it's been a while

Wow, it's been a while. I'm getting off the facebook issue simply b/c it has been the home of some hilarious arguments (btw Mindy I agree Facebook and Myspace are similar, the differences are 1) in my opinion facebook is just better ((and I mean that from a convienience standpoint, not a Godly standpoint)) and 2) much safer)

Lots of stuff going on, here's a new random question for you...

Who's the better artists, Kenny Chesney or Billy Currington?

facebook 2

So yeah I was definitely going to post about this on thursday, but then something crazy happened and I couldn't. Or maybe I just decided to take a nap instead. I forget.

Actually there's really nothing left for me to say. Joe pretty much said what I thought in the last comment on the last thread.

Facebook is very much like any other entertainment product in the world. It's a tool. It can be good or bad, sweet or pointless. People can be mature or immature. They can catch up, or, as Jenn pointed out, they can kiss each other via cyberspace.

facebook

just to start things...

WAR EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh baby, now that that's out of the way. So we've had several conversations about Facebook as a family the past couple of days. I have several questions.

1) Obviously it's not sinful to have a facebook. However, is it wise? In other words, give me good reasons to have a facebook.

2) Give me good reasons to NOT have a facebook (besides it's a waste of time. So are video games, most email correspondence and reading blogs :-)

3) When you're done talking about it (if anyone even reads my blog anymore) I'll post about it by thursday.

Peace

elections

So how is this for a hypothetical situation:

In the 2008 primary elections, Hillary Clinton breezes to a victory while Rudy Guiliani scrapes by Fred Thompson...

In the general election 1) will you vote and 2) if so, who will you vote for?

Let the debate begin :-)

9/11

It's September 11th. God Bless the family and friends of all the people who died on this day 6 years ago.

As they say, freedom isn't free.

"I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. I won't forget the men who died to give that right to me, and I gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today. Cause there ain't no doubt; I love this land. God bless the USA!"

-Lee Greenwood

When I Get Where I'm Going

One of the best songs in the world today, it's also the next song in my series of songs dedicated to my Aunt Evelyn: When I Get Where I'm Going, by Brad Paisley.


When I get where I'm going
on the far side of the sky.
The first thing that I'm gonna do
Is spread my wings and fly.

I'm gonna land beside a lion,
and run my fingers through his mane.
Or I might find out what it's like
To ride a drop of rain

Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
I will shed the sins and struggles,
I have carried all these years.
And I'll leave my heart wide open,
I will love and have no fear.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
Don't cry for me down here.

I'm gonna walk with my grandaddy,
and he'll match me step for step,
and I'll tell him how I missed him,
every minute since he left.
Then I'll hug his neck.

So much pain and so much darkness,
in this world we stumble through.
All these questions, I can't answer,
so much work to do.

But when I get where I'm going,
and I see my Maker's face.
I'll stand forever in the light,
of His amazing grace.
Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
Hallelujah!
I will love and have no fear.
When I get where I'm going.
Yeah when I get where I'm going

If You Could See Me Now

The second post of songs I'm dedicating to Aunt Evelyn: this one is "If you Could See Me Now" by Kim Noblitt.



Our prayers have all been answered. I finally arrived.
The healing that had been delayed has now been realized.
No one's in a hurry. There's no schedule to keep.
We're all enjoying Jesus, just sitting at His feet.

If you could see me now, I'm walking streets of gold.
If you could see me now, I'm standing strong and whole.
If you could see me now, you'd know I've seen His face.
If you could see me now, you'd know the pain is erased.
You wouldn't want me to ever leave this place,
If you could only see me now.

My light and temporary trials have worked out for my good,
To know it brought Him glory when I misunderstood.
Though we've had our sorrows, they can never compare.
What Jesus has in store for us, no language can share.

You wouldn't want me to ever leave this perfect place
If you could only see me now
If you could see me now
If you could only see me now

God is God

Hey sorry for not posting I'm starting again I promise. Anyways this is an announcement that for the next week I'm posting lyrics to songs, dedicated to my great Aunt Evelyn who passed away two days ago. Please offer up a prayer for my family, especially my Aunt Virgie, her sister.

The first one is "God is God", by Steven Curtis Chapman. (btw, you can go to youtube and listen to any of these songs, which I would suggest doing.)



And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
I just don’t know

And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move
Afraid to fall, oh, but fall I must
On this truth that my life has been formed from the dust

God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God

And the sky begins to thunder
And I’m filled with awe and wonder
‘Til the only burning question that remains
Is who am I

Can I form a single mountain
Take the stars in hand and count them
Can I even take a breath without God giving it to me
He is first and last before all that has been
Beyond all that will pass



Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through Him and from Him are all things

So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone

are you ready for some football?

So with training camps starting, preseason coming, the regular season around the bend, hope springing everywhere and, of course, Michael Vick in court, I have the following questions for my faithful readers (at least those who care about football)

Who's going to win the Super Bowl this year?
Who's your favorite team?
Where will your favorite team finish?
Will Randy Moss have a good year?

