book review, enjoy?

I wrote a book review, sorta-ish

YOU ARE NOT SAVED

My spirituality brings all the boys to the yard,
And they're like
It's true-er than yours,
D**n right it's better than yours,
I can teach you,
But I have to charge.
In the evening they will examine thee in love. – John of the Cross
I have recently completely wrecked my copy of the book Seeing God, Jonathan Edwards and Spiritual Discernment, because of my vigorous underlining, impassioned note taking, and coffee spills. This author of this paper intends to give a biased description of the book based on what stuck out to him the most, and how it impacted him the greatest.
The authors’ (Gerald R. McDermott) intended thesis in the book: to help people determine whether or not they be elect, and to live accordingly in awe and worship of the beauty of Gods holiness. The subtitle happens to be Johnathan Edwards and Spiritual Discernment so it should be noted that the author also intends to help the believer be spiritually discerning in their appraisal of their own salvation, your salvation, her salvation, etc., and be able to make wise choices as a believer by being able to sift the filth of the worlds theology and know only what is the pure the Word of God, with the assumption that Jonathan Edwards also espouses similar philosophies.
The author of this paper feels compelled to mention that while the author of the book in question has a stated purpose in writing this book, it is not evidenced in the writing of said book. In fact, based on what is considered (by the author of this paper) to be the result or actual purpose in the printing of this book, the reader might agree as well, regardless of their deep and heart felt respect for Johnathan Edwards and those who study his works, there is no good reason. The following three statements seem to be the sum of McDermott’s view and purpose in this book:
“The only man who has a right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Jonathan Edwards said that there are two reasons lax saints have a difficult time finding assurance. First, there is little grace in such a person’s life, and whatever grace is present is mixed with abundant corruption.” – Gerald R. McDermott
And finally, “It is no wonder that a negligent saint will be plagued with guilt and fear, unable to find the peace and joy that come with assurance of salvation.” – Gerald R. McDermott
I must admit, I do not find these sentiments in scripture, nor do I find that they are justified by any of the theology popular among men.” – Author of paper

In the Introduction to the book McDermott gives reasons for what he considers to be “Spiritual Confusion” (or disgust) in our world, which is valid in its application to both believers and non-believers alike. He goes on to explain that spiritual confusion is what is wrong with the world of Christians and the world of those who might be or would be Christians. He mentions “Declining trust in religious leaders” as the first reason for a decline in our God awareness, he goes on to cite what were at the time considered to be the 4 most trusted people in industry in order of most trusted to least: Pharmacist, College Teacher, Engineer, and Religious Leader. This list is fairly amusing in that the last 15 years have changed things quite a bit, from Pharmacist being associated with pharmaceutical companies who are considered some of the least trustworthy in the industry, to engineers, who are pretty much on no one’s raider and finally religious leaders, who are almost always suspect, at least in the media anyway. This does not take away from his point though I see a number of his examples as being what once was, and maybe I have had to break out the micro-fiche a little bit when reading him, but otherwise not all is lost.
The second trend that lends our culture to spiritual idiocy is “Disenchantment with organized religion.” I have no idea what was going on back when he wrote this book other than Jim Baker was having sex with someone who didn’t have big pink hair, and that was bad. This point is probably more obvious than it was even then. It seems in America there are more church plants and emerging churches, and entrepreneurial churches popping up than Starbucks. I imagine that this is because they are unhappy with what they see at church and they have an idea of how it could be done better, so they start their own church or find another and another and another. Protestantism in this country maybe going crazy, we seem less like the body of Christ and more like the Schizophrenia of the Christ.
“A third cultural pressure causing spiritual confusion is Religious Pluralism.” I can think of nothing more prevalent, but it seems this is becoming more and more a part of our Christian culture. I am not overly concerned about the broader culture espousing pluralism, though it does seem to make things more difficult. I am more bothered by the amount of friends I have grown up with over the years who have decided that Jesus was good, but not great, and that there are many paths that lead up the mountain side. I might find this point most troubling in that it has affected those I love most the most. I think that as believers who no longer think so highly of God and His word it is not enough for those who love them to console ourselves in saying, “well, at least they’ll be in heaven” I am truly broken by the relationship they are missing in Christ.
Finally, well, not quite yet, I should mention that the reason I spent so much time on these four points is that I found them not only interesting but also very helpful is discerning our culture, and in thinking about how our culture can be better aided. “Intellectual Autonomy” is defined as “…the attitude that I (an individual) am not intellectually mature if I permit other persons, or particularly the institutional church, to influence my thinking” or “all spiritual truth and wisdom is within me.” I do not really understand what he means here in that I don’t really know people who would resonate with that thought necessarily. But I would like to say that if he meant that people like to find their own way, while at the same time not submitting to anything they do not prefer, than I would say yes absolutely. This is certainly a problem of spiritual discernment but also an issue of allowing God to be God, and recognizing that we are not – which is almost impossible for our culture. McDermott ends with, “…they (Christians) don’t know how to judge between different Christian groups, leaders or teachings (concerning competing Christian claims)” while I would add that the world chooses not to.

