Entermission the debut album from DJ Official hits stores and online outlets this Saturday December 26th.

After producing for over 10 years and serving as traveling deejay, Official finally has the opportunity to reveal the dynamic of his skill-set on one project. The album is purposed to influence Christians to think about the Great Commission (Matt 28:19) and the Great Commandment (Luke 10:27) on a local level. As Christians we have a personal mission field, which consist of those that God has placed in our sphere of influence.  With a missional mindset we can affect the people around us with the Gospel message by the way we live and conduct ourselves in our everyday walk.  This is a message that needs to be heard and with everything from Reggae, Downsouth, East Coast, Commercial, Underground, Electro, and Rock/Hipster featured on the album there is something for everyone!

EnterMission features over 20 artists such as Lecrae, Flame, Trip Lee, JR, Tedashii, Sho Baraka and many others. Every single track on EnterMission is produced by DJ Official.

To order the album, go here

You can listen to the singles, read about the album, and create your own version of the album cover here

There are three versions to choose from:

A Thought On Universal Health Care

Today I saw a Facebook status that said, “Jesus gave healthcare to everyone” and it got me to thinking about a few things. I know this is a controversial topic and not everyone will agree with me, but this is the conclusion I’ve come up with after thinking over it for a while.

The first thing I should mention is that the “Jesus gave healthcare to everyone” argument would probably would most often come from those who are adamant about the separation of church and state. Ironic or a double standard? I’ll let you decide.

Second, this isn’t even remotely biblical. Jesus gave healthcare to everyone? Really? Where in any of the gospels does Jesus gather up the whole world, or even the whole nation of Israel, and start healing? It doesn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong. I believe Jesus healed many, but there was even more that he didn’t heal (In John 5:1-9 only one man was healed). Those he did heal he most often only healed because of their faith in Jesus to do so. I could go on about this, but I would begin to get off the topic. The bottom line is that Jesus did not heal everyone. And I do not that makes him any less divine or loving.

That being said, I do wish everyone in the world could have great healthcare. I think it is Christlike to desire that. I do not think it was Jesus’ desire to leave so many sick and broken. And as I believe He is alive today, I also believe that he is still concerned about these things. But I believe He did something about it before He left. He established the church, and when He did, He promised His very Spirit to the church (John 14:16, and in John 16:7 Jesus even says it’s for our good that He left so that the Spirit could come!). Sure, the church has sometimes done a pretty crummy job of caring for the sick, but that’s who’s job it is, not the federal government’s. If a person is going to use Jesus as an example for healthcare, he or she better be making it to spurn on the church, not the government. Christ gave his Spirit, The Holy Spirit, to the church to carry on the ministry he started while He was here. So even if Christ did give healthcare to everyone, it should be something that comes from the church, not the government.

One thing I do wonder about is whether people who make this argument tithe and give offerings to the church. Or if they use their gifts given by the Spirit for The Kingdom. This would be one of the greatest helps for the healthcare of the nation or even the world: You as a believer plugged into your local church. Using your gifts to help others in whatever way you can so that they may also be able to use their gifts effectively and to give money to enable the church to do ministry. When this happens supernatural things happen. People get healed from all kinds of things. Lives are changed. Conditions that people would have been in that would cause worse health are avoided. This is the ministry of the church and because it (healthcare)  can only be done effectively if it is led and empowered by the Holy Spirit, not by a godless government. And when it comes from the church people will glorify God (Matthew 15:29-31), but when it comes from the government they will glorify politicians.

So if we’re going to make arguments for Universal Healthcare lets make it to the church. Not to the nation. But before you start badgering the church about, make sure you have the plank out of your own eye.

C.T. Studd and His Priorities

A couple of years ago I read a book that told the story of the life of William Carey. Recently I found the collection of books that that book on Williams Carey was from. I bought about 10 books on other missionaries and decided to read them. It’s amazing how fired up the stories about missionaries and the things they have accomplished in their lives can get you.

While I was reading the book on William Carey a few years ago a friend of mine was reading on on C.T. Studd. We did this for a project we were both a part of called aXis. Well we both shared about each missionary and I remember what he told me about Studd.

The thing that caught my attention first was that unlike most other missionaries, Studd was somewhat of a secular celebrity before he became a missionary.  He was known all over England was an excellent cricket player. Cricket to England is like baseball is to the United States. Studd gave up his cricket career, however to become a missionary in China.

To me, that is awesome! I mean I think of all of the people today who miss church because they have to practice a sport so that they’ll get to start at a sport they play in high school. And then we have C.T. Studd giving up his whole pro-cricket career to give his life to missions overseas!

I found this quote from Studd that I think would be good for many teenagers today to consider:

“…I do not say, Don’t play games or cricket and so forth. By all means play and enjoy them, giving thanks to Jesus for them. Only take care that games do not become an idol to you as they did to me. What good will it do to anybody in the next world to have been the best player that ever has been? And then think of the difference between that and winning souls for Jesus.”

Enjoy the little things in life, but make sure they don’t distract you from what’s most important.

The Ultimate Personal Trainer.