5 reasons I love Christ

So both Jesse Phillips (prophetically speaking) and Joe Martino (searching the sunsets) have "tagged" me, whatever that means. Basically I have to write 5 reasons I love Christ. Hmm. I haven't read other people's "Tagged" posts in a while, so if I'm totally copying people with my answer or the passages I cite, I'm sorry. It was not intentional.

1) My first answer will be obvious. I love Christ because He has acquitted me of my sins. I will not be held accountable for the hell-deserving things I've done.
"Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!" Romans 5:9.

2) I love Christ because through him I am no longer in bondage to my sin nature. I have achieved freedom from sin through Christ. I have now died to the law that I may live through Christ.
"19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:19-20

3) As dc talk says, "I am still a man in need of a Savior." I love Christ because although Christ has conquered the power of sin in my life, I am still a wretched sinner, and although sin is still waging it's war in my soul, He continues to be my Savior. He continues to forgive me my sins.
"but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 7:23-8:1

4) I love Christ because through his atoning death on the cross, I now know that I will spend eternity in His presence, with his church, bringing him glory forever and ever. I don't simply have victory over sin in this life, but through Christ I have victory over sin's just punishment, hell. God's presence will bring me eternal joy, not eternal terror.
"I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." Revalation 21:22-23

5) Lastly, I love Christ because of all the blessings He has bestowed on me. My family, my friends, basketball, biscuits and gravy, Church, Red Bug, 24, 1$ double cheeseburgers, CSI Miami, Sovereign Grace, John Piper, spaghetti, New Orleans, Buttermilks, 1$ mcChickens, more basketball, CJ Mahaney, great music, David Caruso, Metro Life, Brad Paisley, all my neices and nephews, 1$ chicken nuggets. Truly I have been richly blessed.
"He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8:32.

Favorite Verses

So I'm at work (yes I actually work) and don't have enough time to do the long-expected "5 reasons I love Christ." Therefore, I'm going to ask two questions (And you have to answer both.)

1)What is your favorite verse(s) of the Bible?

The only reason I put the (s) there is so that you can put multiple verses FROM THE SAME PASSAGE! You cannot say "Philippians 4:8" and "Romans 8:1" you can say "Philippians 2:1-11."

2) If you got stranded on an island and found a box marked "ONE OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE" which book would you really, really want it to be?

Muuhahahahaha this should be fun.

bad gifts

There somes to be a comical trend among cessationists (ok fine the pyromaniacs.) The trend is that when talking about the gifts, everyone who used to be charismatic should tell their horror stories about what they came from (abuse of the gifts, the fact that they themselves were "faking" it etc.) to show why the charismata has passed. Nothing cracks me up more.

Think about it. People are faking spiritual gifts for whatever reason (to appear more "spiritual", fear of man, etc.) and then they somehow are the self-righteous ones. How dare people let me fake tongues! How dare they let me lie about recieving prophetic gifts! If anyone is going to be self-righteous (and yes I know no one should be self-righteous) shouldn't it be the ones who are actually sincere in their use of the gifts?

I don't understand how telling stories about how you were in a charismatic church, you faked gifts, you realized and were convicted about your dishonesty, and then decided that because you were faking everyone ELSE must be faking, is at all a convincing argument as to why everyone else is faking.

Somebody enlighten me.

New Orleans

So I just got back from a week long missions trip to New Orleans. It was amazing!!! I may or may not post on some other themes that were going on in New Orleans, but there was one constant thing I felt the Lord was reminding me throughtout the week, and that was the theme of the faithfulness of God.

There were parts of New Orleans that was actually depressing to go through. Depressing as in emotionally draining. We, as a group, went through the lower ninth ward and, honestly, maybe one in 10 houses actually had residents. Two years later, there are still areas and houses in New Orleans that haven't been touched. Weeds reach fifteen feet in the air and choke up entire yards. Doors still have notes left by the Navy indicating how many dead bodies were inside and needed to be collected. Mounds and mounds of junk still lies outside of houses.

But at the same time, there are still people who are inspiring in their trust in God and in the example they are to others in New Orleans. The church we visited, Lakeview Christian Center, is full of such people. They helped us see, even as we were serving them by doing yards and door to door evangelism, that God is sovereign over everything, including hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina didn't take God by surprise. One of the things that has happened since the storm is that people living in New Orleans have become much more receptive to help, and, more importantly, the gospel. Although New Orleans is full of voodoo and Catholicism, people are willing to listen, willing to engage in conversation. One elderly man was actually saved when we went door to door.

There are simply too many stories, too many ways that God showed himself to be faithful. I was constantly reminded of this passage in Isaiah 25.

