Our Adventures in Gingerland

So Bwige and I made a gingerbread house tonight!! It was not only great fun, it was an even bigger disaster!

They say that its easy. Dont believe them. It's a lie. Building a ginger bread house is hard... you need lots of very specialized tools - which they didn't include!!

This is a picture of the box shows that it SHOULD look like.



This is what ours actually looked like.




Umm...

Yah....


Do you see a difference?!?! Compare their roof with our roof.






The front of their house - and ours.






Their trees - and ours.






I'm so sorry Philip. Please forgive our architectural blasphemy.

Hopefully... very very hopefully, it's the thought that counts.

The Best Political Video!!!

OK, so this is the best political video EVER!!!

Swing & Kat will enjoy it most.

AMERICA – WELCOME TO SOCIALISM!!!

What the freaking stinking flipping heck is the government thinking? Why did the government take over Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac? Why? Now like 90% of the mortgage industry is done by the GOVERNMENT! This is called socialism.

and its great, cuz I GET TO PAY FOR IT!!! Now, all the people who took loans they shouldn't have get bailed out by ME. Yarrr.....

Just wow. Someone needs to be fired.

The Beatitudes

Warning... this post is going to be long.. its the beatitudes... I warn you ahead of time.. i'm sunk.

NOTE!! I just posted 4 posts at the same time. Don't forget the one entitled 'Facing the Giants & A Faith Showing Angel'.

Day 5

Matthew 5:1-12

- Oh no…. the beatitudes… this could be a long entry… I’m sunk.

- Blessed are the poor in spirit. OK I admit I have no idea what that means. I will have to look that one up and come back to it.

- Blessed are those who mourne…. So when bad things happen I should mourn.

· Hmm… so mourn makes me think of a funeral. Crying. Real deep sadness. Am I really sad when things happen? Empathy? How badly did I hurt when there was flooding in the east? How much did my actions show that I was devastated by the 100,000 people who died in the Christmas tsunami of 2004? Now, ‘my heart went out to them’. But a lot of good that did. It didn’t feed or shelter a single person. It seems that if I really mourned for my friend in need, i’d take off my shirt and give it to them because they lost theirs. Besides, I have 20 more in the closet.

- Blessed are the meek… man. This is totally countercultural. Might is right. The strong will survive. Survival of the fittest. This idea that the meek will inherit the earth goes against everything one would assume to be true. Instead, God says that those who are not the strongest and the best are the ones who will get into heaven. So why do I strive to be the strongest and the best and get the most stuff?

· I need to be meek. I think the biblical (as opposed to the current) definition of meek is to be gentle. Instead of trying to show that I am the best, just be happy with who I am.

- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Hmm. Maybe I should skip this one. I know that I fail at this one. When I’m really hungry, I skip other stuff to get food. I can’t think of the last time that I was so hungry for the word of God that I forgot to eat a meal. I can’t think of the last time that I was so thirsty to worship my savior that I just sat for hours in his presence and soaked in his love. Maybe the reason that I am not satisfied is because I am not feasting on his word. I am not drinking in his love. Instead I spend 10 minutes reading a few words of scripture and walk away hungry wondering why.

· I need to let my hunger drive me to action. I need to spend significant parts of my day just falling more in love with my savior. I need to show by my actions that I am more hungry for God than I am for sleep and computer time.

- Blessed are the merciful, for they are the ones who will be shown mercy.

· Hmm… I don’t know that I well or badly at this one. I don’t have a lot of people wrong me. I’m not around a lot of people who are mean to me or are jerks. I think I do a good job when people are mean. Maybe I should revisit this one later.

- Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Well I’m sunk on this one. There is no way I am pure in heart. Man my heart is full of bad stuff. I think bad thoughts all the time. I talk behind people’s back, I don’t love people like I should, I allow all sorts of things to be my idols and keep me from God. I’m sunk. My heart is not pure. So what am I supposed to do?

· I should be pure. Well yah.. .but what does that look like and how do I get there? I need to be in the scriptures daily to see WHAT a pure life look like. How can I live out what I don’t know? I need to find things in my life that reflect scripture and DO them.

· But more than that I need to beg God to change my heart. I need to be spending time before him learning his heat so that I can have mine molded to be like his.

- Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God. Hmmm… am I a peacemaker? Well I don’t go around fighting people. But I think I do a pretty good job of trying to keep the peace between people. But there are times when I am definitely not peaceful. Red lights are my bane. Little mechanical things that don’t work correctly are my bane.

· I need to play the part of peacemaker to myself. When the red lights are attacking me, just be peaceful. Relax. Breathe…..

- Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I don’t think I’ve been persecuted much for my righteousness. I think that instead, I usually try to fly under the radar and not make waves. Instead of standing up for what I know to be true and right, I just don’t speak up so that I don’t offend people. Jesus ASSUMED that we would be persecuted because we were so darn righteous! we are supposed to be living such great lives among the rest of the world that they see us as wrong.
You know… that wouldn’t actually be that hard to do these days. If Christians stood up and said that homosexuality was wrong, we’d be persecuted by the world. If Christians stood up and said that gossip was wrong and didn’t stand for it in the workplace, we’d be thought weird. If we stood up in the churches and said that divorce was wrong and not acceptable, the church would persecute us! If we would stand up and boldly hold to scripture and let people know that you can not be a benchwarmer on Sunday and make it into heaven and that you must have good works to show that you are saved, there would be a revolt in the nation and in the church!
But we don’t. We stand quietly at the water cooler as people gossip about Amy and Brandon. We wouldn’t want to tell people they were doing something wrong. Instead, we should stand up for what Scripture tells us and hold each other accountable.

· I don’t do very well at this. I am a guy who doesn’t like to make waves with people around me. I do well at church when I am preaching to the students, but the rest of the time, I just keep my opinions to myself.

· So I think there are 2 things I need to do about this. First, I need to speak up about what is right. If they don’t hear it from me, who will they hear it from? Be bold.

· Second, I need to know the scripture. If I am going to say that the bible says something, I better be able to show them where. Its like when I was talking to daddy and donna, I was making assertions but didn’t have the passages memorized to back it up.

- Blessed are you when people insult you and say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

· This kinda goes with the last one. I should live such a good life among people that evil people will invent ways to bring me down. Again, this goes against the current Christian thought of living a happy life so people will be attracted to Jesus. Instead, scripture says that if I am living like Christ wants me to, that some people will just hate me no matter what. That’s ok.

- Rejoice and be glad because your reward is in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

You know what.. Its ok if I lose friends over speaking my mind. People have always hated those who spoke the truth in a way that they didn’t like. In the end, God says that its my job to speak the truth as best as possible, and let him take care of the rest. No, that doesn’t mean that I go around looking for ways to offend people. That doesn’t mean that I am intentionally rude. Everything I do should be soaked in and seeping love. But even when I do that, some people will not be receptive because they are enemies of God. I’m ok with them hating me because I am more interested in pleasing my savior.

Nourishment

Day 4

Matthew 4

- So this is right after Jesus is baptized.

- Man doesn’t live on bread alone, but on EVERY WORD that comes from the mouth of God.

· I need to be nourished by the word of God. I am not right now. I need to gain actual spiritual sustenance from God’s word. I don’t think I do a good job of that now. I read scripture sometimes because I need to. I don’t do it because I am desperate for it. I enjoy it when I do. But I don’t do a good job of chewing my spiritual cud. Instead I come by for a quick snack instead of sitting down and really relishing what I read. Even when I try to go deeper…I don’t think I do a great job of it.

· I think that this will help, it will help me to slow down and absorb it. I also think that it will help that I am starting to memorize scripture.

- Jesus called the men and said that he would make them fishers of men. He contextualized their message to the people he was talking to.

· How can I do that better? I can learn about teenage culture? First, who am I preaching to? Teenagers. So I need to learn their culture. But how do I learn it without being infected by it? Is it ok to quote Simpsons to show I know their culture? Is it ok to watch bad movies? It seems the answer is no. So how do I do it? Probably by just hanging out with them more.

- Prayer

· God help me to know more about the culture I am preaching to. Help me to be in it but not of it. Help me to understand and to relate without being infected by it. Help me to stay pure. Teach me to be a light in a dark place. Teach me to share you and bring light to dark places.

fruit

Day 3

Matthew 3

- John preached in the desert and people came to him – if we have the words of God, he will provide the people… we don’t need to make it trendy.

