I AM The Movie: Another failed attempt to be relevant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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?

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

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:

Loading...

 

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

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

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!