ugh.. stupid milk. begin stage 2 of milk sickness.. (i just picked a random stage number, i havent really codified it yet.. but im at the second worst part.. the one with the headache, stomach ache, and lots of general discomfort)
note to self, i dreamt today that my brother was talking to me. and that for some reason we were in cuba, and my sister and dad, and probably even my mom were also there
does it help to think of the question of "how much can i booze myself up, as a christian?" the same way as the question "how much skin on a girl who is not my wife is it ok to see?"
in the "christian" world, some dishonor God by their ignorance, and others by their arrogance. and both spite each other instead of repenting of such attitudes.
my gift to you on this christmas day, first, may the Lord fill your life with His grace and may He have mercy on your soul and grant you repentance and redeem your soul for His glory.. the greatest gift of all
second, a fun video:
T-Mobile Angry Birds Live For the first time ever, watch how people use a simple smartphone to play a life-size version of the cult Angry Birds game. Complete with real shooting birds and exploding pigs!
merry CHRISTmas everyone!! who says we cannot celebrate two birthdays for the Savior of wretched sinners, the Messiah Immanuel who was born of a virgin to fulfill His promise to die as a ransom for His people over whom He is a wonderful counselor and Mighty God??
there is only one who is good, the rest of us are just tarnished mirrors poorly reflecting beams of His perfect Glory!! soli deo gloria!
Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.
But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.
He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.
"He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"
Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.
"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says.
Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.
"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"
"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'"
Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"
"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.
Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.
The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to.
When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."
The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know."
Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."
Afterward, when Diaz told his mother what happened, she said, "You're the type of kid that if someone asked you for the time, you gave them your watch."
"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world."
this guy is awesome. i hope that if i am ever faced with the same circumstance, that i may answer with as much compassion and love as him.
something you might not have known about jack nicholson
Nicholson’s opinions on abortion were formed by personal experience. He was a grown man when he discovered the woman he thought was his sister was actually his mother, and the woman he knew as his mother was his grandmother. His mother became pregnant as a teenager and was encouraged to have an abortion, even back in 1937, but she chose life for her son. The revelation that his sister was his mom was understandably difficult for Nicholson, and had a profound affect on him. For one, it made him pro-life:
"I’m very contra my constituency in terms of abortion because I’m positively against it. I don’t have the right to any other view. My only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life."
wow, jack nicholson, pro-life.. never'd a thunk it (im reluctant to post the full article, but here it is: 5 male celebrities I support, and why I support them.. i dont know, ive been starting to notice that pro-life-ness is a bit like its own religion.. not cool.)
i officially (as of like last week) have a grey hair coming out of the smack middle of my mustache.. add to that the 3 or four in my beard (which doesnt even grow out full) and the almost 7 ive found on my head.. and im officially old now. the end.
test your reaction time.. i got an average of around .23 seconds.. not counting the fact that this browser is always consuming tons of cpu usage, even WITH javascript and flash disabled.
in researching branding, etc, i ran into an article on red bull, which led to an article on the original drink red bull is based on (krating daeng), which led to my finding an article on a type of cattle, which led to another article on another type of extinct cattle, which led to this paragraph, and the reason for the post:
In the 1920s two German zoo directors (in Berlin and Munich), the brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck, began a selective breeding program in the attempt to breed back the aurochs into existence from the domestic cattle that were their descendants. Their plan was based on the concept that a species is not extinct as long as all its genes are still present in a living population.
sort of throws a spin on evolution if you ask me..
ugh.. so michael moore sent one of his "attackers", who ran an anti-michael moore website, and who needed money for health care an "anonymous check" for the amount needed... AND THEN PUT IT IN HIS MOVIE!!!! gah!! what a jerk! holey! and the lefties eat this garbage up.. can you imagine? its like me sending someone an anonymous $200 (adjusted according to income, right?) check to someone who needs it, and then taking a billboard out stating the fact, and making the person look like a complete jerk to me. ON THE BILLBOARD. ugh. yeah so noble, michael
In the state of Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, patients desiring treatment under the government health plan have been offered assisted suicide instead.
[...]
In Oregon, other types of suicides have increased since the legalization of assisted suicide.
On the death of Kim Jong Il, one wit tweeted that he liked to think that God had let Havel and Hitchens decide who would be the third one to go. That's funny, but if ideas have consequences, and they do, then there are a few other considerations.
We often say, when someone passes away, that they have "gone to their reward." But given atheism, what is that reward exactly? It is exactly the same for Havel, Hitchens, and Kim Jong Il. All three have now entered into nothingness, which is to say that, given atheism, there are no rewards for anything -- good, bad or anywhere in the middle.