Explanation of key arguments:
The author spends a great deal of time arguing for a distinction of True Spirituality which is what the author refers to as one’s Salvation, with a ring of assurance.
If you have a “religious experience” or what McDermott considers to be a religious experience and then you peter out, or fall on hard times spiritually – you weren’t really a Christian in the first place. To any individual reading this, regardless of whether they read the book, the above statement is going to sound over the top and biased, but it’s not. Ninety plus pages into the book the author spends a paragraph telling the reader that they should not be discouraged if there not perfect, and then back into the onslaught of stories of fallen “saints?” I’m not sure if I’ve made my point clear yet, but my take on McDermott’s book is that he says he is trying to help people be spiritually discerning, and he illustrates this by telling countless stories of people he knew who called themselves Christians and then stopped calling themselves Christians and behaved in an un-Christ-like manner, which always always left him concluding that they were not saved. Here is the tale end of one such story, “I was not surprised to hear a year later that she had gone back to the ways of the world, and that she had been sleeping with a male song leader while serving our prayer group.” This is what he wrote of Jean who “spoke in tongues and enjoyed the ‘Jesus jollies’ in their prayer group.”
McDermott writes, “I have been trying to argue that true spirituality is rooted primarily in an attraction to God and his works in and of themselves and not because of the benefits he brings.” He goes on to go so far as to say that “the person inhabited by the Spirit will gradually become holy. This is the chief reason that saints have a sweetness and beauty about them…” I believe McDermott’s view of what can take place in the believer’s life completely blocks out the millions of examples of people struggling to walk well in their faith. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be great if our faith always smelled like roses, but as the great philosophy somewhere said, everybody’s got faith holes and they all stink. (at least a little, right?)
In a word, I think McDermott romanticizes Christians (Which is different from Christ), and in doing so he tends take the focus off of God. This is an excerpt from his book where he describes someone who has been saved“… he was overwhelmed by the beauty of Jesus’ suffering love for his own sin-sick soul. This experience left him with a fear not of eternal damnation but of wounding the heart of the beautiful Savior who suffered for him.” This story, I think is in the book because he wants believers to think of something like this when they think of their “salvation experience” and I don’t think that that sort of experience is true to a lot of believers. Of course McDermott might not have been writing to such a skeptical audience and brutal honesty was certainly not a thing of the eighties, otherwise hair and clothes would not have been so baggy. Though in romanticizing the living out of our faith he draws stark and impossible contrasts between those that have faith and those that “clearly” do not. I should make it clear that I do believe that Christ does a transforming work in us, and once we have become a new creation in Him we are no longer dead to sin, and fortunately now alive to living in righteousness in Christ, but I don’t think we cease to stink, because we are still tainted, we got a little taint on us.
In Summary of his key arguments, I understand him to suggest that basically Christians persevere to the end because of their grasp (any grasp at all will do) of the beauty of God’s Holiness, and thus living as such.
Discuss personal and ministerial application of this material
It seems that from a ministerial perspective there is much to be learned from McDermott’s book concerning culture/people and how we can help them.
I went to an independent Baptist college in my undergrad, and as I sat in church twice on Sunday and again every Wednesday night (three to thrive) I listened to the pastor say some horrible things lots of times. I began to wonder how in the world I could bring my unsaved friends to this church (it had to be that church because we were not permitted to go to another church) when I knew they would never hear the gospel before first hearing how awesome being a republican is and how horrible democrats are. You would be correct in assuming that they were all democrats, but probably not because they weren’t Christians, I digress. Anyway, so as I sat in church week after week I began taking mental notes of what not to do, I have filled steno note pads. I tell this story, though it is extreme, to explain how even though I said a lot of negative things about McDermott’s book I was still able to gather much.
I also should mention that there was lots of very good stuff in the book, I just feel like some of the other stuff he said was a lot louder. I think that for believers the spiritual disciplines that he mentions are important and can be quite helpful as long as we do not think that we can become holy by becoming more disciplined and rigid.
I believe as he does that “the unexamined life is not worth living” and so we must not only examine ourselves, but examine ourselves specifically for whether or not Christ be in us and working in us. Though I do not think that while this can be quite discouraging we should conclude that we are not children of God because of our many many acts of indiscretion.
Finally, I feel the book can be helpful if he would cut out 99% of the illustrations, the emphasis on who is not saved, and the first half of the book.

