Good morning and may God bless each one of you. This week I have a bulletin that begins with a little bit of trivia. If I said the phrase cultural generations of western society, would you know what I am referring to? Furthermore if you did, could you name the seven generation titles or labels? The final question I have is do you know what generation you are? Oh, don't worry this isn't a graded exam or anything, but if you did know all seven without looking further on this bulletin for the answers, then let me know!

The other day I heard someone use the phrase the greatest generation and it got the wheels in my head churning again. Well after the smoke cleared I was left wondering why do we label generations and how many are there? Well as I stated before there are seven accepted labels, I could only come up with five, but I did know that I was a generation x. Here is the list of generations with the years associated with them, please note some generations overlap because of confusion of when one generation ends and another actually begun.

LOST GENERATION 1880-1900

GREATEST GENERATION 1901-1924

SILENT GENERATION 1925-1945 BABY BOOMER GENERATION 1946-1964

GENERATION X 1965-1980'S NO LATER THEN 82

GENERATION Y 1980- EARLY TO MID 90'S

GENERATION Z 90'S- 2010

Well there you have it! Pretty neat huh? Oh, in case your wondering the next generation will be called generation i. The names of each generation can come from various sources really. It could be events that took place during those years or major inventions, also how the generation behaves and what they wear and what they like to do are all factors. Take generation z for example, they are the techies and have earned the nickname digital natives. The silent generation grew up during the depression and were noted as being a withdrawn and cautious people. The lost generation was coined by Ernest Hemingway in one of his novels, but it's origin came from a description of the men who had been through World War 1. The greatest generation were dubbed such because when freedom was at stake, they answered the call resoundingly taking action and holding nothing back.

Hmm...that makes me think of another generation. The first century Christians I think were our greatest generation because so much was at stake and they answered the call.

Freedom is at stake now just as is was then. The Bible says that all have gone astray and enslaved themselves to sin. This implies that at one time we all were in a perfect relationship with God our creator, but all by choice have become slaves to sin. Our loving God has come up with a plan that returns us to Him and gives us back our freedom. This plan was accomplished through His Son Jesus Christ. This plan has been revealed in the Gospel message, the very same message the Apostles and the first century Christians went everywhere preaching. Many of them gave their lives in defense of the Gospel, others suffered greatly for the Way. We have much to be thankful for because they stayed true and faithful. I hope this message inspires us all to be more like our Savior, more like those first Christians and a great generation of the Lord's people.

Eric