Pastor Aarn's Blog

What can Charlie Sheen teach us about SEO?

2011-03-11T13:23:00.001-08:00

I’m assuming everyone is at least marginally aware of the whole Charlie Sheen fiasco but if not, here’s a quick primer and here’s his craziness set to music. He has definitely been in the news lately and there is a lot we can learn about this tragic trajectory he is on but I want to focus on what we can glean about SEO from him.

Crazy brings the eyeballs

No doubt about it, controversy sells. In our Post-Modern culture, everybody’s opinion is valid and has weight and the biggest sin anyone can commit is having a strong, inflexible opinion or saying someone is wrong. Fortunately, we all know deep down that this is wrong, not every idea is a good one and some people shouldn’t be listened to. Do you want to make your blog post stand out? Have a strong, controversial opinion about something in your niche and back it up with a well-reasoned argument. What are the things in your niche that are so universally accepted that no one even thinks about them anymore, are they still true? There’s an old story of a man who was newly married and noticed that every time she cooked a ham, she would slice a few inches off the top making it flat on top. When he asked her why she did that she said she didn’t know it was just something her mother always did. So he went to her mother and asked her the same question and got the same response. Next he went to the grandmother and asked her why she always sliced a few inches off the tops of her hams and she replied, “so it would fit in my oven!” Because the women never knew the reason behind something, they just kept doing what they had always done even when there was no longer a need for it. Take a look at your niche, what are the things that everyone is doing for outdated reasons? What is a stance you can take that is so far from the norm that people will be compelled to discuss and argue? (And link back, and repost, etc…) Take a stand, have an opinion, and be prepared to defend it.

Content makes them stay

Once you have built a little trust and gotten a short-term boost to your traffic numbers, you have to continue teaching and providing content or the people will eventually go away. Charlie Sheen is learning this right now as the arc of how much the public cares about him is in its inevitable decline. You can’t always be crazy, eventually there has to be some substance. If you are an actor, you have to entertain and if you are a blog, you have to inform. (You can entertain also, but you can’t just entertain) Not every blog post has to be a home run with tons of backlinks and comments, you can make a very good living at this just hitting solid singles, you just have to hit a lot of them. Give the people good content and you will see your numbers rise.

Relationships are key

The relationship between Sheen and his co-workers has gotten so toxic that even if all the issues were resolved it would be very difficult for these people to work together. In the online world, relationships are crucial. Very few blogs are an island unto themselves and most of us rely on the goodwill of our community to help us grow. Not only do you need to foster a good relationship with your readers but it often helps to have a good working relationship with others in the same niche. For your readers, are you answering questions quickly? Responding to email? Keeping them informed through social media? For the other writers in your niche, are you working with them? Involved in guest posts or button swapping? Commenting on their sites? Promoting them on your blog? Keeping our online relationships solid can be tricky at times but the rewards are worth it.

I hope that we all have enough tiger’s blood in us to improve our sites and keep winning!

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Do Emergents confuse Natural and Special revelation?

2011-03-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

I’m reading Gabe Lyons’ new book The Next Christians and while I will do a full review later, one theme in particular keeps popping up that I think is indicative of some of the problems I have with the Emergent movement as a whole. One of the points the author makes is that the next generation of Christians care less about the open evangelism that marked his religious forefathers and more about impacting the world around him (or her) in a positive way. He brings up the TWLOHA movement that had its shirts in Hot Topic stores but decided to remove any mention of Christ from its in-store materials so as not to offend any potential customers. He also mentions a movement called “Fringe” that has concerts and art shows to promote, not God, but beauty. One quote in particular caught my attention. “When the next Christians create culture that promotes beauty, they give people a glimpse of the beauty of God. There’s no need for a logo [of a church or ministry], because the beauty itself belongs to God and is a pronouncement for His existence, love, and desire for the world.” (pg 98-99)

Are we to exalt God…or Christ?

At its core, this type of thinking confuses natural and special revelation about the character and nature of God. Natural revelation is found in the first half of Psalm 19.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. – Psalm 19:1-6

The psalmist is pointing to the heavens and stars as proclaiming the glory of God and I think we can safely include other types of beauty in this list. I concede that art, music, sculpture, and a host of other pursuits are beautiful and the ability to experience and enjoy beauty is a gift from God but the Psalm doesn’t end there.

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. –Psalm 19:7-14

Now we have special revelation, or the Word of God that tells us exactly who God is and how we should respond to Him. It simply isn’t enough to use art or beauty and expect people to be able to make the jump from “That’s beautiful” to “I should love God”. The chasm between those two statements is simply too large for anyone to make. Beauty alone is not enough, it must be coupled with the Word of God and instruction on how to have a relationship with the God that made that beauty possible. If an organization fails on this point, it has no right to call itself Christian because it does not point anyone to Christ. At best it could call itself Deistic because all it’s doing is pointing to a formless, definitionless God that makes no demands on His followers and offers no real grace.

If you are involved in this type of organization, I implore you to realize that if you are a Christian (or a Christ-follower or whatever hipster term you are using this week) you are not called to point people to “God” but to the very specific “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”. Beauty and art alone will not cut it, it must be joined with instruction on what to do next.

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Ted Haggard on Biblical Restoration

2011-02-18T12:19:00.001-08:00

Ted Haggard interviewed on restoration

Click Here to view embedded video

I have to admit that I have a certain fascination with Ted Haggard. Ever since his scandal broke (I had not heard of him before that) I have followed his story with a kind of macabre fascination with the hope that something positive will result from his shame. And to be truthful, there have been some positive, God-glorifying things that have happened; most notably that his wife chose to stick with him through this and they are working to hold their marriage together in the midst of this (self-imposed) storm. But when it comes to Ted himself, he seems to go out of his way to do the dumbest thing imaginable at every turn and this video is further evidence of his self-delusion that he is the victim and we should all act like nothing ever happened. Before I speak about Ted directly, I want to use this video as a starting point to look at the Biblical concept of restoration.

Biblical Restoration can only happen within the church

In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus gives us instruction for how to deal with a brother (or sister) that has sinned. The goal of this process is to restore our brother to right fellowship with the church (vs 17), therefore before someone can be Biblically restored they have to submit to the leadership of the church elders and agree with them that what they are doing is wrong and needs to be stopped. If the elders that God has established over that church deem it necessary for certain disciplinary measures to take place (accountability groups, counseling, cessation of public ministry for a time) then the brother should willingly and happily follow their instruction, convinced that God has placed his elders over him for his good. (Heb 13:17) In fact, if the one who sinned rejects the leadership of his elders and decides to do what he wants, even if the person has stopped the particular sin that started the process, he has not truly repented and should not be restored to full fellowship with the church. In fact the church as a whole should assume that he is unsaved (Mt 18:17) and treat him as they would any other sinner by witnessing to him and commanding him to repent. (And in Ted’s case they should most certainly not join his church or submit to him as Pastor)

Biblical Restoration and Worldly Restoration are completely different

On of Ted’s complaints is that he has seen Martha Stewart, David Letterman, Michael Vick and others restored to their former place so K-Mart, CBS, and the NFL are better at restoration than the church. The difference between the church and these companies is that these churches couldn’t care less about the eternal souls of these people and only care about the bottom line. If Ted’s church had only money as their main concern then you can be sure that Ted would have been right back in the pulpit after a short time away but to their credit they were more focused on the man than the money and asked him to undergo a long process of restoration. Ted’s efforts to say that the church should be more like the world in this respect shines a light on what is the problem with Ted really is, a defective and world-like theology. Instead of going to the Bible to see how restoration should actually be done, he is going to the world and taking their advice and modeling his theology after K-mart and the NFL. Unfortunately for Ted, that is not how either the Church or Jesus Christ Himself restores his people.

I will still watch the Ted Haggard story as it unfolds, hoping and praying that somehow he realizes his sin and goes back to the church elders that loved him enough to confront him on his sin and not gloss it over as the world does. Unfortunately, the longer this goes the more distant the possibility of that happening becomes.

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What does Google's Social Search for your SEO?

2011-02-17T19:34:00.001-08:00

Today Google announced an update to their search results that incorporates the results of your social graph into your search results. This has existed for a while but was relegated to the bottom of the results page, now the results will be interspersed throughout the page. What does this mean for your SEO?

It is now more crucial than ever for you to get your readers to follow you through your social media outlets.

The great thing about this is that even if you get someone to follow you through FaceBook or Twitter and they never really engage with your blog, your blog posts could potentially be on their search result page. For instance, lets say someone liked your FaceBook page one day on a whim (maybe because of a contest on some fantastic article you wrote years ago) but are not what you would consider your “core readership”, if they happen to search something relevant to something you wrote at some point in the past, your post will be right there for them to click on. This will increase your traffic in direct proportion to the size of you social contacts. If you haven’t already been focusing on your social profiles, now is the time!

You need to be even more focused on higher rankings

The flipside to this is now that more real estate on Google’s result pages will be taken up with posts from people’s social contacts, you need to be even more focused on improving your ranking for your favorite keywords. If you ranked at #8 or 9 for a particular phrase, you may not show up on the front page at all anymore. This means more backlinks, more focused content, and a lot more time spent on the SEO side of your business. This would be a great time to outsource some of your SEO needs to an company like SEO Assistant.

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Best of Today's SEO - 2/10/11

2011-02-10T12:39:00.001-08:00

Google Wedding Planner – Google has assembled some very helpful resources for anyone planning a wedding. Why? Because Google is determined to be in every niche. Look for Google Alligator Farm and Google Sewer Cleanout coming soon.

How to write an ebook – If you aren’t following Blogging with Amy I suggest you do so. This is another great post in her ebook series going through the step by step process of writing a book and taking it to market.

Google rolls out Two Factor Authentication – So much of our online lives goes through our phones that security is becoming more and more important. Here’s a great way to keep your data safe.

How to triple your blog post ideas – Running out of things to post about? Here’s an easy way to get more post ideas.

200,000 people check in to Super Bowl with FourSquare – Seeing as how this happened across the street from me and it was utter chaos for a week, this doesn’t surprise me at all.

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Does God want us to be androgynous?

2011-02-09T14:25:00.001-08:00

Earlier today, Jennifer Wright Knust wrote an opinion article on CNN saying that the traditional understanding of male-female relationships and homosexuality are wrong and the Bible’s original plan for mankind was not heterosexuality but androgyny. Her thinking here is that Adam’s original form had both sets of genetalia until God split him with the creation of Eve. Not having anything in the Bible to support her hypothesis she is forced to quote non-inspired ancient texts and non-canonical gospels like the Gospel of Philip, a text known for its heretical Gnostic teachings.

Despite her claims, androgyny was never God’s plan, the creation of Eve happened before the fall showing that this was God’s perfect will for His creation. God intended from the beginning to create both male and female but created Adam first to make a point about authority and headship. Adam represents man and the man is to be the leader and final authority (under God) in the home. He is to be the provider and protector and ensure the safety and well-being of his home just as Adam was responsible for the garden. Eve came from Adam as a sign that neither man nor woman is complete without the other, that man and woman complement each other and bring each of their strengths and weaknesses to a relationship that will be strengthened over time.

God’s creation of Adam and Eve give us a clear picture of what marriage is supposed to be. One man and one woman, committed to each other and to God. Despite the introduction of sin messing up the divine order, that is still God’s plan for each of today. No matter how much modern Bible scholars want desperately to undermine the Bible’s clear teachings about sexuality, they will always fail and the truth of the Word will endure. God’s will for every man and woman is to be celibate until marriage and marriage can only be heterosexual. The homosexuality that Paul condemned is the same homosexuality that exists today, that word has not changed its meaning over the intervening 2,000 years.

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The Seven Spirits of God

2011-02-08T16:45:00.001-08:00

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
Rev 1:6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

What are these seven spirits?

This is a tricky phrase that only the Apostle John uses and only in the Book of Revelation. He uses it three other times (Rev 3:1; Rev 4:5; Rev 5:6) and each time it refers to the Holy Spirit. There are two possible reasons why John chose to refer to Him in this way.

1 – Seven is the number of perfection

Through out the Bible in general and Revelation in particular the number seven is used to symbolize perfection or completeness. Beginning with the seven days God took to create the universe, through the seven pairs of clean animals on the ark, to the seven times blood had to be sprinkled on the altar for atonement; time and time again we see the number seven pop up. In Revelation alone John uses the seven motif many times including the seven churches in Ch 2-3, seven stars, seven lampstands, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowl judgments. This is one of the reasons John gives a warning about adding to are taking away from anything in the book because to do so would mess up the groups of seven he has included. So John may be highlighting the fact that the Spirit of God is perfect and in every respect, God.

2 – The Spirit has a seven-fold ministry

John may have also been referencing Isaiah 61:1-2 where the Spirit of God is shown empowering His servant to perform seven important tasks. He brings good news to the poor, binds up the brokenhearted, proclaims liberty to the captives, frees those who are bound, proclaims the year of God’s favor, proclaims the day of God’s vengeance, and comforts those who mourn.

Whether John meant both of these possibilities or just one or the other, it is clear that John meant for us to see these “seven spirits” as the Holy Spirit. We see here that the Spirit of God is always before the throne while simultaneously working out the will of God on the Earth. Nothing created can be in two places at once, only the omnipresent God can do this. John is showing us that the Spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity, completely God but not all of God. The Spirit is fully God yet only one member of the Trinity, ever before the throne and always working on the Earth and in the heart of every believer. The Spirit of God is God but He always points us to the Son and the Father as the objects of our worship and adoration.

We also have access to the throne of God if the Spirit of God is in us. We can pray for the blessings of God through the power of the indwelling Spirit and in the name of the Son and one day we also will be before the throne of God in both body and spirit worshiping the Triune God.

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How to optimize your video SEO

2011-02-08T13:56:00.001-08:00

As more and more of the web is moving towards video, you need to make sure that your video posts are optimized so you can get the maximum impact for the time you spent creating it. There is nothing worse than creating an informative and helpful video that no one ever sees because no one can ever find it. Here are a few tips to keep in mind before you post.

Create an optimized title

This is pretty basic and you should be doing this for each of your posts already but make sure you have relevant keywords in your title. A video that teaches coupon shopping should be called “How to coupon shop” not “My trip to the store” or something equally as useless.

Optimize the description

The description area is very handy and you must be sure to utilize it correctly. Use it to reiterate your main keywords and provide a better explanation of what you are doing. In our couponing example, a good description would be “Learn how to use coupons at Kroger, Wal-mart, Albertsons, HEB, or your favorite grocery store. Save money on every grocery bill!”. If your video has multiple points, list them here. This is also the place you want to include a link to your site so people know where to go to find more of your great content!

Use the tags

You need to remember that Google doesn’t actually “watch” any of the videos so it relies on these text fields to figure out what the video is about. Use a variety of relevant tags to make sure your video is categorized properly.

Can you transcribe your video?

This is something that not a whole lot of people do but I’ve seen some success with the practice on the few sites that do it. Again, it’s just a matter of giving the Search Engines the maximum number of opportunities to know what your video is about. It also gives you an opportunity to clear up any places you misspoke or were unclear.

Increase your views

From the stats that I have seen it looks like Google gives more weight to videos with more viewers so be sure to share them on social media and ask others to watch it. Google also gives weight to the viewer ratings on Youtube. Viewers can give a thumbs up or thumbs down so ask for a positive rating. You should also ask viewers to subscribe to your YouTube page. Asking them to leave a comment wouldn’t hurt either.

Distribute widely

Tubemogul.com is a site that allows you to post to multiple video sharing sites automatically. In the time it takes to upload a video to YouTube you can upload your video to a dozen video sites at once. Very handy site and if you included a link to your site in the description then you’ve got a lot more backlinks that will help your site’s overall SEO.

I hope you found this helpful; don’t forget to subscribe to our FaceBook, Twitter, and/or RSS feeds using the buttons at the top of the page.

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Misunderstood Verses: Just Love Yourself

2011-02-07T16:34:00.001-08:00

Mar 12:31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

It wasn’t too long ago that I was counseling a young woman that had been in some difficult situations in life and was struggling to deal with the repercussions. She was making progress for a while but seemed to have stopped cold, as I asked her how her life was going she told me that she had a very helpful conversation with her brother. He had told her that what she really needed to do was just love and forgive herself and she would do a lot better in life. The verse he used to back this up was Mark 12:31 quoted above with the emphasis being on the “as yourself” part of the verse.

Not Helpful!

The problem is that is a wrong interpretation of this verse. Jesus isn’t commanding us to love ourselves, He assumes we already love ourselves and we need to have that same love for other people. Everything we do, we do for our own satisfaction. We are born selfish and absent the grace of God we will die the same way but Jesus offers us a better way.

A More Excellent Way

Jesus tells us to take this same love that is so naturally pointed inward and focus it outward instead. He tells us to be as consumed with the joy and satisfaction of others as we are with ourselves. Not to deny our joy but to find our joy in service to others that we may glorify our God. Jesus would never tell us to focus on ourselves or love ourselves because He doesn’t need to. What we need is help getting our eyes off of ourselves and where they belong, on God first and people second. It’s been said that they way you find joy is right in the spelling of the word, you put Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others inbetween. May God free us all from the bondage of loving ourselves and make us lovers of Him and lovers of others.

