Spiritual Reboot

Interesting Thoughts from Jesus Wants to Save Christians

2009-03-17T22:31:00.006-04:00

A couple of awesome quotes from the introduction of Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden:

"A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage."

"For a growing number of people in our worlds, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from."

The introduction also referenced a cool Colin Powell quote from this interview:

"You can drive up the road from here and come to a spot where there is a megachurch over here, a little Episcopal church over there, a Catholic church around the corner that’s almost cathedral-size, and between them is a huge Hindu temple. There are no police needed to guard any of this. There are not many places in the world where you would see that. Yes, there are a few dangerous nuts in Brooklyn and New Jersey who want to blow up Kennedy Airport and Fort Dix. These are dangerous criminals, and we must deal with them. But come on, this is not a threat to our survival! The only thing that can really destroy us is us. We shouldn’t do it to ourselves, and we shouldn’t use fear for political purposes—scaring people to death so they will vote for you, or scaring people to death so that we create a terror-industrial complex."

Tired

2009-02-24T23:03:00.002-05:00

I'm tired, mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

Lately, life has been getting to me. I'm currently at a place where I'm set to graduate in December, but I'm not sure how I'm going to pay for my final semester of college. I've also got a class to retake this Summer.

Last semester was not kind to me. I was overstressed and overworked and I didn't pass most of my classes. So I did a lot of work for nothing, which does not help my attitude towards school, life, or...well, anything in general.

On top of this, my car is dying. Just in the last month, it lost power steering and it has had a lot of small problems. But now I'm losing my transmission and can no longer drive in reverse. This makes a stressful life even worse.

Right now, I'm scraping to make rent for a couple more months, let alone pay for a Summer class and another Semester of school, and certainly cannot afford a new car.

Maybe this is a spiritual attack. I don't know. If it isn't, I'm not sure what is. I'm starting to lose hope that I'll graduate, that I'll get through this. I don't feel like God's listening to me when I pray anymore. I'm wondering why He has put me in these circumstances, but He's not talking.

Pray for me.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Twelve - The Twelve Days of Christmas

2008-12-24T01:41:00.003-05:00

A lot of people have heard of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and have heard the song, but do not know what it is actually referring to. Originally, it started out as a Scandinavian solstice festival that lasted for twelve days. After Europe became Christianized, this festival became incorporated into Christmas, and the twelve days became counted as the days from Christmas to Epiphany.

The celebrations of the twelve days largely took place at night, starting Christmas night. A lot of Saturnalia themes snuck into the twelve days in the Middle Ages. The days would be filled with feasting and merrymaking, much like the old Roman festival, and the festivities would climax on the Twelfth Night.

These days, there are several holidays that take place during the twelve days that are recognized by different countries around the world. Among these are Boxing Day, St. Stephen's Day, and Feast of the Innocents. Some people still give gifts on the Twelfth Night, some give gifts each night.

It appears that the song originates in France and could very well have been a part of the Twelfth Night festivities. In such a festivity, singers would have had to remember all parts of the song correctly. If one of them made a mistake, they would have to pay a good natured penalty of some sort, like a kiss.

According to PNC, the price of all the items in the song would cost $21,080 this year, and $86,608 if the items are literally given as the song suggests.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eleven - Commercialization

2008-12-23T20:35:00.003-05:00

After the mid-1800s revival of Christmas, a larger emphasis was placed on its celebration. The idea of spreading peace and good will towards one another became a must. In fact, not enjoying or taking place in Christmas festivities might very well make you into a "scrooge".

One of the major ways people spread good cheer was by the giving of gifts, a tradition rooted in the holiday since before it was established. With so many people buying gifts for one another, it didn't take long before the economic significance of the holiday season became apparent.

As soon as people began to purchase Christmas gifts for each other regularly, the fear of the holiday becoming commercialized started to spread. Many were worried that the true meaning of the season was being overshadowed by how much money people felt they needed to spend on gifts.

Today, Christmas is the largest economic stimulus in many nations. In the U.S., the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas mark the rat-race time of year to go shopping. This race is jump started by "Black Friday", the day after Thanksgiving, where many retailers promote sales on items. This year, a man was trampled to death while opening the doors at Walmart on Black Friday.

Many companies, such as Coca-Cola, use Christmas images to sell their products during this time of year. Car companies and jewelers promote their products much more heavily in hopes that consumers will spend money in order to show their love to one another. Just about every advertisement this time of year has changed a traditional Christmas song to sing about their products or sales.

To some, going to the store decked out with Christmas decorations and purchasing gifts for loved ones is a favorite part of their holiday. To others, it is a stressful time that they have to get through every December. But every year, the question is always presented. Has commercialization ruined the true meaning of Christmas? And every year, the same routine persists.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Ten - The Debate

2008-12-21T18:15:00.003-05:00

Ever since the its inception, Christmas has seen a great deal of debate over whether or not it should be celebrated. Early theologians made the case that only sinners celebrated the birthdays of gods, and the Christian God should not be treated likewise. This school of thought was defeated when Christmas became a was declared the official Christian holiday.

And over the years the holiday suffered more disagreements about the way Christ's birth should be celebrated. The church did not look too highly upon Yule trees, logs, singing secular songs, or even gift giving. But there always seemed to be a church leader that incorporated the traditions into the mass, eventually allowing the acceptance of these traditions in Christianized fashion.

But the Christianization of the holiday meant that it was a Catholic holiday, and when the reformation stuck, not celebrating the Lord's birth was another way to rebel against the overpowering Catholic church. Protestants were known to call Christmas "trappings of popery" and "rags of the beast".

During the English Civil War in 1647, British parliament outlawed Christmas. Many Catholics responded to the Christmas ban rioting all over the country. Rioters even occupied - and decorated - Canterbury for several weeks. Charles II removed the ban in 1660, but there were many in the church who disapproved of the celebration of Christmas.

Similarly, it was widely disapproved of by American Puritans too. Many places outlawed Christmas, while German settlers celebrated Christmas just as they had in Europe. After the American Revolution, it was seen as a British custom, and therefore not celebrated as much.

Many writers in the 1800s began to worry that Christmas was dying out, and began to write stories based around these holidays. Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, and helped to revive the holiday probably more than any other book. He presented Christmas as a time for goodwill and family and the traditions caught on once more.

President Ulysses S. Grant declared Christmas a Federal holiday in 1870, making the celebration of Christmas in America an national past time. It also opened up another debate about Christmas: commercialization.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Nine - Caroling

2008-12-19T00:41:00.001-05:00

As with most things Christmas, caroling started out as a pagan ritual. Singing to spread good cheer was part of the Roman festival of Saturnalia, as well as a way to commemorate the return of light in the celebration of Yule. Many Christmas carols started out wassailing, or drinking, songs. People sang them to spread good cheer and happy tidings.

While singing songs to celebrate Christ's mass began as a pagan tradition from Christianized peoples and therefore looked down upon by most church officials, latin songs singing of our Lord and Savior's birth eventually became commonplace in church masses. Saint Francis of Assisi is often credited for starting the tradition of latin carols in church services in the 13th century. These carols were upbeat and energetic, vastly different from the usual church music used in those times.

There are a few stories as to how the tradition of singing at people's doors began. Some stories state that carolers began roaming from door to door in order to receive food or drinks in exchange for songs and tidings. Other theories include that carolers had to go door to door because the songs were not yet allowed in church or that people sang for charity.

After the Reformation, many Protestants believed that caroling was another reflection of the Catholic church. Despite the encouragement of carols by many Protestant leaders, Martin Luther included, caroling suffered a large decline. In the 19th century Victorian era, caroling experienced a revival and the tradition has stuck ever since. Many of our modern Christmas songs were written during this time.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Eight - Candy Canes

2008-12-18T15:41:00.003-05:00

Originally, these sweet peppermint treats were straight, white candy sticks that were invented in the 1400s by French priests. As to its now cane-like appearance, there are many theories and legends.

One legend says that a choirmaster in the 1600s bent the sticks in order to represent a shepard's staff. Another theory is that people hung them on their Christmas trees and bent them in order to make them functional. However it happened, it became a seasonal tradition to decorate Christmas trees with the peppermint treats.

Sometime around the turn of the 20th century, red stripes were added to the candy cane. Now, the flavor of peppermint reminds many of this time of year.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Seven - Stockings

2008-12-17T16:06:00.003-05:00

One specific story of Saint Nicholas began the very common tradition of hanging large stockings on our fireplaces each year. The story tells of three young women whose mother had died. Their father squandered all of his money out of depression, leaving no possibility of a dowry, and therefor little chance of marriage for his daughters.

One night, the Bishop Nicholas was passing by their house and noticed their stockings hung over the fire to dry. He dropped some coins down the chimney and they landed in the girl's socks, helping them secure their futures and beginning a very curious tradition.

Over time, this became a standard tradition for Saint Nicholas day, and eventually Christmas. Dutch children would lay their wooden shoes in front of the fireplace and Santa Claus would fill the shoes with small toys. The tradition evolved, and now people everywhere hang up their stockings in hopes that Saint Nicholas will fill them with goodies.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Six - Santa Claus

2008-12-16T00:19:00.000-05:00

In the fourth Century, a bishop by the name of Nicholas of Myra living in Turkey earned a reputation for giving gifts to children out of love and generosity. It is greatly due to this man, Saint Nicholas, that the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas continued on after Europe was Christianized. Many Europeans still celebrate his legacy on Saint Nicholas Day, December 6th, by giving gifts to one another.

In many places, it became custom to give gifts on Saint Nicholas' Eve. One such place was the Netherlands. There, they called him Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas was dressed like a bishop, with a cape and hat. He has a long white beard and often carried a book that told whether children were good or bad that year.

The Dutch brought Sinterklaas to America, where he became Santa Claus. In the late 1800s, a cartoonist named Thomas Nast depicted him as being a plump, jolly man dressed in fur and smoking a pipe. This soon became the standard picture of Santa Claus for America, and the template was used everywhere.

The American version of Santa Claus eventually came to Britain, where he was mixed with traditional Anglo-Saxan ideas of the man. In England, he is called Father Christmas, and is not simply the gift giver, but the personification of Christmas itself.

In Germany, another gift bringer, the Christkindl, was created in response to the secular celebration of Saint Nicholas/Father Christmas. Christkindl was German for "Christ child". It was described a sprite-like infant with wings, supposedly the incarnation of the infant Jesus, that brought gifts to children. Over time, it simply became another version of Santa Claus, and Americans mispronounced it as Kris Kringle.

