"Memento Mori" Album Review

Track Listing:

01. Beautiful Bride
02. Again
03. Chasm
04. Missing
05. This Close
06. The Kind
07. In The Dark
08. Set Apart This Dream
09. Swept Away
10. Tiny Heart
11. Melting (interlude)
12. Treasure
13. Circle
14. Arise

As a follow-up to Flyleaf's Platinum-selling self-titled album, they release "Memento Mori" on Tuesday, November 10. It has been three long years since we've seen any new material from the quintet, but is it worth the wait?

This is one of those album that grows on you the more and more you listen to it. As the album starts off, the first three tracks bring them back to the hard rock beginnings that vaulted the band into the limelight. "Beautiful Bride" is a very addictive song that you will be rocking out for weeks to come. "Again" mixes the beautiful voice of Lacey Mosley with some synthesized guitar riffs and simple drum patterns in a formula that just clicks. "Chasm" is much like "Again", except the main guitar riff is so catchy, you'll be tapping your foot and nodding your head along even without realizing it.

After this, though, the album starts to slowly decline. Some of the songs start off strong and then grind the fast-paced action to a grinding hault. "Missing" has amazing potential, but something about it feels like they could have applied a little more into it. "Treasure", however, is one of the more spiritual tracks on the album, and it shows whether you agree with Lacey's spoken intro or not.

This is a much more religious-based album than their first. Although, the first was good, this expands on that formula ten-fold. For example, "In The Dark" paints a picture of the fears experienced by new found Christians, and the trails and tribulations faced. "Again" is about one's struggle to stay focused on GOD during hard times.

Overall, this album should be listened to over and over before buying. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great effort on their part, but after three years, some people expect more.


Pros:

• Very Religious Lyrics
  
• Lacey's Voice
• The first 3 tracks

Cons:

• Repitition
• Feels like we did this already 3 years ago

Overall: 3/5

Recommended Downloads:

1. Beautiful Bride
2. Again
3. Chasm
4. This Close
5. Treasure
   

What Does The Church and AIG Have In Common?

The church is in trouble!

Quite a blunt statement to start off a blog with, but it's the truth. People can throw numbers out there left and right about this many people getting saved and that many people going to Jesus. However, the more and more I hear about this, the more I see society fall to the wayside. I heard a statistic that every day 76,000 people are lead to the Lord. What I find most curious, if that is a victory, then where is the evidence of it?

The fact is that people and churches are replacing what people want to hear about the world instead of preaching what is Biblical, God-given truth. It shocks me today to see christians support gay marriage, even though the Bible is very clear about it being a sin (I Corinthians 6:9-10). The problem is that we are so wrapped up inside the world and what the world says, we get confused with what is and isn't Biblical reality.

If the Bible claims the world as darkness, and darkness is the absence of light, and light is described as GOD, then why do we turn to others for our opinion on the world instead of turning to what GOD says?

The problem is that churches and people care more about entertainment of a church than they do about the actual message itself. Any sports team will tell you that games are much better than practice, but without practice, the games become hogwash. I know some christians who won't even attend another church because they don't have a band or a dynamic pastor. Doesn't the main support of being a christian come from being able to stand up on your own two feet for GOD? Your preacher isn't going to be able to stand beside you on judgement day and tell GOD all the nice things you've done in life; you're the one who has to face it yourself.

This blog was WAY more blunt than most of my previous blogs, but sometimes, the fuse is a little shorter than on other bombs.

Just Because You Won't Die From Burning Your Hand Doesn't Mean You Should Try It

What happened to W.W.J.D? Everyone wore those little bracelets in the 90's. But no one really ever though about it? They just thought it was the mark of another christian, similar to the icthus that people see on the back of others' cars. The even cooler thing about them was that everyone, regardless of who you were, knew what it meant, and still knows what it means.

But again, I ask, what happened to it? Those 4 simple words were part of everyone's thinking. They had so much strength with that little bracelet on their arm. They knew that they could overcome temptation with GOD in their heart. However, how many of those do you see these days? Honestly, I know of only one person who still carries it around with them.

The sad thing is, because they were everywhere, the mindset of 'What Would Jesus Do?' was completely overshattered and turned into a cheesy Christian cliché. Instead, it has been replaced with the mindset of 'do what you want as long as it doesn't break what GOD says'. Not a very good philosophy at all.

