Living in Love

So I haven't written anything in a long time. Sitting here at the table at four minutes after seven in the morning wondering what I should put on this lovely little page. My wife sips coffee next to me as my four month old son just lies on the ground voicing his opinion that he recently found out how to do quite loudly actually and all that keeps going through my mind is that I am blessed. I have been reading the story of Job the last couple of days I am only partway through but I am planning on reading it through and then going through again studying it intently. This story of a man that was blessed by God due to his honoring lifestyle and then suddenly has it all taken away in a heartbeat. He lost servants, livestock and family all at the same time followed closely by his health and he did not curse God with his lips the entire time. Several of his friends show up to offer him some comfort in this time of mourning that he is going through and instead of words of comfort they pile condemnation and rebukes on him saying that he must have sinned to deserve such punishment and that he should repent immediately. That is always the first thing that comes up when something bad comes up or happens to you often the first thought that comes into our mind is what did I do wrong? The book of Job is a good example of bad things happening to good people, Job did nothing to deserve the things that were happening to him and God himself was not responsible for what was happening he was just allowing Satan to push him to the limit because God knew that Job was faithful and that through and through he would stay within Gods promises on his life. We have to learn not to be like Job's friends, this is kind of a common picture of the modern religious church of our day. We are quick to point the finger and pass the blame but we forget that when we pass judgement and condemnation on someone we have fingers pointing right back at us. More times then not when someone is accusing someone of something it's a pretty good chance that individual either has a similar problem going on at this moment or was dealing with it in the past. We can't be measuring sticks for people's lives that is God's job not ours and I think that all too much we have been doing that even more now then ever before. How are we going to reach a world that is lost if we judge and point fingers at every little thing that is wrong. Of course if they are in the church serving that is a different story but that has to be handled a certain way as well as per Matthew 18. We have to start loving the world as Jesus did showing them unflinching love regardless who it might be whether it's that dude at work you can't stand or a homeless individual on the street corner asking for a dollar. Don't make assumptions when you see that person at the front of the Wal-Mart parking lot holding up their sign, you have no idea who they are or what they have been through, the next time you see one of those people think twice before you reach over to roll up your window or lock your door and for a minute just stop and wonder....What would Jesus do?

Cure for the liberal mess? Zombie appocalypse...

As I sit here peacefully in my home, on this gloomy Halloween, my mind has wandered to the current state that our country is in. As I think of everything that has led us down this road we are on, I have come to the conclusion that there really is no way out of it. Sure, we could vote and get a conservative in the white house, but even then, that doesn't change the things that have already been put into motion. That doesn't stop the bills that are in the process of being passed that support a left wing socialist agenda. No, even then the country would still be in a state of regress thanks to the fact that the young voting people of our country were gullible enough to vote for a candidate that dressed himself up as a celebrity. The election that best resembled a high school election, where better stocked vending machines and three hour lunch breaks (Jen's quote) are common promises, but of course high school elections are full of broken promises. And just like candidates of high school elections make those empty, larger then life promises, so did Big O, using the same strategy of a 17 year old teenager to get the votes of his peers. And guess what? We fell for it. No, not all of us of course, there are those of us that the larger community calls "uneducated, religious, right-wing nut jobs" that knew better then to fall for it, recognizing the wolf in sheep's clothing. But of course, the educated and celebrated left wing population led by the liberal media cast away all doubts and thus our current state is the result.




So what do we do to get out of this mess we are in? We can't do anything about it. It is out of our hands, we took the shovels and dug our own graves and now we are stuck with it until God decides to take us home. We need a zombie apocalypse now more than ever. What? Yeah that's right I said it. Big O made his ridiculous promises that we totally out of reality, if he can do that then I can think big and unrealistic as well. But seriously a zombie apocalypse would do nothing but benefit us right now, for those of us that would survive. Think about it for a moment, it would be a fresh start, the liberals would be zombie chow and us crazy, uneducated, right wing nut jobs would be the one's saying "Told you so." We would have the opportunity to start fresh, there would be no taxes, we could live off the land and raise our kids outside of a liberal education system, all while fighting off the undead scourge. We would really have freedom of religion, free to worship God as we saw fit without having to be tolerant of anyone or anything.