Over time, several more details fell into place: the North Pole, the elves, the reindeer and sleigh, the milk and cookies, etc. Today, children everywhere wait for Santa Claus to come at midnight on Christmas eve to bring them presents and Coca-Cola uses his image to sell their product.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Five - Mistletoe

2008-12-13T13:13:00.001-05:00

Mistletoe is a parasitic plant that grows just about anywhere birds take its seed, and its berries are poisonous if eaten. So why do we kiss underneath this plant?

Because of the fact that mistletoe seemed to spring out of nowhere, it was yet another symbol of fertility to ancient Anglo-Saxons. Due to this symbolic nature, and the thought that mistletoe was an aphrodisiac, it was said that if a woman were kissed underneath a sprig of the plant, she would be married in the next year. Proper tradition says that after kissing, the man should plug a berry from the sprig. After all the berries are plucked, the fertile nature of the plant is gone, and the kissing is over. It is also considered bad luck not to observe the tradition if caught underneath the mistletoe.

This tradition seeped its way into many different cultures. It was practiced in Scandinavia, Greece, France, and may even been a part of Saturnalia and Yule. Today, people put mistletoe in their homes to observe a fun tradition that many either take part in or seriously avoid, depending on who ends up standing with them underneath the plant.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Four - The Yule Log

2008-12-12T20:23:00.001-05:00

The burning of the Yule Log is another tradition from Northern Europe. The Yule Log was a large log that was burned on the winter solstice to represent the survival of light in the dark winter. Wine and spices were often poured over it and it was thought that burning the Yule Log kept the house free of spirits and brought luck to the home. People often saved the splinters and unburned parts of the log to start the next year's log.

When it became a Christian tradition, the fire changed from a symbol of the sun to a symbol of the light of Christ, the savior, although many of the same superstitions still held.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, a Yule Log desert was created out of rolled up cake and frosting in order to resemble the actual logs. It has now become a traditional Christmas desert.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Three - Christmas Trees

2008-12-11T22:29:00.001-05:00

The ancient Germanic festival of Yule is probably the source of even more modern Christmas traditions than the Roman Saturnalia. The name Yule is descended from the old English word geol, which may have meant "feast" or "wheel", and it may have been an ancient name of the god Jul. Again, it was a celebration of the winter solstice and the beginning of the end of the yearly darkness.

In Germanic traditions, many things in nature represent fertility and life. Evergreen trees were especially symbolic in that they were still green and full of life during winter. For this reason, and/or the fact that they may have worshiped the druids that supposedly lived in the trees, they cut one down every year, brought it into their homes, and decorated it.

These Yule trees eventually became part of the Christmas tradition when Germans became Christianized. Again, many church leaders looked down upon this act, and some still do to this day. But nevertheless, tradition stuck and Christmas trees were a seasonal celebration in Germany.

It is said that the tradition spread to Britain after King George III's German wife, Queen Charlotte, brought the Christmas tree into the royal family. Their daughter, the soon to be Queen Victoria, took part in these celebrations. After She married her German husband, Prince Albert, the tradition became even stronger, and in the mid 1800s, people all over England began to decorate Christmas trees.

This tradition gradually spread to America, mostly through German immigrants. Eventually, it became commonplace to decorate a fir tree in your home for Christmas. Would it really be Christmas without a Christmas tree?

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day Two - Gifts

2008-12-09T00:16:00.000-05:00

The nature of gift giving on Christmas takes its root in the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia. This festival was the origin of the "eat, drink and be merry" principle of our modern Christmas celebrations. Saturnalia lasted a full week and consisted of singing, gambling, feasts, practical jokes, and even the switching of slave/master roles in jest, although there was still an understanding of the usual roles. But also during this week long celebration, people would make and give gifts to one another.

Because Saturnalia ended on December 23rd, the traditions continued on as Christmas celebrations. Early church leaders did not like these traditions, as they were clearly pagan rituals. Many people continued on anyway, justifying it by the fact that the magi came with gifts for Christ. There was also one particular man who made the tradition famous (More on him later). By the Middle Ages, the giving of gifts was a generally accepted part of Christmas.

Eventually, the tradition of concealing the gifts in baskets and plain paper developed in order to keep the presents a surprise until they were opened. By the early 1900s, colored ink had become readily available and fancier wrapping paper could be printed and sold to gift givers.

Twelve Days of Christmas: Day One - Christmas Day

2008-12-07T19:30:00.000-05:00

Nowadays, December 25th is regarded as the traditional date of Christ’s birth, and therefore we celebrate it as such. It is, of course, not the actual date of His birth - there are no records that show the actual date. But why was December 25th chosen?

Early on, there was a great deal of debate concerning whether or not the birth of Christ should be celebrated at all. It was the way pagan kings were honored and many church leaders thought that it would be wrong to treat the Lord in the same manner. Those that did celebrate His birth chose a multitude of dates to recognise it, from Epiphany (January 6th) to just about any given date in the Spring, all for various reasons.

Choosing the date of December 25th was an extremely controversial decision because it was already an important date for pagan deities. On the ancient Roman calender, the 25th was the winter solstice. Since this was the day that daylight began to increase, it was celebrated by Romans as the “birth of the unconquered sun” and was also considered the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian sun god. In an apparent attempt to make these pagan holidays holy, the Christian church began to observe the birth of their Lord on that day.

In 336, Emperor Constantine declared Christmas (or Christ’s Mass) the major holiday for Christianity. Although the Eastern church still celebrated it on January 6th, most conformed to the new traditional date of the 25th of December. These days, most Western churches consider January 6th to be the date of the Magi’s arrival in Bethlehem.

Twelve Days of Christmas

2008-12-02T12:12:00.001-05:00

Christmas time is here again, and we're pulling out the decorations, buying Christmas trees, singing carols, and fighting people in department stores. What a wonderful way to remember our Lord's birth.

I joke, but do you ever wonder where these strange traditions came from? Why do we, in fact, stick a tree in our house and decorate it? Why do we give gifts and kiss each other under a strange plant that we're not supposed to eat?

This holiday season, I've decided to do some research into our Christmas traditions so we can better understand the reasons for them. So, I will present twelve different topics on this hodge-podge of a holiday we celebrate.

New Blog

2008-07-23T06:33:00.002-04:00

I've created a new blog, Eve of Destruction. I intend for it to become my main one. I'll still post on Spiritual Reboot from time to time, hopefully more often than not.

What Every Christian Should Know #1

2008-07-08T01:06:00.001-04:00

Here is the last of the ten part series from Keith Giles' blog entitled Top Ten Things Every Christian Should Know (but Probably Doesn't). I think that this topic has been the main driving force of Spiritual Reboot from the get go, meaning that in all my humble ramblings there has been an intent to get back to what really matters in Christianity.

What Giles talks about in this post is probably the most important issue in Christianity. I only say that because it's what Christ himself talked about the majority of the time.

Here's a few snippets:

THE TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't)
By Keith Giles

Number 1- "The Gospel Is Not About Going To Heaven When You Die"

If you read the words of Jesus you'll quickly begin to notice that all he ever talks about is something called "The Kingdom of God." In fact, the only Gospel that Jesus ever talks about during his entire ministry on Earth was the Gospel of the Kingdom. There is no other Gospel.

Anyone who reads Matthew, Mark, Luke or John (the Gospels) will come away hearing all about The Gospel of the Kingdom from the mouth of Jesus. Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was for here and now. This was the "Good News" in a nutshell- Anyone who wanted to enter God's Kingdom could do so on the spot. Jesus demonstrated what life in the Kingdom looked like. The Beattitudes are a picture of what life in the Kingdom looks like. Nearly every single parable of Jesus is designed to explain a particular facet of the Kingdom. His Sermon on the Mount declares the values of this Kingdom. His teachings are intended to show us how to live within the Kingdom, and His life was a blueprint for us to follow as we ourselves enter the Kingdom and learn from Him.

The only Gospel ever preached by Jesus is the message of The Kingdom of God. It was the new order where God's perfect will is always done in the lives of His followers. We do not need to wait until we die to enter God's Kingdom.

Many of us have been taught that the Gospel is about praying a prayer so that you can go to heaven when you die. This is false. Jesus never explained the Gospel in these terms. Instead, he talked about what it meant to follow him. He spoke about being a disciple. He described a way of life that was meant for today.

You can read the whole article here.

Change of Interest

2008-07-06T01:48:00.002-04:00

It's been quite a long time since I've posted on this blog, and a much longer time since I've written anything original on here. I think that's because I'm becoming less interested in theology these days. As I continue toward the end of my college career, I find myself focusing mostly on subjects that fall into the more technical side of things.

That's not to say that I'm not interested in theology or Christianity at all. Of course I am. I always will be. But I've come to realise that I'm not studying to become a pastor or any major part of church ministry, save perhaps to help out in my home church from time to time. I believe that we are all called to be disciples, but only some are called to be leaders.

That being said, I will still post from time to time on Spiritual Reboot. But I've been considering the start of a new, more technical, slightly geeky blog (As if having a blog in itself isn't geeky enough). More to come on that, I think. But I may try to get back into my Old Testament studies again as well.

He Who is Without Sin

2008-05-02T00:18:00.004-04:00

This is an excerpt from the book Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. It is a chapter prologue that I found very thought provoking and worth sharing. Incidentally, Card is an excellent author and I highly recommend his Ender's Game series.

A great rabbi stands teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death. (There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine, a Speaker for the Dead, has told me of two other rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.)

The rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears, and waits with the stones heavy in their hands, "Is there anyone here," he says to them, "who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?"

They murmur and say, "We all know the desire. But, Rabbi, none of us has acted on it."

The rabbi says, "Then kneel down and give thanks that God made you strong." He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, "Tell the lord magistrate who saved his mistress. Then he'll know I am his loyal servant."

So the woman lives, because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.

Another rabbi, another city, He goes to her and stops the mob, as in the other story, and says, "Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone."

The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. Someday, they think, I may be like this woman, and I'll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her the way I wish to be treated.

As they open their hands and let the stones fall to the ground, the rabbi picks up one of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman's head, and throws it straight down with all his might. It crushes her skull and dashes her brains onto the cobblestones.

"Nor am I without sin," he says to the people. "But if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead, and our city with it."

So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.

The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis, and when they veer too far, they die. Only one rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation. So, of course, we killed him.

-- San Angelo, Letters to on Incipient Heretic, trans. Amai a Tudomundo Para Que Deus Vos Ame Crist o, 103:72:54:2

What Every Christian Should Know #2

2008-04-03T15:21:00.002-04:00

Here is #2 of Keith Giles' series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't).

