Yeah Jordin Sparks!!!

Saw this article on Fox News last night:

LOS ANGELES —  Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Award host Russell Brand took several digs at young stars wearing “purity rings” to pledge their virginity until marriage — and “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks wasn’t having any of it.

Brand’s running theme for the evening centered on the Jonas Brothers and their rings — until Sparks stepped on stage to have her say about his constant remarks.

“Not everyone wants to be a slut,” Sparks spat back, the auditorium filling with applause. Sparks, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez are also among the young stars who have vowed to remain chaste.

Sparks told Pop Tarts later at the In Touch magazine after-party that she was more than happy to put Brand — known as Britain’s ultimate playboy — in his place.

“Somebody had to do it,” she said.

Word is, Russell Brand, not only was highly sexual in his jokes and conversations at the VMA’s, but he decided to give his opinion on our political situation here in America as well. It is obvious that as he decided to attack the Jonas Brothers and Sarah Palin’s soon to be son-in-law, the crows quickly lost interest. Russell had huge applause when he gave his endorsement of Obama courtesy of the UK, but became very unpopular, almost to dead silence with his vial attacks. Check the video out below for yourself.

UPDATE: I could not embed the video, so CLICK HERE to see it!

UPDATE #2: Here is the video response for Jordin Sparks (CLICK HERE)…they cut it short & cut the applause out. Thanks Chuck for requesting the video…I apologize for my lazy blogging 🙂

While your at it, Join the Conversation, Did you watch the VMA’s? If not, watch the video, and then tell me what you think. I think its exciting to see some mainstream, popular artist stand up for purity!

Vetted

You probably only hear the word, vetted, every 4 years. Wikipedia’s definition is this: Broadly, vetting is a process of examination and evaluation. Specifically, vetting often refers to performing a background check on someone before offering them employment. In addition, in intelligence gathering, assets are vetted to determine their usefulness.

On Saturday, as soon as Barak Obama chose his running mate, Joe Biden for the coming election, the pundits immediately started sharing their opinion’s about his choice. Some were praising the choice, while others started questioning whether or not Barak properly vetted Joe Bidden. Why all of the questions? Well, Joe Bidden has a history of saying things that are not so popular or proper. He made what could be considered as racist remarks about Obama, saying he was the first ‘clean’ ‘articulate’ African American in contention for the democratic parties nomination, he said that ‘you have to have a little Indian accent to go into a Seven-Eleven convenient store…I’m not kidding,’ as well, he point blankly said that his now running mate was lacking the experience needed to be President and that the office of President was not the place for ‘on the job training.’ Biden later blasted Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience and comments he made concerning Pakistan and Iran. The fear for democrats who support the election of Barak Obama is that something will come out about Biden or that he will say something that could potentially ruin Barak’s chances of being elected.

What if, John Edwards was the chosen running mate for Barak Obama, and Obama chose to select Edwards as his running mate 1 month ago? The experts this weekend were saying that some candidates are not vetted as much as others because they have already been vetted as Presidential candidates, therefore they feel that Biden may have had less vetting than someone who did not run for President this year, but what if the same process had been taken with Edwards? The recent news about Edwards’ affair would have sunk Obama’s ship, as would any issues with Biden if they were to come about.

As I was running the other night, I could not help but to think, have I been vetted? Have I vetted myself? Is there anything in my life that if it were discovered would potentially embarrass my God, my family, my church, or my employer? You are probably familiar with the situation with Michael Guglielmucci, who was made famous quickly with his song Healer and the story that went a long with it. However as Michael quickly stepped into the spotlight he started getting vetted, and it was found that Michael had something in his life that did not match up with the character of the Lord he sang about. Brad had a great post HERE concerning the story, and this post is not to cast criticism on Michael because we all have sin in our lives and we have all failed, though our failures at times fall on different levels. This post is to point out that when we don’t vet ourselves and allow Christ to vet us by examining our inner most secret areas, someone will, and in the end Christ will take a hit, our families will take a hit, our churches will take a hit, our friends will take a hit, Christianity will take a hit, and we will lose all credibility and trust we have ever gained.

Join the Conversation: Have you vetted yourself lately? Most importantly, have you allowed Christ to vet you lately?

Perseverance, Character, and Hope

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:1-5 (NIV)

I was reading in Romans 5 this morning, and this portion of Chapter 3 stood out to me…”we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” – Over the last three to four years it seems that I have faced more individual sufferings, trials, and tests than I ever have in my life. The question that popped into my head as I read this was, “Have those issues I have dealt with produced perserverance, character, and hope?” – “Four years and now on the other side of some of these things, have I increased in these areas?”

In my eyes I may say no! Because I live with my imperfections everyday, but my hope is that in the eyes of Christ I have and in the eyes of others, they will see that the Lord has grown me, stretched me, and matured me in perserverance, character, and hope!

Join the Conversation: Are you seeing perserverance, character, and hope being formed in your life? Care to share how God is doing that?

Student Leadership Video

I ran across this video on Josh Griffin’s Blog. Our student ministry at Greenbrier is having a lead team weekend for student leaders, adult volunteers, and members of our parent team, so in keeping with our student ministries theme this weekend, I thought it would be appropriate for a blog post here on Nickcarnes.com! By the way, this is a small look at some of the great training videos that we get (along with free resources from Simply Youth Ministry) at our PDYM Community Lunches, so I encourage you to join the network on our next announced lunch. I believe some of the leadership principles can be used with adults too:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiIgO6ZApeo]

As I watch this video, I cannot help but to think about:
Kenny – Who does a great job shooting videos for the student ministry. His work gets better every week!
Ivy – Who led our students (a group of her peers) in worship for the first time Wednesday night (Join her Facebook Fan Club HERE)
And all of the students who serve in Brierpatch, 3-D Kids, as well, those who sacrificed time and energy with our “hands and feet projects” this summer, or whenever a need arises.

Join the Conversation: What student or adult is a shining example of being an effective leader to you?