- There is wheat and chaff… the chaff will be burned in the fire, only the wheat will make it through.
It seems that there is a separation of those who are true and those who are fake. We are supposed to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. So if we don’t have fruit, it seems that scripture says that we will get cut down and thrown into the fire.

· I need to produce fruit. What fruit do I produce? I work with the students at church… but what fruit do I really see out of that? Not much. I need to love on my guys more.

· So what fruit do I have? I have a strong marriage… and that’s kinda fruit, but not really the fruit of repentance. I have the fact that I am seeking holiness and how to live out my faith… and I have the fact that I am living a good life… but it feels like for me, fruit is a good quiet time. Fruit is drawing closer to God. I feel close mostly, but I don’t feel like I’m really getting closer much. I feel like I’m moving, but just sideways. It’s like I’m circling and trying to figure out the best approach. I have all these things brewing in me, but they just aren’t getting out yet… but that still doesn’t mean that I’m really getting more fruit.

· So what is my fruit? If I can do this study faithfully, I think that would be fruit. I think that if I can start memorizing scripture, that is fruit. If I am more faithful about praying than that is fruit.

· I need fruit. I want to be saved. I don’t want to assume that because I am in seminary and go to church that I am saved. God can raise up children for Abe from rocks, so my religiosity doesn’t earn me passage into heaven.

- Prayer

· God help me to produce fruit. I want to show my salvation by my good works. I want to show evidence of what is already within me by doing what you ask of me. Show me the areas of my life that are lethargic and how to revitalize them. Show me the areas of my life that are productive and how to bring you more honor and glory through those. God, please cause me to produce fruit. (Matthew 3)

Facing the Giants & A Faith Showing Angel

OK... so if you have seen the movie... and if you liked it.. you should probably skip reading this.

Umm... facing the giants... a movie made by a church in Atlanta. For a church making a movie, they did a pretty good job. However....

in the end, it followed every other Christian movie I have ever seen. It stunk. The acting was bad. The visual quality wasn't great. The script was TERRIBLE (yes... even worse than the new Star Wars). And it was just full of CHEESE!! It was all corny lines about how we should trust in Jesus and he will help us.

So in the end, I have 2 lines of thought.

First, I am conflicted about this type of movie. I think the message was pretty good. Trust in God, seek Him first, and let him take care of the rest. And I don't think the movie presented any health and wealth of worship God and he will make you rich and win football games (although they did win the game against all odds). Its just that the way they present it is so corny. Its like.. I know that stuff is true in real life, but when I see it on a movie screen, it just sounds so packaged and fake. I cant figure this out. Where does it break down? The message is true. I have experienced similar things in my life. I just need to trust God more. Sometimes he allows us to go through hard times to test and grow us. Sometimes he allows bad things to happen to us to bring himself more glory. But when those true things get translated to the big screen, it just comes across as fake. It comes off as 'religion'. It comes off as... well as ridiculous. I laughed through most of the movie. It was just so... well ridiculous. So where does it break down? I really don't know. What do you think on this one?


Second, the quality of 'christian' movies has always been sub-par. I've never seen a Christian movie that wasn't cheesy. I've never seen a Christian movie that was like, 'wow.. that was really done with excellence'. Its always a cheaply done. The actors are so-so to lousy, the music is like the end of every Full House episode, and the story line is so predictable its disgusting. Shouldn't Christians be producing the best stuff in the industry? Shouldn't we be the best in our fields whatever that may be? Why?

You know who does an excellent job in this category? Dan Cathy. He is the guy that runs Chic-Fil-A. He does not run a christian business. He simply runs his business by biblical standards. The difference is that he is not using his food to shove Jesus down everyone throats. Instead, the way he runs his business makes people want to eat there. People know what he stands for. They are closed on Sunday - people know. He does his job with excellence. I have never been in a dirty Chic-fil-a. Thats the only fast food joint i can say that about. I have never been treated badly by an employee. I have never seen an employee who wasn't eager to serve me and help me. Every time you tell them thanks, they respond with 'my pleasure'. Its not a Christian business. Its a business that is attractive because it is done with excellence. And his words and actions follow his philosophy. He shares the gospel with the employees and guests the night before a store opens. He serves as a sunday school teacher - I know, I sat and talked with him. He told me how he struggles to take care of his guys. The man is living his life with excellence. And people are attracted to Christ.