PNG & peaceful penetration

I have just begun reading this book about Papua New Guinea, it was published in 1969. Though I do not see this as the most up to date information, I do think it will still be helpful in many senses.
Here is a paragraph from the first page...

"Papua-New Guinea would be one of the last countries in the world - perhaps the very last - where genuine exploration still goes on. This is done according a unique form and tradition. The idea of 'peaceful penetration' has been applied so strictly in the territory that an officer who shoots a native, even in the extremities of self-defense, must expect to be charged later and brought before a court."

a hobbits course

We borrowed this from the alamo draft house movie tavern in austin, and today we celebrate great food, ale, friends, and film...

First Breakfast 10:30
Fresh Hens eggs, nice crispy bacon, grilled mushrooms and orange slice
Irish Coffee

Second Breakfast 11:15
Strawberries and Cream
Cristalino Brut Rose Cava Spain

Elevensies 12:00
Seared-housemade lamb sausage and tomatoes with cheeses, cabbage and pickles
A glass of fine Mead

Luncheon 2:00
Syrah braised spareribs with mashed taters, roast baby carrots
Craggy Range "Te Kahu" New zealand Meritage

Afternoon Tea 4:00
Local baby greens with garlic blackberry vinaigrette, chevre-herb galette cookies
Tea (optional grandma's tea with a shot of whiskey)

Dinner 6:00
Stewed coney with taters, carrot, leek, and fresh garden herbs with crusty bread
Les Jamelles Pinot Noir, Vin de Pays France

Supper 7:30
Swirl of tomato and spinach soups wild mushroom crouton, apple pie
Willm Riesling, Alsace France

Lembas bread as needed

Concerning Bapism

The early church had books of instruction in righteousness and practice as well as certain NT manuscripts available to them., on of these "books" was the Didache...
Concerning Baptism
Now concerning baptism, baptize as follows: after you have reviewed all these things, baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit in running water. But if you have no running water, then baptize in some other water; and if you are not able to baptize in cold water, then do so in warm. But if you have neither, then pour water on the head three times in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. And before the baptism let the one baptizing and one who is to be baptized fast, as well as any other who are able. Also, you must instruct the one who is to be baptized to fast for one or two days beforehand.
from the Didache 7.1-7.4

for more on the didache
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didache

Why I love Steinways

I have recently started attending a small bible study group via northwest bible church - i got plugged in with about 12ish guys, and they split the week i joined. So the group i'm in is about 5-6 strong, we begin like every other bible study bs-ing about whatever, but then we go into the other room where there is a baby grand. the guy whose house we meet at teaches piano out of his home all day, so we have the privilege of being led in worship by a concert pianist, and i love it. we just sing hymns, but for now it is my favorite corporate worship experience that i get to participate in.
his piano really isn't a Steinway, i can't remember the name, but it doesnt matter.

I will have these bookshelves

I'm in the process of convincing Bryan to make these for me with my meager assistance.

the greatest lights ever!

i love this idea, i wonder if we could incorporate this in mexico during mission trips and such, i'm gonna send this to amore ministries.
i wonder how i can do this in tx, i wonder if brandon and jennie could use this ...