Here's just a bit of what he had to say.

Number 2 - "Belief Is Not Enough (Or It's Not What You Think It Is)"

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life"- Jesus
(John 3:16)

In the actual passage, Jesus is having a conversation with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. In the conversation Jesus is not asking Nicodemus to believe that Jesus is standing there, or that he is real. Obviously Nicodemus believed Jesus was real and alive because they were having an active conversation together. So, to "believe" in Jesus is more than having mental knowledge of him, or an acceptance of a series of facts about Jesus as being true.

What does Jesus intend to teach here? I think it all hangs on how you understand his use of the word "Believe". If you think Jesus meant "to think that Jesus was an historical person", or even "to accept that Jesus was the Messiah", you’d be missing the real point.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE?
I believe that what Jesus was trying to communicate in John 3:16 is the importance of living out what you say you believe, not simply saying what you believe and then living any way you please.

One way to express this is to ask yourself what it is you do each and every day of your life. I would suggest that Biblical belief can be expressed in the statement "Show me what you do, how you behave, and that is what you really believe".

WHAT DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE?
So, what do you really believe about Jesus? It's revealed in the way you live your life. It's revealed in the way you treat people. It's revealed in the way you think of yourself. It's revealed in the way you behave when you think no one is looking.

If you have really confessed and believed that Jesus is Lord, then your life will reflect that reality as you submit to the rule and reign of God in your life. It will be revealed as you search the scriptures for wisdom and in the way you apply it to your everyday life. If you have confessed it and yet continue to rule your own life as you see fit, then in reality it is you in control and not Jesus, therefore, Jesus is not Lord.

For more of this article, go to the link at the top of this post.

Good For the Soul

2008-03-30T01:57:00.003-04:00

Laughter is good for the soul. So is a nice warm, hearty, meaty bowl of chili.

I try to indulge in both whenever I get the chance. I suggest everyone else does the same.

That is all for today.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T11:38:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Goodbye Kenny

2008-03-04T23:28:00.012-05:00

Last night I found out that a friend of mine had passed away. I didn't know Kenny Mohmand extremely well. I met him on a mission trip to Colorado last year at this time. This exact week, in fact. What I did know of him was that he was a very fun guy, a people person and a lover of God.

But yesterday, God decided that it was time that Kenny be with Him. His death comes as a shock and he will surely be missed by many, many people.

He leaves behind a wife and a six month old child. I ask that anyone who reads this will take time to pray for them, to help them cope with their loss.

We'll miss you Kenny.

101 Reasons to Own a T-101

2008-03-03T17:31:00.002-05:00

After watching the first two Terminator movies again and in response to the new Fox television show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles that has its season finale tonight, I've decided to compile a list of reasons why it would be good to have a T-101 model Terminator in your possession. Here's what I came up with.

101 Reasons to Own a T-101

1. You’ll always get out of a traffic ticket. Always.
2. You are guaranteed to get the foul ball at baseball game.
3. You’ll have a role model to look up to.
4. That cool Austrian accent.
5. He can help you with any computer problem you may have.
6. He can stitch you up if you fall out of the shower or get hit by a bus.
7. You’ll look cool simply by being seen with him.
8. Fun weekends at the gun range.
9. He’s the perfect security guard.
10. He never eats.
11. He never sleeps.
12. You can cuddle with him whenever you want.
13. He’ll always remember where you parked.
14. He can reach the top shelf at the grocery store.
15. You can sit on his lap anytime (he may even bounce you on his knee).
16. He’s a great cook (Seriously, his chicken parmesan is AMAZING).
17. If someone is being loud in a movie theater, he’ll shoot them.
18. He’s a great listener.
19. When playing Twister, he’s always willing to spin.
20. He’ll always be willing to scratch your back.
21. He gives great body massages.
22. You’ll never have to do dishes again.
23. He can open a jar of pickles for you.
24. He can sing and/or rock you to sleep.
25. He’s a great conversation starter.
26. He can crush a keg on his forehead.
27. He can get you into any nightclub.
28. Two words: personal trainer.
29. You can save on books on tape by having him read to you.
30. He’ll be willing to wait on hold with insurance companies for you.
31. You’ll never get lost.
32. He’ll give you piggy back rides.
33. He always hangs up on telemarketers and sometimes threatens them.
34. He can take out the trash.
35. He can get the mail.
36. He’s good at arranging floral bouquets.
37. He’s a good DJ.
38. He gives great bear hugs.
39. He’ll let you cry on his shoulder.
40. He knows the Heimlich Maneuver.
41. He gives great sponge baths.
42. He’s a good mechanic.
43. You’ll have a chauffeur.
44. He can help you pick out sunglasses.
45. He’s always honest, sometimes brutally so.
46. You’ll have a good jogging partner.
47. You’ll have someone to weed your garden.
48. He can mow your lawn on hot summer days.
49. He’s a skilled bartender.
50. The prank calls are phenomenal.
51. He’ll do your homework.
52. He can calculate 15% of a check in .00000025 seconds.
53. He’s an amazing paintballer.
54. He’ll take the family picture without feeling left out.
55. He can operate any kind of vehicle, and you never know when you’ll need to fly a helicopter or drive a tank.
56. He knows the future.
57. He’s good with children.
58. He’s good with pets (except for dogs).
59. He can rescue you and your loved ones from a burning building.
60. He’ll remember people’s birthdays and anniversaries for you.
61. He can find the candles if the power goes out.
62. He does a great job putting coins into their paper rolls.
63. He always remembers to record your favorite shows.
64. He’s always a designated driver.
65. He would take a bullet for your any day.
66. He’s extremely good at making shadow puppets.
67. You can send him to the store to buy embarrassing products like Preparation H.
68. If there’s a problem with your neck or back, he can fix it with a touch of a finger.
69. He can change a light bulb, even if it’s still hot.
70. He’s sure to break out the guitar at a bonfire and start the singin’.
71. He’ll make sure you’re never late for work.
72. He’s a good line dancer.
73. He has great taste in leather jackets.
74. He speaks Spanish…sort of.
75. He can clap on beat.
76. He’s not afraid of terrorists.
77. Terrorists are afraid of him.
78. You’ll have someone to play catch with.
79. He can hold the antenna for you to get the perfect signal while you watch your favorite television shows.
80. He’s good at counting cards.
81. He can pick the kids up from school.
82. He can push the kids on the swing set.
83. He can reach to put the star on top of the Christmas tree.
84. He can put up a pretty good fireworks show for the Fourth of July.
85. You can impress your emo friends by having him cut himself.
86. If you get into a car accident, you won’t have to wait for the Jaws of Life.
87. He has a built-in carbon monoxide detector.
88. He has a strong handshake
89. He’s a great Guitar Hero partner.
90. He can play both parts of Heart and Soul on the piano.
91. He knows how to effectively use all the components of a Swiss Army Knife.
92. He’s great at starting fires for cozy evenings.
93. He knows the six degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon for anyone.
94. He’s good with a plunger.
95. He’s fun to go spelunking with.
96. He’ll act as a lifeguard at the pool for your kids
97. If you go skydiving and chicken out at the last minute, he’ll help you by pushing you out of the plane.
98. He’s equipped with the highest virus protection imaginable.
99. He can find the best deals at garage sales.
100. He can find the location of Osama Bin Ladin.
101. He can kick Chuck Norris’ sorry ass any day.

Time to Get a New Watch

2008-02-25T22:18:00.003-05:00

Things are breaking on me. Last week, I leaned back in my swivel chair and the back went out on me. Luckily I had a spare (this chair had been dying for some time), but it sucked. I liked that chair. The new one's not bad. It's kind of growing on me now.

This morning I looked at my watch and noticed it was on the wrong time. Then I noticed it wasn't ticking at all. My guess is that the battery is dead and not the watch. I hope that's the case. I don't feel like getting a new watch anytime soon. I don't really have the money right now, and I don't have the time to find a new watch.

That last line was a joke.

After I got back from class today I tried turning my desk lamp on. That didn't go over so well. The switch wasn't turning the right way. I tried to force it and something inside it snapped. There's something else that died on me.

These things are annoying, but not awful. At least nothing important has broken yet.

Ryan: 0 Dumpster: 2

Joshua: The Crossing

2008-02-13T18:51:00.002-05:00

Joshua 3-5:12

Joshua wakes up early the morning of the crossing and leads Israel from Shittim to the Jordan. They camp there and Joshua tells his officers to give orders to the people. They are to wait for the ark of the covenant, carried by the Levite priests, to move. Only then are they to follow behind it. They are told to keep a distance between themselves and the ark and that the ark will lead them into Canaan.

God will lead them into the Promised Land.

After three days, Joshua commands the priests to take up the ark and begin marching toward the river. Again, the Lord tells Joshua that He is with him, just as He was with Moses and gives him another command.

"You shall, moreover, command the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'"

He has the priests do just that and they obey. He announces to the whole of Israel that they will see evidence that God is with them and that He will lead them to conquer all the tribes in Canaan.

"By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will assuredly dispossess from before you the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Hivite, the Perizzzite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, and the Jebusite."

The priests step foot in the Jordan and the water begins to recede where they stand and rise up in a heap up river near a city called Adam. The Israelites cross the Jordon on dry land, just as they had the Red Sea forty years earlier. 40,000 troops from Reuben, Gad and Manasseh cross over in full battle array and march into the plains of Jericho.

Per God's command, Joshua takes one man from each of the twelve tribes to fetch twelve stones from the river bed, near the priest's feet. They take these stones to the new Israelite encampment and set them down as a memorial of their crossing. Joshua also takes twelve stones from the river bed and piles them near where the priests stand with the ark as a second memorial.

After the whole of Israel has crossed, the priests are commanded to cross as well. As soon as they set foot on the far side of the river, the waters of the Jordan fall back again and flow as before.

The Israelites camp at a place called Gilgal. Here, Joshua sets up the memorial of the twelve stones and tells the people that it will be a reminder for their children that God allowed His people to cross the Jordan on dry land.

The crossing does not go unnoticed by the people of Canaan. The Kings of the Amorites hear of the Israelites crossing on dry land and they lose any hope that they may have had against Israel.

Now forty years before, after the exodus from Egypt, Moses commanded the men of Israel to be circumcised as a covenant before God. But during their time in the wilderness, many sons were born that were not circumcised. So Joshua commands all the men of Israel to be circumcised to renew the covenant for a new generation.

