After hearing about the shooting today at the Chardon High School in Ohio its heartbreaking and down right NOT FAIR that kids should have to worry day to day if there high school will be next. Somewhere in all this there is action to be taken. The messages that are pumped into our lives everyday effect us greater than we can even imagine. Causing brothers to kill brothers and sisters to kill sisters. We must reach this generation at its most vulnerable place. Which is Jr High and High Schools. Teens are making drastic decisions everyday for good and for bad. Theres no vision and no direction! And without those two important aspects people tend to follow in the foot steps of those gone before them. Leading them into someones else's past and giving them no future of what they could become! Its time for you as students that go to a school to stand up for things that are right. Help those less fortunate and stick up for those who are bullied! It is definitely not time for us to be silent and scared! But to rise up and start prayer cultures and community events that reach out to homeless and hurting people. Boredom is not an option! We must be aware of whats before us and that its up to us to change it! As read this right now I pray that you are broken by the loss of a brother today and also anxious with tons of ideas about how you can began to change your world!
The hardest thought for me today after hearing about the shooting. Is that we lost someone in the body of christ. Someone that came from the same imagination of God killed his brother today. I cant help but think its because he really doesn't know he's hurting his on family. He didn't have a clear vision of what the Love of God looks like and that he's apart of something bigger than what it was that caused him to do something so drastic today. WE are all brothers and sisters and we must stand together. As the Body of Christ we are wounded today and we must morn for the loss of brother. It is our duty to lift those families and the rest of the student body up in prayer!
One of the strongest influences in the world we live in today are the ones transmitted through music. So what Royal Tailor is going to do is continue to empower and produce tools for this generation to take control back! And Bring HOPE to those searching for their identity. Because its definitely not working with the messages that come from pop culture today! Be a VOICE in your lifetime… God gave you a voice to use, so use it for good!
If you would like to aid Royal Tailor in our mission to getting into school heres how you can be apart. And at the very least pass the word around… Use your VOICE. Lets make a difference now, not later.
http://www.indiegogo.com/Royal-Tailor
With much Love and Concern!
DJ
]]>Our culture is dysfunctional. Truth is relative. The voices that are amplified through music and media are poisoning the hearts, minds, and value system of todays culture. The poison is seeping into the lives of our youth. There are some serious issues that we are dealing with. In playing shows all over the country we meet thousands of students and we hear their stories. Stories that tear your heart out. Kids having to deal with the effects of divorce or abusive home lives. Kids cutting their own bodies. Kids that are insecure so they look to inappropriate physical relationships for validation. Kids who are abusing alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, and anything else they can get their hands on so that they can feel a sense of escape from the reality that haunts them. For so long we’ve dealt with these symptoms. And that’s what these issues are; symptoms. For so long we’ve tried to manage the symptoms but God is calling us to not just manage symptoms but deal with the core of the issue. The core of the issue is that kids are living a life void of vision. The Bible says that without vision people perish or cast off restraint. It’s time that we stop allowing pop culture to cast vision for our kids and give them a vision of who Jesus is and who they are in Him. That truth doesn’t just give us the power to manage symptoms, it changes everything.
Royal Tailor wants to take 60 minutes out of a school day at schools nation wide and cast vision. We want to inspire students to dream. To tell them that they have the power to break the cycle of dysfunction in the world that surrounds them. That there is hope when they feel hopeless. That they have a future and it doesn’t have to look like their past.
We want to do it bigger than MTV! We want to do it better than the half-time at the Super Bowl! We want to create a world-class, high-energy, performance driven, MIND BLOWING presentation leaving kids thinking of all sorts of colorful possibilities. We also want them to realize that thoughtlessly following the trends of pop culture will leave them with a pale pallet that will paint nothing more than a dingy future. We want to do this at multiple schools in each city. Monday-Thursday, at four different schools in 1 city. Then on Friday night of that week we will be pushing for all those kids to come to another HUGE concert. In that concert we will deliver the Gospel. Now, we are also working on a website and resources to keep students moving toward their destiny so that we do not just giving them inspiration without direction. More details will unfold as this vision unfolds and people partner with us. Hopefully this gives you a vision of what God has called us to do and compelled you to be a part of one of the biggest moves of God in our generation.
Your contribution will go to the following:
State of the art sound system. (Amps, speakers, microphones, cables, mixing board, trussing, etc.)
State of the art lighting production.
State of the art media presentation. (Screens, projectors, computers, etc.)
Transporting all the equipment, band, and team. (Gas, maintence, etc.)
Hiring and supporting crew members.
Marketing events in every city.
Event website development
The estimated cost per week, doing 4 schools and a Friday Night event (5 shows) is between $8,000-$10,000. We would like to do 20 schools THIS FALL.
To contribute click the link:
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What are somethings that were afraid of when you were kid?
There were a few things that scared me to death when I was a kid. Clowns being one of them. When I was in kindergarden I actually remember a clown coming to our school and I was freaking out! I was hurling insults at the poor guy that came to do some tricks for us saying he was ugly and that I hated him because I was terrified of clowns.
Then there was this show on Nickelodeon. It scared me to death. I actually found a clip of it on YouTube. Check it out.
“Are You Afraid of the Dark?” (Intro)
What were they thinking?! The intro still scares me!!
Now, I’m not really scared of the dark anymore BUT I am scared of the dark if I’m walking into an empty house and feel like there could possibly be someone lurking in the shadows waiting for me.
Is it just me or are you the same way sometimes?