I love bbq

and i love helpful tips since i don't have a wealth of experience at my fingertips. I have thought that the best way to learn really great BBQ tips was to hang out with rednecks, and while that still may be true, there may be easier ways like reading... http://lifehacker.com/5264724/top-10-skills-to-master-your-grill (via john jones) which includes the tip i'm about to impart to you as well as 9 others.
I always have a hard time knowing the when meat is done, chicken, fish, steak - i mean once i cut it open six or 7 times i got it figured out, but that is not ideal, here is a helpful little chart explaining how all you have to do is touch to check.



by pressing the thumb and finger associated with meat readiness you can deduce how ready the meat is based on how similar it feels to your thumb muscle...

Judges: Beware of Women

The purpose of the paper is to introduce you to different women in the book of Judges and their story in relation to how God was using women in different ways than is normally assumed. These women are heroic, exploited, lovely, and sacrificial. Their stories are amazing and horrible and do not fall into the stereotypes of biblical women. Our Goal is to understand God’s purpose in giving us these stories, and how they are to fit into our understanding of God and there place in our lives.
The first lady is Achsah, who would be Caleb’s daughter. She is brought onto the scene by the announcement of her father to give her away to the one who defeats and captures Kiriath-sepher. This might seem like a horrible thing by our understanding of how things happen today, but this was actually rather normal for leaders to give their daughters away to other leaders, champions, heroes, etc. if nothing else, it insured that the giver’s daughter married a great man of some sort. So Othniel, Caleb’s younger brother, according to the text is the one who arose to the challenge, thus becoming Caleb’s brother and son-in-law. The Talmud argues that Othniel was Caleb’s stepbrother, while others argue still that Caleb and Othniel’s father were brothers, while I don’t care, because there seems like a little too much inbreeding back then anyway.
Achsah’s story is not over; Achsah encourages her new husband to get some land from her Father. It seems kind of odd that she asked her husband to ask Caleb for the land because she was the one who went and asked for it anyway, maybe she was just letting Othniel know what was going on, or she wanted him to think it was his idea. So she went to Caleb and he immediately knew she wanted something so he cut to the chase and asked what she wanted, so she said, “Give me a blessing since you gave me some land, oh and I want a natural spring to.” Caleb gave her a blessing and two springs instead, this seems like a really sweet story to me of the relationship between a father and daughter, it reminds of the verse that says if a father is happy to give his children gifts, how much greater it is for your heavenly Father to give to His children.
In Judges 4 and 5 the story of the Judge of Israel Deborah unfolds, she is introduced to us as the Judge during a time of oppression for Israel, because of their wickedness. Deborah got her experience from being the go to person for advice while she was in Ephraim, the text actually says that she sat under a tree and people came to her to get judgment calls.
By the way, Deborah is also referred to as a prophetess, which probably explains why the first thing the text tells us she did was tell someone what God wanted them to do. She summoned a man by the name of Barak from Kadesh-Naphtali and told him, "Behold, the LORD, the God of Israel, has commanded, 'Go and march to Mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men from the sons of Naphtali and from the sons of Zebulun. 'I will draw out to you Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his many troops to the river Kishon, and I will give him into your hand.'" I love Barak’s response to this, maybe because like I said earlier I think we have an off impression of how God views women, but his response is basically, “I’m not going, unless you go with me” so she does. Deborah goes on to tell him that though God will use him to help gain a victory for Israel, the victory will not be his, but a women’s.
So through some semi-elaborate plan the Canaanites were drawn out, and beaten, chased down, and beaten again, and everyone died, except their commander Sisera, who got away. Sisera fled on foot to some woman’s tent by the name of Jael. Sisera thought he would be safe because these people had the same allies as his people. So Jael fed him and took care of him, and then he took a nap, and while he was napping Jael ran and got a hammer and nailed his head to the floor, so he died. Barak showed up some time later from tracking Sisera, and when Jael saw him she told him that she knew where Sisera was, and then she took him to where he was. Which is exactly what was prophesied by Deborah.
The next woman in Judges is unnamed, but her role is not. The story is about a man by the name of Abimelech who was not nice. Abimelech was the son of Gideon, and he had 70 brothers, Abimelech thought that he should be ruler rather than all 70, so he devised a plan and killed them all except one, and then became ruler. The thing was that Abimelech did not have a rightful claim to that position since his mother was a concubine. As the story goes Abimelech terrorized the people and the land going to and fro destroying everything in his path.
