You might be surprised to learn that there’s actually no way for you to delete ALL of your direct messages at once using Twitter.  However, there is a free 3rd party app that you can use to do this for you.

You’ll find out all the details in just a minute but before we go any further, here are 3 reasons why you might want to delete all of your direct messages:

1. You get a lot of spam messages from Twitter spammers and you want to clear your inbox

2. You replied to all of your direct messages and you want to use your direct message inbox as a notification system of when you receive new messages

3. You’ve never cleaned our your inbox before and you have hundreds of messages that are cluttering up your inbox

I use my direct message inbox as a notification system to let me know of messages that I haven’t replied to yet. Everyday, I reply to people who have direct messaged me and after I’m done, I delete all of the remaining direct messages.

Most of the direct messages that I receive consist of spam, people trying to sell me something that I haven’t solicited, a boring automated direct message, etc.

Even if you don’t want to clean out all of your direct messages, this web app will give you options to delete direct messages older than 7 days or 30 days in case you want to hold on to your more recent messages.

How to Delete Your Twitter Direct Messages

1. Head on over to Social Oomph and sign up for a free account. Social Oomph is a web app that helps you manage your social media accounts.  They have both a free and paid version.  What I’m showing you today works on both the free and paid versions.

2. Once you’ve signed up, log in to your account where you will see your dashboard like this.  Click on Purge My Twitter DM Inbox.

3.  Next you’ll be taken to the screen like the one below.  Choose whether you want to delete all of your direct messages, messages older than 7 days, or messages older than 30 days.

4.  You’ll get a warning message telling you that the purge is permanent.  Click Ok to continue.

5.  You’ll get a confirmation message telling you that the purge is complete.

That’s it!  You can now enjoy a clutter-free direct message inbox .

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Ultimately it came down to the age-old question: Are you pro-choice or are you pro-life?

My friend and his wife are pro-choice (by the way, they are dear friends of mine and I love them very much). I have to point this out because there are some people who think that you can’t love others who have a different opinion than you on this subject.

So here were their reasons for being pro-choice:

1) They believe that a baby in the womb doesn’t become a baby until he/she is 6 weeks old.

2) In the case of rape it’s ok to abort the baby.

3) It’s a woman’s body and she should have a choice as to what she wants to do with the baby.

4) What if the mother’s life is in danger?

Here’s what I had to say about these four points:

1) A baby is alive at the time of conception and that life begins before birth (Biblical view on abortion).

2) The circumstances surrounding the conception of the baby do not justify the killing of an innocent life. If it isn’t okay to kill a person conceived in rape after they are born then it isn’t okay to kill a person before they are born. (see point #1)

We shouldn’t murder an unborn baby because of the sin of the father.  The mother can give the baby up for adoption.

3)  A mom can’t just kill an innocent baby in her womb for whatever reason she sees fit.

4) If the mother’s life is in danger, the doctors will choose to save the mom’s life. In this blog post, we are only talking about elective abortion (i.e. when a mom has a choice to abort when her life is not in danger).

A Movie About Abortion Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Seen

The other day I came across a movie called180 and after I saw it, I knew I had to share it with you. It compares abortion (the murder of babies) to something that you’ve probably never heard it compared to before.

I can’t recommend this movie enough!  It will challenge you to think about abortion in new ways and it will get you equipped to be on the right side of the argument.

It’s 30 minutes long and it’s 30 minutes of your time that are well-spent even if you are pro-choice. If you can watch it now, then go for it and if you can’t, then watch it on your lunch break.

Once you’re done, share your thoughts on what you thought of the movie and whether you are pro-life or pro-choice.

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Even if you start the conversation about something like the weather or if you just say ‘hi’, how are you going to change the conversation so you get the other person to think about their salvation?

Well, by the grace of God I found one way that really works great.  I wrote about it this week on the Dare2Share blog. Check it out by clicking the button below.

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In other words, “How can I get the number in green to be bigger than the number in red?” Please see the image below.

There are 3 reasons why you would want to have more followers than people that you are following on Twitter:

1. You want to stop hitting that Twitter limit that tells you that you can’t follow any more Twitter followers until more people have followed you.  This happens after you’ve followed 2001 accounts on Twitter.

2. It improves your score on Klout.com, if you use that free service. If you’re not familiar with Klout, it’s a free app that scores all of your social media accounts to tell you how influential you are.

3.  You want to eliminate the number of spammers and inactive accounts that you’re following on Twitter.

Here is How You Can Do That

Step 1)  Log into your ManageFlitter account.  If you haven’t used ManageFlitter before, then check out this video about using the free version or, you can check out this blog post for the pro version.

Step 2)  You’ll find yourself in the Unfollow area of ManageFlitter.  Click on the Fake Following link in the left sidebar.

Step 3)  ManageFlitter will take you to a screen to show you how many people you’re following that are considered to be fake accounts or spammers.  Click on the Fast Select link to see all of those accounts at once.

