Until today, the search page on this site only took you to a Google search page with a customized design. But last night, Google released the new custom search engine feature and we are already using it to provide a much better search function. Results will now appear on the search page itself (you will need to have Javascript enabled) and priority is given to results from music and christian sites that were hand picked for their quality. Over the next few weeks, the customization will be further improved, but even now the results should already be much better than what you are used to. Contact the webmaster if you are interested in helping refine the search by adding more quality sites to the list of preferred search targets.
Technorati : CSE, Google, ccm, christian, lyrics, music, search
In the first ever “think about…” article on this site, I already mentioned that I admire Casting Crowns for their ability to catch me off guard with truth about our christian lives. Of course there’s more than one song in which they do just that, so today let’s have a look at “Stained Glass Masquerade”, another one of these songs that take a good look at the state that many of our churches and people in them are in.
Written from the perspective of someone who notices his weaknesses and failings, it asks the question if there really is nobody else who experiences the same things. “Cause when I take a look around, everybody seems so strong. I know they’ll soon discover that I don’t belong.” Do you know that feeling? Looking at everybody else and they seem not to have all the same problems that you are struggling with every day? I sometimes get that - not in my church in general, but when I’m with certain people. And I also notice that I react the exact same way the “narrator” in the song does: “So with a painted grin, I play the part again, so everyone will see me the way that I see them”. I hide behind a mask, behind a fake smile and the pretension that I’m doing just as fine as they are. The problem is, once we all start to do that, there’s not much left of what being a Christian is all about. If everything’s fine, do we still need Jesus? If we lie to each other about being fine, is it because we’re afraid that nobody cares if it’s not? Or that we are a failure who really doesn’t belong in the church, maybe because we’re not spiritual enough and something must be wrong with us?
That’s probably the toughest question in the song: “Would your arms be open or would you walk away? Would the love of Jesus be enough to make you stay?”. So, would it? It’s a question that we really need to ask ourselves every day. Is it possible in our churches to be open about having problems? Do we extend a helping hand to those around us who are struggling? Are we prepared to show the love of Jesus to those who are having difficulty living according to His will? Or is all that we are prepared to do to come down on them with laws and criticism and to make them feel even worse about themselves? Let us be prepared to have open arms and to share the love. Let us be prepared to leave our masks behind and be the people we really are. It may be a shock at first… but God’s love is greater than any faults that we may have to admit to.
Song: Stained Glass Masquerade
Artist: Casting Crowns
Album: Lifesong
Author: Mark Hall, Nichole Nordeman
Technorati : Casting Crowns, Christianity, Jesus, ccm, christian music, church, grace, masks
This site has been up and running for a little over two months now and I just thought it’s time for a little status update. First of all, thanks to all of you who keep coming to this site and making it a success. The number of pageviews has grown almost exponentially and there is now also a significant and growing number of feed and email subscribers. If at first I wasn’t sure if a site like this would really find an audience, I am now.
Last month, thanks to a gift certificate from my domain registrar, we were able to run a little 10 day Google Adwords campaign to drive more traffic to the site. Many of these visitors seem to be returning on a regular basis now because the pageviews haven’t dropped as much as I would have expected after the end of the campaign. These campaigns are expensive, so unless I get another gift certificate, there won’t be another adwords campaign anytime soon (of course if you want to make a contribution toward this, feel free to use the Paypal link in the sidebar) - this site isn’t making any money except for the little bit that comes in through advertising and isn’t even enough to pay for hosting and domain registration yet (which isn’t a big deal because making money is not what this site is about).
There are two things we need at the moment: links from other websites, so we can improve the page rank of this relatively new site and drive more traffic to it - and comments. If you can provide either of the two, feel free to do so. I would love to see some discussions and feedback on the articles, they will make the site feel more “alive”. And maybe if I see you have something to say, you might be invited as a guest author in the future. If you want to link to the site and use a logo with it, I suggest you use this logo - it’s ok if you use it from your site, no need to copy it to your own server. If we ever change it, we’ll make sure that the URL remains the same.
Again, thanks for visiting - seeing the number of readers and subscribers grow is one of the things that motivate me to sit down and write new articles even when times are busy (like they are going to be in the next few weeks, when I’ll be away a lot). Without you, this site would be like a radio station that nobody listens to…
Technorati : adwords, ccm, lyrics, news, subscribers, website