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Get Backlinks Using Press Releases

2011-02-07T15:49:00.001-08:00

One easy way to increase the Backlinks for your site is to issue a Press Release and distribute it as widely as possible. There are a few quick and easy steps to take to do it and get the results you want.

Step 1 – Do something Press Release worthy.

This could be anything. Build an app, make a downloadable form, change your site background, it doesn’t matter. You just need something to talk about.

Step 2 – Write a Press Release.

Keep it short and pithy. Talk about your site and why people should give you their attention. Most importantly, put a link to your site using your targeted keyword phrase as the anchor text.

Step 3 – Release through an online Press Release Distribution service.

There are several organizations that you can use and enough of them are free that you should never have to pay for anything. I have used www.i-newswire.com and www.prlog.org and can recommend their services. You can also find a list of press release organizations here.

Press Releases are a simple way to get more backlinks to your site and more authority in the eyes of the Search Engines. You can even repeat this process once a month or as often as you like. Hope you found this helpful!

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Market Like A Dog: Remind your readers of what's important

2011-02-02T16:17:00.001-08:00

As I am writing this, we are in the middle a huge ice storm that has kept us from going outside and we are all getting a little stir-crazy especially poor Molly. It looks like a field mouse has gotten on to our back porch so Molly is going crazy barking at it through the back door then barking at us to go kill it. (or maybe she wants to play with it, I’m not sure.) When I went outside to try to find it the dutiful dog pointed out where she had last seen it, then hid between my legs. My hero. But this is a good segue to the next marketing tip we can glean from my mutt, she never fails to remind me when there is something that I need to do with her or for her. (like catch a mouse!) And this is something she is very good at! If I go too long without throwing the ball for her she will go get the ball, drop it in my lap and stare at me. If she needs to go to the bathroom she will go to the backdoor and bark. And God help me if I forget to walk her! She is very good at giving me constant cues telling me the next thing that needs to be done and I’m actually grateful for it because I don’t like cleaning carpets!

What do your readers need to do next?

One of the most helpful services we can give our readers is to remind them of the little things that fall through the cracks. Whatever your product is or service you provide, it is helpful to spur your readers on to action or just remind them of the next step they need to take. For Instance, in the SEO business the one thing I find myself constantly pushing is backlinks so if I can remind my clients to try to get two backlinks today or exchange links with someone in their niche then they will accomplish the goals we’ve set. If I can find creative and different ways to accomplish this then everyone wins. In another example, say you have a blog that exchanges recipes, what can you do to inspire your followers to post new and interesting recipes? What if you ran a contest rewarding the most interesting ingredient or the best photo of the finished meal? Ramping up to the contest you could have short posts reminding people of the upcoming contest or send out reminders to your email list. Just as I was writing this I received an email from Splenda advertising all their sugar-free recipes on their site for Valentine’s Day, in one email I was both reminded that Valentine’s Day was approaching and told what to do for it. A great reminder at an opportune time!

Think it through

What do you want your readers to do next? What will benefit them the most? What do they need to be reminded of and how can you help? Think these things through and come up with a plan to help then make sure you have every avenue available to help your readers. Make sure everyone is following you on FaceBook, Twitter, email, text, and whatever way is out there to get your message to them. Remind the right person at the right time of the right thing and they will follow you forever.

What are ways you have been reminded of the little things over the years that you have found helpful? Come to my BlogFrog page and tell everyone!
Read all previous posts in this series.
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He who was and is and is forever

2011-01-31T14:59:00.001-08:00

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Rev 1:4-6

Several years ago, I went to visit my Dad after he married his new wife, Pam. I got a chance to talk to her one afternoon while my father was at work and she was telling me how much she enjoyed living with him and showed me the gift she got him as a wedding present, a new recliner. After a few minutes of conversation she looked me in the eye and said, “Do you know why I love your father and I know he loves me? Because everyday he gets off work at 5:00 and by 5:15 he is here at home sitting in his recliner.” Now to most women the idea of a man coming home and sitting in front of the TV after work would mean just the opposite of affection but to her, knowing where her man is was the most important thing in the world to her. She never had to go drag him out of a bar or call his friends looking for him, in other words she could trust him because of an established track record.

John prays for peace

Here in the opening of his letter to the 7 churches in the area that we will meet in Rev ch 2-3 John prays for grace and peace upon the Christians worshipping at each of the churches that this letter is addressed to. Do you see the reason he can pray for this peace? It is because he is asking for peace to come from the God “who is and who was and who is to come”. John can ask for this peace because there has never been a single second in time that God has not been ruling over creation and there will never be a time that God’s control over His universe will be lessened. Some of these churches were going through some rough periods of persecution but even in the middle of incredibly hard times they could know peace because Christ was still in charge of everything.

It’s still true today

God is still in control today. There is nothing that could ever happen in your life that is outside the plan of God. Nothing ever takes Him by surprise and nothing ever happens but by His sovereign hand. Therefore we can have peace in the middle of even the most trying and stressful times because God is in charge and He makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him. We who have been called according to His purpose, who have turned from our own way and declared Him to be our rightful King can trust that He will do what is best for His followers. He has a long track record of faithfulness and there will never be a time when He won’t still be faithful. The same God that formed our bodies in the womb and redeemed our souls at Calvary will bring us safely home to be by His side forever. He is truly faithful, “yesterday, today, and forever”.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Visit us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

Market Like A Dog–Get Where Your Customer is Going Before They Do.

2011-01-28T15:44:00.001-08:00

In the two previous posts we looked what my dog Molly has taught me about marketing. She is a rescue and has constant need of reassurance and bellyrubs from her owners. Honestly, if it were up to her she would spend her entire life in my arms or on my lap and be fine with that. However having a dog all over me is incredibly annoying so she has to come up with sneaky ways to get the lovin’ she needs. Today’s lesson has to do with the fact that she predicts where I’m going to go next and beats me there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten up to go to the bathroom and she is right outside the door before I get there and if I don’t pay attention she sneaks in with me. Once she’s gotten that far she knows she’s in! She knows I’ve got nothing better to do than scratch her ears for the next 3-5 minutes! She also knows that if she can already be on the couch before I sit down then the chances of being able to curl up next to me are better than if she were to get on the couch after I sit down. I’m telling you she’s sneaky!

Where is your customer going?

Molly has hit upon a tried and true marketing principle; instead of following your customer, if you can get to where they are going before they do then you will have a better chance of influencing them to do what you want. For instance, on my other site a company contacted us about a new product they were going to be launching soon and offered us the chance to use the product, promote it and offer coupons to our followers at the launch. Once the product actually launched and people started Googling it to find out more information, whose site was at the top of the search results? That’s right, lil o me. That turned into a big spike in traffic, many new followers, and who knows the long-term residual effects of that traffic surge.

What’s the next big thing in your niche?

Where is your market going? What will your customers and readers be interested in six months from now? Anyone can be reactive but if you can get out ahead every once in a while it will make a huge difference in your readership. Here’s a few ways to try to get the inside scoop on what’s coming

1) Industry newsletters or magazines. Especially if you can find one that has the equivalent of a “Gossip column” where info that is not common knowledge is leaked out.

2) Industry contacts. You will develop these more the bigger you get but there is no reason not to reach out to a few insiders and let them know you exist. I sent out some email a few years ago to companies in another niche I’m involved in and that led to a few informal relationships that I rely on for “inside information”.

3) Subscribe to everyone’s Twitter. I follow some blogs for a certain segment of the publishing industry and there is one column in particular that always does a good job of revealing upcoming projects for certain artists and many times it’s just by reading their (or sometimes their wife’s!) Twitter account. Listen to what’s being said and run with it.

4) New ads. Are you seeing new banner ads or pop ups for new products in your niche? Are you getting emails advertising the next big thing? Do a story on it! If it takes off then you’ve got an older, established post dealing with it already out there!

There are many other ways to do this but they basically boil down to one thing, know your niche. Be connected enough to it to be able to tell where it’s going and get out in front of it!

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Change your FaceBook Settings-What's on your wall?

2011-01-28T11:37:00.001-08:00

Did you know that you can control the posts that appear on your FaceBook fanpage? The default settings is to allow not only the posts you post but also any comments by your followers directly on your status bar. (Not the comments under a post but the comments directly on your page from your status bar.) For most people this is what you want but what if there is a reason to disallow direct comments? For instance, perhaps your site is getting spammed with comments that are obvious ads for other sites or products. Or perhaps you have a contest where your followers need to comment on your fanpage but you don’t want anyone else to see the comments. Fortunately it is very easy to toggle between the two views.

1) Go to your Fan page and click on the “Settings” link.

2) Under “Default view for Wall” select the setting you want.

That’s it! Now either your followers will be able to see every status update on your page by anyone or only the updates you post yourself. Enjoy!

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Introduction to the Trinity

2011-01-26T14:02:00.001-08:00

When trying to define the Trinity, analogies fail us. We can’t say that God is “like” anything else because He isn’t like anything else. In fact most analogies people use only serve to illustrate a heretical view of God. Some have suggested that God is like an egg, there is the yolk, the white, and the shell all comprising one egg. The problem is this promotes the idea that God is 1/3 Father, 1/3 Son, and 1/3 Holy Spirit and all three combined are all of God when the orthodox view is that all of God is the Father, all of God is the Son, and all of God is the Holy Spirit. God cannot be divided and this analogy compromises the simpleness of “indivisibleness” of God. Another analogy sometimes used is that of water, water can be solid (ice), liquid, or gas (steam) but it is all water. The problem is that water cannot be in all three states at the same time but God is all three persons of the Trinity simultaneously. This analogy does a better job of illustrating the heresy known as modalism than it does the orthodox view of God.

Isa 40:25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

There simply isn’t a good way to illustrate the Trinity because God is utterly unique.

God is not bound by time or space. He is an infinite being that defies description.

Here is our working definition of the Trinity shamelessly stolen from Dr. James White.

Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Within the one Being that is God - We are monotheists. We do not worship three separate Gods but one God only.

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - God is three persons. Not three beings that are one being or three persons that are one person. Three persons that are one Being. This distinction is absolutely critical to an orthodox understanding of the Trinity.

God is one what and three whos – One being and three persons

there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, These three relationships are eternal. There has never been a time that the Father was not the Father or the Son was not the Son. The Father did not create the Son. There relationships are eternal
Each is not ⅓ of God

These are the Three Foundations of a clear understanding of the Trinity: Monotheism, 3 Divine Persons, The persons are Coeternal and Coequal

Every Heresy will deny one of these truths

The word “Trinity” doesn’t appear in the Bible but the Doctrine of the Trinity is the only one that affirms everything the Bible says about who God is.

If you deny Monotheism-You get Polytheism
If you deny Equality – You get Subordinationalism (By which I mean that the Father is more powerful, or older, or more valuable than the Son or the Spirit, not that the Son nd Spirit don’t willingly submit to the Father. More on that in a few weeks.)
If you deny Three Persons – You get Modalism (The heretical belief that God exists sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, Sometimes as Holy Spirit. God exists as all three simultaneously.)

A correct understanding of the Trinity will answer most objections to it. Here are three common ones.

If Jesus is God, then when He was baptized and the voice of God was heard, was Jesus throwing His voice like a ventriloquist?

No, while Jesus was (and is) God the voice heard was that of the Father who is also God but a separate person of the Trinity.

When Jesus prays, is He praying to Himself?

No, He is praying to the Father.

When Jesus was dead for three days, does this mean that God was dead?

No, The Godhead was still alive and holding the universe together. Only the physical body of Jesus was dead.

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Book Review: Radical by David Platt

2011-01-18T14:39:00.001-08:00

Wow! That’s probably the best one word review of this book I could give. Every night I would read a chapter in this book and every night I was challenged, convicted and inspired to a deeper and more radical walk with my Lord. The big idea of this book is that typical American Christianity has gone astray and led most of us down a path of the kind of consumerist, materialist, stuff-obsessed spirituality that is dramatically different than the faith described in the Bible.

Platt asks some very tough and difficult to answer questions that every Christian should struggle with. We need to realize that every dollar that moves through our hands is there by the grace of God and to be used for His glory. We re the most prosperous people on Earth but most of our wealth goes to making our lives easier or for our enjoyment, and while it isn’t necessarily wrong to enjoy the blessings God allows in our lives we need to make sure that we are maximizing our money has upon the Kingdom of God. What would happen if every Christian committed to just $1oo a year to foreign missions? What would happen if American Christians were intentional about making sure they were using their money in ways that honor God? As the author points out, there is a world of difference between “How much can I spare” and “How much will it take”.

I cannot recommend this book enough. In fact, now that I’m done I’m going to give my copy to some other people in my church because this message is too important to keep to myself. Please get yourself a copy, read through it, and respond to the challenges the author gives you.

This Book was given to me for free by Blogging for Books for the purpose of review. I received no monetary compensation.

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Market Like A Dog: Bark for Attention

2011-01-17T15:04:00.001-08:00

In my previous post I introduced you to Molly, my needy Boxer-Pit mix dog. She is a little insecure and absolutely desperate for attention, love and bellyrubs and has many tricks she has learned to get what she needs. It amazes me how much attention she wants and how she always gets it from me, my wife, or my son. She absolutely never goes without because she has learned exactly what to do let us know what she wants and we are happy to oblige. A happy dog makes for a happy home, I guess.

If just standing in my way or getting in my face doesn’t work, she has a sure fire method to let us know she needs something; a loud, sharp bark. The most comical times that this is used is when she must go to the bathroom RIGHT NOW! She will get between me and the TV set or stick her nose on my laptop keyboard, bark and just stare at me, we all know that this means that we have maybe seconds before we will have a little puddle to clean up. She also barks when it’s time for exercise, she will bring me her bone and bark, that’s my cue to throw the bone so she can run and go get it. Her bark is a fantastic way to let me know that she needs me to do something.

Similarly, you need to develop ways to “bark” at your readers. Something that is used infrequently to highlight the very best posts or at least the ones that you think your readers really need to pay attention to. Let me tell you some of the ways Dian developed her “bark” for her site, GroceryShopForFREE.com.

Formatting – Every time the word “Free” is used on her site it is all caps, bolded, and pink. Her frequent readers recognize this as a cue that she is going to talk about something that’s free in that post and nothing grabs people’s attention like free! You might take a look at your site and if there is one subject in particular that seems to grab your readers’ attention more than other subjects, try to develop a particular “formatting brand” for that information. Maybe that post starts with a certain word or phrase, or something is underlined, or a different color, or whatever. You re just trying to develop a short-hand way to “bark” and draw people’s attention to something.

Texting - Twitter has a very simple method for your customers to receive your tweets directly on their phones in the form of a text message. Instruct your customers to text “follow (your Twitter name)” to 40404 and they will get whatever you tweet on that account to their phones. That’s a great way to cut through all the noise and get your info to your customer in a way that can’t be ignored. One word of caution, consider creating a separate Twitter account so they don’t get everything, just the cream of the crop.

FaceBook - This one is pretty obvious but I want to include it anyway. (Mainly so there are three things in this list!) Most people have a FaceBook tab open in their browser all day long so getting your info into their stream is a great way to “bark”.

Just like Molly barks to let me know she wants something from me, you should take the time to develop ways to bark at your readers to let them know you want their attention. It should be something that cuts through all the distractions and grabs their eyeballs and refuses to be ignored. What are some ways you have developed to bark at your customers? Let me know at my BlogFrog page.

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Market like a dog: She's always in my way

2011-01-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

I have a beautiful American Pit Boxer named Molly that we rescued from the Arlington Animal Shelter a few years ago and she is easily the best dog we’ve ever owned. (except for maybe Patches but that’s a different dog and a different story) Being a rescue meant dealing with a few personality quirks along the way, for instance she really didn’t like confined spaces in the beginning. The first weekend we had her we locked her in the bathroom with her food and water and figured she would be fine for few hours while we went to dinner. I still to this day cannot believe how incredibly wrong we were! We returned home to a bathroom that was absolutely demolished, in fact the first thing we saw as we came round the corner was her nose sticking out of the door and into the hallway. She had actually torn the bathroom door up so much that she had created a hole big enough to get her head through. If we had come home twenty minutes later she would have been out of the bathroom and probably would have started on the front door. Thank goodness that waiter finally brought us our change!

Over time we learned each others personalities and she doesn’t do crazy things like that as long as I keep her in a steady supply of food, water, exercise and belly rubs but as I’ve owned her I realized that my dog was a very good marketer. She had a list of things she needed from me and she knew exactly how to play me and my family to get what she needed. She is like a part of the family now and fits right into our daily schedule but never goes without anything she wants and as I watched how she did it I realized that what she did was applicable for every blog site owner or anyone with a product to sell so over the next couple of blog posts let me share with you a few of Molly’s insights

She is always in my way

The first thing that is apparent is that she is always in my way and right next to me so I can pet her. In fact she does this so well I think she is part ninja! When I come out of a room she gets in front of me and walks backwards in time with me so if I suddenly get the urge to pet her she is in position to jump up and get her ears rubbed. The amazing thing is this almost always works! She has trained me well!

