Fall is Here

It's the first day of November and Fall is back in its full splendor. I think I'm officially changing my favorite season from Summer to Autumn. Early Autumn, when the air is crisp and the leaves are gold and crimson. Not late Autumn, when the trees are naked and dead, and the leaves are rotting, and the snow begins to fall, hinting at the hell-frozen-over scenario that is to come.

Right now, we're in the middle portion of this season. The air is still crisp, and pumpkins dot the landscape while the smell of apple cider fills the air. But it's getting colder and darker. It will get even darker...er after the time change this weekend.

I leave you with the image of me scraping frost off of my windshield this morning and hoping that the heat would kick in as I am driving to class.

It's coming, people.

The Kindness of Strangers

I'm reading Donald Miller's book Through Painted Deserts right now. It's about a road trip from Texas to Oregon that he and his friend Paul went on years ago, and the things that were going through his mind at that time. It's been a good read, even though I'm still near the beginning of the book.

It turns out that the old Volkswagen van that they took on this trip broke down on their first day out. They pulled off the highway and headed into a small town to get it fixed, only to find out that there was only one mechanic there, and he was out of town that day. However, the people they talked to informed them that there was a man in town named Ben that owned an old VW van just like theirs, and that he might be able to help them.

So they followed the directions to this stranger's house and met him. Immediately upon hearing about their car trouble, Ben went about fixing their van with no apprehension whatsoever. It turns out it was an easy fix, and they were on their way in no time. They promised to send him a postcard from the Grand Canyon when they got there, and he enthusiastically gave them his mailing address so he could get it. Then he waved them off and they continued on their journey.

This story reminds me a lot of what my fellow travelers and I went through on our way to Colorado last March. Our van broke down on our first day and we had to rely on the kindness of strangers to get back on the road again. It was absolutely amazing to see the ways that people blessed us that day, and it touched us in a way we'll never forget.

The kindness of this stranger touched Donald and Paul in a way that undoubtedly affected them for the rest of the trip and beyond. And perhaps it's affected everyone who's read this book as well.

Fifty Years

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of the first man-made satellite into Earth's orbit. Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957 and sparked the space race to the moon landing that revolutionized technology, defined American and Soviet patriotism, and stretched the boundaries of human achievement.

Here's a link to the USA Today article on the anniversary

You Might Be An Engineer If...

I found this list here. Almost every engineering student at Western should be familiar with it already, but here are some signs that you might be an engineer (or an engineering student).

You Might Be An Engineer If...

• You have no life - and you can PROVE it mathematically.
• You enjoy pain.
• You know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
• You chuckle whenever anyone says "centrifugal force".
• You've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
• It is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.
• You frequently whistle the theme song to "MacGyver".
• You know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.
• You think in "math".
• You've calculated that the World Series actually diverges.
• You hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function.
• You have a pet named after a scientist.
• You laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
• The Humane society has you arrested because you actually performed the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.
• You can translate English into Binary.
• You can't remember what's behind the door in the engineering building which says "Exit".
• You have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there's a wind-chill factor in the lab.
• You are completely addicted to caffeine.
• You avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.
• You consider ANY non-engineering course "easy".
• When your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe.
• The "fun" center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.
• You'll assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.
• The blinking 12:00 on someone's VCR draws you in like a tractor beam to fix it.
• You bring a computer manual / technical journal as vacation reading.
• The salesperson at Circuit City can't answer any of your questions.
• You can't help eavesdropping in computer stores... and correcting the salesperson.
• You're in line for the guillotine... it stops working properly... and you offer to fix it.
• You go on the rides at Disneyland and sit backwards to see how they do the special effects.
• You have any "Dilbert" comics displayed in your work area.
• You have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work.
• You have never backed up your hard drive.
• You haven't bought any new underwear or socks for yourself since you got married.
• You spent more on your calculator than on your wedding ring.
• You think that when people around you yawn, it's because they didn't get enough sleep.
• You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon
• You've ever calculated how much you make per second.
• Your favorite James Bond character is "Q," the guy who makes the gadgets.
• You understood more than five of these jokes.
• You make a copy of this list, and post it on your door (or your blog!)

Faith, Hope and Love

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

I found this passage the other night and it peaked my interest. In these verses, Paul is greeting the church in Thessalonica and makes a point to encourage them in their "work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope". The trio of faith, hope and love appear in many different places in the Bible, but I found the way Paul pairs up work, labor and steadfastness alongside the three very refreshing and a bit encouraging.

I think it's good to be reminded that while we walk with Christ, it is not through Him alone that we begin to have faith in Him or hope for the future, let alone love for others. It takes work on our part in order to achieve these things. We must be active in our faith, hope and love. We don't always have faith, but we need to work at it and take a step when it feels like the world is falling out from under us. We don't always want to love our neighbor, but we have to keep loving when we don't feel like it, because love is more than a feeling. Hope wanes in the night, but it's when it begins to fade that we need to grasp onto it the most.

Like anything else worth accomplishing, faith, hope and love take work and time. But remember that we are not alone. Through Him, all things are possible.

What Every Christian Should Know #6

Here is #6 of Keith Giles' monthly series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't). Interestingly enough, this one correlates perfectly with what the Xperience is doing this year. Giles talks about how he and his wife planted a church a few years ago and they decided to create a "house church". This is almost exactly what our ministry is doing at Western right now. You have to believe me when I say that this wasn't planned at all and I just randomly picked today to update my blog with this bit of his series. Here's a snippet:

When we first told our friends what we envisioned doing, many looked at us as if we had three heads. To be honest, I felt like I was insane whenever I tried to explain it to people. It just seemed so crazy and so "out of the box" to me, because no one I knew had ever done this before. I had grown up in the traditional church. I had been licensed and ordained in the denominational church. My entire Christian experience was totally connected to the modern, organized way of doing church. To step outside of that structure in order to follow our calling seemed uncertain at best, and downright terrifying at worst. This was what it felt like to be a pioneer, loading up the buckboard with supplies and heading West into the great unknown with only your family, a few provisions, and a lot of faith.

