What is a 30-Day Secular Media Fast?

What if the noise of godless media is drowning out the voice of God? Not all media is bad... but maybe the distraction away from God is making harder to hear and see God at work.

This is a journey of a group of high school students who have committed to take 30 days to focus on God through God-centered media. This includes TV, movies, books, magazines, smart phone apps, and many social media outlets.

Here, you can follow their stories, their lives, and their challenges. Feel free to leave comments and encouragement.

Read
Relate
Respond

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Getting caught and running

Yeah getting caught while tping I will admit is sorta fun especially if its your youth pastor.... then going back and chilling with tp still in his tree and talknig to him. I mean come on its the cool thing to do these days. But yeah i have gotten caught a lot lately listening to non christian music especially... I was getting ready too buy tickets to see my favorite band mewithoutyou and they were playing with another band who isnt christian and I started to listen to them and i was like man this is good music and then i was all like.... DANG and it was so hard to exit out! I wanted to keep listening so badly! So finally i just left my computer and I couldn't believe how much I am taken by with music. If i hear something that I know how has true talent I get drawn so far in its hard to leave. I want to finish the song even the playlist or cd because I want to know what this artist is capable of. But why can't i apply that to my own life? that I get so drawn in of the artist that created everything around me? Or even getting drawn in by reading my bible? What is it about music that draws people in? ITS CRAZY! Also I was spending time with some close friends and they were playing video games of course and eating pizza and having a grand ole' time and of course without thinknig and being drawn in yet again I was caught. Its so crazy how much this "media" surrounds us. In one of the songs by mewithoutYou he says ""the material world seems to me like a newspaper headline-it explicitly demands your attention and it may even contain some truth and what's really going on here?"" and its so true! Because yes there is truth surrounding us but what type of truth? Whats really going on?

Caught

So have you got caught yet? Caught doing something you shouldn't have? Like TPing? Or sneaking a peak at the TV?

Keep each other accountable this week... check in on each other... and hey, if TP-ing is in your "good ideas on a Friday night" file... pick someone who won't catch you... then clean it up the next day! They'll know you love them!

Thanks guys! You made my night!

Friday, April 17, 2009

WOAH !

well we are two( almost three) days past half way =D. GOOD JOB EVERYONE !


im still reading same book and im alomst done but I'v found myself to be drawn in to the words in the book and the bible given having versus in the book helps with looking things up for myself.

anyway to the that has grabbed by the collar and stared me in the eyes .

Christians are so often seen as people that have it all together and have it all figured out.

How much better could we connect to the people around us if we were open and they knew how much of a wreck we really are ?

No one is perfect in fact far from it except Jesus . Sharing in the struggle and hardships not only in the church but also outside of the walls it hasn't been until now that I Finally really understand the whole purpose of " The FIX !"(the ministry that by helping in it got me more connected into arcade) and i love it i finally get the point its not to simply try and get people to the church. Its to show love to people that don't come to the church and get them looking over the fence at the love that is possible within the church and to keep showing them "until it hurts ." and if they come to know christ or not they experience that love and grace that we all have.


another funny thing is im writing a bunch of stuff like poems and raps that have to media fast influence .

Have to... Want to... Need to...

I was talking to a student tonight about a really tough issue. Life tends to get tough, doesn't it. So the struggle they were having was one of those ones you can't fix. Then God used my lips and twisted brain to say something that may help all of you who are really struggling. Ready?

SOMETIMES WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO, YOU DON'T WANT TO DO, BUT YOU NEED TO DO.

I know, you don't have to be doing this fast... and I'm not talking about the money. But many of you know that you really should keep your commitment... you know it's good to do it. But you don't want to.

Take for instance obeying your parents... the Bible says you have to do it. But you don't want to. But in order to get more responsibility and gain trust from them... and to have ultimate freedom, you need to obey them.

So as you round the final corner next week... don't slack off... think of it this way: You have to finish (you made a commitment), and you may not want to (giving in to feelings is for sissy's), but you need to finish strong.

I'm praying for you... all of you! And I'm proud of you all stepping up this month!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

House... the Movie

Guys I got HOUSE!!It is my new favorite movie lol.Its so exciting.You guys got to watch it!LolAn how awesome is this im sending all this to you my cell phone!!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

This Is HARD!!!!!

OK! I am struggling with this. It's easty when i'm constantly with my friend Amanda cause she likes to listen to switchfoot, flyleaf, and hawk nelson, but wehn i'm with my brother he just says" who cares, no one wiill know" but the thing is I DO!!! lol I just think this is so hard. Everyone around me is watching the MEDIA!!! and I am struggling like a fish in a net. I find it even hard sometimes to tell people that i'm on the Media fast. pray.......please.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

New Music!

If you like dance music like Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, or Blackeyed Peas... You gotta listen to the new Group 1 Crew CD... it's actually not too bad!

