Ministry Resources

Family Conference Booklet

Critical Armor Ministries aids in the struggle faced by families against wickedness from any number of ever-present sources. As a preaching and teaching ministry, Critical Armor sets forth a simple Four-Zone Strategy to layer defenses for the use of technology in the Christian Home. Security controls placed not only on the level of Devices, but also at the Physical, Network, and Internet; levels to help protect both children and parents against accidental or even intentional exposure to filth.

The family has many enemies today. It should come as no surprise that this world wants your heart. It wants the hearts of your children. Our adversary works tirelessly for the destruction of Christian Homes. One of his easiest paths lies through technology.

Technology for entertainment, for education, and for communication pervades our daily lives. It’s everywhere. And the sad truth is, as we raise our children we must also teach them how to use it. How to survive and thrive in a technological world. We cannot simply shield them for eighteen years then toss them into the maelstrom and hope for the best.

More than that, even adults today face great temptation. Temptations that, if acted upon, possesses the power to shatter homes and destroy lives. We live in a wicked world that refuses to tolerate godliness.

Shield the Heart.

Does your home have a strategy to protect your heritage? Does your family have all the right locks on the right doors? How do you even know? Critical Armor is a teaching ministry that seeks to help parents protect their homes against illicit material, regardless of whether it arrives accidentally or on purpose.

Protect your most important asset.

Your future.

Pastor Chuck Shorter, New Testament Baptist Church, Columbus, NJ

With smart phones and tablet devices in the hands of most people to day, including our children, many risks are just a click away. I have often said that it is not that I don’t trust my kids, I don’t trust the devil. This series of messages from Brother Baxter provides a comprehensive approach to raising the wall of protection and strengthening the armor of defense against aggressive assaults from cyber space. Joe has put together a good mix of Biblical teaching, practical advice and technical assistance.

Thoughts linger.

Once seen, the images cannot be unseen.

Catching it after the fact is too late. The damage has already been done. Sin causes the chemical reactions that God built in the human brain for good to work against a person for evil, cementing a wicked image into memory in full color and larger than life. A memory like this takes only a fraction of a second to create and may take years of dedicated prayer and vigilance to erase.

How will your protect your children from this disaster? How will you protect yourself?

The world has no answer. Neither do most Christian homes and yet we wonder what’s happening to our heritage. “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” (II Corinthians 6:17) To get different results you must be different.

The Battle Ground of the Mind decides a person’s character. “For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7)

No matter the age, no matter the gender, the Bible tells us that we easily fall prey to temptation. The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Parents, your children are even now forming habits and a thought-life that will either be a blessing to them or a cursing for the rest of their lives. They will either have thoughts that will encourage them in a life of service for the Lord or they will have thoughts that will discourage them from following God’s Word.

This is true for both boys and girls. It is true for men and women. Technology represents equal but different dangers to the minds of both.

Guard the Mind.

Anonymous Confession of a Teen

I was first introduced to porn when I was 12 years old. All of the thoughts originated from this video game that I played at my friends house. There was sex, nudity, drugs, etc., and I thought well it’s only a video game, I’ll never do it. When I got home that night, I looked up porn for the first time, and I was shocked. I liked it but the guilt just filled up quickly. I was in all the youth groups, bible studies, etc. I truly believed in God, but that night changed my life. I remember one night a couple weeks later, that I just have to watch it again, and I felt even more guilt…

“They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.” (Nehemiah 4:17)

God called on Nehemiah to fill in the gaps. He and his men held a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, because of the many and intense dangers filling the world around them. They didn’t stop. They didn’t rest. They built the wall until it circled the city completely. They faced ridicule and derision, but nothing swayed them from the task God had given to them.

They understood the risk.

Many homes have gaps in the walls. Gaps that no one can see. Most parents would say, “We have a WiFi router, isn’t that enough?” The average router offers very simple protection against attacks from the outside coming in, and really only the most passive (or undirected) attacks. If a parent isn’t the president of a large bank, or in some other way an interesting target, any of the readily-available commodity equipment will serve that need.

Hackers are not the problem.

Yes, many bad people operate out in the wilds of the Internet trying to steal identities and rob bank accounts. However, for the most part, those types couldn’t care less about the average Christian home. And also absolutely true, that many of the pornographers out actively target youth–any youth–to expose them to their addictive filth. They hope to get a customer for life–but once again, while numbering among the lowest scum of the earth, they don’t even want to know your name.

Your adversary, though, knows who you are.

The world exists in a wicked state. That should come as no surprise. Nonetheless, the risks to your family do not come from outside. They come from inside. Inside the heart. The hearts of the parents. The hearts of the children. The Bible says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) You don’t have to spend money, but you must realize that your WiFi router cannot protect your children (or yourself).

Godly homes must build a wall.

A wall made up of all the right bricks–a plan using components specifically selected and designed to work together. Some people may know Cyber Security well enough to analyze the risks and design a comprehensive safety strategy. Most, however, do not.

The Critical Armor Zone Strategy can help. Each zone identifies a few inexpensive technologies around which families can fill in their gaps. And because technology alone is never enough, each zone includes simple policies and procedures that can help parents not only enforce the protective controls, but also provide good awareness into what really goes on in the home.

Build the Castle.

Pastor Charles Hatcher, Mount Calvary Baptist Church

Joe Baxter is a gifted and passionate communicator of God’s Word. His expertise and experience make him uniquely qualified to serve the Lord in this vital ministry. Information technology is the front line for the Christian family today, and we all would be wise to apply the principles contained in this material.