FREQUENT SINNER

What's your initial reaction to seeing this? I received this other day walking around on campus. An older man handed it to me and said "Have a nice day," and smiled. Being a christian, even I was almost tempted to toss it in the trash can a few feet away as he continued past me.

To make matters worse, I opened this little booklet. The very first thing you read is:

Dear Frequent Sinner

Each sin you commit earns you an Eternal Debt of punishment payable in full upon your death to the One you owe it to. God. Even one small sin earns a wage of eternal death. (Romans 6:23)

Being a college student, and knowing how most of them operate, how is this going to get through to them? Sure, it's useful information that should be known, but the first thing mentioned is how bad of a person you are? In fact, this entire card doesn't say "There is good news, though!" until the other side. By that time, you can expect most college kids to have checked out, quit reading and have thrown it in the trash.

This type of evangelism will not work with students. I know this because I've seen it fail over and over. And sure, you could make the argument that they aren't be "tolerant" or whatever, but that doesn't matter. The best way I've found to bring others to Christ is by building relationships. Yeah, some might take a little longer to come around, but they will at least give you some time to do as we're commanded by God.

BOOM!

PODCAST!

I don't have anything to ramble on lately, but I figured I would at least inform you all (all meaning the 7 followers I have) that I have just finished creating a podcast and will be posting audio files of the current music I am working on every so often. I hope it brings you some form of enjoyment. The link is below.

http://keyganb.podbean.com/

"1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &"

Obviously, I love to drum. Playing at UNL has been so awesome, and brought up new opportunities for me. In October, I was hired by my old high school to instruct the drumline there. I was stoked. I took the gig and found out that instructing is tons of fun. One tool that's used constantly (or at least should be used constantly) is the metronome.

A metronome's primary function is to keep time. Humans don't do a very good job of it, so we play with the metronome to give us that constant steady, and even ruthless beat that will not change. As we improve, we become better at holding tempo, but still need to continually be referring back to the met. Drumming especially relies on this, more than any other section. It helps the whole line play as a line. The ultimate goal is to sound so tight, that it's only one guy playing.

Unfortunately, there are instructors out there that decidedly don't use a metronome (there is a point to this, I promise). Mainly, because "they won't have it out on the field during a show." Which is true, but how do you expect students keep consistent tempo if they can't in the first place?

Whenever I talk about why we use the metronome, the two words "reference point," always come up. The metronome is the thing that we fall back on when we suck. We all need to refer back to it at some point or another in order to further our striving towards good drumming. It's a lot like our spiritual lives.

The Metronome/Dr. Beat (God/His Word)
Always right. No matter what. If you're struggling, you got to get right with God. Everything must fit exactly with Him. Extremely hard to do, that's why so much practice is needed to be put into it in order to be successful.

Instructors (Pastors/Ministers/etc.)
A fairly good amount are great at what they do and have had success, however, there are some out there who aren't the best. The main idea for them is to help other christians become more solid in their faith. They encourage very much and only want the best from their people. Also, they were in the same position themselves at one point. They recognize the difficulties and challenges presented. But, there are those who don't exactly know what's up. They may have stopped practicing themselves, yet still expect the same results from their students.

Drummers/Drumline (Everyone Else/The Church)
Constantly practicing to get closer and closer to God. So much hard work is put in to being a good christian young man or woman. There are plenty of loving people around, always wanting to further their relationship somehow, but there are also a good amount that just get by with what's "necessary," and aren't fully committed to Him, or they just want to chill and have fun. And they may do so, but won't produce anything of quality, a waste of time. Bearing fruit will not take place.

I haven't been practicing with a metronome a whole lot lately. My tempo fluctuates and everything is somewhat choppy. It's lacking something...

*deek deek deek deek*

Perfection

Lately, I've been having conversations with friends of mine about faith. Generally, they're good, but I've found out that we don't quite see eye to eye on things. One of those things, is Jesus.

They've said Jesus wasn't perfect. A good majority of people actually belive this, but the thing is if He wasn't perfect, than none of us would be able to go to Heaven. Salvation does not exist. No one would be able to be saved. Do you really want to believe that?

The whole reason God sent His Son was to offer Him as a sacrifice to forgive every single one of us, and to allow us to one day be with Him. The perfect, sinless, unblemished Son of God is the only One that would do. If Jesus had sinned once, only once, we would all be doomed to Hell.

Now, Jesus was born to a virgin. Many people will argue that she wasn't, because otherwise it wouldn't be possible. The thing about God is...He can do what He wants. So, if He wanted His Son to be born to a virgin, so be it. That's the way it happened. I don't know how He did it and it really shouldn't matter. God can do anything.

The thing that amazes me the most is how Jesus remained perfect throughout childhood. Things were probably pretty easy on Mary and Joseph. This made it evident that Jesus was indeed God's Son, and sure, the Bible doesn't really give us much into Jesus' childhood, but one of the first times it does is often seen as a sin on Jesus' part.

Luke says that "when Jesus was 12 years old, His parents and He traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. After they were done eating they packed up to head back home, but Jesus stayed and his parents were unaware of it. [. . .] When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him."
~Luke 2:41-45

If anything, this was Mary and Joseph's fault as they forgot their son. I don't think anyone would say that a boy left in a grocery store is his own fault. That is the parents' responsibility. And look what Jesus was doing. He wasn't worried: crying or running around crazy like any other kid would do. He was in the temple sitting and listening to the teachers AND asking questions. He wasn't worried at all. His parents had been gone for 2 days and he was absolutely fine. If your parents forgot you as a child and were gone for 2 days, how would you feel? I know I wouldn't be as nearly cool and composed as Jesus was.

The other instance people argue that Jesus sinned was when He went to the temple. He got angry, which is where many people believe the infraction occurred. It's amazing what simple and easy research in the Bible can do. Usually, it seems that this is taken out of context, and there is complete disregard for what others were doing around Jesus. They were using the temple as a marketplace. Selling and bargaining was going on in the Lord's house. You can imagine why Jesus was not happy.

Anger is not a sin. I mean, think about it, God has gotten angry numerous times. How can He go against His own law? But, you can sin IN your anger. This could be, swearing, being unkind to someone, etc. Jesus got angry because these people were misusing His Father's house and seeking to earn benefits of their own. They were not using it properly. That's why Jesus got upset and did what He did, had to do. Just like God would have done.

It just kind of blows my mind that some people don't realize that believing Jesus sinned, indirectly says that none of us are going to Heaven. Jesus was absolutely perfect in every single way, and because of that, we get to spend eternity with our awesome God.

Luke 23:13-15