Tripp Lee: What is the Unwasted Life?
Here you go, though you might enjoy this as much as I did…
July 08 2008 | Christianity and Culture | No Comments »
Artown
I have lived in Reno my whole entire life. To be honest I love it here. I like it for a lot of different reasons, but one thing that I have never really gotten into is Artown. Every July, Reno turns into Artown. Everyday for the entire month there are different artsy-fartsy performances. This year though I am going to attempt to find the time to go and see some of the events.
The reason I am posting this on my site is because I think that this is a great way to get to know what the people of the city I live in are all about. I figure since there is a whole entire month dedicated towards art, maybe the people in Reno enjoy it… Just a hunch…
July 08 2008 | Culture | No Comments »
Heaven in your Head, Hell in your Heart
Today I was browsing through a clothing site called www.EphraimClothing.com. I had never heard of these clothes until recently when a good friend of mine mentioned that she liked them. So today I didn’t have too much to do so I clicked over to see what was so cool about them. As I was browsing I found a t-shirt that was called, “Heaven in your Head, Hell in your Heart.” This t-shirt definitely caught my eye. The design was sweet, but the message was even sweeter.
I know that once we get a firm understanding of who Jesus is, and we begin to venture into a world of knowledge and not emotion it is really easy to forget about the condition of our hearts.
Do you know what I mean? It is seemingly so easy to take the time to read your bible, write a blog, listen to a sermon, read a book, and discuss issues surrounding theology; but it isn’t always that easy to actually apply what you are reading, writing, listening to, or talking about to your own personal life. For example, if you take the time to read the Bible you will quickly learn that lust and sexual sins are greatly hated by God, but it isn’t always easy to actually take that truth and remove that form of sin from our heart. We can also see that we are not walking in the footsteps of Christ if we have filthy mouths, but it isn’t always the easiest or most satisfying thing to try to control. But I want you to listen to what I have to say… It is so important that we do take the time and the effort to control all things in our lives.
We should not go around sinning against God, yet feeling justified because we do truly recognize that what we are doing is wrong. We must pray, asking Jesus to give us the strength to purge those sins from our hearts. We need to make sure that we don’t let the little things grow into larger things, which will eventually make us crumble, and the only reason that we will crumble is because we are not building our house on the solid foundation of truth of Jesus Christ, which we think we know so well, but instead we are ignoring what we have read and are building our houses on the sinking sand of our own knowledge and deceitfully apparent wisdom.
What do you think? Are do you see this in your life? How about in the lives of others? What have you done to get rid of this kind of sin?
July 07 2008 | Christianity and Jesus and Salvation | No Comments »
Great Weekend
I hope that you all had a great 4th of July weekend, because I know I did. On Friday I went and hung out at my sister’s house. While I was there I swam, got sun burned, hung in a chair like a monkey, and had some awesome bbq. After that I went and watched the fireworks with some friends and family. Then the next day I went to Lake Davis with a special someone and a friend. I got totally sunburned, it sucks! But then we went back to that special someone’s grand parents house and had some great food, and then we all went and watched the fireworks over a pond in Graeagle. It was a blast!
July 07 2008 | Life Experiences and Random | No Comments »
Image, Image, Image…
This morning I was making an egg, and I began daydreaming…
…As the lights turned on I found myself so excited that I almost forgot the real reason I was there. I stepped forward and grabbed the microphone… “Thank you all so much for coming out here to see us!!!” And the show began. Hard song after song made for an incredible night, and everybody thought that I was the man! Wearing my crazy punk rocker jeans, and my little white t-shirt that was covered with sweat from rockin’ out so hard….
…”Woah! my egg is burning.”
The funniest thing about this was that I was thinking about one of my favorite Christian rock bands, and you know what I was most interested in? I was interested in the image of being in the band, not the image of Christ being set forth through the music. I found myself more concerned with the way people would perceive me as a rockstar instead of how people would hear the message of Jesus Christ.
I know that this is totally random and I’m not too sure if you completely understand why I’m getting at here, but tell me… Are Christians to consumed with the image which they have? Or are we not concerned enough?
July 04 2008 | Christianity and Culture and Jesus | No Comments »
Living as a Christian
How is it that we can tell who is and who isn’t a Christian?
- Is it by the way they dress? The way they talk?
- The friends they have?
- How much they read the Bible?
- How much they pray?
- How they talk about Jesus?
- How much they show their convictions outwardly?
This is a list of a bunch of things which we can see. Every person should have at least a few of these things in their life. But in a Christians life they should be different, and consistent with Christianity.
The Way You Dress and Talk
This is one of those things that will get make certain people turn away from the church. They will feel like they are judged at times because of the way that they dress or talk. Sometimes this is true, but it doesn’t mean that it is right. When a person is a Christian I would hope that they would stop wearing shirts that expose their chest if they are a girl, and if they are guys I would hope that you couldn’t always see their boxer shorts. Also, why are they dressing the way they do? Sometimes people get so caught up on their appearance that it will consume the way they live, and trust me this is not something that Christians should be hung up on.