Okay, I know it would be terrible at first. Death and mayhem would be all around us and the possibility of you and your loved one's are not very high. But personally, I would rather risk that chance of living in danger all the time, then live in a socialist government. Say what you will friends, but it would be a benefit in the long run as long as we came together and fought to survive as a team. Until then, we can only hope and pray that things in our country get better before they get worse. Have a great Halloween everyone and be safe. Don't forget the premiere of The Walking Dead on AMC tonight! Should be amazing!

Desperation, the key to a see through life-style

Hello everyone! Sorry it has been so long since my last post it has been crazy the last couple of months. My family and I just moved into a house and I am going to be working two jobs starting next week so it has been pretty hectic. I figured I could find some time and squeeze in a blog post because I don’t know how long it will be before I get the chance to get another one up. So this post is about desperation in our quest to find God’s face. We need to have a desperate attitude when we are crying out to him instead of our plain old boring monotone prayers that a lot of Christians do on a regular basis. So we are going to Matthew 15:21-28 and read a story about Jesus and a woman that wouldn’t give up.

Matthew 15:21-28 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus did not answer a word, so his disciple came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord help me!” She said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes Lord,” She said, “But even the dogs eat crumbs that fall from the masters table.” Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

You know it is not very easy to change God’s mind. While Jesus was on the earth, very rarely did he diverge from decisions once his mind was made up. When he made a decision is was concrete, there was no argument to the fact. But every once in awhile when certain individuals cried out in desperation they caught his attention. So what does it take to get the Lord to stop in the direction he was going and change course towards something else. Simply, desperation. Desperation for a touch from him, a constant nagging if you will. This woman cried out to him following him for God knows how long it doesn’t really go into a specific time or distance, whether it was a mile or seven miles, but the thing is she grabbed onto her hearts desperate want and cry, this being her daughter and kept pursuing a solution to her problem.

Jesus tried to ignore her! He heard her crying out and said nothing! His disciples being the people persons that they were finally said, “Gosh Jesus just hear the lady out! She is getting on our nerves.” Jesus in turn said, “No, I have only been called to Israel.” He was basically saying, this woman is an unbeliever and I can’t help her. But it says even after the Lord say’s this, even after she had been following him for miles and now it seemed as if it were all for nothing, even though she could have turned around and went back home, she fell to her knees and cried out “Lord help me!”

Have you been on your knees lately? You can stand, shout, pray and speak all you want but there is something about a humble and contrite spirit that the Lord loves. There is something about falling down before the maker of Heaven and crying out in desperation, “Lord help” that catches his attention. When you as a person finally realize that you are nothing but dirt in the palm of your creator when you realize that without him you wouldn’t even be a thought, something inside of yo changes and He takes notice. When you have a desperation inside of you, it is enough to make God say, “What do we have here?”

Jesus goes even further in the story, probably testing to see how desperate she really was. He says, “It’s not right to throw the children’s bread to the dogs.” Whoa, talk about a slap in the face. Here he is pretty much insulting her, saying she I not worthy of what he has to offer, pushing her, testing her faith. Most of us would be offended in this day and age we would be like, “Excuse me?” But she didn’t move instead she stayed on her knees and replied, “Yes Lord, but even dogs eat the crumbs from the Masters table.” Crumbs. Desperation. She was begging for mere crumbs. You see this woman had been raised in a secular country, she had been raised worshipping idols and was schooled in the ways of the world but something inside of her, even though she as part of a secular community, recognized Jesus for what he was.

The Son of God, God sent in flesh. Something inside of her that was placed there by God at the moment of her birth, at the sight of the Messiah and Most High, something inside of her screamed, “He’s got what I want, he has what I need, he is the solution to my problem, if I grab a hold of him, if I press in grabbing for what he has, he is sure to offer it to me. I am desperate and this is my only option. I am not leaving him without getting what I need.”

