One stunning question

It's probably been over a year since I stopped choosing to listen to any secular music. To most people this seems like a thing to do based on a pride that shows how good of a Christian I am or that I'm just crazy. To me, not listening to secular music has been amazing. There are so many incredible songs that I have found by being picky enough to only listen to Christian music. For me, listening to Christian music means listening to songs with lyrics that are intended to glorify, worship and praise God. There are a lot of different artists who claim to be "Christians". There are significantly less of them whose lyrics are always meant to glorify and praise God. I usually choose to not listen to those self proclaiming Christians who write music that has no obvious purpose of glorifying God. I don't want to stir up disunity, but I do want to ask a question. "Why would you choose to entertain yourself with an act of rebellion against God that's ultimate purpose is self-glorification?" Yes, I did (intentionally) make that sound really bad. For those of you thinking about how you can defend your choice of entertainment, honestly ask yourself why you are enjoying this feeble entertainment when you could be spending your time storing up treasures in heaven. There are a lot of people who are really smart and can probably figure out a way to argue with me. There are lots of good things to do, there are very few things that are the best you and I can be doing. I have heard (from a very close friend) an argument for the fact that he can glorify God through secular music. I think it "might" be possible, but why settle for something like music made to defy the ultimate being in the universe when you have so readily the option of entertaining yourself with music made to glorify, praise and worship? Think about it, what type of music will be heard throughout heaven? How many scriptures talk about shouting to the Lord and singing praises to His name? If in the PERFECT state, we will be hearing and singing music that is made FOR THE PURPOSE of glorifying God, why would we choose anything less than that while on earth? If any of you are thinking to yourselves that I don't know what I'm talking about and think I haven't heard any secular music so I have no idea what I'm missing out on, your wrong. I'm a little sad to say that I have heard tons of secular music. I have a brother that was at one point looking into being a professional musician. I have heard such a large variety that I don't honestly know how one person could like so many different types of music (my brother that is).

But if our purpose is to glorify God, shouldn't that always be our goal?

Psalm 34:1 "I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth."

A man after God's own heart, inspired by God to say this. What sort of songs would he be listening and singing along to? How can we be blessing the Lord at ALL times when we have idle lyrics stuck in our heads?

Psalm 33:34 "Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God."

The reason that God has blessed this earth with music is to glorify Himself. Why would we use it for anything else?

I am no better than anyone else. I have committed sins that are worthy of eternal damnation. I have sins that I struggle with constantly. I don't want to make it sound like I am so much better than you, I feel that God has given me grace to see how often my actions are rooted in sin.

This may completely change the way you think about music and it may do absolutely nothing. Please think about this question "Maybe you can use secular music for good, but can you use it for the best?"

After writing everything up to this point I talked to some other Christians. Now I want to make sure I am not misunderstood. I do believe that it is "possible" to glorify God through listening to secular music. I just think that usually our intent in listening to secular music is not glorifying God. Thinking about whenever I listened to a secular song, I don't think my intention was glorifying God. In fact, I know that my ultimate desire was self-pleasure. The reason I chose to point this out is that it is an area in which we can very easily represent Christ or represent ourselves. When we are representing Christ we don't look like the world. When we represent ourselves, we usually do. I think there could be a great witnessing opportunity towards those who don't listen to the same things. Maybe they will even ask you why you are so "weird". What an amazing opportunity to share your faith!

My goal in posting this is to make us as Christians think about why we do what we do. Why do we choose to listen to secular music? Is our ultimate goal glorifying God or just entertaining ourselves? I don't want to say that entertainment is bad, just that EVERYTHING we do should have the ultimate purpose of glorifying God.

