By Will Hall, Message Editor
PULASKI, COUNTY, Mo. (LBM) – The Pathway, the multi-media news service of the Missouri Baptist Convention, is reporting a spiritual movement among the soldiers stationed at Fort Leonard Wood.
Since March of this year, about 3,300, and counting, soldiers and trainees have professed faith in Christ, according to Southern Baptist Chaplain (Cpt.) Jose Rondon.
Fort Leonard Wood is home to about 6,000 permanently stationed active duty personnel and about 12,000 trainees at any one time.
Rondon, originally from Venezuela where an International Mission Board missionary shared the Gospel with him, said the “key” to so many people coming to Christ could be summed up in one word, “INTENTIONAL.”
Baptist Press, the national news service of the SBC reported Rondon as defining “intentional” as being “faithful to Christ and obedient to His Great Commission.”
“We will not succeed in making disciples until the lost make the first step to follow Christ as their Savior,” Rondon said.
Citing Colossians 4:2-4, Rondon offered that he believes “our nation, our churches and our military are on the verge of seeing God like we have never seen Him before. All glory to Christ alone!”
U.N.: Excessive drinking killed 3 million worldwide
NEW YORK (LBM)—The United Nations World Health Organization has released findings that nearly 3 million deaths worldwide were caused by alcohol, with men composing nearly 77 percent of those who died from excessive consumption.
About one-third of alcohol-related deaths resulted from car crashes and self-harm, while about one in five were due to either digestive disorders or cardiovascular diseases. Cancers, infectious diseases, mental disorders and other health conditions also were to blame.
The mortality resulting from alcohol consumption was higher than that caused by diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and diabetes.
According to CBSNews.com, Dr. Vladimir Poznyzk, coordinator of WHO’s management of substance abuse, said it was “imperative for the governments to put in place measures that can mitigate the harms associated with this increase.”
However, the Distilled Spirits Council, which advocates for the industry in the U.S., said it has concerns “with some policy recommendations such as increasing alcohol taxes,” calling these “misguided” and claiming they “don’t effectively address harmful consumption.”
RESEARCH: Video games cause violence; limit screen time for kids
ALEXANDRIA (LBM)—Separate studies have released findings with key information for parents with regard to raising children: One found violent video games do cause players to become more physically aggressive. The other concluded children’s cognition (ability to learn and understand) is negatively impacted by too much screen time.
Dartmouth researchers conducted a finely structured meta-analysis of 24 already completed studies, according to USAToday.com, to conclude that violent video games, whether played frequently or infrequently, increased violent behavior in the players.
The researchers stopped short of suggesting video games led to crimes, but offered that their findings indicate “players may practice riskier behaviors such as reckless driving, binge drinking, smoking and unsafe sex.”
One of the lead writers said “either these games are having a warping effect on right and wrong” or the players already “have a warped sense of right or wrong and that’s why they are attracted to these games.”
“Either way you should be concerned about it,” he said.
Meanwhile, CNBC.com reported the National Institutes of Health had found in a study of 4,500 children ages 8 to 11 that kids who spent more than two hours in front of screens were linked to poorer cognition, causing learning difficulties.
Researchers said the next step is to study “the impacts of different forms of screen time, such as educational versus entertainment experiences.”
However, they still observed that limiting time on the internet, combined with “the right amount of sleep and physical activity” is positively linked “to improvements in cognition among children.