How many options do we go through before we get desperate? Us as Christians should have no problem coming to him with our needs and wants but is he our one and only option? Do we come running to him right away when we recognize the problem or do we come to him after we have exhausted everything else we have? What is your problem? Jesus lives inside every one of us and we should have instant access to whatever he has to give us. The world should see the Kingdom of God in us just as this woman saw it in Jesus. They should be crying out saying we want what you have. I have tried drugs, I have tried sex, I have tried booze but what you have seems to be working. I want what you have. And that’s when we say its not what I have it’s who I have. His name is Jesus and he has everything that you could ever want and he is waiting for you with open arms.

This passage covers two topics, it can be about our attitude of desperation and are we desperate enough to warrant God’s attention and are we living a life of purity and holiness and walking in the kingdom to such a degree that when we are in the world, the world takes notice. That’ the way it should be, we shouldn’t be running to the world for our needs they should be realizing that we got something unique and creative and be asking for our advice. It’s time for us to stop being politically and socially acceptable and start living spiritual. You know that Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword?” (Matthew 10:34) What does that mean? That means that we have to quit tip-toeing around the issues that are “case sensitive” and separate ourselves from the world.

The sword divides flesh from your body. Homosexuality? It’s wrong, cut it off. It take’s away the creative purpose between a man and a woman and is an attack on the seed straight from Satan. We still love them and we accept them but we make sure they have limitations set if they don’t deal with their sin just like any other sin and we make sure they know it’s wrong and here is why. Quit being afraid of what will happen and step out and make a difference. If you have a problem with pornography, then unplug your internet or take a baseball bat to your computer. Better your face book account then your soul right? We need to reach the world with Jesus, the real Jesus not the rules, regulations and politics of modern Christianity but the practices of the kingdom.

Kind of branched off onto a bunch of subjects on that post. It needs to be told, too often we dance around the things that are touchy these days. We need to be focused on what is right and what is in the bible not what is our own interpretation of what is right. If it is in the bible then we need to follow it regardless on what people think. We need to live a holy and blameless life, touched by grace so we can share it with the world and then be the church that we are suppose to be and then we can change the world. But you have to start with yourself otherwise everything that you try to do will be in vain.

Seeking the Lord with your whole heart, not a half mind.

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post guys. There has been a lot going on in my life lately. I recently lost my job that I have had for the past three and a half years and have started a new job that is fresh and a new thing for me, something I haven’t done before but at the same time I am very familiar with. It is amazing how much that God takes care of us when our focus is on him and not on the things of the world. Well, we have been looking in Jeremiah these last two posts first in 29:11 and in 29:12 and now we are going to end our three verse study with 29:13.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

Does a child quit searching for their father after they are lost only for a little while? Do they only look with a half hearted attitude or do they seek for their Daddy with all their heart, trying to find their way back to his love and embrace? Our Daddy longs to be sought after. But not just this bland pray life that the most of us call communion and two seconds into the word everyday. Do we read one scripture a day and then just put it away or do we read it over and over, write it down, meditate on it, journal it and wait to hear from our father. Are we preparing our hearts to talk to our creator or are we coming before his just plain and average not dealing with things that are inside of us that are keeping us from bringing the veil back completely, not just a little crack.

Seriously, do we want only a quarter of God or do we want the whole thing, everything he has to offer us. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. All means all, it covers every single inch and fraction of what is described. All literally means all. Not half way, not kinda sorta but all. So when God says you will seek me and find me when you seek me with ALL your heart, he is not talking about sitting through an hour and a half church service and expecting to get the full benefits of seeking. It’s not the pastors job to bring you closer to God. It is the pastors job to give you knowledge and maybe a little different perspective on certain things.

It’s like food, you can’t go out to eat all the time, sometimes you have to stay home and cook for yourself. If you continually depend on other people for sustaining your faith and giving you words of knowledge you will wither and die spiritually and never hear from the Lord yourself. You can’t just depend on another person to help you grow in the Lord that’s not how it works. Its not healthy, its like going to McDonalds or Taco Bell for every meal, every single day, seven days a week. You will get sick.

Everyone of us is responsible for our own personal relationship and growth in God, and when you keep reading, keep praying, keep seeking, keep meditating; you will then therefore have an intimacy unlike anything you have had in your life. Now at the same time you can’t just say, “Oh so I don’t have to go to church, all I have to do is stay home and seek the Lord on my own time and terms.” I don’t think so buddy. The church is your family, we are all the body of Christ and even though we are responsible for our own individual growth and walk we still need other parts of our family to keep us accountable before God and to have healthy relationships with. You can’t just lock yourself away in your house away from society and say, “Oh I don’t need anyone but myself. I don’t need the Church.”