They stay in Gilgal to heal and celebrate Passover there. The day after Passover, they begin to enjoy the fruits of the land that had been promised to them hundreds of years before. They eat unleavened bread and grain from the new land. The manna that God had supplied for Israel to eat no longer comes after this day, as they can now be sustained by their promised fruits.

But the land has not been taken yet. Joshua begins to look toward Jericho.

Joshua: Preparation and Intel

2008-02-05T14:09:00.001-05:00

Joshua 1-2

After the death of Moses, the Lord speaks to to Moses' servant, Joshua. He announces that it is time for Israel to cross the Jordon River and take the land that God has given to them. He tells Joshua to "Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." The Lord instructs him to continue to keep the law of Moses and promised Joshua that He would be with him, just as He was with Moses before him.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

So Joshua goes back to the Israelites and tells them to get ready to cross the Jordan in three days. He instructs three tribes, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, to dress for battle and cross before everyone else and to fight until the lands of Canaan are taken and they can settle down themselves. They pledge their allegiance to Joshua saying, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go."

Across the river lies the city of Jericho: their first target. Joshua sends out two spies to scout out the land ahead of them and Jericho itself. When they get to the city, they meet a prostitute named Rahab and stay in her house. When the king of Jericho hears that there are Hebrews in his city, he sends men to Rahab's house to apprehend them. When they ask for the spies, she lies to protect them, saying that they left through the city gate before it was shut. The men quickly go to pursue the spies down the road leading out of the city toward the fords of the Jordan.

After the coast is clear, Rahab goes up to her roof where she had hidden the two men and tells them what she knows. She tells them that she knows that God has given the land to the Israelites and that many others know this as well. The people of Jericho and the rest of Canaan are terrified of Israel. All their lives, they have heard of how God dried up the Red Sea for them and how the two kings of the Amorites from beyond the Jordon were completely destroyed by the Hebrews.

"When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath."

She acknowledges the God of the Israelites and asks the two spies to remember her kindness and spare her and her family when they attack her city. The men agree and tell her that they will remember her and spare her household. Her house is within the city's wall and they instruct her to hang a scarlet cord out her window so the troops know which house to protect. And they warn her that if she says anything about her encounter with the spies they will be free of their oath and that if anyone leaves her house during the battle, they will not be saved. She agrees and lowers a rope out her window for the spies to climb down before hanging a red cord for them to see.

The two spies hide for a few days in order to slip past the men that are still pursuing them before heading back across the Jordon. They get back to the camp and report to Joshua everything they have found out.

"Surely the Lord has given all the land into our hands; moreover, all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before us."

What Every Christian Should Know #3

2008-01-27T18:37:00.000-05:00

Here is #3 of Keith Giles' monthly series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't). This is a very serious and difficult issue to address, but I'm glad he did it. Here's a bit of what he had to say.

Number 3- "We Are (not) Called to Judge (unbelievers)"

Paul the Apostle, in his letter to the Corinthians, also provides great clarity for us within the Church on matters of dealing with this issue. "I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you." (1 Cor 5:9-13) Here Paul clearly states that he expects that those within the Church would be discerning and would deal with those within the Body who call themselves Christians and yet continue to behave in a way that is inconsistent with someone who has truly surrendered their life to Christ.

Paul assumes that if someone behaving this way is confronted by the Church, in a loving and humble way, they will certainly repent and turn away from their sins and be restored to the fellowship. If they have not truly surrendered their lives to Jesus, then they will refuse to repent and will continue in their selfish, destructive behavior, and in that case Paul echoes Jesus (from Mathew 18) and commands that this person be removed from the fellowship and treated "as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

NOT THE EASY THING, BUT THE RIGHT THING
Many in the Church today take too lightly the idea of Church Discipline. Most of us would rather "Live and let live" than to confront another person about their ongoing sinful behavior. Many feel that to ask someone to repent of their behavior is destructive and cruel, however the truth is it's the most loving thing we can possibly do for them. If we love them, we will come to them and give them an opportunity to repent and to turn away from their destructive behaviors. It's not the easy thing to do, the right thing rarely is, but it's the most loving thing to do.

Over the last few years, I've had many opportunities to confront a brother or sister in Christ who was engaged in destructive, sinful behavior. I've always dreaded those conversations. I've never enjoyed the process at all. Many times the person's response is to run away, or to get offended, or to leave the church. Sometimes, (and I am sad to say it's rare), the person responds with tears and confession and repentance and moves forward into healing and restoration and wholeness. I wish that happened every time, but for those few times it has happened, I am very grateful.

REMEMBERING GRACE
The real test comes when that person does repent and turn away from their sin. This is the time when the Body of Christ has the opportunity to practice forgiveness and acceptance. This is where we are the ones who get to prove that we also have truly surrendered to Christ and remember the amazing grace poured out on us.

Joshua: Prologue

2008-01-16T17:28:00.000-05:00

We begin at Joshua. At this point in time, the Israelites are camped on the east side of the Jordan River waiting for their cue to cross over.

Hundreds of years before, a man named Abraham lived in these lands. God met with Abraham and made a covenant with him. He promised that Abraham and his wife, in their old age, would have a son, and that his decedents would be as numerous as the stars in the sky. God promised a land called Canaan to Abraham and his decedents, and promised to be with them and bless them along their way.

Despite their lack of faith, Abraham and his wife, Sarah had a son. They named him Isaac. Isaac became a man and found a wife and they had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob took Esau's birthright and stole his blessing by deceiving his ailing father. Jacob then ran from his brother and found a wife (or two) in another land and had twelve sons. On his way back home to face his brother, Esau, Jacob wrestled God and was renamed Israel.

Jacob's son Joseph was sold into slavery and ended up in Egypt, where he rose to the become its ruler under Pharaoh. Desperate for food in the midst of a severe famine, Joseph's family eventually moved to Egypt and Jacob was reunited with his long lost son. The family settled into an area of Egypt named Goshen. Over time, the families of the sons of Jacob had families of their own. Eventually, they became known as the twelve tribes of Israel. The Hebrews. The Israelites.

They became so numerous that the Egyptians became frightened that they might take over. So the Pharaoh at that time enslaved them. For four hundred years the Hebrews were slaves to the Egyptians, forced to work under harsh conditions and treated poorly. Until one day God sent an escaped Hebrew named Moses back to Egypt to speak on God's behalf. Through Moses, God sent signs and terrifying plagues to the Egyptians until the Pharaoh, overcome with grief of loosing this firstborn son, set the Hebrews free.

Thus began the Exodus. The Israelites marched out of Egypt and started to make their way back to Canaan, the land of their fathers. The promised land. But Pharaoh's mind changed, and he set an army out after them. God provided an escape route by parting the sea for the Israelites and they passed on dry land into Sinai. The Egyptian army was not so fortunate, for when they made their pursuit across the parted sea, God closed it over them, destroying the army completely.

God led the Israelites through the desert appearing as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. There, he established the Ten Commandments and the law. He instructed the Israelites to construct the Ark of the Covenant, where God's Spirit dwelt with His people, and the Tabernacle, the temple prototype where the Ark was kept and offerings were made in atonement for sin. There, God established the Levites as the tribe of priests. And there the Israelites raised up and army that won many victories against formidable opponents, establishing a reputation that struck fear into the hearts of their enemies.

But they were human. And as all humans do, they complained. They griped and they yelled at God on several occasions. And because of their impatience and disobedience, God made it known that the generation the came out of Egypt would not live to see the promised land.

For forty years, they wandered in the desert, waiting for the word of the Lord to come. Year after year, they looked out over the Jordan River, yearning for their promised home. And one by one, the older generation died. Until finally Moses died after naming Joshua as his successor.

And so, at this point in time, the Israelites are camped on the east side of the Jordan River waiting for their cue to cross over.

And the Lord speaks...

New Reading Project

2008-01-16T16:46:00.000-05:00

I'm cracking open my Bible again and beginning a read through and study of the history of Israel. I'll start in Joshua with the initial conquest of Canaan and read my way chronologically through the Old Testament. I've never really gone though the entire history before, but I'm very interested in this subject right now. I'll be chronicling my progress here on my blog, kind of thinking out loud to myself and getting the info straight.

What Every Christian Should Know #4

2008-01-15T14:45:00.000-05:00

Here is #5 of Keith Giles' monthly series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't). This is one that may or may not be controversial, but I totally agree with him. Here's a sample:

NUMBER 4 – "SALVATION IS A PROCESS, NOT A POINT IN TIME"
by Keith Giles

One thing I find fascinating as I study the New Testament and the practice of the early church is that their concept of salvation was much different than mine. When I think of salvation, I usually think of that one day when, as a nine year old boy, I walked forward and prayed with my pastor to ask Jesus into my heart. However, Peter and Paul seemed to have a different view of salvation. In their minds, salvation was an ongoing experience, not a one-time deal....

...As I've said many times before, our question needs to be, "If you'd be alive tomorrow, who would you follow and how would you live your life?" and not, "If you died tonight, do you know you'd be in heaven tomorrow?” One question is about how you will die, the other is about how you intend to live. Salvation is about life, not death, and following Christ is about the life you're living right now, not the life you hope to live after you die and go to Heaven.

Following Christ, by definition, suggests a daily pattern of life modeled after Jesus and seeking His wisdom and guidance for daily decisions. It does not suggest a single event that took place years ago on a Sunday morning.

What Every Christian Should Know #5

2008-01-06T21:40:00.000-05:00

Here is #5 of Keith Giles' monthly series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't). I've been slacking off for the past six months, so these posts should occur in rapid succession now. Here's a sample of what he had to say:

5- "Humility Is Essential"

"God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble."
- (Proverbs 3:34)

This verse speaks volumes, doesn't it? We are handed a simple choice; To humble ourselves and receive Grace, or to continue in our pride and have the creator of the Universe oppose us. Sadly, my own pride has often been the catalyst in my life for failure, bad judgement and hurt feelings. I have learned to hate my pride and to keep a close eye on it, just in case it tries to rise up and do something stupid.

When Jesus went out and spoke to the people of his day, he centered his teaching on something called "The Kingdom of God". He told stories to illustrate what life was like in this Kingdom. He used everyday moments to point out Kingdom values. Jesus was almost always teaching his disciples, and anyone else in earshot, what the Kingdom of God was all about.

One interesting thing about the Kingdom of God is that to enter it you must first humble yourself, (see Mark 10:14-15). That's because the Kingdom of God is quite simply that place where the absolute will of God is done. This means that God is King, and that you and I are not. So, if we will not humble ourselves and submit to God's will in every way, we cannot enter the Kingdom. Better said, when we refuse to humble ourselves, we have left the Kingdom of God and entered our own Kingdom, where our will is done.

