I was reading something on a Christian bulletin board about a recent poll of professing evangelical Americans, here is the poll results they took and the questions:
57% of Evangelicals said that there is more than one way to God.
70% of American Christians of all denominations shared this view.
68% there is more than one way to interpret the Bible
Another interesting statistic is that 90% of Americans call themselves Christians, yet only about 40% believe the Bible is 100% accurate. Something does not add up?
The real problem is that it looks like there are a lot of people claiming to be Christians, but not a lot of real Christians. This is sad when considering that the places with the largest churches in the world are like China and Africa; but the American church is almost non-existent. That is frightening! All we as believers can do is pray for God to change the hearts of people and that He can prepare people for His soon return.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Poem time!
Well I have decided to do another poem, this one is more of a story of a man writing a letter to his lover, as he is dying from being lost, he holds out hope that though he is away from the woman he loves that somehow he will be reunited with her in the future, even though he is dying. It is more of a romantic/tragic kind of poem, so I hope it flows well and you all enjoy.
Also, from now on any poem posted on here is property of me, the blog author, if you see this poem on ANY other site, they are not designated to do so unless they request permission to do so or give credit to the author.
The love of Boregard
I am lost and alone, was awash at sea;
but now have found land to rest my wet feet.
My love lies beyond the horizon, on a land I cannot recall
I hope that she waits, one day for my return.
I bid her farewell, took to the seas as a foolish man
three years ago to the day, under the golden sun.
I have wandered the cities and have seen many sites,
but none are quite as lovely as that of my dear love.
Though I cannot remember her face, her presence ever lost,
her love is the one thing my heart never forgot.
Though I may be tempted to move on and leave, find another one
I cannot deny the true feelings I once held, for that of my love.
She said not to go, yet I hesitated not and proceeded ahead,
it was a mistake to which I will forever pay with dry tears.
"Stay here with me, the weather is no good, stay here on this land."
The words echo in my mind and heart as though she were here.
Alas, I made may mistake and have reaped what I have sowed,
instead of listening to reason, I pray she shalt forgive.
Though I have encountered many hardships and suffer great pain,
the thought of the embrace of my lover, soothes my heart.
I have no ship, no food in my satchel, and no money at hand;
my prayer is still that Providence will reunite me with her.
But as I write this letter, I pray you listen well to the words of a dying man,
if you ever see her, or hear of her name, tell her of the love of her Boregard.
Also, from now on any poem posted on here is property of me, the blog author, if you see this poem on ANY other site, they are not designated to do so unless they request permission to do so or give credit to the author.
The love of Boregard
I am lost and alone, was awash at sea;
but now have found land to rest my wet feet.
My love lies beyond the horizon, on a land I cannot recall
I hope that she waits, one day for my return.
I bid her farewell, took to the seas as a foolish man
three years ago to the day, under the golden sun.
I have wandered the cities and have seen many sites,
but none are quite as lovely as that of my dear love.
Though I cannot remember her face, her presence ever lost,
her love is the one thing my heart never forgot.
Though I may be tempted to move on and leave, find another one
I cannot deny the true feelings I once held, for that of my love.
She said not to go, yet I hesitated not and proceeded ahead,
it was a mistake to which I will forever pay with dry tears.
"Stay here with me, the weather is no good, stay here on this land."
The words echo in my mind and heart as though she were here.
Alas, I made may mistake and have reaped what I have sowed,
instead of listening to reason, I pray she shalt forgive.
Though I have encountered many hardships and suffer great pain,
the thought of the embrace of my lover, soothes my heart.
I have no ship, no food in my satchel, and no money at hand;
my prayer is still that Providence will reunite me with her.
But as I write this letter, I pray you listen well to the words of a dying man,
if you ever see her, or hear of her name, tell her of the love of her Boregard.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
A really cool ministry! (Its run by surfers.) ^_^
Hey guys, wassup? I do not know if any of you have ever heard of this ministry before, but after today you will. It is called Walking On Water, this is a ministry run by many different Christians as well as Christian surfers like CJ Hobgood, Damien Hobgood, Bethany Hamilton, etc... These guys started out as just a indie Christian movie company, but have bloomed into a full blown ministry that does youth outreaches, surf camps, movies and all kinds of neat projects. They are also affiliated with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, which is the main church of the Calvary chain. ^_^
It is always nice to see a good ministry affiliated with my church, so yeah this is a really cool ministry that you all simply should check out some time. Here is the link to the site.
Walking On Water
Here is the testimony of one of the surfers who are affiliated with the ministry. (I think?) Anyways, this is still a good testimonial.
I want to surf so bad. :(
It is always nice to see a good ministry affiliated with my church, so yeah this is a really cool ministry that you all simply should check out some time. Here is the link to the site.
Walking On Water
Here is the testimony of one of the surfers who are affiliated with the ministry. (I think?) Anyways, this is still a good testimonial.
I want to surf so bad. :(
Saturday, June 14, 2008
True beauty.
I really feel bad for most of the women these days, as a guy I really do. I got done reading a couple of articles over the past week or so, the first story was about these little 8 year olds who were dressed up in really inappropriate clothing for 8 year olds and on top of that they had seductive poses. 8 YEARS OLD!!! I mean where were the parents? And why did they allow their little kids to pose for these childrens clothing ads in such a way? The next article was this nazi-nutritionist who was sitting here saying that fat people were killing the environment, and called people like the former American Idol winner Jordin Sparks obese and essentially said that sticks were overweight in her description of fit. Whats even worse is guys are getting the same message too! They buy into that if you do not have a six-pack you are not a man, or if you do not have a cool car, sharp clothing, and do not have the looks of a celebrity that somehow no girl will ever like you. If not that, guys fall into the stereotype of what a woman should look like to be considered beautiful; and it all comes from our media. From celebrities who have to pay thousands of dollars and pounds of makeup to look the way they do, and go under the knife all the time and have so much plastic in them it would make Barbie and Ken cringe.