A lot of people think that they have been hurt by the church or people of the church but really the person who hurt them was themselves. They aren’t able to get rid of certain lifestyles and attitudes and when other Christians do certain things or say something that they don’t agree with they are so deceived and bitter that they will view it as a hurtful attack on them as a person.

“Oh the pastor doesn’t look at me when he’s preaching, he must hate me. Oh these people are hurting my feelings because they never ask me to do anything with them.”

Well maybe if you would get up off your couch every once in awhile and take some initiative and go out for yourself and say “Hey can I do this with you?” or “Hey do you want to do this?” Quit whining and taking everything so seriously. Get out and do something. Get over yourself and thinking its all about you because it isn’t. It’s about the kingdom and what you can do to help further the name of Jesus to the masses. When you finally do that, when you finally get over yourself and get over your bitter, gossiping and backstabbing attitude something inside of you will break off and you will have a hunger for God unlike anything else you have ever had before.

Paul killed Christians, he was offended by them and sought them out one by one. Until one day Jesus showed up, kicked him off his donkey and said, “Surprise it’s me! I’m the real deal! People have been talking about me for thousands of years, they said I would show up, they said I would crush the devils head, they said I would heal the sick, they said I would die and raise again, they said I would come! I did and I died and now I am alive and in heaven with my father. Seek me, and find me, get to know me.” Paul was blinded of course but what does it say he did for three days? He prayed and didn’t eat or drink anything for three days! Three days! Now that is some serious seeking and you know what? God showed up.

Sometimes God has to humble us and push us off our feet so that we take him seriously and try to find him. We cannot come to Jesus with our regular human everyday life mindset and expect to find him on a one on one personal basis. It is impossible to find God on our own ego and willpower. That’s why we have so many pastors going to the internet for sermons. Pastors actually go on the internet and get sermons because they have become so wrapped up in the affairs of men that they don’t have that quality one on one seeking time with the Lord. Either that or it’s the same sermon week, after week with the same points and no life inside of it.

Now its not every pastor of course but seriously their shouldn’t even be sermons on the internet in the first place. Anyone can get them and say “Oh I had a word from God, hear me roar!” No, we need to get back to the basics and seek after the Lord with all our heart so we can find him. Because only then will we know his heart. We can’t expect to continue in the cookie cutter society of church with same two hour service every week, sing a couple of songs, hear a couple of words and go home happy. No that’s not what Christianity is about in fact that is the most boring Christianity I can think of. I did that for years and years because I didn’t know any better, well I did, but I could never get past my human barriers enough for my heart to be right so I could fully seek him with all my heart and find him waiting for me in the secret place.

Nothing compares to one on one time with God. Find a scripture, focus on that one scripture, write it down on paper and read it and write what comes to you and keep writing and writing until you have nothing left to write and watch as God speaks to you through your own pen. The heart is the center of everything, yet it is deceitful about all things. We must learn to know what is true hear and what is bad heart. True heart is keeping your heart above your head, instead of letting your head control your heart. The key to controlling your heart comes from keeping your mind in check.

Make sure your decisions are heart driven and not flesh driven. You can’t say I have a heart for reaching the sex industry when you have a problem with lust. It just doesn’t work that way that’s like throwing yourself into a pit of snakes. Yuck snakes. Learn to keep your mind in check first of all just as Romans 12 says constant renewing of your mind and once your mind is renewed a new kind of heart will be taking place and God will reveal himself in new and interesting ways. He loves to play hide and seek. One day you might find him in song and worship, then one day through prayer and then one day through meditation in the word. He likes to keep it fresh and new and happening. God has his own style. It is always in trend. Ha ha!