Then you have christian movies. They are cheesy and make you laugh instead of inspiring you. I was more inspired by Remember the Titans, than I was by facing the giants. I read the 'Left Behind' series and I like the idea behind it, but the writing is elementary and not great. I revieve ads for a Christian bookstore and see a description of a tube of 'HeavenScent Shea Butter Hand Cream. "Not only will this gift leave her skin feeling smooth and silky, it is also a great way to share your hope and faith in Christ." Are you serious? That's the best you can do at sharing the gospel? Really? I'm thinking that when Jesus said to go out into the world and preach the good news... he wasn't talking about hand lotion. Seriously.

But that's not nearly as good as the description of a Willow Tree angel... "Not only will it add style to any home, it also says a lot about someone's faith and trust in God." ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? My faith is not shown by my loving the poor. My faith is not shown by telling people about Jesus with my words. My faith is not evidenced by my giving of my time in front of the idiot-box to study the very words of the Creator of the universe. My faith is shown by buying a wooden angel. THAT'S THE FAITH I WANT!!

And I know I'm being sarcastic here, but I just think that our culture is really into being religious. They are really into looking spiritual. But that's worthless. We need to be IN CHRIST. We need to be DOING the things Christ called us to do as a result of spending so much time with him and being so in love with him that we can do nothing BUT tell everyone we know about him and giving our money away because we value HIM and HEAVEN more than getting more worthless stuff...

I just dont see the christian community living up to what Christ called us to be. I don't see me living up to what Christ wants for me. That's what this summer is about for me. trying to figure out what my life should look like.... that's why I will be posting some of my daily thoughts. I hope you come along for the ride...


*and star wipe.... and cut*

test

What my life should look like?

So why is this a big deal? I’m still a pretty good person right? My life is good enough. I don’t kill people or any of that bad stuff. But the more I have read scripture in the last year, the more it seems that ‘good enough’ isn’t enough. When I read through scripture, it seems to me that Jesus accepts nothing less than EVERYTHING from someone. The rich young ruler was not willing to give up everything and turned away. Jesus didn’t lower the bar to try and get him to stay. Jesus was ok with him leaving because he wasn’t willing to give everything.

Look at what he said in Mark 8 to the crowd and his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life^[c] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

To take up your cross meant you were about to die… its like saying, take up your noose and walk to the platform. Jesus requires everything of me. He requires everything of you.

So I have decided to read through the New Testament and see what my life should look like. I started to look at scripture and see that if you truly love Christ, it will show itself in the form of good works. If you truly love Jesus, you will do what he says to do (1 John 2:3-6).

The more I thought about this… the more I figured that my life didn’t reflect scripture. James says that true religion is to help the widow and the fatherless… when’s the last time I helped a widow? Scripture says that those in the early church gave everything they had to the poor and that there was no one in the early church with needs because everyone just shared their stuff. I look at my church and most of the people seem like they need something… Are we, am I, living the life that scripture called me to?

I don’t think so.

So I am embarking on a journey to find out how my life should look. Like James says, I am holding the word of God in front of me and using it as a mirror to ferret out the parts of me that don’t reflect Christ.

Enjoy!

The jury is still out as to whether or not all this will get posted on this blog or whether I will create another one specifically for this purpose…. I am open to your opinions?

Formal Date

The next big thing we did was go on a really nice formal date; I got Bwige all dressed up and took her dancing! First, I took us to get private ballroom dancing lessons. We got 2 instructors all to ourselves for 2 hours. The guy was a really good dancer but I didn’t like what he was telling Bwige to do. It seemed like he was wanting to her not think and I didn’t like that.

Anyways…. Next we went to Bella Italia West, a SUPER nice restaurant. It specializes in exotic game (moose, caribou, elk....). I had the caribou and Bwige had the pheasant. Both were very tasty but Bwige’s was MUCH better than mine. I paid $35 stinkin dollars for my plate and I got like 2 freakin ounces of meat!!! What a rip off!!! The sides were a little mini-ice-cream scoop of collard greens and a mini-ice-cream scoop of rice. Geez… And the bread wasn’t very good either (the bread at olive garden is much better). Bwige got a lot more, she got 2 pheasant breasts covered with ham and cheese – they were VERY rich and VERY tasty!!!