New Year, New Start

2008-01-05T01:58:00.001-05:00

The Spring 2008 semester is about to begin here at Western and I've just returned from a three week vacation. It was the most restful three weeks I've ever experienced and it was probably the first time in the last year that I've felt relaxed at all. I needed that. Badly.

For the last few months I've lost the motivation to blog. Maybe I'm getting tired of it, maybe I'm boring now, or maybe it just takes a lot of time and thought to make post after post and I'm just too busy trying to focus on school to do it on a regular basis. Perhaps it is the beginning of the end for my humble blog, or perhaps it's just another phase. Who knows? We'll see I guess.

I come back from break feeling different, though I'm not sure why. It's a strange feeling. A kind of more mature feeling. A feeling that I'm growing up and starting to look to the future in a very practical and hopeful way. Perhaps it's because I'm in my last stages of college life and many of my friends here are slowly being phased out of my life as they approach the end of their college lives.

Maybe this feeling means something, maybe it's nothing at all. Who knows, this feeling could fade like so many countless others in past years. But then again, it could be the beginning of something new.

And if I am becoming different, if I am changing, I hope it's for the good.

Oh yeah. I'm digging Conan O'Brian's beard too.

Fall is Here

2007-11-01T11:26:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-12T17:20:00.000-04:00

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

2007-10-04T13:21:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-09-23T02:53:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-18T12:28:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-03T23:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-30T01:24:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-17T23:56:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-08T22:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

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.

Book Recommendation: Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

2007-07-27T20:20:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-17T18:26:00.000-04:00

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

2007-07-09T18:01:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-30T00:45:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-25T21:59:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-18T18:57:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-07T12:03:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-06T17:56:00.000-04:00

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

2007-06-03T22:49:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-26T00:37:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-21T17:26:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-20T00:59:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-11T17:03:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-06T12:50:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-04T14:47:00.000-04:00

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

Check it out.

End of Semester

2007-04-28T12:17:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-22T23:47:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-18T12:51:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-09T14:30:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-06T11:07:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-03T19:21:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-29T12:29:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-24T22:34:00.000-04:00

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

2007-03-20T00:29:00.000-04:00

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.

Colorado: Day 4

2007-03-16T16:27:00.000-04:00

As per the usual plan, most of us got up at 7:45 for devotional and/or a shower and ate breakfast in the dining room at 8:30. I woke up kind of sick that day and picked away at a muffin, which was delicious. After breakfast, we met as a team and went up to Georges' office. For the next couple of hours, we listened to the story of his life and his testimony. We listened to how he grew up in Lebanon and was raised Greek Orthodox Christian, and how he was kicked out of his school when he started attending a church that taught of a more personal, loving type of Jesus. He told us of how he was involved in gangs for a time and how he came back to Christ. He also told us of his twelve year struggle to translate a new version of the Bible into Arabic. After much political opposition, he was finally able to get it done, and now there are millions of copies of his Bible all over the world. It was very inspiring to listen to Georges talk in the quiet of his office. He is a very gentle, soft spoken man who has gone through a lot in his life, and God has worked in him in very powerful ways.

Afterward, we went into another office and talked about what we would be doing that day. We decided to go to the Islam exhibit at the college and then return later that night to listen to a panel of Islamic students. We prayed for God to be with us that day and for the students that we would encounter.

We walked over to the University of Colorado (CU) and went to the exhibit, which included many posters that informed people about the religion and a movie about the hajj, or journey to Mecca. It was very informative and helped us learn a lot about Islam before we attended the week's events.

After the exhibit, we drove into the foothills above Boulder and climbed up to some large rocks and sat down looking over the city. We each found passages from the Bible to read to each other and explained why we chose the passage and discussed it with each other. It was very insightful and engaging, and we got to learn even more about each other as God was preparing us for the week.

We came back to the Horizons house and ate dinner before leaving for the college again. The panel was made up of eight Muslim students, four guys and four girls. Two of the girls were converts to Islam from Christianity, and one was white. It was a good mixture of backgrounds. People submitted their questions and the panel answered them as best as they could. They explained the basics and origin of Islam and the five pillars, and pretty much rehashed everything that was on the posters in that room. The overall theme and message that they seemed to want to get across, however, was that Islam was very accepting of Christianity and Judaism and that there was no reason that we couldn't get along. This, I believe, was said more or less to attract college students to Islam. Any hard questions were answered with hesitation and shallow answers. This panel did not contain the best speakers of that week.

After they were finished, we went around the room talking to different people about their thoughts on what the panel said. There were a lot of different opinions and viewpoints and we got to know a lot of people that night.

We went back to Horizons and talked about what we saw that night and how we felt about the panel and the other people's thoughts. All of us had very interesting conversations with a number of people, some Muslim, some not. All in all, the night was rather sobering. We prayed again for the people we met that night and for the rest of the week. At this point, we were all pretty exhausted from the mountain climbing earlier and went to bed.

Colorado: Day 3

2007-03-14T17:28:00.000-04:00

We arrived at our destination, Horizons International, at 6:00am Sunday morning. We found our bedrooms quickly and went to sleep. Three hours later, we were up to go to church. Matt and Riley, who had driven the most the night before, stayed in bed a got a couple more hours of sleep while we went. The name of the church is Indian Peaks Community Church, and is pastored by Georges Houssney, who is also the director of Horizons. He gave an interesting talk about remembering important things that Jesus has done in our lives. He gave the story about the yeast of the Pharisees in Matthew 16, and how the disciples had assumed Jesus was still talking about bread and not of deeper issues.

After church, we went to the store and purchased some food for lunch and for dinner that night. We went back to Horizons and made lunch: Salad and Spaghetti. It was delicious. After lunch, Matt, Justin, Alicia, Chelsea and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we had in Colorado (It was in the 50s and 60s all week). So we walked down the street to a local cemetery at the base of a foothill and proceeded to hike up the first few hills. It was a muddy and slippery ordeal and I still have some red mud on my shoes from that day. The hill was pretty steep, and due to the lack of oxygen at that altitude and the fact that I was starting to come down with a cold, I felt like I was going to faint by the time we got to the top of the hill. I spent most of the time up there with my head between my legs and holding on to Chelsea while we posed for pictures. But eventually, I regained my strength and was able to enjoy the fantastic view of Boulder from the hill. You could see the entire city from there, and the mountains stretched as far as you could see to the North and South.

We returned to the Horizons house and met as a group. We went around the circle and took turns telling everyone what God had done in our lives as per Psalm 66:16. It was very interesting to see that God works in everyone's lives in very different and powerful ways.

Afterward, we had dinner (stir fry, again delicious) and chilled for the night. We talked with new friends and played pool and Foosball for a few hours before most of us went to bed. Matt, Riley, Justin, and Jim went rock climbing that night and they seemed to have a lot of fun. Eventually, we all ended up in bed, ready to begin the first real day of the trip.

Colorado: Day 2

2007-03-12T23:40:00.000-04:00

I awoke in the church sanctuary on Saturday morning at 7:45, got dressed and had my devotional near the front door. Matt and Justin had left earlier to get the part and help Eric fix the van. Mike, the youth pastor, arrived around 8:30 while we were finishing up our devotions and getting dressed for the day. We sat around the table in the youth room talking about seminary and the differences between working with junior and senior high students. Pastor Greg came in about that time and gave us a $100 gas card, just one more blessing from these wonderful people.

A couple of their Sunday school rooms needed to be painted, and we had just so happened to have brought painting clothes. So we changed into them and put the first coats on three of the rooms. We took a break for lunch and ate Subway that Carol and Joyce had brought the night before. As we ate, we talked about our parents and our varying relationships with them. It was a very good conversation and we got to learn a bit more about each other through it. We finished up our painting and chilled for a few hours before the guys called to say that they were done with the van and it was running. About an hour later, they returned with the van in full working order. Eric didn't ask for any payment for his troubles, but we gave him a gift anyway. It was not nearly enough for what he did for us, but it was the least we could do.

So at 5:00 pm eastern time, we loaded up the van and car and took off for Colorado again, 30 hours after we had arrived at that great town of Genoseo. The sun set only about an hour after we had gotten on the road again, so most of our driving was in the night. But the full moon lit our way down I-80. The highway was open again. We had heard reports that 15 people had died the night before in the terrible road conditions. But today, the roads were fine, save for a few patches of ice. Driving through Iowa, we counted at least one hundred cars that were in the ditch. Most were facing the wrong way, some were sideways, others were completely upside down. Jackknifed semis passed in the darkness, and some just lay on their side by the road like a carcass. It wasn't until we saw these things that we fully realized God's intervention in our trip. If our van hadn't broken down the day before, we could have easily been one of the many that were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

We passed the time by sleeping and talking and playing the alphabet game through the night. Once we got deep enough into Colorado, a slight mist lined the horizon. You couldn't really make the mountains out, but you could tell that they were there. We arrived in Boulder at 6:00 am local time. As soon as we parked in the Horizon's lot, the sun peaked up from the east. We unloaded our stuff and found our beds quickly. Laying down, we were all very grateful for God's protection and provision for His children. I don't think any of us had trouble falling to sleep after that long drive.

I Am Orion

2007-03-11T23:48:00.000-04:00

Just a few minutes ago, a dear friend of mine suggested that I take a look at the stars. I decided that this was a fantastic idea, so I put on my jacket and went outside. I stared at the night sky for a few minutes and thought about the past few weeks. When I looked at Orion, hanging there in the south on a quest to slay the bull with his faithful dog behind him, I saw myself.

I saw myself in Orion, reaching for the star, my heart's desire that is ever beyond my reach. And there behind me is the bright star, God, running after me, trying to get my attention. I have my back turned toward Him, focusing completely on what I want so badly.

God's been dealing with me lately. I am understanding my selfishness in putting my desires before Him. Slowly, but surely, I'm starting to learn how to love God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength.

Colorado: Day 1

2007-03-10T22:52:00.000-05:00

At 6:00 am on Friday, after praying over our trip in the frigid morning air, our team left in one van and one car for Boulder, Colorado. Our team consisted of nine members: Allie, Matt, Justin, Kenny, Chelsea, Alicia, Riley, Jim and myself.

The roads were rough starting out. At that hour, it was still dark and cold and ice covered the roads. After the sun came up, however, the roads got a little better and the only major problem for a few hours was the harsh winds tugging on the van.

