The thing that sent me over the edge, was a comment he made about the website being built on Jesus 2.0 technologies. Which, just like the name GodTube was a rip off of YouTube, the idea of Jesus 2.0 was stolen from the Web 2.0 concept that many of today’s websites are built upon. Web 2.0 is the idea that while Web 1.0 was a primitive, non-interactive, catalog of data, that Web 2.0 is better and more dynamic, allowing easier access to data and more user involvement. And thats just the problem. The Bible teaches that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Heb 13:8) He is always the same and to suggest that He needed an upgrade is just pure idiocy. He has always been dynamic and intimately involved in our lives. And He’s always been easy to reach (and in fact, has always been reaching). It’s my belief that anyone who thinks that Christ was outdated before GodTube and has now been made better, has no understanding of who He actually is. How can the God of the universe, creator of all things, be upgraded by some internet technology that He gave humans the ability to think up?

Yes, I know that he was not suggesting that it’s a new Jesus, but a new presentation of Him. But why not say that? Why not say that you think that the gospel is eternal and never changes, but that the methods by which we show it to people can change with the culture? Why not say that you believe that we need to change our methods of reaching out to people? And, saying it that way, I would have to agree that we should reach out to everyone and use any tool that we can to show people God’s grace, even websites full of Christian cheesyness. But say that, don’t call it Jesus 2.0, because there was nothing wrong with version 1, and no matter how the mormons or JW’s or anybody else tries to convince the world, there will never be another. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

It is not the gospel that gets out of date, but Christians who think that they have the only “formula” for presenting the gospel and resist any change to it that do. To borrow from the Casting Crowns song “What this World Needs”:

People aren’t confused by the Gospel
They are confused by us
Jesus is the only way to God
But we are not the only way to Jesus
This world doesn’t need my tie, my hoodie,
My denomination or my translation of the Bible
They just need Jesus
We can be passionate about what we believe
But we can’t strap ourselves to the Gospel
Because we are slowing it down
Jesus is going to save the world
But maybe the best thing we can do
Is just get out of the way

Sometimes we are what’s wrong with the success of the Gospel around us. Sometimes we get our sinful humanity in the way of God’s never ending grace and love.

Aside from the suggestion that Jesus needed an update, he fulfilled his duty as so many other “Christian leaders” do by saying something infinitely cheesy. Partially challenging the CEO on the site’s premise the interviewer asked “what would Jesus think?” Although cheesy enough on it’s own, the CEO laughed and replied “no, it’s more like, what would Jesus download’?”. Groan. Sigh. Come on, that’s lame. I know that I’m going out on a limb here, but I think that if Jesus were to have come today, he would not (*gasp*) have a myspace account. I don’t think he would have an email address of jesus@workonearth.org. He would be out with the people, not downloading cheesy attempts at self centered worship. The sovereign king of the world would not be limited by His broadband speed or wifi range. He would be walking or driving around (sorry liberals) in the biggest van or truck He could find, to haul the most people around that He could. In other words, I think Jesus wouldn’t download anything, because He already knows and owns all things, and from what I read in my Bible is more concerned with heartfelt personal interaction than people honoring Him with their lips so that others can see their holiness.

Although the site does have some videos worth a view, most of them are just somebody’s performance of the same worship song that every CCM artist has already recorded. And, Christianity is far bigger and more powerful than a video database of thousands of people recording themselves doing the new worship song so that other people can watch them worship. Which isn’t worship at all. Worship is not a show. It’s not about getting together so that everyone can watch your guitar skills and hear how great your voice sounds; it is an intimate encounter with a Holy God who doesn’t care about your guitar skills or how well you can sing. He cares about your heart.

I’m sorry I seemed all over the place with this post, but that’s the way I’ve been feeling since I saw this interview. And, because I didn’t want to rob you of your own groans of frustration, I have put a link to the video below (I would have embedded it like I do for every other video, but I guess the Jesus 2.0 technologies don’t allow me to do that, unlike every other video site out there). Let me know what you think. Oh yeah, and if you are interested (which I don’t see how you possibly could be) the “Baby Got Book” video that is featured in the interview is on the site in its entirety (but I’m not going to link to it because it would seriously degrade my coolness, and lets be honest, I don’t know how much lower it can go). Just watch the Baby got book video and tell me Christians aren’t totally cheesy and unoriginal, I dare you (I couldn’t get through the whole video before I had to run for the toliet).

Interview

The latest piece of holy-chain-mail that I got came with this warning:

“If you believe in God and in Jesus Christ His Son send this to all on your Buddy list, if not just ignore it.

In the Bible, Jesus says: ‘If you deny me before man, I will deny you before my Father in Heaven.’”