There are times when people say that we have left the Church. In fact, more often that not, whenever I hear someone refer to those in the house church movement, it's to say they have "left the Church". This illustrates one key misunderstanding that I'd like to clear up.

If you have surrendered your life to Christ and have an ongoing, daily relationship with Jesus, then you ARE the Church! This means you cannot leave the Church. You can decide to worship in another way, or in another place, or outside the walls of an established, organized expression of the Church, but unless you break fellowship with other believers, or turn away from your daily walk with Jesus, you cannot, and you have not, "Left the Church".

And another:

So, if you ever feel called to change the location of where you worship, or if you feel the need to change churches, or perhaps even to join a House Church, please never forget; You ARE the Church! Church is not a meeting you attend or a building you gather in. You are the Church as long as you have surrendered your life to Christ and you daily seek His face and follow His teachings. If you gather with other believers, in a gymnasium, under a tree, in a home, by the beach, etc., then you are the Church and you can never leave it, unless you completely turn away from Jesus and abandon the Faith.

One of the most amazing things I've discovered in leading a House Church has been in realizing that we are called to be the Church and not to attend one.

Fusion

Things are changing. Finally. Within a few days, Western's campus went from a ghost town to a rat race. A lot of my friends have returned from their respective corners of the world, while others have gone on to better things. I spent last weekend at the Xperience's leadership retreat, and I'm starting to get excited about this new year. Our ministry is going to be much more active than it has in the past.

We're switching to a cell ministry. The Xperience will be composed of several Fusion cell groups that meet in various places around campus. These groups will become small house churches, where people come together and worship God in a very close-knit invironment. Once a month, these groups will meet together for a church service that will be far from traditional. It will be.....Xperiential. Essentially, we are trying to be more effective by having Christians involved in church rather than just listen to someone talk for an hour and then go about their weekly business. It's an interesting change and we'll see how it goes.

One Year

I'm a day late on this one, but my blog is one year old. I started Spiritual Reboot on August 16th of last year in order to voice some of my opinions on the church and Christianity. There were some things that I needed to discuss that I didn't feel I could seriously let out by any other means. In that way, this blog has been a path to freedom for me to be able to talk about things that would never have been brought up in every day conversations. When this blog started, it was a way for people to see a side of me that many people had never seen before, and it has spurred a change in me. Now, I feel more comfortable having deeper conversations with people. In fact, I fear that sometimes I may annoy people with my opinions and problems.

This blog has been very therapeutic in many ways too. There were some occasions when I my mind would be a jumbled confusion and by making a post to this site, I was able to straighten it all out. I never expected anyone to actually want to read my blog, and there have been times where I have been surprised that they really do. But even if no one read my blog, the shear process of getting my thoughts into an organized block of words and being able to better understand myself through those words would be reason enough to have it.

And so the Reboot continues. A year ago, I was rediscovering what it meant to be a Christian. A year later, I'm beginning to realize that what I am going through, this Spiritual Reboot, will be a continuous learning process. Once I get my mind around the message of Christ and the role of the church in this whole scheme of things, the Reboot will begin again. I will keep returning back to the beginning, back to what everything comes down to: the love of God.

Here is a link to my first post. And here's hoping that this will be another good year of growth and learning.

Campus Cable

I just moved into Western's campus apartments a few weeks ago, and I'm just starting to get used to life in a new place. Life in WMU apartments has a few differences from life in normal dwellings. One such difference is the fact that I now have different television stations from the rest of Kalamazoo. I have what they call Edu-Cable, complete with Asian, Russian, and Bollywood channels. It's not a new thing. I had Edu-Cable when I lived on campus a couple of years ago. And this will not be news to many Western students.

I no longer have the Sci Fi Channel which, quite honestly, is not much of a sacrifice. The only thing worth watching there is Battlestar Galactica, but I'll probably be too busy to watch it on TV and will probably end up downloading the episodes anyway.

But something I noticed that I found rather peculiar is the fact that they have a different Weather Channel for college students. As I was getting around for work one morning, I was expecting to find the usual pleasant colorful palette of greenish-blue that the Weather Channel normally uses to hue its local on the 8's. Instead, I found an ugly mix of blue and orange backing a very rough looking display of graphics. Why the different color scheme? Well, it's the college version of the Weather Channel, of course! I don't really get this. Isn't the weather the same for everyone? Why have a different version for WMU? Perhaps there's a really good reason for this, but I don't see it. I'm being nit-picky, but it bothers me.

That being said. I now have a channel that I didn't have before: NASA TV. That's right, baby. For the last couple of days, I've been able to monitor the progress of the International Space Station and Endeavor in orbit and fully embrace the geek side of myself. I love it because they don't dumb stuff down for you. Most of the time, you're just peeking in on NASA missions and watching their live feeds. There are some stunning visuals too. I could just sit and watch the ISS's view of Earth for hours.

I like the live WMU cam too.

Heaven

I struggle with the idea of heaven. It's not that I don't believe in heaven. I do. It's the idea of what life with be like once we get there that I have problems with.

There are many different ideas of what heaven is like. A popular one is that we'll all have wings and will spend eternity on a cloud, strumming on golden harps. Another is that we'll live in mansions on streets of gold (I think that one is from the commercialist viewpoint). Still others think of heaven as a place where we will worship, day and night, the most high God in complete bliss due to our complete and sincere love for Him.