The other thing about the restaurant was that they had lots of wall murals. We were sitting against one that had some war scene on it so I couldn’t see it very well. The one that was in my view was a full wall picture of naked ladies bathing. Why do restaurants do that? I know its supposed to be classical art, but seriously, guys have enough trouble keeping their mind in good places as it is…. large paintings of naked women don’t help! Arg.

After dinner we stopped at Braums for some very tasty ice cream. Then we headed for the ballroom dancing (where everyone was gathering to actually dance). So we get there and sat with our instructors which was nice. We got to dance a bit (the foxtrot) but I wasn’t very good at it so we mostly watched other people dance. Ballroom dancing is a lot like swing dancing…. if you were to take out all the fun parts of swing dancing like smiling, and being relaxed, looking into each other’s eyes, and enjoying it, then you would get ballroom dancing. In ballroom dancing, you have to stay absolutely rigid the whole time with your arms up in the air while your partner looks up and away from you in the most hoity-toity expression she can possibly muster. Yah.

All in all, there are 2 perspectives on the evening…

1) I really enjoyed the evening because my wife had a fabulous time. She really enjoyed the lessons, the meal, and the dancing. Therefore, it was a successful evening. (in the end, this is the perspective that actually matters).

2) This was probably the most ridiculous date I have ever been on. I literally spent our whole month’s fun & restaurant budget on this one date. I could have gone to KFC and paid $2 for 1 chicken breast with more meat than my $35 plate of caribou. Ballroom dancing is totally opposite of my style and I really didn’t enjoy Bwige’s rigidity during it.

But like I said, this night was for Bwige. I am ridiculously in love with her and am very glad that she enjoyed the evening. Marriage is all about pleasing the other person. And I would not have changed a thing about the evening because she got a formal fancy date like she wanted. She felt like a princess (which she is). Mission Accomplished.

Finals & Friends

Well, finals are finally over. I think I did pretty well in all my classes. Well, all except for Hebrew… but remember, D is for Diploma. I don’t like that, but languages just kick my butt! I am just happy to pass the class.

I am now taking the summer off. I am going to relax. Unfortunately, as I am finding out, I am not very good at that. I am so task oriented, that I feel guilty if I not being productive. The other thing is that I don’t have a lot of people to hang out with. So I am not sure what to do with my time when I try and relax… one thing I really enjoy doing is eating, but that takes a lot of money after a while. So I don’t know… I really wish I had more people to hang out with… but people are just so stinkin busy… I feel like its always my job to call people and that’s frustrating. I rarely having people call and want to hang out, its always me calling them. And its like… if you really value our friendship, you will call. And its been kinda nice cuz I have had 2 people call me lately that haven’t called me in quite a while but 2 or 3 times in the last 5 months isn’t very encouraging. Its just our stinkin culture that has people so busy… we value business when we should value relationships… oh well…

I need to find some more friends that I can actually hang out with on a regular basis.. problem is I’m not too good at just finding random people…

Spring Break

Well here is my long overdue posts (in multiple parts) - have fun!

First, spring break. (wow… has it really been that long… ). I went to Michigan for spring break and preached at a small church. I preached Sunday morning, and then Sunday night through Wednesday night (5 times total). Sunday morning I preached on who Christ is. I showed that he is superior and is worthy of our worship with shows itself through our actions and through our words.

Sunday night I talked about the fact that many of us see God as a nice cushy pretty God who is always interested in making us happy. I showed that this God is a fake God. The God of scripture primarily wants to bring glory to himself and to grow us into more mature believers whether or not that makes us comfortable. Then on Monday night I asked people to consider whether or not they were actually Christians. I said that they should not look inside their minds at what they ‘believe’ but at their actions. Scripture says that if you are a Christian you will show it by your actions (love, charity, studying scripture, worship, prayer, fasting….). If you don’t have those things, it doesn’t make you lose your salvation, but it probably shows that you are not a Christian.

Tuesday night I talked about prayer, and Wednesday night I did a first person narrative from the Old Testament. That was a lot of fun. I got dressed up and told a story. The kids in the audience seemed to enjoy that a lot.

