When Push Comes to Shove...

I had a GREAT Christmas and I hope everyone else did as well! I got a TON of iTunes gift-cards so now I can start getting music again (recently deleted 90% of my music). I decided to download all the worship music I like off of 104.7 the fish and from Northpoint/Buckhead Church. Its time I listened to positive music instead of the filth and garbage I've been shoving in my ears since I was a teen. Its been putting me in a much better mood actually, and the funny thing is now that I look back at my old old livejournal I'm noticing that I posted all the songs I was listening to at the time. And no big surprise, its all super depressing, negative, angry, and moody rock. Go figure...Jesus was right about how what goes into your ears and eyes affect your heart. DUH

Anyhow, there was a reason besides the update that I wanted to make this blog. I read something in the Bible that really impacted me recently. I found this verse because I was listening to Francis Chan on YouTube....who is AMAZING by the way. If you haven't heard him go listen to him. I read one of his books for my small group which is how I heard of him in the first place. If you looked up the last guy I mentioned (Doug Batchelor) and compared them, I'd say Doug is an incredible Teacher while Francis is a man COMPLETELY in love with God. Its very refreshing to hear him speak. But anyhow, one of his messages was just so powerful to me. Its about how when we choose Jesus, we die to the world. And that its a great trade, not something we should ever feel sorrowful for or that we got the short end of the stick. And that's what brought me to this verse....

"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." (Matthew 10:32-33)

I read this and I asked myself, would I stand before everyone I know and proclaim that Jesus is Lord? Really really, when push comes to shove, would I stand up for him? Well when I get to heaven I want...no I NEED him to stand up for me! I won't be able to speak in the presence of God the Father, his glory will be too much. I need Jesus to stand by me and acknowledge me then. There have been sooo many time in my life where I've 'pulled a Peter" and denied him. I either downplayed my faith, or shut up when I could have stood up for him. Well I felt a burning desire to stand up for him in front of my peers so I decided to post it on my facebook status. Goes to every person I know (for the most part).

But the hard part of doing this is that I knew when it came down to it that I would lose a lot of "worldy credibility" for doing this. I knew I might lose friends. I knew I'd be looked on as a moron. I mean who believes the Bible in this day and age of Ipods and cellphones? With all this science and technology...who actually for real believes the old stuff that the Bible says is actually true? I do.

And then I found this verse....

"If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." (1 Peter 4:14)

So really every-time I'm put down in this world because of the name of Jesus I'm BLESSED! That's FRICKEN awesome! Because I'm absolutely sure that the overwhelming majority of the world will "insult" me because of my belief. Now this is God promising....and I love God's promises because they are rock solid; that I'll be blessed because of it! Amazing! I hope that many more insults come my way because of Christ so I am even more blessed!

Pirates arr Bad

So the other day I was thinking about how much of the things we own now are media/software type stuff. It used to be that the majority of the stuff my generation owned was stuff like CDs, video games, VHS movies, sporting equipment ect. But these days most of the stuff I own is more intangible. Computer software, mp3s, movies in digital format, apps, ect. What struck me as odd is how "ok" everyone is (include myself on this) with stealing now that stuff is more intangible.

I mean think about it. Anything that you have to pay for retail-wise that you somehow obtain for free is stealing. For instance, I'd never ever think about breaking into a music store at night and stealing some of their CD's but I have many many times downloaded mp3s off p2p programs like limewire and napster illegally. But the reality is that THIS IS THE SAME THING! I mean cmon, do we all think that in the stealing CD's example that the store and music producers would be mad only about the physical cds themselves? Duh, no. Those are super super cheap, its the media on them that has value. So in essence we do the same thing but in this case its very hard to be discovered.

I mean I myself have used these p2p programs to download probably hundreds if not thousands of dollars of media over the past 10 years and I even used IP Blocker programs to cover my tracks! All without even realizing or accepting the fact that I was stealing. I think I was trying to blind my own self from the truth. Software piracy is stealing. Downloading mp3s without paying for them is stealing. Using bit torrents and the like is stealing, and I think we all do it without really thinking about it. I mean its so common. Even more so in Asia from what I hear.

I don't know how I went all these years without coming to this realization. But the truth is the truth. And the truth sucks, haha, because its sooo hard to pay for something that you can steal so easily without anyone finding out. But in your heart you know, and God knows too for that matter.

So I say if you're gonna stay a digital "Pirate" and steal media online and the like....at the very least ADMIT to yourself that you are stealing. Don't try to rationalize it (oh those companies make millions, they won't miss a few bucks here) You can't rationalize away stealing. If we continue to steal, we have to be honest and admit at least to ourselves that we are Pirates.

And not the cool Johnny Depp kind, the low life criminal evil kind.



Arrr matey's! I'm abandonin da ship!
I QUIT
I WON"T BE NO PIRATE NO-MORE!