Are you in your followers’ way?

Don’t underestimate the value of having a constant presence in front of the eyes of your reader. You should have fresh posts in their RSS reader, a newsletter in their inbox, tweets in their Twitter stream, posts on their FaceBook page, and any other way you can think of. Each impression raises familiarity with your brand incrementally and makes you more trustworthy and authoritative. I have a certain speaker I follow, I listen to his podcasts, follow him on Twitter, read his blog, etc. and in the middle of every show he has a commercial for a book that he has written. Over the last year, the desire has grown to buy this book just by the sheer number of ad impressions he was hitting me with and this Christmas when I got my new Kindle and $100.00 in Amazon gift cards (Best. Gift. Ever!) that was one of the first books I bought. In fact I plan on buying more of his books as soon as I finish this one and he was able to make that sale because he was always in my way. In fact at this point I’ll probably buy anything else he writes from now on.

Are you in your customers’ way? Do they expect to see you everyday? Are you a normal part of their day? What can you do to get more impressions in front of your followers? Join the conversation at my BlogFrog page and tell us what you think!

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Christmas SEO

2010-12-10T12:01:00.001-08:00

Tis the season and all that when people are looking for the best deals on Christmas gifts, are you giving yourself a chance to make some money? You have a niche and you are blogging for a group of followers, there is nothing wrong with providing some niche-specific offers that will put a few dollars in your pocket.

For instance, if you have a sewing niche, find a great deal on a sewing book on Amazon and blog about it using your affiliate link. (Or if you have a sowing site, maybe a great deal on farm equipment?) If you are a mommy blogger, look for things other mothers can use and do a review. Look at Google Trends and see what people are looking for and write a post. This time only happens once a year and it’s a great opportunity to make some extra cash if you play your cards right.

What are you doing to help your Christmas SEO (and ROI!)? Join the conversation at My BlogFrog site.

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Yahoo Clues

2010-11-30T14:40:00.001-08:00

Yahoo recently put out a new tool to compare trends in search items, Yahoo Clues. It’s a handy way to compare two different search terms and see how they compare to each other. Here’s a comparison between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

First thing we see is that the searches for Black Friday are more consistent over time. If you were trying to optimize your site for these terms in the years to come, I would focus on ranking for Black Friday more than Cyber Monday because it looks like very few people search for that before Black Friday and I imagine nobody searches for it after Cyber Monday. The window is so small you’d be better off getting the traffic from Black Friday searches. (Doesn’t mean you neglect Cyber Monday totally, just put your resources where they will do you the most good.)

There’s also demographic info. I was surprised to see women out searching men across all age groups. I expected more men to search for Cyber Monday at least. Shows what I know!

There’s also location info. The leader in both searches? Illinois. If you had asked me to name the state that led the way in search volume for these terms I might have had to take 50 guesses. It’s also amazing to me how low New York is on both tables.

Finally, one very cool tidbit is some insight into what people searched before and after the term you are looking at. A great look into how the mind of the average searcher works.

A great tool and easy to use, I recommend you play around with it and see what you can discover!

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How to create an SEO Plan for your Site Pt 3

2010-11-18T11:01:00.001-08:00

So far we’ve looked at Keyword research and On-site optimization, today we look at ways you can make your site rank for your keyword with off-site methods. But before that I need to clear up one thing that was brought to my attention, when I say that you should write posts that use your keywords I’m not suggesting that is all you should do. You should continue to put out the same content you have been but you should also sprinkle in the occasional post that is targeted for your keyword phrase. What this does is keep your regular readers happy, (you are still putting out great content) but brings in new readers as well from the Search Engine results. It’s also important to remember that if you like getting ad revenue from your site (and who doesn’t) far more visitors from Google searches click on ads than regular readers, that’s why it is important to always have a steady stream of first-time visitors. There are a few helpful discussions of this on my BlogFrog page. Now, on to off-site optimization!

Articles

Articles are an easy method of getting a backlink that is targeted to your keyword phrase. All you do is sign up for an article hosting website like E-zine articles. There are a lot of them out there but E-zine seems to be the most trusted but I have seen a lot of success with a few others like Squidoo or ArticlesBase. Once you sign up write an article (or a series of articles) that talks about your keyword phrase, then put a link to your site in the “About Author” section. Ideally the anchor text in the link should also be the keyword phrase you are focused on. For instance, let’s say you’ve done your research and found that the keyword phrase you want to focus on is “crochet baby bonnets”. (I’ve picked this phrase because I know nothing about it and am not really sure I spelled it right.) You would write a series of articles with with titles like “Unusual ways to crochet baby bonnets”, “5 ways to crochet baby bonnets”, or “What to consider before you crochet baby bonnets”; then in the “About Author” section you would say something like “Jane Blow has been crocheting baby bonnets (That would be linked) and other clothes for years. Read more about crocheting (or baby bonnets, whatever) at www.blahblahblah.com.” I know of one woman in particular that has a website that is an affiliate site for a relationship advice product, all she does is after sending her kids off to school, she writes a new article every day about some aspect of her product and includes a link back to her site. She says it’s a rare day that she doesn’t make $300-$400 through her site, she’s been so consistent and so focused for so long that she is reaping the benefits every day.

Comments

Another great way to get a link back to your site with your keyword phrase is to comment on other people’s sites, you just need to keep two things in mind. First, your comment can’t be stupid. Someone put time and effort into that post so read what they wrote and give good feedback. No one likes a spammer. Second, the most helpful way to get a backlink to your site is to use your keyword phrase as your name. Generally most comboxes will ask for your name, email, and website and will link your name to your website so if you put your keyword phrase into the “name” box you will get a link to your site that uses your keyword phrase as the anchor text. You should set a goal of at least one or two comments a day with links back to your site, this will force you to interact with other sites and keep tabs on your competition as well. An easy way to find places to leave comments is to set up a Google Alert for your keyword and you will get a daily email of other blogs and websites that are relevant for your phrase.

Ask for Backlinks

One of the easiest ways to get backlinks is to just ask for them. If you are active enough in your niche that you’ve built up a relationship with others, ask them to link back to you with your keyword as the anchor text. Make it easy for them by writing a great article and then ask for a favor, the worst they can do is say no.

What methods do you use for off-site SEO? Come join the conversation at the SEO Assistant BlogFrog page.

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Fake Activism - TWLOHA

2010-11-16T11:22:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while, some new fad takes over my FaceBook wall and I’m forced to wade through dozens of posts promoting awareness for some new cause. Sometimes it’s the color of a woman’s bra to promote Breast Cancer Awareness or some other bit of trivia for the Cause of the Minute. This last weekend was To Write Love On Her Arms Day (TWLOHA) and I was treated to untold numbers of pictures of people who had written the word “Love” on their arms and taken pictures of it to boost awareness of the TWLOHA movement and their fight against abuse, molestation, incest, and other forms of sexual trauma.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the sexual abuse of children is horrible and every effort should be made to eradicate it. And kudos to the TWLOHA people for finding a unique way to generate “buzz” and get their program out there. In fact, it is really the trendy cause du jour among middle-class Christian teens. It’s not uncommon at all to see a few TWLOHA T-shirts in most Youth Group meetings.

The concern I have is that this type of “activism” confuses meaningless symbolic acts (posting pics on FaceBook) with actually doing something meaningful and concrete. If a teen writes a word on their arm, posts a pic of it, then goes on with their life with some sense of having actually accomplished something they are deceiving themselves. Christ has not called us to a life of FaceBook posts but a life of service and sacrifice and if a Christian confuses the former for the latter then they are headed for a life that makes no impact for the Kingdom of God. I’m not saying we should stop promoting causes we believe in, I’m saying our symbolic acts need to be followed up by some kind of sacrifice on our part for that cause. Whether it be a monetary donation, volunteering to serve in some way, time spent in prayer for them, or any other thing you can think of; if our “activism” costs us nothing then it accomplishes nothing.

The Bible teaches us that our greatest joy is found in focusing on others. In fact it’s often said that JOY is an acronym that tells us that in order to get Joy you have to put Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others in between. You are robbing yourself when your life consists solely of symbolic acts when Christ calls us all to the joy that is available when we roll up our sleeves and actually do something for the Kingdom. Let me encourage everyone who reads this go do something and find out for themselves that there is more joy in working sacrificially than posting pics on FaceBook.

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How to create an SEO Plan for your Site Pt 2

2010-11-15T14:57:00.001-08:00

Last time we started our look at how to create an SEO plan for your site with “Keyword Research”. If you haven’t read that yet, click here see what you missed. Once you have a set of keyword phrases in mind, pick one to focus on for a week or two. As time goes on you can rotate through your list to make your site more relevant for multiple phrases but for now let’s just pick one and focus on it.

On-Site Methods

Today we are going to look at things you can do on your site to make it rank better for the phrase you’ve chosen. What we are trying to do here is convince Google (Or Yahoo, etc.) that when someone types the phrase you’ve chosen in to their search bar, your site should be at the top of the list, at the very least on the first page. To do this, you are going to have to create content that uses the phrase you’ve chosen.

Blog Posts

This is the easiest way to get it done. Just write a post or a series of posts that explain or at least use the phrase you’ve chosen. Let’s say the phrase you’ve chosen to focus on is “How to use coupons”, you would write a post that would use those words in the title of the post. Then in the body of the post you would use those words as much as possible. Start off with something like, “Today we are going to look at how to use coupons”, or “Ever wonder how to use coupons? Let’s learn together.” or however you want to do it. Then create a very informative post explaining your keyword phrase. Don’t write for Google and just repeat your keyword phrase over and over but create good, useful content for your readers that uses the phrase you’ve chosen.

URLs

Another easy way to make your post be more relevant in Google’s eyes is to include the keyword phrase in the URL. The easiest way to do this is to set your Blog to include the title of your post in the URL and then make sure to use your keyword phrase in the title. If you don’t already have this set up, in WP go to Settings=>Permalinks and click one of the presets that includes to post name in the URL. (Like “Day and Name” or “Month and Name”) You might also have a plug-in (like “All in one SEO”) that is already doing this for you.

The key here is to really make your blog the place to go for information on the keyword phrase you’ve chosen. You want it to stand out above all the others and have the best info on the web for that phrase. Next time we will look at some off-site things you can do to capture the Search Engine Results Pages for your phrase.

Please visit my BlogFrog Page and give me your feedback on this post.

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How to create an SEO plan for your site Pt 1

2010-11-12T13:13:00.001-08:00

Most people start a site with very little thought given to SEO. They have a passion and want to start writing and sharing and they assume that eventually they will get a following. And sometimes that’s exactly what happens! Other times their efforts fall into the static of all the other blogs out there and languish in obscurity. Fortunately, with a little planning you can get your blog noticed by more people and begin to see some fruit from your labors. The important thing is to have a plan for your site and then follow through. For the next few posts, we are going to look at how to implement a step-by-step plan and what you can do to increase the Search Engine traffic for your site.

Do Keyword research

The first step is to figure out what keywords you want to do focus on. There are a number of tools out there to help with this. If you have a little money to spend (or can get all your research done within the free trial limit) you should go with Market Samurai, a very powerful and easy to use app that makes market research very easy.

If you don’t go that route, then make use of the old standby; Google Keyword Research Tool. It’s very easy to use and gives good results.

Step 1 Select a Keyword

Go to the Keyword tool home page and type in a phrase that has something to do with your site. This could be anything but you want to be a little vague so you can see the range of options it brings up. For this example, I’ve typed in “Mommy blog”

Step 2 Take a look at the results.

The first column you want to look at is the “Competition” column. The less green in the result bar, the less competition for that phrase. I was actually surprised to see that that for the most part this is an underserved niche. There is very little competition for virtually every relevant keyphrase. In other words, with a little focus and determination you could get your blog at the top of the Google results pages for some very lucrative search terms.

You also want to look at the number of searches for that term. It doesn’t matter if you focus on a low-competition keyword if nobody is searching for it. For instance “redneck mommy blog” has no competition but nobody is searching for it so don’t focus on it. On the other hand, “baby blog” gets a ridiculous number of searches and has no competition. In fact, if you go to the Google results page for that term there’s stuff that probably shouldn’t be there. (A fake blog from an Office character that has two posts in the last 6 months? Practically begging someone to take its place on the results page)

Your Homework

Play around with the Keyword Tool and find some keyword phrases that fit your blog, are low competition and have a good number of searches. You should have a list of 3-5 keyword phrases and rank them in the order you want to focus on them and next time we will look at what to do with them. In the mean time, I’m interested in any SEO plans you have for your site and what has happened with them. Please go to my BlogFrog forum and answer the question, your input will be very helpful as we move forward. Thanks!

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The Election

2010-11-04T10:08:00.001-07:00

Well the election results are in and it looks good for the Republicans and bad for the Democrats. While I can only hope that this means a return to fiscal responsibility and smaller government, (do I dare dream of a balanced budget?) it’s important to remember that regardless of how the election goes, God is still in charge. He directs the King’s (and President’s!) mind like a watercourse in His hands, He determines the direction of the country and He has the final say on what our Government does. Let’s make sure we are not looking to Washington to be our Savior, we already have a Savior and He’s enough.

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Looking for a great company that does Home Repair and Remodel in Arlington TX? Visit www.HouseMendersofTexas.com.

My BlogFrog Community

2010-11-04T09:57:00.001-07:00

I have started a new community for people with questions about SEO in general and SEO for small blogs in specific. Please come over to www.myblogfrog.com/SEOAssistant and join! Today’s question is, “What do you understand the least about SEO?” My plan is to use this information to create a few blog posts hopefully explaining some of the intricacies of the SEO world. Please click on the link above, join the community and tell me what you think!

Looking for a FREE SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.
Looking for PSD Design? Visit www.UniqueHorn.net.

De we need to prepare for Martyrdom?

2010-11-01T10:38:00.001-07:00

In yesterday’s sermon, we spent a great deal of time on the subject of martyrdom. Talking about the possibility of giving your life for the sake of the Gospel is always a little uncomfortable in my Western, well-fed, prosperous context. Martyrdom seems like such a remote possibility that I would do better to be worried about a meteor falling out of the sky and killing me because there is a greater probability of that happening then actually dying for my faith. Talking about how to handle yourself in a situation that could lead to martyrdom seems to fly right over the heads of most of the people in my congregation. “When am I ever going to need this?” seems to be the silent question in their eyes as I speak.

Is the possibility of martyrdom something we should be spending time on in a church service? After all there hundreds of other topics I could cover that would seem more relevant to my congregation’s lives and spiritual walks. Despite this, Pastors need to give instruction on this matter because any Pastor will tell their flock how to live well, good Pastors will tell their flock how to die well. Here’s a few reasons.

1. The Bible talks about Martyrdom.

Any Pastor worth his salt is going to be preaching through the Bible verse by verse. When you do that you will inevitably hit a verse that mentions martyrs and you have a responsibility as a faithful exegete to handle that Scripture and apply it to the lives of your people. Preaching like this will hit every topic important to God in the exact ratio that God has included it in His Word.

2. Your flock needs to know it’s a possibility.

Even in America it is possible to be made a martyr and every day it seems like we are moving closer to that being a reality. When government makes it impossible for Christians to speak the truths of the Word in certain situations, how far will you take it? Will you still call Homosexuality an abomination when they threaten you with jailtime? Will you still speak out against Abortion if they will fine you? What if it gets worse and the punishments get more severe? What if you are in a situation where mob violence takes over? How will you react? Which leads us to our final point...

3. You flock needs to have an opportunity to decide now what they will do then.

Being put in a position of possible martyrdom may catch us by surprise so we need to have our response thought out before hand. How would you react if threatened with torture? Death? The murder of your child or another loved one? Hopefully these are questions we will never have to face in reality but we should prepare ourselves mentally for the possibility. Think through different scenarios and mentally steel your self for different difficult circumstances.

While martyrdom is an unpleasant topic, it should be preached on and dealt with in a pastoral matter. Every believer should be prepared for possibility of losing money, property, and even our very lives for the sake of the Gospel so if that day comes we will be able to stand strong in our faith. Remember, if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before His Father and only those that endure to the end will be saved so nothing less than our eternity is at stake when persecution unto death comes upon us.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.
Looking for a great company that does Home Repair in Arlington, TX? Visit www.HouseMendersofTexas.com.

Best of Today's SEO - 11/01/2010

2010-11-01T10:02:00.001-07:00

Why Search Metrics are Horrible – A look at how common SEO Metrics are falling into irrelevancy

Blekko – A new Search engine that provides SEO data on the SERP’s

Local Search – A new look at how to rank for local searches.

Looking for a FREE SEO Site Analysis? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.
How about some help with PSD Design or Twitter Backgrounds? Try www.UniqueHorn.net.

I AM The Movie: Another failed attempt to be relevant

2010-10-29T14:06:00.001-07:00

If you haven’t seen the trailer for this movie, take a minute and watch it.

