- ILLUMINATI - My humble opinion

Hello all........ when i write these notes they usually have something to do with what im going through at the time, or what God has been speaking to me about at the time. So this time around i wanted to give my whole take on what's going on in the music industry currently.

I think the first time i heard rumors about Jay-z's alleged ties with freemasonry was when he first put out "Run This Town", initially when i heard this song i thought it was just another boastful, regular ole' hip hop track about taking over the rap game.....nothing new...but then i heard people start talking about an underlying message within the song speaking about "New World Order". After going back to examine the lyrics these accusations made perfect sense, so then my discernment began to really fester up more as i examined more. After the video for this song was put out, i remember alot of people immediately picked up alot of masonic and pagan symbolism in the video and began exposing it on youtube, this pretty much confirmed the allegations for me, it blew me away. Jay-Z? Illuminati? I was baffled. Then after Jay-Z released the blueprint 3 album, everyone heard the infamous "Jesus can't save you, life starts when the church ends" line that started an IMMEDIATE uproar among not only Christians, but surprisingly non-Christians as well. This line offended me just like it did everyone else....well except the people who were trying to justify what Jay was saying. Their argument was, "you can't take that line out of context", I'm well aware that within the song the line has a different meaning...but as smart as Jay-Z is......we all know he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. He took a shot at my God. THEN Jay came out with another video for his song "On to the next One" which flashed masonic images throughout the entire video, that did it for me....in my eyes you couldn't tell me Jay-Z was not a Freemason.

In the midst of the whole Jay-Z controversy we began to see Kanye West slowly appearing back after his hiatus and the whole Taylor Swift situation. I then start to here allegations about KANYE possibly having ties with the Illuminati. Shortly after i see a video of Kanye on stage with Kid Cudi....Kanye then spits an acapella verse.........First line of the verse.........."I SOLD MY SOUL TO THE DEVIL, IT WAS A CRAPPY DEAL". My reaction? Well you can't get anymore blatant than that right? Then you begin to see all these tabloid pictures of Kanye and Jay with clothing that had masonic symbols on them and whatnot. Dang....Kanye's in it too....Then Kanye releases his first single "Power" and instead of making a standard music video for the song, Kanye being the artistic person he is decides to take a different approach. The video instead is a portrait painting of Kanye that progressively reveals itself more and more as the song progresses. Around him is absolutely nothing but masonic symbolism and images. In my eyes you couldn't tell me Kanye was not a Freemason.

.........NOW.

With all of that said I have since then heard and seen interviews from both Jay and Kanye. In fact, tonight i watched Kanye premiere his short film "Runaway" for his upcoming album and watched the interview after. Eventually the Illuminati rumors gained so much buzz and momentum that Jay-Z had no other choice BUT to speak out about these accusations in a radio interview. He states "Of course I believe in God, but i believe in one God. If people must know my religious beliefs i believe in one God. I don't believe in religion, i don't believe in Christians or Muslims, all that separates people, i think it's all one God and i don't believe in hell. Am i apart of some type of sect or cult? That sounds stupid to me, it's like ignorant to even say. I can't even get into a golf club in Palm Springs....I'm from Marcy projects." Rick Ross just released his album "Teflon Don" and one of the tracks is named "Free Mason", and he features non other than Mr. Jay-Z himself. This time however Jay decided to clear the air once and for all. He waisted no time by saying "N-ggas couldn’t do nothing with me, they put the devil on me/ I would have preferred if n-ggas squeeze the metal on me/ Rumours of Lucifer I don’t know who to trust" He then later says in the verse " he without sin shall cast the first stone / so y’all look in the mirror, double check your appearance/ b-tch I said I was amazing, Not that I’m a Mason".....he was addressing a rumor that people accused him of in another song. People thought he was saying "I'm a Mason, I'm a Mason". In another track with Usher, Jay says in one of his lines "Big ballin is my hobby, So much so they think I’m down with the illuminati." I say everything I've said thus far to say this. I don't think anyone will ever really know if Jay-Z is affiliated with the Illuminati or not. Me personally? I don't believe he is, I believe he took every rumor put out about him and ran with it for publicity to boost his album sales and to keep his name in everyone's mouth. I just find it hard to believe that a black male from Marcy projects in Brooklyn, NY made it into the most elite and powerful group in the world. Could i be wrong? ABSOLUTELY, but i just can't see it. Do i agree with his marketing approach? Not at all. Matt. 16:26 automatically comes to mind when i think about this situation. "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" This proves that man will stoop to any level to gain material wealth, even if he uses Satan himself to aid him. Ephesians 2 says before our hearts are transformed through Christ we are "following the prince of the power of the air", THAT'S SATAN. It also calls us "children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." It's quite simple, only two people can occupy and influence your spirit, it's either Jesus or Satan.