I must admit though, I had fallen under the same line of thinking about women and my own self, I thought that unless I had some exotic looking woman with flowing black hair that I would not be satisfied with any girl. Or as myself goes I was insecure and vain, insecure that I thought that unless I had a hot car, money, good clothing and a good looking girlfriend somehow I was less of a guy. Vain, that I became SOO focused on what I looked like, so focused on my hair, clothing and body that I cared more about the outside than the inside. I have come to realize though that even though I do not have a girlfriend that does not make me any less of a person, I would rather have a good friendship with a girl and that blossom into something than to immediately start out as boyfriend/girlfriend and not be friends at all. I think many people have as much of a distorted view of dating as they do beauty. Back on topic, so many people need to stop taking their cues from Hollywood on what a girl should and should not look like and start reading their Bibles, because it says that God is not impressed with looks, when God was looking for a king to replace Saul, He instructed Samuel to visit Jesse's house and he (Samuel) went through all of these big, strong, handsome young men. God wanted none of them, because He said that He looks at the heart and is not impressed by appearances. With that he chose a young boy named David, who was the youngest of all his brothers, and he grew to become one of the greatest monarchs in all of history. The same could be said for beauty, sure it is a cliche "it's the inside that counts," but people really believe it is only the outside that matters. There have been examples of girls in my life who may have looked gorgeous, may have had fancy clothes and may have acted nice at first; but in reality they are what the Bible describes as seductresses, who's only need in a guy is to satisfy their flesh. Than there are ladies who may (by the worlds standards) not look like the other girls do, maybe they have faults in certain areas of their life; but inside there is a light that is there that separates them from those girls and makes them far more beautiful than they ever could be. It is called Christ. Though they may physically look pretty, on the inside the are as ugly as a corpse; but even though a lady may not look like a model or the cultures idea of pretty, on the inside they permeate a beauty far beyond the comprehension of the world. When someone is truly seeking after Christ and has a genuine heart for Him, even when you may not think you are beautiful, in Christ's eyes you are beyond that of a diamond; not to mention, if you are serving Him and seek Him on that special someone. He will supply the right person in your life to best complement you in your walk with Him and someone who will love you forever regardless of the stereotypes set by this world; true beauty goes beyond physical, true beauty comes from Christ. When you have a genuine, repentant heart that seeks to serve Him, you are beautiful. I just want every girl who may read this who may has thoughts about themselves and compare themselves to the women on the tv ads, the magazine covers, the actresses and all the rest; I want you to know from a fellow teen guy, what true beauty is. True beauty is Christ, and the love He puts in your heart when you are truly saved and born again; God has someone for everyone, seek Him for it, do not judge based on appearances but allow Him to guide you and lead your heart. Do not always follow that fuzzy feeling inside or your emotions or your thoughts, the world has done this and when they get married and that fuzzy feeling is gone and that pretty girl you married starts to not look so good anymore, they up and leave. True love that puts Christ first will never fail, yeah you will fight, but you will always recompense and be able to come together and forgive.
I hope this helps any girls out there reading this. It truly is the inside that counts, the outside does matter to an extent, but not as much as most people place on it.
I must admit though, I had fallen under the same line of thinking about women and my own self, I thought that unless I had some exotic looking woman with flowing black hair that I would not be satisfied with any girl. Or as myself goes I was insecure and vain, insecure that I thought that unless I had a hot car, money, good clothing and a good looking girlfriend somehow I was less of a guy. Vain, that I became SOO focused on what I looked like, so focused on my hair, clothing and body that I cared more about the outside than the inside. I have come to realize though that even though I do not have a girlfriend that does not make me any less of a person, I would rather have a good friendship with a girl and that blossom into something than to immediately start out as boyfriend/girlfriend and not be friends at all. I think many people have as much of a distorted view of dating as they do beauty. Back on topic, so many people need to stop taking their cues from Hollywood on what a girl should and should not look like and start reading their Bibles, because it says that God is not impressed with looks, when God was looking for a king to replace Saul, He instructed Samuel to visit Jesse's house and he (Samuel) went through all of these big, strong, handsome young men. God wanted none of them, because He said that He looks at the heart and is not impressed by appearances. With that he chose a young boy named David, who was the youngest of all his brothers, and he grew to become one of the greatest monarchs in all of history. The same could be said for beauty, sure it is a cliche "it's the inside that counts," but people really believe it is only the outside that matters. There have been examples of girls in my life who may have looked gorgeous, may have had fancy clothes and may have acted nice at first; but in reality they are what the Bible describes as seductresses, who's only need in a guy is to satisfy their flesh. Than there are ladies who may (by the worlds standards) not look like the other girls do, maybe they have faults in certain areas of their life; but inside there is a light that is there that separates them from those girls and makes them far more beautiful than they ever could be. It is called Christ. Though they may physically look pretty, on the inside the are as ugly as a corpse; but even though a lady may not look like a model or the cultures idea of pretty, on the inside they permeate a beauty far beyond the comprehension of the world. When someone is truly seeking after Christ and has a genuine heart for Him, even when you may not think you are beautiful, in Christ's eyes you are beyond that of a diamond; not to mention, if you are serving Him and seek Him on that special someone. He will supply the right person in your life to best complement you in your walk with Him and someone who will love you forever regardless of the stereotypes set by this world; true beauty goes beyond physical, true beauty comes from Christ. When you have a genuine, repentant heart that seeks to serve Him, you are beautiful. I just want every girl who may read this who may has thoughts about themselves and compare themselves to the women on the tv ads, the magazine covers, the actresses and all the rest; I want you to know from a fellow teen guy, what true beauty is. True beauty is Christ, and the love He puts in your heart when you are truly saved and born again; God has someone for everyone, seek Him for it, do not judge based on appearances but allow Him to guide you and lead your heart. Do not always follow that fuzzy feeling inside or your emotions or your thoughts, the world has done this and when they get married and that fuzzy feeling is gone and that pretty girl you married starts to not look so good anymore, they up and leave. True love that puts Christ first will never fail, yeah you will fight, but you will always recompense and be able to come together and forgive.
