Kid Worship.

So this summer has been extremely busy. Not really in a bad way at all just a lot of here and there traveling, I am currently sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Cleveland so that I can upload a file to Captain Jeff. Anyways, I had the opportunity to lead worship for two different camps this summer. Which really is something I have always wanted to do, travel and lead worship. The two camps were both for Jr. Highers and were completely different but incredibly the same. They were different in the way that one was 'camp' the kids stayed in little cabins (not air conditioned) the chapel was open air, they had morning activities, raising the flag act, if you have been to a summer camp this is probably what you remember. The second was on a college campus, great food, great facilities, felt more like a youth conference then a camp, cause of the lack of wilderness. I am not making a case for either just wanted to show how they were different. These two camps being completely different were still the same in one regard. The worship. They were excited, they were loud, they were passionate and they truly worshiped. I know some of us are on the cynical side and we try to cop out and say 'of course they are loud they are 12, 13 and 14 year olds,' and 'kids that age don't even know what worship is.' Well I would completely disagree. Yes, I will give you kids always know how to get loud, but don't tell me that kids don't know what worship is. We are all ingrained from birth to worship, most of us just choose the wrong thing to do so. Look at David, David was 15-17 years old when he stepped up to kill a giant that everyone feared. He had already took on bears and lions. But thats not what I want to talk about. Psalm 23, yes the passage that is quoted on many a 'Precious Moments' wall hanger was more then likely penned by a 13 year old David, while strolling the hills and watching over sheep. There is something special about kids this age worshiping, and it's not due to the loudness. I think that one of the reasons is because of a lack of priorities. I mean that in a good way. Kids this age do not have to worry about a mortgage, a baby, bills, ect... Because of this they don't get their priorities out of whack, they know whats first and they put Christ there. We, I, us need to think like kids, to train ourselves to forget about the junk that we have to take care of and fully concentrate on worshiping God, and constantly step into his presence. I think that if we are diligent in our worship, our problems will be seen as how they truly are, very temporal, and very small for a God that raised Himself and waked out of a tomb. Worship Him, It is what we are meant to do, what we were made to do.

Social Injustice and Jesus.

Kony 2012. Big news right now. If you haven't heard here is what I am referring to check the video on the bottom of this post.

I love that people, especially young people, are starting to care more about social injustice. It is a big deal, really big deal. The thing that is troubling to me and to be honest makes me anxious is the blurring of the line and making social injustices 'church' issues.

Now do not get me wrong we, as believers, are called to love people including our enemies. And really a lot of time that is a jump off point for sharing the gospel. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing medical care ect... What I get concerned with is that is where it ends most of the time. We feed, we clothe, we help heal, but we lose focus because we look at the temporal. We are called to so much more.

As believers we aren't called to only feed the body, but to feed the spirit. This life will end. But that is just the beginning. We need to be ever conscience about the spiritual life of people everywhere. Jesus did not come to put an end to child slavery but to save our eternal souls. And that, and only that should be our mission. I ask you believers to please not replace the reason we exist with a good cause. I suggest using these causes and injustices to further the name of Christ, not just to make a difference. Yes, I would love to leave this world as a better place, but I would rather leave this world in shambles and see the difference I made while spending an eternity with Christ.

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

the prosperity gospel.

Because of our Stewardship series at Northstar this issue has been raised numerous times in the past couple of weeks to me. Prosperity gospel, maybe you have never really heard about this, if not that is fine.
Prosperity gospel also known as health and wealth, in short is a doctrine that faith/positive speech/giving or tithing to the church will always increase your material wealth. So if you believe it, speak it and give to God your net worth will go up. Always. This wasn't really big until the 1950s and then got really big during the first big push of televangelists.

So why am I writing about this? The reason is because these 'doctrines' fly directly against what God's Word tells us.

Claiming that God wants His church to be rich is completely ludicrous. It goes against everything that Jesus taught. Need references?
Matthew 16:23&24 (Jesus calls out Peter for wanting the things that men want, and tells him that if anyone wants to follow him he must deny himself). I love this little insight because it says Peter began to rebuke Jesus. HA thats hilarious, I am sure Peter is still being made fun of by some of the other disciples. {'Hey Peter remember when you scolded Jesus, the son of God, that was was funny}. Anyways, what did Peter want? He wanted Jesus to over throw the government and reestablish the nation of Israel, and Jesus flat out calls him Satan, because he wanted what man wanted, not what God wanted.

1 Samuel 16:7 Samuel is trying to find a king. God tells him not to be concerned about the outside appearance because God cares about the heart a lot more.