Havel was an anti-communist hero, Hitchens was a courageous but infidel journelist, and Kim Jong Il was a murderous and genocidal thug. They all graduated from this class called earth, and they all got exactly the same grade. Is that justice?
Well, no, the atheist could reply. He grants there is no justice after this life. He might add, somewhat lamely, that this is why it is so important for us to work for justice here and now.
Okay, I'll bite. Let's work for justice here and now because there is no justice in the universe? Nothing ultimately matters and so we must redouble our efforts to act like it does? All things are meaningless, and so we should make sure this thing here is meaningful? This is like maintaining that all triangles have three sides, except for this one here in my personal life, which has five, and which I find comforting. For people who put so much stock in "reason," you would think they would spend a more little time meditating on what deduction actually entails.
Think of it this way. Every day of his life that passed, Kim Jong Il was one day closer to getting away with everything. In the Christian universe, the day of his death was the day of his final capture and arrest. When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes (Prov. 11:7, ESV). The day comes when his life is required of him (Luke 12:20). But in the atheist universe, the day of his death was the day of his final and irrevocable escape.
This should not be a difficult truth to grasp, but sometimes God points straight at it so that we might stumble over our normal evasions. The mortality rate here on this planet is 100 percent, just like a century ago. Nothing about that has changed. Nothing unusual happened to Vaclav Havel, Christopher Hitchens, or Kim Jong Il. It is just that these three deaths, in this proximity, make us think about what we should be thinking about all the time. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment (Heb. 9:27).
But if there is no judgment, as some maintain, then we should make our peace with that, and stop being so judgmental now. Kim Jong Il was just one more case study to be filed by some relativistic anthropologist under "Different Strokes."
in openoffice.org (your free office suite), to keep a paragraph from splitting, click on it, and go to "Paragraph..." > "Text flow" and click on "Do not split paragraph"
to keep a newline as part of the paragraph, you want to do "shift + enter". also, you can insert a page break by doing "ctrl + enter". hope that helps
i posted this as my status on my facebook profile:
i think one of the most valuable lessons that reformed theology has taught me over the last few years is compassion. knowing that there is absolutely no reason why God should save me, and that no moral action on my part could ever get me saved, reminds me that criticizing someone's morals and shoving mine down their throat will not save them either. as much as i value morality and wish to promote it, itll never lead to their salvation, only the Gospel is the power unto salvation. may i never forget this.
this obviously prompted the haters to hate, and some guy using a fake name (who i somehow added some time ago.. ugh.. yeah, tell me about it) posted a public message on my wall about how i am a hypocrite, and that if i am soo compassionate, then why didnt i x,y and z.. and that i need to repent. he of course never said what it was i did, (x,y and z were just some strange reference to having compassion on his family while here.. ??) ugh. it doesnt end does it?
in any case, someone else posted only that they dont agree (not which part of that whole statement they didnt agree with) so i responded thusly:
yeah, its a work in progress, i know i have lots to work on in regards to my compassion. but im open to being told where i am failing. you shouldve seen me just a couple years ago.. that was pretty bad, and im still paying for it in the friendships i ruined as a result of my bad theology
and someone else posted this:
reform theology boxes God's compassion...(in my humble opinion). also, though we must rely on the Spirit, the body was purposed to be a light in the world. So our actions do matter a great deal. I agree with what you said about criticizing and shoving though. We are not to judge those outside the body - and even that is to be done through loving relationship.
(ps, she also wrote that my original post were "good thoughts".. just letting you know) to which i wrote an essay of a response:
yeah, i was mostly referring to how i understand conversion, soteriology, and evangelism. as an arminian i used to believe that if i could just get someone to make a "decision" for Christ, that was it. and trust me, as you can see on TV and pretty much any arminian church service, getting someone to make a "decision" for Christ is actually quite easy. and then the next week these people are back in the mud. no conversion, no change.
as an arminian i used to believe (i guess subconsciously) that if you just told people how to be moral, they would be "closer" to being saved, but much like trying to jump to the moon, where one person jumps higher than the other.. yet neither is any closer. this is what i was taught. you hammer down your morality, as if it did any good. so i would stress things like "you have to stop smoking", and other trivial matters like that, on the unsaved. really it made no sense. over the years it was my frustration with the abject failure of my evangelism, where people made these "decisions" for Christ and then they would run away from me if they saw me in the hall, that led me to realize something was really really wrong with my evangelism. its what led me to study the Scriptures and start trying to figure out what it was i was doing wrong. eventually i came to realize, we are not and cannot be saved by any decision our corrupt hearts can ever make. the Bible is clear, we are DEAD in our trespasses and sins. a dead person cant do anything towards getting himself back to life.. and the only way they can be brought to life is if God gives them life, and the only way He has given us to enact this, is through the preaching of the Gospel, NOT our morality, and NOT through psychological manipulation.