Well, for one thing, I don't believe that we'll spend our time in heaven with God. As I stated in my post Heaven is not Our Home, I believe that Christ will come to us on Earth, and later the New earth. But that still doesn't change the whole "eternity with God is bliss" thing. I find it hard to grasp the idea that we'll just be sitting around, worshiping God or enjoying our mansions or strumming our harps till the end of eternity.

My problem with this idea lies in the fact that we are all human. And most of what makes us human is the fact that we struggle. The very essence of humanity is that we are constantly changing, constantly evolving, and constantly battling all the circumstances and issues that come at us in our lives. The very reason we live is because we choose to live. We fight to live. Why do you think we fight God's direction in our lives? We are strugglers.

So if one day we will live in peace and harmony with God in eternity, does that mean that we will cease to be human? If we are no longer struggling, what will we be doing? Did God create us to simply worship him? I believe that one of the main reasons He created us was to worship Him, but not just by crying out, "Glory to God in the Highest" a thousand times a day. God has a choir of angels that do that. No, we worship God with our lives, by living out our talents and pleasures, by enjoying God's creation. Why do think He's making a New Earth? I think it is because he wants us to not only enjoy it, but to change it and make it our own. Why would he create us to constantly evolve and discover if we are to just stand around doing nothing forever?

So this is my struggle with heaven. Will we loose what it means to be human, or will God let his creation shine brightest in an unadulterated world where there is no separation between Him and mankind? Perhaps we will become far more human when that time comes. Perhaps only then, we will truly know who we are.

100th Post

My little blog has reached its first milestone. This is my 100th post on Spiritual Reboot. It seems that I had a thing or two to say about life, the universe and everything. Perhaps I'll have more to say in the future.

Stay tuned.

42

Book Recommendation: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Rob Bell is my hero. I saw him at his last Everything is Spiritual show in December and I've been listening to his Mars Hill teachings online a lot lately. I love this guy.

For those who don't know, Rob Bell is the teacher at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan. I attended Mars Hill twice last Summer, but he was on tour with Everything is Spiritual at that time, so I still haven't been able to experience the visual aspect of his teachings yet. I'd like to sometime soon, though.

Bell is an excellent and charismatic teacher with a lot of theological knowledge. But it's practical knowledge, not just the intellectual stuff that gets people on a pedestal. Although Mars Hill has a congregation of about 10,000 and would be considered a "mega-church", what draws me to him and that place is the compassion and the heart that they have for their community. To Bell and Mars Hill, caring for people in need and sacrificing your time and services for them is much of what being a Christian is all about. The belief here is that evangelism is not just about telling people the message of Christ, it's about living it too.

Velvet Elvis mirrors a lot of this. I read this book as a once-a-week devotion and it never ceased to stir something within me. Bell highlights many different subjects from church doctrine to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus to the story of how Mars Hill got started. And through every subject in this book (and every weekly teaching as well), there is one common theme.

God is everywhere. He is involved in every aspect of our lives. He is that "something" that holds everything together, and he takes joy in being involved in our lives.

I used like Mars Hill because I thought it was emergent. Now I like it because I know that it's not. It's not anything. It's simply Christian. Bell isn't concerned with titles or status, in fact, he's pretty humble about his growing fame. He cares about what is real. He's constantly breaking through barriers of churchiness and traditionalism that has plagued Christianity for so long and shadowed the reality of what being a Christian really means. But at the same time, he rejects the bitterness toward these things, which is something I've been going through, personally. He loves God, and he loves people.

This book is awesome. I have never met a person who has read it that has said otherwise. I highly recommend reading it. Hopefully it will stir something up in you as well.

Happenings and Thoughts

It's been a while since I've last blogged, partially because I've been busy with classes and work and partially because I've felt rather uninspired as of late. Actually, unmotivated would be a better term for it. I have ideas of things I want to blog about, but I don't. I just don't.

I finished my first class of the Summer and didn't do so well, and two days later I started my second class. Meanwhile, I look around and realise that we're already halfway through Summer. I've been tired a lot lately and a bit apathetic too. After getting pretty stressed and burnt out over my first class, I don't really have much motivation for my present one. I'm still doing the homework, but I've become a lot more laid back about it, for better or for worse.

I moved over the weekend. I now live on campus again, for better or worse. Right now, cardboard boxes loaded up with all my belongings are strewn throughout the place. I also don't have the Internet on my computer yet. I'm currently writing this post from the XP office, as it is my closest source of unfettered Internet access.

The new place doesn't really feel like home to me yet. And even though I know that it will eventually feel like home and it will be awesome having a roommate come late August, I'm not completely enjoying the place yet. It smells of cigarette smoke and there are a lot of hoops to jump through with Western's staff in order to get anything done. Again...I don't have the Internet yet. Mostly, I don't have time to get anything done. All of Western's offices close at five and I get off work at 4:30. It takes fifteen minutes to get home. Go figure.

I complain, but it's probably a good thing that I don't have constant Internet access yet. I spend way too much time Googling random things and looking at Youtube videos when I do. Probably more time than is healthy.

And while I'm still on the subject of WMU staff, I feel the need to remark on an observation I made the other day. While driving around campus, I noticed that campus police cars are a heck of a lot nicer than Kalamazoo and Portage police cars. The campus police "nazis" are notorious for writing parking tickets and leaving them on the cars of poor college students simply because they wanted a convenient place to park, rather than parking in the issued spots on the edges of campus, behind staff parking, so I'm not really surprised at the quality of their vehicles. I just thought it was an interesting thing to note.

What Every Christian Should Know #7

Here is #7 of Keith Giles' monthly series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't). I haven't had a lot of trouble with this particular subject in any of the churches I grew up in, but I know that this can be a real issue some times. It's worth checking out.

