been part of sinful human nature. Where MTV distinguished itself was in glorifying these things -- moreover, glorifying them for a young audience. We certainly can't place all the blame for our coarsened and desensitized culture on MTV. But it deserves a significant share of the blame for a culture in which our children -- at younger and younger ages -- are surrounded on all sides by twisted views of sexuality. And I do mean "surrounded on all sides." Even kids who aren't MTV viewers come up against its culture-shaping influences from their peers, from advertisers, even from their teachers, or from its host of affiliated networks ranging from Nickelodeon to LOGO, the new Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered channel. MTV has forced parents to work harder than ever to protect and shape their kids' minds, while giving them less of a chance of doing so successfully. Only in a culture shaped by MTV's kind of values, for example, could Madonna's latest stage act -- hanging on a mirrored cross while singing -- draw little more than yawns and "Oh, there she goes again." Madonna and her onstage antics are a perfect expression of the channel and the culture that helped create her. Or take that infamous Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl. As the AP implied, what shocked an audience full of adults was old hat to many of their kids, who had seen far worse in MTV's videos and reality shows. It's not many people who can look back and say that they changed a culture. That can be pretty awe-inspiring. But when you change it in the way that MTV did, you don't celebrate: You hang your head in shame. Chuck Colson Chuck Colson is a syndicated columnist, international speaker, radio commentator, and the founder of Prison Fellowship and Breakpoint. He has visited prisons throughout the U.S. and the world and has built a movement working with more than 40,000 prison ministry volunteers, with ministries in 100 countries. He has written 22 books, which have collectively sold more than five million copies. His autobiographical book Born Again was one of the nation's best-selling books of all genres in 1976 and was made into a feature-length film. In 1991 Colson launched a daily radio feature called "BreakPoint," a unique and well-received attempt to provide a distinct Christian worldview on everyday issues and conflicts. The program is aired daily on over 1,000 radio outlets nationwide. Visit his website at: www.BreakPoint.org You may send correspondence to Mr. Colson at: c/o Prison Fellowship, 1856 Old Reston Avenue, Reston, VA 20190-3321.
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"A diamond is a chunk of coal that dealt with the pressure."
"Consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."--James 1:2-4
"Remember, kids: When you stop believing in Santa Claus is when
"If your parents never had children, chances are you won't, either."
"Ability will take you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there."
"A mature writer seeks to take himself out of the story and let his character come in and say their piece and do their turn without his own fine sensibility butting in all the time." --Garrison Keillor
"If I get male pattern baldness, I'd like zig-zags please."
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Inspired Audio is a brand new offshoot of HeartTouchers.com. Every week we will offer a different audio message that you can listen to right on your computer as you are surfing the net or just getting things done around the house. Be sure to come back and visit each week! This Week: "Repairing Relationships" by Jeff Williams
Over 87,000 people have listened to popular Chicken Soup Author Michael T. Powers' free inspirational message entitled: "Breathing Life into Others". If you aren't one of them just visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com and click on the link to listen to the free streaming audio message! __________________________________________
Dear Michael, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for the beautiful video you made for me! It was so special to see both of my parents in tears as they watched their children grow up in pictures before their eyes! I loved the way you made Estania's part set aside from the rest--that was the part that really got them! The music was beautiful. My mom kept blubbering, "What song is that?" I don't know how you did such a beautiful job with the video in such a short time. I really appreciate your doing it so quickly. You have a wonderful gift, and I thank God that you are using it to create such sentimental memories. I hope that I can find my niche like that in an area that I love. Your video gave us one of our most lasting Christmas memories! I hope yours was filled with moments to be treasured forever! Let me make you a video from your photos! __________________________________________
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Touching Lives - One E-mail at a Time! Author Michael T. Powers - HeartTouchers @ aol.com
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