1O LORD, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
2For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners' palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
3Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
4FOR YOU HAVE BEEN A STRONGHOLD TO THE POOR,
A STRONGHOLD TO THE NEEDY IN HIS DISTRESS
A SHELTER FROM THE STORM AND A SHADE AGAINST THE HEAT

As my grandmother said, God is in control and everything He does is good.

sorry

Sorry for not posting I've been on a missions trip to New Orleans I will definitely post when I get back (Sunday.) In the meantime (and the nicetime), please be praying.

Spheres

I was at a church gathering last sunday night where we watched some of Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project" (which is really good by the way.) One of the things the person teaching did, was he had a graph which had several different colored spheres. One said "God", another said "Family" another said "Church" another said "Labor" etc. etc. His point was that we need to be careful not to confuse spheres...in other words, just b/c God says "Wives, submit to your husbands" in Ephesians (a command relevant to the sphere of family) or, in 1 Timothy, "I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man", a command relevant to the sphere of Church, does not mean that man cannot work somewhere just because he has a woman supervising him, or whatever. (Which doesn't involve the sphere of family or church, but of labor.)

He then made a passing reference that in his study of Scripture, he hasn't seen any passage that would indicate that it is unbiblical for a woman to be in authority over a man in the area of labor or, incidentally, in politics. Obviously this is relevant to us now, since the thought of Hillary Clinton being president may soon become a reality.

Now, one could argue (which I'm not going to right now) that it would be unbiblical to vote for Hillary b/c of her stance on abortion or some other issue. However, my question is; is it unbiblical to vote for Hillary b/c she is a woman? This isn't a chauvinistic questions, I simply want to know if you all think it's biblical for a woman to be in authority of an entire nation.

Testing the waters?

I know some of you don't like it when I post about political matters, but oh well...

As I've said previously on my blog, Fred Thompson is my boy when it comes to the 2008 presidential election. He's the man. However, I don't know how I feel about the way he is raising money for the presidential race. Right now, he's officially using a "testing the waters" clause of the FEC, however, it seems clear that he is actually campaigning and will enter the race. He just hasn't made it official yet, because, quite frankly, there's no real reason to. Everyone is polling him and treating him as if he is already in the race. This allows him to not have to post the $$$ that he has raised, and where it came from, during this entire quarter, because he isn't "officially" a candidate. This doesn't seem fair to me, particularly to the other Republican candidates.

Am I being nitpicky?

new project

So I've got a new project for my faithful readers (all 7 of you.) Pick a song that you really like (it can be your favorite song but it doesn't have to be just one that you really like) and explain why you like it. Oh baby...obviously I'll start

thinking.......

thinking.......

thinking.......

ok I'm gonna go with "That's Love" by Brad Paisley. (shoutout to JJ Leach.) The reason I like it (other then the sweet guitar riffs) is because 1) it's super catchy. As much as people say "the words are what count the words are what count!" there's a reason we don't get together on Sundays and just speak the words of worship songs. Melodies, tunes have to be catchy (or used to have to be catchy, apparently people who like Gwen Stefani didn't get the memo.) 2) the words are clever. I'm not gonna copy and paste the song. Go listen it yourself. 3) It's relevant to me personally. I was debating w/ someone about whether it's EVER ok to lie (hence the shoutout.) I was saying that there are times where you can lie. JJ was saying it's never ok to lie. Hence the punchline of the song "That's not a lie, that's love" is especially relevant to me :-).

sinfulness of sin

Hey. This is basically a glorified link. Since I'm terrible at linking, just click on the pyromaniacs link over to the right and then the "25 Things I've learned" (or something like that) list that Dan Phillips wrote. Especially the couple in a row he wrote about the deadliness and pervasiveness of sin (pretty early on in the list.) Very good and very powerful if you read the Scriptures he links to.

When they stay off the topic of the Gifts, the pyro's are generally very good. (sorry of plugging the pyro's, Joe :-)

In times like these...

We lift up our eyes above the trouble
In our land and together we stand
To declare You as King
In times like these we choose to praise You
For it's you, it's YOU WHO REALLY MATTERS!
and you are worthy of our praise

And we will say that you are good
And all the miracles you've done have brought us joy
For we are changed and all the hope we have
We place in YOU right now
Father, we declare that we love you
We declare our everlasting love for you
Father, we declare that we love you
We declare our everlasting love for you

Fred Thompson

So Fred Thompson is probably going to officially announce that he's running for president on July 4th. This is the best news related to the presidential race in a long time. Thompson describes himself as a Federalists, not a Republican. Basically this simply means that he believes we've gotten away from the orginal idea of what the federal government should look like. Now it spends money like banchee, gives money to the poor (church's job) controls tons of aspects of people's lives, is way too big and way too out of control. He's convervative, definitely more so then Guiliani and McCain. Basically he's the man. Two hilarious stories about him.

1) go to http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Fred+Thompson+Michael+Moore and click on the first video. This was Fred Thompson's response to Michael Moore challenging him to a debate about Health care. Thompson wrote an article about how bad Cuba's health care system is in the long run shortly after Michael Moore's documentary about how it was better then the US's health care. This is Thompson's response to Moore's challenge. It's a classic.

