Hey everyone.. we just got back from the hospital and wanted to share with you guys the GREAT news. In this age where its acceptable to murder children... theres still ONE traditional family that REJOICES with the BLESSING of a child.

Saw this video on another website and it really encouraged me! Check this out.

I’m sitting here at work doing my little spreadsheets and listening to Timothy Brindle’s “Killing Sin” album and the song “The Humility of Christ” cues up. Because I’m working intensely (on a spreadsheet), I’m kind of half listening, but near the beginning of the song, it kind of grabbed me.

Timothy begins to describe the birth of Christ and two lines really hit me and made me start to think:

“Let me ask you if you seem confused with this/

God passed through His own creatures uterus/

I admit this is odd, but the Bible can persuade me/

An omnipotent God crying as a baby?!?!?”

Let’s take a moment to break this down for a second and put it all into perspective. Here we have one person from the Trinity, The Word become flesh, the ruler of the universe, the King of the Jews who rules both physically and spiritually… and yet he made himself so small… so fragile, so meek to become an infant little boy?!? It seems so opposite of the way Christians or humanity as a whole work today. It seems so many times we all struggle and wrestle with ourselves and each other to climb to the top of the pile. Yet, here we have the one who deserves the honor and praise so much that it’s required, but he puts himself at the bottom of the deck. He took off the power, the deity, the Holiness He had, and became one of us. Flesh like you and me, and was STILL God! It boggles the mind how… but more importantly WHY He would do something like that!

An illustration I like to use to demonstrate God’s patience is to contrast it with the patience we have. I’ll paint the picture of an artist or something and say things like “now say you had a picture you wanted to paint. You had it all planned out in your head… but as you begin to paint, it wasn’t turning out as well as you thought it would... what would you do?” Of course the answer is start all over right? Why did God go through all the trouble? Was it because He loved us so much? I don’t think that’s the whole reason, but certainly part of it. Was it because of His limitless patience? I think it played a part… but not a majority of it. Well what do the scriptures say about it? What reason does the Bible give that God would go through all of that rather than just wipe the slate clean and start over. The simple answer is, God wanted the glory! OH HOW HE DESERVES IT!

The simple fact is, there’s nothing about anyone on Earth that could make God have a change of heart! Plainly put, He planned and ordained everything from the beginning. I like the illustration I used in the previous paragraph, but there’s one glaring obvious flaw people don’t pick up on all of the time. It assumes that the fall of man caught God off guard. It assumes that God didn’t have any clue what would happen once he started this “people project”. That of course is wrong, but I do it like that so that I can bring up another point. That point being the HUGE difference between God and man.

How limited our intelligence, foresight, potential for planning ahead… it’s all predicated on other circumstances we don’t control. We can’t create or manipulate events all the way through. For all of our planning, for all of our thinking, there are still uncertainties. Companies can plan to build buildings 5 or 6 years into the future, but when the time comes and those 5 or 6 years have passed, every company will stop to examine its condition at the time to decide if beginning that building is something they can afford to do. I was in a conversation with a co-worker where this was exactly the case. A company had began to build some office buildings in our area a few years ago with the idea that they’d be able to fill them up with occupants, however during the building process, turns in the market means that now, people and businesses aren’t willing to spend as much, so the building is finished and barely occupied now.

It isn’t so with God. He knows every second that passes. He’s seen it all already, and we’re all in His stage play. He’s planned everything in such a way that He would be magnified by those who love Him throughout history. He hardened Pharaohs heart so that the Israelites would witness His might with the splitting of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh and his army. He has allowed sin to exist so that we would be able to experience His grace and kindness. Would we know how GOOD our God is without evil to contrast His goodness? He only allows it for a time, and those who will open their eyes to witness His splendor will be kept for eternity having borne a testimony to God’s glory and being able to worship Him rightly because of it. With that in perspective, let’s take another look at the marvelous work He has done by coming to us in such a humble fashion.

A holy and matchless God, who formed the universe with a few words, made himself into the likeness of His own small creation and saved them from His own wrath. Someone so High and Mighty, deserving of all the horns of the Earth announcing his entry, chose to come to us in the most humble conditions, in the most humble place, in the most humble way. Why? So we could look back into history and witness this even in our Bibles and see that His coming is two-fold. The first part was to free the slaves from the bondage of sin and the second, to gather those who He chose to save. Praise our God!

I'm late with this article. Sure.. I know. I've been tangled up in other things (like debating why this was a GOOD thing (http://hcr.fm/forum/showthread.php?t=28202). So now I'm ready to give my formal opinion on this matter after having tested my opinion against the iron of other believers and I still feel the same way. This was a GOOD THING!