So where do Health and Wealth followers get their Biblical backing? Mostly from one verse, 3rd John 1:2
2Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
A little context should be added (as always) 3 John 1:2 - John was writing to a group who were traveling and doing mission work. The word prosper in greek is εὐοδόω (pronounced 'you-oh-dow-oh') essentially means 'successful.' Break down its entomology it is εὖ (meaning = well, well done, good) and ὁδός (meaning = way, journey, highway). John was not at all referencing money. Not in the least. He was wishing their journey safe and praying for their health, physically and spiritually, not that he desired for them to be rich.

Some of those who whole heartedly agree with the 'health and wealth gospel' go as far to say that God wants us to be rich because it is obvious that Jesus and the disciples were rich...Huh? They sight that Jesus did not work the last 3 years of his life and neither did the disciples. They sight that because they had a treasurer they must have had a lot of money (Judas Iscariot). Again they make leaps and bounds with scripture. For example Matthew 12 talks about the disciples walking thru a corn field and plucking off some to eat, and the Pharisees got up and arms about this because it was the Sabbath. The disciples were gleaning. Gleaning was the right of any one that was poor or a stranger Leviticus 23:22 (stranger in Hebrew is גָּר which means a newcomer someone passing thru or someone that had no inheritance rights). So to do some critical thinking...The Pharisees got up in arms about Jesus' disciples breaking Sabbath because they did work picking corn, and Jesus promptly calls them (the Pharisees) out about their twisting of the law. Okay so if you were a Pharisee and you knew that gleaning was a right, from the very word of God, ONLY for the poor, but Jesus and the disciples were rich wouldn't that be what they would have the right to be up and arms about?

To sum it up, just because you are a Christian you are not automatically guaranteed to be rich. In fact if anything what we are guaranteed is to be hated by the world (Luke 6:22, 15:19), to live a life denying benefits (Luke 14:26, 18:18-23), to give everything we have for Christ sake, and to love the orphans and widows. Being a good steward does have its benefits, it is the only thing that God challenges you to test Him in (Malachi 3:10). But just because you tithe doesn't mean you will get whatever you tithe back in dollar bills. God gives out blessings in many different ways, it could be that someone drops off groceries, gives you a meal, buys you a computer, picks up your tab for lunch ect. Sometimes it does mean an extra check you didn't know was coming or a random 'bonus.' But saying God will make us rich because we give to Him is not Biblical in the least. God is their thru the thick and thin, thru good times and hard times and wants us to remain obedient and faithful through it all, and look to Him coming once again!

Presidential Blog.

Okay. So I am not huge on politics, I love a good debate when it comes to anything, but when it comes to this I have a hard time because people are just ignorant to what they are trying to defend. So in essence it comes down to you arguing with a 3 year old who just says 'not ah!'
But here is a little bit of how I feel about the current race. And really the reason I am writing this is because I am really starting to get concerned for true Christ followers.
Okay I may have misled you a little, this really isn't about the entire race its more just about Mit Romney. Even more to the point...is it a good idea for a Christian to vote for a Mormon?
I am not writer who drags on and then at the end give you a vague statement about the entire piece they wrote. To put it simply, I cannot understand how/why someone who believes Jesus is God, was fully man and fully God, who died and defeated death to give us a shot by grace and will be our returning King would ever vote for a man that believes in a religion that so vehemently twists Jesus that its like putting the New Testament into a strainer and keeping everything but the gospel, not to mention adding crazy into the recipe.
Pardon me if I am wrong but a politician is nothing without his/her beliefs, what he/she stands for and what he holds as truth. So when we as Christians say 'no I'm not worried about his religious beliefs cause he has a good fiscal policy,' it makes me want to scream! Do not get me wrong Mormons can be great people. Almost every single one I have met and hung out with are great people, but that doesn't mean that I want someone that believes the Garden of Eden was in Jackson County Missouri, that God changed his mind about black people in 1978 (10 years after Martin Luther King Jr. died, good timing I would say), that some Israelites sailed across the ocean to North America 600 years before Christ...running our country. (the list could go on, I just chose some of the almost laughable things.)
Now I must stress that if you are not a follower of Christ, and you are a conservative, then it is not a big deal for you to vote for this man. He is a conservative, he does have morals and if that’s what you are looking for, but as a believer I think there is/should be a different set of standards we apply.
I don't care if he is so conservative he makes Reagan think ill of himself, if the man believes Jesus and Satan were brothers and can become like Christ and have our own planet I don't want him making decisions on a national level for me and my family. You may say 'Cody, that is awfully closed minded of you' to which I would say, 'You are an idiot.' Then I would pause and say ''How? Because I don't want Mormonism to have any other footholds to mislead lost people in America to believe in some twisted version of Christ? Do you not think that having a Mormon President would make it so much easier to want to join in this cult?'
Before you get angry and let me irritate you so, stop and think who is having a more temporal outlook on life. The believer who will vote for Romney because he is a good conservative or the believer who won't because of the devastating impact it could have on Christian life in the near future by further disintegrating the line between Christ-followers and Mormons. There IS a line and there should be. You cannot strip Christ of his deity and still be cool with God. No matter how many doors you knock on.

