Phil Robertson, A&E, Christians and the entire Duck Dynasty watching American population.

Okay. In the light of all this wonderful stuff going on in the media. I figured that this would be a great place to start. For those of you that do not know, Phil Robertson the patriarch of Duck Dynasty was quoted in GQ magazine:

Phil: “It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

Then he responded with this after being asked this question:

GQ: What, in your mind, is sinful?

Phil: “Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

After this article came out. The GLADD community (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), went crazy saying that Phil had offended them. A&E was quick to respond to the fact and announced publicly that Phil Robertson would no longer be in the show Duck Dynasty due to a temporary suspension.

Here are my thoughts. I will address the 3 things I see that need to be addressed here.
A&E

First off, you did what you thought was going to benefit your company and not offend anyone that will have as a potential watching audience. Right move? No, probably not... But hey it's only single handedly the LARGEST show that you have EVER had. Keeping the people that probably don't even watch Duck Dynasty happy is probably not your smartest move. People that appreciate the Christian values and the positivity of the show are the ones that watch your show. 

Might take a review of your viewing crowd and quickly rebuttal your decision's backlash.

But.... Hey, what do I know? I'm just one of the thousands to hundreds of thousands that went to support Truett B. Cathy's beliefs when the LBGQT community decided that that was offensive. Chic-fil-a's profits exploded after that and they had one of their best profit seasons that Chic-Fil-a has ever seen.

So, going about the way that you did in addressing this, might not be the absolute greatest way of achieving your sales goals. Because you have to have a popular TV show in order to make a lot of money off of advertisers.

Phil Robertson

Although, I have not really ever been a fan of the show. There is something to be noted about the way your family maintains your Christian beliefs in mainstream culture. It is a breath of fresh air for the TV industry as a whole and I really appreciate your family deciding to do this. However, I'm not going to take the modern Christian approach about you being persecuted for your faith. You are in the limelight of mass media, you did speak your heart and your faith... but persecution seems a bit much. You are still capitalizing off of millions upon millions of dollars in merchandise and other non-TV show routes.

I believe that Jason Huffman spoke about this very well in his blog. (I'll post a link to his blog at the bottom.) Christians are quick to jump and stand up for Phil and his persecution. This isn't in my eyes persecution. Persecution is the underground churches all over the world that have to go underground with their faith to avoid being killed. Victims of persecution are the hundreds, if not thousands of martyrs who die for what they believe in yearly. Persecution is being killed for even mentioning the name "Jesus."

Christians

America isn't facing much if any persecution... we are having disagreements about lifestyle and life choices. How else is the LBGQT population supposed to react when what they believe is right is described as "Sinful" "Damaging" and "Destructive" as a lifestyle. We react the exact same way when someone doubts our faith that we have poured our entire lives into out of devotion to a loving God. I would be concerned if there wasn't any fighting, if there wasn't any conflict. First and foremost, we are called to Love one another. Phil did that with flying colors. He had no hate in his speech and that is truly something that we should attempt to model. We can speak about the sinful nature of LBGQT without being demeaning and distasteful.

Leviticus 18:22 (ESV) says, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination."

We all understand this as Christians. The gay lifestyle is living in a sinful nature.

But

The Bible also says in Romans 13:8-10 (ESV)

'Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

We are called to love that is one of the two greatest commandments.

So without further ado...



LOVE PEOPLE!!!!

God Bless,
Brent

Here is the link to Jason Huffman's post.
http://jasonbhuffman.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/the-persecution-of-phil-robertson/

The Bride of Christ and Train

Forever can never be long enough for me
To feel like I've had long enough with you
Forget the world now we won't let them see
But there's one thing left to do

Now that the weight has lifted
Love has surely shifted my way
Marry Me
Today and every day
Marry Me
If I ever get the nerve to say
Hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Mm-hmm

Together can never be close enough for me
To feel like I am close enough to you
You wear white and I'll wear out the words I love you
And you're beautiful
Now that the wait is over
And love and has finally shown her my way
Marry me
Today and every day
Marry me
If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Mm-hmm

Promise me
You'll always be
Happy by my side
I promise to
Sing to you
When all the music dies

And marry me
Today and everyday
Marry me
If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Marry me
Mm-hmm

I'm sure just about everyone has heard this song. The song is titled "Marry Me" of Train's newest album "Save Me San Francisco."

A random thought came to my mind when I was listening to this song this morning. What if we saw this song from Christ's perspective? What if we took these words to heart?

Forever can never be long enough for me
To feel like I've had long enough with you
Forget the world now we won't let them see
But there's one thing left to do

In this first verse, it starts out talking about how he longs to be with this person. Christ longs to be involved in our everyday life. But we continually shun him from taking all of our lifestyle.

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. - Isaiah 53:1-12

The second part of this verse talks about forgetting the world. When we accept our new life through Christ we are supposed to put off all of our old worldly desires. This means EVERYTHING that was of the world. Most of you have probably heard the phrase "In the world, not of it." That is a great reminder while we are on our walk with Christ.

To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.- Ephesians 4:22-24

Now that the weight has lifted
Love has surely shifted my way
Marry Me
Today and every day
Marry Me
If I ever get the nerve to say
Hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Mm-hmm

Here's where it gets good, it begins to talk about marrying. Marrying is a form of commitment. "Marry me, today and everyday." This is talking about the daily commitment we have to partake in to follow Christ. We have to daily make the decision to try to be Christ-like. Christ wants nothing more than us to make that commitment daily and allow him to work through our flaws and purify our imperfections.