Here's a snippet:

Number 7- "Work" Is Not A Bad Word

There is a pervasive mind-set within the American Christian community that to do works is somehow in opposition to the Gospel. If you've ever heard a pastor or a well-meaning Christian chastise someone for acts of service by saying, "That's works, brother" then you know what I'm talking about.

It's easy to understand how this idea has crept into the Church here in America. We've equated the idea of doing good works with Liberal Theology, or cultic misunderstandings of the gift of salvation. By doing so, we've defined service to others out of existence, and in some cases we've even made people feel guilty for acting out their faith in any overt way.

Our mantra has become, "Salvation is a free gift! You can't do anything to earn it, and you don't need to do anything to keep from losing it." Therefore, we've concluded by inference, or by direct argumentation, that works of any kind must be in opposition to the concept of the free gift of salvation offered to us by the work of Christ on our behalf upon the cross of Calvary.

However, this idea of works being against the Law of Grace is a twisted concept. Paul the Apostle never teaches this, Peter never teaches it, and Jesus certainly doesn't ever suggest that doing good works is against the will of God. Far from it. The fact is, Jesus and the writers of the New Testament all agree that to be a follower of Christ is to be a doer of good works.

Much Better Than an Ech A Sketch

Check this out. I was just browsing the net and found this guy. He uses dirty windshields to create his masterpieces. The most creative thing I've ever come up with for a dirty car is to write "wash me" on the window.

Summer Classes

I'm currently taking Summer classes in order to fulfill some of my prerequisites required for my fall classes. My advice to any student thinking about taking a Summer class: don't do it unless you absolutely have to. Summer classes eat your soul. Whole. They devour all your time and rob you of an enjoyable Summer. Then they use your few and far between down times to pick their teeth.

I'm only slightly exaggerating. My Dynamics class has been the focal point of my life for the last two months, and my Mechanics class is about to take over where Dynamics is leaving off. These are not easy classes during the normal semesters. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT take heavy calculus-based physics classes during the Summer. It's insane. There have been times where I think I've been going insane.

But all in all, I'm doing better. I'm starting to get into a routine that's starting to work, I think. When the fall semester comes, I will be well equipped to handle the onslaught of in-depth engineering classes. Hooray, engineering classes! A real job and a life without classes and homework sounds pretty good right about now.

Some day.

A Trail of Heroes

So, I'm out on the road working for MDOT yesterday with my partner Eric, and we find these little plastic fireman figures on the side of the road. We kept finding them at pretty even spacing as we went down the road, as if someone threw them out of their car window at steady pace. It's the strangest thing. Eric and I followed said trail and picked them up as we went. We found seventeen firefighters in all. They now have a home in our MDOT truck. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more.

The Adventures of Wheelchair Man

This morning I was checking out some headlines from msn.com and I stumbled across this little article. Apparently, a man in a wheelchair rolled out in front of a semi as it was moving and the handle bars became lodged in the grill of the truck. The man was pushed four miles down the road at 50 mph before the police were able to rescue him. Don't worry, he's okay.

What a crazy story. The craziest part it this: this event took place in Paw Paw, Michigan on Red Arrow Highway. This is just about twenty miles from my apartment. It's strange to see a local story like this make national news. I'm just glad the guy's alright.

D-Day

Today is the 63rd anniversary of D-Day. This day always sends me to a sober state of mind when I think of the incredible sacrifice given by the men that stormed Normandy during one of the most important events in history. I always try to watch at least the first fifteen minutes of Saving Private Ryan in honor of that sacrifice. Please take a moment to remember the people who died on that day so that we could be free on this day.

What is D-Day?


Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

SIGNED: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Heaven is Not Our Home

Here is something that's been on my mind for a while now. Heaven is not our home, nor will it ever be. All my life, I've heard that when people die, they go to Heaven to live with Jesus. I cannot think of a single passage in the Bible that refers to this. Now, what I want to make clear is that if anyone knows of a place in the Bible that does broach this topic and if you strongly disagree with these statements that I'm making, by all means, let me know. I am making claims from what I know and I want to be informed of when I'm wrong. Also, for all intensive purposes, we are assuming you are saved by the blood of Christ when we refer to someone going to heaven.

Some claim that you go to Heaven when you die, some people believe that we "sleep" until the second coming of Christ. I have no real stance on that particular issue and I don't wish to get into deep doctrinal discussions. What I do believe is that we were created for this world. Actually, I believe that this world was created for us.

First things first. When God created Adam and Eve, He did not put them in Heaven with Him (Again, this is assuming God resides in Heaven). He placed the first people in a garden on Earth and then gave them dominion over every living thing. He created the world for us. He did not create Heaven for us.

Now, through all the texts of the Bible, we are given a common theme: God dwelling on Earth with us. God walks in the garden of Eden, God meets Abraham on Earth, He wrestles with Jacob here, He indwelt the Ark of the Covenant and resided in the Tabernacle so that He could commune with the Israelites, He came down in the form of a man called Jesus and made friends with the scum of the earth. In fact, Jesus died for the scum of the earth. One day, Christ will come back to this Earth and rule from Jerusalem, not Heaven. The Bible has God coming to us. It's not the other way around.

Normally, when a subject of slightly different doctrinal beliefs pops up, I dismiss it because I see it as unimportant to the overall mission of Christ and something that needlessly separates His Body of believers. But I feel that this is not some trivial issue, not because of a simple belief that we will leave this earth in the end, but because that belief hurts our mission as disciples.

If we start to think of this world as temporary, as simply a waiting room until we die and go to our real home, we are more apt to think of salvation as a "get out of hell free" card and less apt to reach out to others. This also stems back to the idea that the Kingdom of God is not a kingdom in Heaven, but a Kingdom of a unique sorts right here on Earth. We are the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is here.

