Godly Insights for the 21st Century Life

     This summer, Mom and I did some cleaning around the house. One of the things we found was an old CCM magazine talking about the upcoming book and CD set chronicling the 100 greatest songs in Christian music. While the article hinted at some of the songs featured in the countdown, we were really curious to see the entire list. While we could find the track list for some of the CDs, we couldn't see the entire list without reading the book. We had to use an inter-library loan to get it, but it was worth it to be able to uncover the mystery of which songs made the list.     My parents and I really enjoyed reading the book and seeing the choices that the editors made. Some of the songs on the list came as no surprise. (Among the top five were " Awesome God " by Rich Mullins, " Jesus Freak " by DC Talk, and " I Can Only Imagine " by MercyMe.) Some of the songs I knew well, but not their original versions. (I've sung " Soon and Very Soon " ...

"Only love can drive out all the darkness What are we fighting for? We were made to carry one another We were made for more"-" Bleed the Same "~Mandisa Late last week, I was on Twitter, and I noticed quite a few posts about the school shooting that occurred on Valentine's Day. Most of the posts called for people to pray for the victims and their families, but others took a more combative tone on the issue. One of the ones that was particularly disturbing to me came from someone who is not only a good friend of mine, but also a Christian role model. This person insinuated that Republicans are a bunch of hypocrites because they call for immigration reform following terrorist attacks but don't want the shooting to be politicized because the families of the victims need to be left alone to grieve. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of divisive tweets I have seen recently from this person, and they are by no means the only one doing this. I...

2016 was a bit of a roller coaster year for me, with glorious highs interspersed with terrifying lows. Fortunately, there were more highs than lows. Here in no particular order are the highs and lows of the past year. HIGHS: Spending time with Jojo: Jojo is my cousin Jessica's 18-month-old daughter, and due to scheduling conflicts, I didn't get a chance to see her at Thanksgiving or Christmas last year. However this year, I got to spend a great deal of time with her at both holidays, as well as during her dad's birthday party in September. Since she was older at the time I got to know her, I was able to build a better and more lasting relationship with her that will only grow as she gets older. My summer job: This summer, I was the chauffeur/activity supervisor for Ally and Kira, two of my friend Katherine's granddaughters. Throughout the course of the summer, I took them to camps, to the pool, to the park, and to church activities. They taught me how to use ...

Earlier this summer, I had a can of Sprite that was part of its "Obey Your Verse" campaign. However, the verse it was telling me to obey was "Me, I'm supa fly, supa dupa fly," which is not only unintelligible, but also not something that could be obeyed. In looking more into the campaign, I found that most of the verses chosen were this way. While the artists were chosen because of Sprite's history with working with hip hop artists, some of the verses chosen leave a lot to be desired. That got me to thinking about lyrics of some of my favorite songs that not only can be obeyed, but are worthy of being obeyed. Here are some examples: Hawk Nelson, " Sold Out ": I'm sold out I'm no longer living just for myself Running after Jesus with my whole heart And now I'm ready to shout I am sold out I'm sold out With every single step that I take now With every drop of blood left in my veins I'm gonna be making it count I am s...