2) A female journalists for a Tennessee newspaper said that Thompson looked like Work from Star Trek (go to Google and click on the images link then type in Worf to see what he looks like.) Her comment was something to the effect of "why is he on TV all the time? Why do people think he looks good? He looks like Worf from Star Trek for crying out loud!" So Thompson mailed her a huge picture or Worf and signed it: "in the immortal words of Sawyer Brown: some girls don't like boys like me. Ah, but some girls do."

Anyone who's conservative, funny, a decent politician and especially quotes famous country songs at oppurtune times deserves to be president in my book.

youth group

Hey what's up. I have a question pertinent to the utapas de viva (is that right Mindy?) that I am in right now. This question is for some of the older members of Metro (if you don't go to Metro come back Tuesday :-) unless your just curious about our church) I guess I'm talking mostly to Jaime, Mom, Rachel, Jenn, Medana and whoever else from Metro that might stumble across my humble blog (if you people want to tell your friends to come and answer the question thats cool plus it'll give my site more hits :-)

Question: what are one or two of the biggest things that you would like to see change about our youth/young singles? Be it a concern, a burden, just something you've noticed etc. anything you've noticed about the young people of the Church. Now this isn't just to hear you vent (altho that's cool too) but I was sitting here in DC wondering "hey I wonder what some of the older people think of me/us but never tell me."

So fire away!

the pyros

So there's a question coming for all my faithful readers (my family, Joe, Melinda and Danny :-) but first..........the NBA is a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Spurs fans should be hoping that the suns win game 5 and then the Spurs win games 6 and 7 cause if they go on to win the championship b/c of something David Stern did then their title will be a joke.

Anyways...I'm just curious what those who have been reading the posts and comments on the pyromaniacs about modesty think about it.

?????

Representing a Biblical Worldview

Another question for my faithful readers...what is wrong w/ the follow statements.

A republican governments responsibility (like America) is to, within the realm of practicality, represent the wants and beliefs of the majority (there are obviously certain inherent rights that they protect that wouldn't change even if the majority disagreed. Government wouldn't legalize murder if 51% decided it was cool.) Therefore, as Christians, our PRIORITY should be to, through witnessing and evangelizing, attempt to influence the people, the mob, for Christ. The governments would then HAVE to represent a biblical worldview. If they didn't, we simply would not reelect them. But my history professor, Thomas Reid, would be quick to point out that politicians will never not represent the majority. They can't afford to.


And yes I understand that I used a double negative in the second to last sentence, Doug. You don't have to list that fact as one of the problems with those statements :-).

Spiritual Warfare

Hey what's up people. First let me start by saying that Baron Davis is a baller.

Ok now that we have that out of the way...last night they showed the first DVD of the Truth Project at Metro Life (my church) and it was sweet. I'd already seen it, but it was wonderful to be hear, yet again, about the importance of truth. One of the things that is stressed is the idea of what the Truth Project calls the "cosmic battle" the great fight between Truth and Lies, and everything that that entails.

After the 45 minute presentation, we broke down into small groups, and one of the guys in my small group said something very profound. Joey asked the question, "do we live our lives as if we're actually in a 'cosmic battle.'" At the risk of misrepresenting what he said, the man said something to the degree of, "In America, with all our blessings and comforts, it's hard to imagine ourselves in any sort of spiritual battle, or even a cosmic battle. It's hard to pray 'give us our daily bread' when there's a roast in the oven. In some third world countries, when they say 'give us our daily bread' it's b/c they need something to eat! That might be why it's so much easier to see themselves in a battle."

It reminded me of a part of Randy Alcorn's book Safely Home where Ben asks "why aren't there demons in America?" and Li answers "There are. In America demons have much nicer voices."

My question is a weird one: do you guys think there's more demons/spiritual warfare in Third World countries, or do you think in America we're simply blinded by our comforts/blessings/entertainment?

christian music

So I hate to beat a dead horse, but I just now saw two comments made by Janelle and Melinda in the music section that I wanted to respond to...I couldn't commented on the actual music blog but then they probably never would have read it. So basically a for real post is coming Sunday I just thought I'd make this little response

1) Melinda said something about how I need to be "careful" about supporting people who "water down the gospel" because sometimes "it becomes nothing" or something to that degree. I agree I should be careful, Mindy, but in this case I don't think it applies. Switchfoot/Relient K/Hawk Nelson aren't watering down the Gospel that they're presenting because they, for the most part, aren't presenting the Gospel. That's the whole point. They're presenting Christian IDEAS and Christian THEMES but they aren't "presenting the Gospel" in that way. The only way they could be "watering" down what they're saying is by watering down the themes (creationism, anti-postmodernism, repentence, forgiveness, commitment, courage to just to name a few of the themes I can think of.)