Are you kidding me? Do you see it? It says, (not just implies, but says) that people who believe in God and in Jesus will (not just might), but will send this to everyone they know. And it is proof that you don’t know Jesus when you don’t forward the email. Obviously people who love Jesus and know Him as savior and lord would forward an email about Him. So, obviously if you don’t know or love Jesus you won’t forward the email. In other words; you are saved and prove that you are saved when you forward the email, and you are lost and prove that you are an enemy of God when you disregard the email.

It says, if you don’t believe in Jesus just ignore this message. Which brings to mind another question. Who is this message intended for? Is it intended to show unbelievers the greatness of the love of Christ? No, because it encourages you to ignore the message if you aren’t a Christian. As if the message of grace was not intended for the lost but for a bunch of stuck up Christians who want to pat themselves on the back.

Apparently the God of the universe, the Savior of the world, and the Spirit of Truth are not equipped to declare my salvation, that feat must be left to a self-righteous, self-centered, and self-honoring email that some misguided holier-than-though “Christian” would write. When Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33 that “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven,” He did not mean “send the email to your friends and coworkers or go to hell.” That’s not what He was saying. Not forwarding an email has nothing to do with my acknowledging or denying Christ.

The way I acknowledge Christ is to live in such a way that people see Jesus. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:20-21).” It’s all about the grace of God at work in my life, not about obtaining righteousness by sending an email.

You see, God reached down into human history and spoke His grace and love into it through the bible and through the Spirit and through all of the glorious things that Hes does in our lives, not to mention the greatest gift of love: the cross. What else was the cross than a public display of God’s glorious triumph over man’s sin and the greatest display of love and mercy that we could ever know? God doesn’t need email to make His point, He already did that. Jesus on the cross and in the tomb and raised again to ascend into heaven is more more dramatic than a cheesy email. But us self righteous Christians spend our time trying to add more to God, as if we humans have something that God needs. God is not lacking of anything. He doesn’t need holy-chain-mail to get His message across, He gave us the Bible. And we need the Bible more than we need any self serving email.

So, please no more holy-chain-mail. I’m tired of it. I’m frustrated that someone would feel good enough about their position before God so as to suggest that other people’s salvation and love for God is determined by what they do with an email, not what they do with Jesus. Come on church, it’s time to start acting like we know who He is, and put the focus back on Him. Please no more holy-chain-mail, it’s pointless, and will be deleted, but not before I reply to everyone of you with this message. Also, so you know, I do value receiving email from my friends and family, I even like receiving email about Jesus, and would even love to read your new poem or story about Him and what He’s done, or just completely random things. I am just ranting against email that says I don’t love Jesus if I don’t forward it. Don’t be discouraged to send me email, just understand that my love for Jesus is secure even if I think the email is lame and delete it.

I do love Jesus. More than anything. He is the only one who has never let me down, is always there to comfort me in need, and the only one who can put up with me as I am and love me for me, not some future version of me, but me today.

But, from time to time, I have to seek support from somebody who should know their product better than me, and it seems like that this is rarely the case. Not that I know everything, but that tech support rarely is technical and is usually designed for questions like “how do i get the cup holder on my computer fixed”, “You mean the CD-Rom?”. You know, those types of questions. Or, even if this isn’t the nature of your question, they treat you as a 19th century person who has been dropped in the future. “Look on your desk for the gray thing with a tail, we call that a mouse…”

Anyway, tech support drives me crazy. Here’s a chat conversation I just had with a tech support agent about signing up for service with them. I guess it was too hard of a question, or maybe I didn’t ask it correctly or something, but immediately after that conversation I called their 800 number and got an answer in about 30 seconds.

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Maybe I should have asked Rachael. And yes, I know, my chat etiquette and grammar may not be the best, but did you see Martin doing his best Borat impression?

Let me know about your experiences or stories you have heard.

One of the first things that I have added are forums.  I think that forums provide a neat way that we could build friendships and encourage each other through contact during the week.  There are two areas of the forums.  The first is a public area where anybody can post without registration, and the second is a private area for registered people only.  The private area is designed to keep private information private, for example, you could feel comfortable talking about something that you are struggling with in life, knowing that your trusted friends will reply to you without getting some random guy come to the website and make fun of you.  I encourage you to check it out.

I also, as always before, really encourage you to comment on the posts.  Let’s try to make these things a discussion. 

Also, if you are interested, I am going to open the site up a little bit and allow more people to be authors and post material.  If you are interested, email me.  I’m also planning on registering a new domain for the site as well, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Thank you for your interest over these past 2 years and I hope that we can do more to keep you updated and interested in the coming year.

A body of research suggests that playing video games provides benefits similar to bilingualism in exercising the mind. Just as people fluent in two languages learn to suppress one language while speaking the other, so too are gamers adept at shutting out distractions to swiftly switch attention between different tasks.

I have posted some new pictures (of Rachael’s first Christmas and Birthday), as well as redone the Photo Gallery, as it was one of the things that was not working right when I switched over to the new version. Anyway, check out the new pictures and let me know if you like the new site.