GOD EQUALS LOVE ... The light bulb moment.

You know those times when you go around in circles trying to figure something out? When you think it's so complicated and there's so much to comprehend? That was my group at FLOCK, trying to pull out the meaning of 1 John 4:7-21. There are so many different aspects of love that are discussed in those verses, but just a few main ideas that we found were:

LAY IT DOWN FOR OTHERS: And yes, by "it" we mean your life. Defenitely a crazy thing to think about. But if you truly love someone, you want to put their needs before your own, even if it means giving your life.

DON'T TALK LOVE, DO LOVE: Pretty much "walkin' the walk" and not just "talkin' the talk." You can't say you love someone if your actions aren't going to back it up. Show them you love them, don't just say it. After all, actions do speak louder than words.

LOVE > WORLDY STUFF: Loving someone is way more important than the little things in life that really don't matter. Who cares what somebody thinks about you if you're doing what you love, or showing someone you love them. Love pretty much trumps all else.

And after trying to connect all these points... We had our light bulb moment. GOD EQUALS LOVE. That's when it all clicked for me... God equals love. And God knows all things. God is never wrong. Everything he wills to be done, is done. He never fails. So since God is love, that means that LOVE NEVER FAILS.

Love.
Never.
Fails.

It's such a simple concept that is so easy to complicate. If we can just live and love knowing that God has everything under control (I mean, it's God... He knows whats up), everything will turn out exactly how He has it planned. And, as I learned from Veggie Tales back in the day, "God's way is the best way."

GOD EQUALS LOVE.

BV Tiger Print. Review of new Mikey Needleman Band CD. :]

BV Tiger Print. Review of new Mikey Needleman Band CD, All For You.
Click here to see the story on bvtigernews.com... Or you can just read it below. :]

Christan band with local ties releases strong sophomore album

March 23, 2011

Jordan McEntee, Design editor

 

Other than my fellow Christian music junkies, most people have never heard of the Mikey Needleman Band, much less listened to its new album, All For You.
It’s unfortunate.
We’re going to change that.
For starters, Mikey Needleman is a Johnson County local who started the Mikey Needleman Band in 2006.

This Christian band consists of Needleman on guitar and lead vocals, Bill Hurrelbrink on bass, Lance Pollard on lead guitar and Vince Kirk on drums.
The band released its first album Waiting For You in 2008 and its new album All For You on March 8, 2011.
All For You contains a mixture of up-beat and slow songs; however, they all have the same message — praise and worship.
The first track, and my personal favorite, “All For You” is a fantastic song with high-energy, killer vocals, amazing guitar and especially meaningful lyrics.
It’s one of those songs that I’ll sing and dance along with about 700 times in my car with the windows rolled down. It puts you in the mood to rock out and sing, even if you have a terrible voice like mine.
My favorite thing about this album is that the words actually mean something.
Too many times these days, artists just sing about things that don’t really matter (like Lady Gaga’s P-P-P-Poker Face). Lyrics shouldn’t just ramble and rhyme. Listeners should connect to the lyrics on a personal level — this album is the perfect example of that.
Every track on this CD has the potential to make you sing along while rocking your little iPod headphones, but also to make you actually stop and think about Mikey’s purpose for writing the song.
All For You is overall an incredible album, and I strongly suggest it to anyone who likes some good, solid Christian music, or really anyone at all.
Copies of the album can be purchased on the band’s website www.MikeyNeedleman.com and will soon be available on iTunes.

The epic experience of WINTER JAM 2011.

Last night at the Sprint Center was probably one of the most epic concerts of all time. 10 amazing Christian bands, 10 bucks, 7 of my best friends, an hour of waiting, and 4 hours of rockin' music. However, you can't fully appreciate how awesome this experience was until you hear the story of the miracle of how we even got in the door.

All 8 of us drove two cars down to the Sprint Center, and by the time we parked (fifty thousand miles away from the building) and walked there, it was about 5:30. We walk up and see THOUSANDS of people in a huge mob of a line literally wrapped ALL the way around the Sprint Center. Um yeah, that is a tonnnnnnn of people. So just like everyone else, we go to the back of the line to wait our turn to get tickets. Meanwhile, there are people walking around saying things like, "It's already sold out, so you might as well get out of line now!"