The Mean Blog - aka getting it off my chest

Okay, I know I am not the only one that has pet peeves, so I am going to shares some of the ones recently that are irritating me. This has nothing to do with individual people, although I am sure if you do any of these or some combination of them you should probably take it very personally :)

Number 1. Facebook Game Invites.
Come on. Seriously. I have nothing against someone spending there time accruing fake money and buying virtual gems to bedazzle their online ponies, but stop inviting me please. I have facebook to stalk people, not make online mixed drinks for strangers. Here is a list of some of games I currently have been invited to... Pioneer Trail (great game when I was in 4th grade on a Macintosh Classic but not anymore), Farmville, Gardens of Time, Barn Buddy, Cafe World, Cityville (Cityville? really? I guess Citytown or Villagity was taken.)

Number 2. The Word Swag.
You know you hate it too. What is funny to me is that the real definition is 'an ornamental festoon of flowers, fruit and greenery.' Basically the flower thing they put on a horse after winning a race. But we have taken this word and thrown it on anyone that is cocky and made it a good thing. 'He has more swagger then all the swag in swaggerton.' (<- that is not a real quote, but I bet a college football announcer will say something very close to this during this season, probably about a run first quarterback or a defensive back that doesn't get flagged for passer interference.)

Number 3. Mark May
I guess I lied. This one may be about someone specific. :)

Music and Spotify.

So I requested Spotify like back in June and then got an email from them in July, but never opened it. Last week someone started talking about it again and how it was great etc. etc. So I remembered that I might have an email and quickly searched and began using. Holy crap. Awesome. Yes, both of those last two sentences where complete.
If you are a new music junkie and constantly looking for new stuff Spotify will help you immensely. Now if you are a music snob and like someone until they 'sell out' you will have to resort to your old ways of finding unsigned indie harmonica/accordion/spoons rock, because everyone on Spotify is signed (well at least as far as I can tell). Just like in the Myspace heydays, you can click on artists then see other artist, then others (and so on), and listen to almost all of their music. FOR FREE. I am assuming the artists/record labels get paid for plays or something. But this is just great for catching up with artists who you haven't seen for a while, or new up and coming people.
So check it out, if you have a mac you can also control it with your itunes controls on the top of your keypad, if you have a pc then you are lame. (haha just kidding Viktor, sort of).

Music that I am listening to currently...

Young the Giant - The dude has a great voice. I really feel that if the Beach Boys came out now, this is the type of music they would put out, probably helps that they are from southern cal. The other reason I love this band, is because they sound just as good if not better live then on their real recording. Just look...




Jay-Z & Kanye -(edited of course) It's a good record, but not sure if there are any huge hits off this album, but it is solid.

Foster the People - Yes, you have probably hear 'Pumped up Kicks' but their best stuff lies deep inside their album 'Torches.' Check out 'Houdini,' 'Don't Stop, & 'Helena Beat' for a good sense of what this band is about.

Mat Kearney - His new album (Young Love) is sick. Buy it, listen then spread it.

Tons more but I can write again

So much to say, but I'll keep it short.

Over the past few months it has been incredibly difficult to try to sit down and just write, even though there has been so much to write about.

First and foremost, I am having a child. Well, what I mean by 'I' is I drive my beautiful wife to appointments and get her whatever she wants/needs. But we are so excited, and to me it is still so surreal. But December 11th will be here sooner then I think and little Harper will make her grand appearance. If you want to see more/better updates my wife's blog is much better... (http://thenewdavenports.blogspot.com/) the picture of us isn't great, well she looks good, but I look like I am kinda mad at the camera...

Anyways, like I said before there has been so much to write about. The next thing on the list is my first worship album. I traveled down to Charlotte to record at Hunter Productions and I am very very very excited about it. I got to take advantage of some of my very talented friends and put them on the album as well, so thank you to Jacob Moyer and Scott Spruill for throwing down some tracks for me, I can't wait to hear the finished project. I do believe it will be for sale at the very beginning of October! I will keep ya updated and you can watch a quick vid of some of the recording process below...