NosePedal is a company that I started about 8 months ago now. I decided to build the company website because up until recently the sales and company presence have only been on Ebay. It was a trial company for months on Ebay until proven to be a successful selling product. Nose pedals currently consist of expression pedals, volume pedals, and varioius types of looping pedals like True Bypass Loopers. The company is continuing to expand quickly and needed it’s own website to display company information, product information, blog, and ecommerce.

DEVELOPMENT

The first part of development needed most for NosePedal was the store. The store is custom built and uses Paypal’s checkout cart. I will control the web store as the company grows, making it look and function as I need it to. Each store product has a product page that features large pictures, pedal functions, product details, and a video demo. An add to cart button has been added to each product with a view cart button at the top of the website. There is a WordPress blog that has been built into the homepage of the website, but is not yet being used. As I begin to feature new products, new artists, and other tech stuff, I’ll begin using the website blog. For now, featured products has been posted on the home page. I wanted the home page to be big and flashy, so I added a jQuery slideshow plugin that can be controlled by the content management system. The slideshow is currently featuring a NosePedal “photo shoot” and other advertisement pictures. I’ve added a photo gallery so that I can display other guitarist’s and their pedal boards with Nose pedals on them. Also, I’ve pulled in my YouTube video playlist of NosePedal demos so that website users can see all of the pedal videos at once. The artists page will be used to feature artists and their pedalboards that NosePedal endorses.

Vidalia Church of God is a church located in the community of Vidalia, GA. Recently the church has been undergoing changes in ministry, building structure, and outreach. With the rising of the more modern age of church communication, they decided get a website to help.

DEVELOPMENT

With just about any church, the most important part of the church’s website is the blog and the calendar. A church website is supposed to be a community organizer that is easily accessible. So for Vidalia Church of God, the calendar is a Google calendar that has been embedded into a WordPress page of the content management system of the website. The blog is also easily edited by the same content management system. The other important part of a church’s website is to tell the community what the church is about. Most people find churches by word of mouth, or by church shopping, but people still look for churches online and need to see the ministries that are available. Vidalia Church of God’s website has also been developed to show a web searcher the personality of the church. This is done by the photo galleries, videos page, pastor’s blog, ministries page, and faith declarations. Social navigation was added to the footer as well as other important resource links that can be changed at any time.

S&L Integrated Systems is a Sound/Video/Lighting/Telecommunications  installation company based in South Georgia. Although the company excels in live productions for concerts, ballets, and more- they wanted to take on a more corporate look and feel for the majority of their business.

DEVELOPMENT

This website needed development devoted to many very areas of the business. The blog is built on WordPress which will allow the company to expand their information on the web. Having tech and install articles with help with the popularity of the website with search engines. The landing page was the most important area for this company. They wanted a landing page to show the different professional areas of production and installs that they offered. The website is also equipped with an advanced photo gallery and video gallery stream from YouTube. All the content on the website can be edited by the client with a user friendly content management system. This gives the client the ability to make the website grow as the company continues to grow.

Luckily, I saw the tree coming down and ducked low into the seat. If I hadn’t, I would have a mashed-in skull right now. My buddy Philip didn’t see the tree coming down… bless his heart, he got quite a scare. We then pulled off and called the promoter of the show and others to come out and help with the accident. When they all arrived, one guy asked me if I was shaken up and ok… I said, “No dude, I’m Happy!”. And I was, very. Needless to say, I didn’t make it to the post office. My Ebay customers can wait one more day… I’m sure they’ll understand. People passing by quickly got out of their cars and helped clear the road. As we were leaving the accident scene, another guy said…”You know that just goes to show that you never know when your time is going to be up”. That’s true, but I look at it this way… “No weapon formed against me shall prosper… …This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD (Isaiah 54:17). I walk with God, and with God’s protection in my life. I am truly grateful to my God who protects me for His promise in my life.

And that’s me and my new friend Philip.

I have friends my age, and friends a lot younger that will ask me from time to time, “How do you know (the person you’ll marry)”? I think it’s pretty simple when you meet that person. Like I’ve already said, they should be the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen and easy to fall in love with. They should be your best friend and the one you want to spend most of your time with- cause if you don’t want to spend most of your time with that person, then your marriage is already in danger. That person shouldn’t be superficial, materialistic, jealous, or selfish in anyway. These qualities are the qualities that will destroy a marriage, or any relationship- especially selfishness. Another question “How do you know WHEN”? Well, it’s when you are able to ask yourself… “Why not”? If you can’t think of any reason that you shouldn’t be married, then it’s time for you to take that step in life. When you are able to realize that marriage is NOT a 50/50 thing, then you are ready. Marriage is 20/80, 40/60, 70/30, 90/10- it’s hardly ever 50/50. It’s all about humbling yourself and serving the other as a partner and best friend in life. It’s about removing all selfishness from your being. It’s about staying together and realizing that life isn’t perfect and you aren’t either. It’s about learning how to have integrity and running towards each other in times of crisis instead of running away and not dealing with your issues. Integrity means that you make a wise decision, and stick to that decision no matter how the circumstances change. You know, so many people talk about how they learn so much about being married AFTER they are married. Maybe a reason some marriages don’t last long is because people don’t take the time to learn about marriage BEFORE they are married.

I love you Katie Marie, and I can’t wait to call you my wife.

Visit Our Engagement/Wedding Website – Pictures, Our Story, Blog, and More!

