It's not religion, it's a relationship - Prove it!

In 2008, Pastor Rick Warren was on the cover of Time Magazine. The headline read "America's most powerful religious leader takes on the world."

At first, I thought, "Stupid Time Magazine... don't they know it's not religion!"

Of course, this is just another attack on Christian faith and is made to belittle what we know is to be a true relationship with Jesus, right? Time knows better, but because they refuse to recognize faith, they bunch it into the category of religion. They should know that us "true believers" actually spite religion!

But, hold on... while it's true that faith and spirituality is unfairly categorized as religion oftentimes, who's fault is that Time and others in "the world" don't recognize the value of our relationship?

Sit down for this one... it's OUR fault! The reason the world recognizes our faith as religion is because the outward appearance is oftentimes that there is NO DIFFERENCE! How many times do we turn our churches into "country clubs" and give our faith the air of exclusivity? How many times do we appear angry that people don't follow the same walk that we do? How many times do we ostracize rather than love UNCONDITIONALLY?

Unfortunately, the answer has been a lot. If we want our relationship with Christ to be known, then we need to start sharing it... liberally.

So, does that mean walking up to a stranger and throwing "you need Jesus in your life" in their face? No, in fact, the first step is almost always to establish a relationship with yourself first! When an opportunities arise, which they do every day, we are to LOVE on people--no matter who they are and what they believe.

When you are in a relationship with others, who you are and what you really believe will always become evident.

When I came across Rick Warren's Time cover again this week, I initially got a little upset again... but then, I thought to myself, "Maybe I'm the stupid one... Rick Warren just got an opportunity to share his faith and relationship in one of the most widely read magazines in the world! Wow... what an opportunity!"

That was verified when I searched today in Google for Rick Warren in Time Magazine and this description of the article came up: "How a charismatic Californian became the closest thing to Billy Graham — and why religion in America won't be the same."

So, next time you judge or criticize those who don't understand your faith and seem to mock it or belittle it, remember this: The world doesn't call Christianity "religion" just because they haven't experienced a relationship with Jesus yet... they call it "religion" because they haven't experienced a relationship with US yet!

Love on someone today!

How to know you are saved

The way they knew if they were saved in the New Testament church was that they loved each other. John 3:14 #lovewins

More on this to come...

Do it Yourself Website Builders vs Free Custom Websites

Latest article...

Do it Yourself Website Builders vs Free Custom Websites

Building a free website can be a daunting task if you’re not a professional website designer. However, the best website builder tools can make that job much simpler, some more than others, while some even offer the use a professional website designer for free...

Mason Laughing

Hahahahahaha...

Twitter Launches Cost per Follow & Cost per Engagement Beta Test

AdWords for social networking... cool...

Twitter Launches Cost per Follow & Cost per Engagement Beta Test

The “Cost-per-Follow” (CPF) model allows Twitter-based businesses to bid on each new follower at an anticipated average cost of $2-3, according to the San Francisco-based social media giant. The second model, “Cost-per-Enagement” (CPE) will charge an average of $0.50 per click, favorite, RT, and @Replies to the promoted business... 

But, if and when this campaign debuts to the public, small businesses and individuals could celebrate the campaign as an opportunity to focus on promoting to users who are more likely to turn into conversions. In other words, a website for accountants could promote strictly to potential followers who need accounting help, maximizing their user of Twitter. - John Rowa 

Check out my latest article on FreeCustomWebsite.com:

Google+ Traffic Up 1300% but Business Pages are Key for Long-Term Growth

Google Plus took the “invite only” tag off it’s sign up process last week and the results are in: Over 15 million visits were made to Google+ for the week ending September 24th, according to traffic trackers Experian Hitwise. That’s an increase of almost 1300% from the previous week as new users clamored for a taste of Google’s social networking option–though it’s still a drop in the bucket compared to Facebook’s 1.8 BILLION visits per week.

And while Google and social networking buffs may celebrate the meteoric rise in interest, the true key for Google+ growth will be found in its ability to allow an individual, company, or small business websites to promote themselves.

Amazon tribe photos found to be fake... again...

A couple of years ago, I came across a story on the front page of Yahoo released by the AP about a "lost tribe of Indians found deep within the Amazon." The hook was the photos of the indigenous tribe shooting arrows at the helicopter/plane that was taking the aerial footage of the tribe. The selling point was that tribes such as these are threatened because of logging.

From CNN in 2008: The National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), a government agency in Brazil, published the photos Thursday on its Web site. It tracks "uncontacted tribes" -- indigenous groups that are thought to have had no contact with outsiders -- and seeks to protect them from encroachment.

CNN article from May 2008
Gallery from May 2008


Great story, right? Get the word out there about illegal logging and how it's destroying these "lost tribes" deep within the Amazon. Sure, except, it was debunked as a "lost tribe" just a couple months after the story was released.

From the Guardian (UK) in June 2008:

Tribal guardian admits the Amazon Indians’ existence was already known, but he hoped the publicity would lift the threat of logging

They are the amazing pictures that were beamed around the globe: a handful of warriors from an ‘undiscovered tribe’ in the rainforest on the Brazilian-Peruvian border brandishing bows and arrows at the aircraft that photographed them.

Or so the story was told and sold. But it has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe’s existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that ‘uncontacted’ tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry.

The disclosures have been made by the man behind the pictures, Jose Carlos Meirelles, 61, one of the handful of sertanistas “experts on indigenous tribes“ working for the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency, Funai, which is dedicated to searching out remote tribes and protecting them.

In other words, this agency, FUNAI, sold a nice, shiny story to the mainstream media and they bit without doing any extensive research or without even looking at the photos (i.e. if the tribe was really "never contacted before" why do they have metal pots and machetes?).

Well, I guess even mainstream media can make a mistake every now and then, right?

Fast forward to today... when I came across this article on Yahoo's home page from the AP:

Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of an uncontacted Amazonian tribe to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible annihilation.

The astonishing images, showing curious adults and children peering skyward with their faces dyed reddish-orange and toting bows, arrows and spears, were taken by Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).

Article from January 2011.

Different picture... same story.

I've seen this article posted around numerous "trusted" vendors for mainstream media today. FUNAI has sold them a bill of goods again, and either nobody bothered to fact check--AGAIN--or they decided to run it anyway because they thought we would forget and we should hear the horror stories of illegal logging.

Whether or not the story is worthy of a re-run (which illegal logging surely could use more publicity), media outlets need to have a much higher level of scrutiny and morality in not feeding us false or stretched "news" for any reason. Their job is to REPORT the news... not make it.

Just another reason you shouldn't believe everything you read coming from mainstream media.