I was watching an interview of the writers for this film the other day and I can tell you that they seem to be nice guys with a genuine heart to introduce God to the world. Of course, the God in this film is nothing like the God of the Bible. I guess I can’t actually say that, he’s half the God of the Bible. All peace and love and just wants to wrap his arms around you and sing you to sleep but none of the harsher attributes the Bible talks about.

This movie removes all the talk of our responsibilities to God, like the responsibility to actually accept responsibility for our sins before asking for them to be forgiven. How can anyone get forgiveness for something if they’ve never admitted they did anything wrong? How will they know they’ve done something wrong if we don’t tell them? But that’s too harsh, much better to tell them that God loves them just like they are and offer some false peace that only lasts for a while.

I know the writers of this movie are trying to present God in a good light so the world will accept Him but they just don’t realize that if they compromise on His character they aren’t presenting God but a false idol. False idols don’t save anyone, they don’t offer real peace, and they don’t offer anything of lasting value.

I sincerely hope the next set of “Christian Screenwriters” that come down the pike can get it right. Go ahead and show us a God that is intolerant of sin, that is angry with sinners, that expects perfection from every man, woman, and child on the planet. Go ahead! Maybe then they will understand how amazing Jesus’ death actually was. Maybe then they will see that although God will judge sin, he has provided a substitute for that judgment in His Son. Maybe then they will actually understand the Gospel and their need for repentance instead of seeing God as some weary traveler hoping that somebody somewhere will come to their senses and look to Him for help.

Maybe.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Come join us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

Manage Your Online Reputation Well

2010-10-19T10:53:00.001-07:00

While working on our blogs and brands we need to remember that our online reputation is vital and needs to be cultivated with as much vigor as anything else connected to our blogs. Sometimes we forget that it is important for our readers and clients to know that there is a real person behind that blog with a life that extends beyond your URL. Here’s a few tips to keep your online reputation growing.

#1 – Use Social Media Well

This is a little tricky because most of us want to keep our public and private life separate. While we want as many people as possible to be connected to our business life, most of us would like to keep our private social media sites restricted to the people we know. That’s why, going into any new social media, you need to have a clear idea of what its going to be used for. For instance I have a public FaceBook for fans of this site and a private FaceBook for me and 2,000 of my closest friends and Mafia Wars players. (OK, I screwed that up. Quick Tip: If you want to start playing any FaceBook games, start a new profile.) I also have a separate Twitter page for my business and one for personal. The home feed for my business page is so cluttered that it is unusable, I just follow hashtags with it. On the other hand, I use my personal home feed just has people I actually care about hearing from. Some of this can be done with lists if you just want one Twitter account but since I use HootSuite, this way is easier for me and keeps everything in nice, neat, separate boxes.

#2 – Make a Bio Paragraph

Write a short bio that includes a few backlinks. Anytime you write a guestpost or send out a press release, tack this on the end for a few great links. Some thing like:

SEO Assistant is a blog dedicated to helping small businesses and blog owners with their SEO needs. Aarn Farmer provides high quality SEO services and free SEO site assessments for anyone interested in his services. SEO Assistant can be followed on FaceBook or Twitter.

Short, sweet, to the point, and super easy to throw at the bottom of anything I write for the public.

#3 – Fill Out Bio Info on Sites You Use

In any niche, there are forums or other places that have a profile page, fill those out completely. When selecting the name you will use on a forum, consider using one with the keywords you are targeting and make sure you have a signature that includes a link back to your site. If you are on these sites anyway and use them well, make sure they are increasing your reputation and are helping people find you if they want to.

What are some ways you increase your online reputation? Leave a comment below!

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Come visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.

What Biblical Womanhood is not

2010-10-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

Rachel Held Evans has decided to live like a Biblical woman for one year. You would think that would be great but she apparently has an incredibly bad idea of what Biblical womanhood actually is. To her it means this: (Click through to see video)

Some of these ideas she has are incredibly offensive and betray a lack of understanding of true womanhood. And that’s the point. She is trying to make the Biblical idea of Complementarianism, the belief that God gave men and women different and complementary roles, into an anachronism that is irrelevant for today. It shows that this poor woman doesn’t understand the difference between the Old Testament law and the New Testament freedom we have in Christ. She mixes in just enough truth (Wives should submit to the leadership of their husbands) with enough inapplicable error (Women should cover their head)(Does she not realize that her husband IS her covering?) to make all of the truth appear to be silly and outdated.

I hope you sell a lot of books because it will be the only reward you ever get from them.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Join us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.

Best of Today's SEO - 10/13/2010

2010-10-18T11:18:00.001-07:00

An easy way to get people to “like” your product – Do you have a store front? Would you like a QR code so people can find you on the internet easier?

Would you like to search your Google apps? – If you use Google for all your documents and spreadsheets, now there is a way to be able to easily search all your Apps at the same time.

Wish your Google Analytics stats were more easily searchable? – Here’s a great way to “hack” GA to get you the info you want.

Want a Free SEO Site Analysis? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org.

Belief Before Behavior

2010-10-16T10:35:00.001-07:00

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. - Rev 1:3

When I was 15, my stepfather decided (after much begging) to teach me how to drive. I had never been behind the wheel and had no idea what to do, but I had seen it done tons of times so I knew I could handle it. Turns out watching someone else drive and actually driving are very different! To make matters worse, the only car we had was a stick-shift and the coordination it took to get all the pedals and the stick working in harmony was just beyond me at first. My stepfather was patient and keep telling me what to do and coaching me as the truck lurched around a vacant parking lot like some kind of epileptic jackrabbit. Eventually I got it and the order of events was crucial; first I was taught, then I put what I was taught into practice.

God does the same with us

God has established a similar chain of events for believers; first we hear instructions through the teaching of the Word of God, then we follow those instructions obediently. We know that God gives us orders through His Word because He loves us and wants wants best for us. Even when we obey only sporadically and our walk with Christ is about as smooth as my first day driving, He instructs, disciplines and guides us until we get it. Although we will never be strong enough to live this life without His help (and why would we want to?), He does expect us to become more consistent in our walk as we mature in our faith.

The time is near

This verse also gives us one of our motivations for living obediently to God, the time is near. We don’t know when this life will end but we do know it will be soon and we will have to give an account for everything we’ve done and said. It should be the goal of our life to be able to give a good report on that day as we give glory to God for saving and sanctifying us. Not that we lived a good life in our own power but that we were faithful to rely on His power to enable us to live a Holy life before the world. The knowledge that the time is short motivates us to listen to the Word and obediently put it into practice.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Come visit us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

Be Blessed by Reading the Word

2010-10-13T22:02:00.001-07:00

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. - Rev 1:3

Does your church include a time for reading the Scripture? Not teaching it or preaching it or expounding or expositing, just having someone stand before the congregation and read it with passion and emotion. Have you heard the Psalms spoken in poetic meter or the Prophetic books thundered in convicting power? Have you listened as the the Master walks on the water or heals the leper? Have you been reminded that the Bible is a beautiful book of poetry and prose that stands the test of time and has been Divinely inspired?

Be Blessed

No wonder that the Apostle John reminds of the blessing we receive when we hear the Word read. In our desire to make the Bible understood, we chop it up and dig in to each word and phrase but we can’t forget that is not how the Bible is intended to be enjoyed. It is to be read in large chunks, we are supposed to see the themes being built and the ideas being formed. We are supposed to see how the story develops and builds and resolves. Most of all, we are to remember that having the Word is a blessing and we are blessed to have it.

Read Your Bible

Read your Bible. Read it out loud to yourself, read it to your family, read it to your church, read it anywhere and be blessed. Marvel at this beautiful story and the incredible truths it holds. Be astounded at its wisdom that has held up over centuries and its poetry that still moves the hearts of men and women alike. Read your Bible and be blessed.

Looking for a Reformed church in Arlington TX? Come visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Best of Today's SEO - 10/13/2010

2010-10-13T08:44:00.001-07:00

Need help ranking for a local website? – SEOMoz can help you out.

How are the Search Engine’s faring? – I think Google gonna be OK.

Self driving cars? – Is there anything Google can’t do?

Need a Free SEO Site Analysis? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

WordPress Wednesday - Change the size of your post box

2010-10-12T22:51:00.001-07:00

Tired of squinting at the tiny box WordPress defaults to when writing a new post? It can be annoying to only be able to see a few lines at a time when writing but fortunately there is a very easy way to make that box bigger.

Step 1 – Head over to Settings=>Writing

Step 2 – Go to “Size of Post Box” and change it to the desired size.

(I use 30)

That’s it! Now you’ve got a much larger and easy to read text box that will make posting much easier.

Do you need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

We Are All Witnesses

2010-10-07T22:00:00.001-07:00

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. - Rev 1:1-2

A few years ago, Nike launched an ad campaign heading into the NBA season with the tag line, “We are all Witnesses”. It was meant to highlight the glory of LeBron James as he dominated another season with his other-worldly basketball skills and led his team to an NBA Championship. Of course it didn’t quite turn out that way, LeBron failed in the postseason and eventually bolted for another team in another city. We are all witnesses indeed.

John is our Witness

Something similar happened 2 thousand years ago on the isle of Patmos but instead of millions watching one man, one man witnessed the plan of God and told it to all the world. That man was the Apostle John and through him, we get a front-row seat to exactly how God’s plan for this world will finally be culminated. Not to stretch an analogy too far but where LeBron failed in his quest to win a championship, Christ will certainly succeed in His quest to redeem the world and restore it back to its rightful state as perfect and free from decay.

Now it’s our turn

Now the torch has been passed to us. God has saved us and confirmed His Word to us, now we have the responsibility to be witnesses to the Truth. Not just observing the Word but testifying to its power and relevance to the world. All the words of this Life are entrusted to each generation and each generation must go preach the Word, convicting the world of sin and showing them the beauty of the Christ. God is glorified when His people witness the truth and proclaim it boldly. We are all witnesses.

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.

How to increase your backlinks Part Two

2010-10-07T10:11:00.001-07:00

In my previous article, we looked at a few ways to increase the number of backlinks that exist for your site. Backlinks are important because Google counts each link as a “vote” for your site and judges it’s relevance accordingly and also because it’s a great way to get traffic to your site. I can attest to the fact that traffic to my blog varies dramatically depending on where my links go. If someone fairly popular mentions my blog then visits go up accordingly, so thank you to everyone who reposts, retweets, or mentions this blog!

FaceBook

Let’s face it, everyone is on FaceBook. My 80 year old MIL is on FaceBook. People’s pets have their own FaceBook page. It’s absolutely huge so harnessing the power of FaceBook needs to be part of your backlinking strategy. This is a fairly simple process, once you write a post you want to share, put a link to it on your FaceBook page. Once you do that (and this is the key!) ask your followers to share it with their followers. You don’t want to do this every time because it can get annoying but if you have something you think a lot of people would benefit from, don’t be shy about asking people to share it. FaceBook makes it easy by having a “Share” button right below each post so all they have to do is hit that and FaceBook does the rest and you have multiple high-quality links back to your site.

Guest Posts

Keep an eye out in the Social Media streams for the blogs in your niche, occasionally one of them will request a guest post. (Usually the blogger needs a break or is going on vacation, something like that.) When that happens, offer your services and write a VERY high quality post that includes a short bio at the end with a link to your site. Keep it short, entertaining, and informative because this may be the only exposure your site gets to this segment of readers so you want to put your best foot forward. Alternatively, you can request to write a guest post on someone’s blog but I recommend you have some kind of relationship with the person first, maybe a conversation through Twitter or email.

Press Releases

Press releases are great ways to get links out about your site. These are very helpful when you first launch your site, are celebrating a anniversary, or just completed a redesign. Anything noteworthy is a good excuse to write a press release and have it distributed. Use a free service like www.bignews.biz or www.transworldnews.com to send your releases out for the world to see.

How do you get links for your site? Leave a comment and let me know!

Need a free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

Book Review : The Treasure of God's Word

2010-10-06T13:13:00.001-07:00

As we approach the 400 year anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible, it's natural to look back at the impact this book has had on Western culture. The Treasure of God's Word is more like a starter book that gives you the history of this translation of the Bible as well as giving examples of Bible verses covering various topics. For instance, you get a short essay on how the translation team was selected then chapters of verses covering subjects like God's Mercy, God's Grace, etc.

It's a beautiful book with a faux-leather cover and gold-gilded pages and large, easy to read text. The short essays are very interesting and are full of information that most people wouldn't know about how this Book came together. It was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone that is curious about the King James Bible (arguably the most influential book ever published) or just wants to be reminded of the beauty and majesty of the King James language.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Looking for a Reformed Church in Arlington TX? Come visit us at ArlingtonBelievers.com

What are Angels?

2010-10-05T14:05:00.001-07:00

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, - Rev 1:1

To ensure that His revelation would be given to John exactly right, He entrusted it’s transmission to one of His angels. This angel was given the incredibly important task of revealing to John all the things that would happen in the next few chapters and God’s prophetic message for each of the seven churches we will meet in chapters 2 and 3.

What are angels?

The most descriptive Bible verse dealing with angels is Hebrews 1:14, where the author reminds us that angels are “all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation”. Angels are not “little gods” but servants of the true God who serve God by serving us, His people. The Greek word translated “angel” is literally “messenger”, angels are messengers of God’s will. This is why God knew He could trust the angel to deliver the revelation safely to John because that is precisely the reason God created angels in the first place.

Do we worship angels?

In years past it has been popular to focus an inordinate amount of time on the study of angels, as if angels were meant to be the focus of our faith. Angels are servants of God and are not meant to be what we worship. This is something like standing in a beautiful building and praising the hammers and saws used to build it instead of the architect that designed it. Idolatry is an easy sin to slip into because our hearts are idol-factories, constantly churning out new things to turn our love and affection towards instead of God. Making idols out of angels is even easier because they are stronger than us, holier than us, and we know they live in the presence of God, but they are not God. They are finite in power, love, and righteousness and do not even compare to the infinite worth of our God.

Why did God make angels?

Angels are used to help remind us that as great as angels are, they are still just created beings like us and we should worship the One who created them from nothing. God does not need angels, because He is infinite and in need of nothing, any more than He needs us but yet He chooses to love us and include us in His plans. He even created the angels to serve us and to help us in our journey towards His glory. Praise God that He has provided everything we need for life and righteousness before we even knew we needed it!

Looking for a reformed church in Arlington TX? Want to read more posts like this one? Come visit us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com.

WordPress Wednesday - How to Embed a Form

2010-10-05T12:25:00.001-07:00

There are probably as many ways to do this as there are products but I’m going to show you the way I do it because it is by far the simplest way I’ve ever seen.

Step #1 – Navigate to Google Docs

Head to Google’s free document center, Google Docs. If you don’t already have a Google account you will need to start one.

Step #2 – Create a new form

Go to the “Create New” dropdown button and scroll down to “Form”.

Step # 3 – Fill out the form

This is where you ask your questions. What do you want to know? You can also make the answers multiple choice or allow long-form text responses.

Step #4 – Embed the form

This is where Google Docs really shine because they make this so simple. Simply go to the “More actions” button and drill down to “Embed”. It will provide you a short line of code that just needs to be copied and pasted into your post. If you are using something like “Windows Live Writer” make sure this code gets posted in the “Source” or “HTML” tab. In this case it turns “iframe src="https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dHFFak9ZRVdfYkFKanNuNTFibW9CZnc6MQ" width="760" height="671" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

into this:

Step #5 – Read the results

Once the form is embedded and you start receiving answers, all the data will sent automatically to a Google Spreadsheet that will be available in your list of documents. Go there and start learning what answers people gave to your questions!

Did you find this helpful? Leave a comment to let me know.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today.

Best of Today's SEO - 10/05/2010

2010-10-05T11:04:00.001-07:00

7 Ways to Find Inspiration – At a loss for what to blog about? Need some fuel for the fire? Here’s a couple great tips.

Want a Video Game on your Site? – Ever thought about adding a video game to your site to increase the time people spend there? Here’s a few pointers.

Reputation Management – Unsure of the best way to brand yourself using social media? Try this advice.

Ok. This has no SEO value I just found it interesting. This is a round computer so Asians will not lose their “slant-eyed” look. That sentence is so incredibly offensive I can’t believe I wrote it.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today!

How to increase your backlinks Part One

2010-10-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your site is through backlinks. A backlink is a link to your site from somebody else’s site and a rule of thumb is that the more of them you have out there on the internet, the more traffic comes to you and the more relevant your site is seen as by the search engines. Backlinks are an important way to get the word out about your site. If you have the best content in the world it won’t matter if no one can find you, so here are a few “tried-and-true” ways to get them.