Step 4)  Left click on the profile picture of the first account in the list and while your mouse button is still pressed down, click and drag over the rest of the pictures until all of them are selected.  The profile pictures will turn pink like in the image below to show you that they’ve been selected.

Step 5)  From the right sidebar, click on Unfollow Selected.

Step 6)  Repeat this process for Inactive Users.  Inactive users are those who haven’t posted on Twitter in the last 30 days.  In most cases, that usually means that they’ve abandoned their Twitter account so it’s pointless to continue following these people.

Unfollowing people can be done using ManageFlitter’s free account.  I use their pro account which gives me the added benefit of bulk following people in less than 5 minutes.  Wether you need a free or pro version, you can’t go wrong with using ManageFlitter.

[image credit to Jose Fares]

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Last week I had the privilege of doing an interview with DJ Chuang of the Social Media Church Podcast. If you don’t know who DJ is, he is a strategy consultant who helps churches achieve their goals using web technologies, social media, and communication strategies.

He is the voice behind the wonderful podcast, Social Media Church. Every week, DJ interviews a church leader and talks about social media. He’s had guests in the past like Bobby Gruenewald (the leader behind the YouVersion Bible app) and Adam Jeske of the wildly popular Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.

DJ interviewed me for this week’s show and here’s what’s in it for you:

1. DJ talks about how Pastor Rick Warren used social media to share on Twitter about his sons’ suicide
2. Time saving tips when you are super busy especially with social media
3. What to put on your Facebook and Twitter pages if you represent a ministry or a church
4. What types of status updates get seen the most on Facebook by your fans
5. How do you measure success when it comes to your ministry and on social media
6. The problems with most volunteer systems in ministries and the one solution to fix them
7. How to have an internet evangelism ministry that’s purely based on social media and is free 

There are other topics too that we covered on the podcast.  So head on over there, listen to the podcast, and I highly recommend that you subscribe to DJ’s show.

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Well, today’s blog post is just about that and there’s a neat video that you don’t want to miss either.

My Grandma’s Story

Summer times were my favorite times of the year. My sister, Marian, and I would visit my grandparents for months at a time while school was out. I loved spending time with my grandparents, especially my grandma.

She came to Christ at the age of 40. In her own words, she used to tell me that before she came to know the Lord, she was easily angered, she had no contentment, and she was after the things of the world.

But after she gave her life to Jesus, her life radically changed. She had love in her heart, she stopped lusting after the riches of this world, and she became an evangelist.

Her name was Yvonne.

Since she wanted for all of her family members to be saved, she would witness to us every opportunity she had.

When it came to my sister and I, she would tell us bed time stories about the Bible that were absolutely riveting. She was quite the storyteller and she know how to make it exciting.

To make the Bible more appealing to us, Grandma Yvonne would hold a contest between my sister and I. It was a scripture memorizing contest, whoever could memorize more scripture would get their favorite chocolate bar.

Oh the things we would do for chocolate .

I loved my Grandma Yvonne, she was a really special lady ♥.

But Then Something Happened

About 6 years ago, my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She was forgetting who her family members were, she wouldn’t be able to find her way home from a stroll in her neighborhood, and she was forgetting to take her medication.

She went home to be with the Lord a few years ago after living a glorious seventy-something years (sorry, I don’t know what year she was born).

So when I came across this video, it reminded me of the kind of love that my grandpa had for my grandma after she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.  Check it out.

My grandpa was a selfless man and he loved my grandma all the way until the end. After she got Alzheimer’s, he would make sure she took her medication, he would buy the groceries, make her food, and do all sorts of things for her that she could no longer do.

He loved my grandma so much, that within a few weeks of her passing away, he went home to be with the Lord too.

I now understand that my grandpa couldn’t have loved my grandma the way that he did during her final years unless he had the love of God in him.

God’s love enables us to love others even when we get nothing in return.  Tweet

The Bottom Line

The world will never know such a deep love unless they know Christ.

I hope that you never have to have a loved one get this terrible disease of Alzheimer’s.  But God forbid that you do, you’ll be well equipped to handle it because you have Jesus by your side.

[image credit to Michael Hickman]

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As it turns out, there’s some debate about this type of music.  In this blog post, I’ve included a Christian hip hop video that I recommend you check out so that you know what we’re talking about.

Either way, whether you’ve heard about Christian hip hop or not, it’s important that you take a stand on which side of the argument you’re on so that you’re not caught off guard if it ever comes your way.

But First, a Little Bit of My Testimony

I grew up in a church where we only sang hymns. For the longest time, I was so entrenched within the 4 walls of my church that I didn’t know that there were other kinds of Christian music in genres like country, blue grass, rock, metal, etc.

My testimony is one of a prodigal. My grandma led me to the Lord when I was a child. I walked with God as a boy until my senior year in high school.

That’s when my family went through a MAJOR trial that rocked our world!

I asked God to help my family during this trial that we were going through. I asked Him change the rough times that my family was going through and to come through for me the way I wanted Him to.

But He didn’t.