I hope this helps any girls out there reading this. It truly is the inside that counts, the outside does matter to an extent, but not as much as most people place on it.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
A powerful message. [WARNING: EXTREME CONVICTION ALERT!]
I will warn you all right now, if you guys watch these two videos. It will not be easy, I was trembling as I heard this teacher teach this sermon. His name is Paul Washer, and he gave this sermon to a youth event of 5000 kids; and this is really hard stuff to swallow and it really convicts the heart. PLEASE, just listen to this, if you are really serious about following Christ this IS a message we as fellow young believers need to here.
It is a 6 part series, but I could only find four. Just let God speak to you through this message and if you watch it all and feel convicted, please, go to God as I have done and pray for a true salvation of repentance; realizing how wretched we are before Him and how only through His blood and by doing His will are we saved. Than, make strides to get rid of things of the world that are weighing you down, and grow and continue to serve for Him.
Please watch all of these, (or as many as you can at a time, for they are somewhat long. Or try spreading them out, that works too.) it could mean your soul.
This is my mission, because I have felt that in my life I was one of those people that if I would have died would have heard the words "Depart from me," and it is still the most terrifying words I can ever imagine in existence. I am so concerned (scared even) about my fellow peers in my youth group because I see these statistics, I see their lives and sometimes some of these kids look no different than the world. And as a friend and fellow teen I want to make sure that as many as are willing to listen to me I want to show the greatest love I can by being harsh sometimes, being "old," being strict in some areas; because I have learned the hard way in my life why I need to be different. I want to encourage every friend (family too) I have to make sure that they are saved and are not prancing around calling themselves Christians when their lives do not set them apart as such. So as I continue to walk and balance myself on this narrow road, I want to help everyone I truly love to help them down this road as much as humanly possible.
For the greatest way for me to show my love to someone, is to speak out when they are wrong, or when they are putting themselves in danger. Because if I did not love, I would not say anything, but because I do, I say something.
It is a 6 part series, but I could only find four. Just let God speak to you through this message and if you watch it all and feel convicted, please, go to God as I have done and pray for a true salvation of repentance; realizing how wretched we are before Him and how only through His blood and by doing His will are we saved. Than, make strides to get rid of things of the world that are weighing you down, and grow and continue to serve for Him.
Please watch all of these, (or as many as you can at a time, for they are somewhat long. Or try spreading them out, that works too.) it could mean your soul.
This is my mission, because I have felt that in my life I was one of those people that if I would have died would have heard the words "Depart from me," and it is still the most terrifying words I can ever imagine in existence. I am so concerned (scared even) about my fellow peers in my youth group because I see these statistics, I see their lives and sometimes some of these kids look no different than the world. And as a friend and fellow teen I want to make sure that as many as are willing to listen to me I want to show the greatest love I can by being harsh sometimes, being "old," being strict in some areas; because I have learned the hard way in my life why I need to be different. I want to encourage every friend (family too) I have to make sure that they are saved and are not prancing around calling themselves Christians when their lives do not set them apart as such. So as I continue to walk and balance myself on this narrow road, I want to help everyone I truly love to help them down this road as much as humanly possible.
For the greatest way for me to show my love to someone, is to speak out when they are wrong, or when they are putting themselves in danger. Because if I did not love, I would not say anything, but because I do, I say something.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Character matters/How being a Christian teen is harder than anything else...
Well, I was thinking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit earlier and was looking at some of my old friends through different internet social sites and was taking a look at their character. And since they have called themselves Christians in the past, I was interested to see where they are a; let me just say it is anything BUT about Christ, in fact they do not even believe in him. Than there are other friends I have had that also say they are Christians and for all purposes do say the right things, but do not necessarily lead a life that show it. Than I have had friends who say they are Christians, who truly within my heart I know are saved; but all of this can be determined by one thing. Character.