Blog Comments

One of the best parts of the internet is the fact that no matter what your niche is, there is somebody else out there with either the same or similar interests. Once you find these other blogs, be sure to follow them and read what they are saying and if they say something that moves you to chime in on the conversation, leave a comment. Just remember a few rules. #1 Keep your comment on topic. (Otherwise, it’s just spam.) #2 Contribute something to the conversation (Otherwise, it’s pointless) #3 Keep it positive. (If you have something negative to say it may be better to send a private message to the blog writer. Or not. Use wisdom.) #4 Make sure the comment includes a link so people can find you if they like your comment. (Most comboxes do this automatically now but just be sure) The important thing to remember is that this is another person’s sandbox so you don’t want to do anything that will come off as just a spammer trying to “game” the system. Be relevant, be thoughtful, be concise.

Articles

This is a great way to get backlinks and one a lot of bloggers don’t make use of. Write an article about some facet of your niche and submit it to an article marketing site. (E-zine Articles is a good one.) Make sure that in the “About the Author” section there is a link back to your site. The great thing about this is you probably already have great content you can re-purpose for an article. Go back over your posts, find something interesting and rewrite it in article form. Once you post it you will have a great backlink to your site.

Twitter

Twitter is another great way to get a backlink. Try to use the shortlink that WP provides instead of the ht.ly shortened URL if there is enough room in your tweet ( www.SEOAssistant.org/p=6 vs ht.ly/pOGD45) This will get you a direct link instead of going through a link shortener and if your tweets end up on a static page or get retweeted a lot it’s a nice way to get a backlink to your site.

I hope you found this helpful. How do you get backlinks? Leave a comment and tell me.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today!

"Waiting for Superman" review

2010-09-30T21:58:00.001-07:00

Last night my darling wife and I got free tickets to see the new documentary “Waiting for Superman”. It was a very interesting movie covering the way our public education system in America has been broken. There are school systems that consistently churn out under-performing students and drop-outs. There are school systems in America that if your child goes there, they have less than a 30% chance of actually graduating and being prepared for a four year college. These are numbers that are terrifying and they are made all the worse by the fact that parents know these bleak numbers and are at a loss for solutions. Their only hope is to get their kid into a charter school that has a much higher success rate, some charter schools graduate as many as 96% of their students.

Watching this movie the thing that struck me most was the absolute despair these parents felt when their children was only 6 or 7 years old and they knew that if they couldn’t get them into a charter school they were almost guaranteed to not graduate from high school. Because entry to these charter schools is held by public lottery, your kid’s future was totally in the hands of fate. It was hard to believe this reality existed in America, the greatest country on Earth and one with a totally free public education system available to all. What caused this problem and what are the solutions? Let’s take a look.

Problem #1 – Teacher’s Unions

The main problem the movie focused on was the teachers themselves. What made for a higher success rate in graduation wasn’t the income of the student’s family, or the niceness of the school’s facilities, or even parental involvement. The number one factor in student success (according to the movie) was the quality of the teacher and how much that teacher was invested in making sure their students succeeded. The main stumbling block to this was the fact that the Teacher’s Unions were so powerful that they had negotiated tenure for all teachers that had more than 2 years experience. So after a teacher has gotten tenure they can do anything and no one can fire them. Some teachers just read the paper, some ignored the children, but most of them just went through their day by rote with none of the passion necessary to engage students and get them excited about learning.

Communism always leads to trouble

These problems have arisen because the unions have found a way to divorce results from reward. In other words, in a capitalistic society if you do excellent work it should lead to excellent pay, if you do average work it should lead to average pay, and if you do poor work it should lead to poor pay or you getting fired. A lazy hand should lead to poverty and a diligent hand should lead to wealth. (Prov 10:4) As soon as this God ordained incentive to excel is removed the natural human tendency towards sloth takes over and it turns all but the best teachers into mindless drones doing just enough to get through their day. You would think the obvious solution here is to remove these tenure rules and let the districts reward their best performers and fire the worst but the unions are too powerful and will not let that happen.

Problem #2 – It’s not the state’s job

The second problem is one that’s not even addressed by the film and that’s the mindset that we Americans have that it is the government’s job to educate our children. According to the Bible, the responsibility for education falls solely on the shoulders of Mom and Dad. (Prov 1:8) While it’s certainly not sinful to send your child to public school and to hold those schools responsible for their performance, it’s not the teacher or the principal that God will hold accountable for how your child was educated; it’s you, the parent. We cannot abdicate our responsibility to our children by relying solely on their school, we must roll up our sleeves and make sure our kids are getting what they need. It can be as simple as making sure they read a book for an hour a day and have memorized their multiplication tables but we must make sure that our kids are progressing at the rate they should. That’s not the school’s job, that’s ours and unless we start taking this responsibility seriously, this nation is headed for trouble.

Read more at www.ArlingtonBelievers.org

Why do we need Revelation?

2010-09-30T11:35:00.001-07:00

Rev 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer? Anyone that’s ever had a child under 5 on a car trip has heard these questions and knows the difficulty answering them. You can’t say “almost there” because you just have to say it again in 30 seconds when they ask again. You can’t say “45 minutes” because they have no idea what that means. You even try “as long as one episode of Sesame Street” but that doesn’t work unless they are actually watching the episode in question. (Portable DVD players, how I love you!) What would sometimes work for us is to list all the things we were going to pass on the way. We would say, “We will pass this sign , then this store, then this McDonalds, etc., then we will be there.” It tended to help because it gave the kids signposts to look for on the trip.

Revelation gives us God’s “signposts”

Similarly, God gave us the book of Revelation so we would know what is going to happen at the end. He gives us sign posts to look forward to the same way I did with the kids only His went something like, “First the Rapture, then the seals are broken, then the AntiChrist comes to power, etc.” It is important to God that His children know where He’s taking history and that He has a plan for the earth that will result in it’s redemption.

Revelation lets us have hope in turmoil

Can you imagine going through all the things listed in the book of Revelation without the roadmap of Revelation? To have put your faith in a God that claims to be able to sustain creation but to see that creation falling apart around you? Earthquakes shatter the landscape, famine starves children, plagues destroy whole communities, and on and on it goes. If you weren’t told beforehand that this was God’s plan and everything must happen like this in order for the final redemption of Creation back to it’s pre-fall state, you would look and despair. It might even cause you to throw away your faith and trust in your own power to save you.

Revelation makes our faith secure

But our God doesn’t want that to happen. He loves His children so He made sure that we would know what’s coming, so we can see the signposts and not despair but to increase in hope. Now every earthquake, every plague, every persecution brings us hope because we know it brings us closer to home. These things “must take place” and they will be difficult but not impossible. They are not for our destruction but to bring us safely home to a new Earth, free from sin and death and decay and under the care of our God.

Read more at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Best of Today's SEO - 9/28/2010

2010-09-28T12:55:00.001-07:00

Social Media Metrics – Can you measure what your Social Media is worth? Probably not but here are a few guidelines.

The danger of overdoing SEO – Ever run into one of these blogs? Where it’s obvious it was constructed for Google and not an actual reader? Are you making these mistakes?

Should your content be short? – Or does length really matter?

More lurkers on your pages? – The number of Social Media accounts have gone up but the amount of content hasn’t. Translated – More people that look at your pages but never actually interact with you.

Need a free SEO Site Analysis? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for one today!

3 Ways Small Blogs Make Life Difficult For Their Readers

2010-09-27T22:43:00.001-07:00

You’ve got a blog that you are proud of that has great content. You update faithfully, you are interesting, you are doing everything right but you still can’t seem to get any traction. Why? You may be working against yourself. You want a blog that promotes itself, one where your readers take it upon themselves to repost your posts, they comment, they promote etc., but you may be making it difficult for them to do that. Here’s 3 ways you may be making life difficult for your readers.

1. You make it difficult for people to follow.

You want your blog to be in front of as many eyes as possible and the easiest way to do that is to provide options for them to subscribe. If I find an interesting blog, the first thing I do is throw it in my Google Reader feed so it’s always there. If you don’t have an easy way to do that like a FeedBurner button, I typically won’t bother. Some people may prefer to get your blog in email form sent to them everyday, do you have an option for that? If I had to actually visit all the blogs I read, I probably wouldn’t read 90% of the blogs I’m interested in, there just isn’t time to hit all those sites. I rely on RSS to keep me informed so make it easy for me to subscribe. You should have clearly marked “Subscribe Here” buttons anyone can see with not too much trouble and it’s in your best interest to make sure your readers can find them.

2. You make it difficult for people to comment.

I realize that spam is a problem and steps need to be taken so your com-box doesn’t become some kind of internet landfill but there should be limits! You can’t be so afraid of spammers that you discourage community. If I want to leave a comment you should ask for name, email, website and possibly a Captcha and nothing else. Don’t make me go through a multi-step registration and log-in process to say that I appreciated your post. Sure some spam may get through but that’s the price you pay, better that some spam gets through but your readers find it easy to comment than you stop all spam and half your real comments.

3. You make it difficult for people to promote you.

I read your post and loved it! I want my friends to read it because I know they will love it! I want the world to read it and bask in the glory that is your wisdom! But if doing that requires more than a click or two I probably won’t bother. There are tons of plug-ins available that make it easy to retweet your post, send it to my FaceBook page, Digg it, Reddit it, or any one of the dozens of social sites out there, get one and put it on your page. Let your readers do the hard work of promoting your site in places you can’t.

You’ve already done the hard part! The reader is on your page and likes what they see. If you will put these items into action and make the social aspects of blogging simple you will see an uptick in traffic and you will begin to see the rewards you want for your blog.

Want a Free SEO Site Assessment? Come to www.SEOAssistant.org for an expert analysis.

Are Jesus and God two different people?

2010-09-27T12:45:00.001-07:00

Rev 1:1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,

In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon was called together to answer a key question that Christians were facing, what nature does Jesus have? Was He a great man, filled with the Spirit of God? Merely empowered by God as His finest creation? Was He God alone? His apparent humanity just an act to help Him relate to us better? The answer goes to the core of who the church says Christ is and who we worship.

The Council’s Answer

Fortunately the Council got the answer correct. Jesus Christ is God, existing for all eternity, omniscient, omnipotent, having all the power of God and at His Incarnation He added to His Divinity, humanity. He is still God but now He is also man having both the nature of God and the nature of man and these two natures are perfectly united but not co-mingled. In other words, Christ’s two natures do not fight against themselves but they do remain separate. This why sometimes in the Scriptures, Jesus acts like any man and sometimes He acts like only God can. For example, as a man He prayed to the Father (Jn 17), as God He allowed people to pray to Him (Acts 7:59). As a man He was tempted (Mt 4) as God He is sinless (Heb 4:15). As a man He grew in wisdom (Lk 2:52) as God He knows all things (Jn 21:17) and so forth.

How does God give Jesus revelation?

This is why in our verse today we see God giving something to Jesus as if He were a separate person. This is the Father giving revelation to the man Christ Jesus. While on the earth Jesus “emptied Himself” and “made Himself nothing”, (Phil 2:6-7) one of the things He emptied Himself of was complete foreknowledge of when the end would come. When He entered triumphantly into Heaven all the fullness of God now dwells in Him including exact foreknowledge of His triumphant return. (Mt 24:36) This verse shows that this revelation was given to Him by the Father, the reasons for which we will look at next.

Christ had to have two natures to save you

The good news is that Jesus’ two natures is exactly why we have salvation. The perfect sacrifice had to be man because it needed to represent man and it needed to God because it had to be infinitely good to bear the weight of our infinite evil. No mere man could meet these requirements, God Himself had to come to Earth in the form of a man to die for us so we could live with Him and (Praise God!) that is exactly what He did!

Come read more at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Best of Today's SEO 9/24/2010

2010-09-25T10:14:00.001-07:00

Need some SEO tips for video? SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday is for you.

Heard of Angelgate? The latest mini-outrage to sweep throught the Tech sector gives us an important lesson. If you are trying to send a Direct Message through Twitter, make darn sure it’s actually a Direct Message before you hit send.

WiFi on steroids is cleared. Now someone just needs to actually develop it.

Curious as to why FaceBook went down? Did it affect your day at all?

<a href="http://graphjam.com/2010/09/23/funny-graphs-facebook-outage/"><img src='http://graphjam.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/0fb461fe-6da1-404c-8460-cdbdfc4a0f81.png' title="funny graphs - US Productivity At An All Time High!" alt="funny graphs - US Productivity At An All Time High!" /></a><br />see more <a href="http://graphjam.com">Funny Graphs</a>

3 More Common SEO Mistakes Small Blogs Make

2010-09-24T15:22:00.001-07:00

Here’s a few more of the common SEO mistakes I see small blogs (including at times this one) make.

1. They don’t make it easy to use Social Media to follow the blog and repost the posts.

With most blogs it’s very easy to add a plugin like SexyBookmarks that will make reposting your blog very easy. Nothing drives traffic better than having one of your readers repost your blog in their FaceBook or Twitter stream. Make that an easy process.

2. The posting schedule is inconsistent at best.

Here’s where I fall really short of the mark. Make a schedule for your blog and keep to it. Whether it’s 10 posts a day or 3 posts a week doesn’t make any difference but being consistent is key. There’s so many blogs out there it is just too easy to get lost in the static. Google SERP’s reward page counts and blog activity.

3. It’s boring.

Not only do your posts need to be short, and snappy but they need to entertain. One of my favorite blogs is 6 Year Med, it follows the journey of a med student becoming a pediatrician. I know nothing about medicine or this woman’s life but the blog is absolutely fascinating. Writing is a skill like anything else and can be developed over time. Do some free-writing, do some reading, pay attention to things that grab your attention and try to figure out how they did that. I guarantee you will be rewarded.

In brainstorming the first blog in this series I came up with quite a few common mistakes so you will probably be seeing more in this series. What mistakes have you seen out there? What mistakes have you made? Leave a comment a let me know.

Do you need a free SEO site assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for an expert analysis.

3 SEO Mistakes Small Blogs Make

2010-09-23T23:05:00.001-07:00

As any small blogger can tell you, there is a world of difference between running a blog in your spare time and having a blog popular enough to support you working on it full-time. Most bloggers I know would love to able to have a blog make the kind of money that would justify it becoming their sole source of income but they tend to shoot themselves in the foot with mental errors. Here’s a few common errors that small bloggers make that keep them from growing at the speed they want.

1. They don’t use alt tags on their media.

I’ve told the story before of how my wife’s blog still gets traffic every week from people searching for MC Hammer pants on Google Image search. She did a post years ago and included a pic of some MC Hammer style pants and labeled it as such and she gets people almost every day from that source alone. Granted it’s not the most targeted traffic but I can guarantee you it has exposed her blog to people outside of her normal traffic circles. If you use a picture or a video clip, make sure you use descriptive alt-tags so Google knows what the heck it is. Over time I guarantee that this tip alone will bring you extra traffic.

2. They use ugly formatting.

All the great SEO in the world won’t help you if when people come to your site, their eyes are met with a wall of text. No one wants to work to read what you’ve written. Use your Heading formats and the occasional bold or italics to make something pop out. Use formatting to draw your reader’s eye to what you want them to see and they will be more inclined to return.

3. They don’t promote their posts well.

You may have the best post in the world but if no one knows, no one will care. Use services like Digg or Stumble Upon to tell people about your post. Use Twitter and include appropriate hashtags and post it on your FaceBook page. (Don’t have a FaceBook page? That’s a whole other post.) There’s a ton of ways to promote your posts, find out what works for you and use it!

What mistakes have you made or seen others make? Leave a comment and let me know.

Need a Free SEO Site Assessment? Visit us at www.SEOAssistant.org for an expert analysis.

Revelation 1:1a

2010-09-23T23:03:00.001-07:00

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. Rev 1:1a

Ever read through the Book of Revelation and find yourself unsure of what’s going on? With all the imagery and symbolism it can be a very confusing read but that was not originally supposed to be the case. The word revelation in the above verse means that this book was intended to be a revelation, an unveiling of God’s plan for His Earth moving forward. It was never supposed to be confusing, sure there is symbolism but the symbolism is usually explained in the text itself and exists to reveal truth, not conceal it. Let’s start our Journey through this important book.

Why does this book exist?

First and foremost we need to realize what the reason for this book’s existence is. Although it tells what is coming that is actually just a means to an end. The end purpose of the book is to reveal Jesus Christ, to show Him as the Almighty master of creation that He is. What we will see as we move forward is that He is no longer a Galilean peasant but the rightful King of all. He wants us to know what is coming not just our foreknowledge of future events but to elicit praise from His people.

What has He given us in this book?

He has given us a detailed map of what is going to happen at the end of time so will know that He is God, He has a plan, and He has the ability to see that plan through to the end. This is not a God that has His fingers crossed hoping that it will all work out someday but a sovereign Lord that can make all things happen according to His pre-ordained will.

Why has He given us this book?

This revelation is given to us so we can have peace. If this God is powerful enough to make all the things we will see as we move through Revelation happen, then why would you worry about whether or not He can make all things happen in your life exactly as He has planned? If He has a plan for the final years of the whole Earth, surely He has a plan for your life; and if He is able to make His plan happen for the whole Earth, surely He is able to make His plan happen for your life. This is not a weak God, or a God not intimately involved in every facet of creation, this is a God that is all-powerful, all-wise, all-knowing, and all-good. You can trust Him.