Great video clip to deal with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhfUzodLRvk

Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day. - 1 Kings 8:61


Together can never be close enough for me
To feel like I am close enough to you
You wear white and I'll wear out the words I love you
And you're beautiful
Now that the wait is over
And love and has finally shown her my way
Marry me
Today and every day
Marry me
If I ever get the nerve to say hello in this cafe
Say you will
Mm-hmm
Say you will
Mm-hmm


Christ wants to be the center of our lives and its a constant battle within us. Throughout scripture, it talks about the church being the bride of Christ.


Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.- Revelation 19:7-8

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  - Revelation 21:2

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. - Ephesians 5:25-27

Also, another reference to being the bride is here by "You wear white and I'll wear out the words 'I Love You' and 'Your Beautiful.'"

Christ loves us and always reminds us of how he created all of us and that we are each Christ's original masterpiece. We are his, and he doesn't make crap. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made!

Just some food for thought, please comment and tell me what you think, or add your own input to this.

Sacramental Salvation

Hello Everyone,

This is one of my favorite poems I have ever written.

Any type of criticism is welcome, in fact I love it!


To finish and fulfill my creators desire,
Nails were hammered and forged by fire.
Wood unrefined by polish and wax,
But covered in splinters, cut down by an axe.
A pretty polished board with I.N.R.A.,
Meaning that Jesus the king of the Jews died here today.
Beaten and bruised from his feet to his head.
Carrying his cross, knowing he was soon to be dead.
Risen with prisoners on his right and his left.
Still showing God’s love till only one unbeliever was left.
No greater love has ever been shown,
For the wages of sin pierced him down to the bone.


Let me know what ya think.

God Bless,
Brent

Faith Like a Child...

Hello Everyone,

I am going to start sharing some of my poetry. I love any type of criticism, so if you have anything that would be constructive or negative. Feel Free to comment.

Well here is my first poem on here.

Faith Like a Child...



Faith like a child,

Potentially unexplainable.

With Christ as my guide,

Anything is attainable.

Reasons for doubting,

My treason within.

For my many a time trying,

To cover these sins.

Grace was given,

Yet undeserved by man.

Hopefully, following,

God's unforseen plan.

A prayer,

A call,

When the day has grown dim.

My Savior's responding,

By calling me friend.

What is Playing in Your Heart?

A pastor that I worked under previously showed a clip in church of a guy that finds a stethoscope on the ground and begins holding it up to everything and they are all playing different songs. Before I go too far, here is the clip

Colossians 1:27
Contemporary English Version (CEV)

"27God did this because he wanted you Gentiles to understand his wonderful and glorious mystery. And the mystery is that Christ lives in you, and he is your hope of sharing in God's glory."

What an interesting video, the first time I watched it I laughed hysterically. I loved the part on the dog playing "Bad to the Bone."

At the same time, the relevance of this clip is great! What song is playing in your heart? Are you glorifying God through everything you do, so with all your being you are able to praise Christ?

The following week for my Wednesday night lesson, we watched the Book of Eli and talked about God's will for our lives. We talked about how sin can interfere with us doing what we are supposed to. The thing is, CHRIST IS STRONGER THAN ANY SIN WE CAN COMMIT!!! Isn't that great news?

I asked my youth kids if they knew what God had planned for them? What was God's will for them? 

One of them replied, "I don't know Gods plan for the rest of my life."

We all don't know what Christ has in store for the rest of our lives, but we DO know what Christ's will is for us right now! We don't have day planners for our entire life telling us what to do each day. We have to be willing to listen to what God has planned for us! We have to listen, we have to study, we have to live our lives accordingly to the goodness of his word. Sure we all fall away from God's will occasionally, but the beauty of it is whether it's 10 million miles or 10 inches off course. Christ is there to get us back on track as soon as we want to.

To end the lesson off, we talked about Jesus being tempted in the desert. I asked them, why do you think that Jesus replied to every single temptation with "It is written?" Every time, he replies with those three words. I had a couple responses saying that Christ was just quoting scripture that God wrote to show the importance of God's word. 

That might be, but at the same time. Christ was human just like us when he came down. I believe that he also quoted scripture as a sign of reassurance for himself. HE WAS TEMPTED JUST LIKE US! If there is a possibility that Christ used scripture for reassurance, then why don't we?

When we are faced with temptation, why don't we quote scripture to ourselves? There is more than that that needs to be done, we also have to walk away from that temptation. I want to know what you think, is quoting scripture a good idea? Have you ever thought about that? What is the song that your heart is playing? 

Comment me

For those who are interested in scripture, here are a couple that I posted up on Wednesday.

Pornography/Lust –

1 Corinthians 6:18-20, 

Psalms 119:37, 

Matthew 5:28

Greed – 

Hebrews 13:5, 

1 Timothy 6:10, 

Proverbs 28:25

Anger/Hatred – 

1 John 4:20, 

1 John 2:9, 

Matthew 5:44

Drinking – 

Ephesians 5:18, 

Galatians 5:21, 

1 Peter 5:8

Betrayal/Lying-

Proverbs19:5, 

Mattthew 7:12, 

1 Peter 2:1

Defiance-

Colossians 3:20, 

James 4:17

Indifference-

Romans 12:2, 

Mark 16:16

Temptation (In General)- 

Hebrews 4:15, 

2 Peter 1:21

God Bless,

Brent