One fun sport

Gymnastics is amazing. I've learned more from gymnastics than I have from any other sport or non-spiritual activity. I don't do gymnastics anymore but for eight years God blessed me with the time and resources to continue to flip, twist and do some pretty incredible feats. Gymnastics taught me a lot, I learned how to lead people. Because I have two older brothers, I have never done a lot of leading in my family. The gym was the first time I was put in a situation where I was asked to lead others. For about four years I was the team captain and was in a position of leadership among the team. We were kinda like brothers and in most ways I acted the oldest and was respected as the one in charge. Now as much as I learned in leadership within gymnastics, I learned hardly anything. my coach wasn't a Christian and so I was leading my teammates and myself to glory... at least, thats what I thought. We wanted to be the best. To make our club famous. To be famous. To go to the Olympics. To win. All of this was a vain pursuit of selfish desires. Since then God has given me a few various leadership positions within the Church, and then is when I finally realized what it truly was to lead. (I really don't want to make it sound like I was at a horrible gym with mean people.... I wasn't. Some of the nicest people I've met have been from gym, but it will sound kinda like I'm bashing it. I don't want to make it sound bad, just to make something else sound so much better!) At gym I was taught to help people and then when they weren't listening or didn't get it, to move on because I needed to focus on myself. In the Christian life its so incredibly different, when someone you lead is in a dilemma or having trouble. Instead of leaving them with their spiritual burdens, we are called to bear with them. It is so amazing to be able to stand with one another and come along side those in need and help. Christ gave all of himself for others and we are called to give all of ourselves for Christ. Gymnastics was great. I learned how to lead but not in a real fulfilling way like God has showed me while at church. I think its a really good analogy for this life. We learn things in an imperfect way, we see God and others in a way that isn't completely correct. Now we see in a mirror dimly, then we shall see face to face.... Wow! What a spectacular promise! We will see Him in a perfect way someday.... and what a day that will be!

One thought-provoking quote

[20] And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” [21] They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

This quote is often used to tell people that we should pay taxes... and thats about it. I think thats true, but they are missing so much in this verse. Yes we should "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" but read the end of that verse one more time. "and to God the things that are God's". Think with me for a moment, whose image were we made in? In whose likeness have we been molded? Honestly I haven't spent a ton of time examining this verse, but I was reading it tonight and it struck me.... What is it that we must render to God? I think all of us know that we are to give our lives to Christ and that we owe everything to Him. That being said, ask yourself "how much of myself am I giving up to God?" I often think to myself at nighttime "how did I use today to intentionally glorify God?" I find it really sad when I have to search my mind real hard to find just one example I used my time to glorify the one who is deserving of all devotion, praise, honor, majesty, love, (an endless list of things) and glory. My hope and desire is that my life will be so incredibly focused on Christ that I will no longer be distracted by little things like money, my time and my life... things that are so worthless when compared to Christ. I pray that I would be so crazily in love with God that that love would overflow and be an ever present example of how we are loved by God.

-Matthew 22:20-21

One blessed weekend

This last weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Tijuana, Mexico with a group of 25 people from church and a few other friends. The group from our church has been going for the past 6 years and have had pretty wonderful experiences every year. This year was certainly no exception. The reason for our trip was to build a house with the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) ministry Homes of Hope. The past two years the group from church has gone it has rained. One year so severely that they had trouble completing the house. The other year just enough to slow things down and make it slightly less comfortable. This was my first year going and it was a great experience. We left on Friday the 21st and went to the YWAM base in Tijuana. On Saturday we started building and through much prayer and God's providence the skies were clear and the work was incredibly quick. We had a few of the staff from YWAM come and help us and one of them (who has built hundreds of houses) said that this was one of the fastest builds. On top of that, she said it was the best looking house she had ever built. It was amazing to hear that God could use a bunch of people with just a little skill to perform a task with such precision. This is just a basic rundown of the trip. What i really want to focus on is what God was doing in my life and in the lives of those around me. The people we built the house for were complete strangers to us. Someone from YWAM had interviewed them and decided that they really were in need of house. The only things we knew about this family is that they were a family of three, lived in Mexico and needed a house. What we found out when we got to meet them was that they ran an orphanage in Tijuana and used their time and money supporting more the 50 orphans. They really are an example of pure and undefiled religion. For me the trip was a reminder about how I need to always be living a Christ-centered life and how incredibly spoiled I am. It's odd to think of myself as spoiled because I come from a large family and I really don't have a lot of expensive things (and the expensive things I do have I actually had to buy). But when we were in Mexico I got to see and be reminded of the poverty that some can live in and still joyously proclaim that they are blessed beyond measure. Something all of us should strive for is to live in a way that is always giving out of what we have. No matter how much we really have or don't have. It's an amazing thing to be able to give those who have practically nothing something that is so special. I hope and pray that I will always be grateful for what I have and always give some part of that. All for the glory of God.