Seek him on your face. Humble yourself, cry out, yell, scream, “Holy, Holy are you Lord. You are worthy to be praised. Here I am Lord, take this fragile human form and consume it with your presence. I long to be a different person, I don’t want to be this man anymore. I want to be a child of the most high, I want to claim my rights as an heir of the kingdom. You promised me all things through your son Jesus who lives in my heart. So please Lord, give me everything, reveal yourself to me oh Lord so that I can go out and pass on what you give me with boldness and courage. Renew my mind so I can have a clean heart free from my ego and pride. Thank you for your love and grace. Thank you Jesus. Here I am.”

God Listens to You

Last time we talked about Jeremiah 29:11 which is about the Lord having plans and hopes for your future. Also, that the only thing he wishes for us as Christians is prosperity. We shouldn't be like the rest of the world, we have a God who provides for us so when the chips are down we need to be putting our faith in him. Today we are going to be looking at the verse immediately following Jeremiah 29:11 and it has to deal with God hearing us when we call.

Jeremiah 29:12 "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."

I will listen to you when you call. When you are cold and alone in your misery, I will listen to you. When you are left without a place to go, I will listen to you. Cry out to the Lord for he listens to a humble heart. Call upon him with every fiber in your being wanting to be enveloped in the majesty and grace of his presence. Call upon me he says and pray to me with all your heart, and I will listen to you. The creator of heaven and earth whose very fingerprint is etched deep in your soul, will listen to your cry. The one who formed the stars and planets and aligned them properly in the heavens will hear you when you call. Do you realize the total impact of what this says? God the father, the one who puts life into your very being, the one who created every single animal, plant and human being, the one that could destroy us all with his very breath will listen to you. How do you come before someone with such power? How do you bring yourself before the one who you owe your life?

Do you come half-heartedly giving half praises, with no enthusiasm or do you come with a humble attitude, stripped clean and bare, ready as a living sacrifice before your maker. When you come before him and call out to him praying to him with a surrendering of yourself, crying out with a fervent hunger and desperation, God will see your desperation and in return he will grant you the desires of your heart. Now this might be a continual process sometimes taking quit a while. Every time we come to him with a humble heart, more and more of our humanity drops away each we come before him. Dear God today I am bringing you my pride, please help me get over myself and live for others. Help me to not be selfish but to do work that furthers others and your kingdom, your will be done.

Dear God, I just bring you my lust today, protect my eyes, shield them from impurity, guard my mind God. Every time you offer yourself on the altar a different piece of your mindset and attitude falls away, making it easier and for God to come in, because where there is less of you, God loves to be. God listens to me even though I don't deserve it. I could be in the lowest pit on earth, wallowing in my own filth and then call upon the Lord with sincerity in my heart and he will hear my cry and rescue me from myself. We are the makers of our own destruction, we are the ones who do the things that we love but he hates, but yet if we ask him to and call on him to forgive us of our own foolishness he does it with no hesitation he asks for one thing. Our life. Thats it! Nothing big, he just wants to be the number one thing in our life. None of this half-hearted, white washed, watered down Christianity. He wants our 100% allegiance and the desire to bring others to him.

You can't expect to call on God and not have to deal with the consequences of your actions either. It might be an eraser spiritually on God's end you are forgiven but here on man's end you may have somethings to answer to. God I am sorry for punching that guy in the face, but could you please erase the charges of assault and battery. Thanks. Ha Ha no you're forgiven but you still have to pay for what you did. God has grace for you but it is not a crutch. It's not meant t be used over and over again to pick yourself out of the same hole over and over. Grace is an enablement that comes to you from complete surrender to God. That way when temptation comes into your path or a situation comes up that has caused you to fall before you can recall that moment to the grace that saved you and call it back into that moment to help you overcome the attacks of the enemy.

"God by your grace that set me free I pray that you will lift me up over this obstacle in my path. Dear Lord give me the power by your grace to turn the other way and flee just as Joseph did."

We can call on the Lord and pray to him and he will listen. He always listens, make sure that you are sincere in your prayers and callings so that he won't only listen to you, but take action as well. It only says he will listen to you, it doesn't say he will take action. Do you think that after awhile if you keep praying about that same fault and sin as you did last week that God will take action? He will always listen and take mind of you, he is infallible, he is everywhere all at once it is impossible for him not to hear. Make sure when he hears you that he will want to react to your call.