New Cell Phone Blogging Feature

Just set up the blogging feature on my cell phone! Pretty cool. You can too! Just log on like you are going to post but before you click the Our Thirty new post tab, click on the cell phone symbol. It's easy. It works through your text messaging so unless you have unlimited, you may want to stick to the old fashioned way of logging onto the internet.

life is like a mud pie

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! i totally want to watch T.V. but i cant. i also have been kind of struggling with listening to music cause i like to listen to the radio but for some reason there is a lot of static so i have to listen to my cd's and that is kind of hard cause i like to listen to my disney remix cd. well enough about me i hope all of you are jus tsuper. my friend shelly says hi to all of you

akdjfhiouqwefnijadfhv

So this year's media fast music wise hasn't been all that difficult for me. Part of it is a huge thanks to friends and part is just getting really lucky at Berean. If you guys like Hip-hop/RnB, listen to the group The Washington Projects, they are really good. Another good one is the newest Mary Mary CD The Sound and The Grits newer CD Reiterate. I have a pretty awesome mix of music this year which is awesome. The two things I am struggling with the most are TV and playing games like solitare online. I have quite a bit of time on my hands after school because I get out at noon and have really nothing to do until swim practice at 6:30. That's another bummer for me. I have to stop going to the two amazing bible studies I was going to Monday and Tuesday nights because of swim. It makes it a little harder to not have the fellowship of fellow media fasters or past media fasters. I really want to watch TV and I am struggling so much with not watching it. I have been trying to redirect my time to things much better for me such as reading my Bible, hecka Christian books, actually doing my homework (Oh silly senioritis), and trying to keep my house clean. I think this is really hard too because I have so much extra time to think about things like leaving for college and while it is so exciting, there are so many logistical things that need to be taken care of. Not to mention how much I will miss my friends being so far away. It has been good though because I have realized that I am not supposed to be a doctor, so that will save me a lot of science and math classes (Woot woot!). I am really enjoying the reconnecting with some of my best friends and healing broken relationships. I love challenges, woooo! (

argh.

I've discovered the hardest part of the media fast so far. BEING SICK!!! what do you do when your home sick? Well, I watch Lord of the Rings (sick tradition), I spend hours on the computer playing games, I turn up KWOD really really loud. It was so hard not to just say screw it for a day. I think I listened to You Found Me about a million times. I even did homework, wow right? I just finished Facing the Giants. I think I might go watch the first Narnia movie. But still, this has not been an easy day. But Iv'e looked up a few Psalms. I liked Psalm 38 a lot. It is a good one. Try reading it sometime.

Monday, April 13, 2009

I Just Don't Get It...

God made us to love the simple stuff, like a flower or a sunset. But this simple stuff somehow turned into complicated stuff such as movies or videogames. And i don't know about you but i don't think God wanted us to sit around our whole life and look at a screen, i think that he made this world so beautiful so we can enjoy and explore it! God is soo awesome and amazing that he made jungles, oceans, and deserts so we won't get bored.....He gave us the power to run, jump and laugh so we can have fun! So tell me, why did the world get soo amused with technology when all we do is just sit there and watch someone else live an adventure, when we could go out there and live our own adventure??? i was just watching the sunset and i was thinking about all this, and to tell you the truth it made me kind of upset on how the people of the world would rather spend most of their time on man-made things(that we see everyday), then rather on the things that God made for us to enjoy. And i'm not going to lie i always watch tv, use the computer, and play videogames....this just made me sadder because i was one of those people that spent more time on technology then on Christ! But since we have started this fast i have noticed that if you actually look out on nature you will find things that you have never really noticed before....like the super small details on a flower or how fast the sun sets. Well this is all i wanted to say...

News

I just got an email from Air1. It's a national Christian radio station that you can find here in Sacramento at 93.3. They have heard about the fast you guys are doing and are praying for each of you. Tune in and they may give you all a "shout-out" as an encouragement! How cool is that!

Home

So I'm finally home from Costa Rica!! I am not quite sure how hard media fast will be for me at home but it was super hard on the plane and on the bus. I loved Costa Rica and sometime soon all of my pictures will be up on facebook. That is where all of our pictures must be put so our trip leader can put them all onto a DVD. So for those of you who are still doing facebook or are just checking up on us, you should look sometime this week!!! Oh God is great and so is the beautiful landscape in Costa Rica. He made some of the most beautiful stuff, it is better than any picture could ever show. Well bed time for me. Talk to y'all later! Pura Vida!!!!!!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

week 2!

So, this week has been much harder for me. It was spring break for most of us and that means a lot of down time in which we can fall into temptations. I did pretty well, but it was hard to find things to do when I was with my friends. One day I was relaxing at the river with a bunch of friends and one guy was about to put on music and asked me what kind of music I like. I used this opportunity to tell him about the media fast and how this month I was avoiding all media that is not focused on God. He decided to put the music away and no one even seemed to care! 
I can't believe we are almost half way through the month though! This year is not nearly as difficult as least year but there have been a few bumps in the road. One thing I really need to work on is just spending more time with God. I have realized that this month I have gotten rid of all 'bad/negative' media and instead filled my time with God centered media. I guess that's improvement but it wouldn't hurt to just set some time aside for me and God.

Easter

two thousand and nineish years ago God came down and lived and died and now we celebrate the resurrection of that man that we call Jesus Christ and now that we can look back and say that was great we can live forever we forget what i must have been like to be a follower of Christ you would in an instant switch from the deepest depression to an emotional high that would last a lifetime why is it that we cannot bring ourselves to love God so much that we could be on that emotional high when we celebrate His life in us