STORY: Killer in the Closet
The other day we got a call that our alarm had gone off at home. When we got there, the door from our garage into our house was cracked open. I doubted that someone was actually in the house but I wanted to take some precaution so I did what anyone else would do...I unscrewed the broom stick from the base that we had in our garage and I went in the house ready to swing. I was searching the house for the uninvited guests, pulling open room doors with authority, slamming open shower curtains. Then it dawned on me...the closets. The place where monsters hid when I was little was now the chosen hideout of infidel intruders. And so with great force I swung open the closet door and something lunged out at me and I jumped back ready to swing and quickly realized it was my wife’s shoe rack that hangs inside the door of her closet. Because I pulled the door open so fast it flew off the door...luckily no one was around to see it.
STORY: KILLER in the HALLWAY
Then there was this time when I was living alone in Cincinnati, in the this little apartment in the ghetto where I would pretty much on a daily bases have strange people walking up to me asking for money and all kinds of stuff so when I would go home at night I would automatically be on edge. Well one night I came home and realized I had left the door unlocked. Not good. Walking in I moved very slowly...then I looked to my left down the hall towards my bedroom and there was the image of man...I flipped out yelled, jumped back look again and realized in was my reflection in the mirror that hung on the door.
come from?
Fear comes from misplaced faith.
If you have more confidence in the worst of circumstances coming about than in God’s authority over your circumstances, your faith is misplaced.
Your misplaced faith inflates your fear.
Maybe you’re in a situation right now that is heavy and feels hopeless and it keeps you awake at night worrying and all you can see happening is the worst case scenario. You are inflating the power of fear in your life when you should be activating your faith in God.
2. The next question is WHAT do you fear?
We are actually born with only 2 natural fears.
All other fears are acquired as we grow older. Some of the fears that we may deal with now are:
The fear of failure.
You are afraid to ever take action, pursue dreams, develop relationships with people , to exert effort and really try in these areas because you believe that you can’t. You believe you’ll fail. That things just won’t work out.
The fear of the unknown.
You are afraid of the future. You worry about all the different scenario’s that could come about in your life that would lead to more unknowns or to heartache or disappointment. You have great need for future security and you can’t get that now because you don’t know the future, so your present is stolen by your tomorrow and you live anxious and fearful.
The fear of loss.
You are afraid you’ll lose family members physically or spiritually. You’re afraid to lose money, or your image or reputation.
The fear of success.
Maybe you’re afraid of actually being successful because you know it will lead to more responsibility. And you’d rather just live mediocre because you don’t want life to get too complicated so you constantly cop out and allow fear to paralyze you.
The fear of rejection.
You’re afraid that you won’t be accepted by certain people. That you are unlovable and not worth anyone’s time and you fear that people are always judging you and making opinions and talking about you.
Maybe you’re dealing with some of these fears and all his friends, like worry and anxiety, depression and insecurity. And here’s what fear does:
Fear shows you where you trust God the least.
- Craig Groschel
If you fear rejection you haven’t trusted in God’s acceptance of you and his favor over you in winning with people. If you fear success you haven’t trusted in God’s ability to sustain you through every season of your life. If you fear loss you don’t really believe that God is more than enough. If you fear the unknown you don’t trust that God has a plan, hope and a future and that you’re not in control of any of it. If you fear failure you don’t believe that God has enough grace to see you through, to hold you up, and put you back on your feet.
God had not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, love, and a sound mind.
// 2 Timothy 1:7
Psalm 46
New International Version (NIV)
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth.[b] A song.
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields[d] with fire.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
We must realize that through Christ we have the power to disarm our fear, to disengage from our worry, and to be free from anxiety.
Fear fights for territory in your mind...
It puts thoughts in your mind that undermine your faith. It suppresses your joy. It immobilizes you. It paralyzes you. It talks you into inaction. It steals your future. It dictates your destiny.
Worry is not a camera. It’s a dark room.
- Richard Lisher
Because worry is the place where the negatives are developed.
4. HOW do we overcome fear?
We overcome fear through unwavering faith in Jesus.
While fear fights for territory in our mind, faith empowers God to reign in and over our thoughts.
The first thing we must do is learn to take our thoughts captive.
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
// 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
The things that you worry about are the things you have not relinquished trust and control to God. And here’s the reality, you cannot trust God and hold onto fear.
Look at Isaiah 12:2:
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.
// Isaiah 12:2
So whenever thoughts attack your mind that tear down your trust in God and fuel your fear you have to take those thoughts captive.
Trust and do not fear!
You take thoughts captive by thinking on the good things.
Check this out:
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
// Philippians 4:8
I love how the message says it:
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.
When you think on these things you build you faith and allow the spirit to help you fight the battle in your mind, defeating fear.
Where faith is present, fear is absent.
You also disarm fear when you arm yourself with the Word of God.
Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?
Exodus 15:2 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
Psalm 18:28 You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalm 62:7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Psalm 112:8 His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
Psalm 118:6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Habakkuk 3:18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
You disarm fear when you arm yourself with the Word of God.
We can also overcome fear when we seek God.
Look at what David said:
I sought God and he answered and he delivered me my from all of my fear.
// Psalm 34:4
When we seek God, everything else is put into perspective.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
// Philippians 4:6-7
God is watching over your life. You can trust and not be afraid.
For God's Renown
+Tauren
*There is also an audio link that has me teaching this message live available for download!
Check it out:
http://anthemoutloud.com/media.php?pageID=26
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I've posted my notes but I wanted to provide the audio for those who would rather listen!
Here's the link:
http://anthemoutloud.com/media.php?pageID=26
For God's Renown!
+Tauren
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