In the end I guess I really don't like when people look to Heaven as a sort of retirement. I seriously think that our eternity with God will be so much more than just worshiping Him forever. God created us for a reason, and I don't believe it's to take the place of the angels that already worship Him non-stop. We worship God with our lifestyles and by using the gifts that He gave to us when He created us. I believe that will continue even when this earth passes away and God reveals the New Heaven and the New Earth.

To me, the very idea that He's going to create another Earth tells me that this world and our place in it are so much more than we truly know. And we should live like it.

Summer of Sequels

With the start of the Memorial Day weekend comes the official start of Summertime, and subsequently, the start of the Summer movie season. One thing I keep hearing people talking about is the fact that there are very few movies with original ideas. Besides the now usual and steady stream of replica slasher films and high school rich-girl-and-inner-city-boy-dance-together-and-become-better-people movies, there is a wide margin of sequels this year.

Particularly, sequels of sequels. That is, thirds. Just looking at the list of movies I can think of that are coming out this Summer, we have the third Spiderman movie, the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Shrek the third, the third Bourne movie, Ocean's 13, and the third Rush Hour.

These are just the movies that are part threes. There are more.

We've got another Die Hard coming out, another Harry Potter, another Fantastic Four, and another National Treasure. We've got Evan Almighty, 28 Weeks Later, and Daddy Day Camp, which is sure to be an atrocity, considering that nobody from the original cast of Daddy Day Care is returning for the second movie.

While a lot of these movies are highly anticipated (in fact, I'm fairly excited about most of them), This list of repeats begs the question: Does Hollywood have any more original ideas left? It doesn't look like they do.

There is a little bit of hope, however. Typically, movie franchises end after the third installment, meaning that the threes that are coming out this year will probably spell the end to sequels of their respective bases. So perhaps there will be more original movies next year. You know, in between the next Batman movie, the next Indiana Jones, the next Narnia movie and the next Harry Potter. There are a lot of other sequels slated for 2008 release, but some of them make me sick to my stomach considering that I never imagined that anybody would watch the first movie, let alone a second or third.

Incidentally, yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of the original theatrical release of Star Wars. Happy Birthday, George Lucas creation that spawned five sequels (so far)!

What Every Christian Should Know #8

Here is a link to number eight of Keith Giles's ten part monthly blog series entitled "TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't)".

Here is just a sample:

Number 8- "Obedience Is Not An Option"

OBEDIENCE TO JESUS IS NOT OPTIONAL
"If you love me, you will obey what I command."- Jesus (John 14:15)

Somehow we have allowed the idea that someone can be a follower of Jesus without actually obeying Jesus' teaching or becoming a disciple. What we have in modern American Christianity is a brand of religion that says to its founder, "I'd like a little of your blood to cover my sins, but I don't care to follow you or take your teachings seriously. If you would please excuse me, I’ll get on with my life. See you in heaven." Dallas Willard calls those kinds of people “Vampire Christians” because all they want is some of Jesus’ blood, but none of His leadership.

"You are my friends if you do what I command"- Jesus (John 15:14)

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
"Easy Grace" is the short answer. The long answer is that, in an effort to streamline evangelism and create a sound-byte version of the Gospel we've reduced the message to "Pray this prayer if you don't want to go to hell when you die". This makes the ninety-second evangelist happy, but the full message of the Gospel is lost in the process.

Gone is the idea that Jesus calls people to follow Him. A decision to become a Christian is a decision to give up your personal rights to call the shots in your life. It means submitting to God, to the teachings of Jesus and the authority of the Word of God as the one and only source of how to live.

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." -Jesus (John 14:21)

Remnants of this more complete Gospel are still part of our Christian-ese language. People still say things like; "I gave my life to Christ" or "When I surrendered my life to Jesus" as part of their church talk, but many don't literally mean that they've done this, or that they are still doing this today.

The decision to obey Jesus, to submit to Him is a daily decision. We must bend the knee and whisper the prayer of surrender to Christ each day. It is not a one-time thing. This is why Jesus urges His disciples to ask for daily bread when they pray and to make their obedience to Him an act of daily taking up our cross to die to ourselves. This is also why God's mercies are new every morning. We have short memories and God knows we need to surrender to him afresh with every breath.

Some of us still sing "I Surrender All" and we still have a "Jesus is Lord" bumper sticker on our car, but many in the modern American Church have forgotten the meaning of those words. Jesus is not really the Lord because we're not actually surrendering all to Him.

This Week's Post

It occurred to me that I haven't made a blog post in over a week and that I should probably write something to keep the blog updated.

So there you go. This week's blog post.

Summer

Summer is here, people. I've started my job at MDOT again and now spend much of the work day walking down highways and looking for culverts. Fun times. It really feels good to be working again. It feels good to know that there's a paycheck around the corner too, but there's something about having a job that gives a guy a sense of purpose.

I've started my Summer I class too. I'm taking Dynamics, which apparently is a very difficult class during a normal semester. Since it's a Summer class, the course will be going at a very fast pace. We cover one week's material in one two to three hour class period. I have class twice a week, and three sets of homework are due at the beginning of each class. This means that I have to have twelve problems that are extremely heavy in differential equations done before I start work at 7:30 am on those days. It's like I'm taking a very involved, calculus-based physics class on speed.

But this weekend, I intend on relaxing between Dynamics homework. I'm heading home for Mother's Day and will get to see some of my friends back there again. I think we might even be playing beach volleyball tomorrow. It's going to be great.

Classical Music Overload

I went on a classical music overload the other day. From the time I woke up, I was looking up songs and listening to music that I don't normally listen to. It's not that I don't like classical music, it's just that I don't really spend a lot of time getting into it. But everything changed on Thursday morning simply because I woke up to Tom and Jerry.