I had fun the whole week playing in the snow and taking lots of pictures. After I was done preaching, Bwige and I drove up to Canada and played in the snow there. It was a BLAST!! Then we drove home through Green Bay and flew home. All in all, the trip was a lot of fun.

I'll post again soon...

ok, so life's been crazy, but I will post again soon. It will include a lot of info... but I'm still deciding whether to break it up or make it one long post... guess you'll just have to wait and see.

Yah!! I'm Done!!

Well, I'm done preaching. I enjoyed it a whole lot and now we are going to drive around Michigan for a few days. We will fly home sunday night. I look forward to seeing everyone again.

One of the Weirder Dreams I've Ever Had

So I just had one of the weirder dreams of my life….

So David and I were driving along in some sort of motor home. I was controlling the acceleration from the very tiny bathroom in the back and David was sitting on the ledge above me steering.

As we were driving through an empty field, we saw a moose running off about 50 yards away. So, logically, we decided to make the moose chase us. So we steer off to the right and entice the moose, who gets angry and pursues us. Well…. things don’t go as planned. We thought we could go faster than the moose, but even when I crank it up to 70MPH, the moose is still gaining on us. So I reach out and grab the moose by the horns and twist its head so that it falls over. Moose: 0 Bathroom-Controlled-Motor-Home: 1.

So next thing I know we are in some sort of dirt bike race. So we race along the dirt road we’ve been driving on w/ a field of corn on one side of us and that empty field on the other. Well, our Bathroom-Controlled-Motor-Home is much faster than any dirt bike so we taunt the other racers for a bit and then zoom on to the finish. We finish SO FAST, in fact, that after crossing the line, we decide to go back and taunt the other racers. So after I drive backwards for a bit. Finding the other racers, and seeing as we won way too easy the first time, I hop out of my previous ride, and pull the moose out of the ground so I can race on him!! (well, first I have to inflate him because my previous encounter had deflated him). So to get him to go, I pull the lever on his tail and then hop on. As he inflates, he starts running quite quickly and I catch up to the guys in front in no time. I even have time to pull the tail-lever a bit more before we finish and I finish the race in 2^nd (or 1^st a second time).

As I finish, the credits start rolling across the screen. And whose name should be on the top of the list in glittering flashiness? Mitt Romney!!! Duh! And here he comes, across the finish line. I walk up to him jovially and say that I’ve never seen anyone use such blatant advertising in politics. He just smiles back at me and says ‘Well,’ as if to say, ‘those are my methods, take them or leave them’. And to top it all off, as he is saying that, the corn all around him starts bowing to him…

………

What a dream!

So I was reading through Exodus

So I have been reading through exodus and have been amazed at what I’m seeing. God sends the 10 plagues against Egypt and all the Israelites leave Egypt. God leads them by sending a big tornado-like pillar of clouds in front of them by day and a big pillar of fire in front of them by night. Yes, when they get hungry, they whine to Moses and ask him how they are going to eat. ‘Do you want us to die?’ they ask him. WHAT?!! Didn’t you just see God work miracles? IS your memory that short? Unfortunately yes. So God provides food for 1,000,000 people through the desert.

So then they walk around for a while longer and they camp in against the sea. Pharaoh comes after them. As pharaoh is coming, they ask Moses, ‘Did you bring us out here just to die? We would have been better in Egypt.’ WHAT!!?!?! HUH?!?! God not only sent the 10 plagues, but has been providing enough food for 1,000,000 people PER DAY FOR MONTHS NOW!!! And yet you still don’t think he’s powerful enough to save you from a little army?!? Are you blind, stupid, or both? (probably both) Well, God makes the sea open up and they walk through ON DRY LAND! Pharaoh and his troops die.

Did you notice that not once have the Israelites done ANYTHING?!! They escaped from Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth without lifting a finger, God did it all. Not one Israelite died. They got food for 1,000,000 people per day… they don’t do anything!!! They just gather it! Pharaoh and his army comes and the most powerful army on earth is totally wiped out… completely… every last one of them… and not a single Israelite lifted a finger. Yah…

So now the Israelites will trust God completely right!! YOU WISH!!

God tells them all the 10 commandments. Then, Moses goes back up the mountain for God to tell him more stuff. After a while, they get ancy and make a golden calf and call it God. ARE YOU STUPID?!!!? DIDN’T MOSES JUST TELL YOU THAT COMMANDMENT #2 WAS NO IDOLS!?!?! What were you thinking!?! Really?

