Are you a Christian or an American Christian?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8

That is the infamous Paul Washer sermon, that I FINALLY listened to.

The scary thing is, its dead on.

I think my views have been changed, but I can now feel that smoldering fire in my soul heating up...

The sermon is about an hour long...only listen to it if you can actually take an hour and really listen to it...if it challenges you to do something about the sorry state of this world, do something.

If it doesn't, well, that's a good sign that you need to evaluate your faith.

control

Are you a control freak? Do you have to know every little detail about something, just because?

While being a control freak may be a bad thing, there is something that you should know all the little details of and have complete control of: your body.

Your tongue for example is extremely dangerous simply because words can tear things down in an instance, not mater how long they've been standing.

You CAN control what comes out of your mouth...but do you choose to control it?

But I don't mean just physical, tangible parts of you, emotions are also in need of control.

Anger, sadnesss, opinions, ideas, and many others all have their place, but it's up to use to use your brain and common sense to determine when these should be let loose.

new year new changes

Change is good.

Believe it or not, it's also needed.

To get stuck in a routine of the way it 'used to be' or 'because it works' or 'because its always been this way' is a dangerous viewpoint.

If you're not open to change, how can you draw closer to God? If you're not open to change how can God use you? Wouldn't you actually be limiting God if you never allow Him to do anything different than the norm through you?

Its only 7 days into the new year, and I'm already feeling and seeing changes. The XLR8 worship for instance, will be traveling and leading worship with P. Cornell. I'm going to be playing the synthesizer in addition to keys, which isn't something I have a lot of experience in, but I'm willing to learn.

Brendan and I have have scrapped out FAF short film in favor of a new topic, which if we can pull it off should be AMAZING.

I challenge you, make a resolution for this new year to simply be open to change

when the muse strikes

you must let it out right?

Unfortunately the muse struck me at 1 am. Not fun, especially cause I've got mono and need rest now more than ever.

But inspiration is a God thing and he's always got his reasons right?

I've tried writing songs before, and they've never really been all that good.

But this song has been coming to me in bits and pieces for about 5 months now. I've got a melody bouncing around in my head, and the lyrics have meaning. This won't be one of those songs that you can sing without thinking about the words.

Last night/this morning was a MAJOR break through lyrically, and I'm now seriously working to finish it for faf this year.

I say all that to say 2 things.
1 - I would appreciate prayer for this. I can feel that this is one of those 'God things' and this song could touch people. I want that to remain my focus, not me being able to write a good song.

2 - Don't ignore God's 'voice', no matter how strange it may seem. When God tells you to do something, do it!

You'll never regret it

Real - Are You?

Who are you today?

I know who I am. I am someone who is busy, but loves every minute of it. I am a leader, and am scared sometimes that people will follow me and do what I say. I am a musician, cause music = life. I am a Spirit-Filled Christian (side note: Don't you love how we divide Christians up into different groups?)

But most of all I am real, cause I've worn the mask before and it sucks.

Being real is a skill that my generation doesn't understand. Yes we are bombarded by the world telling us what's cool and what's not: That showing love (real love, not that media stuff) is a sign of weakness, that nobody really cares how you genuinely feel on the inside. Well you know what? I've been there, and I can tell you that this world has got it wrong.

Straight. Up. Wrong.

Being who you are is as essential in this life as is near anything else, cause who's gonna believe a hypocrite?

But not only is it a must, I'd be willing to bet that God hurts everytime you put on that mask over who you are. He created you to be YOU. Do you get it? You are a special, one-of-a-kind miracle of creation that God made, and God ALWAYS knows what He's doing.

Real...Are you?

"Lightbulb Moments"

Ever heard that phrase before? When someone has a good idea and says "I just had a lightbulb moment".

I was doing devotions a few days ago and read Matthew 5:16. "Let your light so shine before men". I've heard all the sermons and how Jesus is to shine through you by what you say and do. And I understand that, but how can you make this 'relevant' to today's generation?

How about a lightbulb?

For a lightbulb to work it must be properly created or prepared. If it is not ready to shine its light, it won't work at all once the power gets turned on.

For a lightbulb to work, there must be power flowing through the connection between the lightbulb and its source.

For a lightbulb to work, someone's got to turn it on.

But you know what a working lightbulb does? It drives away the darkness and replaces it with light.

Eventually the lightbulb burns out, but the power is still flowing to the lightbulb. The lightbulb just needs its inner workings to be fixed and/or refreshed.

So are you a working lightbulb? Or are you an empty socket?