Looking for a Reformed Church in the Arlington Texas area? Come join us at www.ArlingtonBelievers.com

Untitled

2010-09-20T10:19:00.001-07:00

When I first heard about Seesmic relaunch last week, I was really excited about the possibilities. For those of you not familiar with the service, Seesmic promises to be a platform for platforms. In other words, they want to be the place you go to for all your social media programs like FaceBook, Twitter, Google Reader, Groupon, Zappos, and a ton of others. This was very exciting to me because I hate a cluttered browser and I have to have about 5 tabs running along the top of my Chrome just for these sites plus what ever other browsing I’m doing. So in theory, this program is for me and right up my alley.

Too good to be true

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out the way I expected for a couple reasons.

#1 Facebook

– I have about 2k people “friended”on my FaceBook but only about 20 I want to actually hear from. (The rest are all Mafia Wars adds.) These people are on their own list in my Facebook but there doesn’t seem to be a way for Seesmic to only stream the people on that list. Instead I get hundreds of updates a day from people I don’t really know and I lose the updates I do care about in the static. So what do I do? I go to Facebook directly to read those updates defeating the purpose for Seesmic to begin with.

#2 Twitter

– Same thing here, lots of people but only a few I want to hear from. This may be my fault as I haven’t taken the time to organize my Twitter feeds but I’m not seeing an option for it regardless. Also, there’s not an easy way to direct message or retweet someone from their tweets. I had been using HootSuite before and loved this functionality.

#3 Google Reader

– This one is probably on me. I downloaded the plugin for Reader for the API, installed it, and…nothing. I can’t figure out where to go to see my Reader stream. I know it’s installed because this morning it told me there was an update for the plugin and I needed to download it and restart the app but it’s still nowhere to be found. Even if this is my fault, the interface should be a heckuva lot easier to use and more intuitive.

It’s not all bad

There are a few things I really liked. I loved the fact that new tweets and Facebook updates popup on my screen. This means I can follow Twitter and FaceBook with a quick glance instead of having to go somewhere else to check it. Once they add a way to tailor what feeds actually cause the popup to happen and a way to move that popup box anywhere I want on the screen, it will be perfect. (Right now it pops up right where my curser always seems to be.)

This is an ambitious project and in theory is exactly what I want. As soon as theory meets reality I will probably be back for another look but until then I guess I’ll stick with HootSuite and all those open tabs.

Do you need a free SEO Site Assessment ? Come to www.SEOAssistant.org and let us show you what we can do for you!

2009-08-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

This blog will eventually be moved to www.arlingtonbelievers.com. Please check out my wife's blog at www.GroceryShopForFREE.com

Project Payday

2009-05-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

In my quest to look for ways to make more money I've found a lot of these internet guru sites that promise thousands but they always looked like they were "all hat, no cattle" as they say here in the Lone Star State. I found one that looked decent and signed up at www.projectpayday.com. Today was my first day and it was spent mostly with watching training videos and going through the "Fast Fifty" program that promises 50.00 on my first day. The purpose of this blog is catalogue what happens as I work through the site so anyone that comes after me can know if I made any money with this program. So here goes.

First thing i did was sign up for the site by completing an offer for a free credit report. I got the credit report and as long as I cancel in the next 9 days I won't be charged. We'll see.

Next I went through the "Fast Fifty" and selected 4 programs to get credit and get my $50. Dr Suess and Friends charged me $9.98 but I will get 5 of that back if I return one of the books when it comes in. Again, I'll let you know.

Next was cyberdefender. This was a not very user friendly. I was charged 29.99 (That should be refunded if I cancel within 30 days) but I didn't get the credit I need to get paid. I submitted a ticket on it and will hopefully hear something soon.

UPDATE: Just got the credit for Cyberdefender. Everythings cool.

I also signed up for Silkies. Got the credit and they won't charge until they ship. Looks good.

Finally, I signed up for passionsearch. That should generate some interesting e-mails. I won't get credit for this until tomorrow but it cost me nothing.

So to recap, best case scenario I spent 5 dollars to make 50 but as of right now I've got 40.00 out of pocket.

Spent 39.97 Made 0.00 Net <39.97> Let's hope it get's better.

1 John 2

2008-07-31T05:34:00.000-07:00

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. - 1 John 2:15

This is such a challenging verse for me. The proof the the love of the Father is in me is that I do not love anything in the world. This is certainly more true now then when I first believed, but there is no way it is entirely true. I can say that I love Christ more than anything the world has to offer and would never leave Him for any comfort of the world, but I also still like some worldly things. I still watch (A little) TV, I still see (A few) movies. I don't listen to secular music and rarely read secular books (for entertainment). But even with all this I know there is a love for the world in my heart. My fleshly appetites get the best of me, my eyes wonder, my mind dwells on things it shouldn't. I read of the great men of God and long for God to use me like that but in my heart I know I'm not willing to give up what they gave up, to sacrifice what the sacrificed. Lord I believe, help me with my unbelief. I love you, help me increase in love. I can do nothing without you giving me strength. Keep my heart and mind on You and You alone.

1 John 1

2008-07-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

We write this to make our joy complete - 1 John 1:4

In all the years I spent as a Youth Pastor and now Senior Pastor I have known this sentiment several times. There is something special one someone listens to what you teach and then puts it into practice. You work hard to make the Word of God come alive and be relevant, you pray and seek God for anointing and that He would use what you are saying, but that is no guarantee that anyone will really listen. As soon as it comes out of your mouth it's in the Lord's hands and totally His decision about what to do with it. Will it make any impact? Will it take root? Who knows? But when it does, when someone tells you how they are making commitments to dig deeper in the Word, or spending more time in prayer, or sharing their faith every time they get the opportunity, it increases my joy. It is a thrill to be able to be used by God to further His Kingdom and I love to delight in the fruit God brings to my ministry. Let me encourage you, if any minister has increased your love for the Lord, let them know that their joy may be made complete.

John 18

2008-07-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

XVIII Jesus arrested, Tried, and Denied
A. vs 1-11 Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested
B. vs 12-14 Jesus is taken to Annas
C. vs 15-18 Peter denies Christ for the first time
D. vs 19-24 Jesus is questioned by the High Priest
E. vs 25-27 Peter denies Christ for the second and third time
F. vs 28-40 Jesus is interrogated by Pilate and the crowd wants Barabbas released instead of Jesus

John 17

2008-07-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

XVII Jesus' Prayer
A. vs 1-5 Jesus prays that the Father would glorify Him so He can glorify the Father
B. vs 6-19 Jesus prays for the Disciples
1. vs 6-12 Jesus asks the Father to protect the disciples
2. vs 13-19 Jesus asks the Father to sanctify the disciple by His Word
C. vs 20-26 Jesus prays for all believers
1. vs 20-23 May all believers be brought into complete unity in Christ
2. vs 24 Jesus wants all believers to see His glory
3. vs 25-26 Jesus will continue to make the Father known so all may be in Him

John 16

2008-07-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

XVI What the Holy Spirit will do when He Comes
A. vs 1-16 The Work of the Holy Spirit
1. vs 1-4 Soon anyone who kills a disciple will think he is doing God's will
2. vs 5-11 If Jesus goes away, the Counselor will come
3. vs 12-16 The Spirit will come and guide in all truth
B. vs 17-33 Grief will turn to Joy
1. vs 17-18 The disciples were not sure what He meant
2. vs 19-24 Soon grief will turn to joy and the disciples will be able to ask anything in Jesus' name
3. vs 25-28 Jesus says He is leaving to go back to the Father
4. vs 29-32 The disciples finally believe what Jesus is saying
5. vs 33 He has overcome the world

John 15

2008-07-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

XV The Vine and Branches
A. vs 1-17 The Vine and The Branches
1. vs 1-4 Jesus is the vine and His Father is the gardener
2. vs 5-8 We are the branches and must bear fruit
3. vs 9-17 Jesus commands us to love each other
B. vs 18-27 The Disciples will be hated
1. vs 18-25 Those that persecuted Jesus will also persecute His followers
2. vs 26-27 The Counselor will testify of Jesus

John 14

2008-07-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

XIV Jesus Teaches His Disciples
A. vs 1-14 Jesus is the Way, Truth and Life
1. vs 1-4 Jesus teaches about the mansions He will prepare for us
2. vs 5-7 Jesus is the Way to heaven, the Truth and the Life
3. vs 8-14 Anyone who has seen Jesus has seen the Father
B. vs 15-31 Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
1. vs 15-21 Jesus will send the Counselor
2. vs 22-24 Jesus will come and live with anyone who loves Him
3. vs 25-27 The Holy Spirit will teach us all things
4. vs 28-31 Be glad that Jesus is going back to Father because the Father is greater than the Son

John 13

2008-07-20T21:22:00.000-07:00

XIII Jesus Washes the Disciple's Feet
A. vs 1-17 Jesus washes His disciple's feet
1. vs 1-5 After the meal Jesus prepares to wash His disciple's feet
2. vs 6-9 Jesus washes Peter's feet
3. vs 10-11 When a person has had a bath only the dirty feet need to be cleaned
4. vs 12-17 Jesus commands that we wash each other's feet
B. vs 18-30 Jesus predicts His betrayal
1. vs 18-20 Jesus predicts His betrayal so when it happens His disciples would know that He already knew it was going to happen
2. vs 21-25 The disciples want to know who will betray Him
3. vs 26-27 Satan entered into Judas
4. vs 28-30 Judas went out to betray Jesus
C. vs 31-38 Jesus predicts Peter's Denial
1. vs 31-32 Jesus is glorified by the Father and glorifies the Father
2. vs 33-35 Jesus gives a new command, Love one another
3. vs 36-38 Peter says He will follow Jesus and Jesus says he deny Christ 3 times

John 12

2008-07-20T20:41:00.000-07:00

XII Jesus Anointed, Triumphal Entry
A. vs 1-11 Mary anoints Jesus
1. vs 1-3 Mary pours perfume on Jesus
2. vs 4-6 Judas complains that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor
3. vs 7-8 Jesus says that the perfume was to prepare Him for His burial
4. vs 9-11 The chief priests plan to kill Jesus and Lazarus
B. vs 12-19 The Triumphal Entry
1. vs 12-15 The crowd greets Jesus as He rides on a donkey into Jerusalem
2. vs 16-19 The Pharisees are upset to see such a large crowd praising Jesus
C. vs 20-36 Jesus predicts His Death
1. vs 20-22 Greeks come to see Jesus
2. vs 23-26 Jesus says to love life is to lose it and to hate your life is to keep it eternally
3. vs 27-29 The Father speaks and says that His name will be glorified
4. vs 30-33 Jesus says the voice was heard for the benefit of those around Him
5. vs 34-36 Trust in the light will the light is around
D. vs 37-50 Jews continue in Unbelief
1. vs 37-40 The Jews could still not believe because their eyes had been shut
2. vs 41-43 Some refused to follow Him because they loved the praise of men
3. vs 44-46 When we believe in Christ we also believe in the Father
4. vs 47-50 Jesus says what the Father tells Him to do

John 11

2008-07-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

XI Lazarus
A. vs 1-16 Death of Lazarus
1. vs 1-3 Mary and Marthe send word to Jesus that Lazarus is sick
2. vs 4-6 Jesus stayed for two more days to fully glorify God
3. vs 7-10 Jesus tells His disciples they are going back to Judea
4. vs 11-16 Jesus tells His disciples that Lazarus has died
B. vs 17-37 Jesus and Lazarus' sisters
1. vs 17-20 Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead of 4 days and Martha comes to greet Jesus
2. vs 21-23 Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again
3. vs 24-27 Jesus says He is the resurrection and the life and Martha acknowledges Him as Christ
4. vs 28-31 Mary goes to Jesus and a crowd follows her
5. vs 32-37 Jesus weeps with the crowd
C. vs 38-44 Resurrection of Lazarus
1. vs 38-39 Jesus tells them to roll away the stone
2. vs 40-42 Jesus prays to the Father
3. vs 43-44 Jesus commands Lazarus to come out of the tomb
D. vs 45-57 The Jews plot against Jesus
1. vs 45-48 The Sanhedrin fear that Jesus will cause a revolt and bring the Romans down upon them
2. vs 49-53 The chief priest prophecies about Jesus' death
3. vs 54-57 The chief priests give orders to have Jesus arrested

John 10

2008-07-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

X The Good Shepherd, The Unbelieving Jews

A. vs 1-21 The Good Shepherd

1. vs 1-6 Jesus compares His followers to sheep that He shepherds

2. vs 7-10 Sheep will find life in Him but the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy

3. vs 11-13 Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep

4. vs 14-18 Jesus has the authority to not only lay down His life but to pick it back up also

5. vs 19-21 This teaching again divided the Jews into believers and nonbelievers

B. vs 22-42 The Unbelieving Jews

1. vs 22-24 The Jews want Him to say clearly that He is the Christ

2. vs 25-30 No one can snatch Christ's sheep out of His hand

3. vs 31-33 The Jews threaten to stone Him for blasphemy

4. vs 34-39 He tells them to believe on Him and His miracles

5. vs 40-42 Many of John the Baptist's old followers believe in Jesus

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. John 10: 27-28

Here is a truth that I was very unsure about for much of my Christian walk. I wasn't sure if salvation could be lost or not. If it couldn't be lost, what do we do with all the people who "asked Jesus in to their heart" but showed no sign of salvation? If it could be lost, what loses it? At what point is someone no longer saved? Thank God He allowed my questions to be answered by showing me His truth in His Word. Once we are saved we are always saved and the proof of salvation is we bear fruit until the end comes. If Jesus is my Lord, nothing can snatch me out of His hand. If I ever turn my back on Him and walk away, it is proof that I was never saved to begin with. Now I can rest safe in His arms, not trying to earn my salvation and work hard knowing that I am increasing His Glory.

John 9

2008-07-12T16:35:00.000-07:00

IX Jesus heals a Man born blind
A. vs 1-12 The Healing
1. vs 1-2 The disciples want to know why a man was born blind
2. vs 3-5 Jesus says it happened to shoe His glory when He heals Him
3. vs 6-7 Jesus puts mud in his eyes and tells him to go wash, the man was then healed
4. vs 8-10 People want to know how it happened
5. vs 11-12 He tells them that Jesus healed him
B. vs 13-34 The Pharisees investigate
1. vs 13-15 The Pharisees want to know how he was healed on a Sabbath
2. vs 16-17 The man says that He is a prophet
3. vs 18-19 The Pharisees ask his parents how he was healed
4. vs 20-23 In fear the parents tell the Pharisees to ask him their selves
5. vs 24-27 The Pharisees assume that Jesus is a sinner but the man says that he was once blind but know he sees
6. vs 28-34 The Pharisees throw him out of the synagogue
C. vs 35-41 Jesus gets the man
1. vs 35-37 Jesus tells the man that He is the Son of Man
2. vs 38-39 The man believes in Jesus as the Messiah
3. vs 40-41 Jesus says the Pharisees are blind and guilty

John 7 and 8

2008-07-11T05:52:00.000-07:00

VII Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles
A. vs 1-13 Jesus goes to the Feast
1. vs 1-5 Jesus' brothers want Him to go to Judea where people want to kill Him and perform miracles because the did not believe that He was the Messiah
2. vs 6-9 Jesus says the world hates Him because He testifies to what is evil then sends His family ahead of Him to Judea
3. vs 11-13 Jesus goes to the feast in cogneto and hears what the people are saying about Him
B. vs 14-24 Jesus begins to teach
1. vs 14-15 Halfway through the Feast, Jesus begins to teach to the amazement of the crowd
2. vs 16-19 The Father has told the Son what to teach and the people are trying to kill Him for it
3. vs 20-24 If they could circumcise on the Sabbath, why were they upset when He healed on the Sabbath
C. vs 25-44 The people begin to ask if He is the Christ
1. vs 25-27 The people wonder if the authorities have concluded that He is the Christ because they are not stopping Him from teaching
2. vs 28-29 Jesus knows the Father and the Father sent Him to teach
3. vs 30-31 Many put their faith in Him
4. vs 32-36 Jesus says He will soon go back to the Father and the people will look for Him and not be able to find Him
5. vs 37-39 Jesus said that anyone who comes to Him and drinks will never thirst again
6. vs 40-44 The people were divided, some believed and some did not
D. vs 45-53 The Jewish Leaders do not believe
1. vs 45-46 The Pharisees asked the Temple Guards why they did not arrest Him
2. vs 47-49 The Pharisees say that no one who knows the Law believes Him
3. vs 50-53 Nicodemus tries to defend Him

VIII The Woman caught in Adultery, Jesus testimony about Himself
A. vs 1-11 The woman caught in Adultery
1. vs 1-5 The Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus and ask whether or not they should stone her as the Law demands
2. vs 6-8 Jesus said that the should stone her but the one without sin should start
3. vs 9-11 Jesus tells her He does not condemn her and to leave her life of sin
B. vs 12-30 Jesus defends the validity of His Testimony
1. vs 12-13 The Pharisees say that because He is testifying about Himself, His testimony is not valid
2. vs 14-18 The Father also testifies for the Son
3. vs 19-22 Jesus says if they really knew the Father they would know Him also
4. vs 23-26 Jesus says He is exactly who He has been saying He is all along
5. vs 27-30 They will find out who e is when He has been lifted up
C. vs 31-47 Children of Abraham or the Devil
1. vs 31-32 we are His disciples only if we hold to His teaching
2. vs 33-38 Everyone who sins is a slave to sin but who the Son sets free is truly free
3. vs 39-41 They say their only father is Abraham
4. vs 42-47 Jesus says their father is the Devil because they do what the Devil does
D. vs 48-59 Jesus speaks about Himself
1. vs 48-51 Anyone who keeps Christ's word will never see death
2. vs 52-56 Jesus says that Abraham looked to His day and was glad
3. vs 57-59 Jesus says that He existed before Abraham and the people picked up stones in order to kill Him

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." - John 8:31-32

The proof is in the pudding. If I said I loved my wife and never spoke to her or thought about her you could safely call me a liar. If I say I loved Football and never watched any games, or read the sports page, or talked about my team, you could safely say I don't really love Football. In the same way, if I say I love Christ but have no interest in His teachings: learning them, applying them, loving them; then You can safely say I do not love Christ. It is by holding fast to the teachings of Christ that we prove our love. We must grow in holiness, show the fruit of the Spirit, learn our Bibles, spend time in prayer and so on. Not because those things save us but because when we love Christ we live to do those things. Our christian walk has become a joy because we are so grateful that He has saved us. In fact, if we are not saved, then the good works that God has called us to will become a burden on us and bring us death.