One life to live

This is it. We are here, we won't be coming back. We only have one chance to give our lives to God. We only have one opportunity to preach the gospel to all those around us. If someone was told they had three months to live, almost every one of us would do the things they wanted. Most of us would take time to be with friends and family. Many people would try to "get right with God". Most of us would do the things that we thought were really important. But if you think about what is going to happen... you have no idea what's coming. The future on this earth is so uncertain that I could die typing this blog post. When we think about how long we have to live, it doesn't matter if we live to be one or one hundred. It's just a vapor, our lives just appear for a little while and then disappear without us knowing what's going to happen. And still so many Christians are spending this tiny amount of time they have on this earth and using it to please themselves. I think of myself in the same way. I spend hours every day doing what I want. Sadly every hour I waste could be my last. I don't mean that we should always live afraid to die, and we should not live in fear of death, but always prepared. You have one life, how will you use it? One of the only good things that we can't do in heaven is evangelize. Once we get to heaven everyone around us will be saved, and what a joy that will be! Think about how you spend your time and money, what are you investing those things in? We only have one chance to give our entire lives to Christ, what are we waiting for?

One time of prayer

Walking home from Church today, I had about half an hour or so when I could just pray... I am so thankful for so many things. God has blessed me with so many things. I'm sure that a lot of you have sung (or at the very least heard) the song "count your blessings, name them one by one". Not really sure what the name is, but I think you probably know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I was thinking about all the different blessings I had and simply thanking God for those blessings. Well one of the really big ones was prayer. I was thinking about it, and its so easy and it happens so often that we pray because it's "time to pray". I think this mostly happens before bed and at meal times. Pretty sad when you really think about it. We can talk with the Almighty God of the universe! Wow! This is the same God that people in the old testament had to serve without ever being able to go into His presence. There was one time a year when one priest could go into God's presence.... Most people in Israel were not priests, meaning they would never enter God's presence. Most priests were not even able to go into the "Holy of Holies" (where God was). We as Christians can speak to God. We can request things of God and He hears our prayers. He promises to never leave us nor forsake us. He has always been with us and will always be with us. When we speak to Him, He is with us. When we aren't speaking to Him, still He is with us. Amazing that the God which we serve would hear our prayers and yet what do we pray for? I think that what we pray about reveals what our heart's true focus is. How much of our prayers are focused on our wants? How much of our prayers are focused on other people? How much time to we spend praising God? How much do we actually thank God from whom every good and perfect gift comes? It is somewhat startling how often I find myself praying for me, what I want to happen, what I need. Do we really believe that God will answer our prayers or are we just praying because we should? If anyone right now is praying because it's the "right thing to do" I think there is a blessing that isn't being counted. Most people serve they're god's out of fear, out of selfishness and out of hate sometimes. How amazing it is that we have the ability and freedom to actually talk to God.

One last goodbye

Yesterday one of my brothers left our home in California to go on a 6 months trip with the missions organization, YWAM. it was interesting to me that everyone tried to be nice and act well the day before he left. (myself included) We all wanted him to leave on a good note, to be able to remember his family and be excited for the time when he could return to us. Well it struck me that as all of us were being so nice, we didn't know if we would ever see Him again.... But we also didn't know if we would ever see each other again. Last night after my brother left my mom was driving home with a few of my little siblings and had a near-death experience. A very old lady was driving her car on the wrong side of the road. The feeling that my mom and all of the little siblings in the car felt most was fear. Thankfully God protected them and they made it safely home. What if they had died? If you think about it, not one of us knows how much longer we have to live. Some of us will have longer than we could guess, others shorter than most would expect. I tend to always have pleasant goodbyes. I usually say something nice before saying goodbye. What if I was with someone who died before I could say goodbye? What if I left on a bad note. What if the last thing I ever did was complain about taking some trash out. All of us should live each day as if it is the last one we will ever have. We should always be ready for Christ to take us home. And for those of you who know people who aren't ready for Christ.... Shouldn't we do everything we can right now? Be ready for His coming, live every day as if it's your last and prepare others for the day when He returns.