At the time, I didn’t know that this trial was a part of God’s plan to do something deep in my life as well as in my mom and dad’s lives too.

So I blamed God and I walked away from Him for eight years, where I did what was right in my own eyes.

I partied, drank, had “fun” until finally I had enough.  I was empty, life was pointless, and I was ready to come back to God.

So I rededicated my life back to Jesus after those eight years.

When I came back, I came back with a bang!

I went from not believing in God to totally being committed to Him. I went from not going to church to going six times a week. I got re-baptized and I began serving God in a ministry immediately at my current church.

How I Found Out About Christian Hip Hop

So when I came back, that’s when I discovered all the different types of Christian music out there. I know, it sounds like I lived under a rock and in a way I did.

I was surprised by the Christian rock music that I heard and even more when I found out about Christian metal.

Then more recently, I found out about Christian hip hop (rap). Here’s a Christian hip hop song by an artist called LeCrae.

At the time of writing this post, this video has 2.7 million views on YouTube!

If you’re not familiar with who LeCrae is, he is one of the most well-known Christian hip hop artists. He not only does music but he also speaks and is heavily involved in evangelism.

So What’s the Big Deal?

I didn’t know this but apparently not all people feel the same way about Christian hip hop. There are some Christians that think Christian hip hop smells too much like the world. They think the artists in the videos come dangerously close to how the non-believing artists of today act in their videos.

While they don’t have scandalously clothed women, fancy cars, and all the bling, some artists adopt mannerisms that come from the hip hop culture.

Then on the other side, there are those who believe that hip hop can be a great way to engage non-believers with the Gospel and with Christianity in general. They think it’s a great way to reach the types of people who love hip hop.

They argue that the videos are clean and that the lyrics glorify Christ and the Kingdom.

So I’d like to hear from you. What’s your take on Christian hip hop? Does it smell like the world or is it a legitimate tool to communicate the things of God to non-believers?

[image credit Deposit Photos]

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Especially if you want to take advantage of social networks that can get you lots of exposure like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Google+.

Social Networking Takes Tons of Time and Slows Down Your Productivity

I remember when some of my social networking accounts began to take off, I found myself spending a few hours a day posting and engaging on Facebook and Twitter. The problem was that the time in my day hadn’t changed (we all have the same 24 hours in a day) but now there was something new that was taking up a lot of my time.

That meant that I was going to have to make one of the following choices:

1. Eliminate some of my others tasks on my todo lists to make time for social media
   
2. Raise up some volunteers to help me because our church doesn’t have the budget to pay another salary
3. Work more hours
4. Automate my social media updates

So I chose option number 4.

I had found some ways to semi-automate my social media updates using tools like HootSuite and Buffer. It definitely helped out a lot until I came across a free tool that helped me to do FULL automation of my social media updates without sounding like a robot.

This tool that you’re about to check out is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It litterally is one of those “set it and forget it” things.

That’s why I titled this blog post, “How to evangelize to others even after you’re dead.” All you have to do is find an evangelism resource, set it up using the app, and then let it run. As long as your social networking accounts are active, it’s like the Energizer bunny.

It keeps going, and going, and going….

Introducing IFTTT…Drumroll Please…

So without futher delay, here is a 4 minute video that I did to show you this tool called IFTTT. It stands for If This Then That.

The Bottom Line

Having a full automation tool like this is a huge benefit. Especially because its free and it saves you a TON of time.

So when you have time, create your free account and play around with it.

You’re going to get addicted, trust me. After I set up my account, I was playing around with it for hours.

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I’ve shown you before how you can find the right people to follow on Twitter and how to use ManageFlitter to bulk follow people super-fast.  Now, I’m going to share with you specific accounts that you should follow their followers.

Why?  Because many of you are Christian bloggers, ministry leaders, and servants and your Twitter account reflects your faith.  So these accounts will give you a stream of people to follow for many months to come.

So What Should You Do?

If you already have access to the free guide to getting thousands of Twitter followers, then click on the link below and bookmark the article from ChristianLeaders.com.

You already know exactly what you need to do because you’ve been through the guide.

Disclaimer: All of the people on this list don’t necessarily have sound doctrine or theology. The point of this blog post isn’t to encourage you to follow these leaders because of what they stand for. This link is only meant to help you get more Twitter followers by following step 6 in the guide.

So here is the link to the top 100 Christian leaders to follow.

If you don’t have access to the free guide, then you’re going to want to consider signing up for it.  It’s going to show you certain things that you can do that will get you thousands of Twitter followers so you can share Jesus with them or so you can do anything else that you like.

Instead of telling you why I think you should sign up for the guide, I’m going to let other people who have already gotten the guide tell you about their experience.

I got these from the the “Reviews” link in the top navigation of this website.  By the way, if you’ve already gone through the guide and have experienced success like these folks below, please consider leaving me a review. I sure would appreciate it .

What Other’s Are Saying

 Can This Help You?

If you think this guide can help you, you can get access to it by clicking on the button below.

[image credit via Nathan Michael]

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