For example, take a look at relationships. Christian couples look at the physical aspect of it and think, "Well as long as we don't actually have sex, we can touch and feel all over each other". We get as close that line as possible, thinking that we aren't doing anything wrong. However, by getting close to that line, you are only delaying the inevitable; you will cross it. What about purity? What about saving yourself for your future husband/wife? It seems like less and less people are keeping that mindset and are more worried about themselves and what makes them feel better. We are no longer fearing the fire, but making excuses. It's really sad on my heart to look out and see people doing what they know is intentional sin, and twisting it to try and make it justifiable.

We need to stop being so selfish and start thinking about our impression of others. The reason why Jesus and Christianity is made fun of so much lately in the media is because agnostics and atheists see Christians doing everything they do, and think of all this "Jesus stuff" as a joke.

"For 'He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it'"(1 Peter 3:10-11)

The verse talks about letting go of evil, not embracing just a little bit for our own fun and benefit. We need to stop thinking about how other people will see us, or the exceptions to the Bible, and just follow our heart and listen to the Holy Spirit.

The Christian Pyramid

Above is the Food Pyramid. It mentions all the 4 major food groups, but it is also a good way to represent how I think that we need to spend our religious walk.



Grains

The largest part of the pyramid, Grains are the most essential part to every diet. Grains are usually needed to help build carbohydrates, strengthening the digestive track of the body. Basically, without them, we have a hard time using the bathroom (no pun intended).

The "Grain" section of religion is basically what we need to survive. Our main walk with Christ and prayer fall into this category. Prayer is something that I think everyone needs to do more of, especially myself. I, sometimes, feel like we treat prayer as an annoyance or a hindrance. In reality, without prayer, our relationship with our Lord and Savior turns into soggy mush. We need these "carbs" to hold together our bond with Jesus Christ.


Fruits & Vegetables

Without fruits and veggies, we wouldn't have a very strong immune system. If none of us got them, we'd all have to be very careful around each other because we wouldn't be able to fight off any disease. As a little kid, you HATED your vegetables! Your parents always had to sneak them in your food when you weren't looking, or cover them in cheese so that it didn't taste as bad. However, your mom always knew what was best, and they helped you to become big and strong to fight off infections.

I think this category very well represents church and preaching. I'll be honest, I'm human. And like most humans in a small church, I, sometimes, have a very difficult time paying attention. No offense to my preacher at all or the Bible, but there are just some parts of the Bible that are boring to read, boring to listen to, and really difficult to focus on. However, these parts of the Bible that may seem dull and almost ridiculous to talk about help to strengthen our faith. These simple stories help us to deal with life challenges as they come to us. They may be hard to swallow sometimes, and don't taste very good going down, but without them, we would be living in extremely shallow religion.


Dairy

Everyone enjoys a nice glass of milk! Especially with cookies! Personally, I don't even mind a little cheese stick late at night, it fills me up and helps me sleep. Yet, have you ever gone a whole entire day eating JUST dairy products? If you haven't, DON'T DO IT! You will be absolutely sick to your stomach! Despite that, dairy is the number one source for calcium, which helps build strong bones and make us less fragile to injury.

Dairy is symbolic with a relationship with a fellow brother or sister in Christ. They are fun to be around, help you when you're sad, and help you recover from a rough fall to bounce back. Even after you've had those sweets, which we'll get to later, it's always good to have that healthy source of milk to help it go down easy. However, if you build a relationship with just christian people, it won't end up well for several reasons. Remember, Christians are humans too, and as humans, we tend to falter and make mistakes. No one is perfect. As sad as it is, sometimes those people who you put all your trust and faith into can let you down. It is also important to have other friends that aren't christian people, or else witnessing will become a lot harder! I'm sure you can think of other reasons.


Meat

Every single guy reading this blog LOVES meat. Whether it's rib, steak, pork chops, fried chicken, or even ham, guys LOVE meat! Some girls love meat too, almost as much as some guys. Not only does everyone like some sort of meat (even vegetarians, don't lie!), they only like it if it is a certain way. FOR EXAMPLE. I love my BBQ soaked in sauce. The more wet the rib is, the more I'll enjoy it. I can settle for a dry rib, but it's just not the same. I'm satisfied and all, but it's not nearly as good as it could be.

I'll be honest. Right when I started the "meat section", I had no idea what it would represent, but as I got to thinking, it became pretty obvious.

