A Few Brilliant Ideas...

I have issues with many denominations of Christianity due to their emphasis on either faith alone, or on works alone. As Christians we have been transformed by the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. When people claim that they are saved by faith but I see no fruit, no works, I begin to question. The Bible supports what John Piper calls "Christian Hedonism", here are a couple verses from God's word that show this.

Faith without works:
James 2:20 "But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"
Matthew 12:33 "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit."


Works without faith:
Romans 3:28 "for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law," 
Matthew 15:8 "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

While works are not necessary to achieve salvation, real faith is followed by real works. We should desire to work for Christ if we do have an authentic faith.

Watch this video, it explains why God gave up his son... It's beautiful and easy to follow. It gave me a renewed appreciation for the Gospel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tQwI7EY4KM

Today I've been working on a couple of different projects.

One is a song about the Crucifixion of Christ, here's an excerpt of the first four lines:

I've had this question a lot, "Why do you like Relient K?"... It comes down to a number of different factors.

1. Awesome dueling Electric Guitars.
-For some reason I really like the style of the electric guitars... The melodies are simple but come together to create a really cool big picture.

2. Complicated Drum Lines
-I'm a sucker for a good drum line, and Relient K has some pretty insane drum lines. I've tried playing them and most of the time get lost due to the variation...

3. They have a piano!
-This is a big factor for me as I am essentially a piano player. Adding a piano to any band adds at least 1 star to their rating. :D

4. I like the leader singers voice/lyrics
-I know the first part is a little subjective. I also like John Mayer's voice, but that's more of a matter of opinion then a "fact" per-say. However, the lyrics really are amazing. The first thing you need to do is to realize that not every song they did is "Sadie Hawkins Dance", if you listen to most of there albums after that they tend to be a lot more serious. Their lyrics are deep in that they communicate a lot of deep truths about God without stooping always stooping to the most basic truths.

5. They are a Christian Band.
-This is one of the biggest factors for me, as non-Christian bands don't push me toward the Gospel in the same ways.

These are 5 reasons for why I listen to Relient K, they are a part of my top 5 bands. Why do you listen to the bands you listen to?

Last summer I attended a Creative Writing Program at West Chester University. I would highly recommend it to others because it was lots of fun, if you like to write. This year I made it into the brochure, 4th page.

http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/writing.prj/documents/YouthBrochure2011-2_006.pdf

And so begins my modeling career.

Publish Post -teehee

Pageviews by Operating Systems Windows 72 (82%) Macintosh 8 (9%) iPod 5 (5%) Nintendo Wii 2 (2%)

I know there are a select few people who actually read my blog... At least I think there are. Anyways, this is a test run on that note.

The title pretty much says it all, if you have any requests on things I could write, or even just want me to keep writing as I am, this post will remain a permanent place for requests. That's it.

(Also, if you have Youtube video/song requests this is a good place to do that as well if you're too lazy to log onto Youtube/make an account.)

Erp a derp.

I am. Recently I've been attempting to turn my listening focus to more Christian music. I was talking with a friend who was asking for a list of Christian rockers so I decided to make a list. If I missed any please comment and add them to the list. These are artists who have clearly had Christian music.

VOTA
Worth Dying For (Spoken word rap/metal?)
tobymac(more pop majority)
The Almost
The Afters
Tenth Avenue North(soft rock)
This Beautiful Republic
Switchfoot
Starfield (worship/rock)
Sovereign Grace Music (Worship)
Skillet (Heavy Rock)
Sixteen Cities
Shawn McDonald
Sanctus Real
Revive(softer)
Remedy Drive(softer)
Relient K
Reilly
Red (metal/rock)
One Bad Pig(oldies rock?)
Newworldson(very black less rock xD)
Needtobreathe
Nevertheless (Rock {aka. Power-pop?})
Mikeschair(softer)
MercyMe (countryish rock?)
JJ Heller (ballad pop)
Jimmy Needham (Jazzy rock?)
Jason Castro
Hawk Nelson
Group 1 Crew (Pop/rock/rap)
Fireflight
Fransesca Battistelli
Flyleaf
Everyday Sunday
Echoing Angels (assuming rock)
David Crowder(worship)
Caleb(a song is Wait to help find them)
Tree63
Brit Nicole (pop)
Brandon Heath (pop/rock)
Before Their Eyes (some screamo)
Barlow Girl
August Burns Red (metal)
All Together Separate (oldies rock?)
After Edmund (great acoustic stuff)
Above the Golden State