When I woke up, I turned on my television to find a cartoon glazing my screen. It was an old Tom and Jerry cartoon. This is the kind of cartoon that they just don't make anymore. I'd be surprised if kids today knew that these cartoons existed. But we grew up on these, folks. Anyway, the episode I was watching was called "The Cat Concerto". In this episode, Tom is playing a piano piece while Jerry tries to mess it up. What ensues is a duel between the two that ends up completing the song, not destroying it.

But after that episode was over I could only think one thing.

What was that song?

As I said before, my generation and the ones before were raised on these kinds of cartoons, and so, as in the case of this episode and others like it, we were exposed to a great deal of classical music. We are exposed to it so much that we recognize this music while not knowing exactly what the music is. Television commercials do the same thing. They use classical pieces in their ads, but we don't know what they are. We just recognize them and end up humming them to ourselves.

But after watching that episode of Tom and Jerry, I decided to do what any desperate man would do in that situation.

I Googled it.

I found this site, which helped me satisfy my search for the title of that song, Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 by Franz Liszt. I'm quite sure that anybody in America would recognized this tune almost immediately. It was also featured in the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" among other places. You can download Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 by right clicking this link and saving it.

And so, with a little more Googling, I was able to find another site which tells you the Top 10 Classical Works You Know, but You Don't Know. It's definitely worth checking out.

If anyone out there has a song stuck in their head from a cartoon or commercial and wants to know what it is, ask me and I might look it up for you.

Or, you know, you could just Google it.

The Unquisition

Here's a clip from the Colbert Report that I found rather interesting.

Check it out.

End of Semester

WMU's Spring semester has ended. After a week of final exams, I start my week of relaxation. No more classes, no more tests, no more responsibilities...

...At least, for one week. After that I begin Summer classes and start work again.

But for this one week, I will relax and do very, very little.

It's gonna rock.

The Xperience had its last service on Sunday. We celebrated the end of the semester by having a huge meal, complete with ham and mashed potatoes. We said goodbye to a lot of people that have been with us for a while and a few new faces will join us next year.

For me, the end of the semester feels like the end of something more and the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

I now lick my finger and turn the first page.

What Every Christian Should Know #9

I'm a little behind on the updates, but last month Keith Giles posted the second of his ten part monthly blog series entitled "TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't)". March's subject tackles an idea that the American church pushes a very great deal. Here is just a sample of what he had to say:

Number 9 - "The Kingdom of God is NOT the American Dream"

You'd think it wouldn't need to be said out loud, but more and more I find that there is a blurred line in American Christianity between "The American Way" and "The Kingdom of God".

Maybe it's the feeling that America is God's new Israel? Or maybe it started with The Dallas Cowboys being "God's Favorite Football Team"? Maybe it's something that's been brewing since the first Boston Tea Party? I'm not really sure, but I do know that today we have a serious problem separating good old American Values from the Gospel that Jesus died to proclaim.

If you've ever doubted someone's eternal salvation because they voted Democrat in the last election, then you may have a problem in this area.

Yes Virginia, there WILL be Libertarians and Green Party members in Heaven. You'll probably live next to one, knowing God's sense of humor.

The Kingdom of God and the American Dream are not the same thing, and in fact, they are two opposing viewpoints which are in conflict on many levels.

Believe it or not, Jesus did not come so that you and I could engage in our"Pursuit of Happiness".

The American Dream is founded on the concept of every person's right to the pursuit of happiness. Whatever you can imagine would make you happy you are free to pursue it with all your heart. That's your right.

The Kingdom of God is founded on the concept of laying down your life, your idea of what will make you happy, in favor of receiving what Jesus knows will really make you happy.

I suggest reading the whole article. I think he can come across kind of harsh at times, but these things need to be said.

Saved

I've been reading Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis recently, and a couple of statements he made really stuck out to me. They've got me thinking about Christianity on a deeper level. Although these inspired thoughts aren't the overall purpose of Bell's book, they have been on my mind for a while now and his statements have helped me to put them into words. My next few posts will tackle these issues.

Here's a quote from Velvet Elvis:

"...For many, Jesus was presented to them as the solution to a problem. In fact, this has been the dominant way of explaining the story of the Bible in Western culture for the past several hundred years. It's not that it is wrong; it's just that Jesus is so much more. The presentation often begins with sin and the condition of human beings, separated from God and without hope in the world. God then came up with a way to fix the problem by sending Jesus, who came to the world to give us a way out of the mess we find ourselves in..."

There's more to being a Christian than to simply be "saved".

But that seems to be what the modern church focuses on. That is the purpose of church, right? To get people saved? What are mission trips for? Sure, there are those trips that help bring food and shelter and water to those in need, but isn't evangelism about telling people the message of Christ and to accept Him as their savior?

The dominant message in Western Protestant Christianity is "You're a sinner, but if you ask Jesus into your heart, you will go to heaven when you die." Essentially, it's a get out of hell free card. We don't want to go to hell, so we accept Jesus and try not to sin. But that is far from the point of Christ's message.

Christianity is about changing people's lives. It's about letting God get involved in your life and telling you what He wants for your future. Forgiveness is important; it is the first step in a whole new way of life. But that's not what Christianity is all about. It's not about not sinning either. We should try to do those things that honor God and try to become a good representation of Christ, but sin is not the point. Christianity is not a black and white thing. It is a fluid and dynamic walk with Christ, and we stumble and learn as we go.

Another quote:

"...The point of the cross isn't forgiveness. Forgiveness leads to something much bigger: restoration. God isn't just interested in the covering over of our sins; God wants to make us into the people we were originally created to be. It is not just the removal of what's being held against us; it is God pulling us into the people he originally had in mind when he made us. This restoration is why Jesus always orients his message around becoming the kind of people who are generous and loving and compassionate. The goal here isn't simply to not sin. Our purpose is to increase the shalom in this world, which is why approaches to the Christian faith that deal solely with not sinning always fail. They aim at the wrong thing. It is not about what you don't do. The point is becoming more and more the kind of people God had in mind when we were first created.