Now with Kanye i think it's another ball game...... Since the world was first introduced to Mr. West, it has ALWAYS been controversial. No other rapper/artist has the confidence, arrogance, and boldness that Kanye has displayed over the years. From "George Bush hates black people" to yanking the VMA award out of Taylor Swift's hand and everything else in between, Kanye has NEVER EVER shied away from expressing how he honestly feels or giving an opinionated statement no matter how controversial it is to the world. After watching the "Runaway" short film Kanye directed, MTV did an interview with Sway and Kanye to discuss the film and Kanye's career thus far. One of the things that struck me about Kanye was how passionate he was during every answer he gave and one of the things he immediately addressed was the "I sold my soul to the devil" line. He told Sway that they way people interpreted the line was not what he was talking about at all, what he meant by the line was something entirely different. I can't remember exactly what he said, but never the less he cleared the air with that answer.....To me Kanye West is a misunderstood, extremely confused, tortured soul. His approach to his art is completely left field of what anyone else is doing, which will quickly make you misunderstood. I also believe after the death of his mother he took a turn for the worst. He speaks about God all the time, tweets about God all the time, and even raps about God frequently...but his surroundings have caused him to formulate an unorthodox , mystical form of Christianity and idea of God. This is why you hear songs like "Jesus Walks" and then another song have explicit lyrics, to me it seems as if there is serious spiritual warfare roaring inside of him. The man is confused and desperately needs our prayer. I don't know about you all, but i can see an enormous amount of pain in Kanye's eyes.

The point of me writing this blog is to say this to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. WE NEED TO PRAY MORE THAN WE PERSECUTE. Am I for exposing the lies and tactics satan plants into the world to deceive us and draw us away from Christ? Absolutely, 100%. However, am i for dehumanizing the people he uses in the world to carry out his lies and tactics? Absolutely not. As Christians, why are we so shocked when people of the world sin?? If we ourselves who are redeemed through the blood of Christ still struggle everyday to live by the Spirit, then how are we surprised when someone who is NOT saved and does NOT walk by the Spirit carry out an evil deed? 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." Apart from Jesus, your heart is hardened to the Spirit. 1 John 4:5 says "They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them." Some Christians are more caught up in studying these Illuminati conspiracy theories than they are studying their bibles! They'll take the time to expose a sinner and expose evil, but they won't take the time to pray for the individual. Now i am NOT saying that we should just say "oh well, that's just the way the world is" and accept it, we should be PRAYING non stop for these people of evil influence and making an effort to extend the Gospel of Jesus Christ to these lost celebrities. Without that, we are merely condemning evil without casting it out.

James 5:16-19 says, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. My brothers, if ANYONE among you wanders from the truth ans someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."

Saints, let us continue to fight for the truth which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and also using our Spirit of discernment with the evil that the world produces, but let us also make sure that after exposing the truth, prayer follows immediately.

..............yea

Welp.

I'm a sophomore in college now............................

gonna post some food for thought this weekend.

thanks to the one person who might be reading this.

thatisall.

"EVIDENCE"

Soo....

its the summer...

and you would think that since I have a little more time on my hands, I would be writing these more often...

Nope.


Anyway, I was thinking a little bit earlier today and listening to a sermon (Mark Driscoll), and one of the points he brought out is, If we truly and genuinely love Christ and seek his face within our daily walk...then there should be some sort of evidence and change in you displaying his work in your life...

Some people might get mad at me for some of the things im about to say, Im ok with that...this is all in love.