Character is the way you act when your parents are not around, your pastor or some other authority figure is not around, but it is how you act when you are with friends and by yourself. It is how you treat people when no one is looking, it is how you value your relationship with Christ, how seriously you take it and how much it influences you; how you act, think, move, breathe, live and ultimately are. I have found the best way to indicate this is by being alone with that person, or looking them up online, believe it or not you can determine a lot about somebody you know by visiting their blogs/Myspace pages. Good character ultimately comes from God, through the Holy Spirit, yes people that do not believe in God may have "good character," but God tells us in his Word that, "No man is Righteous, no not one," and that our good deeds are like "filthy rags." Real character though comes from one's spiritual maturity, it is those fruit from the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
If we truly love others, we will not put ourselves first our always take a narcissistic or egotistical attitude and think it is always about us, because it's not, it is about Christ. Joy, that even when we are in trouble, we can always rejoice in our salvation; peace, that even if we are faced with death, we can always know where we are going. Patience, to be able to wait on God and not rush him to do something or carelessly act on our own; kindness, which is the attitude of caring for the lost and hungry. Goodness, that we would always try to do what is good, even when everyone else says it is not good; Faithfulness, that we always put our trust in God and never walk away from the Truth because of false doctrine and false Christianity. Gentleness to always be slow to anger and not be quick to become offended when Christ tries to teach us and convict us through many lessons; and self-control, the big one that I know many people (including myself) lack, to be able to resist temptation and resist things that would turn our eyes away from Christ. If you allow the Holy Spirit to move in your life and plant the seeds for these fruit, you will become wiser than any rocket scientist, for as Solomon said, "the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord." So learn to fear Him, that even when you are by yourself, thinking to yourself or doing stuff by yourself, you are never alone. He is always watching over us, and sees both the good and bad. I have had to learn these lessons the hard way, unfortunately I had made it difficult for both my parents and God to teach me anything because I was so resistant and was so into my own thing that I did not learn; so my lessons were learned through punishment and personal pain and loss.
So if you are out there, maybe you want to know more about Christ, but feel that you have to be some theologian able to quote the entire Bible forward and back in order to serve him. Well maybe you are called, maybe not; what Christ DOES want is a heart that WANTS to serve Him, he wants us to grow as Christians. Not to sit their and enjoy our life and say to ourselves, "yeah I have time to do that, so I will do that later. For now I will watch TV, go to see the latest movie, listen to my new CD, play my new game; my Bible is always there, it can wait." This is the wrong heart to have, unfortunately for a few years in my life that was my heart to a t, over the past year I have REALLY started to take my life and relationship with Christ seriously, I started to listen to different sermons on my own, read different sound books on my own, and started to read my Bible for myself and increased my prayer life. Let me tell you all, it really has helped me as a person, It says in the Scriptures to "seek and ye shall find," and "draw near to God and he shall draw near to you."
"Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say 'I have no pleasure in them.'" Ecclesiastes 12:1
This is so important for myself, my family and friends of mine to remember; we need to learn to serve Christ NOW! Not later, not next month, not when it is more convenient for us but now. Because, as Christians, if we are not striving to grow, but continue to be stuck in our complacency that enveloped me for so long. The Bible says in Revelation that we are like the church of Laodicea, that was neither hot nor cold, and Jesus said that he will; according to Scripture vomit us up because we are disgusting to him. Because we would take no sides, but stayed in the middle in the "comfy corner," and Jesus said that if you are not for Him you are against Him. It is one or the other, you cannot stay in the middle forever, eventually you will take sides. Unfortunately, most Christian teens are deciding they would rather be cold; only 4% of the teens out their who call themselves Christians are truly saved, in Britain it is 2%; if that does not scare you for your Christian friends and not make you think "whoa, wait a minute, what is going on? Where am I at?" Than you really should, it is BECAUSE of that statistic that I made a pro-active change in my life, and I hope it will do the same for anyone browsing around jumping blog to blog just reading stuff, please if you are not saved, or think you are but are not living as you should be. Please, repent of your sins and turn around your life and start serving Christ, He did so much for us on that cross, the only logical thing is to devote your life to the one who saved you through His blood; and if you think your saved, but may not live like you should, please pray to God honestly and intently and seek for the Holy Spirit to come and change your heart, because even if you may be honestly trying to serve Christ, If your lifestyle is spiritually risky, you may be on the path of danger. Just pray to Jesus and ask Him where your heart is and if you need to change or get rid of some stuff in your life; also be in Gods Word, when we pray that is our way of communicating with God, when we read the Bible, that is His way of responding to us, so please just seek Him on this.
Everytime I go to a Christian concert, go to different youth groups, or do different things where I am interacting with different Christian teens. I always wonder that if Jesus came back at that moment, how many of my fellow peers would be gone? I would hope it would be everyone, but as of lately I have been doing a lot of research on stuff and have found so many Christian teens in this country embracing so many bad teachings and so many false Christianities that I have become so concerned and so saddened for them. Originally, this blog was a way for me to share my own personal stuff, and it still is, but lately God has been really moving me to start sharing my own personal testimony and some of the things He has shown me as a kind of "micro-ministry," and so that is what I am doing right now. I hope to be a good influence to my friends and family, because I love them all so much I want to see them grow and mature, and If I can help with that I will; It is also a good way for me to look back and remember where God has taken me, so It serves a journal like purpose as well.