According to history, passages of scripture, and how shepherds tend to their flocks in the different seasons, Jesus was probably born sometime in the fall. In the ancient Greek times, the season of December 25th, the Romans and Greeks worshiped gods of agriculture and other deities like Isis, Saturn, and Mithras the sun god. When these nations began converting their faiths to Christianity, they began replacing pagan religious celebrations with Christian celebrations and worship. Entire nations recognized the importance of doing away with pagan practices, and the new importance of worshiping their savior, Jesus Christ, because it defined their faith. So I encourage you during this season to REMEMBER why this season is important- it’s so important that our ancient Christian ancestors replaced pagan ways to celebrate Christ. It’s all about remembering. Santa and reindeer are fun for kids, and giving gifts is always great, but remembering why we even have this Christmas day is much more important. Let’s not get so lost in the new pagan celebrations of Christmas that we forget Christ.

Oh and I bet you didn’t know that Santa was a real man, and a Christian. The lore of Santa Claus comes from the 4th century Greek saint and Bishop of Myra, Saint Nicholas, also called Nikolaos of Myra. Nikolaos was born unto wealth parents Epiphanus and Johanna. Nikolaos was very religious from an early age. His parents died when he was still young leaving their wealth. Nikolaos became a very giving man and after he died and became a saint his holiday was celebrated December 6th, during the Christian season of the birth of Christ. Over a course of 2000 years, our culture has evolved Saint Nicholas into Santa Claus, who during the Christmas season brings gifts to all good kids.

Christmas is a powerful season. While hanging will your families and opening gifts around the tree on Christmas morning, tell your family why we remember the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December. And if your children believe in Santa, tell them who Santa really is- not Daddy, but a real Christian man who we honor for his giving ways during the holiday season. So yes, Santa and Jesus are friends. Merry Christmas!

Alcohol
Let’s address drinking first. Without the Bible, we can see how alcohol can destroy lives. Am I saying that all people who have a glass of wine are evil and destroying their life? Of course not, be smart. So what DOES the Bible say about drinking alcohol? First, is alcohol bad? Let’s ask this differently- is alcohol good? Is there any good in alcohol spiritually? Paul addresses this very well (for those of you that don’t know Paul, he wrote most of the New Testament and is one of the reasons we have Christianity still today).

1 Corinthians 10:23
All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

What does this mean? It means that just because it is not illegal or bad to do something, it doesn’t make it profitable to your life or lift you up spiritually. So second, it might be okay to have a glass of wine for dinner, but is it wrong to get drunk? Yes.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor DRUNKARDS nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

What is a drunkard? A person who drinks alcohol to excess habitually; a chronic drinker; a person who drinks to get drunk.Yes it is a sin to your body, and to God.

Here we see God saying it is not wise to look at an alcoholic drink…

Proverbs 23:31-33
Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! 32 In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange sights, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

The whole chapter 23 of Proverbs addresses how sinful and unwise being drunk is. Here is a link showing 75 scriptures on the warning of being drunk. http://www.scionofzion.com/drinking.htm

1 Corinthians 5:11
11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

We can clearly see that being drunk, or being a “drunkard” is sinful. So is just drinking a sin? Let’s go back to what Paul says- just because it is lawful doesn’t make it profitable. Having a drink is much different than drinking habitually. But it is obvious that drinking can lead many people down a road of sin. Not only is being drunk a sin, but scripture strictly points out that it leads to immorality. So lets talk about sexual immorality now.

Homosexuality
Is homosexuality a sin? And is it addressed in the Bible? Yes, and yes.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

This is the same verse as above. But it also addresses many sins. That’s all I need folks. I don’t need every verse in the Bible to tell me that homosexuality is a sin. It’s not confusing to me, the Bible talks about it straight forward.

Leviticus 20:13
If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

Romans 1:26-27
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

We need to know these facts as Christians. Not to bash, but to love and show people what sin is so that we may be able to enlighten a sinner and bring them to Christ. I’ve seen it too many times on TV where a pastor or Christian will try to stand up for what is right and have no scriptural foundation in which to speak.

Many people will say that there are so many Christians falling on the media these days for homosexuality and other immoral sin. It seems that, in the media, that the Christian church is falling apart because so many Christian leaders are falling from their integrity and faith. But that’s not the case. Yes, Christian leaders fall, but Christian leaders have always fallen since the birth of Christ. It’s not that the Christian church is falling apart- the Christian church is rising and getting stronger because God is revealing sin in the lives of sinners in leadership.

Thessalonians 2:7-12
7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

When God reveals the sin, then the sinner will usually repent and ask God for forgiveness, or try to convince the world that their sin is justified.

So why do you hear reporters on the news and talk shows say that these issues are not addressed in the Bible? Simple, people who watch these reporters and celebrities either believe everything they say or believe what they want to hear. Any reporter that will tell you that homosexuality isn’t addressed in the Bible knows that most of their viewers are not Christian, and most of those who are Christian don’t read the Word of God. It is written. Read it.

One mistake that the media makes on PURPOSE and that we make as Christians is that we focus on homosexuality as THE sexual sin. All immoral conduct is a sin, not just homosexuality.

My Family
Let me also point out that I am passionate about these two sins myself because there have been many strong Christian leaders in my personal extended family tree that have had affairs with members of their church, come out as homosexual, struggle with alcoholism, and even incest. These sins are real and effect everyone. The product of all sin is death and destruction. We as Christians should wake up a little and see all the people around us dying in sin. We get so caught up in pointing fingers at sinners and gossiping about their sinful ways, but where is our true love for these people? WWJD?