2) Janelle, any band that is on a Christian label and writes themes w/, at the very least, moral overtones is considered a Christian band. Everyone from Chevelle (back in the day) to Project 86 to P.O.D. to Relient K to Hawk Nelson to Kutless to dc talk.

favorite athlete

Hey what's up. So for the past couple of posts we've had some, as Marty McFly would say, "heavy" discussions. Good points have been made, interesting points have been made, drinks have been recommended, all and all it's been sweet. But this post is sort of a "relief" from that, more entertaining then Spiritual.

If you don't like sports, sorry.

The question is; who is your favorite athlete in any sport, and why? You are not allowed to name more then one athlete!! One athlete only. (answers that don't count: he/she is good looking. Any of us could say Anna Kournikova. Also, "just because" is an unforgivable response.)

I'm going to start the festivities. My favorite athlete is Allen Iverson.

Many people love to make fun of me for having Iverson as my favorite athlete (Mr. Ecelbarger and Josh come to mind) and he certainly has his faults, both in his character and in his game. However, the following points, in my mind, overcome his defeciencies (sp?)

1) He's fearless

Probably the thing that is most respected about Iverson is his fearlessness and his pain tolerance. It's my first point b/c it is this part of him that makes him so much fun to watch. Iverson uses his quickness to attack people a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier.

2) He never quits.

Probably the thing that I most respect about Iverson. No basketball player takes harder hits, or as often. No one gets knocked down more. But after every hit, if it's physically possible, Iverson gets right back up. Not only does he get back up, but he continues to attack, continues to open himself up to getting hit again. And then he gets up again. He simply never quits.

3) He has a flair for the game.

Probably the thing that Josh hates about him, but I love players who have a flair for the game (Jason Kidd, Chad Johnson, Stephon Marbury, Gilbert Arenas etc.)

4) He overcame a lot of odds

His past has been well-documented, but the points is 5 of his friends/family members have been murdered, two before his eyes when he was under 16. He spent a controversial time in prison, his sister nearly died b/c their public housing wasn't supposed to be lived in etc. It's amazing that he's gotten to the points he has.

Anyways so there you have it. I'm interested in you people's opinion. By the way it can be any athlete past or present.

Election Part 3

I was going to put together a fairly long response to Joe Martino's poignant question regarding whether or not God ordained the Va Tech killings, so Jake suggested I simply write it as a post. I am Jake's brother Joey, hopefully I won't chase away Jake's massive readership.

So, did God ordain the murder of 32 people, or was it a matter of him simply allowing a sinner the choice to do so, or not, and he chose to kill? I think that scripture is very clear about two things: 1) Nothing occurs that was not ordained by God, and 2) God holds us accountable for our choices.

As for point one, numerous Scriptures indicate that God has ordained every aspect of our lives. Ps 139:16 refers to the days of our lives being written in the book of God before they happen, Job 14:5 says man's "days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass." Acts 17:28 indicates that we live and move only through God. Prov 16:9 says "A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Prov 20:24 says a man's steps are ordered by the Lord. Does this include evil? Certainly Scripture is very clear that God has caused evil things to happen. The most evil event in history, the crucifixion of Christ, was ordained by God (Acts 4:27, Acts 2:23). God repeatedly hardened the heart of Pharoah, and Paul says God "has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills" (Romans 9:18). Prov 16:4 says that God made everything for a purpose "even the wicked for the day of trouble." I could go on. The point is that the bible does not try to explain evil in a way that it is somehow outside of his control. Joseph told his brothers that they intended their actions for evil, but God used them for good. Another case of God ordaining evil. His plan for Israel was set into motion by evil events. Etc, etc.

Obviously this is a hard concept to deal with. At first blush, it makes God seem to be evil himself. After all, he ordains it, right? This is why we have to maintain, at the same time believing scripture that God ordains evil, that God never does evil, and God is never to be blamed for evil. The blame for the crucifixion of Christ was placed squarely on the shoulders of those who crucified him, not God (Luke 22:22, Matt 26:24, Mark 14:21, Acts 2:23 etc). Time and again scripture makes it clear that the responsibility for evil belongs to those directly doing the evil things, not on God bringing them about through secondary causes. Again, God ultimately is working all things for the good of those who are called.

So, does this mean that God ordained for 32 people to be killed by the gun of a heartless murderer? Yes. Somehow he is using this event, which was meant for evil by the man accountable for the killings, for his excellent purposes. Is this an easy position to take? Hardly. But I believe it is the biblical position.

Partial-birth abortion ban

By the way, this isn't to interrupt what's shaping up to be a sweet conversation in the comments of the election post, but two things have happened that I feel like talking about:

1) Virginia Tech shootings

As a nation we discussed 24/7 for two weeks the comments made by Don Imus and the fallout that followed. Talks about whether he should be fired, whether hip hop artists should be allowed to say what they say, is there a double standard, why are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson's opinion matter, who can say what? The Virginia Tech shootings put it all in perspective don't they? We have a problem. White, black, yellow, red, orange, blue or purple, everyone has a problem. It's called sin. And until people are willing, by the grace of God, to address their problem as sin, to "call it what it is", we will continue to fall. We will continue to be selfish, proud, arrogant, uncaring, greedy and petty. We will continue to put ourselves above others. We will continue to make racists, sexists comments, and then blame hip hop music. We will continue to be judgemental and hypocritcal. And we will continue to murder in cold blood 33 college students, 33 daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. God help us.