It is one thing to be forgiven; it is another thing to become more and more and more and more the person God made you to be."

Colorado: Day 8

At 6:00 am, approximately the same time we arrived at Horizons a week before, we packed our bags into the van and car and departed from Boulder. The sun was rising as we got onto the highway and began the first leg of our journey home. The mountains behind us reflected the morning light and shined a farewell glow toward us.

Most of us slept for the first couple hours. We stopped in Nebraska for a rest stop and put some oil into the van to keep it going strong. A few hours later, we stopped to get lunch at Arby's and then got back into the cars to eat it on the road. I read another chapter from Velvet Elvis, and it was just as good as the first.

The sun eventually set as we neared Des Moines, and we played the alphabet game a few times to keep ourselves occupied. The two cars talked over Jim's walkie talkies about our favorite memories from the past week. We also came up with some interesting questions for each person to answer like, "If someone were to make a movie based on your life, who would play you?" I think mine was Denzel Washington. In Illinois, we passed Geneseo and said another thank you and farewell to our friends who aided us in our need a week earlier.

I was riding in the car with Jim and a sleeping Riley toward the last leg of our trip. We listened to soft music while the miles went by. When we got to Michigan, we were greeted by a very thick fog. At certain points, we had zero visibility. We had to take it slow for that last couple of hours, but eventually, we made it back to Kalamazoo. We arrived at the church at about two in the morning, got our bags out of the van and said goodbye to each other; to the people we spent the last week getting to know and love.

This year's trip to Colorado was a great experience for me. I really got to learn a lot about the Islamic religion and I was able to make some pretty cool friends in Boulder. I think that God definitely uses trips like these to shape who we are in Him, and this was no exception. God has really been working in me since this trip, and I can't wait to see what He has in store for my life.

Colorado: Day 7

Our last day in Boulder was our busiest. After breakfast, Seth led us in a Bible study. He talked about Object studies - Bible studies based on specific objects or subjects in the Bible. On this day, we talked about wells. We went over the story of Abraham's servant finding a wife for Isaac at a well, and how Isaac's son, Jacob found a wife at that very same well. There was a similar story for Moses and how he met his wife at a well too. And then we went to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In fact, they had their conversation at the same well where Isaac and Jacob's wives were found. What was the subject of their conversation? Marriage. Interesting. We went into the study a bit deeper than I can explain here, but I definitely plan on doing more object studies in the future.

After Seth played us a beautiful song on his guitar that he wrote, we went our separate ways for a bit until lunch time. The group brought our pizza and juice to Georges' office and had lunch with him. We ate while he told us stories of his ministry in Middle Eastern countries and of his opposition, both physical and spiritual. Georges is such a wonderful man. I think we all could have stayed in his office and listened to him talk forever. We shared a great time together at lunch and posed for a few pictures afterward. Georges and his son, Pierre were leaving that day for a foreign country. I'm not sure which country, but I think it was one of the 'stans. We said our goodbyes and thank yous to George and left him to finish up his work at Horizons before he had to leave.

After lunch, the group decided to go into downtown Boulder and sing praise songs. So we packed all nine of us and Seth into the van and made our way there. After walking a bit, we found a bench in the middle of a mall, similar to Kalamazoo's downtown mall, actually. Some sat on the bench and some stood around it as we sang some wonderful songs unto the Lord on that beautiful afternoon. Seth taught us a very diverse selection of songs from all over the world, and we joyfully sang them. A few people came up to us and seemed interested and excited about our singing. It was great to just stand there and praise God. It really lifted our spirits after the attacks of the previous night's speaker.

After about an hour or so, we made our way back to Horizons. A few of us decided to read an entire book of the Bible. We chose the book of John, which ironically (or not so ironically), I was about to start reading anyway. We went into Georges' then vacant office and took turns reading chapters from that gospel. It was a wonderful experience. We finished in about two hours, just after dinner began. We went down and ate our last excellent Horizons dinner and went over to CU to listen to the last speaker of the week.

The last night was all about Sunni and Shi'a differences in Islam. A lot of people were very interested in that topic, and it had been brought up all week by the visiting crowd. I think he was the first speaker we had heard that week that didn't appear to have a distinct agenda to change people's minds about Islam. He simply told of the differences in the two sects and the problems and disagreements that have occurred between the two. He spoke nothing of Christianity.

After the speaker, everyone was invited to a dinner hosted by the MSA. It was a nice, formal dinner with fantastic food from different Middle Eastern countries. It was so nice getting to know more people there and continuing our conversations with the friends we had made over the course of that week. We stayed for an hour and a half, I believe, just talking and enjoying the company of others, learning from our differences and our similarities. I think the dinner was my favorite moment of the week. I just felt completely at peace and full of joy. One, by one, people from our group said goodbye to our new friends and trickled back to the Horizons house for the last time.

It was getting close to midnight and most of our group was finishing up packing and getting ready to leave in the morning. Justin and Matt took their sleeping bags up to the Upper Room and slept there for the night. Kennie had met some Afghanis and hit it off with them almost immediately. He stayed up all night hanging out with them and had a great time. The rest of us went to bed, some sooner than others, and got ready to leave for home the next day.

Movie Recommendation: The Passion of the Christ

One of the most controversial films in history, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is much more than sheer violence and blood. It is a wonderfully made movie of Christ's last day.

When I went to see this movie, I was surprised at the level of storytelling it brought. The word on the street was that it was simply a movie filled with senseless violence to make people feel guilty. What I saw was a brilliant, artistic movie that I believe should have been nominated for an academy award. The cinematography, art direction, and soundtrack are all stellar. The very fact that the film's dialogue is in Aramaic and Latin and is subtitled in English makes the experience more authentic than any other film about Jesus that I have seen yet.