You see, their is a reaction in the atmosphere when God answers prayer. When God answers prayer the same power that was used to create the universe is used in response to your call. The same power that formed Adam out of dirt, that life giving breath and words are used when he answers prayer. The molecules and the crazy scientific stuff I don't understand in the environment around us, all of it forms around his will. Their is a living breathing reaction when God answers prayer, so make sure that when he hears you, you are in a state of humility and repentance. True repentance is turning the other way not wanting to go back, make sure you are not abusing his grace. And will he always answer yes? Not always, he knows what is best for us and he always answers depending on what he knows is best for us and our growth in the kingdom.

God's Plans

Sorry its been awhile guys but it has been a busy couple of weeks. The weekend before last the wife and I went to a Jesus Culture Encounter and it was an amazing spirit-filled experience. I really felt like I was hearing from God through the sessions and that his purpose for me was starting to take fruition. Ever since my wife and I got married in October we have really felt like we were entering a time of rest from ministry related activities. We felt like we just needed to go to church and enjoy our time with God and with each other without getting involved with any extra side activities and wait for God to let us know when we were ready. Well God has really put on my heart that my time of rest is over and that I am now entering a time of seeking. I am still going to sit back and not get involved one hundred percent but instead I am going to concentrate on getting closer to him and really digging in and seeking him on a day to day basis. I have already started to cut several things out of my life that I really feel were holding me back as far as feeling that connection with him and man has it been an awesome couple of weeks since I have let go of my selfish needs and just tried to find him with all my heart. So I have been really meditating on several verses every day picking a new one. What I do is write the verse down on a piece of paper, close my bible and just focus on the verse in front of me. Reading it over and over and letting it sink in until I feel like I need to start writing. So I start writing and I write everything that comes to me until I have nothing left and yet things still start coming to me and I write them down on the paper. After I have written everything I go back over what I have written and most of the time I am amazed at just how I can see God speaking through the writing. Sometimes I can't believe that I wrote some of this stuff and then I know that there is no way that I could have come up with it on my own and that God was speaking to me through the pen. Now I would like to share some stuff with you I am going to start with three verses in Jeremiah. I am only going to do the first one now and then I will post the other two at a later time, I hope that you can find comfort and knowledge in the words that our Father has given me.

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have or you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Even when we think all is lost and hopeless, and times are at it's worst, the Lord knows everything that is in store for us and our families. He see's ahead into the future because he knows all and sees all outcomes. We need to learn to put our trust in the one that put his breath into the earth, the one who gave life to everything that we can see and everything that still remains undiscovered. He wants no harm to come to us, all hard and bad occurrence's are attacks of the enemy and should be seen as such. We need to quit blaming God for our bad occurrence's and events and start blaming the creature responsible. Once we recognize the culprit behind the curtain we can then reveal him for what he is and rebuke him openly in Jesus name and then he has no power over us once he is in the light.

You have a hope and a future already planned out for me, who am I then to question the practices of God? He has promised hope and future for me so what do I give him in return? Do I give him adoration and praise like he deserves or do I give him five quick minutes everyday and then sit in front of the TV for the rest of it? His wish is for us to proser but we can only do so when we put our trust in him and him alone. He wishes no harm should come to us, but that we put our hope and cares in him so that when harm tries to come our way we know that we can rest in the one that knows all things. He can see the light at the end of the tunnel so we must learn to always see the positive in every situation because battle has already been won so we shouldn't worry or have doubt. (See Matt 6:25)

Prosper, Prosper, Prosper.

Prosperity for a Christian is essential. We of all people should be prosperous. If we aren't then there is something wrong with the way that we are living our lives. Are we giving enough? Is there secret sin that is keeping us back from prospering and living fully in the promises that we have been given. God knows all the plans in our own lives regardless if you want him to or not. You might have goals and plans for your life but God might have other things in mind for you. "Oh you want to go to school? Oh that's great but first I want you to go to Africa and reach the sick and dying." "Oh but Lord that is so far away and I can't afford it." SO WHAT!!!! He knows all plans! He will make you prosper. Don't have money for your bills this month? Thats a cinch for God, why is it so hard for our fragile human minds to grasp what He can do? Because we are a simple minded people we look at the numbers and the stacks of bills piling up and our human emotions and instincts kick in causing us to freak out. We have to learn to give everything to him and then he will give everything to us.