So my friends/family, please do not take offense to anything I write, I am only trying to serve Christ and share bits and pieces of my story. I do not want anybody to feel intimidated or think that I am somehow better than everyone else, I am not, I just want to show that if you seek Christ, you can find wisdom. I struggled with pornography for 4 1/2 years before Christ delivered me from it, [so do not think I am some holy rolling teen that has not struggled, I have had my walk to get to the place where I am now in Christ, it has been shed with much spiritual pain, agony and blood.] and it is a fight everyday to keep myself from allowing this sin to overtake me and pervert me once more. It is difficult though when everywhere you turn it is nothing but sex and skin, praise be to Christ that he has the strength to carry me when I have none and he CAN deliver anyone from anything if they repent and cry out to him. So people, please, do not be a statistic, turn to Christ and serve him, it is time we start acting different from the world and start serving Him. Jesus is coming again VERY soon, and there will be a whole lot of false christians left behind when he comes, so let us work to not be one of those but to work for eternity; the time is very short and we need to realize that... If we really care about the lost and the falsely converted like we say we do, than let us try and reach out to them with the time we have, for the cruelest thing we can do as human beings is to know the way to Heaven, and not share it with someone who is looking for it.
It boils down to this: Repent of your sins, serve Christ, live for Him, and share Him with everyone you can (of course as Christ brings the opportunity,) even professing Christians. You do this, you are living for Him and you will earn your rewards in Heaven; trust me, I have a feeling those rewards are SOOOO much better than any dumb video game I can play. ^_^
Character is the way you act when your parents are not around, your pastor or some other authority figure is not around, but it is how you act when you are with friends and by yourself. It is how you treat people when no one is looking, it is how you value your relationship with Christ, how seriously you take it and how much it influences you; how you act, think, move, breathe, live and ultimately are. I have found the best way to indicate this is by being alone with that person, or looking them up online, believe it or not you can determine a lot about somebody you know by visiting their blogs/Myspace pages. Good character ultimately comes from God, through the Holy Spirit, yes people that do not believe in God may have "good character," but God tells us in his Word that, "No man is Righteous, no not one," and that our good deeds are like "filthy rags." Real character though comes from one's spiritual maturity, it is those fruit from the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.
If we truly love others, we will not put ourselves first our always take a narcissistic or egotistical attitude and think it is always about us, because it's not, it is about Christ. Joy, that even when we are in trouble, we can always rejoice in our salvation; peace, that even if we are faced with death, we can always know where we are going. Patience, to be able to wait on God and not rush him to do something or carelessly act on our own; kindness, which is the attitude of caring for the lost and hungry. Goodness, that we would always try to do what is good, even when everyone else says it is not good; Faithfulness, that we always put our trust in God and never walk away from the Truth because of false doctrine and false Christianity. Gentleness to always be slow to anger and not be quick to become offended when Christ tries to teach us and convict us through many lessons; and self-control, the big one that I know many people (including myself) lack, to be able to resist temptation and resist things that would turn our eyes away from Christ. If you allow the Holy Spirit to move in your life and plant the seeds for these fruit, you will become wiser than any rocket scientist, for as Solomon said, "the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord." So learn to fear Him, that even when you are by yourself, thinking to yourself or doing stuff by yourself, you are never alone. He is always watching over us, and sees both the good and bad. I have had to learn these lessons the hard way, unfortunately I had made it difficult for both my parents and God to teach me anything because I was so resistant and was so into my own thing that I did not learn; so my lessons were learned through punishment and personal pain and loss.
So if you are out there, maybe you want to know more about Christ, but feel that you have to be some theologian able to quote the entire Bible forward and back in order to serve him. Well maybe you are called, maybe not; what Christ DOES want is a heart that WANTS to serve Him, he wants us to grow as Christians. Not to sit their and enjoy our life and say to ourselves, "yeah I have time to do that, so I will do that later. For now I will watch TV, go to see the latest movie, listen to my new CD, play my new game; my Bible is always there, it can wait." This is the wrong heart to have, unfortunately for a few years in my life that was my heart to a t, over the past year I have REALLY started to take my life and relationship with Christ seriously, I started to listen to different sermons on my own, read different sound books on my own, and started to read my Bible for myself and increased my prayer life. Let me tell you all, it really has helped me as a person, It says in the Scriptures to "seek and ye shall find," and "draw near to God and he shall draw near to you."
"Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say 'I have no pleasure in them.'" Ecclesiastes 12:1
This is so important for myself, my family and friends of mine to remember; we need to learn to serve Christ NOW! Not later, not next month, not when it is more convenient for us but now. Because, as Christians, if we are not striving to grow, but continue to be stuck in our complacency that enveloped me for so long. The Bible says in Revelation that we are like the church of Laodicea, that was neither hot nor cold, and Jesus said that he will; according to Scripture vomit us up because we are disgusting to him. Because we would take no sides, but stayed in the middle in the "comfy corner," and Jesus said that if you are not for Him you are against Him. It is one or the other, you cannot stay in the middle forever, eventually you will take sides. Unfortunately, most Christian teens are deciding they would rather be cold; only 4% of the teens out their who call themselves Christians are truly saved, in Britain it is 2%; if that does not scare you for your Christian friends and not make you think "whoa, wait a minute, what is going on? Where am I at?" Than you really should, it is BECAUSE of that statistic that I made a pro-active change in my life, and I hope it will do the same for anyone browsing around jumping blog to blog just reading stuff, please if you are not saved, or think you are but are not living as you should be. Please, repent of your sins and turn around your life and start serving Christ, He did so much for us on that cross, the only logical thing is to devote your life to the one who saved you through His blood; and if you think your saved, but may not live like you should, please pray to God honestly and intently and seek for the Holy Spirit to come and change your heart, because even if you may be honestly trying to serve Christ, If your lifestyle is spiritually risky, you may be on the path of danger. Just pray to Jesus and ask Him where your heart is and if you need to change or get rid of some stuff in your life; also be in Gods Word, when we pray that is our way of communicating with God, when we read the Bible, that is His way of responding to us, so please just seek Him on this.
