What Happened?

Posted on January 6, 2012 
Filed Under Youth | 1 Comment

I was looking through facebook a few days ago and saw a status update from a friend that I went to church with in Alaska. He and I were in the youth group together and were both heavily involved. He really pressed in and felt called to ministry. Now, he is no longer serving God and has made it his mission to “prove people wrong”.

I look back at all the people I grew up with in church and to my knowledge, only 3-5 of us are serving the lord(out of about 25) This brings up an interesting question: what happened? What went wrong?

I don’t know if it has something to do with our generation or if something the current American church is doing isn’t working. My guess is it’s a combination of the two.

I wish the answer were easy so the next generation doesn’t suffer the same fate but unfourtunatly, it is not.

As a person who works with youth, I am one of those people that needs to find the answer…. we need to ask questions or we will lose another generation.

~Anthony

John Piper- What is Prayer?

Posted on June 11, 2011 
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Here is the video I was referencing at the Day of Pentecost Youth Conference.

John Piper- What is Prayer?

Still giving thanks?

Posted on December 2, 2010 
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments

This year was a great thanksgiving as usual. I started the day by cooking breakfast with some of the men in my church for about 100 people from our congregation. I spent the rest of the day with my wife’s family.

My pastor preached a sermon on giving thanks both the Sunday before Thanksgiving as well as the Sunday after. I also took the Sunday evening before to teach the youth on giving thanks and we also did communion which is giving thanks to God for the ultimate gift.

All that talk of thanks got me thinking… Do we give thanks at any other time thought the year? Do we ever stop and thank God for the things He has given us? I know that this country is going through some hardships but there are so many things to be thankful for. Most of us have a roof over our heads and floors under our feet (something we seriously take for granted). But most of all, we forget so easily to stop and thank God for the gift if Salvation. Without it, nothing else matters.

Now it’s time to start looking forward to Christmas and the blessing that day represents without forgetting to stop and thank God for all He has blessed us with.

God bless,
Anthony

Straight Up! Youth End of Year Party

Posted on December 23, 2009 
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Medical_Release_Permission_Slip

2009 End of year party

****Newly added events******
Alnong with all the other things at the party, we have recently added bouncy boxing and sumo wrestling!! In order to participate, you must have the attached permission slip signed and bring it to the party. You can either print it from this site or get a hard copy from me.

Change of plans

Posted on June 1, 2009 
Filed Under Christianity, Youth | Leave a Comment

As you may have noticed, there have not been any changes to my site. There as been a change in plans to some extent. This last Sunday I was appointed as the youth pastor of Straight Up! Youth/ Spirit Filled Church. My goal for this website is to use it to post my thoughts once a week (at least) and hopefully be able to post my sermons and notes up here. I still plan on using this site to comple good human videos as well as some original ones we are working on. Big thigs are going to happen and I am really excited to see how God will use this site in the ministry He has in store for me

~Anthony

I am not dead

Posted on December 26, 2008 
Filed Under info | Leave a Comment

Hello everyone. It has been quite some time since I last posted. I wanted to writ and let you know what’s going on. My plan for the blog is to to into construction and revamp the whole site but right now the only access to the Internet is on my iPhone as I recently moved to a new home with no Internet as of yet. Once I am able to pit the site under construction, I am going to change the whole layout of the blog and add pages for my favorite sermons, bands, and human videos. As most of you know, I am the drama director for Straight Up! Drama. In looking for dramas for my team to preform I have noticed that there is not site set up for the discussion and easy access to human videos. I want to use my site to aid other people in finding good dramas as well as encouraging teams that are having a hard time getting off the ground floor.

If anyone would like to assist me in any part of the process incluing working on a particular page (such as compiling good dramas off of Godtube and YouTube) please email me at renonut2006@gmail.com

Thank you all for you continued support. If you would like to be updated on the progress of this site please leave enter all the info in the comment box and leave a small comment. I will email you on my progress.

God bless,
Anthony

Why i like heavey metal and hard preaching

Posted on October 3, 2008 
Filed Under Christianity, music | 1 Comment

I get a lot of critisism over the type of music I like. If you cannot tell from things I have written and shows I promote, I am am a huge fan of Christian metal and hardcore music ( Haste the Day, Norma Jean, Living Sacrafice, Demon hunter, As I Lay Dying, ECT).

