Shallow Gospels

The Winter Jam tour spectacular! One of the largest annual Tour in Christian music. Featuring such names as Newsboys, David Crowder Band, Kutless, And many more.
Ten dollars at the door for ten artists.
This was the seventh Winter jam I have gone to and it was HUGE!
In Oklahoma city over 15 thousand people crowded into the Oklahoma city arena to watch the show. two years ago winter jam featured Skillet, Barlow Girl and Mercy Me and broke the record and became the largest concert ever in Oklahoma.

But as amazing and fun as the show was, there was one thing that I came away with that bothered me.
With that many people in one place and all eyes and ears focused on whoever was on the stage, why couldn't ANYone have given a straightforward gospel message!?

The speaker/preacher for the winter jam tour was a man named Tony Nolan. Tony has been on most of the Jam tours preaching and giving his testimony.
The basic jist of what he preached was this... No matter what sin you have done, no matter what your doing in your life right now, no matter what, God is still madly in love with you.
Is this true? Absolutely!  But the problem was that they stopped right there!
They told people that God loves them and there is forgiveness for their sins. but they did not go on to tell people that if they do not turn to Christ and believe in his death on the cross,then they are going to hell when they die.
They did not mention faith all that much. and only mentioned the Cross and Christs death maybe once or twice that I can Remember.
people were not told that God wants to do more than just forgive you, he wants to change you into a new person! one that wants to follow him! Never was to concept of the old man being gone away and being a new creature in Christ talked about. Nor was Jesus taking our place on the Cross talked about. It was all just that God loves you even if your living in sin.

Maybe i am to cynical but I can just see someone almost feeling like God was ok with their sin because of what the preachers at Winter jam preached. Like sin is something that God doesn't really like, but he loves people so if we just repeat this little prayer that they say to us then everything will be alright. Then they don't really have Christ in their lives and they CANT change and turn away from Sin because that is impossible without Christ. So they show up next year and go through the same thing again.

It is really sad to me that A pastor with over 15 thousand men women and kids listening to them cant give a straightforward gospel message. It was convoluted and watered down. as if the people in the crowd are to dumb to understand anything deeper than A kids Sunday school teaching.

I have been to many concerts and I have only been to one where a straight forward gospel message was preached.
It was a small Sanctus Real concert at a college near where I live.
They didn't need a special Pastor or anything to give a message.
The lead singer of the band simply gave his testimony then proceeded to give a gospel message to the unsaved and a message of encouragement to the saved.
It was one of the most refreshing things to hear the Gospel preached like that, in such a straightforward way that people were not left guessing what they had to do to be saved.

Christians everywhere need to understand that the Gospel is something deeper than just "God loves you"
People need to understand that they are a sinner according to God laws.
They need to understand that because they are a sinner they are going to be punished by being sent to hell when they die.
And they need to understand that the only way to be saved is if you believe that Christ took that punishment
upon himself and offers his perfection in exchange for our sin.

That is something that is hardly preached in churches today.

I hope this makes sense.
I would love some feedback to...I would like to see what others think about this.

God Bless

So i found out that i could post to my blog through text messaging. To bad I can only send 160 characters per text message. :/ but it's still cool.

A Tribute

This blog post is a tribute to one of Americas most recognized cartoon characters.





SNOOPY!!!!

Perhaps the most popular cartoon dog in history, Snoopy has been entertaining millions for years through comic strips, videos, holiday and greeting cards, and ......everything else.

If it can have a picture put on it, then snoopy's probably on one somewhere.

He has inspired many to be cool. I myself have taken the nickname Joe Cool for many media login names.

He is one of the most lovable animated characters in america.

Snoopy's awesome.
We love Snoopy.
Nuff said.

Blah?

So i have been seeing alot of friends lately that are feeling very... Blah about their lives right now.
Random posts from some that are...not really looking for a purpose for their lives, just really unsatisfied with where their lives are. Feeling very stagnant and like they just need to do something different.

Others however have really been struggling with what the purpose of their life is.

I myself have been feeling very restless and in need of....Something!
At first I attributed  it to the  fact that I had been snowed in for two weeks and hadn't been able to get out and about. But then I realized that the reason for the feeling (I believe) was because of a change that had occurred in me over the past few months.
A kind of awakening led me to realize that I wasn't letting god lead me like I had in the past.
I had become so focused on finishing school as quickly as I could (which wasn't very quickly at all really) that I had lost sight of a calling that I felt from God long before I started college.

Along with school I had become focused on myself and how I wasn't living up to the standards that I wish I could. I felt lazy and unable to get any motivation for anything. I kept going and telling myself that I was doing good because i wasn't quitting. But I still felt that ever present sense of failure.I kept thinking of other friends who made better money, had nicer cars, were getting married, were moving on with their lives while I felt like I was stuck in a place I would be for a long time.

Thankfully God woke me up.

The problem with those thoughts is that their all self centered. "I need to get more motivation, I need to get done with school quickly, I need to take the opportunity to witness to people and work for God."
I, I, I,.....
All self focused. And while those things are all good things it was still self centered thinking.
It should be " I need Christ to give me motivation, If it's what Christ wants I will get through school quickly, I need to let Christ use me in the way he wants to use me...not how I think i could be used".

It all came down  to having faith in Christ and letting him lead me. And if things were getting in the way of letting him lead then those things needed to go (hence the break I am taking from school).

What I can say to my friends dealing with feelings that I was having is just this.
Christ has a purpose for every one of his children. The main thing he want's done on this earth is for us to all get really good jobs and make good money right? I don't think so.
The main thing that Christ wants us to do in this life is Love others and minister to those who need it.

I know many of my friends would gladly do anything that they felt God was calling them to.
I know most of my friends would gladly go to any foreign country and preach the Gospel...and that can be really hard to do.
But sometimes it's harder to have patience, Sometimes it's harder to try and see what God may be calling you to do where your at. I know this. If you cant do the little thing's that he calls you to right now. Or be a witness for him in the place that your at, he will not be able to send you out to do something big for him.

The main point is that your identity and who you are is in Christ. He has the plan for your life. But if you don't submit to him in every part of your life he will not be able to lead you to that plan. When your focused on yourself then you wont measure up to much. But when we focus on Christ then that is the ultimate standard to shoot for.

God bless.

Friends

I must say that I love all of my friends!
Nothing builds me up spiritually like talking to good friends.
Listening to music with good friends makes the music that much better.
Playing games would be no fun if i didn't have friends to play them with.

What would be the point of writing a blog if I didn't have friends that would grit their teeth and be bored to death reading it.
I love my friends.

My good friends are always there if I need to talk about something.
They are always willing to give me advice.

Friends are there to have fun with.

You can get through thick and thin with a good friend.

What fun are sports without friends?


Friends rock!
If your reading this then your a friend!


You rock :)
God Bless!