Everytime I go to a Christian concert, go to different youth groups, or do different things where I am interacting with different Christian teens. I always wonder that if Jesus came back at that moment, how many of my fellow peers would be gone? I would hope it would be everyone, but as of lately I have been doing a lot of research on stuff and have found so many Christian teens in this country embracing so many bad teachings and so many false Christianities that I have become so concerned and so saddened for them. Originally, this blog was a way for me to share my own personal stuff, and it still is, but lately God has been really moving me to start sharing my own personal testimony and some of the things He has shown me as a kind of "micro-ministry," and so that is what I am doing right now. I hope to be a good influence to my friends and family, because I love them all so much I want to see them grow and mature, and If I can help with that I will; It is also a good way for me to look back and remember where God has taken me, so It serves a journal like purpose as well.
So my friends/family, please do not take offense to anything I write, I am only trying to serve Christ and share bits and pieces of my story. I do not want anybody to feel intimidated or think that I am somehow better than everyone else, I am not, I just want to show that if you seek Christ, you can find wisdom. I struggled with pornography for 4 1/2 years before Christ delivered me from it, [so do not think I am some holy rolling teen that has not struggled, I have had my walk to get to the place where I am now in Christ, it has been shed with much spiritual pain, agony and blood.] and it is a fight everyday to keep myself from allowing this sin to overtake me and pervert me once more. It is difficult though when everywhere you turn it is nothing but sex and skin, praise be to Christ that he has the strength to carry me when I have none and he CAN deliver anyone from anything if they repent and cry out to him. So people, please, do not be a statistic, turn to Christ and serve him, it is time we start acting different from the world and start serving Him. Jesus is coming again VERY soon, and there will be a whole lot of false christians left behind when he comes, so let us work to not be one of those but to work for eternity; the time is very short and we need to realize that... If we really care about the lost and the falsely converted like we say we do, than let us try and reach out to them with the time we have, for the cruelest thing we can do as human beings is to know the way to Heaven, and not share it with someone who is looking for it.
It boils down to this: Repent of your sins, serve Christ, live for Him, and share Him with everyone you can (of course as Christ brings the opportunity,) even professing Christians. You do this, you are living for Him and you will earn your rewards in Heaven; trust me, I have a feeling those rewards are SOOOO much better than any dumb video game I can play. ^_^
Sunday, June 8, 2008
"Christian" music you say? (WARNING: SEMI-LONG READ)
Well this may be a bit of sad news to any fans of this band (such as myself,) in a recent interview with Billboard magazine, the "Christian" artist Anberlin recently denied Jesus and the whole premise of [their] "Christian" music. In the words of Freddie Mercury "bum bum bum bum, another one bites the dust."
There is a growing hazard in the Christian youth area; one to which I have started to look at seriously and not turn a blind eye to, the issue has to do with "Christian" music. As of lately God has been really convicting me and has been putting numerous things in my path to try and get my attention, so finally I stopped ignoring it and prayed to God on what he was wanting to show me. So, after much thought and prayer I finally got the memo (the transition from God to me was the hardest part,) and that is the increasing threat that is posed from musicians, claiming to be serving Christ, who are really in it for their own gain; or people, for more nefarious purposes, who are in it to lead Christian teens away from Jesus. Now, this is not going to be one of those "Rock N Roll is from the devil" type things, but to sit back and ignore the obvious danger in the medium that calls itself Christian music, would be dangerous and wrong to do. I love music, I love it A LOT! So for me to sit here and type this and evaluate my own choices is hard to do, but it is better to live without certain artists than to possibly be led astray. This has been spurred by the many stories I keep hearing from within the Christian music industry, which the name "industry" alone tells you what is happening, Christian music should be a ministry to use our talents to serve God, not to make money and have fame. Anyways, moving on, there is an increasing number of "Christian" artists sitting here going on tours, making CD's, and doing all the Christian things one thinks they must do; but then in a few years they sit here and DENY JESUS!!! Which, Jesus said, "If you deny me before men, I will before my Father in Heaven." That leaves us as teens who actually seek Jesus to wonder, if these people are denying Jesus, but are making "Christian" music, isn't something wrong here? You cannot serve two masters, you cannot deny Jesus and sit here and serve him, you cannot, that is an oxymoron, remember what we have been learning in church my friends. ;)
The problem is even bigger than just one artist though, it is a whole generation of musicians, and it is time for us Christian teens to stand up and learn to pray for a gift of the Spirit called discernment. Because, Satan owns the mainstream music industry, that is so plainly obvious; so if he is a roaring lion, seeking to devour us as the Bible says. And if he REALLY has his eyes on us (as he does,) he will use the most influential medium he can to lead people astray, and his winning ticket is music. There are SOOO many "Christian" artists out there, we have become like the world, when the music becomes more important than the message there is a problem. When I see fellow peers of mine in the past, who will sit here and diss older artists because they view them as old and outdated; yes they may not be your cup of tea, and no one is saying you HAVE to listen to that only. You know what though, there is a real problem if you CAN'T listen to any of it though, if worship really is just that; if you cannot separate music from worship than maybe we need to re-evaluate our hearts. It is said that Satan and his minions come as ministers of light, can we not expect the same for musicians? Since Satan has ruled the arts for so long, he knows how to work them, but they do not belong to him; God owns the arts and he owns music. I just have a real issue when I read a secular review on a "Christian" artist, that reads, "the great thing about this band is that they are not preachy or anything, they do not where their faith on their sleeves. You have to really dig into their music to find Jesus." That is terrifying! That means that it is not affecting the world, and when they see it and see no difference, why should we be so careless?