Other Christians (especially older ones) give me a hard time about this music, some even go as far as to say that they can’t be Christian or that if you can’t understand it you should not listen to it. First off I can understand it. Most people have a problem with the fact that bands like the ones mentioned above scream most of their lyrics which is seen as angry or even evil.

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why exactly I like that type of music. It lead me to thinking that most of my favorite preachers all scream or yell during their sermons ( John Piper, Mark Driscoll, my Pastor and many others). So I asked myself this question: What is it about the act of raising your voice ( screaming) that I like so much?

The answer I came up with is that when a person screams/ raises their voice, you can hear/feel their emotions thus their heart. In music, a scream can have a wide variety of emotions (excited, sad, mad, longing ECT). In the same way, a preacher shows his heart throught a raised voice and that action is associted with emotions ( wanting to stress a point, anger, saddness and so on). Look at the way John Piper preaches, he will talk normal then go into a wisper and suddenly, without warning will raise his voice to a yell and you can feel the saddness in his voice when he is talking about Christians stumbling.

That is why I like heavy metal and hard preaching. You can hear and feel without a doubt the emotion and heart of the singer or preacher and to me the heart is what it’s all about.

Think about the music and preaching you like. Why do you like it? I hope I am not the only person that thinks this stuff out so much.

God bless,
Anthony

Planned Parenthood hits a new low (yup it is possible)

Posted on September 30, 2008 
Filed Under Christianity, Purity, Youth, sex | Leave a Comment

Most people should me familiar with planned parenthood. They are the pro-abortion, “safe sex” group that teaches sex education and hands out condoms to students. This wonderful organization is funded by the govenment thus payed for by you and I in the form of taxes.

If you are not already on the verge of vomitting, it gets better! Planned Parenthood has recently started a website called “take care of down there” ( I am not providing the link. Google it if you must.) On this website, there are several small videos in where the “authority” figure gives teens advise about sex. One clip implys a sexual act between two men and another is a song containing all the slang words used to describe both male and female reproductive systems. This is just the stuff I want my taxes to pay for! Is this really what we want our teens to learn?Even if you are not a Christian, why would you want to have you kids know all the fun slang words?

To make things even better, on top of the government paying for this crap, abstinace programs may not be getting their funding. My friend works for the local worth the wait and his job is currently in limbo because their government grant has not been renewed. So we can pay for PP to condone permiscuity and homosexuality but heavan forbid the gov pay for someone to say wait till marriage.

As Christians, we should be up in arms but of all the sites I read, there is only one email newletter I have recieved. I am not sure how but this thing needs to be stopped. Any ideas?

God bless and fight the good fight,
Anthony

Concert review

Posted on September 18, 2008 
Filed Under Gospel, music | Leave a Comment

This past Fridy the 12th of September I hosted a concert at my church with Spoken, The Red Airplanes, Ilia, and One Minute Halo. Unfortunatly, Ilia’s van broke down in Las Vegas and they were unable to make it. As some of you may know, I was previously working with someone here in town to bring concerts to town but that person has recently fallen off of the face of the planet. After a failed attempt to get a concert here by myself, I figured that God was telling me I was not called to do this. Then about three weeks ago, I get a call from Extreme Faith Productions who says they have a completly set up show and all I have to do is arrange the venue.

All thay glitters is gold…..

Posted on September 18, 2008 
Filed Under Christianity | 10 Comments

I recently found that this commonly used phrase is in fact a false statement. In it’s raw form, gold is actualy a very dull, boring looking substance. It is only after it is worked and purified by a master craftsman that gold shines. Mica on the other hand is a very shiny, bright substance. Mica is commonly known as “fools gold”. When shown the two substances, an untrained eye would most likely choose the fools gold.

In the same way, we as Christians are not anything to look at in our raw form. It is only when we allow ourselves to be worked and refined by the Master that we become beautiful and of any use. A person may appear wonderful and look like he or she is a “good” person and even say they are “Christian” but when we look deeper, we see that person is actialy a “fools Christian” and only the untrained would choose that over a life for Christ.

What are you going to be? Are you going to allow yourself to be molded and purified by the Master ( which isn’t always a fun experiance) or are you going to just look like you are being used and actually be a fool?

God bless,
Anthony

P.S. I appologize for the lack of posting. My life has been a little hectic and I failed to make this site a priority. I should have some more posts coming soon please bear with me. Also, if there is anyone looking to guest blog, send me a email at renonut2006@gmail.com.

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