2) The ban on partial-birth abortion.

In case you missed it, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266724,00.html) What cracks me up is the Democratic presidential candidates response to it.
“I strongly disagree with today’s Supreme Court ruling, which dramatically departs from previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women,” Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said. “As Justice Ginsburg emphasized in her dissenting opinion, this ruling signals an alarming willingness on the part of the conservative majority to disregard its prior rulings respecting a woman’s medical concerns and the very personal decisions between a doctor and patient.” Hillary called it "disturbing" and John Edwards said it is a "stark reminder that Democrats can't afford to lose in 2008." Obama's statement was the most hilarious of them all. He obviously doesn't care at all about the particulars of the ruling and simply wants everyone to think it is about abortion in general. What the court ruled was that this particular method of abortion is not protected by a "women's right to choose." This method is to partially remove the baby (or fetus, if you'd rather) from the mother's womb and then crushing to cutting it's skull (just to make sure it doesn't survive out of the womb.) The Supreme Court simply ruled that it's gruesome, inhuman and never medically neccessary.

Of course, the next logical questions is; "since when do cells have skulls?"

Election (part 2)

Well here's part 2 of the post about election. Well actually I guess this is part 1 as far as election goes since we've established that the last past had little to nothing to do with election (the U of tulip) but instead had more to do with the T of tulip, total depravity.

The second part probably isn't going to be very theological at all, but more personal. One of the biggest problems a lot of people have with election is that it demotivates people from preaching the Gospel. After all, if God has elected someone then that person will be saved. Whether or not I preach the Gospel to them has no effect on the fact that they are called by God.

The obvious answer to that is that, hello, GOD TOLD US TO PREACH! Evangelizing shouldn't be about whether people get saved anyway, it should be about obeying the command of God. So, really, why do we even think about election in this aspect?

The reality is, however, that we do. I know I do all the time. So my question is, what do you guys do when you don't feel like evangelizing (whether it's b/c you lack motivation, you're being lazy, fear of man anything.) Any answer will help since evangelizing isn't my strong suit.

Election and Serving (part 1)

Yo, this is a good link. http://www.joemartino.name/ if that doesn't work just go to the comments on my post about clicks and go click on the name of the last comment left. Then read his post (it should be the second one listed) called "Saved to do Good Works." The question I'll be asking has to do with that post.

The key part of his post (which was about election and service) were the popular "election" scriptures in Ephesians. "8 for it is by grace that you are saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves but a gift from God - 9 not by works so that no one can boast. (and then his (mr martino's) key verse, if you will) 10 for are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works."

His point was, so far as I can tell, that the church, or at least Reformed church's who believe in the doctrine of Election, are very strong on verses 8 and 9 and are constantly preaching about those two verses and count them as very important. But those same churches tend to forget about verse 10 and everything that goes along with it (caring for the poor, loving your neighbor, anything to help out socially.) His question was why are we, as the Bride of Christ, so "afriad" if that's even the right word, to help out AIDS victims, to give to the poor, to serve non-Christians etc.

Although I agree with him that many church's don't do enough in the area of serving the poor and the needy, my disagreement with him (and feel free to defend yourself if you find this blog again Mr. Martino) is that it has something to do with Election. Election can and often does serve as an excuse for people to not preach the Gospel (if God elected them, they'll be saved, I don't need to preach.) That will be part 2, by the way. I don't know how someone can ignore God's commands to "love one another" to "Serve the poor" to "do good works" or anything else and use the doctrine of election as an excuse. If someone lacks love for someone for the simple reason that they're not saved, then they are sinning but does it really have anything to do with election?

Anyways, that's not even really my question. My questions is the following: (this of course is assuming that you accept the premise that the church is not active enough in social issues the involve serving other Christians and non-Christians alike)

Is the government so out of control with their welfare programs, their distribution of wealth, their "helping the needy" programs that are clear in Scripture to be the job of the church b/c the church has, as a whole, failed at it? Or is the Church not as socially active as it should be b/c the government has, in effect, taken it's job (in this one area) away from it? Whose fault is it?

Joey should have a sweet opinion about it cause we touched on this subject in class last night, but obviously I want everyone's opinion. (even Melinda's :-)

Clicks and groups

So, fam, I have a new question. Many people within Deluge (our youth group for you people who stumble across this) including Jeremy, say that "clicks" and "groups" are a problem. Many people say they hate them and the groups only hang with each other etc. etc. But no one really tries to change it very much. The same people who say they hate groups and whatnot are themselves mostly staying within a "click" or "group."