Now I do realize something else that others that make similar accusations may not take into consideration, and that is that it is not sinful to try and use a talent for God. If you like Rock N, Roll, Hip-Hop, Country, etc... And want to honestly want to share Christ with your talents, than He will bless you; but when the music or the artist becomes more important than the message of Christ, there is a problem. Sometimes, even though an artist may be serving Christ, it is the fans that will distort this line; they would place the artist over Jesus, which is called idolatry, it can happen to anyone with anything, even placing Christianity over Christ himself! So it is a two-fold issue with many Satanic variables, and I am not saying that Christian music is evil or that rock n roll is evil, I am simply talking about the motives of the artists today. Anybody who knows me, knows I am not saying this to condemn anyone or am trying to make myself better, because I am probably the one struggling with this the most right now BECAUSE I love music so much. So if even I can realize this, I know that those teens who I know who are much smarter than I will be able to do better; and as I said, I am warning people out of love and care for my friends and family, and fellow believers who may read this. In some sense, I am also writing this to me! So please, do not take this personally and do not think I am saying Christian music is evil; all I am saying is before you pick up the next hot "Christian" artist's CD, do some research and see If they believe the right things. If not, you may put yourself at risk, Satan is too crafty and is so focused on us, we CANNOT make a mistake and ruin our lives falling into his snares. Trust me, this also applies to Christians who may listen to questionable secular music. That issue however; is for a different time and place, the result is the same though, discernment.
So, if you are done reading this, you are feeling one of three ways offended, convicted or nothing at all. If you are offended, ask yourself why? Pray to God and see if it may be something in your own life that you do not want to see, or maybe I completely fumbled my point, in which case constructive criticism is helpful. If you are convicted in even the least of ways, be happy! You would not feel convicted if you did not care about the things of Christ, so it is a good sign, but let that conviction prompt you too action, even if it may be just one artist at a time, at least you are attempting to change. If you are the latter this can be either good or bad. It may be good, because maybe you already know this and are better off than I in making the necessary cuts in your life. Or in the case of the bad, you do not care whether or not there is any danger and that is the worst attitude one can have, one to which maybe you need to recheck your walk with Christ and see if you need a spiritual heart transplant.
So, I hope I said this right, and I hope you guys have learned from it. I will be having to make A LOT of changes in my life, I have been lax on some secular and not-so-Christian music I have been listening to. So I will be the first in trying to make these changes, it will be hard, but If I cannot give up my "Christian" music to God, is it worth listening too in the first place?
Anyways, I will be waiting for those lovely responses to come in... >_>
There is a growing hazard in the Christian youth area; one to which I have started to look at seriously and not turn a blind eye to, the issue has to do with "Christian" music. As of lately God has been really convicting me and has been putting numerous things in my path to try and get my attention, so finally I stopped ignoring it and prayed to God on what he was wanting to show me. So, after much thought and prayer I finally got the memo (the transition from God to me was the hardest part,) and that is the increasing threat that is posed from musicians, claiming to be serving Christ, who are really in it for their own gain; or people, for more nefarious purposes, who are in it to lead Christian teens away from Jesus. Now, this is not going to be one of those "Rock N Roll is from the devil" type things, but to sit back and ignore the obvious danger in the medium that calls itself Christian music, would be dangerous and wrong to do. I love music, I love it A LOT! So for me to sit here and type this and evaluate my own choices is hard to do, but it is better to live without certain artists than to possibly be led astray. This has been spurred by the many stories I keep hearing from within the Christian music industry, which the name "industry" alone tells you what is happening, Christian music should be a ministry to use our talents to serve God, not to make money and have fame. Anyways, moving on, there is an increasing number of "Christian" artists sitting here going on tours, making CD's, and doing all the Christian things one thinks they must do; but then in a few years they sit here and DENY JESUS!!! Which, Jesus said, "If you deny me before men, I will before my Father in Heaven." That leaves us as teens who actually seek Jesus to wonder, if these people are denying Jesus, but are making "Christian" music, isn't something wrong here? You cannot serve two masters, you cannot deny Jesus and sit here and serve him, you cannot, that is an oxymoron, remember what we have been learning in church my friends. ;)
The problem is even bigger than just one artist though, it is a whole generation of musicians, and it is time for us Christian teens to stand up and learn to pray for a gift of the Spirit called discernment. Because, Satan owns the mainstream music industry, that is so plainly obvious; so if he is a roaring lion, seeking to devour us as the Bible says. And if he REALLY has his eyes on us (as he does,) he will use the most influential medium he can to lead people astray, and his winning ticket is music. There are SOOO many "Christian" artists out there, we have become like the world, when the music becomes more important than the message there is a problem. When I see fellow peers of mine in the past, who will sit here and diss older artists because they view them as old and outdated; yes they may not be your cup of tea, and no one is saying you HAVE to listen to that only. You know what though, there is a real problem if you CAN'T listen to any of it though, if worship really is just that; if you cannot separate music from worship than maybe we need to re-evaluate our hearts. It is said that Satan and his minions come as ministers of light, can we not expect the same for musicians? Since Satan has ruled the arts for so long, he knows how to work them, but they do not belong to him; God owns the arts and he owns music. I just have a real issue when I read a secular review on a "Christian" artist, that reads, "the great thing about this band is that they are not preachy or anything, they do not where their faith on their sleeves. You have to really dig into their music to find Jesus." That is terrifying! That means that it is not affecting the world, and when they see it and see no difference, why should we be so careless?