Meat represents Eros love, or love for your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend. More so sex. It seems like guys enjoy women more than women enjoy men; that's just how GOD built us. Even in high school, it is more frowned upon if a girl has sex than it is a guy. Just like in the meat eating department (Sure, why not call it that!). You are more likely to see guys getting a steak than a woman, because it just seems regular. So how does this represent GOD and religion? Well, just like the type of meat we like, cooked or smothered in sauce, we all have a certain way we like it. It's the best way, and it almost seems like that is the way the certain type of meat was meant to be eaten. That's how GOD sees sex. He labels sex as something meant for a man and a woman in the bonds of marriage. It says in 1 Corinthians 7 that sex is meant for marriage. I'll let you read it for yourself since this section is already long enough.


Sweets

Candy. Donuts. Cookies. Sugar. It tastes so good! It's cheaper than a lot of other food. However, eating too much of it can cause dental problems, unhealthy lifestyles, and addiction to a certain type of junk food. It is also the smallest part of the pyramid as most nutritionists say that the less of it you have, the better!

Sweets is a fantastic representation of sin. Sin looks fantastic! It feels fantastic sinning! You can find sin everywhere, and it is always so cheap to pay for. Although, too much sin can lead to a lot of very dangerous things such as physical or sexual abuse, addiction, or even death of yourself or others. Once you get into sin, it's really hard to come out of. Thankfully, we have all the other food groups and separate parts of religion to help us bounce back from those downfalls. However, sometimes, we can get so deep in sin, there is no solution, and the end result is Hell. Not something I wanna dip my finger into.


Conclusion

In conclusion, religion is a very complex thing. Sometimes, it takes a lot of work to have a strong, healthy walk with Christ, but in the end, it's all worth it. We feel better about our lives, we're happier, and others will see how happy we've become. So I encourage you to try and live a healthy religious life!

Never Judge A Book By Its Outer Binding & Copyright Date

This is a heavy metal christian band that has amazing lyrics! The music video also has phenomenal religious symbolism.

"Vices Like Vipers" - Oh, Sleeper

Noteable lyrics:

• "When I am GOD, this church is unsound!" - 1:41
• "Why do we keep what holds us? Why do I keep what holds me down!?" - 3:13

New Banner!

Designed by my cousin, Amanda Clay, in like 10 minutes! It's so cool!!! Check out her photography work at http://illuminationsphoto.wordpress.com

Everyone! Quick! Come See How Much I Can Love Jesus!!!

I was reading a few weeks ago on other peoples' blogs, and I stumbled across Tim Lambesis' blog (located on my Blog Roll to the left). He was mentioning the term "christ-followers". I wanted to elaborate more on this blog and give my opinion on it. Tim, I know you have visited my blog before, kudos on the awesome topic!

There is a rising trend in the church today. People aren't calling themselves christians anymore, but instead calling themselves "christ followers". This is a phrase used by people who 'do not like following a set of rules when being a christian'. Now, this is just one opinion I've heard on it, and if your definition is different, tell me.

It's also been said because people don't want to be considered a fundamentalist christian. Now I don't know about anyone else, but this so-called "fundamentalist christian" is someone who I envy. These "fundamentalist christians" live there lives fully following the Bible's rules and guidelines, abiding by every single thing it says. I only wish I had that much commitment to the Bible and was so secure in my walk with Christ that I could do that. These people have no fears because they completely trust GOD with every moral fiber in their body.

When I hear people say that, and then they call themselves "christ followers", the thing I hear is people more or less saying "I don't like everything in the Bible, so as long as I love Jesus, I'll go to heaven." Well, if that was the only thing we needed to get into heaven, then we might as well burn all the Bibles. Seriously, according to that logic, the Bible is just an expensive piece of toilet paper. We don't need what's inside, we have a relationship with Jesus, that's all that really matters, right?

Revelation 22: 18 & 19 - "18I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."

We have to stop contortioning and twisting the Bible to make it fit in our own lives. GOD didn't write the Bible just because he wanted to entertain. There is a reason for it. There is nothing that annoys me more when people try to turn our sacred, loving, holy, heavenly father, into a cool guy who just wants to love you, cuddle you, and ask how your day was! GOD is not this cool guy that is just like us! GOD is an all-powerful, all mighty savior, who can move mountains, change the seas, turn night into day, and everything in between.

This is an opinionated blog; I'm tired of making people happy and trying to walk on egg shells. Jesus didn't walk cautiously, and neither am I.