Well, if you know me, Evelyn, Sara, Erin, Maria, Jane, Bailey, and Miranda, That was not happening. We were not taking no for an answer.

So the line starts disintegrating except for this giant mob of probably a thousand people in front of the doors. By this point we are all freaking out that it's about to start pouring down rain and that we won't be able to get in... So what did we do? We rocked up and prayed. "Dear Jesus, please let it not start raining on us. And please help us get in there to see the Newsboys and David Crowder Band. We love you. Amen." :]

At that point, we saw a huge opening right next to the door and decided to go ask somebody if it was actually sold out. So we asked someone and the answer we got was that there were still seats open but that they were out of actual paper tickets and were getting more. So within 5 minutes of us standing there, we were part of a miracle from Jesus Christ: They opened the doors and starting passing out the last of the tickets.

We witnessed the truth of God's word... "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and a door shall be opened to you." WE LOVE YOU, JESUS.

Once the madness of getting in the door, finding seats, and helping Miranda fix her cut-open toe was over, the concert was fantastic. Best three performances of the night- Kutless, Newsboys, and David Crowder Band.

And my favorite moment of the night was during David Crowder Band's "How He Loves" when we all linked arms and were swaying back and forth singing praise to the One who loves us, forgives us, and died for us.

Unbelievable night. :]

The craziest thing to me was this morning, the day after the concert, I got on the Kansas City Star website to see what they had to say about the concert last night. I click on the Entertainment tab and the first thing to pop up is a review of the Ke$ha concert downtown last night at the same time as Winter Jam. There was absolutely nothing about this phenomenal, huge Christian concert with 50,000 people inside and waiting to get in. Ke$ha VS. David Crowder Band, Kutless, Newsboys, Newsong, RED, Chris August, Chris Sligh, KJ-52, Francesca Battistelli, and Tony Nolan... Hmmm. Interesting.

But nonetheless, the concert was epic. Yay for Jesus Freaks. :]

"I'm getting better at awkward silences!"

AP FLOCK. Or should we just call it "THE best way to spend an hour and a half on a Wednesday night"? Yeah, I think we'll go with that. Well, as always we started off with Happies and Crappies... for an hour... which somehow turned into a discussion about Aaron's college "adventures," Joe's State football ring (that is aparently also a mood ring, it has a button that says things when you push it, and it'll run out of batteries if you don't charge it with your car charger. But watch out, you might get the cords all tangled up), and the brownies that made Brian feel crappy, literally.

Then we split. Guys in the conference room, girls in Sara's office. Somehow we managed to have a somewhat deep conversation about role models despite the random discussions about Sara's friend getting engaged, going to Uncle Tom's Cabin, her friend getting stranded at an airport and ending up meeting an old lady and going to a Matt Maher concert, etc....

So our talk about role models started a little something like this:

Sara: "So somehow this lady got my name and wants me to ask you guys this question and take your picture for the cover of their publication or something."

Jane, Kenz, and me: "Okay... So what's the question?"

Sara: "Describe what you look for in a role model."

AWKWARD SILENCE >>> Staring at eachother. >>> Waiting for someone else to talk. >>> About 2 minutes go by.

Then Sara says, "You guys - I'm getting better at awkward silences!" :]

So as funny/awkward/hilarious as those few minutes were, we actuallycame up with a pretty good list of a few of our role models: Our parents, Sara Batenhorst, Andrew Rockers, Debbie and Dana Nearmyer... That awkward silence actually provided some pretty great thinkin' time... Then we (mostly Jane) came up with this idea that when we think of someone as a role model, it is because they have qualities that we admire and that we wish for ourselves to have. We see something in our role models that we want to try to work toward. These people inspire us, push us, and inspire us to be the kind of people we want to be.

And as I'm typing this listening to Matt Maher on my iPod, I think about how great of a role model he is for those who listen to his absolutely phenomenal music. But as much as he can influence my life, I don't actually know him, unfortunately. Then I think about how many fantastic people God has surrounded me with every single day, who I've grown close to and who truly are my role models. :]

Little Flowers & Big Weeds...

I guess you could say that AP FLOCK has officially split for the next 3 weeks...

SIDE ONE: The Little Flowers. (a.k.a. the girls... who will actually talk about somewhat profound topics, including ways we've seen Christ acting in our lives, what's been on our hearts, and that crazy thing known as "our future.")

