Welcome Back.

Wow its been a while since I was free and able to just write some stuff. But here I am. I first wanted to point out a video that was brought to my attention last night at the College Bible study. To be honest its pretty gay, but reminded me of my college spring breaks and I think I would have made this video with my best friends a couple years ago.


This is a short one, just wanted to ease myself back into the blogging world.

MJ.

Well the king of pop is dead. And he left behind a legacy of shuffling backwards, a history of crying/fainting fans and questions about his private life.
I must say that being a music lover it is unbelievable what Mr. Jackson accomplished in music. He was worldwide before the internet. How? It seems now that that would be just impossible. He basically invented the music video, really they are all just ridiculous.
All that being said, the way that America and a lot of the world celebrated him in death really made me nauseous. Not because they celebrated him to much, 750,000 people paid their respects, over 100 news outlets, 3200 cops and traffic jams galore, all for Michael. They said it was the biggest event since the '84 olympics.
What made me feel a little sick is that the way these fans celebrated Michael is sometimes more then I celebrate the creator of the Universe.
Follow me on this... If we want to reach lost people, and those same lost people love something/someone (in this case Michael Jackson) more then WE love Christ, they are just going to laugh at us. They know what true love and worship is - its spending time with that thing and knowing everything you can about it. They would question your belief structure by thinking if they really love this Jesus they would know the things he talks about, they would spend time with Him because they want to, they would brag about him to people every chance that they got. After all, Jesus created Michael so how much better is HE then him?
Salvation is not earned by works, obviously, thats what makes it the gospel (good news). But if we are acting like Christians we will be doing good works, I should be the best I can be 24/7, because I will show Christ to every single person I come in contact with.
We as Christians should really stick out, sometimes like a sore thumb. The gospel is supposed to be offensive. It says we are all sinners, that we aren't perfect and we are not good enough to save ourselves. Its also offensive cause there is no real gray area. You need Christ in your life or you go to hell. It doesn't matter how good of a Buddhist or Baptist you are, if you don't have Christ you have no shot. So I should stick out, but the catch 22 is I shouldn't walk around condemning people, I should show them love, love that they have never seen because Christ is the one that first loved. He loved us even before we loved Him. How often that simple phrase is looked over, and how impossibly hard would it be for us as humans to love someone that hated you, stabbed you in the back repeatedly, denied even knowing you at the risk of being laughed at, and made promises over and over but never kept them. I would not even be acquaintances with that person. Yet Jesus wants us and loves us.

It boils down to this, if you love something you are gonna show it, like the people did for Michael Jackson. So how are you treating Christ these days?


And just because.... This is for you

The Holy Head Nod.

This is going to be a short one, but over the past couple of weeks I have caught myself during a service nodding in an agreeing manor with someone speaking from the stage. Now, there is definitely nothing wrong with this, but in my case I wasn't paying attention. So my nodding was some habit I picked up growing up in church to appear like I am paying attention. Pretty dumb of me. Hopefully I don't look this dumb...

joy

One of the hardest things I think to do as a Christian is be joyful always. I mean it should be easy, right? Even when bad things happen we KNOW God has our back, its all a part of His overall plan. Its hard to keep out of the human cycle of joy, which I call situational joy. You are joyful according to the situation. In 1 Thes. 5:16 Paul says that it is the will of God for us to have joy all the time! No this doesn't mean you have to walk around like a beauty pageant contestant with a smile pasted on your face, or put vaseline on your teeth so you don't stop smiling big, like some cheerleaders I know do (i didnt make that up), joy is knowing that there is something better, and its really just around the corner. You may find yourself in a slump or a low place, but as a Christian there is always hope, no matter what!
Take a step back, breathe a little bit and look at the situation through Christ's eyes. Quit using situational joy and just have true joy. Its Gods will for our lives!

a tough question.

How many of the people around you will be with you in heaven? Its a hard question. And don't get me wrong, please don't go around judging if people are gonna be in heaven or not, but sadly I think it will be only a percentage of your attendance at your local church.

To switch gears just a little bit, think about Funerals you have been to. I have been to a bunch, but probably only 5 or 6 where I was actually close to the person and not just an acquaintance. And there have been times where it was some of the best worship I have ever encountered. Tears are rolling off cheeks, but there is a smile underneath the salty glare because people are so excited for the person that passed away. They are sad that they won't see that person at the grocery store, or at the weekly bridge game, but so excited and joyful that that person is in the presence of Christ. And know that they heard those words "well done.." from Christ.

Then there is the exact opposite. You knew the person and never really saw any fruit from that person, so you are really left with no hope. Nothing to hold onto. Even the pastor is searching for things to say. Those are the roughest times for a Christian I think. Knowing that there is no hope and its eternity. It makes my stomach sick just thinking about it.

So going back to the main question, how many people around you will be with you in heaven? Looking at Jesus and what he says makes it even harder. In Luke 14:27 Jesus says that you have to hate your family to be a disciple of Him. Wow, harsh. He is saying that your relationships have to be put behind Christ. Every relationship, you must love Him more then all of your friends, spouse, and even your parents! Its a hard thing. Then in verse 33 He makes it even a little tougher, by saying if you can not give everything away then you can not be his disciple. ah.

These are difficult things, it is a daily battle to put my best friends above Christ, let alone my wife. And giving away everything is something that in theory I would be willing to do, but I have never been presented with that so who knows. But if Jesus says these are the things that are requirements to be His disciple, then again ask yourself this question... how many of the people I am around you will be with you in heaven?

bored?

Here are some pretty good websites to take up your time.

This is an infinite picture, when you click on it to zoom in, the picture is made of smaller pictures, hard to explain, but it is pretty cool. Check it out.... CLICK ME

LaRae catches me on this site all the time. Its friv.com all it is, is little video games, some are horribly bad, others are very addicting. Good time waster.
www.friv.com

If you like music then here are some great websites...

8tracks, is a great place to discover new music. People just post their mixes on here and you can listen to them. Some really weird stuff, but also some very cool/hilarious stuff. Check it out. www.8tracks.com or listen to one of my all time favorites from 8tracks by clicking HERE

Here is another awesome website. It may be annoying to other people, but oh well. Go and enjoy yourself, If you have speakers turn them up and rock out. CLICK ME!!

And just because this is awesome...

um...

So you can laugh at this person, but sadly I am not sure if I, personally, have ever been this excited about anything in my life. So more power to ya.