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Note: thought I'd post a article that I wrote for my website (atlasmag.com)....

Pimpin' Jesus
by Eddie Po


What if the gospel was as accessible on the internet as porn is.   When you clicked on your provider page you would see offers of life abundant and overflowing instead of a bustier in the same state.   You might see an advertisement pop up telling someone how much Jesus loved them and understood their struggle for fulfillment instead of some airbrushed fiction trying to incite them to cease struggling, to give in to her digital facade.   Fulfillment would be more than a euphemism again.   Then again...there's no market for that.   I must be crazy.


Seal reminded us a few years ago that to survive we all needed to be a little crazy, so in that mind I may as well press forward with this insanity.   Why can't Jesus become the most downloaded image on the net instead of someone's attention starved little girl.   No, I'm not going there, different bat time different bat channel.   Click on this:   a site that causes you to see things you've never seen before...that sets a standard for beauty that leaves you breathless, longing for more.   This site will never cause you to hurry and clear your cookies before your wife gets home.   Does this site exist?   If it did, would you go there?   Daily?   Me too.   So why has it still not taken the net by storm.   Could it be that this site does not exist?


Ludicrous!   There are Christian sites caught in every strand of the web.   What do we find there?   Anything worth adding to our favorites?   Worth printing and slapping up on the fridge?   Could the content of a site like that make a calendar without being sponsored by the Painter of Light?   Would we sell the calendar with Pay Pal?   Would you buy one?   Nah, me neither.   I still gravitate towards the ones that come book ended by man's commentary on the opinion of the Creator of Light.   No reason for it, really, I just don't seem to think God's word can stand alone.   I always grab the verses that come embossed on a mountain or beach scene.   Post card Christians unite!   Wish you were here...


How many toes you got left?   Me, I'm not doing so well.   So, back to my original question.   After all, I was beginning to feel responsible for the lack of genuine Jesus in society.   Can't have that, might get depressed, end up on Prozac or something.   Hard to buy fish tee shirts when you're dropping all your cheese on the pharmacy counter.   Well, maybe just one bottle...I can still afford to put a fish on my car.   Those things are great too!   I hear they sanctify my cruise control.   It stops exactly five miles per hour over the limit...OUCH...that was my driving foot too...    


So where is all this going?   Like a snowbird in the left lane with their right blinker on I won't know till we get there.   Don't hop out, though, the car's still moving.   Jesus on the net--that's where we started.   When all this began I was wondering what kind of site could accurately portray who Christ was, is and should be to the everyday wanderer.   Is it possible for this thought to become reality?   Can the web really reach its true potential for good?   I began this journey wondering how we might get all this started.   I decided where this conversation would start.   In the interest of fairness, where it ends is up to you.

Oklahoma Howdy to AdamPorter,

You made some excellent points. There is a huge difference in various types of web sites. Some of them make tons of money and advertise everywhere. There's the problem with most Christian sites. Some receive minimal support from various sources, and others have no support at all. Some Christian sites spend large sums of money just for the servers and equipment for large numbers of users. Some of them struggle to pay the bills.

I have a private web site that does pretty well. I don't have any money to speak of, so I had to use free services and work within the allowed size limits to continue paying the minimum for Internet Service Providers. I'll never have the money for advertising, but there are some things you can do to get listed in various search engines with no money involved at all. It takes a lot of time and patience to get that done, and the meta-tags on your pages need to be completely right and standard before you start trying to get listed.

It would be great to have Christian pop-ups all over the Internet, but who will pay the bills? The sleaze providers make tons of money and can afford the advertising. The average Christian site is run on a shoe string budget. That would be the case with my web page and will probably be the case with most Christian web sites. All we can do is the best we can with the resources God gives us.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Pop-ups are irritating, however wonderful the message.  You don't bring people to Christ by waving leaftlets in their face in the shopping mall, and you wouldn't by having pop-ups appear every five mins - you'll just annoy people.

And strangely enough, He provides just enough for what is absolutely needed.  I get very worried about any church or Christian organisation that isn't struggling for enough cash.

praying for you ebia

Your friend and future brother (I Hope)

The Crusader