I could make sarcastic comments like "American Idol has already done more evangelism and witnessing than most of America's 'christian' population", but that wouldn't serve any purpose other than bolstering my pride (puffing up my chest because I feel "I'm right"), or offending my brothers and sisters in Christ. So I'm trying to discuss this in love, and being honest with myself and taking an honest look at scripture and what it has to say on the matter, and I don't see anywhere in the Bible where this can be viewed as a bad thing! In all of the questioning, the investigating, and the debating, I've found consistency on both sides. On my end, there seem to be plenty of Biblical examples that relate to the unsaved doing works in the name of God and it still being counted as useful for the Body of Christ, and on the opposing side, I can tell, there is this over all nagging feeling that something just isn't right about all of this! That's something I can agree with, but I think the mistrust is misplaced here.

I'll concede a bit, sure, I didn't rush out to buy the P.Diddy gospel album, and to this day I still wouldn't recommend it, but to me these are two seperate issues that do share a lot of similarities. So much so that it's hard to justify one without hypocritically denying the other if that's the road you want to take. The more I think about it, the more I want to take a universal stand on all of it. Either I'm okay with the lost (And we assume the role of judge here when we try to decide this) doing music for the worship of God, or I'm against it all. In all honesty, I'm leaning towards allowing it all. Take a good look at the title of this article... "the right to serve God's PURPOSE". I worded it like that purposefully because I wanted to make the destinction about my argument. I wanted to make it clear that I'm not in agreement with the view that sinners cannot be used by God. NO ONE has to EARN the right to be used by God. In fact, I believe EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL on Earth, is serving God's purpose. That being the case, God had already ordained that song to be sung on American Idol, just as God ordained Hurricane Katrina, or 9-11, or any other catastrophe that may cause us to look at God and shake our fists like "WHERE WERE YOU!!??!!??". Firstly, That's blasphemy and secondly God ordained those things. (Let me take this time to say also to anyone reading this that may have lost a loved on in a catastrophe, I mourn with you and you have my prayers! May God bless!).

I don't want to get too far off course of the topic, but very briefly, let me explain. I'm not saying God willed those things as some kind of punishment to those who were affected or lost their lives, or some kind of rebuke against the nation or anything like that. I believe, as stated before, that EVERY single thing that ever happens on Earth was planned and ordained by God... why? For his GLORY. The Earth is FULL of his Glory. To believe that anything can catch God off guard or by surprise, is to lower God in his position as... well... God. How can we believe that God knows all things but forgot about this one little thing that ended up hurting people. We have to believe that God knew and allowed it. God allowed the flood and saved Noah and the animals in the ark. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. God ordered the nation of Israel to go to war. Sometimes we may need to do a check on who we believe God to be. God can use the wicked like he used pharaoh to magnify himself! The Bible records that God himself, hardened pharaohs heart and made it wicked! So that God would be magnified by Israel! He used the sinful, to magnify His name for those He loved and chose! Same thing here. God used those who may be in sin to magnify His name before those he chose!

Of course there are a ton of arguments that would warn against this, but I have to side with scripture. It sends the wrong message! It opens the door to all kinds of people doing gospel albums! Again, I must side with scripture. Which to me clearly says "as long as it's done to glorify God..., as long as Christ is preached, I rejoice!" (Phl 1:18 What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.).

In my gut, I don't agree with people who are obviously living in sin doing gospel songs. My argument in the case of American Idol, is that these people didn't choose the song, it was chosen for them so holding them individually accountable for the merit of their worship seems silly to me. They were trying to win a competition, there may have been those who actually DID enjoy and WANT to sing the song out of worship for God.

This is still something I'm wrestling with, but overall, I'll need to submit my thoughts to what scripture teaches and what brings God the most glory. AMEN!

For now... reviews are on hold. I won't be doing CD reviews for a moment while I get some things in line. I'm trying to decide if they'll be apart of the site at all or not. Pray for me while I pray about this decision... if you've sent me music to review.. my apologies. I WILL still finish those, I'll get them done soon by God's grace (and if I can win over my fleshly procrastination, LOL). In the meantime, you guys sit tight, I'll have more edifying content on the way!

Grace and peace
-btate

A quick preface here. This was recently posted on a message board I frequent.. and has been the greatest eye opener, besides the Bible of course! I pretty much run all of these and thought this may help any of those visiting here. I hope you're blessed and edified... and mostly encouraged to grow in this area. Grace and peace! -btate

1. Insecurity. Research reveals clergy as one of the most insecure of all professional groups. Insecurity is the root of many unhealthy and ungodly behaviors. It provokes us to want the lavish praise and attention of others too much. Much of pride is motivated out of one’s unmet need for self-worth. Finding one’s identity and security in Christ is a must to avoid pride.

