Harris Twins' Live Steaming

The twins announced their live streaming yesterday over at The Rebelution. 3:30 EST. I converted it to GMT +8 twice, set my alarm clock and waited for it... I would never wholly trust time converters again! I missed the Harris twins' live streaming by 25 minutes! But time converters immediately made it up with me when I was given a great time chatting with rebelutionaries across the ocean. 15-20 rebelutionaries all on at the same time? It was tons of fun and excitement. More of that in a while.

Alex & Brett talked about the concept of their upcoming book and released its title. No spoilers... you can watch the video and learn what the title is. If you think that Do Hard Things has left you wandering where to start in doing hard things, then you'll surely look forward to this new book.

For more excitement. Alex said that they might do live streaming again if we liked it. If Alex could hear, "We liked it very MUCH!!!!" Quite apparent because there are still people on chat at this very moment.

*********************************************

How To Watch the Video:
At the bottom of the airing video
click on "On-Demand"
then click the twins' video on the
topmost of the selection.

Ignore this if the video embedded above works well.

*********************************************

Hatred On the Prosperity Gospel

John Piper nails so many truths in this short video. Be gripped and live not the prosperity gospel.

A Tale So Lame

We decided to poke into some fun and the result is a video that ended having such a lame story. It was made roughly and at the spur of the moment so no guarantees of any amusement at all.

Meeting Sir Paul

Yesterday, Christin and I went to OMFLit. We had the wonderful privilege of meeting Sir Paul Aragones, the CEO, a very kind man who is enthusiastic about the message of Do Hard Things. We thanked him for having the book published in the Philippines and assured him that we would continue to promote and spread the word about Do Hard Things, as well as other books.



Truly, Do Hard Things is spreading across the Philippines, not just among teenagers, but among parents as well. As each day passes, our excitement grows, as more and more people step up to take the challenge of doing Hard Things.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Spreading Do Hard Things

A few years back, The Rebelution was only a simple blog with great posts. It blew our minds that there's actually much more to teen years than school and fun. That there's much more that God can actually do through us if we would just choose to throw the shackles of low expectations and step up to the challenge that God has for us.

Alyssa and I were so excited. We wanted to share the potential of teen years to every Filipino youth. We recommended the site to everyone we know but the response wasn't exciting as we expected it to be. Just how do you recommend a site to people who are not keen in reading blogs? (Blogs weren't that very popular here)

Fast forward three years later... The Rebelution has become a great website with great posts, forums, and conferences. And the blog posts were condensed into a book: Do Hard Things. With a book as a medium, more people caught the fire in maximizing their teen years for God. But just how do you recommend a book that isn't even available in your country? God answered by bringing the book here through OMF Literature.

I'm so excited that we're not the only ones now who recommend the book but there are rebelutionaries springing up from everywhere across the archipelago. We're glad that the book is here but there's still a lot of work to do in igniting fire and it does not end in reading the book.

Do Hard Things is still new and you might be the only one in your group who has read Do Hard Things. I'm sure you're excited as we are with what the book has to offer to teens but not everyone loves nor likes to read. While it is prevalent among Filipino teens to easily get bored with books there is a way you can share the book's message to them.

Not many people may care when you say, "Do Hard Things!" or tell them about the book, but there are many teens and adults alike in your church, school or work, who are chained by the society's low expectations. And their hearts are silently crying out for bigger things that God has for them. You must find these people.

These people may not be easy to find at first. But until you reveal yourself will they only probably reveal themselves. Your first "hard things" might be alone but if you live as if God is the prime source of your life and faithfully exert yourself in doing hard things you'll attract these people. They're just around and are probably looking for a fellow youth and a comrade like you who can be with them in stepping out of their comfort zone and forward to battle.

I pray you'll find these people and together with them,

DO HARD THINGS FOR HIS GLORY!

Are You A Princess?

Are you a princess? I would request you to answer that truthfully before reading the rest of this post? Well, are you?

Princess culture has been so prevalent in the past few years. At first, it was just Barbie and Disney dolls and in came Bratz Dolls and all sorts of "princessy" items in the market. Megan Bashan of the Wall Street Journal wrote an interesting article on how this princess industry is turning little girls into future narcisstic women.

Bringing Up Princess: Turning Girls Into Narcissists
http://online.wsj.com - Megan Bashan - 12-June-09

The princess industry has been booming in the past few years -- not just the Disney dolls and scratchy toy-store ball gowns that are a rite of passage in most American girlhoods, but a brazen new breed of princess products that target a far wider age range and tap into less seemly attitudes. The hot-pink, leopard-print princess backpacks, T-shirts, purses and bedspreads that girls are now buying (or, rather, their parents are buying for them) have little to do with indulging sweet princess fantasies and everything to do with catering to over-indulged princess egos.

Take the popular tween retailer Justice. At malls nationwide, it carries multiple "Princess" tops and accessories that look a lot more like Paris Hilton's attire than Snow White's. No surprise that part of its marketing slogan is "Love yourself."

How many times have I seen girls wearing shirts with similar prints and didn't even realize that narcissism was creeping into the culture like a pussing kitten? I thought it was all cute and safe but reading Bashan's article revealed that there is an underlying power in this princessy culture that we all seem to adore. Bashan noted a sad fact that even we Christians have already caved into the princessy narcissism.

Sadly, even believing Christians are participating in the princess push. Christian retail outlets like A Different Direction carry "God's Girlz," glamour dolls dressed in princess shirts and spandex with sparkling tiaras on their heads. St. Paul may have exhorted women to be modest in their dress, but many church-going girls proudly wear Christian-marketed clothing imprinted with messages like "Yes, I am a Princess." The small print underneath -- "I'm a daughter of the King" -- is supposed to differentiate the sentiment from secular princess gear (never mind that the King's firstborn declared himself not a prince but a servant of all.)

Read the rest of the article>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'm 100% sure that you answered, "Yes, I am a princess. I'm a daughter of the King." If you didn't, I bet your answer is the same but just of another form. Aren't we God's children? He is a King and so, we are His daughters. His princesses.

Most Christian girls have that reasoning and though there is truth in that logic, it poses a great danger to us on becoming narcissists. It may be we use that reasoning to have an alternative of the mainstream princess culture but the question we should answer is, "What kind of princess/daughter are you?"

While you may call yourself a princess, God doesn't want you to become a royalty. He, the King of all Kings and Lord of Lords, a royalty in every right, did not come down to earth to declare himself a royalty but to become a servant to all.

Philippians 2:5-8 tells how, as we daughters of the King (i.e."princesses") should conduct ourselves. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness."

What is our attitude towards the prevailing princess culture? Do we consider ourselves none the better than others (Phil. 2:3) or puff up and declare royalty to our unbelieving counterparts with the hey-I'm-a-princess-too-daughter-of-the-Creator-King-of-all-Kings attitude?

What is it like to be a servant then? Phil 2:8 completes the answer of what it is like being a servant.

"And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on the cross!"

As a servant He did more than healing the sick, raising the dead, turning blood into water, and feeding thousands. He served as an atonement for our sin.

Now, what are you? A serve-me-love-me princess? Or a Christ-like love-others-serve-others daughter?