Dear Diary... Today I was glancing around on the internet and I realized something. People are edgin' up on my territory! "Following" is EVERYWHERE. I looked at Gmail Buzz and people have this many "followers". Youtube, "Followers". Even Neopets has "followers" for crying out loud. What is all this foolishness, I thought I was the stalker around here?!?! What is the world coming to that there are so many stalkers in my competition? Not only are they stalking my stalked, but they're stalking them oneverything, their blog, their youtube, their other blog. Next thing you know they'll be able to follow people's houses. That used to be impassable to everyone 'cept moi. I can see it now. "Hey George I just started following your house, sub for sub?" "Sure Nick, I've always wanted to follow your house?" Stalking has become commonplace and everyday. Where does that leave the hardcore stalkers like me? Technology is ruining all my systems of stalk-age. It's becoming increasingly hard to stalk solo. (I'm stalking solo, I'm stalking solo...) I am quite peeved at this nonsense. Now they have BRANDS of stalkers like you're buying them at the store. In my mind the aisles look like this... Aisle 1-Facebook Stalkers Aisle 2-Youtube Stalkers Aisle 3-Google Stalkers Aisle 4-General Stalking merchandise Aisle 5-Professional Stalkers Aisle 6-Classic/Hardcore Stalkers Stop tryin' to steal my stalk game. I want all the waffles.

Just thought you all should know. It's 6:15 and we're still here... Oh well, life moves on.

I can't speak for the whole world, but as for myself, left to myself, I'm probably not going to change anything about myself until you are willing to accept all of me as I am. It's already hard to listen when you are accepting me. What's already hard becomes impossible when people won't listen. It's kind of like having a conversation with a person with earplugs that can't hear you. I'm not likely to change my identity to become more acceptable in your presence until I see equal appreciation for who I already am.

All too often I can catch myself being persuaded to change myself for the wrong reasons, and that bothers me. I should be changing because I want to maintain friendships and because I am willing to listen to people who love me. God is the ultimate source of my conformation. He has always loved me for who I am, since the dawn of time. Because of his love, my conforming to his wishes should never be far behind.

I'm not able to conform to your likes/mannerisms with at least an appreciation when you aren't willing to even listen to anything I have to say. I respond to love, with love in kind, and attempting to mirror what good I see in the love of that person. This is not to say that I won't attempt to try and appreciate others' different tastes but it becomes much more difficult when they are not already acting in love.

For example, am I more likely to act in appreciation toward a metal/screamo song my brother shows me or someone I don't really get along with? Well, the obvious answer is, I respond in love in return to the love my brother has shown me in the past. He has shown me love, so the task is not impossible, just somewhat difficult at times.

[I use the word love very freely in this context, any of the aforementioned responses could mean respect, love, appreciation, and acceptance.]


It works the same way with friends and family. Just because you don't like Disney Channel, doesn't mean I'm going to stop liking Disney. In fact, I'll probably be inclined to bring it up as much as humanly possible if you cringe at every reference. Yeah, I'm one of those people. When you accept that it is a part of life (and probably always will be xD) I'll probably stop talking about it because I know it annoys you. When you are ready to accept that, without laughing, cringing, or mocking, that's when I'm ready to conform.

Next to God, the people who I conform most to are my parents. If their wishes are ones that I can't see any harm in, even if I don't see a point to them, I will conform because their love is constantly on display. They put up with me day and night, with all my quirks and blasting music at all hours.

Many times this love=conformation is not an intentional practice by me, just something that I do naturally. I think we all want acceptance, and as hard as the task may be, are liable to make that extra hard step as long as we are showed acceptance. Maybe I'm weird but that's just how my mind works.

To paraphrase one of my Dad's favorite lines from Roosevelt, "People won't care how good your tastes are until they know how much you care".

Reaching out and communicating with the world is a task that I have been given to fulfill.  Without God's help I wouldn't stand a chance at reaching out and accepting other for who they are. So my job is to beat the impossible task with God's help, to makes bonds with people who aren't initially accepting. I have been given a quest to share the Gospel with the nations and because of that I want you to know how much it means to have people that are receiving. And even more comforting are those who share that belief with me.

Booyah!