Shameless Plug

Top 10 Posts Of 2014

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As this year comes to an end, we want to thank you for keeping in touch with us. Your tweets, messages, Instagram comments, etc. encourage us and we hope that our posts do the same for you. Here are our most visited entries of 2014:

  1. Hand Of God
  2. The In-Between: Transitions In Worship (As seen on The Church Collective)
  3. Honesty Is The Best Policy
  4. The Father Heart Of God
  5. Endless Love
  6. Jesus Saves
  7. The Day After The Most Depressing Day Of The Year
  8. True Love (A Valentine’s Day Blog)
  9. Multitasking God
  10. Masks And Make-Believe

And here are last year’s top posts. Thanks, everyone, and Happy New Year!

What Am I Worth?

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What do you base your self-worth on? We look around and see competitions on television, whether it’s for singing, unique talents, funny videos, or even “beauty”. We see online posts and determine their merit based on the number of shares or likes… And this culture of ratings affects us.

When we start to come up with unrealistic expectations for ourselves, we start to feel disappointed and unworthy. Perhaps you feel that way right now because your week wasn’t what you expected or things just didn’t pan out the way you had hoped today. But instead of hanging onto the disappointments and things that bring you down, consider those in your life that lift you up & encourage you; consider the moments that bring you joy, the things that actually make you feel valuable. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Don’t get hung up on the value of material things and how they can affect your worth. With Black Friday just a week away, we look so far in advance all of the deals and promotions going on… how to get the best bang for your buck – for great discounts you’d stand on line for hours. You see this kind of desire and may feel like you’re not “worth it”, but God will tell you otherwise.

The Lord your God is with you,the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. – Zephaniah 3:17

Whether it’s something someone said to you, or the way you feel about yourself after a long hard day at school/work, know that you are loved by our almighty God in heaven! See yourself the way that the Father sees you. It may be hard at first, but be encouraged that the amount God loves you far outnumbers any racing negative thoughts you may have. “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17).

If you’re looking for somewhere to start, start by looking to your family, your friends, those that are close to you… they love you too! You’re probably thinking of a few people right now. And, of course, don’t forget to look to God! You were bought with a price, you are worth it – God showed His great love for us with the sacrifice made on the cross with His son Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior. So in this Thanksgiving season let’s be grateful, giving thanks and praise to God our Father who has redefined our worth. It’s because of Him we have life and everything within it, so going forward let’s continue to give Him our lives and everything we have, showing Him that He is worthy of it all!

Reflection Song: Unending Praise

Multitasking God

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It’s all the craze these days: How many programs can you run at once? Does your current internet browser support tons of open tabs? Can your smart phone split screens between apps? Multitasking is second nature to us, isn’t it? We might even (dare I say it) multitask God.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “too busy for God” before. But I think Psalm 34:1-10 says it well: “I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.” If we are to extol/praise the Lord at all times, I think it’s pretty clear: we ought to praise the Lord… always!

The other day at our church I challenged people to reflect upon their life and how God fits into it. Now, obviously, God is bigger than that time slot. Yet, we even limit that amount of time when we’re “busy”, trying to negotiate & bargain our time with Him. So I want to ask you the same question today: How does God fit into your life?

A popular verse in the Bible that’s written all over the gospels is probably familiar to you, either from reading it or even as a song: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.” How can this be if we only offer up some of our heart, some of our soul, some of our strength, and some of our mind? This leads me back to this idea of our band name, Shameless Plug.

Not too long ago someone asked me about the meaning, the purpose, the origin of our band’s name. If you’re unfamiliar with it, you can read about our story here. But when we multitask to the point where even we don’t know what we’re exactly juggling day-to-day, then we’ve lost sight of the important things – like the most important One of all, Jesus Christ. When we live life making Him known and famous, He becomes our shameless plug and we get to (not have to) praise Him at all times! Doesn’t that sound better than stressing out about your 15 errands today?

God is bigger than we let Him be. And maybe that’s especially true for you today. God, who is the ultimate multitasker (being the God of over 7.25 billion people in the world today), is our one True and Living God who sent His One and only Son, Jesus Christ, to show us His love and mercy. That’s actually one… huge… task. I think we’d all say that He’s worth all of our attention and being at the top of our list of priorities.