I hope this has been insightful to you guys. Next time I will go over Jeremiah 29:12 so read up and get ready. Better yet, read it and write your own thoughts down and share them if you want. We are all meant to have a word from God, we need to stop depending on other people to give us one and start learning to get it ourselves.

The Silver Cord from your ears to your soul

Had the pleasure of attending a free concert last night with local band turned popular "A Rotterdam November" and Fireflight. The sound for Fireflight was a little off but of course it was free and in a high school auditorium but all things considered it was a pretty good show. I hope Fireflight comes back to somewhere like the Knitting Factory because I would definitely pay to see them again.

Music is amazing! It is one of the biggest parts of my life and there is nothing like seeing a live show. Not only is it fun but it also defines the artist, taking them out of the studio without mixers, soundboards and all the technology to make them sound better. Its just them and you get to see if they are really as good as they sound on CD or if its all cover-up. For me the bands live performance is the most important part of their career. I could love a band tremendously, but if they suck live I will hardly listen to them anymore. This has only happened to me a few times, most of the bands that I have seen live have been amazing but their are a few that have just been terrible.

I saw these guys quite a few years ago while they were on tour with Sum 41. I almost left the concert house before Sum even got on stage because these guys were so bad. I mean this video doesn't do it justice. It was at the Knitting Factory too so bad sound was unacceptable. When you are at the best venue in the valley and you sound like poop, that might be a sign to quit embarrassing yourself and quit while your ahead. But then again the consumers don't help things either. I swear some of these people are in straight denial, cheering on the band, having a so called good time when clearly, the band is terrible. Quit encouraging them people! Maybe you should go to a concert sober every once in awhile. The music industry is bad enough these days without tons of crappy bands making it worse. But still for all the Unwritten Laws and Panic at the Disco's you still have your amazing bands that put on great performances every night but they are starting to become far and few between. The music industry is turning into a cookie cutter, all the new bands sound the same and standout bands are scarce. This is not only the secular industry either, the Christian scene is just as bad if not worse then the secular. Anyone listened to Air One lately? We are not suppose to conform to the world right? So why is it that when I turn on a Christian station I hear the same songs being played several times a day and they almost all sound the same? They use the same strategy as top 40 radio playing the same songs over and over and over again until I want to shoot the radio. Now don't get me wrong, there are some popular songs that I like so not all of them are bad but then everything in moderation is fine anyway, well except for drugs they are no bueno all the time. I mean I am a sucker for Taylor Swift's "Love Story" myself, I know thats weird and yes I know I am a guy but come on the girl writes all her own lyrics and the one's in that song just get me every time. Crap I need to stop talking about it otherwise I am gonna start bawling anyways, what I am trying to say is that we as consumers need to say enough is enough. All of us have different views and different tastes, I understand that but still when you have people like Justin Bieber making it in music something is wrong people. The kid doesn't have any talent whatsoever and he sounds like a little girl, where is the substance in that? (Sorry Ashley) We have let the secular mindset and strategy's sink into our lifestyles. We have let the Disney channel raise our kids and now the Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana era has hit full swing and both secular and Christian markets are benefiting from it. Now I know the Jonas Brothers are Christians and I know that they write their own music but they need to wake up and realize that they are being used. Disney is using them to take advantage of our kids and we need to take a stand and say enough is enough. Thats all I have for now, until next time God bless.

Here is a recommended listening list of some bands/albums that I enjoy.

House of Heroes-"The End is Not the End"

The Classic Crime-"Albatross" "The Silver Cord"

Coheed and Cambria-"Year of the Black Rainbow" "Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3" "No World for Tomorrow"

Circa Survive-"Blue Sky Noise"

Pink Floyd-"Dark Side of the Moon"

A Perfect Circle-"Thirteenth Step"

Chevelle-"Sci-Fi Crimes"

City and Color-"All albums"

Burden of a Day-"Blessed be the Everafter"

Attack Attack!-"Someday came suddenly"

Project 86-"Drawing Black Lines" "Truthless Heroes"