Merry Christmas!!!

Two amazing Christmas videos - the techno Christmas light house and the Christmas Can-Can!

Have a very Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus! Joyeux Noël!

Vegreville: The Land of Opportunity

My town is very exciting :P

Faith does matter!

Randumb Photo

   Faith is everywhere. People put their faith in many things every day. Let's say that Average Joe is going to work one day - he puts his faith in the manufacturer of his car when he's driving - trusting that the car is safe. He has an amount of faith in other drivers on the road, that they're fairly non-terrible drivers. Otherwise he wouldn't drive! His buddy he carpools with, Mr. Normal, puts his faith in Joe by trusting him to drive safely. The road's a dangerous place, but Mr. Normal knows that Joe's a good driver. Many people die in car accidents, but Mr. Normal trusts Joe with his life.

   Average Joe sits down in a chair at work. He doesn't know the company that made the chair or how strong the chair is, but he sits down on it anyways. As you can see, faith is exercised every day. Faith matters very much and faith can also do very much - take for example Matthew 21:21-22. Jesus had just withered up a fig tree, and his disciples were amazed. Jesus told them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." In the Gospels, many people came to Jesus with faith, and people were healed or even raised from the dead by Jesus just because of their simple faith.

   Not many people with argue with me on these points. People are always saying that faith can accomplish much (i.e. "believe in yourself"). There was even a whole chart-toping song about believing in yourself (think of "I'm not perfect, but I'm still trying," in a whiny voice).

   But our faith needs to be in the right things. Some people decide to believe in themselves, no matter how many times they get it wrong, and fail themselves and others. Some people, atheists, decide to put their faith in science. Hey, science is great - it gave us blogs! But science is also unreliable and has it's limits. If you put your faith in the wrong things, they will fail you. We must make sure we choose the right things to put our faith in!

   Faith is especially important when our eternal destination is at stake. It's easy to have faith in a chair - all that happens if it breaks is that you'll have a sore be-hind. People know that car manufacturers are generally reliable, so they have faith in cars, even though they may die if something goes wrong. But I'm talking about something even more important then when we die. Everyone will live and die - it's just a matter of when. But our eternal destination is the most important thing we could every think about - we'll be stuck there forever. And only One can calm the storm inside our souls. Only One has overcome the gates of Hell.

Toblerone

   I just got a wonderful box of "Toblerone One By One" at a $5 gift exchange. Probably the best possible gift for only $5! It's a selection of four types of Toblerone. There's milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and my favourite: Snowtopped!!! (on the far left of the picture) It's the delicious original Toblerone flavour topped with white chocolate!

   Actually, Toblerone Fruit and Nut is my favourite, but it isn't in the One By One package :( Wow, I could talk about Toblerone forever! Well, my next blog post will be about why faith is important! :D

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Hello! Bonjour! If you're new to my blog, I write about many topics - including Canadian federal politics, Christianity, Canada, and just life in general  :)

- Toblerone (the sk8er boy)

Rock and Roll

No more warm, fuzzy sweater for Harper! Canada's Prime Minister decides to rock and roll at a Conservative caucus Christmas party :)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/12/08/harper-concert.html

Faith does matter!

Faith Matters: After Eden - Answers in Genesis

Oh, by the way, thanks to everyone who's reading my blog- I now have over two hundred page views!!

Music!

Secular Music

     Ah, secular music. It speaks to the soul, and tries to imagine that there is meaning to life, which is denied from the world by atheism... and some songs almost get it right! For example, Only Girl (by Rihanna), Firework (by Katy Perry), or Just the Way You Are (by Bruno Mars). To be honest, I am a big fan of many different types of music, regardless of which religion the musicians adhere to.

     Unfortunately, secular music is a mixed bag, and some of it gets downright filthy. For example, the song Take it Off  by Ke$ha practically sums up what's wrong with society. It has a great sound, it's catchy – hey, I even liked it at first! But the message is disgusting. Like everything sinful, this song looks exciting at first, but turns out to be vulgar.

Christian Contemporary Music

     I ♥ contemporary Christian music! Why? Because it's great modern-day music without the filth of sin attached. Instead of glorifying sexual immorality and crime, it glorifies God! Well, at least most of it does. I'm going to "profile" some artists.

     There's Tobymac, my favourite artist, who strives to let God shine through his work while at the same time producing outstanding music. He describes his music as a "blend of pop, hip hop & rock with Christ-centered lyrics."

     Jars of Clay, Newsboys, Brit Nicole, and many other artists featured in WOW albums explicitly proclaim Christ as King. The Newsboys in particular I find very good, because they blur the line between the Christian Contemporary and Praise and Worship genres.

     Stellar Kart is very straightforward about Christ. The result is sometimes inspirational and sometimes just cheesy.

     Manafest is a good Canadian rock-rap band. Their song Bounce is among my all-time favourite songs!!

     Thousand Foot Krutch (TFK) has some good hard rock, but sometimes they lose their Christian vision. Their line, "sometimes I feel like a monster, sometimes I feel like a saint," just about sums up their music. They have some good reflections, but they have also referred to God as a drug and a disease in their songs. The problem is that those words imply sin and decay, and are just disrespectful toward God. I still listen to them, but with caution because of their dubious theology. Oh, by the way, they're a Canadian band too!

     Skillet is perhaps one of the best rock bands of the century! Ya, I'm a panhead. Their experiments with symphonic rock have been a great success, giving their band a very cool, unique sound. However, their latest album Awake ventures away from Christian themes and sounds very much like a secular album – that can be good or bad, depending on your point of view. Personally, I wish they wouldn't abandon Christian themes.

     Some people say that rock music is evil, and thus there can't be Christian rock music. I completely disagree. Music is a method of communication – it all depends on what someone communicates through it. Most rock music does communicate evil stuff, but most Christian rock music does not!

Praise and Worship

Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. Psalm 33:2-3  NIV

     Praise and worship is music in it's purest form – in other words, it is what God designed music to be. The verse above tells us how to praise God. It says to make music with a harp and ten-stringed lyre. Well, Psalms was written thousands of years ago, and those were the modern instruments back then. If it was written now, it would probably say, "Praise the Lord with the electric guitar, drums, bass, and synthesizer!" And it also says to sing a new song – not just the same, boring old hymns and Gregorian chants ;)

     Imagine for a moment what it would be like if all music was made to glorify God... if Taio Cruz's song Dynamite was made to praise the Lord! It'd be dynamite! Or what about Maroon 5's Misery? That's a gr8 song – it would also become eternal.