Abimelech reigned three years and near the end he and his men entered into a campaign to take the city of Shechem. During the fighting, a woman through a millstone down onto Abimelech’s head, thus crushing his skull. Abimelech had the presence of mind to ask his armor barer to stab him so that it would not be said that Abimelech was killed by a woman, so he did. Unfortunately for Abimelech we know the real story which is that he was in fact killed by a woman, loser.
The fourth woman is probably actually a girl, a daughter to be more precise. Her story comes out by way of a man named Jephthah. Like other men in Judges who find their life intertwined with “the women” of Judges, he is a valiant warrior, and also the son of a harlot, which seemed important back then. So important that Jephthah’s step brothers kicked him out of the house of their father once they were old enough to do so. So Jephthah went and hung out with a rough group until one day the house of his father called him back to become their leader in a defensive against the Ammonites. Jephthah responded as pretty much anyone would, and said, “first you kick me out, and now you want me to lead you?” and they said, “yeah, sorry about that.” So Jephthah started corresponding with King of Ammon as the leader of the army of Israel to try and reconcile the issue. Jephthah plead his case and the King of Ammon decided he wanted to attack the people and take their land anyway, so he did.
The Lord had blessed Jephthah in battle and on the eve of fighting the Ammonites he vowed to the Lord to sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house upon his return home, if God would give them the victory. God did give them the victory, and the first thing out of Jephthah’s house was his daughter, oops! So Jephthah gave her some time, and then he killed her, but she was commemorated after that. Someone else noted that it is interesting that in the beginning of Judges we see Caleb blessing his daughter and near the end we see Jephthah cursing his.
Then we have the story of Samson and his many foreign women that led him further from God, and then finally his penultimate demise was brought about by Delilah. Delilah sold out Samson for a few bucks, while Samson sold himself out for some sex, and God used this.
Our final women in Judges is introduced by the unfortunately common and boding phrase, “Now it came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel…” the story of this last girl is tragic, she was the concubine of a Levite (whats up with that?). So the Levite and his harlot were traveling and at nightfall they had to make a decision as to where to stay. They decided it would be better to stay with people of their own country than with foreigners, so they stayed in a territory owned by the Benjamites, in an old man’s house. Later that night some of the men of the city came to the house and requested that the Levite come out so that they may sodomize him, he said no thank you, but you can use my concubine, so they did, all night. When the Levite awoke he found the girl dead at the foot of the door, so he threw her on his donkey and continued on his journey. When he got home he cut her up into 12 pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel. The men of Israel decided that they should kill all the Benjamites, and whatever Benjamite was not killed would not be able to copulate with any of the other tribes ever, thus ending their existence. So Israel killed 25,000 Benjamites, leaving only 600 to hide out in the rocks. Well Israel felt kind of bad about that, and they thought it would be a shame to have only 11 tribes, so they went to a nearby city and killed everyone who was not a virgin, and then kidnapped the remaining 400 virgins to give to the Benjamites. But they men in charge of Israel’s fighting men felt bad because there were 600 Benjamites and only 400 virgins – do the math. So they told the Benjamites about a party in Israel were all these virgins were hanging out so that they could go kidnap them and make them the mothers of their children, and they did. Thus the tribe of Benjamin was saved.
As you can see from the book of Judges the role women play is varied they are heroes sometimes, mail other times, and sometimes they are just wombs. I have to admit Judges leaves me a little ill, and by a little I mean violently and deathly. I suppose it is good to note that when these wicked things were perpetrated on the women, it was because, “Israel did what was right, in their own eyes” rather than follow God. I appreciate that while amidst the wretchedness of Isreal’s men, there were wise and godly women who led Israel to victories, and who followed God.
There is more to note, and that is that God does whatever He wants, and uses whomever He wants. God does not fall into a system or a theology, He is not predictable, but He is consistent with His nature. I walk away from Judges thinking that all there is to do is serve God, and beg Him to sustain me through whatever trial He leads me through.