I agree with Driscoll on this point. A common lie spread amongst people today and for quite some time now is that if we believe Jesus is the son of God and that he died for our sins and we say a little 3 minute prayer, then we are granted our spot in heaven. There is only one problem with that...many church leaders who lead people to Christ (with good intentions of course), forget to preach to these new born again believers that following Christ is a LIFESTYLE and that when you follow him you are radically changed for the rest of your life! Paul says in Philippians chapter 3, " But everything that was gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord...", Paul was extremely self righteous before God changed his life. For those who don't know what that means, it's not a good thing....Unfortunately a large percentage of Christians today reflect that attitude and lifestyle.

Now when I say all of this, i'm not saying that when we surrender our lives to Christ some of the sin and temptations in our life will magically be erased right away...some will right away, and some will be a life long battle. What i'm saying is that because Christ has rescued us and saved us from eternal damnation we should love him with everything that we have. 1 John 4:19 "We love him, because he first loved us." That means before you even cared to know about him! I mean if someone pushed you out of the way of a speeding car and saved your life, wouldn't you be eternally grateful to that person?? That person saved your life!! It's no different when giving your life to Jesus! He saves your life FOREVER the moment you give your life to him. The least you can do is live for him.

All too many times, people say the 3 minute prayer and expect something magical to happen. It doesn't happen that way. I've seen this storyline waaaaaaaaaay too man times, and I think a lot of you know what i'm talking about. Someone in the youth group goes to a week long christian camp during the summer, and the pastor gives an invitation to receive Christ and that person walks up, prays the prayer and gets saved. This person is really happy, and is on what a lot of us call a "spiritual high", and it lasts for about 3 weeks......if that. After it wears off and school starts back up, they get back into the groove of things...and back into their old sinful habits, like nothing ever happened. No change. No evidence. Some of you all might call me out on this, but I would seriously question whether this person is even saved or if they were just caught up in the atmosphere of the camp and made an emotional decision. It's sad. Now while the Bible does say,"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God " Ephesians 2:8, James 2:20 also says " faith without works is dead". It takes more than believing to follow Christ, it takes LIVING.

Now don't misunderstand the point i'm trying to drive here...we Christians are not perfect, nor will we ever be. When I point the finger on this topic, three are pointing RIGHT back at me. If you look at some of the backgrounds of the people who wrote these books in the Bible...you should know first hand that God doesn't want "Perfect", "Moral", "Self Righteous" people serving him. He wants, on fire, genuine, repentant believers who earnestly seek him in their daily walk. Everyone of us have our demons that we face everyday, Satan is powerful and has the power to steer us off track if we let him. As long as we live by what the word of God teaches, repent of our sins daily, immerse ourselves into his glory, worship God and know that he SOO much bigger and mightier than us....we won't have to worry about the change in our lives because people will already see it, it will be evident. There is freedom in Christ and many don't know that, or know what it really means. Living for Jesus is never boring if we're doing it right, the moment we think we have God figured out is the moment we start slipping away...we should always be amazed by our mighty God. Don't try to change yourself, let God change you...and the only way that will happen is giving your life to him.

God Bless.

Aaron Weiss interview

This might be a little controversial to some people, but at least give it some thought. I recently read an interview between some small magazine and Aaron Weiss ( lead singer of Mewithoutyou) and he brought up a point that i had never thought about before, and to be honest i really don't know what to think about his response, but needless to say....heres the question and Aaron's answer...