But then tragedy struck in Illinois. The check engine light came on in the van and the engine started to misfire. Matt decided that we had better find a repair place in a local town. The next exit was for a small town called Atkinson, but unfortunately, the town's only repair shop (on its dead end main street) was full for the day. They instructed us to drive to the next town to the Dodge garage and having no other options, we did.

The garage was located in a slightly larger town called Genoseo, IL. While they diagnosed the van's problem, the nine of us waited in the local Culver's for the next four hours. The staff was great and the people were wonderful there. At one point, in passing, Matt noticed a couple guys sitting at a table reading a book that he had read. Matt struck up a conversation and found that they were the pastor and youth pastor of a local church. He told them our situation and the pastor gave us his card in case we needed anything. a couple hours later, while the nine of us were trying to decide where to go if the car could not be fixed, a couple of ladies named Carol and Joyce overheard our problem. Carol was a retired social worker and invited us to stay at her house if we needed a place to sleep that night. She was deeply concerned about our welfare and had heard that the weather was so bad that they had actually closed I-80 past Des Moines.

We prayed for the trip and read Isaiah 33 and found some striking similarities to our plight in the chapter. There were also a lot of things that had nothing to do with our situation, but that's not as fun to talk about. Just as we were finishing up, we got the call from to garage. They estimated about $700 to fix the van. Since we did not have this kind of money, we decided to keep driving the van to Riley's grandparent's house and see if we could get it fixed there somehow. After driving just ten miles, however, the van started stalling out on the highway. So we turned around and headed back for Genoseo. We called the Pastor from Culver's and made our way to his church. We also got a severe scolding from Carol when we called her and told her what had happened.

We pulled into Geneseo Evangelical Free Church and sat in the lobby for a few minutes. It turns out that Pastor Greg was just about to meet with a guy that could fix our van. I believe his name was Eric. The church was gracious enough to invite us to stay the night in their building while we got the van fixed. We set up our headquarters in the youth group facility in their basement and met the Youth Pastor, Mike. We had some very stimulating conversations with him and enjoyed a rousing game of Settlers of Catan, which I am now addicted to.

Many people came by with food for us, and word kept going around about the highways being closed and horrible traffic accidents ahead of us. Outside, the wind was blowing so hard that the snow was falling almost completely horizontal. We called Carol and told her that we were safe and staying at the church and she and Joyce arrived a few hours later with enough food to feed us for a few days. They brought McDonald's and Subway, as well as packs of milk and cookies and all kinds of snacks. This was after some nice women from the church brought us sloppy joes and scotcheroos. We thanked them many times for their graciousness and thoroughly enjoyed their blessing.

We found out that Eric would be able to help us get the part and fix the van for only a couple hundred dollars. We would be on our way again the next day. We came together and shared with each other of God's great provision for us in our distress. We also went back to Isaiah 33 and found more similarities to our situation.

After praying for God to bless all those wonderful people of Genoseo that helped us in our time of need, we put our couches and sleeping bags together and went to bed in a place we never would have dreamed we'd be that night.

Back From Colorado

2007-03-10T15:08:00.000-05:00

...And I'm back. This last week has been a very interesting one, and I plan on giving a day to day overview on what happened over the course of our trip to Boulder. I just need to say that the team that God picked out was a good one. My favorite part of mission trips are the bonds that grow between the team members as the trip progresses.

Off to Colorado

2007-03-01T15:48:00.000-05:00

I'm off to Colorado, people. I'm going with a campus church group called The Gathering to Colorado University. Next week is Muslim Awareness Week, and we're going to meet with international students there in Boulder. It should be a very good experience. I look forward to relaxing over spring break and enjoying my time near those beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Jacob VII: Day and Night

2007-03-01T11:15:00.000-05:00

Gen. 32-33

Daybreak. Jacob stood looking out toward the horizon. The morning sun had risen from the east and was casting long shadows onto the field before him. This is the day, he thought. He was about to make his second confrontation of the day. This is the day I die.

The night before, he had sent his family past the river and went by himself to sleep at the foot of a poplar tree. He sat thinking about his life, his family, his actions. He sat there quietly by himself while tears slowly ran down his face. What have I done? I knew that I wouldn't get away with it. He's going to kill me. I deserve it. I deserve to die.

Day. I deserve to die, he thought as he gazed across the field. A wind came over it and the lentils danced in its tumult, frolicking without a care in the world. Jacob knelt down and grabbed a pinch of dirt between his fingers and brought it close to his nose. He smelled the earth and then let the wind take it all, returning it back to its place. Again, he turned his gaze to the horizon. He'll be here soon. My brother is coming to kill me.

Night. A snapping branch awoke him. Jacob jumped up from beneath the tree and slowly walked around to investigate. Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his neck from behind. "What is your name?" the man demanded. Jacob kicked the back of the man's ankle and was let loose from his grasp.
"Who are you?" Jacob asked, "Did Esau send you?"
"Your brother is not my business tonight. Tonight, you are what I come for. Now, tell me who you are."
Jacob bent down and ran at him at full speed, ramming his chest and taking him to the ground. The man rolled over onto Jacob, pinning him down. Jacob forced him upward with all his might and kicked him in the gut, causing the man to cry out and fall backward. Jacob tried to stand, but he grabbed his leg and brought him back to the ground again. As he fell, he shifted his weight so that his elbow came down on the man. Jacob lay on top of him, his arm pinning him down by the neck. He looked directly into his eyes.
"Tonight," he said, "You're going to tell me who I am."

Day. The sun was higher now. A messenger ran across the field and met Jacob. "Esau and his men are just beyond the mount, sir. He should be in sight any minute now."
"Thank you. Go and tend to my family." The man ran past him. He continued to stare at the horizon, willing his brother to appear. I sent him gifts, he thought. I gave him a peace offering, but that was not enough. I took his life, and now he will take mine.

Night. They wrestled for hours as the stars spun above them in their eternal symphony of light, rolling back and forth, exchanging power again and again. They rolled back toward the tree. Jacob's head hit a root and there was a flash of blackness before he came back into dizzying consciousness. "Ble.. m..," He whimpered, barely getting the words out.
"What was that?" the man said.
Jacob wrenched his arm from the man's grip and lunged at his throat, only to grab at the air as he repeated his demand, "Bless…me."
The man's fist came down on Jacob's temple, sending him back into blackness.

Day. A blurred line broke from the horizon and began to take form. Four hundred men marched toward Jacob, his brother at the head of the van. Jacob attempted to stand straight, but an overwhelming heaviness seemed to overtake him. He hunched while his stomach turned sour. It is almost time.

Night. Still recovering from the blackness Jacob spun his way out of the man’s grip. Jacob was free just long enough to stand and kick him in the ribs. The man cried out and suddenly sat up, pain covering his face. He climbed up his leg, touched his hip, and Jacob went down. White spots flashed in front of his eyes as pain slid up his side. He cried out in agony.
The man spoke, breathing laboriously, "Let me go, the dawn is breaking."
Jacob stared into the man's tired eyes. His grimace of pain turned into one of determination, "I will not let you go until you bless me," he said. The man sat there, staring into his eyes. "Bless me!" Jacob rasped.
"What is your name?"
"Bless me!"
"Tell me your name!"
Jacob fell back and lay down, staring up at the purple early morning sky and sighed a sigh of surrender. "Jacob," he said, "My name is Jacob."

Day. As Jacob stood there, watching his brother’s army approach, he thought back upon his life. I was always running, he thought. Just once, I wanted to rest. Just once, I wanted to relax. He had never been happy to simply be himself. He had always wanted more. Twenty years ago, he stole Esau's inheritance. Jacob took everything of his brother's and made it his own. Then he fled his brother's wrath and went into the service of another man that he could deceive over and over. That was who Jacob was: a deceiver. It was a title that was placed in his very name from birth. I just wanted to know who I was.
He walked forward, bowing down to the approaching men as he went. Jacob winced with every step on his right leg. His brother's men stopped marching, and a single figure ran toward him. He's coming for me. Esau will kill me himself.

Night. The man stood, clutching his side, breathing heavily. "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed."
Jacob tried to stand, but his leg gave out on him and he stumbled to one knee.
"Please tell me your name," he said.
"Why is it that you ask my name?"
Jacob hung his head. He knew whom it was that he had wrestled with. The man gently touched Jacob's chin and lifted his face toward him. There, on the very ground of their struggle, He blessed him.

Day. Esau ran at Jacob. Faster. Faster. Jacob stood as tall as he could with all the weight of his guilt on his shoulders and faced his death. Esau ran to Jacob. Each step made Jacob's heart pound harder. They met. Esau wrapped his arms around his brother's neck and cried as he fell on him. Stunned, Jacob returned the embrace. Esau kissed his brother and then looked behind him. He stared into his eyes. "Who are these with you?"
Jacob coughed to remain composed as tears began to form in his eyes. "These are my family." Tears of joy streamed down Esau's face and he fell onto Jacob once more. Jacob began to cry as he held his brother in a tight embrace. He was forgiven. He had a future.

He was Israel.

Dark Night

2007-02-25T14:53:00.001-05:00

It's been a week since I've last blogged, and I feel like I'm due for another post.

Today, for the first time since I can even remember, I really got into worship. It was completely refreshing to feel the joy of God in my heart again. I raised my hands to Him in praise, loving Him for who He is. Honestly, it's been a long time since I've felt that I really loved God. It's a sad thing to say, but it's true. Last week, Scott mentioned the concept of a "dark night of the soul", and I think that's exactly what I've been going through for the last few months.

But today was different. Today, I felt joyful and free from all the issues I've had over the past school year. During worship, I gave all the things I was struggling with to God. I'm trusting him to take care of my emotional and financial needs.

It feels like I've reached an apex in my Dark Night. At least, I hope I have. Right now, I feel like all the emotions I've been going through for the past few months have come together in one great surge. But most of all, I do feel the joy of the Lord again.

I know I have a future.

What Every Christian Should Know #10

2007-02-18T02:14:00.000-05:00

This is the first in a ten part series of blog posts from ginkworld.net on what every Christian should know. I found it very interesting and I'm looking forward to the rest of his posts. Here is just a bit of what they have to say:

TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't)
#10- THE CHRISTIAN SUB-CULTURE IS BAD FOR YOU

We begin this series by looking at ourselves. The Christian Subculture has provided a safe haven for us to escape the world around us. We have created our own version of Heaven here on Earth so that we can safely enjoy quality, sanctified entertainment that is free from the secular world.

