'Til Death Do Us Part?

I watch ATF tv every weekend. For those of you who do not know what that is, it's short for Acquire the Fire, Ron Luce's weekly television program about teens making the world their ministry. I am however getting tired of seeing the same four episodes in weekly rotation though. On one particular episode they showed footage from a stadium event, and a girl had brought all her secular music to the event to get rid of it. She didn't want the music and the destructive influence it had on her life anymore. That's great for her. I actually admire her strength and conviction. I sometimes wonder if I will do that one day. It's not looking good though, hehehehe.

I was wondering has anyone else done this or something similar to it? Did you bring all your secular music to an event to get rid of it, or have you gotten rid of it in another way? I still listen to alot of secular music. I don't differentiate between Christian and other types of music, although I realize I have done so for the topic of this post.

I've gone through the CD stores, and I've seen the Gospel section and the Christian section. I've seen the Rock section, the Pop section, the Hip-Hop/Rap section, etc. Opera and Classical sections are there too. There are some sections I've never seen though. For instance, I've never seen the Buddhist section, the Jewish section or the Hindu section. Do these faiths not have their own music? Or is it just catalogued under New Age and/or Spirituality?

All that to say this: to me music is music. I don't hold the position that any one type of music is inherently bad. Now a particular artist in a genre of music may put ideas out there and the lyrics to their songs may be offensive to you as a listener, that's true. But does that invalidate the entire genre? Does that make the whole type of music bad or "destructive" or my personal favorite "of the enemy"?

Your job as a consumer is to figure out who you like and who you don't like. Also, whether or not you believe the same things they do or not. If you don't share their particular views or sexual orientation, should that keep you from buying their music? Or maybe like me you don't overthink music this much and you just like to bang your head or sing along or dance in your car to the radio, or whatever it is you do when you enjoy music.

Up the irons!!! (sorry couldn't resist)

Zecryphon's Christmas Message to You

WARNING!!! The following video clip is not suitable for children. Do not play near children or in the vicinity of children. If you are a child and you are viewing this, I strongly urge you to stop reading this and get an adult. They will find this very amusing no doubt. If you are a teenager and you are reading this, you're gonna do whatever the hell you want anyway, so this warning means nothing to you. But I will not be held responsible by your parents if you all ignore this warning and grow up to be a bunch of degenerate malcontents, and have a job with your name on your shirt.

Now that all of the legalities have been addressed, I found the following video clip expresses my stentiments towards all those people who get offended by Christmas and some of the stuff that goes with it. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I look forward to continuing our talks about the missional purpose of the emergent church... yadda yadda yadda. Also, if you're not Christian, then I wish you a Happy Festivus, Channukah, Kwaanza and/or Yule.

Enjoy in good health and even better spirits. I prefer Bushmill's Irish Whiskey. LOL

http://www.illwillpress.com/xmas.html

Are We Addicted to Grace?

Hi, welcome back. I know it's been waaaaay too long since I posted something. This is because I usually spend my time listening to various podcasts and posting on the message boards of those podcasts. I myself don't have a podcast, but that's no reason I should be silent. So here we go.

Why does a person become a Christian? I don't know about you but the reason I became a Christian (the second time around) was because I had finally recognized my sin and my need to be forgiven of that sin. When a person accepts Christ as their saviour, the old things fall away and they are made a new creation. This new creation is supposed to not want the trappings of our old lives.

But I find that I still sin, repeatedly. Why? Because sin is all we know. We're born into sin at birth and we don't realize we've sinned until we're confronted with the law of God. Once we realize what we've unintentionally done, we want to fix it, but we can't, only God can. So we come to Him to fix us and He does, and we like it. We love that feeling of knowing we are right with God, that we are in His good graces again. So what do we do to show our appreciation for what He has done for us? We go right out and sin again, and again, and again. I think we do this because we know God will always forgive us... ALWAYS. I think we become addicted to God's grace. We know God's grace has no limit, therefore it will always be there when we need a fix. But what if His grace wasn't in endless supply? Would that be what it takes for us to turn our backs on sin and learn how to live something resembling a Godly life?

What are your thoughts?