In regards to the Bible, how far does your dedication and faith extend to? Are there things in the Bible that you reject or personally don't agree with, or are there things you take literally verses figuratively?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to understand the Bible, and um, but I definitely dob't put it on the same pedestal that I used to. You know, where I'd say, "this is the word of God that I'm holding in my hand and this is infallible and perfect, and there's no contradictions and is scientifically accurate," and all the rest. I look at it now as, these are writings from the Jewish prophets about the coming of the messiah. They're poems and songs, and there's little biographical accounts of Jesus Christ and his life, and there's letters of advice and encouragement, and discouragement, the rebuking from Paul to specific churches, and other people like James and Peter are writing, and some visions from John. This is all collected into a book. It doesn't say the same thing all the time. It doesn't all line up. There's certain things...you read where it says, alright, there's Gospel saying that Judas hung himself. There's Gospel saying he threw himself off a cliff. You try and reconcile that like, "oh, he hung himself and then the branch broke and he fell off a cliff." There's so many examples of that where I'd rather...I reached a point where I felt like I was enslaved to defending every word or every story or every concept in there. And I looked around like, "man, nobody takes all this literally." Like, Paul says women should keep silent in church. I don't know a single church where they say women can't ask questions or talk in church. You could say, "oh, that was for that culture or that time," so you get to a different point where you're like, "these are the things that I think are essential." When Jesus said to love your enemies, that's not just for that time, that applies to everybody. And I don't know how I make those decisions. There's just some things that I pray to God to guide me in the right way and to guide me to the truth in the best way. To me, it seems like it would be hurtful or oppressive to tell a women that she couldn't talk in a church meeting. When I see that put into practice, I see women talk in church meetings that I attend, and it's cool. It's smooth. It doesn't seem to cause any trouble. But, when I hold on to anger or bitterness, or I gossip about people, or I indulge in sexual thoughts, or any of these other things that are forbidden by the Bible, I see the trouble that comes from that. So I think the verse that says, "taste and see that the Lord is good," there's like, this experiencial aspect where I don't believe the things that Jesus said because it's written in the Bible, but put them into practice and you see the freedom that comes from not worrying about tomorrow or from forgiving everybody or for caring at people. For praying to God. The things that Jesus said to do bring life. There's certain things where, you look at things from the Old Testament where war was prescribed, like, "go and wipe out this village and kill everybody." And Jesus has since then, taught us a better way.

So what do I think when I look at those old things? I think, "well, maybe that was necessary at that time. I don't know. I wasn't there. But I'm glad Jesus told me this because that feels right." That works when you live that out. That makes the world paradise, whereas if you go and kill people in the village where they live, that doesn't feel like paradise to me. That seems wrong. I don't know, I don't want to pick and choose based on convenience, like, "I don't feel like giving my stuff away so I'm going to ignore where Jesus says to sell your possessions." It's more like, what's the best? What's going to bring about the most goodness and beauty in the world? That's how I think is the way I want to look at it, and not on the one hand, ignoring what's inconvenient or that I can't understand. Or to just accept it all and say, "no, I have to believe this literally, every word of it." Nobody believes that Jesus was a lamb with white and curly wool. But he's called the lamb of God. So you have to say that some of this is symbolic, it's just how much of it is and how much do we need to accept. I don't know. I heard somebody say that we should read the Bible the way we eat fish. Carefully. Pick out the meat and throw the bones and just try to be careful with it.......


Like i said, this is very controversial, and im not saying i agree with he said, but im not exactly disagreeing either.... i want to hear everyones response about what Aaron said....


I have another blog in the works coming soon...

Quick question

Hey does anyone know how to upload a new template? Im trying to change the one that i have right now, but im not quite sure how to, Help please?

The Christian Music Industry or "CCM"

I have given this issue a lot of thought lately about how christianity has evolved in the past century, mainly the issue on christian music.

Ive seen people throw away some of their "christian" cd's because of a christian artists mainstream success, or because they have "sold out" to the secular community. My take on this is, it is our duty as believers in christ to share God's love and message to the lost, whether through our actions or through sharing. So how is catering to the christian community by making "our" music outreach to nonbelievers? In the past few decades we christians have created our own subculture to seperate ourselves from the "Worldly Society". Im sure you have already caught on to my excessive amount of quotation marks, but its to prove a point. Dont get me wrong im not bashing any christian artist, only giving insight. If you play in a praise and worship band, or are a gospel artist etc..., and play sold out venues to lead other believers in worship, by all means continue, There is not a better feeling than surrenduring to christ through worship, its the next thing to heaven to me . What im trying to say is that, it is wrong to codemn a christian who dosnt necessarily play in a christian band or music in general. Here's a quote from one of the members of the band Mute Math,

"We've always conditioned our show universally, and (we're) just trying to speak to human beings; (we're) not really conditioning it down to Christians, and that's what the Christian music industry does. It's for a certain sect of people. I don't have anything against that--I'm one of them--but I don't want to taper it just for that," said Meany.