John 6

2008-07-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it finally happened. When God called my wife and me to start this church we knew that there was going to be resistance from some people. We knew that it wasn't going to be an easy thing but we also knew that what ever happened God would give us the ability to overcome. Well at least now I know where the first bit of trouble will be coming from. I am trusting that God is my shield and my buckler and will fight on my behalf and those whose confidence is in the Lord will not be put to shame. To God be all the Glory for great things He will do.

VI Jesus feeds the Five Thousand, Walks upon the Water, and says He is the Bread of Life
A. vs 1-15 Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
1. vs 1-4 Jesus sits on a mountainside with His disciples and a great crowd follows
2. vs 5-7 Jesus tells the disciples to feed the people and Philip says that 8 months wages would not be enough to buy all the food needed
3. vs 8-9 Andrew says there is a boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish
4. vs 10-11 Jesus sat the people down and passed out enough food to feed everyone
5. vs 12-13 Jesus had the disciples gather the leftovers
6. vs 14-15 Jesus withdrew to a mountain
B. vs 16-24 Jesus walks upon the water
1. vs 16-21 Jesus walked to the boat in the midst of a storm, upon the water
2.vs 22-24 The crowd gets into boats and begins to search for Jesus
C. vs 25-59 Jesus says He is the Bread of Life
1. vs 25-27 Jesus knows that the crowd is looking for Him just because He fed them
2. vs 28-29 Jesus tells them they must believe in Him
3. vs 30-31 The crowd wants to know what miraculous sign He will give them so they will believe in Him
4. vs 32-33 Jesus says the bread from Heaven did not come from Moses but God and He is that bread
5. vs 34-40 Jesus is the bread of Life and will never turn away any who come to Him
6. vs 41-42 Some do not believe because they knew His parents yet He says He came from Heaven
7. vs 43-51 No one comes to Him unless the Father draws Him and all who eat of Him will have everlasting life
8. vs 52-59 Jesus says you must eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to have everlasting life
D. vs 60-71 Some that follow him, depart
1. vs 60 What Jesus says is difficult to understand so some stop following Him
2. vs 61-65 Jesus confronts the grumbling disciples and reminds them that no one can come to Him unless the Father enables Him
3. vs 66-69 Jesus asks if His Twelve will leave Him also and Peter says they will not
4. vs 70-71 Jesus says that one of the Twelve will betray Him

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him - John 6:44

I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life - John 6:47

Here in just a few verses is one of the dichotomies in Scripture that has always boggled my mind. How are we saved? God draws us! How are we saved? We must believe! These two ideas are held in perfect tension in the mind of God. God is responsible for our salvation and we are responsible for believing. God commands all men everywhere to repent but only He can give us the ability to repent. Look at the other side of the coin and you see the problem. If we are not saved who is responsible for our damnation? Us and us alone. Though we are not saved because God did not draw us, we alone are held responsible for our sins. How can this be? Because we are but clay pots in the hands of our Master and He will do with us as He pleases. Some will go to everlasting Life and some to everlasting Death and God alone makes the decision on who to save and who to not save. Therefore, work out your salvation with fear and trembling and pray that you will endure to the end. Also pray that laborers by sent into the harvest so many will repent and the Lamb will receive the full reward for His sufferings.

John 5

2008-07-07T05:33:00.000-07:00

V The Healing by the Pool, Jesus' Testimony
A. vs 1-15 The Healing by the Pool
1. vs 1-6 Jesus asks a man lying by a pool if he would like to be healed
2. vs 7 The man says he is trying to get healed but cannot get to the pool
3. vs 8-9 Jesus heals the man
4. vs 10 The man carries his mat away on the Sabbath which gets him in trouble
5. vs 11-12 The Jews want to know who told him to work on the Sabbath
6. vs 13-15 The man tells the Jews that Jesus healed hum
B. vs 16-47 Jesus testifies about Himself
1. vs 16-18 The Jews take offense at what Jesus is doing and teaching and begin to plot to kill Him
2. vs 19-23 The Son does what the Father tells Him to do and not honoring the Son means not honoring the Father
3. vs 24-27 The Father has given the Son authority to judge
4. vs 28-30 All will be judged and Christ judges as His Father tells Him to
5. vs 31-32 The Father testifies on behalf of His Son
6. vs 33-35 John the Baptist also testifies to the truth
7. vs 36-40 The Scriptures testify to Christ yet some still don't believe
8. vs 41-44 Make an effort to obtain the praise that comes from God
9. vs 45-47 Moses will accuse the Jews

John 4

2008-07-05T12:01:00.000-07:00

IV Jesus in Samaria, Jesus Heals an officials son
A vs 1-38 Jesus and the Samaritan Woman
1. vs 1-3 Jesus leaves Judea to return to Galilee when the Pharisees learn that His disciples are baptizing more people than John the Baptist
2. vs 4-6 Jesus travels through Samaria and rests near Jacob's well
3. vs 7-8 A Samaritan woman comes to the well and Jesus asks her for water
4. vs 9 The woman asks why He is talking to her because she is a Samaritan and a woman
5. vs 10 Jesus says that if she knew who He was she would be asking Him for water, Living Water
6. vs 11-12 She is unclear on how Jesus would get this Living Water
7. vs 13-14 Jesus says whoever drinks this water will never thirst again
8. vs 15-18 Jesus tells her to get her husband then tells her He knows she has had five husbands and is not married now
9. vs 19-24 Jesus tells her that where you worship is not important but how you worship is
10. vs 25-26 Jesus tells her that He is the Messiah
B. vs 27-38 The disciples show back up
1. vs 27-30 The disciples return and the woman goes back to town and tells people about Jesus
2. vs 31-33 The disciples want Jesus to eat and Jesus says He has food that they don't know about
3. vs 34-38 Jesus says the fields are ripe to be harvested
C. vs 39-42 The Samaritans come and believe that Jesus is the Messiah
D. vs 43-54 Jesus Heals an Official's Son
1. vs 43-45 Jesus returns to Galilee
2. vs 46-47 A royal official came to Jesus and asked if He would heal his son
3. vs 48-50 Jesus says the man's son will live
4. vs 51-54 The man finds out his son was healed exactly when Jesus said he would be so him and his entire house believe

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:21-24

I have been going through something when it comes to worship. Obviously the point of this passage is that where you worship is not important but how. We must worship "in spirit and truth" but what does that mean? I think "spirit" is in contrast to the locations mentioned before. We no longer have to travel to a particular mountain to worship but it can be done anywhere at any time. It is the 'truth" that gives me pause. I know that this means our worship must be theologically accurate. Our chorus' should reflect who God is and who we are. Doctrine should be sung as well as taught. In fact our songs should reinforce the teaching from the pulpit. My problem is I have spent so long in small-minded, repetitive worship music I wonder if this music is even out there and how I can get my hands on some. I want music that makes God look Big and High and Holy and Majestic and causes our souls to worship by reminding us of His many attributes and characteristics. I want the old Hymns but at the same time I want the contemporary music. I like drums. And electric guitar. and bass guitar. Surely someone has taken these two worlds and mashed them together.

John 3

2008-07-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

III Nicodemus and John
A. vs 1-21 Nicodemus meets and questions Jesus
1. vs 1-2 Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus is at least a great teacher
2. vs 3-4 Nicodemus wants to know what it means to be "Born Again"
3. vs 5-8 The Spirit gives birth to life in the spirits of men
4. vs 9-15 Jesus is using earthly examples to illustrate a heavenly concept
5. vs 16-21 God sent His Son in the world to save the world and all who believe on Him will have eternal life
B. vs 22-36 John the Baptist Testifies about Jesus
1. vs 22-26 John's disciples are starting to get upset because more people are going to Jesus
2. vs 27-30 John is joyful that people are going to Jesus
3. vs 31-36 John testifies that Jesus is the Messiah

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. John 3:36

This really messes with the whole "God hates Sin but Loves Sinners" Theology. We see in many places in scripture that the wrath of God "abides" or remains, or hovers over sinners like a black cloud. God absolutely is angry with sinners and demands that all sinners everywhere repent. But the problem is that it is the very wrath of God and our own innate sinfulness that makes it impossible to repent in our own power. This is why it is necessary for God to first intervene. God must first move on our hearts and drop the scales from our eyes in order that we may see His Son as glorious, then we see our own sinfulness in the light of His Holiness and that causes us to repent. Salvation is entirely a work of God from beginning to end and one we took no part in without God's irresistible grace compelling us. Therefore, our freedom from the wrath that used to abide on us is something we can give God all the glory for and take none of the credit for.

John 2

2008-07-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

II Jesus does first miracle; Clears Temple
A. vs 1-11 Jesus changes the Water into Wine
1. vs 1-3 Jesus and his disciples are invited to a wedding in Cana that runs out of wine
2. vs 4-5 Mary asks here son to do something about the wine
3. vs 6-8 Jesus gives servants instructions to fill six large stone jars with water
4. vs 9-11 When the Water is ladled out, it has turned to wine that is better than the wine already served
B. vs 12-25 Jesus clears the temple
1. Vs 12 Jesus travels to Capernaum to stay with His family
2. vs 13-16 Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem, saw the money changers, and began to throw them out
3. vs 17 This reminds the disciples of an Old Testament verse that speaks of the Messiah
4. vs 18-19 The Jews ask for a miraculous sign that gives Him the authority to do this and He says that if they tear down the Temple He will build it again in three days
5. vs 20-22 The Temple He spoke of was His own body
6. vs 23-25 Many believed on Him but He did not entrust Himself to them

John 2:24-25 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Again we see here a benefit of having a clear direction and purpose. Jesus knew exactly who He was and therefore did not need any outside affirmation. It's always nice to get a pat on the back or an "Attaboy" but the presence or absence of those should not effect the course of our life. In fact when that happens we betray that we are living for the praise of men instead of the praise of The Man, our Lord Jesus. There is a calling on each of our lives to do something great for the Kingdom of God and if you are doing it right you probably won't have too many friends. Holiness and sanctification is not something the world really appreciates and they certainly won't like it if you call them to the standard that God demands, but do it anyway. Be bold for the Lord and watch how God moves to confirm His Word.

John 1

2008-07-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

I The Beginning of Christ's Ministry
A. vs 1-18 The Incarnation
1. vs 1-2 The Word was pre-existent with God, not created
2. vs 3-5 The Word created all things and is Light
3. vs 6-9 John the Baptist came as a witness to the Light
4. vs 10-13 The world did not receive Him, only those who believed on His name
5. vs 14 The Word was made flesh and shares the same Glory as the Father
6. vs 15-18 John testifies of Christ
B. vs 19-28 John denies being the Christ
1. vs 19-21 Some Jews ask if John the Baptist was the Messiah, Elijah or a prophet and he tells them no
2. vs 22-23 John says he is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness
3. vs 24-25 Some Pharisees want to know why he baptizes
4. vs 26-28 John says the Messiah is coming
C. vs 29-34 John testifies that Jesus is the Lamb of God
D. vs 35-42 Jesus calls His first three disciples, John, Andrew, and Peter
E. vs 43-51 Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel to be His Disciples.

John 1:23 John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, "I am the voice of one calling in the desert, 'Make straight the way for the Lord.'

How much simpler life is when you know exactly what your purpose is. To be able to look the world in the face and say who you are and what you are here for. And if we are being honest, our purpose is no different that John's. We also should be the ones "calling in the desert", telling the world that Christ will soon be here. We should be the ones telling the world of the Holiness of our God and what will happen if anyone stands before Him in their sins. It should be such a burden that even if it takes us out into the wilderness with nothing to eat but locusts and honey, we are still honored to take the message of our King to the people that need it. My prayer for me lately is that I would have the kind of singular focus that is needed to be able to clearly proclaim Christ and His gospel. I would encourage you to do the same.

Acts 18

2008-05-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

XVIII Paul in Corinth, Syria, and Antioch
A. vs 1-17 Paul in Corinth
1. vs 1-4 Paul meets Aquilla and Priscilla in Corinth
2. vs 5-6 Once Timothy and Silas arrive, Paul commits himself fully to preaching
3. vs 7-8 Paul saves the synagogue ruler
4. vs 9-11 God tells Paul to stay in a vision
5. vs 12-13 The Jews bring Paul before the proconsul
6. vs 14-17 The proconsul refuses to hear the charges and ejects them from the court
B. vs 18-28 Paul in Syria and Antioch
1. vs 18-22 Paul preaches in the synagogue in Ephesus
2. vs 23 Paul travels from Antioch to Galatia and Phyrgia, preaching as he goes
3. vs 24-26 Priscilla and Aquila meet Apollos and teach him more adequately about Christianity
4. vs 27-28 Apollos is sent out to preach

Acts 17

2008-04-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

XVII Paul Travels to Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens
A. vs 1-9 Thessalonica
1. vs 1-4 Paul preaches in the Thessalonian synagogue
2. vs 5-9 The Jews rushed to Jason's house to find Paul. When they cannot find Paul they drag Jason out to the city officials
B. vs 10-15 Berea
1. vs 10-12 Paul and Silas go to Berea where they search the scriptures to see if what Paul is saying is true
2. vs 13-15 Thessalonian Jews come to Berea so Paul travels to Athens
C. vs 16-34 Athens
1. vs 16-21 The Athenians bring Paul to the Areopagus to hear his preaching
2. vs 22-23 Paul starts with a reference to the Athenian idol "The Unknown God"
3. vs 24-28 Paul tells how God made the world and everyone in it
4. vs 29-31 God has called all men to repent
5. vs 32-34 Some Athenians believed the gospel

Acts 16

2008-04-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

XVI Paul and Silas land in Prison
A. vs 1-5 Timothy joins Paul and Silas
B. vs 6-10 Paul has a vision of a Macedonian man asking him to come preach
C. vs 11-15 Paul preaches to Lydia and she is saved
D. vs 16-40 Paul and Silas in Prison
1. vs 16-18 Paul cast a spirit out of a little girl who predicted the future
2. vs 19-21 The girl's owners drag Paul and Silas in front of the authorities
3. vs 22-24 Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown in jail
4. vs 25-28 An earthquake shakes the jail and all the prison doors are flung open but no one tries to escape
5. vs 29-30 The jailer wants to know what he must do to be saved
6. vs 31-34 The jailer converts and feeds and cleans Paul and Silas
7. vs 35-36 The jailer says that Paul and Silas are free to go
8. vs 37 Paul says they were imprisoned unjustly and the magistrates should come and escort them out
9. vs 38-40 The magistrates escort them out and ask them to leave the city.