And I’m amazed at how slow they are to learn. They just don’t get it. And I think…. Hmm… you guys are just a few crayons short of a box aren’t you. But then I think… ya know.. I’m not to quick to fix stuff either. I struggle every day to do my quite time. I struggle to pray like I should, to share the gospel like I should, to memorize scripture like I should. I know what I SHOULD do… but that’s not always what happens. I guess it reminds me that I’m not the only one. And it reminds me that God is patient. He loves me and wants me to do better and will continue to encourage me to do better sometimes, and other times kick me in the butt to get me in gear…

What do you think?

WOO HOO!! Hebrew was canceled today!!! And it couldn't have been a better day either. I had my alarm set to wake up at 5am to get my homework done but at 5am decided that it wasn't worth it (I get to drop 2 homeworks). Then I get a message that class has been canceled! WOOO HOOO!! fabulous! That ends up being really good cuz I can get a bit caught up today (which I need because I am way behind) And the great part it, it earns me more than just the 3 hours that I dont have to be in Hebrew, it earns me an additional 2 hours because I don't have to take a nap afterwards to get my brain unmushy and recover from class. YAH!!

well, back to work!

President’s Day

So Monday is President’s day…. umm… so does Bush walk around humming "happy president’s day to me... happy president’s day to me......"???

Or does he walk around wishing people 'happy me day!' with a big goofy grin on his face?

Hmmmm…..

Art for Nerds

I saw a great flicr album of art for nerds... here is one for you guys



Most of them are pretty funny. Some of them only Jimmy will understand. Enjoy! (warning, a couple are not so friendly).

sNOw....

Arg… its 29 degrees outside and almost no chance of any precipitation. What does it take to get some snow around here? If its gotta be cold, why not add something to play in?!?! God? A little precipitation here?

geez…

Some people are just never happy

"Pope Benedict XVI canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza university in the face of protests led by scientists opposed to a high-profile visit to a secular setting by the head of the Catholic Church. Sixty-seven professors and researchers of the university's physics department joined in the call for the pope to stay away protesting the planned visit recalled a 1990 speech in which the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, seemed to justify the Inquisition's verdict against Galileo in 1633. In the speech, Ratzinger quoted an Austrian philosopher who said the ruling was 'rational and just' and concluded with the remark: 'The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation, and from being rooted in a still greater form of reason.' The protest against the visit was spearheaded by physicist Marcello Cini who wrote the rector complaining of an 'incredible violation" of the university's autonomy. Cini said of Benedict's cancellation: 'By canceling, he is playing the victim, which is very intelligent. It will be a pretext for accusing us of refusing dialogue.'"

so Cini doesn't want the pope to come, but then when he doesn't show up, says that he is just 'playing the victim'... geez...

Onslaught

Hey, just thought I'd share this great new game... its by far the best flash TD I've ever seen... its got lots of controls and lets you upgrade the towers stats individually. Also, a nifty feature for us procrastinators, is that in the settings, you can increase the time factor so it will play faster.... 400% baby!!

so far, i played twice and got to level 85 on the circles one... see what you guys can do :)

http://www.freewaregames.net/onslaught-game.asp

:)

Connection between good works and God's will

So I was reading in Matthew 7 today and I read that you will know a tree by it’s fruit; an apple tree can not produce oranges, by its very nature, it MUST produce apples. So a Christian will be recognized by their fruit. A Christian MUST produce the good works of study, prayer, fasting, giving to the poor, worship, sharing the good news of Christ…. those things don’t save a person, instead, they show, they give evidence that the person is really saved.

All that is the foundation for what Christ says next. He says that when its time for judgment, only those who did God’s will are going to get into heaven. Many, however, will stand before God and point to the fact that they were uber Christians. They were leaders in Billy Grahams ministry and taught Sunday school all their lives, and didn’t miss a Sunday at church for 20 years… and God will tell them to go away because he never knew them. This is interesting because he just said a Christian will be know by their fruit. But now he is telling those who had much fruit that they weren’t Christians. Why?