We have Christian television stations, radio stations, books, videos, films, breath mints, t-shirts, cartoons, socks, neckties, wristwatches, bumper stickers, jewelry, candy bars, coffee, and yes, even Christian underwear. I kid you not. (Google it at your own risk).

The real problem with this is that Jesus never intended His disciples to escape the world by creating a special, Holy version of the world that they preferred to live in while they await His return.

In fact, Jesus said something quite the opposite. When he was praying for those who would come after him he said, "I pray not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One". (John 17:15)

The reason Jesus prayed this prayer was the he knew human nature and he knew that, in a few short years, his followers would want to remove themselves from the world around them.

Mystery

2007-02-17T01:04:00.000-05:00

I have been haunted
all my life
by a single mystery.

It is this mystery
that brings life to my heart
and wrenches it away as it wishes.

It brings about all that is worth being,
all the while, making everything in this world
seem worthless.

It is the thing that drives me;
the thing that was set into my heart-
into my very being-from the start.

Yet, it is the thing that brings sorrow.
It causes me great pain
and is relentless.

It brings me hope
and sets my heart ablaze,
longing for the future that is so fervently promised.

It is the greatest blessing
that a person could have,
and the greatest curse.

It is my depression,
my delusion,
and it is my hope.

Simply Awesome

2007-02-16T00:24:00.000-05:00

I followed a few links to a new blog that I think I might like a great deal. The latest post has a movie clip that hits the mark so well, that I have to spread the word about it.

What exactly is wrong with Christians today? Maybe this clip can answer that.

http://www.keithgiles.com/

Car Trouble

2007-02-15T00:42:00.000-05:00

As I was driving to campus today, my car decided to stall out in the middle of one of the busier roads in town. All attempts to get it to start again failed. It wanted to turn over, but for some reason, it just wouldn't go. Luckily, a very nice guy helped me push my car into the turning lane and drove me to the car repair place, and then to my apartment.

Ironically, the night before, I was talking with a group of people about our dependence on our cars, computers and cell phones. I hated the idea of not having my car, and the very next day, it happened.
to

So right now, I do not have a vehicle. I'm dependant on the bus schedule now. Hopefully, they'll be able to figure out what's wrong with my car and get it back to me without too high a cost.

Be Careful What You Pray For

2007-02-10T22:56:00.000-05:00

I have prayed to God for many different reasons with many different requests over the course of my lifetime, but for the last three years, I have had one consistent prayer:

"Lord, do whatever you need to do in order to make me what you want me to be."

He's doing just that, whether I like it or not.

Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it.

And it just might be worth it.

Hollow Man

2007-02-06T21:32:00.000-05:00

I feel hollow.

At least, that's the best way I can describe it. I have very little motivation to keep going to classes, but for some reason I keep going. To illustrate my attitude for life right now, I use the moment in the movie A Knight's Tale where Chaucer walks by naked and is understandably questioned by the main characters.

William: Sir, what are you doing?
Chaucer: Uh... trudging. You know, trudging? [pause] To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on.

As sad as it may seem, this is how I feel during most of my day to day life, although some days are much better than others.

This isn't how a Christian should feel, I think. But I'm not sure how to shake this feeling. A part of me feels that something big and important is just around the corner in my life, but I've felt that for a while now to no avail. Recently, I met someone who has inspired me with their faith and love. They inspire me because they remind me of how I once had the joy of Christ in my life and how I used to have faith in God. I want that faith again, but for the moment, I seem to have lost it.

I want to be excited about God again. I want to be hungry for His word. I want to commune daily with Him and become fulfilled again. But I don't know how to go about it. And so I continue to trudge through my life.

Growing Pains

2007-02-02T13:29:00.000-05:00

I finally worked up the motivation to start working out. Yesterday, I went running with some friends. This morning, I lifted weights.

I hurt all over.

Not only do I hurt, but I actually feel weaker than I did before I worked out. Call me crazy, but I was under the impression that you were supposed to gain strength and endurance through these things, not loose it.

I say that jokingly, knowing that this loss of strength is only temporary. My muscles have been stretched and torn through my workouts and so they hurt. But once they heal again, they will be stronger than they were before.

Getting stronger hurts.

The last few months have not been very fun for me. In fact, I think I hit my all time emotional low over the holiday break. God broke me. He broke me hard. When I returned to school in September, I was excited an encouraged about the future. I couldn't wait to see what God would do in my life and in the Xperience this school year. Up until October, I felt good about my spiritual walk. I was learning more about Christian spirituality and what I believed. The problem was that I was growing mentally but not spiritually.

And so, without warning, God proceeded to take me down to a place where I had no choice but to confront myself and Him. It hurt. Even though I'm coming out of those low places, depression still hits me from time to time. Sometimes, I feel almost bi-polar, as I can be at the top of my emotional game one hour, and at the lowest the next.

A lot of the time, it feels as if God throws me down to the ground and tells me to pick myself up. Maybe that's exactly what He's doing. I think He's conditioning me. He is causing me to grow, whether I like it or not. Today, He brought me to this verse:

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:10-11

Pain hurts, but without pain, there is no gain. Without pain, we do not grow. If I hadn't stretched my muscles today I would not be in pain right now, but I wouldn't have anything to gain from it at all either. I would not be improving myself. One simply cannot grow spiritually and emotionally without feeling the pain of life. Once we get through that pain, however, we'll be stronger than we were before.

Deliver Me

2007-01-30T00:10:00.000-05:00

Deliver me out of the sadness
Deliver me from all the madness
Deliver me courage to guide me
Deliver me Your strength inside me

All of my life
I've been in hiding
Wishing there was someone just like You
Now that You're here
Now that I've found You
I know that You're the One to pull me through

Deliver me loving and caring
Deliver me giving and sharing
Deliver me this cross that I'm bearing

Oh, deliver me

Jesus, Jesus how I trust You
How I've proved You o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus
Deliver me

Come and pull me through
Come pull me through

Desires

2007-01-25T00:15:00.001-05:00

Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of
your heart. Psalm 37:4

What does it mean to delight yourself in the Lord? How does one go about it? Is it sheer obedience? Is it prayer and Bible reading?

My heart contains specific desires, but I feel that if I am to realize those desires, I must first delight myself in God. It is a task that seems daunting and unattainable at this present time. It is almost as if I'm trying to find the true meaning of life. Perhaps that's exactly what I'm doing.

New Mars Hill Website

2007-01-22T13:27:00.000-05:00

Mars Hill have updated their website and have a new, easy to remember URL:

http://marshill.org/

Singleness

2007-01-21T17:30:00.000-05:00

When you're a single guy and you feel lonely and depressed about not having someone to love, it seems that everywhere you look you see happy couples or attractive girls who are already taken or have no interest in you at all.

True story.

List Update

2007-01-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

Two movies have been crossed off of The List:

Goldeneye

The Blues Brothers

Always

2007-01-19T01:14:00.000-05:00

What were you thinking
I got a right to ask
Is there a reason
Other than your past
A great pretender
Why was I the last
To see through your SKIN
Is there a chance you'll ever change

It's always the same
You're always to blame
Is there any way around this
I can't see
You walked out on her
You planned to be free
I'm trying not to point the finger
But it's killing me

What were you thinking
Where you thinking of me
Did you see what they wrote
On the family tree
I know it's all over
All in the past
I need to forgive you?
If I'm the last - will I ever change

It's always the same
You're always to blame
Is there any way around this
I can't see
You walked out on her
You planned to be free
I'm trying not to point the finger
But it's killing me

Take these pieces
Thrown away
Put them together
From night 'n' day
Washed by the sun
Dried by the rain
To be my father
In my fatherless days

Entertainment Update

2007-01-17T14:09:00.000-05:00

The hit Fox television show 24 has returned for its sixth season, and the two day, four hour premier has primed fans for the rest of the season. The chose a great way to end the premier. I won't ruin it for anybody, but let's just say that two very significant events took place.

Heroes is a pretty good show that's coming back next Monday. It's a very cool take on the X-men type of story, and they're keeping the story pretty down to earth, at least as much as you can for a show about super heroes.

Battlestar Galactica makes its return on a new night. On Sunday, January 21 at 10:00, season 3.5 will kick off and some of the questions brought up in the first half of the season should be answered this year. There are also reports of one character dying and another finding out that they're a Cylon. Should be good.

Lost will return in February. A lot of people were left pretty disappointed after the first six episodes last year, but I have a feeling that the show was just about to take off when it went on hiatus. It's a bit far off still to get excited about, but I have no doubt that people will begin talking about it again at water coolers when the time comes.

Three movies have been added to The List:

Goldeneye

L.A. Confidential

Raising Arizona

Ice World

2007-01-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

We had an ice storm the other night here in Michigan, leaving everything in our world with a glass-like coating. It was hard bringing my car back to life yesterday, but it was kind of fun too. I got the driver's door open and when sat down to start it, I heard ice shattering all over my car due to the shift in weight. Even my tires were coated with ice. That's not very good for traction. Not very good at all.

When the sun shines just right, the ice makes the trees glow and shine. It is a truly beautiful thing, even though it's probably killing the trees.

Book Recommendation: Blue Like Jazz

2007-01-14T16:17:00.000-05:00

I first heard of Donald Miller last Summer. He was a guest speaker at Mars Hill Community Church in Grand Rapids in April, and I listened to the audio from their website. After hearing his message, I immediately wanted to read his book, Blue Like Jazz.

Blue Like Jazz was a breath of fresh air. I absolutely loved this book. Donald Miller tells the story of his Christian walk and his rediscoveries of many aspects of Christianity. Each chapter tackles a different subject: love, faith, church, loneliness, romance, and it seemed to get better and better as I went.

The thing that really makes this book great is the amazing honesty he brings to the reader. He opens up his mind, for better or for worse, to all who pick up the book. His insights are not from a religious scholar's background, but rather an average guy. Miller is just another person who wants to know God and know what Christianity is really about. He talks about his time at Reed University, a so called heathen college, and the profound events that took place there. He talks about relationships and churches and life in general, and he does it in a way that's not preachy or with an agenda. It reads as if he's talking to you, saying "this is what I've seen". I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to read Christian literature that is refreshing and unique.

Jacob VI: Masters of Deception at Odds

2007-01-10T12:58:00.000-05:00

Gen. 30-31

God promised Jacob that He would bless him and take care of him wherever he went. In the years since he arrived in Paddan-aram, God certainly was good to His word and caused Jacob to prosper. Because he worked for his father-in-law, Laban prospered as well.