That being said, this movie does have a great deal of violence in it, as violence is the subject of the movie, and of today's holiday, Good Friday. The violence is in the movie for a reason, and the reason is far bigger than making people feel guilty or disgusted by horrifying images. When you watch this movie, know that for every bit of pain that Christ went through, you were saved. Again, do not feel guilty, as guilt was not Christ's message. Freedom was the message and the passion of Jesus Christ, and it is by His blood that we can be free.

Field Trip

My Intro to Aeronautical Engineering class went on a field trip to WMU's School of Aviation today. We got to see the Cirrus SR20s that the Aviation majors get to fly. I can't express to you how jealous I am. I want one. Badly. All I've got to do is save up $450,000 and I can buy one.

Is is Cirruses or Cirri?

Colorado: Day 6

I woke up on Wednesday feeling much better than I had the day before. The group ate breakfast and met to pray and talk about the day. Then Josh, one of the Horizons staff, led us in a Bible study. Honestly, I do not remember a lot of the details of the study, but I do remember that at one point he talked about different cultures of the world. He said that we live in a world that tries to preserve cultures because we think they are good and unique and beautiful. He also presented the idea that sometimes cultures can be unique and beautiful and go against the word of God as well. Just because a culture had historical significance and value does not make it good. He used the American culture as a prime example and then went on to different cultures around the world.

After the Bible study we broke as a group and ate lunch. The food at Horizons was always wonderful and we always enjoyed it to the best of our abilities, sometimes even by going back for seconds.

After lunch, we went up to clean the upper room. Personally, I think it's awesome that they actually have a top floor called the upper room. It was basically the attic and had a lot of random stuff laying around. For the next few hours, we moved cabinets around, trashed old junk, and organized files. After that, the upper room was a little more presentable. After cleaning, we broke off and all did separate things. A few of the guys went to the mountains again, a few of us hung around Horizons and played games or read, and some of us took much needed naps for a few hours.

The guys that went up to the mountains came back with one of their party missing. Riley had decided not to ride back in the van with the guys, but to walk back down the mountain to the Horizons house by himself. We all thought he was insane and were kind of worried about him. But at dinner our prodigal son returned and was received with raucous applause.

That night after dinner, we went to CU to hear another speaker. This particular speaker did not bring a message of peace and tolerance to his audience. He had a reputation of being a very outspoken Muslim leader from the area. His talk was titled "The Glorious Qur'an" but he spent the night pretty much just bashing the Bible and the Christian God, saying that the Bible had many errors and could not be believed. Personally, I like to hear people give their honest opinions about what they believe, but this guy was not simply giving his opinion. He was mocking Christianity and actually laughing off our beliefs as foolishness. A few of us had to leave and go out to the lobby to pray.

After hearing this guy, we stayed for a bit and talked with some of our Muslim friends we had met before making our way back to the Horizons house. We met as a group and talked about how we felt about the speaker. All of us pretty much felt sick to our stomachs at the blatant disregard of respect. It is a hard thing to sit for an hour and a half straight listening to a guy laugh and smirk about how stupid your religion is. It was a hard night. We prayed for a while and went to bed, feeling discouraged and angry.

Tour Guides

I've been reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell recently, and it's been a very inspiring read. He had a few interesting things to say about telling people who don't know Jesus about Him. Here are some quotes.

"Perhaps we ought to replace the word missionary with tour guide, because we cannot show people something we haven't seen."

"So the issue isn't so much taking Jesus to people who don't have him, but going to a place and pointing out to the people there the creative, life-giving God who is already present in their midst."

"Tour guides are people who see depth and texture and connection where others don't. That is why the best teachers are masters of the obvious. They see the same things that we do, but they are aware of so much more. And when they point it out, it changes the way we see everything."

Colorado: Day 5

Tuesday was a bad day for me. While everyone got up, had devotionals and breakfast and met as a group, I was sick in bed. I woke up in the middle of the night shivering and then sweating, and decided not to meet with the group that morning. I got a couple more hours of sleep before I pulled myself up and got around for the day. After a few minutes of sitting in the Horizons house's wonderful couch room, the group came back from meeting and praying. We all sat in the couch room, reading articles about Islam and Christianity before we had lunch. I was drifting to sleep while everyone else was reading, and apparently, Seth was too.

After lunch, the group left to go for a hike in the mountains, led by Jacob and Tom. I decided not to go since I was still sick, and sat in the couch room reading the first chapter of Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis. The group seemed to have a very nice, if exhausting hike. The pictures they took are some of the best of the week. They seemed to have had a good time.

After they came back, most of the group took naps and cleaned up. We met in the lecture room and talked about the speaker that we would be going to later. Then we prayed for God to lead us at the University that night. We had dinner, (I think it was beef brisket that night) and left for CU.

The speaker that night was the mother of the president of the CU Muslim Student Association, or MSA. She referred to herself as a White Anglo-Saxon Muslim. She had attended CU years ago converted to Islam from Christianity. She met her husband at the University and had eight children with him. Much of her talk dealt with how people perceived her and treated her and what it was like being a white, converted Muslim. Her theme echoed the previous night's panel's theme of "we can all get along". It was interesting to hear a full story of a Muslim's conversion, but she was not the greatest of speakers.

Afterward, we met a lot of people and had some very good conversations with them. Jim, Chelsea and I met a man named Ahmed from Egypt. He worked for a television studio in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates running a show called Third Eye. It is a documentary show that has some very intriguing topics. They were filming Islamic Awareness Week for an episode called "Muslims in America". He was a very interesting and nice guy that we kept up with as the week went on.

We trekked back to the Horizons house and met as a group to talk about our experiences and thoughts on that night before praying and heading for bed.