Let’s not cheap out on God by giving Him a discount of our time. Let’s give Him our all like we were intended to do. You can multitask your iPhone apps or your shopping lists, but let’s not turn our faith into a statistic. God is the One who deserves the praise, deserves the extollment, deserves the magnification and attention. Reflect upon your life again and what role God plays. Know that even in the hectic schedule you may have, God is in the midst of it. But don’t juggle him like one of your tasks. Give Him your best and give Him your all.

Reflection Song: All To You

Back To School (Keep God’s Commands)

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Back to school. Three words you wish you didn’t have to hear every September… yet it’s that time of year again! What are you aiming for this year? Ambitions? Hopes? Goals? With a new year comes new challenges and new ways to grow in your relationship with the Lord.

The other day I gave a sermon at our youth group on keeping God’s commands. I illustrated that “keep” is such a funny word in the English language. We can “keep” His commands in our pocket (a travel Bible, Bible app, etc.) or we can “keep” His commands just like how we “keep” promises. We would stay true to them, remain in them, and carry them out. In John 14:15-21 Jesus says that whoever loves Him will keep His commands. In Greek, the word “keep” can also translate to “watch over”, “take care of”, or “guard”.

It’s funny though because we don’t really see ourselves as much of a guardian (or maybe you do?). But if anything, I feel like God’s Word is guarding me!

I know schools have their own lists of rules & guidelines, but following what God says is a whole other story. If we love the Lord and follow His commands, it is said that we will be given the Holy Spirit! That’s a nice bonus for being obedient, isn’t it? As we live in accordance with God’s will, we ought to do so with love and obedience.

There’s a popular video circulating around the internet these days involving Victoria Osteen and Bill Cosby. In this particular clip she says things along the lines of, “When we obey God, we’re not doing it for God… we’re doing it for ourselves.” …Unfortunately when we do things for ourselves, I think we’ve lost the big picture – like when the world once believed that the cosmos was geocentric instead of heliocentric. We aren’t the center of attention; God is!

When we love God… keep His commands… obey Him… we don’t do it for our own benefit or pleasure. This is part of our worship of Him, our God who is the center of all attention, the center of our lives! So this year as we seek to grow in our walk with Him, remember that we aren’t following after Him because we’re going to get an “A” on an exam or because it’ll look good on our heaven “transcript”… It’s because if we love Him then we keep His commands.

So with the new school year, with your new friends, even with your new life challenges, remember to stay in God’s Word and to guard it just as He guards you, promising us His Spirit of truth to be with us and to be within us. Let’s continue to give God all the glory because He alone deserves the attention and the honor.

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” – John 14:21

Reflection Song: Only You

True Love (A Valentine’s Day Blog)

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Maybe you’ve seen a movie like 2010’s Valentine’s Day or some other rom-com where they try to answer the age-old question “What is love?”, or you’ve been to one too many weddings where they quote 1 Corinthians 13, or you’ve been able to celebrate Valentine’s Day with somebody special over the years.

But perhaps on this Valentine’s Day, I can offer a different perspective: Valentine’s Day is about true love. Can you believe that just 300 years ago, Valentine’s Day flowers, chocolates, and cards never even crossed our minds?

The story goes that Saint Valentine was a Christian priest and physician in early Rome, during a time where it was very anti-Christian and anti-marriage. Yet, he constantly did good deeds, cared for the sick & the poor, and secretly performed Christian weddings. Right before the Roman Empire beheaded Valentine for his Christian faith, he fell in love with a woman and gave her a final note signed, “Your Valentine”.

Now where in that story did you see true love? The origin of Valentine’s Day cards? Or how Valentine knew the value of his faith and love for Jesus Christ that he would take it to the very end?

When we think of true love, we may think of romance… but real, true love is unconditional, like the true love shown to us by Jesus Christ – the perfect sign of God’s love on the cross. This true love is what inspired and drove Valentine to do what he did. He risked persecution, punishment, and even death to take a stand for his Christian faith. Jesus was his shameless plug.

So this Valentine’s Day, have fun with the candy and flowers but don’t just fall for the commercialism and Hallmark holiday of February 14 – Valentine’s Day is more than that. Consider true love and show true love to those you care about: your friends, family, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, and even strangers. How can you show more of the true love of Jesus?

Reflection Song: Here Today