I was asked to write a devotion for a weekly email that is sent out to students at the college I work for. This is what I wrote…

I used to lift weights pretty regularly. If you know me this may come as a surprise to you, but I played football in high school and as a result lifted weights in the off-season as well as competed in weight-lift meets. I always did pretty well for my weight class. I actually enjoyed lifting weights in high school. The coaches and other players were there to encourage and push me to lift as much as possible.
After football season ended my senior year I had seventh period of school free to go home. A couple of friends and I decided to get a membership at a gym in town. We wanted to keep working out to maintain what muscles we had (they had more than me). The great thing about working out at the gym is that there was a trainer who would give us direction on what weights to lift and how many reps to do. He would push us to do more and would make us redo a rep if we didn’t do it right.
Now I hardly ever lift weights. I don’t have the drive. There’s no one to push me to do more. I find that I need the encouragement in just about any exercise I do. I need someone to either tell me to keep lifting (or running) or to lift and run along with me. The same is true in my spiritual life. Physical training is very important, but spiritual training is of eternal importance. Our bodies are temporary, but our spirit lasts for ever. This is what Paul tells Timothy: “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8). He says this right after he tells Tim to train himself to be Godly. This is not an easy task to do alone. In fact, it is impossible! That is why Jesus sent us a Helper, the Holy Spirit. I guess you could say that He is the ultimate personal trainer.
Jesus made the promise to his disciples in John 14 that the Holy Spirit would come. While the disciples didn’t fully know what Jesus meant when He said he had to go away but that He would send a helper, I imagine that if He would have just told them He was going away and not mention sending them any help, they would have been very discouraged. Just like in physical training it is more beneficial to have someone with us there encouraging us and teaching us how to perfect out skills. Jesus went as far as to say that it would be better if He went away so that the Spirit could come (John 16:7).
Do we really live like we believe that having the Spirit of God inside of us is better than having Jesus walk beside us? Jesus sent the Spirit to live in us so that we may be trained to live a Godly life and look more like Him. And just like physical training bares evidence, so does spiritual. Instead of bigger muscles, though, what is evident is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives. If we truly have the Spirit of God in our lives, these characteristics will be evident in our lives.
This week think about how the Spirit can work within you to make you more like Jesus. Read John 14:15-31, John 16:1-16, and Galatians 5:16-26 and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you.

Live Love

I just took my youth group to the Student Life Conference in Memphis. The theme was Live Love. I made a video to show to the congregation this morning. I’ve been thinking about writing a blog on some of my views on love and Christianity. I’ll get to those eventually, but for now here’s the video I made of the Student Life weekend with my kids…

My Valentine’s Day Conundrum

I have to admit… I used to not be a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. Now, I’ve never been one of those people who loathe the day, but I just never really looked forward to it. This is because I’ve always wanted someone to buy something for, but have never had that opportunity (I guess I’m a hopeless romantic). Sure, I’ve had girlfriend, but for some reason I’ve never had one when Valentine’s Day rolled around (except for that girl in the second grade, but who counts the second grade? She did buy me some red hot hearts, though!).

This year is different. I have a girlfriend and I’m more than excited to get her something for this day of love and joyness. I think I have everything in order for the big day. I like to be sure, though, and this is where my new problem comes in. I like getting feedback from people on things. I’m not a girl, so the best thing to do is to ask a girl if what I bought my girl for Valentine’s Day is a good idea. There are basically two kinds of girls out there for me to ask: single girls or not-single girls.

Here is the problem with asking not-single girls for their Valentine’s Day input: If I do a really good job with my Valentine’s Day gifts/ideas then I run the risk of topping this girl’s boyfriend/fiance/husband. If that happens I upset her and ultimately run the risk of upsetting the boyfriend/fiance/husband. Not cool.

Here is the problem with asking a single girl for their Valentine’s Day input: It’s pretty simple actually. Girls like presents. Girls especially like getting things on Valentine’s Day. Single girls usually get nothing on Valentine’s Day. How nice would it be of me to remind a girl of what she could be getting if she had a boyfriend/fiance/husband on Valentine’s Day.

Anyway… if you read this you should share a good Valentine’s Day story. What has someone got for you? What was the worst thing you got on Valentine’s Day? Any good/bad experiences out there?

Crazy Love on DVD!!!

On my old blog site I talked about the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. If you haven’t read this book yet you need to stop what you’re doing and go pick it up. It will change your life (not really the book, but the Holy Spirit will through reading this book)!

The folks over at David C. Cook, the publishing company that published Crazy Love, have now come out with a DVD study to go along with the book. I got it today, so I haven’t really had time to give it much of a try, but if it is anything close to as good as the book (or just about anything else that comes from Francis) this will be a great resource for those wanting to lead a study through Crazy Love. I can’t wait to look it over. I may even have to read the book again!
Oh, and for those just itching for more from Francis… I hear there’s a new book coming in the fall!

Purpose: The First “Official” Post

This is the first “official” post for my new blog. I want to layout my purpose with this post. My primary goal is to analyze worldview when thinking about different issues, movies, cultural events, etc. This is because I’m a youth pastor and I desire for youth to really consider and think about how they view the world. My hope is that the well see it through the lens of the Bible (a Christian Worldview).
That being said. I also don’t want to always be serious. I will probably have several blog posts about nonsense or just whatever I feel like writing about. I hope to keep up with it regularly, but I’m not making any promises.
Until the next post, I pray that the Lord will bless you and that you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-Aaron

Worldview!

Just to start out…