waterboarding

I hate waterboarding...

nice one

an audi dealership in LA went and bought an add on a billboard next to a bmw dealership (see board in back) so then bmw took one out. oops

Saturday Night Live

SNL usually sucks and pretty much rarely has had good material, maybe in like 30+ yrs of stuff they could put together one good DVD, whatev. Anyway the last two weeks have been worth watching, here is one of my fav new characters ...




this is just as fun to repeat later in conversations - if not funnier

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer

Watch the Trailer looks good to me

# of Pirates killed by Presidents

This should clear things up



i found this at http://www.vetocorleone.com/2009/04/number-of-pirates-killed-by-each.html

plug in your X

When I woke up this morning i was dreaming that I was speaking with the X and I was disappointed in her for not recharging the night before, you know like plugging herself in, like I do with my phone, ipod, laptop, bluetooth, etc. I think my present and past worlds are crossing. thats prolly not that wierd right?

i suck at blogging

meaning i do it very little and about very boring stuff, i can't even imagine that the 1.5 people that read this are interested, so i'm gonna try to transfer some of the stuff i find interesting into a neat and concise blog more often.
first, i thought i'd share an email that someone sent me about a month ago. I've known this person for pretty much ever, but over the last couple of years our relationship has changed, not better or worse, just changed. anyway, we dialogue about theology, i try to promote doubt in his mind. not doubt in god or anything, but doubt that everything your heard growing up in church and everywhere else is suspect, and needs serious study, basically i want him to see what the scriptures actually have to say. I try to do this with everyone i graduated high school with, or anyone i used to go to church with when i was under my parents roof. i think it works sometimes. so anyway, here is the email he sent me last:
I would love to know the detailed truth about



Heaven

Hell

Hades

2nd death

Lake of fire

Paradise



Etc.

i didn't really respond right away to this, partly cause i don't think i'm supposed to be the bible answer guy, not to mention i can't, but i do intend to direct him to some reading, and maybe talk about how to study the bible some.

peace,
s

Levirate Law in Genesis

Levirate laws’ first mention in the Old Testament was in Genesis 38 concerning Judah and Tamar, Tamar had married one of Judah’s sons and then God killed that son, so Tamar then married her bereft husband’s brother, as was her right. The new husband was also smited by God, so naturally Tamar requested Judah’s last son, which gave Judah cause for pause. Judah was afraid that the woman may be cursed, so he maintained authority over her as she was supposed to be perpetuating heirs. However, Judah withheld his third son in the interest of saving him, but at the expense of defrauding her. Tamar then skipped a step in the Levirate Law process, when she slept with Judah and got pregnant. She did this by posing as a prostitute, apparently she knew Judah had an appetite for desert prostitutes, and she ensnared him into fathering her child. (Because Judah was an honorable man he left some of his belongings to assure her of payment)… When Judah found out she was pregnant he ordered that she be brought up on charges, but when she revealed that he was the father (by showing him his stuff) he referred to her as “more righteous than he,” and had the charges dropped. Through this strange process, Tamar was given justice, and Judah owed her no more, specifically his other son.

Levirate Law

I'm more interested in the Old Testament this year than i have been since I was 8. I think one's theology is deeply lacking if it is not heavily influenced by the OT. Though Levirate Law does not contain the deepest insights into God, it like other seemingly insignificant stories/laws in scripture help us see Yahweh from different angles, ultimately giving us a more complete pic. Anyway, I'm going to blog about Levirate Marriage this week with a focus in Ruth 4, these are the topics ...

Levirate Law in Genesis
Levirate Law in Deuteronomy
Possible Evolution of the Levirate Laws
Theological Explanation for Levirate Marriage or Property and Progeny
Ruth 4
Ruth and the Go’el

and today is...

THE BROTHER IN LAW LEVIR LAW

The purpose of this paper is to outline Levirate Marriage as it pertains to the book of Ruth. This paper will discuss the social context of laws surrounding widows, the evolution of Levirate law and in so doing mention some of the practical aspects. As previously stated, this paper will discover what is unique in how the Levirate laws were carried out in Ruth as well as traditions and customs that came into play ultimately allowing Boaz to redeem Ruth and an heir through whose genetic line would ultimately take part in producing the One through whom the world could be saved.

broken

shayna and i broke up and its horrible, i just removed her from speed dial, and that was horrible.

drama queen?

