Christian Guitar Resources Newsletter July 4th, 2001 www.christianguitar.ws ------------------- CONTENTS ------------------- 1. CCM NEWS SECTION 2. ARTIST INTERVIEWS 3. UPCOMING RELEASES 4. SERVER UPGRADE 5. BANNER ADS 6. MONTHLY DEVOTIONAL ------------------------------------------------ 1. CCM NEWS SECTION One of our newest sections on the site will provide you with all of the latest CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) News. It will tell you such things as when new albums are coming out, awards that bands have won, special appearances that they'll be making, and other cool stuff like that. Be the first to know - check out the news! http://www.christianguitar.ws/news_all.php ------------------------------------------------ 2. ARTIST INTERVIEWS A few weeks ago I had the honor of interviewing Eli. If you haven't read that interview yet, be sure to check it out. Eli had a lot of great stuff to say, and I've put sound clips up from some of his responses. This week we have an awesome interview coming up as well - Sara Groves. Sara is a fairly new artist on the CCM scene, and she's got some great songs on her first album. Some of you may know her song "The Word". As always with our interviews, I'm taking questions from YOU to ask her. If you have anything that you'd like to ask Sara, e-mail me at "interview@christianguitar.ws" and it'll be considered. The person that submits the best question (as determined by me) will win a free copy of her "Conversations" CD. Good luck! http://www.christianguitar.ws/interviews.htm ------------------------------------------------ 3. UPCOMING RELEASES The upcoming releases section is back! We've teamed up with gospelsite.net to bring you the most up to date list of "coming soon" CDs anywhere. The list is updated virtually every day, so be sure to check it out. http://www.christianguitar.ws/releases.htm ------------------------------------------------ 4. SERVER UPGRADE Due to the vast amount of data on our site, and the explosive growth that we've had recently, we've just upgraded our servers again. So far, we've doubled our RAM, installed a faster processor, and increased our bandwidth allowance. Also, we plan on adding another 256MB of RAM to the system in the next few weeks. In all, this should provide some nice performance gains, and room for even more growth. Of course, this leads us to the next section... ------------------------------------------------ 5. BANNER ADS Our final numbers for last month have come in, and they're alright. However, our click-through rate has dropped for the third month in a row, and that's not a good thing. While we are not paid for click-throughs, they are still something that advertisers look at a LOT. If our rate continues to drop, chances are good that some of the advertisers will leave the site. Understand that I'm not asking you to blindly click on the ads, because that's not fair to the advertisers. However, if you see an ads that interests you (at all), please click on it and check it out. Many sites on the internet are trying to charge for access, or else they're displaying tons of pop-up ads (because pop-ups pay much better than normal ads). I've avoided doing both of those things, and I plan on keeping it that way, because: (1) You helped to create the content, and it wouldn't be fair for me to charge you to access it, and (2) Pop-up ads are annoying! Like I've said on the message boards, we're not in financial trouble or anything. I just want to avoid ever having to go down that road. ------------------------------------------------ 6. MONTHLY DEVOTIONAL Ben Kraker, a sixteen year old in his Junior year of high school, knows that God has called Him to bring revival to his generation. In his devotionals, Ben writes to all Christians but also makes references specifically aimed to today's teens. If you would like to learn more about Ben and his ministry, visit his website at www.BenKraker.com --- "I will praise the Lord at all times; his praise is always on my lips. My whole being praises the Lord. The poor will hear and be glad. Glorify the Lord with me, and let us praise His name together." Psalm 34:1-3 (NCV) These verses are a shocker to me. Here, the psalmist is expressing his deep love for the Lord and talking about how he will always be praising God, even with his entire body. I'll be very honest with you - as much as I desire to praise God at all times and always have His praise on my lips, I fall short time and time again. Situations arise where I just don't quite understand what God is doing, and I fail to praise Him during these hard times. And during these times, on a Sunday or any other day where musical ministry is expected of me, you can find me singing God's praises with the rest of the band. That is where the problem arises. See, if I'm up there singing praises to God and playing my guitar in the praise band, and my heart isn't right and I don't mean what I'm singing, than I shouldn't be up there at all. I shouldn't even be singing if deep down in my heart I don't mean what I am singing. Shout to the Lord is a song you probably know by heart and play your guitar to or sing many times in your praise band. Have you really ever taken the time to pay attention to the words? They're powerful! But if you don't mean them from your heart, why do you sing at all? Lets take a look at just a portion of the song... "All of my days, I want to praise, the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship you!" Do you really mean that? Do you have the desire to every day praise God, or do you wake up in the morning grumbling at all you need to do during that day? Is He the one you take comfort in, or do you look to something else for comfort? Is He your strength, or do you rely on your own resources? Does every breath you take, all that you are, worship God without ceasing? Only you know the answers to those questions. If you don't mean what you're singing, don't sing at all. God would rather you mean these things from your heart, than to see you fake what you are singing. Another popular song... "Love You So Much" "Here these praises from a grateful heart, each time I think of you, the praises start. Love you so much, Jesus, love you so much. Lord I love you, my soul sings, in your presence carried on your wings, love you so much, Jesus, love you so much. How my soul longs for you, longs to worship you forever, in your power and majesty!" Is your heart grateful? Every time you think of God, do you really praise Him, or do you question His ways? Does your soul really long for God, long to worship Him forever and ever amen, or are you worshipping an idol like the computer, a new guitar, or something else? I don't ask these questions to condemn you, but only to reveal to you how astray we have gone from the purpose of praise and worship. We're so concerned with singing a song that we fail to realize that often what we are singing is not true in our lives. That is very true for me, too. Only recently did I really pay attention to what I was singing... and it literally brought me to tears because what I was singing wasn't true in my life. It broke me. It was then that I realized that if I'm not going to be singing or playing from my heart, why should I sing or play at all? God doesn't want to hear a lie. Lies will never give glory to His holy name... however, a heart desiring to praise and worship God will never cease to give glory to Him. I close with the following passage of Scripture. Read it, read it, and read it again. Next time you sing in the praise team or play in the praise band or sing corporately with the church or youth group, read and meditate on this verse before you sing/play. "But you are a chosen people, royal priests, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You were chosen to tell about the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." Hebrews 13:14-15 (NCV) In Christ, Ben Kraker ------------------------------------------------ Have a great month, and feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions or problems with the site. IHL, Mickey mickey@christianguitar.ws http://www.christianguitar.ws/