Recent history of the youth group "clicks" aside, how serious of a problem is this? How much of it is simply people being friends and having some friends that are closer then others? How much of it is people actually being exclusive and WANTING to have a "click" and how much of it is that people are just more likely to hang out with their close friends then others?

Jesse and Doug, even though you aren't here, you've certainly I'm sure seen this dynamic happen within a youth group (and in Jesse's case you know most of the Deluge crowd even if you haven't been here recently) so you're input is appreciated.

state of (some) Christian music part 2

I was definitely rushed last post, so here is part 2. If you didn't read part 1, make sure you scroll down and read it first.

There's two more things I want to address. The first is the issue of, as Jesse put it, the "worship-artists", people like Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche etc. That has led to everyone and their sister putting out "worship" albums, some, like Michael W. Smith, Newsboys, Phillips Craig and Dean etc. w/ great success. "The distinctions between contemporary Christian artists like Chapman, and worship leaders like Redman are becoming more and more blurred" as Jesse put it. Whether this is a good things is probably not for me to decide. I personally love to listen to Tomlin's stuff I think some of his songs (How Great Is Our God, Indescribable and Enough to name 3) is some of the best worship songs around these days.

My problem, again, is that there's seems to be no end to people "stealing" (a word I'm using simply because it's the easiest word to use) other people's worship songs. I'm not talking about taking a song, as SonicFlood did, like "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" which was written by someone who does not have a record deal and was never released as a single on the radio, then when, to my knowledge, 4 people have released "Everlasting God" as a single in the last couple months (Tomlin, Brenton Brown and Phillips Craig and Dean and Lincoln Brewster.)

The second issue is one Janelle raised. "For secular music, they can say whatever they want whenever they want however they want. But for the Christian musicians, most themes are off limits, and therefore they may be stifled creativity wise." This brings me to a fundamental disagreement me and Joey have. My favorite bands are those who have "Christian themes" but don't have explicitly Christian lyrics (Relient K, Switchfoot, The Fray etc.) He thinks they're spineless sell-outs and the only reason he listens to them is because they're so much better musically then most other Christian bands. I think Janelle's right when she said "the answer is simple, in my opinion. The hesitancy is to write a song that "says the same thing as all the other songs." You turn on Generic Christian Radio Station, and really, what's the difference between You Know My Name by Brandon Heath, You Alone are God by Echoing Angels, I Will Lift my Eyes by Bebo Norman, Give it Away "all of my dreams all of my whatever I give them to you" by Aaron Shust Shine by Salvador or anything by Jeremy Camp?

I think there's four basic camps in Christian music today.

1) Explicitly Christian lyrics that are creative and original (Jack Needam, tobymac, Kutless, Steven Curtis Chapman Casting Crowns etc.)

2) Explicitly Christian lyrics that "same the same thing as all the other songs." (Echoing Angels, Jeremy Camp, Mark Shultz, Brandon Heath, Chris Rice etc.)

3) Christian themed lyrics that are not neccesarily explicitly Christian (Relient K, Hawk Nelson, Switchfoot, thebeautifulrepublic etc.)

4) People who steal songs (Phillips Craig and Dean, Selah, Geoff Moore random bands whenever they feel like it)

Now, of those four, how would you list which order you would want to listen to? I list it
1
3
2
4

Obviously, assuming the skill of the musicians and the catchiness of the melodies are similar, the ideal song would have explicitly Christian lyrics that preach the Gospel to a world in dire need of it. But I would WAAAAAY rather listen to Christian themed lyrics and even "same old same old" lyrics then....THE EXACT SAME SONG!!!!!! Every problem with unoriginal lyrics (no creativity, I've heard it all before etc.) is magnified BECAUSE I HAVE HEARD THE SONG BEFORE!!! If I want to listen to Bless the Broken Road, I'll listen to Rascal Flatts. They do it way better anyway. Find or write some original words, slap a melody on it, and record that. Don't steal someone else's song.



Thank you, thank you, you're far too kind.

state of (some) Christian music

So I'm here today (wow this is pretty much a speech not a blog :-) to talk about the State of Christian music. I don't even know why I'm doing this since you (my fam) are the only ones to read this and I've already pretty much told you what I think about it. So I guess this is mostly addressed to Jesse and Doug (and any stranger to accidentally finds their way here.)

Imagine this hypothetical situation. You're listening to Generic Secular Hits Station and the pretty boy-sounding DJ comes on w/ the announcement "Hey what's up your boy (name) here, good news, Simple Plan's new single has been released worldwide, so here we go, for the first time, Simple Plan!" and the music comes on..........and it's Move Along (a no. 1 hit by All-American Rejects, a pop-punk band just like Simple Plan, that was popular like 6 months ago.)