Sometimes I wonder If I'm a drama queen. not like i turn stuff into drama, but i operate (?) my life in a way that produces/creates drama...

How to be loud

How to section...

How to be the loudest person in the world.

1. learn a second language, but not the accent - make up for it with volume
2. stick tooth picks in your ears until permanently deaf
3. do not distinguish between what you know consider normal talking volume and a whisper
4. whisper in church. :) is that rude?

I was in Austin this weekend, which was fun and also very important, you see Blue one of the two cats my roomates own, died this weekend. It is important that i was out of town, cause i could definitely see myself being investigated for giving the cat a urinary tract infection...

When i heard that somebody from Grapevine, TX broke the Guitar Hero III Guinness Book of World Records, I was sure that they meant Corinth, TX - I fully expected to see Byron on this Video...

http://www.dfw.com/117/story/92560.html

I listen to the Diane Rehm Show sometimes, its got good stuff sometimes. todays was this bit...
11:00John West: "The Last Good Night" (Counter Point)

John West tells why, and how, he assisted his parents with their suicides.
He offers a first-hand account of the decision no child wants to face and explains why he followed through on his parent’s desire to choose death with dignity.
Guests

John West, has a law degree from the University of Wisconsin and lives in Los Angeles.
I became interested when they wondered aloud if he could be charged with anything, since a. he admits in assisting and b. he lives in CA, where it is still not legal to euthanize your folks, not to mention he is a lawyer - all things that make this slightly more interesting.

So it got me thinking about how i might ought to be thinking about assisted suicide, especially when John West said that He knew he had to do what was right regardless of the letter of the law. Something about that phrase struck me, the words in that order are words i can hear christians say about, anything they want to do basically - usually i disagree with them.
My initial thoughts on AS (Assisted Suicide) went something like this, well there are a lot of painful ways to day, that can be ultimately drug out endlessly, causing strain on number 1 the patient (aka the most important person in the room - consensed by all) - it will be a strain on them physically, emotionally, mentally, and then also whatever it is that allows you horrid lucid moments reminding you that you crap yourself, you can't remember/recognize/acknowledge your children, your personality for some reason is now what it always was and you don't seem to be able to much about it (meaning you have no idea who you are and are dealing with identity issues as well), and finally, i don't know how else to put it, there is pride at stake - combine all that i have just put before you, and see if you want the rest of your pathetic existence punctuated by that.
but... there are other things to consider as a christian, our life is not our own (ICor. 6:19) course you may argue that at that point the above detailed situation is not the life of anyone's but the drugs and disease - which is valid, however, at that point the person in question does not have the presence of mind to make to many decisions of importance - probably another topic...
anyway, back to you are not your own, meaning as a believer God can still work in your life, you can still be a testimony, more specifically, you can look past yourself and reach people that others cannot reach (because of your situation) not only that but you can remind people, by your testimony that their life does not suck, especially compared to yours (you being the one in the predicament).

I don't know that this is any more than opinion, maybe conviction, so the next question is, would i ever assist someone with their suicide - i think i can answer pretty definitively concerning an unsaved person - no, reason, they are unsaved, or more to the point, they are not saved yet. but what about a christian? i don't know, even after i pointed them to this blog, i still don't know...
i mean i would rather someone not blow their head off, and i think i would rather throw them a big end of their life party first and then you know... the thing - rather than a phone call that we had been waiting for, i guess, as you can see, i'm still mulling it over.
What are your thoughts

This Lamborghini looks pretty awesomed - it was sharpee'd to death




check out the rest of the pics at
http://www.lamborghinimiami.com/sharpie_car.htm

This is sorta a test blog, but i got some fun pics to, i haven't figured out how to make my individual blog layouts do exactly what i want, like the right text under the right photo.
first photo will be of a sign in a thai restaurant i like to go to near the seminary...