Acts 15

2008-04-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

XV The first Christian Council in Jerusalem
A. vs 1-21 What rules should Gentile believers follow?
1. vs 1-4 Paul and Barnabas are sent to Jerusalem to settle the question of what laws Christians are supposed to follow
2. vs 5 The Pharasee believers say that Gentile believers should be circumcised and follow all the laws of Moses
3. vs 6-11 Peter disagrees and says that it is by grace alone that they are saved
4. vs 12-18 James reminds the believers that God said he would save the Gentiles
5. vs 19-21 4 basic rules are given for Gentiles to follow
B. vs 22-35 The council sends a letter to the Gentile churches
1. vs 22-29 A letter is sent, outlining the basic rules Gentile believers should follow
2. vs 30-35 The letter is received with gladness
C. vs 36-41 After a disagreement, Paul and Barnabas split ways

Acts 14

2008-04-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

XIV The Missionary Journey Continues
A. vs 1-7 They travel to Iconium and make many disciples
B. vs 8-20 They go Lystra and Derbe
1. vs 8-10 In Lystra, Paul heals a lame man
2. vs 11-13 Paul and Barnabas are mistaken as Greek Gods, Hermes and Zeus
3. vs 14-18 Paul tries to stop the confusion be preaching about the true God
4. vs 19-20 The crowd stones Paul and leaves him for dead
C. vs 21-28 Return to Antioch
1. vs 21-25 They retraced their steps and strengthened the churches they established
2. vs 26-28 They stayed for a long time in Antioch

Acts 13

2008-04-23T20:30:00.000-07:00

XIII Paul and Barnabas begin their first Missionary journey
A. vs 1-3 Paul and Barnabas are sent out
B. vs 4-12 They Travel to Cyprus
1. vs 4-5 Paul, Barnabas and John go to Cyprus and preach in the Jewish Synagogues
2. vs 6-11 Paul prophesies against Elymas the Sorcerer
3. vs 11-12 Elymas is blinded by God
C. vs 13-52 They travel to Pisidian Antioch
1. vs 13-15 They travel to Pisidian Antioch and preach in the synagogue
2. vs 16-22 Paul recaps the pertinent sections of the O.T.
3. vs 23-25 John the Baptist proclaims the coming Christ
4. vs 26-31 God raised Jesus from the dead and many people witnessed it
5. vs 32-37 Paul lays out some prophecies linking David to the Messiah
6. vs 38-41 Paul says that through Jesus we have forgiveness of sins and warns not to disbelieve what he is saying
7. vs 42-45 They are asked to return the next Sabbath
8. vs 46-48 The Jews reject what he says so Paul goes to the Gentiles
9. vs 49-52 The Word of the Lord spread but Paul and Barnabas are kicked out of the region

Acts 12

2008-04-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

XII Peter Escapes from Prison
A. vs 1-19 An Angel releases peter from a jail cell
1. vs 1-4 Peter is arrested
2. vs 5-7 An angel releases Peter from his prison cell
3. vs 8-10 Peter follows the angel out, thinking it is a vision
4. vs 11-14 Peter realizes it's real and goes to John Mark's house
5. vs 15-17 Peter tells what happened then leaves for another place
6. vs 18-19 Herod has the guards killed
B. vs 20-25 Herod Dies
1. vs 20 The kings of Tyre and Sidon get an audience with Herod
2. vs 21-23 Herod give a speech and the people say he is like a god. God then kills him.
3. vs 24-25 The word of God continues to spread and Saul and Barnabas return from Jerusalem taking John Mark with them.

Acts 11

2008-04-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

XI Peter Explains Why He Ate with Gentiles
A. vs 1-18 Peter and the Gentiles
1. vs 1-3 The Jews criticized Peter for eating with Gentiles
2. vs 4-10 Peter explains his vision
3. vs 11-14 Peter tells how Cornelius sent for him
4. vs 15-18 The Jews rejoice because God has let the Gentiles into the Kingdom of God
B. vs 19-30 The church at Antioch
1. vs 19-21 The church has spread and now includes Greeks from Antioch
2. vs 22-24 The church sends Barnabas to Antioch to strengthen those believers
3. vs 25-26 Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch
4. vs 27-30 A prophet predicts a famine and the church is able to prepare for it

Acts 10

2008-04-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

X Peter and Cornelius
A. vs 1-8 Cornelius is told by an angel to send for Peter
1. vs 1-3 An angel visits Cornelius
2. vs 4-6 The angel tells where to find Peter
3. vs 7-8 Cornelius sends his men to Peter
B. vs 9-23 Peter receives a vision
1. vs 9-13 Peter receives a vision of all kinds of animals and God tells him to kill and eat
2. vs 14-16 Peter refuses because the animals are unclean and the Lord tells him not to call unclean what God has called clean
3. vs 17-20 After the vision, Cornelius' men arrive and the Spirit says to go with them
4. vs 21-23 Peter invites the gentiles into his house
C. vs 24-48 Peter and Cornelius
1. vs 24-26 Peter goes to Cornelius
2. vs 27-29 Peter tells about his vision
3. vs 30-33 Cornelius relays his vision
4. vs 34-43 Peter shares the gospel with Cornelius and his household
5. vs 44-48 The Holy Spirit comes upon them and Peter baptizes them

Acts 9

2008-04-09T21:03:00.000-07:00

IX Saul's Conversion and Ministry Beginnings
A. vs 1-18 Saul's Conversion
1. vs 1-6 Jesus meets Paul on the Road to Damascus and blinds him
2. vs 7-9 Paul is led by the hand into Damascus
3. vs 10-16 Jesus sends Ananias to heal Paul
4. vs 17-18 Ananias prays and Paul's sight is restored
B. vs 19-31 Saul begins to minister in Damascus and Jerusalem
1. vs 19-22 Saul proves that Jesus is the Messiah in the synagogues in Damascus
2. vs 23-25 Saul escapes a plot to kill him in Damascus
3. vs 26-30 Saul travels to Jerusalem where he continues to preach
4. vs 31 The church enjoys a time of peace and continues to grow
C. vs 32-43 Peter heals Dorcus
1. vs 32-35 Peter travels to Lydda and heals Aeneas
2. vs 36-38 Peter is asked to travel to Joppa to heal Dorcus
3. vs 39-43 Peter arrives after Dorcus dies but is able to raise her from the dead

Acts 8

2008-04-08T22:02:00.001-07:00

VIII The Gospel Spreads to Samaria
A. vs 1-3 Saul begins to persecute the Church
B. vs 4-25 Philip preaches in Samaria
1. vs 4-8 Philip proclaims Christ in Samaria and many are healed and delivered
2. vs 9-13 Simon the Sorcerer believes the gospel and is baptized
3. vs 14-17 Peter and John are sent to Samaria to baptize the new believers in the Holy Spirit
4. vs 18-19 Simon wants to buy the ability to baptize in the Holy Spirit from the apostles
5. vs 20-23 Peter rebukes Simon and tells him to repent
6. vs 24 Simon asks Peter to pray for him
7. vs 25 Peter and John return to Jerusalem, preaching as they go
C. vs 26-40 Philip and the Ethiopian
1. vs 26-29 An angel directs Philip to an Ethiopian official
2. vs 30-33 Philip asks him if he understands the scroll containing Isaiah that he is reading
3. vs 34-35 Philip uses a passage from Isaiah to preach the gospel of Christ Jesus
4. vs 36-40 The Ethiopian is baptized and Philip is transported to Azotus

Acts 7

2008-04-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

VII Stephen recaps the Old Testament and is stoned
A. vs 1-53 Stephen speaks to the Sanhedrin
1. vs 1 The Sanhedrin asks Stephen if the charges brought against him are true
2. vs 2-3 Stephen retells the calling of Abraham
3. vs 4-8 The story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
4. vs 9-10 Joseph is sold to Egypt
5. vs 11-16 The Jews move to Egypt
6. vs 17-19 Pharoah dealt treacherously with the Jews
7. vs 20-22 Moses is born and raised by Pharoah's daughter
8. vs 23-26 Moses killed an Egyptian and was found out
9. vs 27-29 Moses fled to Midian
10. vs 30-32 Moses sees a burning bush
11. vs 33-34 God send Moses back to Egypt
12. vs 35-36 Moses led the Jews out of Egypt
13. vs 37-38 God gave Moses the Law
14. vs 39-43 The people refused to obey Moses but followed gods of their own making
15. vs 44-47 From Moses to David and Solomon
16. vs 48-50 God does not live in houses built by men
17. vs 51-53 Stephen blasts the Saduceess and tells them they murdered the Messiah
B. vs 54-60 The stoning of Stephen
1. vs 54-56 Stephen sees heaven open up
2. vs 57-58 The witnesses drag him outside of the city to stone him
3. vs 59-60 While they were stoning him, he prays that God would forgive them

What did I learn?

2008-04-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

What did I learn in Acts 1-6?
Acts 1:2 says that Jesus gave instructions to the Apostles through the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? (Was He not there, or was this an example of two persons of the Trinity working together?)
The Apostles chose Matthias to replace Judas. (I think God chose Paul)
Peter preaches on the street corner (I want to do this)
Peter says "Repent and be baptized" (I would probably have said, Give your heart to Jesus) (And I would have been wrong)
Acts 2 has not just the birth of the Church but the structure also. (Evangelism, Teaching, Fellowship, Prayer, and Worship)
Peter and John had a boldness I envy (and covet)
The apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for His Name (most of us whine over even the slightest inconvenience)

Acts 6

2008-04-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

VI Stephen is Arrested
A. vs 1-7 Seven men are chosen to oversee the distribution of food to widows
1. vs 1-4 Some believers feel there widows are being slighted in the daily distribution of food
2. vs 5-6 Seven are chosen to oversee this task
3. vs 7 The church grows rapidly with a large number of priests becoming believers
B. vs 8-15 One of the seven, Stephen, is arrested
1. vs 8-10 Some non-believers begin to argue with Stephen but cannot stand up to His wisdom
2. vs 11 These men secretly persuade other men to lie about Stephen
3. vs 12-15 Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin and questioned

Acts 5

2008-04-06T21:23:00.000-07:00

V Ananias and Sapphira die and the churh continues to be persecuted
A. vs 1-11 Ananias and Sapphira
1. vs 1-2 Ananias sold a piece of property and kept some of the money for himself
2. vs 3-4 Peter calls Ananias on his lie
3. vs 5-6 Ananias dies
4. vs 7-8 Sapphira comes in and Peter asks her if the amount given was all the money the land sold for
5. vs 9-11 Sapphira lies, dies, and great fear comes on the church
B. vs 12-16 The people bring all their sick for the Apostles to heal
C. vs 17-42 The apostles are persecuted
1. vs 17-20 The Sanhedrin arrests the Apostles and puts them in jail but an angel comes and lets them out
2. vs 21-24 The officers cannot find the apostles in their cell
3. vs 25-26 The Apostles are found in the Temple courtyard
4. vs 27-28 The Sanhedrin says that they told the apostles not to teach in the name of Jesus
5. vs 29-32 Peter says they must obey God rather than man
6. vs 33-39 Gamiliel says that if these men are from God, then to oppose them is to oppose God
7. vs 40-42 The Apostles are released and rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ

Acts 4

2008-04-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

IV Peter and John explain themselves to the Sanhedrin
A. vs 1-22 Peter and John are brought before the Sanhedrin
1. vs 1-4 The priest and the Temple Guard put Peter and John in prison until the morning
2. vs 5-7 The rulers, elders and teachers bring Peter and John before them
3. vs 8-12 Peter says there is no other name besides Jesus by which man must be saved
4. vs 13-17 The Sanhedrin decides to tell the apostles to stop teaching in the name of Jesus
5. vs 18-20 Peter and John say they cannot help but teach in His name
6. vs 21-22 The Sanhedrin release them
B. vs 23-31 The Church Prays
1. vs 23-26 Peter and John go back and lead the church in prayer
2. vs 27-31 after the prayer the church goes out and preaches with boldness
C. vs 32-37 the believers share there possessions with each other

Acts 3

2008-04-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

III Peter performs a Miracle
A. vs 1-10 Peter heals a crippled beggar
1. vs 1-5 A crippled beggar sitting at Temple gate asks Peter and John for money
2. vs 6-10 Peter heals the cripple and he goes with them to the Temple, walking and leaping and praising God
B. vs 11-26 Peter uses the miracle as a platform to preach the Gospel
1. vs 11-16 Peter says that it is because of the Name of Jesus that the man is healed
2. vs 17-23 Peter tells the crowd to repent
3. vs 24-26 Peter says all the prophets from Samuel on foretold these days

Acts 2

2008-04-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

II Pentecost
A. vs 1-13 The Holy Spirit Fills the Believers
1. vs 1-4 The Holy Spirit fills the believers and they begin to speak in other tongues
2. vs 5-13 A crowd gathers and each of them begin to hear the wonders of God in their own languages
B. vs 14-41 Peter preaches
1. vs 14-16 Peter stands up to address the crowd
2. vs 17-21 Peter quotes the Old Testament book of Joel
3. vs 22-24 Peter preaches the gospel
4. vs 25-28 Peter quotes Psalms
5. vs 29-33 Peter says God raised Jesus from the dead
6. vs 34-36 Peter says Jesus is both Lord and Christ
7. vs 37 The people want to know what they should do with this information
8. vs 38-39 Peter tells them to repent and be baptized
9. vs 40-41 Three thousand were added to the church
C. vs 42-47 The structure of the early church

Acts 1

2008-04-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

I A Disciple is Chosen
A. vs 1-11 Jesus' final instructions before ascending to Heaven
1. vs 1-5 Jesus promises the baptism of the Holy Spirit
2. vs 6 The disciples want to know when Israel will be restored
3. vs 7-8 Jesus says to be His disciple in Jerusalem, Judea, Sumeria, and the uttermost parts of the earth
4. vs 9 Jesus Ascends to heaven
5. vs 10-11 The disciples are told that He will return just as He left
B. The Disciples pick Judas' Replacement
1. vs 12-14 The disciples back to Jerusalem to pray in an upper room with Jesus' family
2. vs 15-17 Peter says that Judas betrayed Jesus
3. vs 18-19 Judas' reward for the betrayal is described
4. vs 20-22 Peter proposes to appoint a new disciple
5. vs 23-26 Matthias is chosen

2 Corinthians 13

2008-03-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

XIII Final Admonitions
A. vs 1-4 Paul will prove his apostleship with power when he visits
B. vs 5-10 Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith
C. vs 11-14 Final instructions

What did I learn?
Excel in giving. (Why oh why is this so hard)
Our giving is measured by the sacrifice, not by the amount. (Then have I ever really given anything?)
Sow sparingly, reap sparingly (How different would my life be if I really believed that?)
Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty for demolishing vain arguments. (The Word changes hearts and minds)
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (How much more his ministers)
Examine yourself and see if you are in the faith (This just isn't taught enough)
And finally...What exactly is a holy kiss?

2 Corinthians 12

2008-03-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

XII The Thorn in Paul's Flesh
A. vs 1-6 Paul describes his being taken up into the Third Heaven
B. vs 7-10 Paul's thorn keeps him humble
C. vs 11-13 Signs, wonders, and miracles are the mark of an apostle
D. vs 14-18 Paul will visit the Corinthians for a third time
E. vs 19-21 Paul is afraid of what he will find in the Corinthian Church

2 Corinthians 11

2008-03-28T22:23:00.000-07:00

XI Paul is an Apostle
A. vs 1-15 False Apostles
1. vs 1-6 Accept no gospel other than the one Paul preached
2. vs 7-12 Paul did not receive support from the Corinthians when he first came
3. vs 13-15 Satan and his false apostles masquerade as angels of light
B. vs 16-33 Paul's sufferings proclaim him an apostle
1. vs 16-21 The Corinthians will put up with false apostles who treat them poorly more than they will put up with Paul
2. vs 22-29 Paul lists the sufferings he has gone through since his conversion
3. vs 30-33 Paul escaped King Aretas in Damascus

2 Corinthians 10

2008-03-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

X Paul Defends His Ministry
A. vs 1-6 Our weapons of warfare are not worldly but Godly
B. vs 7-11 Paul will be in person who he is in his letters
C. vs 12-18 Paul boasts as one approved by God

2 Corinthians 9

2008-03-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

IX Sow Generously and You Will Reap Generously
A. vs 1-5 Paul encourages the Corinthians to give generously so they won't be embarrassed
B. vs 6-9 Give generously and cheerfully
C. vs 10-11 God will enlarge our harvest of righteousness as we give generously
D. vs 12-15 Men will praise God because of your generosity

2 Corinthians 8

2008-03-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

VIII Give Generously
A. vs 1-15 The Macedonians gave generously and Paul uses them as a model
1. vs 1-7 Paul encourages the Corinthians to excel in the grace of giving
2. vs 8-9 Paul uses the standard of the Macedonians to judge the Corinthians
3. vs 10-12 The acceptability of the gift is determined by the willingness to give it
4. vs 13-15 Paul's desire is that there would be equality within the Body of Christ
B. vs 16-24 Paul sends Titus to Corinth
1. vs 16-21 Paul wants Titus to oversee thew administration of the gift to avoid criticism
2. vs 22-24 Paul encourage to Corinthians to treat Titus and another man well

2 Corinthians 7

2008-03-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

VII Paul's Joy that His previous Letter was received well
A. vs 1 Keep yourself pure and holy before God
B. vs 2-4 Paul's joy knows no bounds
C. vs 5-7 Titus comforted Paul
D. vs 8-12 Godly sorrow brings repentance
E. vs 13-16 Paul was grateful for the way they treated Titus

What I learned
God comforts (and afflicts)
God sets the seal of His ownership on us (The Holy Spirit)
Do not peddle the Word of God for a profit (God want us righteous not rich)
The glory of the Old Covenant is fading (But how great the glory of the New!)
The god of this age has blinded unbelievers (And God will open them through preaching)
The Spirit in us GUARANTEES what is to come (We need not worry)
We are a new creation (The old has passed away)
Godly sorrow brings repentance (don't be afraid to offend)