2. The need to be right. Ever encounter someone who has a hard time being wrong? This is a symptom of pride. The need to be right prevents one from appropriately evaluating issues as well as themselves (Galatians 6:3). A person who needs to be right has an exalted investment in himself or herself and thinks that he/she knows better than others. In religious circles, the need to be right is frequently manifested through always saying ‘God told me’ or ‘God showed me’.

3. Being argumentative. Individuals, who argue their point of view, especially to those in authority over them, are allowing pride to get the best of them. At the root of their argument is a belief that they are right and the other is wrong and that their will should prevail. It is appropriate to advocate for a point of view or position but not to do so in such a manner that you are more invested in your opinion than in arriving at a mutual understanding.

4. More invested in being heard than in hearing. When someone develops a pattern of needing others to listen to them rather than first hearing others, pride is motivating the need. The need to be heard is common among clergy who are insecure. Oftentimes, the individual does not feel loved or valued unless people "hear them out." In truth, this is often just an expression of insecurity and pride.

5. Anger. Anger is a self-justifying emotion. This means that the nature of anger is to prompt us to justify our position and blame another for the wrongdoing. Justification of self leads to denial of our own complicity or wrongdoing. The scripture warns that the "anger of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God." (James 1:20). An individual who is angry a lot is suffering from pride.

6. Irritability and impatience. Even though I am a counselor, it was only recently that I learned that the root of impatience in my life is anger and therefore pride. When we are unable to be patient with another and are irritated, it demonstrates a haughty view of self. We feel that our views, time or needs are more important than the other persons. This again is more an indication of our pride than someone else’s slow movement or imperfection.

7. Lack of submissive attitude. Submission is the voluntary placement of oneself under the influence, control or authority of another. When an individual pledges their submission to you or another, yet is critical or argumentative of that authority, then pride is the hidden issue. The test of humility and submission is being able to say ‘yes’, maintain a positive attitude and trust God, especially when the decision of your authority goes against your grain or better judgment.

8. Not easily corrected. Ever work or live with someone who won’t receive any negative or corrective feedback? This too is pride. Before he died, a pastor in the East Valley was noted for being easily entreated and able to receive corrective feedback from others. He would thank the person for the negative feedback and commit to pray about it, seek counsel and get back to the person with what conclusions he came to. He was a role model for many of us.

9. Receiving correction but not changing. I worked with a man who often would receive my correction and say thank you for the feedback, but would never change. This too is a form of pride. The individual was placating me and people-pleasing me, telling me what I wanted to hear but not really taking the feedback to heart. His insecurity and fear prevented him from truly changing.

10. Needing others to take your advice. Counselors, such as myself, easily fall into the trap of having to have others take their advice. Advice should always be offered without strings attached. If you find yourself resenting the fact that your advice is not followed, look deeper at the motivating issues in your life.

11. Needing to proclaim your title or degrees. A good friend of mine requires everyone to call him ‘pastor’, saying that he has deservedly earned the title. Demanding that others call you ‘doctor’ or ‘pastor’ or ‘bishop’ is usually a way of making you ‘one up’ and them ‘one down’. Once again, pride is fueling the requirement.

12. Being stubborn. Webster’s dictionary defines stubbornness as "unduly determined to exert one’s own will, not easily persuaded and difficult to handle or work, resistant." The root issue of stubbornness is willfulness, which is ‘I want what I want when I want it’. Another name for pride.

13. Comparisons and competition. 2 Corinthians 10:12 makes it clear that comparing oneself with others is unwise. Comparison is a form of competition. It is often overt. For example, emphasizing the size of one’s church, the number of converts, etc. However, it can also be the subtle sin of heart that inwardly grieves when another is more successful or rejoices when another pastor’s ministry enters hard times. The motive of heart is pride.

14. Thinking you have no pride issues. Thinking that you don't ever struggle with pride could be a very good indication of pride. I believe we all struggle with pride on some level.

15. Proclaiming your humility. This one is tricky - it can be manifested by refusing help, but being always willing to give and give (whereas true humility has no problem saying 'I need help!'), it can be manifested with false affection and compliments which make you look good to those on the outside (such as using terms of endearment to make people think you are loving when in fact, you despise the person) and it can also be seen in some cases by proclaiming your constant and consistent innocence when you believe you are wronged.

Took a minute to breathe... hope you guys don't mind! I've been overwhelmed with all the requests for reviews, have some other things going on in my personal life (pray for me guys!), but I'm back on the saddle!!!! My apologies to those who've been visiting regularly waiting for new content.. it's coming!!! Peep the upcoming articles list over on the right hand side of the screen, some really interesting interviews coming up, some good devotionals, and I have a few surprises I'm working on as well. I'm also looking to transition to a regular domain soon, so be looking for a new web address soon.. whenever i decide on one. LOL.

Be blessed, thank you for your prayers!

Grace and PEACE!

b.tate