I grew up attending Southern Baptist churches and every year near Christmas an offering was collected to fund world missions. The Lottie Moon Mission Offering was my family's main form of charitable giving each December and the purpose was not to get a tax writeoff. Instead it was to further God's work throughout the world.

The Bible teaches several points regarding charitable giving:

1) Do not give to impress others. - Matthew 6:3

2) Help your enemies and the poor while expecting nothing in return. - Luke 6:35

3) Give cheerfully. - 2 Corinthians 9:7

There is nothing immoral with obtaining tax deductions by donating to legitimate charities. This infographic by H&R Block lists donations that are not tax deductable such as:

• "Political parties, political campaigns, or political action committees."
• "Contributions given to individual people."

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This infographic by Zone Alarms examines risky habits of teenagers on the Internet and reveals that teens posting late at night on Facebook are likely to not secure their account.

Here's an alarming statistic: "27% of children who are active on Facebook after midnight have taken no actions to increase their privacy."

by Column Five Media. Browse more infographics.

Jesus said the poor will always be with us. We are reminded of this truth by this infographic from Build Direct which reports that 45 million Americans live in poverty. The infographic also reveals that about 20% of children in America live in poverty.

What have you done recently to help the poor?

by InfoNewt. Browse more data visualization.

"The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender." - Proverbs 22:7 ESV

Do you know how much debt your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend owes? The answer to this question can predict if a marriage will end in divorce, according to this infographic by Credit Repair.

A study of divorced/separated couples revealed that 45% discovered "financial skeletons in their spouse's closet."

The infographic shows 9 warning signs for spouses to be aware of. This list includes "an increase in ATM withdrawals" and "a sudden decrease in disposable income."

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Since launching my first website in 1997 I have seen numerous internet fads come and go. Originally most websites were hand coded. Eventually blogging software was developed for automated web publishing.

My humble beginning in web development led to a career working on Christian media sites. I have evaluated site logs to see how many visitors are checking out the site, what web pages are seen the most, and what keywords are used in search engines to find the website.

The same pattern of trying to determine what web features are most productive has been studied by numerous web developers and marketers.

The web development company GO-Globe studied the websites of Fortune 500 companies and produced this infographic to show common characteristics of successful company websites.

The infographic reports that "27% of logos include a tagline or a slogan." Does your church or ministry website feature a slogan? How would you charactize your ministry in one sentence?

Learn about infographics software.

Marijuana is in the news.

Yesterday Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an executive order in support of Amendment 64 which Colorado voters approved in November and legalizes limited marijuana use.

This infographic by Total DUI compares the dangers of alcohol and marijuana. The infographic reports:

"While alcohol may cause a good number of diseases with its extended consumption, marijuana has its own number of detrimental effects. Not everything is known about the long-term effects of consistent substance abuse, though research is constantly arising to present new insight.

Since I have never tried marijuana, some of this information was new to me. I didn't know that marijana would cause a faster heart rate.

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Bias in the news is easier to spot when you have carefully examined both sides of the issue or read publications that represent the opposing sides.

For example, this infographic presents dated survey results from 2008 regarding how creationism and darwinism are taught and includes some biased information. Probably not much has changed during this time in how evolution is presented in most private and public schools in America.

I appreciate the title of this infographic: Creationism vs Darwinism in Education. Notice that it didn't read "Creationism vs Evolution" which is how this debate is often described. Instead both viewpoints have "ism" attached to their names signifying that they are ideological.

Section I part 2 represents four different viewpoints. One viewpoint left out is theistic evolution which is the idea that God created life through evolutionary processes.

In section III Texas is listed with an unsatisfactory rating for its allowing a critique of evolution. Perhaps opposition to academic freedom and an unwillingness to criticize flaws in evolutionary dogma should be "unsatisfactory."

For years evolutionists have claimed that junk DNA was evidence for darwinism. Now the evidence has become overwhelming that "junk DNA" is not junk -- only the purposes for this DNA were previously unknown.

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Before asking this question, we should examine the definition of compassion. According to Wikipedia, "The English noun compassion, meaning to suffer together with, comes from the Latin."

Can students be taught how to suffer with others? In my opinion, the answer is yes but the lessons will not be learned in a classroom.

My dad was a church minister and visited numerous people in hospitals and nursing homes. Sometimes I accompanied my dad on these visits and I also watched him comfort grieving people at funeral homes. My dad was a compassionate role model.

Open Colleges produced this infographic asking, "Can we teach compassion?" The infographic examines the subject of community service performed by college students and reports that "38% of student volunteers are introduced to volunteering through their university or students' union."

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Have you ever thought about how people kept track of time while the Bible was being written? In the very first chapter of the Bible we see a measure of time as the Bible says, "God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day." - Genesis 1:5 ESV.

In another Bible passage we find the use of a sundial:

"'And this is the sign from the LORD to prove that he will do as he promised: I will cause the sun's shadow to move ten steps backward on the sundial of Ahaz!'" So the shadow on the sundial moved backward ten steps. - Isaiah 38:7-8 NLT

Some Bible scholars may even claim that the Bible teaches time management because Psalm 90:12 says, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."

This infographic Demandforce shows the development of tools used for time keeping and time management.

by Column Five Media. Browse more data visualization.

When my dad was a minister, he performed a lot of marriage counseling and weddings. He would ask probing questions to the engaged couples. Besides asking about their relationship with God, he would ask about their financial situation. Had they disclosed all their debts to the person they planned to marry?

This infographic by Money Rates shows that "3 in 10 adults married or living with a partner have engaged in some deceptive financial behavior."

Money conflicts are the cause of many divorces. So please be transparent with your spouse.

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