This can only mean that the doing is not enough. You can not earn your way into heaven. You can’t twist Jesus’ arm and make him let you into heaven because you deserve it. No. The source of our good works must be from God calling us to it. WE must be doing the will of God, not the will of Stephen. That’s a scary thing. How many times do I really ask God for wisdom in doing something? Not once or twice but over and over to test his will. Do I fast and ask God to give me discernment about what I am to be doing? Or do I use human logic to figure out the best solution and then ‘ask’ God what he wants the night before I do what I have figured out? I think most of the time I just ask God to approve Stephen’s plan. How many times is my plan actually formed because of the information I got from him?

I think that its so important for me to remember in all the things I’ve been thinking about in the last year about us needing fruit in the Christian life, that all this fruit must come from God, the vine. It must all come from God. All the good works must be God’s ideas, not mine. (I’m not sure how that connects with the fact that we are supposed to do everything in scripture because I don’t know that we really have time in the day (even if we did nothing but that) to do all the things we see in scripture. But I’ll work on that…)

I can not DO all the stuff just for the sake of DOING. I need to do the things God has called me to. If other things fall by the wayside, so be it. I must be about doing God’s things, that I receive from God’s will.

(just as an ending side note… part of the sermon I heard on Sunday from Romans 12, when the pastor was talking about laying yourself on the alter and putting yourself and your life and your plans on the alter and letting them die so that God’s plan and will for your life can actually happen … he showed us that in the passage, the RESULT of that was that we would no longer look like the culture around us. The result of that was that you would be able to discern God’s will. So if we REALLY want to know God’s will for our life, first we have to stop looking like the culture around us.)

True Importance

So I heard a message this morning about the fact that we can not earn God’s blessings. Although we try to do all the right things to get God to love us more, it just wont work. He is crazy about us aside from what we DO. Instead, in thanks and gratitude, we are supposed to put our lives on the alter as living sacrifices. We are supposed to put him above ourselves. We are supposed to make his priorities, our priorities. And although most people say they are too busy to study or pray, we could find if it was truly a priority. The pastor said that if something important came up, we could find the time to do it. Therefore, no matter what we say, the truly important things will always be given time and resources in our lives. And if we don’t put time and effort into God then he is not really a priority in our life.

This is all so true. If God is important to us, we will find time to spend with him. If God is important to me, I will make time in my schedule to pray. I will carve out space for studying his word. I will give up a television show so that I can go out and share the gospel with someone, or bring a homeless guy a meal. I will hit the snooze 1 less time a few times a week so I can memorize my weekly verses. All of these are such basic, entry level things when it comes to being a follower of Christ. But so many people struggle with them. Why? Because serving the poor is not a priority in my life. No matter that of everything Jesus talked about over 50% of his messages were about helping the poor (I’m not sure of the exact number). No matter that James shows that true religion is seen when we help those in need. That’s ok, I gave my offering in church and now it’s their job; now can pacify my guilty conscience. Yet, if ‘the church’ were truly doing its job, there would not be rampant homelessness. If the people of God were truly doing their job, more single moms would not have to be working 3 jobs to put food on the table. There would not be droves of elderly ladies sitting at home for weeks on end with no one to talk to.

So I rant and rave, but what can I do? What if I took one evening a week to go out and spread the love of God? It would be easy to get a ridiculously long list of people that need help from my church. There are homeless people to feed. There are single parents who could use their lawn mowed, windows washed, or dishes done. There are youth who are desperate for someone to pour into their lives. There are young parents on my street whose marriages are struggling because of the new baby and could use a date night (and yes, there is more than enough room in my budget to not only provide the babysitting but the dinner as well… if I can find the money to out to eat, I can find the money to send someone else out to eat). There are elderly ladies who are sitting at home alone and haven’t talked to anyone in weeks. I could find a house in my neighborhood that needs their lawn mowed and go tell them that I just wanted to share God’s love in a tangible way and mow their lawn with no strings attached. I could go tutor a kid afterschool. I could invite everyone on my street over to my house for burgers and provide all the food – meat, sides, and yummy deserts. I bet there are some people that could really use a reminder that God loves on them and cares about them…

These are simple things. They take very little time and very little money. These are things I can do… these are things you can do…

Will we lay our lives down on the alter? Or will we continue to spit in God’s face and tell him that our plans and desires are more important than his?