I might also add that i've been running about 3 times a week (supposed to be 4)and here is a typical end of run stat pic


On Sundays i teach a sunday school class for little kiddies, i dress up like a doctor, and tell them a story about how jesus healed a paraplegic, i take cues from house and martin - you know berate them and such, they say, "thats not a real stethoscope!" - i say, "and your dads not your real dad!" or something to that effect.

I've reading through Genesis lately, and am rather enjoying it - i think it gets a bad rap for being in the OT, but there is some crazy stuff in there. Two sets of twins being born a generation or so apart - when the first set was born, esau came out red and nasty all over, no sooner had he come out that jacob his younger brother reaches his arm out of the vaginal canal and takes hold of esau's leg, and of course it was symbolic, but only God knew what it meant so he told 'em it meant that the older will serve the younger. the second set of twins born from Tamar - you know, the daughter in law who posed as a hooker, cuz her two previous husbands (who were brothers) were killed by God cuz they were bad and stuff, mmm-k. anyway, she posed as a hooker cuz her father in law wouldn't give her his youngest and maybe last son (wonder why) and he (Judah - the father in law) noticed that her red light was on so he got some, but not before negotiation, to which she bargained for some of his personal effects. Which came in handy cause 3 months later when judah found out she was prego - he was like, off with her head, but she was like, its your baby - and here's your boxers and staff back, so obviously the next words out of judah's mouth "she is more righteous than i..." but "i ain't never sleepin with you again" (thats prolly what he said) and he didn't.
anyway, so she had judah's twins - and when they were born, one stuck his arm out the VC (not viet cong) and the midwife tied a red ribbon around his arm so as to know which was older - cause you can't imagine how important that was -(where do you get red ribbon in the desert?) , but then the little man pulled his arm back, and the other child came out first, but no symbolism this time, i think.

chris and allison got baptized yesteray, the volume is jacked up for some reason, it plays on my comp, but when i upload the video it sounds well.... anyway, here they are.

and allison...

I'm post crazy today...

Yesterday I was at kroger and as I was being wrung up the bagger boy asked what i had planned for the weekend - i said, reading. He said, reading what? I paused and internally smiled and said, 4 Views on the Canaanite Genocide. He said, o. I thought, exactly - not cause he's stupid or anything - but i imagine that besides its extreme unpopularity among westerners, and feel good sermon preachers - it probably also has relatively low interest even among students of scripture, because it makes no sense to us. I was previously included in this group, but in recent years i noticed it popping up plenty in liber, emergent, and non-christian discussions frequently, so i became mildly curious, but only to the point where i thought about it sometimes - and acknowledged that we must be more complete in understanding and thinking of God by being more complete in realizing who He is and what He has done to distinguish Himself - and only then being able to more fully worship Him as such or more fully reject him as such. I did take the next step up becoming interested in this subject when i realized that i could write on the subject for a paper this semester, so i'm taking the opportunity to do so. I'll post my findings prolly in a week or so, when i write the paper, but i have a feeling deeper grasping of one's personal theology is base to this discussion, you can't just walk into the middle of a conversation and expect to understand what and why is being said until your caught up in the story and the characters. one more thing, as i turns out, there are a lot more instances of Yahweh War than i thought.

Shayna sent me this video the other day - right now she is spending some needed time in charelston with her fam... i'm not exactly sure what message she is trying to send me, but i think this video says plenty about our relationship :)

I've been throwing caution to the wind lately, meaning i've been staying up past midnight, its a big deal. i have no work and no school yet this year so i just watch lots and lots of hulu and other dvd's that the front office at my apartment offers me for free. as you can imagine it has affected my dream sequences. I dreamed something i can't remember about my girlfriend, i think it was that she left me or something, and then i dreamed about britney spears... I recently watched her mtv documentary
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/britney_spears_for_the_record/series.jhtml

and as i watched either shayna or i pointed out that it seems all her friends are paid staff. and i like bebo normans song a lot, i think its a very appropriate christian perspective humans - even one's who are such easy targets. (link below) so anyway i dreamed she came to some new years party with me and amy and john and that we were all just being sweet to her and showing her the love of christ, her children weren't at the party though. shayna thought it was a funny dream.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn6Hi6Jq0lM

From the new Gay Bible, cheers...

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first. And Aida said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of me. Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.' And they were both naked, the woman and her wife, and were not ashamed."