Tune in Sunday, February 21st and 6:15 eastern to http://www.hearitfirst.com/live to watch performances by Newsong, newboys, Third Day, Fireflight, and more!  AND we will be broadcasting live interviews during the set changes!!  (Live interviews are one of my favorite things to do!  Can’t wait!)

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

-Colossians 3:5-11

Last night, my small group discussed Col 3:5 and putting sin to death.  We understand the concept, but a lot of us were looking for practical ways – a step by step process, if you will.  We know it’s not cut and dry and that it’s a daily (or even hourly) process…. but I think we’re looking for practical ways our brains can wrap around the huge concept of putting sin to death.

Over the past few years, I’ve read a lot of Elisabeth Elliot and one thing that always helped me was the idea of submitting sin/desires/temptations as a sacrifice to God rather than praying for them to be taken out of your life.  I’ve known a lot of girls (myself included) who, when deep in infatuation for a guy, prayed “God, if this isn’t what you want for me, take him out of my life.”  Sometimes God *does* answer a prayer in that way – I have a friend who prayed that prayer and the guy mysteriously left town to take care of some family issues!  That was a very obvious answered prayer… but more often than not, the object of our affection is not gonna “Houdini” away.  So, instead of praying for God to remove a situation, I have tried to submit it as a sacrifice in an act of obedience.  It helped me keep in perspective that ALL things are God’s and that this situation really does belong to him, no matter how tight my grip on it is and how hard I work to control it.   Submitting it, for me, was a way of putting it to death.

Another friend talked about having a funeral for her sins and insecurities and the lies she was beginning to believe.  I’m not sure if that representation would work for me…. but I’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can follow Colossians 3:5 and put sin to death!

Yesterday, I received 2 “become a fan” requests from pastors on facebook.  I totally understand pastors being on facebook and using facebook as an outreach – but doesn’t it make more sense to create a regular profile so people can “friend” the pastor, rather than become a fan?   Should a pastor be famous?  Should he seek “fans”?

I’m trying to figure out exactly how I feel about it – but as an utterly flawed human, my feelings on it lean toward the negative.  I wanted to turn to people who may have a better perspective on it – different insight, scriptural references, etc.

I asked Meredith Andrews what she thought about this and she had some great perspective.  She said that she’s not a fan of her pastor as a celebrity but as a person.  She loves his role in her life and what a great person he is.  She said that instead of putting someone like a pastor on a pedestal, we should lift them up in prayer.  She had a lot more to say – I’ll post it as a video in the next few weeks – but in the meantime, what are your thoughts?  Has our crazy culture reached a point where even pastors are sensationalized into celebrities?    Are you a fan of a pastor on facebook?   One of my friends said it’s no different than being a fan of a music group… do you agree/disagree?

Does being a fan (of anything or anyone) mean making an idol out of something or someone?  I definitely am a fan of a lot of things… am I putting those things before God?  Those two simple fan requests have really gotten me thinking about idols and how many THINGS I’m a fan of and devote time and energy to.. when maybe that time and energy could be spent toward better things..

Lots to think about in many different directions…  I’d love to hear from you all!

This has been a crazy week in our office – we’ve had a lot of interviews – which is always fun, but keeps us on our toes!

Tuesday, Michael and Alisa from Pocket Full Of Rocks came into the office and I met them for the first time.  They are awesome!  Before the cameras rolled, they told us hilarious stories about their family and gushed on how cool their 2 daughters are.   Their oldest daughter, Madison, even co-wrote a song for the new album and sang back-up on it!  Alisa and I bonded over sewing and crafts – it was so fun to talk about creativity outside of music with an artist!

Yesterday was like a mini-media day!  Meredith Andrews stopped by to talk about her new album (releasing March 2) and shared her heart for Haiti.  She was actually in Haiti just days before the earthquake and works with an orphanage on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  She told us a heartbreaking story of a little boy at the orphanage… you’ll be able to hear her stories on http://www.hearitfirst.com/meredithandrews in a few weeks.

Right after Meredith left, the band Satellites and Sirens arrived.  They. are. crazy!  I love their energy and their humor – they are so fun.  They loaded in a ton of instruments and played 3 songs for us!

Watch a few videos of them playing:

http://www.twitvid.com/70C53

http://www.twitvid.com/FE000

http://www.twitvid.com/C7991

I had to run out for an appointment, so our team set up and interviewed Dave from Sidewalk Prophets while I was gone.

Dave talked about the band’s experience on Winter Jam so far – stay tuned for those videos soon!

Today, we’re interviewing Adam from Stellar Kart.  I told you it was a busy week of interviews, huh??  I’m glad – it’s my favorite part of my job!

Tell me what questions you’d love to ask an artist if you had the chance!  I always need fresh ideas for questions!

-jamie@hearitfirst.com

We want to hear about your favorite summer festival memories!  Did anything crazy ever happen to you at a festival?  Does somehing memorable stand out for you?  Tell us in the comments!

The back lounge is so great – we are all gathered back here and hanging out.. I’m going to start filming soon and capture all this so you guys can see!

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving!  We are kicking into full Christmas gear around here — I am so excited to bring you a lot of great Christmas videos with your favorite artists!  I’ve literally been asking artists about Christmas since April, so you can imagine that we have a LOT of footage!!

Check out the new videos as well as some from last year on http://www.hearitfirst.com/Christmas.

Ahhh, I just heard the first lines of “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…” coming from my iPod… So classic.  Better get back to work instead of daydreaming about Christmas.