One interesting thought

To share this blog with tips and things that should be done... I don't think I have the right to do that. I think I would have to read every one of my posts about a thousand times until they started to really change the way I live before I could tell other people how they should live. Even typing these posts makes me feel prideful. Somehow it doesn't seem right... at least now yet. Maybe someday i'll have something thats really useful, but for now, I hope this changes the way I live and treat people.

One humbling experience

Just a few minutes ago, I was chatting with my best friend and doing some homework. My mom asked me to go and help my little siblings take some trash out to the front yard. Shouldn't have been a big deal... and yet somehow I got a little upset that I had to help my little siblings with their job. Why should I have to help them with something that they should be able to do by themselves? I got up and went to help them, not with a good attitude though. On my was to the side yard where the trash was I angrily mumbled something to my little brother about coming to help me because he was walking away. I then proceeded to see one of my neighbors sitting in his car. At this I immediately stopped and quietly walked to the side to get the trash. the rest of the story is fairly unimportant but after I saw my neighbor I thought to myself "You need to set an example, you are representing Christ. How can you ever preach the gospel to this guy if you are so mean to your siblings?" When I thought this I had to look back over the past couple of minutes. I had been disrespectful towards my mom, angry at my siblings, selfish in not wanting to help and had a bad attitude. This was not how I should have represented Christ. We as Christians are so quick to put on a good face and to make ourselves appealing to those who we want to reach with the gospel. We are so appearance-based that we forget that we are representing Christ 24-7. There is no timeout, no halftime, no respite. We are representing Christ all the time, both to ourselves and to others. I think that we as Christians are such good actors. Myself being one of the best. I have been able to convince quite a few people that as far as people go, I'm "perfect". And sad as it is, for way too long looking perfect has been my goal. But reading Matthew 5:48 I realize that I no longer should strive to look perfect, but to truly be perfect. I hope that as we read Jesus' words we can truly understand what He wants from us.

One great song

One of my older brothers wrote a song called glorified. The main idea of this song is pleading with God to glorify Himself through us. Our goal in life is to glorify God so what better thing to ask for than the ability to do just that. My prayer for my life is that God would be glorified. I don't want the praise or the honor of being an awesome person, I just want God to be glorified in my life. I want to live in a way that shows the love of Christ and the greatness of God. I want my life to be one that is so focused on God that others notice my love for God before they notice any human achievement of mine. My prayer and plea is that God (the one and only omnipotent God) would be glorified in me.

One indescribable cross

When I think about the cross sometimes I just have to pray... In my heart I know that the cross had to happen in order for me to be saved. Still, when I think of the physical pain it sometimes brings me to tears. Yet somehow that physical pain was NOTHING compared to what Christ felt as he had the sins of all mankind from the beginning of creation until the future abolishment of sin thrust upon Him. How He took that punishment and yet through it all did not once curse God, decide to come down from the cross or anything else that was well within His power. He endured until the end. I can't even imagine myself being whipped almost to the point of death without cringing. I can't imagine taking a thousand splinters into my back with a cross upon my back without wanting to stand with my back against a wall to save myself from something half as painful. I can't think about what Christ did for me and not just say "Jesus, thank you". It's so amazing what Christ did for us on Calvary, and yet when I think of what I do for others, it makes me rather sad. This cross, torture, punishment, judgement and pain was supposed to be mine. He died in my stead. He gave up His life to save me, and yet what do I do for Him? Shouldn't it be so easy to serve Him? I have a girl that I really like and I would do almost anything for her without thinking about it. Sometimes though, I would rather let the name of Christ be mocked and His glory spat upon rather than sacrifice of myself. I can't explain the true gruesomeness of Calvary. It was the most painful thing anyone could ever go through, not just the horrid tortures, but what was going on spiritually. Christ had an infinite condemnation pressed upon Him. Christ has done so much for me. What will I do for Him now? I love Him because He first loved me. Someday my hope and prayer is that I will be able to say "I gave my life up for Him because He first gave up His life for me". My prayer is that if I am martyred or give my career, time and money to Him. One day I can say truthfully say that my whole life was lived for His Glory.

One first hello

This is my blog... I can't really decide if I want to tell anyone if it exists or not, but for right now I guess I will write to myself.