SIDE TWO: The Big Weeds. (a.k.a. the guys... who will most likely discuss how they've felt Christ in their lives while playing Halo on PS3, funny lines from Family Guy, the beauty of the 3D tv, make a giant gum monster with Dubble Bubble, or just wear the gum container as a hat... Oh wait, that's what they did last week...)

It should be pretty successful (at least for side one, that is). And as much as we joke about you guys, we really do love you guys a whole bunch, but it'll be nice to get some deep conversations in without some of the distractions listed above. I guess we'll see how it goes... Little Flowers all the way. St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us. :]

Mom: "So what did you learn at FLOCK tonight?"

Just about every night when I get home from FLOCK, my mom asks something along the lines of, "So what did you guys learn at Flock tonight?" And let's just say that if I told my mom what Lainey said, I'd probably never be seen at youth group ever again... Kidding.

Well, the theme for the night was discipleship. Sara was talking about how we all have our own crosses to bear in life and how we have to live for the Lord in different ways depending on the challenges and obstables we face. Then she said something like, "And guess what? You can cheat. If you see someone else living in a way that you like or doing something that you like, you can steal their idea."

Then she was telling everyone the story of this awesome girl we met at Hope Faith Ministries on Saturday. So there was this woman who had a 9 year old son and they were living out of their car. They didn't have winter coats or really any warm clothing at all. The woman was getting some sweat pants and a coat at the thrift store downstairs, but they didn't have any more pants in her size. So this girl we met had on a really nice pair of like brand new sweatpants... She just took them off (and, yes, she did have shorts on underneath them) and gave them to the woman saying, "Here, you can have mine. I've only worn them like one time and they're really warm." It was absolutely amazinggggg.

So these were both good points that Sara made, but then she was like, "So when your parents ask what you learned tonight, you say..." And that's when Lainey said, "Cheat and take your pants off!"

We laughed for a solid 5 minutes after that comment. :]

"We were meant to live for so much more."

Jersey Shore. Two and a Half Men. The Bachelor.

The list could go on and on of shows that we find hilarious and entertaining. And it’s not just tv, it’s the media in general -- movies, music, internet...... Today’s society is shaping our minds to think that the things we see and hear in today’s culture are normal, acceptable, and appropriate. But are they? Umm, I’d definitely say no.

Are guys in real life anything like Edward Cullen or Jacob Black? Is Prince Charming really going to return my glass slipper from the ball? Is that ugly (yet somehow still somewhat cute) little frog really going to turn into a handsome prince? … Well, society has made children, teenagers, adults, everyone believe (or like to believe) that these perfect fairy tale endings are what we should strive for in our relationships. But the thing is, these relationships aren’t really love. John Paul II explains how there are two levels to an attraction: The first level is the “sexual urge,” where we find pleasure in the others’ qualities. That is the kind of shallow “love” we see in most movies and tv shows these days. But JP2 says we have to “rise above” this initial attraction and see the other person as a person, an actual person, so that we can become a “communion of persons” (us, the other person, and God... Like the Trinity). Until we can actually see that person for who they truly are, inside and out, we aren’t capable of actually loving them as a person.

So, this word “love.” We hear it all the time, we say it all the time, it’s everywhere. So what does love really mean? Well, some of the ways that JP2 describes “authentic love” are: selfless, true kindness, requires responsibility, rises above just the sexual aspect, virtue, friendship, sees the whole person, good will, total commitment, and self-giving. Dang. That scares me a little bit. If those are all the things we should strive for to truly love another, that’s some serious work. At AP Flock, we’d established that love is “truly wishing the best for the other person and helping them be the best person they can be.” Woah. In our discussion, this is where we brought up the aspect of responsibility (after all, the book IS called Love and RESPONSIBILITY). So what does that mean? It means we’re responsible for getting the other person to Heaven, responsible for helping them make good choices, helping them be the best they can be. Woah, again. That’s some serious responsibility right there. A little intimidated? I am.

So basically the point is, we can’t let today’s society make us believe that we should settle for anything less than what God has planned for us. Like the great band Switchfoot says, “We were meant to live for so much more.” We can’t be influenced by choices that we see people make on TV or in movies. Life isn’t like a reality show, it’s better. Because we have the ability to rise above and experience and engage in authentic love.