After he has worked for fourteen years in order to take Laban's daughters for his wives, and after he has started a family of his own, Jacob asks Laban to release him from his service in order to take his family somewhere else and start a life of his own. However, because God had blessed Laban because of Jacob, he doesn't want him to leave. He asks Jacob to stay and work for him, and even tells Jacob to name his own wages. Jacob says he will keep Laban's flock as long as he can take as his own any lamb that is striped or spotted. Laban agrees to this deal and quickly hides all his striped and spotted lambs from Jacob.

But Jacob is an experienced deceiver. It is in his very name. And so, Jacob tends to Laban's now exclusively white flock. Jacob put poplar and almond rods in their troughs and when the flocks came to drink and then mated, they began to give birth to spotted and striped lambs. This, of course, had more to do with God's blessing than it did with the rods. But nevertheless, God favored Jacob and helped him to increase his own flock in this manner. Jacob uses his rod trick when the stronger lambs are drinking, rather than have them give birth to week offspring. He does this for six years, and by that time, Jacob has a large flock of sheep that's even stronger than Laban's own flock. Needless to say, Laban doesn't like this turn of events and stops being friendly toward Jacob.

One day, twenty years after Jacob had first arrived in Paddan-aram, God speaks to him, and tells him to return home . He goes to his wives and tells them the situation: that Laban has become bitter with him and has changed Jacob's wages ten times in the last twenty years, but that God had watched out for him and blessed him. He tells them that they need to leave, and they quickly agree with him. So, in secret, Jacob takes his family and his flocks and leaves.

When Laban learns that Jacob has fled, he quickly pursues him and catches up with him in Gilead. But God came to Laban in a dream and told him to be careful not to "speak to Jacob either good or bad". So when Laban catches up with Jacob, he confronts him, asking why he fled in the night without letting him say goodbye to his daughters and grandsons. Jacob answers honestly, saying that he was afraid that Laban would have taken his wives away from him in anger. Jacob pleads to him, stating his case that Laban had mistreated him all those twenty years and would have left him empty handed had God not been faithful to him. Laban tells him that he feels powerless against Jacob to take his family and flocks away from him.

They make a covenant in a place called Mizpah that they would not pass that place in order to harm one another and that God would watch over them when they were apart. After twenty years of deception and aggravation from both sides, they came together and healed their relationship. The next day, Laban leaves to return to Paddan-aram, and Jacob turns toward home once again. He knows that he left on some bad circumstances and begins to worry about facing his brother, Esau again.

Confidence

2007-01-07T02:00:00.000-05:00

Nearly two weeks after my encounter with God and my struggle over who I am, and a week after my post about these things, I am feeling pretty good. My heart is no longer heavy and I feel no emotional pain. I think the healing didn't fully start until I posted about my problems. Maybe God wanted me to tell everyone how I felt before he could heal me. I don't know really.

Starting on New Years eve, I began having this sort of confidence in myself. I suddenly felt that I could be myself and didn't have to care what other people thought about it. It was a truly liberating experience that, for the most part, is still functioning. Not that I feel on top of the world all the time now, but I'm starting to get back to my normal self again and even growing stronger than before.

Nothing happened to make this confidence appear suddenly. It just sort of hit me out of nowhere that evening as I was driving to my friends' house for a New Year's celebration. Perhaps I was excited that a new year was coming. I viewed 2006 as a year of bad things in the life of Ryan and I guess I was ready for a fresh new start. Whatever the case, I feel invigorated and new, ready to take on the next semester of classes and the next few months of my life.

I have examined my personal visions in my Christian walk, and have already started to make blog postings on them. Look for more to come. I am excited and refreshed, and ready to see what God has in store for me this year.

Why I Am Proud to be Emergent

2007-01-01T04:38:00.000-05:00

I am an emergent Christian. As I do not hold to any specific denomination, that is as far as I can go to describe, in one word, what I believe. In the past few years since the coining of the term "emerging" or "emergent" or whatever you want to call it, there has been a great deal of controversy over what these terms mean and what this type of Christian believes. It is such a broad term and emergents have such a varied statement of beliefs, that it can not be considered a denomination or even a true movement.

Scott Mcknight has published a pretty good string of blogs on his Jesus Creed website on the emerging church movement. You can find them by clicking here.

Since the term emergent can mean so many things to so many different people, I will just explain what it means to me personally. For me, the emerging church is a back-to-basics approach to Christianity. I look at the Church in America today, and far too often I see the us-against-them mentality on life. I see too many churches putting too much emphasis on the number of converts they get each year, and not enough time into reaching out to people and loving them. And as my Blue Like Jazz post from last week illustrates wonderfully, sometimes there is more love to be found outside the Church than inside. This should not be.

To be emergent is to take a missional approach to evangelism. It is important to spread the message of Christ. However, I think it is clear that our current methods of evangelism are not doing their job. It makes me angry when I hear of Christians becoming friends with non-Christians simply to get them converted and to turn them into honest, church going people who say things like "bless you" and "thank the Lord" all the time. They're trying to create clones. To love somebody is to love who they are, not who you want them to become. It doesn't work that way.

I see the emerging movement as one of genuine love and compassion toward the world. It's stems from the love that Jesus shows time and time again in the gospels. The message is repeated over and over: love the week, the helpless, the alien, the widow, the poor. Yet, the Church seems to think it's about numbers, about converts, about getting people to conform to their belief systems and even political mindsets. Constantly, I see a warlike mentality toward the "secular" world. It's hard to truly love people when you're at war with them.

I call myself emergent, because it's the best way I've found to describe what my vision is as a Christian. I want to love people and reach out to them the way Jesus did. I want people to see that I'm a Christian, not simply by telling them that I believe the Bible, but by the way I love them with a genuine love, a love without the pretext of conversion.

Loving Myself

2006-12-30T01:36:00.000-05:00

I'm going through a dark time in my life. I am in Limbo. I have come home from college for a few weeks and I don't feel like I belong here. A couple times last week, I went back up to Kalamazoo for different reasons and visited my apartment, but there seemed no reason to be there. My spiritual computer has crashed the rest of the way. I feel restless and uneasy about the future, even hopeless at times. My heart has felt extremely heavy lately, emotionally. It almost physically hurts sometimes.

But I believe God has brought me to this emotional state for a very good reason. Struggling with loneliness and being depressed has caused me to confront an issue that has plagued me all my life. I have never been happy being me. I have never loved myself. Sure, I've been happy, I've felt the love of God and the love of friends and family in my life, but underneath it all, I have never really felt worthy of being alive or receiving love from others.

I was reading Blue Like Jazz again a few nights ago before bed, and I read the chapter on loving yourself. I knew a few days beforehand that I needed to read that chapter in order to directly confront this issue, but I patiently read through the preceding chapters. As it turns out, and as I've often experienced in the past, the night I read that part of Blue Like Jazz was exactly when I needed to.

Donald Miller talked about how all his relationships with girls never went well because he could not receive their love, he could not believe that anyone would love him. He didn't like himself any more than I did. When the relationships ended, he blamed himself, which continued this process. Of course they didn't like him, why would anyone like him?

One night, as he was cleaning his bathroom and comparing himself to some of the stuff he was scrubbing, God flashed a line in his mind: "Love your neighbor as yourself". He concluded that we know that it is not right to treat people badly. It is wrong to call people names and make them feel bad, like their not worthy. But if it is wrong to treat other people that way, why would it be acceptable to treat ourselves like crap?

As I was reading it, I felt like I was reading about myself. I could relate to just about everything he said. Most of the thoughts he portrayed had gone through my head again and again. And even though I have felt this way ever since I can remember, I had never confronted it.

I stayed up for another hour thinking about how it was wrong of me to ever think of myself as unworthy, as nothing, and how God created me for a reason, that there was a distinct purpose behind my life. I retraced all the meaningful relationships and events in my life and thought about how different they might have been had I only considered myself as deserving of those things.

As I prayed to God to forgive me and to help me to love myself, I could feel my heart begin to heal. almost instantly, my chest became noticeably lighter.

That night, I faced an issue I had avoided all my life. God has brought me to a low place and it's a long climb to the top, but the climb has begun. I believe that this was an extremely significant milestone in this Second Reboot. And I really hope that this is the beginning for a long awaited period of restoration in my life.

A Few Words from Donald Miller

2006-12-23T00:29:00.000-05:00

I'm almost finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller, and I've got to say, it's an incredible book. I plan on recommending it just as soon as I'm done with it.

I just read an interesting chapter on loving others, and a few things really stuck out to me as I went. Don talks about how he and some friends spent a month working at a ranch in Oregon. While they were there, they lived out in the woods, forsaking material things and living on faith that God would keep them well. There were a bunch of hippies that were living there at the time too. They were formally educated hippies that believed in free love and acceptance. Don said that they introduced him to what loving others was all about.

Here's the passage I found most interesting:

Because I grew up in the safe cocoon of big-Christianity, I came to believe that anything outside the church was filled with darkness and unlove. I remember, one Sunday evening, sitting in the pew as a child listening to the pastor read from articles in the newspaper. He took an entire hour to flip through the paper reading about all the gory murders and rapes and burglaries, and after each article he would sigh and say, Friends, it is a bad, bad world out there. And things are only getting worse. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined there were, outside the church, people so purely lovely as the ones I met in the woods. And yet my hippie friends were not at all close to believing that Christ was the Son of God.

This did not confuse me so much as it surprised me. Until this point, the majority of my friends had been Christians. In fact nearly all of them had been Christians. I was amazed to find, outside the church, genuine affection being shared, affection that seemed, well, authentic in comparison to the sort of love I had known within the church. I was even more amazed when I realized I preferred, in fact, the company of the hippies to the company of Christians. It isn't that I didn't love my Christian friends or that they didn't love me, it was just that there was something different about my hippie friends; something, I don't know, more real, more true. I realize that is a provocative statement, but I only felt I could be myself around them, and I could not be myself my Christian friends. My Christian communities had always had little unwritten social ethics like don't cuss and don't support Democrats and don't ask tough questions about the Bible.

Scattered

2006-12-14T23:39:00.000-05:00

Western's campus is turning into a ghost town once again. Students are finishing up finals and heading home for the holidays. It's a strange thing to go home again after being at college for four months. The change in college students is an exponential one, and things back home usually seem more or less exactly the same as when you left them.

And so, those of us at the Xperience are scattered. Most are back home in their respective corners of Michigan. Some of us will be in other states. Some are as far as Mexico. Some will remain in Kalamazoo. It's kind of a sad thing that we're all away from each other, but we will all get to see family and friends from home and celebrate the holiday season with them.

I wish all the Xperience gang a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'll see you guys after the break.