Freshwater: Be Steadfast, Unmoveable

Freshwater

Located in the wilds of Wyoming, the name Freshwater was chosen as a Western analogy to Christ. Just as He is the Living Water, and we must have Him to have eternal life, any desert dweller knows the importance of fresh water to life, both for self, and the nourishment of crops or livestock. By taking nourishment in God and His word, we strengthen our own relationship with Him, our faith, and the quality and abundance of our fruitfulness.

Our keystone verse is from Jeremiah, Chapter 17, Verse 8: "For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see whenSave heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

The fruit that we speak of is mentioned in Galatians 5:22
"²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, ²³Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."

And the heat could be anything we experience that might test our faith in God; trials and tribulations, relationships, anything that focuses our love and attention anywhere but on Him...

Monday, July 23, 2012

Be Steadfast, Unmoveable

I'm moping. I'll admit it. And yes, I know I need to quit. Get up, get over it, and figure out a new way. That blog link I shared yesterday hit me pretty hard.

(Here's a link to catch you up if you didn't catch yesterday's blog and have no idea what I'm talking about: http://www.roniloren.com/blog/2012/7/20/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-for-using-pics-on-your-blog.html#disqus_thread ).

It makes absolute sense that sharing copyrighted photos or work is wrong. It is stealing, and I can't believe that I never even thought about it. I actually don't post photos I found somewhere else on my blog, as far as I know I've only ever posted my own photos, but I use YouTube extensively, in fact, it's rather become my trademark. Most of the channels I subscribe to are artists who post their work to share. Things like New Song Cafe are "shows" that offer them the opportunity to explain the meaning behind the song, and give a tutorial on how to play and sing the song at their own worship services or at home. But, as one of my friends pointed out, there is no way of knowing for sure. So at this point, I'm in a quandry. Part of me still wants to try to look for videos that are okay to share, and/or just post links to the original instead of posting it on my own blog, but at this point, knowing that I might be in the wrong, knowing that it would not be a good witness, I am going to look for another way, and most of all, I am going to pray about it.

I know, recording my own YouTube videos for every song I want to use is an option...I think. But then are you "stealing" the song? Just because it's out there all over the place doesn't make it right. So I only post videos of songs that I wrote...which is possible, but we don't have a huge collection right now. I don't know. Lots of questions, few answers, lots of information to be sifted through and dissected.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:57-58