Basically what he's saying is that he dosnt feel the need to play for christian audiences all of the time, Mute Math is an example of believers who play music just for the love of music. If you really think about it, when you play in a band purely for the sake of music, you have an ultimate freedom espression, you can play anything you want . This is because whenever you sign a contract with say...... i dont know a prodominately "secular" label, you can pretty much sing about whatever you want without having to feel obligated to sing about God ALL of the time. No one in this world feels like praising God everyday, its just reality, in life there are ups and downs in which we must endure, living a life for christ isnt always easy, so is it wrong to sing about those ups and downs sometimes and sing about joy other times? Take a look at Psalms or Song of Songs. " My father, Why have you forsaken me?", sound familiar?,This dosnt sound like a praise and worship song to me. In Song of Songs, solomon talks pretty vividly about his love for his wife and her physical features, Most christians would blush if they heard a song like this. The Almost and Switchfoot are other examples of this. If i can remember correctly, Switchfoot is signed with Warner Brothers and The Almost is cosigned with Warner Bros. and Tooth and Nail. The Almost has made a quick success simply because of the mainstream exposure, but Aaron Gillespie does not shy away from proclaiming Jesus's name in some of his songs, two in fact. I can say from experience that lost people often respond more to how a christian walks than talks. It is very possible to uphold a witness while in a lost enviroment.


The bible says glorify Christ in everything we do, so can we sing a regular song about life and still be communicating with God?, i say we can. Is it wrong to sing about pain and sorrow sometimes?, i dont think so. Can i play football to the best of my ability and still glorify God?, i say yes. I mean whats next......."christian football"........." Oh yes sir, i run a "christian" automotive business". Maybe we should stop trying to seperate ourselves from these subcultures ( without creating ones of our own of course), and just focus on the big picture, Jesus.



By the way feel free to give your thoughts, im open to criticism. If you recognize a flaw in some of my thoughts by all means say something, im not here to try to justify anything, only share my convictions.

Black Stereotypes

Even in 2008, there seems to be a strong stereotype that black people are only limited to one lifestyle, only speak in ebonics ( nothin wrong with ebonics, i use it all the time) and are only limted to certain types of music. WRONG, much of this world is ignorant to the fact that not all blacks are the same. Why is it that when black people try to branch out from these stereotypes, they get rediculed for it and are called "white", "oreo", "uncle tom", or any other degrading terms. Not all blacks can run fast and jump high, not all blacks listen to hip hop and r&b, and not all blacks are from the inner city. I blame a big part of this on the media for portraying us for something that not all of us are. I'm black, I listen to hip hop, r&b, and gospel, but i also listen rock, hardcore, indie, and other subgenres as well, does this make me less black? Of course not im still 100% black, but some people are too ignorant to see past the stereotype and what a sad majority follows. What many people fail to realize is that, we (Black people) created rock n roll. Chuck Berry was one of the founding pioneers of rock n roll before the whites took it and ran with it ( not mad at white people, just mad that some whites claimed they created the genre). Elvis did NOT invent rock n roll! There is also the issue that blacks can only dress a certain way to remain "black", this is slowly changing as more people are becoming aware of cultures merging together and sharing fashion, but this process is long over due. I think part of our problems as blacks is that we limit ourselves and validate these labels that are given to us, meaing every time we're in a situation where we have to prove our "racial authenticity" we take the easy way out and perform some niggerish act instead of compromising and showing others our true uniqueness. We are sometimes our own worst enemy, we shoot ourselves in the foot everytime we conform to what the world says we should be. Black people do not live like you see in rap videos, so stop downgrading us when you see reality. We are educated and we can do anything white people can do. I mean Jay-z is the ceo of Rocafella records AND HES BLACK! Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith coached in last years Super Bowl, AND THEY'RE BLACK! Barack Obama is one of the leading candidates for the upcoming Presidential Election and guess what, HE'S BLACK TOO! Imagine that....if it werent for people like this, us black people would never have access to the opportunities we now do. Many people don't know how to respond to an educated black person without it being negative, we have to keep progressing and showing people that just because we're dark skinned dosnt mean that we are limited in anyway. Im proud to be black and i wouldnt have any other way. Its time for all of us to think outside of the box, and tear down the walls people and even we ourselves have put up against our people. LETS BREAK THE STEREOTYPES!!!