Now I do realize something else that others that make similar accusations may not take into consideration, and that is that it is not sinful to try and use a talent for God. If you like Rock N, Roll, Hip-Hop, Country, etc... And want to honestly want to share Christ with your talents, than He will bless you; but when the music or the artist becomes more important than the message of Christ, there is a problem. Sometimes, even though an artist may be serving Christ, it is the fans that will distort this line; they would place the artist over Jesus, which is called idolatry, it can happen to anyone with anything, even placing Christianity over Christ himself! So it is a two-fold issue with many Satanic variables, and I am not saying that Christian music is evil or that rock n roll is evil, I am simply talking about the motives of the artists today. Anybody who knows me, knows I am not saying this to condemn anyone or am trying to make myself better, because I am probably the one struggling with this the most right now BECAUSE I love music so much. So if even I can realize this, I know that those teens who I know who are much smarter than I will be able to do better; and as I said, I am warning people out of love and care for my friends and family, and fellow believers who may read this. In some sense, I am also writing this to me! So please, do not take this personally and do not think I am saying Christian music is evil; all I am saying is before you pick up the next hot "Christian" artist's CD, do some research and see If they believe the right things. If not, you may put yourself at risk, Satan is too crafty and is so focused on us, we CANNOT make a mistake and ruin our lives falling into his snares. Trust me, this also applies to Christians who may listen to questionable secular music. That issue however; is for a different time and place, the result is the same though, discernment.
So, if you are done reading this, you are feeling one of three ways offended, convicted or nothing at all. If you are offended, ask yourself why? Pray to God and see if it may be something in your own life that you do not want to see, or maybe I completely fumbled my point, in which case constructive criticism is helpful. If you are convicted in even the least of ways, be happy! You would not feel convicted if you did not care about the things of Christ, so it is a good sign, but let that conviction prompt you too action, even if it may be just one artist at a time, at least you are attempting to change. If you are the latter this can be either good or bad. It may be good, because maybe you already know this and are better off than I in making the necessary cuts in your life. Or in the case of the bad, you do not care whether or not there is any danger and that is the worst attitude one can have, one to which maybe you need to recheck your walk with Christ and see if you need a spiritual heart transplant.
So, I hope I said this right, and I hope you guys have learned from it. I will be having to make A LOT of changes in my life, I have been lax on some secular and not-so-Christian music I have been listening to. So I will be the first in trying to make these changes, it will be hard, but If I cannot give up my "Christian" music to God, is it worth listening too in the first place?
Anyways, I will be waiting for those lovely responses to come in... >_>
Friday, June 6, 2008
An old face has returned...
Yep everyone I have returned from the inner depths of illness and ailments (basically I have been feeling cruddy,) so If you thought I was abducted by an extraterrestrial race of zombie kittens that say "tEh NoObZ" and "Your Base Belong To Us." Than you would be sadly mistaken.
Nope, I have been feeling pretty crumby the past week or so, I have been feeling run down and tired. Praise God though I am feeling better and have a little bit more energy, so I can now post something. Since it has been a long time since I updated it. Yes, to an avid blogger such as myself, In blogger time it HAS been a long time; so I plan on fixing by posting this. Really though, the main reason for posting was to announce some possible changes to the blog layout, depending on how much Google will let me edit the blogs CSS, will depend upon how much I customize. So for now, if you come in and see it in shambles, know that your PC is not screwing up, I am just doing some testing. When this will be done or when I actually get started on it is unkown right now, but it is in the works.
So stay tuned... ;)
Also, I would like to congratulate Barack Obama on his parties nomination, I do not agree with him AT ALL on his politics and do not believe that he is necessarily the best choice to lead this country. Regardless of that, I am proud we live in a day in this country where an African American can run for office and not be looked down upon because of the color of ones skin; so for that I am happy and recognize his historic achievement. Policy wise though, I disagree with him; I will still pray that God's will will be done regardless of who is elected next president. For God is always in control, even during the bad times with those who do not recognize him or who reject him.
It is just like in the prayer Jesus taught us all to pray.
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven"
Nope, I have been feeling pretty crumby the past week or so, I have been feeling run down and tired. Praise God though I am feeling better and have a little bit more energy, so I can now post something. Since it has been a long time since I updated it. Yes, to an avid blogger such as myself, In blogger time it HAS been a long time; so I plan on fixing by posting this. Really though, the main reason for posting was to announce some possible changes to the blog layout, depending on how much Google will let me edit the blogs CSS, will depend upon how much I customize. So for now, if you come in and see it in shambles, know that your PC is not screwing up, I am just doing some testing. When this will be done or when I actually get started on it is unkown right now, but it is in the works.
So stay tuned... ;)
Also, I would like to congratulate Barack Obama on his parties nomination, I do not agree with him AT ALL on his politics and do not believe that he is necessarily the best choice to lead this country. Regardless of that, I am proud we live in a day in this country where an African American can run for office and not be looked down upon because of the color of ones skin; so for that I am happy and recognize his historic achievement. Policy wise though, I disagree with him; I will still pray that God's will will be done regardless of who is elected next president. For God is always in control, even during the bad times with those who do not recognize him or who reject him.
It is just like in the prayer Jesus taught us all to pray.
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven"
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