The Friends they Have
When a person becomes a Christian they won’t have the desire to sin anymore. So I think that means they also won’t have the desire to have people who are sinning constantly as their closest friends. Friends influence the things that we do, and as a Christian you should be sensitive to the way that the people around you may affect you.
Reading the Bible
As soon as I became a Chrisitian I wanted to know God more, and you get to learn more about God by reading the Bible. Christians shouldn’t count the Bible as burdensome, if you truly are a Christian you should have a hunger inside of you which will drive you to read the Word.
Prayer
Prayer is talking to God, and becoming vulnerable with him. I am not sure why so many Christians have a hard time being committed to prayer. I too have this problem, but there are some people that can’t pray all the way through a prayer service, or that don’t pray unless they are at church. Chrisitians should be excited to pray and not bored!
Talking about Jesus
If Jesus has really changed a person’s life, then I would assume that it would be hard not to keep one’s mouth shut when it comes to talking about him. Christians should have Jesus at the center of everything that they do, therefore they should talk about him a whole lot!
Showing Convictions
Christians should all have convictions. Some of these could even be over some of the things which I have just mentioned. A Christian should have enough convictions that you can see them in their life. For example, I am convicted when I watch movies that are just super dirty, so I try not to watch them. I also don’t enjoy listening to music that talks about how great we are as people, so I too try not to listen to it. I get really concerned when a person seems to have no convictions, because it is not our spirit which convicts us, but it is the spirit of Christ, you know, the Holy Spirit!
So I hope that this is helpful to some of you who wanted to know what some of the simplest parts of a Christians life should look like. I am not saying that if a person is struggling with one of these that they are not a Christian, but I am saying that they should be at least struggling, and if they are struggling they should be overcoming in time.
What are you’re thoughts? Is this accurate? What should the outward appearance of a Christian be? Is it possible to have all of these down like china town and still not be a Christian?
July 03 2008 | Christianity | No Comments »
iPhone Price Update
So I don’t know if you have read my previous post yet, if you have to read it to know what I’m talking about. I told you that the iPhone is $599 for the 8gig, that is true, but only if you are going to do the no commitment plan. They are actually offering an early update option for those who are eligible for a price of $399 for the 8gig, it’s not as bad as I first thought, but I still am not sure how much I want to spend on it…
July 03 2008 | Culture and Random | No Comments »
iPhone: A Lie of a Price
So, I woke up this morning totally stoked about being able to afford the new iPhone which is due for release next week, and it is cheaper than ever, only $199!!! As soon as I got to work I got online to see if there was anyway for me to pre-order it or reserve one, because I was afraid that they would all sell out on the 11th which is the day it comes out. I noticed something very interesting that they don’t mention on the commercials, or maybe I am just blind and haven’t noticed it…
If you are currently a customer of ATT’s then you must be eligible for an upgrade or else the iPhone costs $599 for the 8 gig! This pretty much sucks! I was so excited thinking that Apple was choosing to place a new face on the world of over priced phones, but I guess I was wrong. And just in case you’re wondering, there is no way I would spend $599 dollars on a phone, it just isn’t worth it… Come to think about it, it would be cheaper for me to cancel my service and reinstate it…
How about you? Any of you bummed by the sound of this noise?
July 03 2008 | Christianity | No Comments »
ABYAR on the Old Testament
I am not sure if you have all seen this great book series that Mark Driscoll has written and is being published by Re:Lit. But in case you haven’t here is a promo for the first book of the series…
… I plan on buying this book today. It is supposed to be able to be read in about an hour, so I am anxious to order all four from the entire series, but I am sure I don’t have the funds for that right now, but I want to encourage you all to take the time and read through the series as well. As Christians it is good to know what we believe in and why we believe in it.
Enjoy!
July 02 2008 | Books and Christianity and The Bible | No Comments »
Yoga Rant…
I don’t enjoy ranting, and I don’t enjoy reading rants. I can’t help myself this time though. This morning I was browsing through some photos that a friend of mine posted on her Facebook, and even though they were of Yoga, I decided to check them out. I began reading the captions she had placed on each one, and umm…. This is what I found…
I honor that place in you where the whole universe resides. When I am in that place & you are in that place, we are ONE.
I hope that you see all the reasons here that this bugs me. First of all the universe does not recide within ourselves; we reside in the universe! I am not too sure why or how people find this to be more comforting than the truth that there is a sovereign God whom created all things in this universe, he created one universe, and it is the same for everybody. We don’t contain separate realities within ourselves.
I think it is hilarious how there are people who try to talk about Yoga as if it is harmless to your spiritually if you are Christian. I think the quote above should be enough. It goes completely against all things we believe as Christians, and it is completely derived from the spiritual side of Yoga…
So there is my rant, and I promise I won’t do that too often…
July 02 2008 | Christianity and Culture and Random and Rants | No Comments »