Or, you're listening to Country Music Station, and the annoying, overdone country accent comes on "Howdy, laydeez AND gentlement, it's Scooter hur weeth THE latest from the le-gen-DARY Garth Brooks, back from REtiremint, with his lates' song." You get excited, lean forward...and "Live Like You Were Dyin'" comes on.

Neither of these situations would ever happen, in any genre of music. T.I. isn't going to be doing "This is Why I'm Hot" anytime soon. Norah Jones probably isn't gonna cover "Waitin' on the World to Change", I don't think Hinder is going to do "Photograph" and I'm not expecting to hear Papa Roach's version of "From Yesterday" anytime soon. So why does this happen ALL THE TIME in portions of the Christian music industry?

As far as a I know, it doesn't happen in the trendy Christian-themed-but-not-quoting-Scripture genre (Relient K, Switchfoot, 12 Stones, Hawk Nelson) or in the Christian Rock genre (Kutless, Plumb.) But it seems like everyday when listening to basic Christian pop I hear another popular artists "stealing" a popular song from a different band or artists. Selah pretty much does it whenever they want (You Raise Me Up "Josh Groban" Bless the Broken Road "Rascal Flatts) Geoff Moore took "When I Get Where I'm Goin'" when it's still a top 20 hit on country music...you see the theme?

Now to be clear, I'm not talking about covering songs that are old. A lot of artists/bands do that, or take a chorus from an old song and write different verses, or whatever. That can show a degree of creativity, or, at the least, it's a song to fill a CD that a lot of people like. That's different then taking a song that is popular now, and doing it yourself. Not only is this a cop-out (Selah didn't change any melody or chords to Bless the Broken Road, and they even had a similar piano line in all the musical interludes) but ANYONE CAN DO IT. Me, Joey, Nathan, Stephan and James Henry could get together, memorize how Brad Paisley's band did When I get Where I'm goin', change it up a little bit, and then get anyone with a decent voice (Tobin, Kyle whoever we wanted) to sing it. And in our case we could even give James Henry a sweet guitar solo and we'd have done it better then Geoff Moore. But does this mean that bands who are supposed to be good (at least good enough to get a record) should do it? Isn't the reason you're a band b/c you're willing to put in the time and effort needed to tour, and b/c either you're creative and musically gifted enough to write songs, or you know songwriters who are? Why do you have to steal it from someone else? Is there really not enough good Christian songwriters out there to the point where bands/artists have to steal from one another (or even secular groups like Rascal Flatts?)

pyro

Janelle wanted me to post about our discussion with the pyromaniacs, and I will (kind of.) And then I have a question for the fam, since obviously we're the only ones to read my blog :-).

Basically there was some dude who said that God told him to write a book, and he did, with the help of the Holy Spirit of course. He wrote an article in a magazine about it, but wrote the article anonymously (sp?.) So we still don't know who this person is, or if he really even wrote a book.

The Pyro's freaked out, of course. The post that I read was from Dan Phillips, who basically said the guy was a spineless coward who went around listening to "voices in his head." This led to some discussion among many world famous bloggers like me, Joey, Janelle and Jesse.

I'm not quite sure what Joey said, since I don't really understand him, he's way too smart. Janelle was defending some girl named April, talking about the possibility of living by prayer and being sensitive to the word of the Holy Spirit. I'm pretty sure this led to her being called an adolescent girl :-). I was saying random things about Dan Phillips belief that God only speaks when he intends for it to be put in the Bible.

And then Jesse tore them up and down, left and right it and led to the most defensive post I've ever seen from the Pyro's, who I read often.

This is my question for everyone in the fam: it seemed like at some point or another, me, Joey, Jesse and Janelle all made it clear that we were not defending the author of the original article. It showed a lack of courage and only added to the stereotype of charismatics. After the worship conference, the biggest problem (as far as I know Joey agrees with me here) that me and Joey had (although it was an awesome conference) was the Sovereign Grace seems to be being super careful with how the reformed world thinks of our usage of the gifts. For example, we no longer say that we have a "significant charismatic dimension." We say we are "committed to the the gifts as biblically defined." The quesion:

Are me and Joey right that as a movement Sovereign Grace is being "careful", for lack of a better word, with the gifts so as not to offend our Reformed friends (or any other reason), if we are, should we be being careful? And if we should, why should we?

p.s. If anyone happens to read this for some strange reason, feel free to post I'm just kind of assuming that my family will be the only ones to read it.

sup

Hey what's up. So this is my first post. Basically the most important thing about me is that I am a terrible sinner, saved by grace, aquitted of my sins by a wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ, and will now spend eternal life in Heaven with Him. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's cool I'd love to talk to you about it.

Other then that, I'm pretty normal I guess. I don't even know how much more I'll post, I pretty much just created this so I could talk to the pyromaniacs, who I love and agree with sooooo much......on most things (theology.) Now if only the Lord would baptize them in the Holy Spirit and make them start speaking in tongues then that would be sweet.

I'm a member of Metro Life Church (holla!) which is part of Sovereign Grace ministries.

aight peace.