God had mercy on my sinful soul, He showed compassion on a hateful person such as myself, and He chose to love me first, while i was still His hated enemy. may i follow suit and conform to this love, mercy and compassion, and may i have mercy compassion and love for those who hate Him too.
and i finally added this:
hmm.. i think this may be easily understood. so let me clarify, its not that i am claiming to be compassionate to any measurable means, but that a reformed understanding of salvation is daily teaching me to be _more_ compassionate. but not that i can in any way boast about being at any satisfactory level of compassion (if you read my earlier posts this would be clear.. but for the benefit of those who havent)
though the week had a couple highlights.. lets mark this down as another bad week. not because of all this. but simply because what little bursts of joy i am able to get at certain points of the week do not really make up for the rest of it. exhaustion and my own failures (among a couple other things) are just weighing me down too much. and i cant even pray "take me now, Lord" because im not ready to go.. im not in a state where i can say "i am satisfied with how i have lived my life to this point, and with how much i have given to my Lord" at some point yeah, i did feel that way, years ago. but definitely not anymore. and this whole debacle that happened at the other church (have i ever blogged about what went down? i dont think i have) has just really drained me of energy and emotional capacity to deal with those people. and sometimes when i am confronted with a situation that reminds me of something that happened at that other place, i find myself starting to worry. even my wife sometimes wonders how soon it will be until we are kicked out of the one we are in now. hah. (that was a sad chuckle).
No Western Government Has Ever Claimed The Power To Do This, Not even Hitler. Obama Signs in new legislation, to detain humans for life, even after they have been proven Innocent by a judge & jury.
but why are we surprised?? look at what their elected government is now doing:
Christians classified as Terrorists by Obama Administration Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Romans 12:14
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Matthew 10:23
But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
Mark 13:11
fair trial? keep in mind, this is where obama had his upbringing, this is what he sees as normalcy
then this one, this is what freedom of religion in a muslim country looks like (indonesia is the world's most populous muslim country):
Indonesian Christians under attack Violent attacks against Christians in Indonesia have forced the closure of 20 churches in recent months, testing the fragile religious balance in predominantly-Muslim nation.
But the government denies the incidents are a sign of growing religious intolerance, putting the blame on politics and regional elections instead.
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen reports from West Java. (May 11, 2010)
and this is what one swiss member of parliament had to say about the creeping shariah in his country:
Swiss Member of Parliament Has Had Enough!
Excellent speech by Swiss member of Parliament Oskar Freysinger said with passion and truth that no politician in Washington is yet ready to speak from the floor of Congress. In order for us to beat back the Islamists we need some key leaders in Washington to make a similar speech and lead the nation against the Islamist threat head on.
problems scanning with xsane after upgrade or (as in my case, as little sense as it might make) installing a new video card? well, try this solution (which incredibly worked for me):
close xsane
delete or rename your sane user directory (i suggest just renaming it):
$ mv ~/.sane ~/.sane-bak
restart xsane
yeah, no idea how a new video card would mess up the display in one window (in my case the preview window) in xsane, or how in the world it could be solveable by this, but there ya have it
this outputs all sorts of info regarding your motherboard, like what sockets it has, what features it supports, how much memory (RAM), and what type of memory is installed. oh yes, pretty amazing. and, if you do a
# dmidecode --type XX
where XX is a number, it will output only the dmi information of that number type.. ie, ram has a dmi type of 17 (from the first command you can see what type of dmi each portion of information is) pretty awesome huh?
Angry Barrels! (Angry Birds real life)
Niko gets jealous of Sam playing all those great iPhone games, so he decides to build his own version of Angry Birds, with dire consequences.
Adventure Time!
Ever wondered what the insane world of Adventure Time would look like if we got our hands on it? Well stop wondering and watch the video!
someone (atheist) asked for my opinion on the westboro baptist "church" people, here is my response:
i think they are a bunch of idiots who should spend more time studying their bibles than constantly trying to get attention for themselves. Jesus said "by their fruits you shall know them" and this is indeed the case with these guys. they are nothing more than a cult (like the jim jones club) denying the full counsel of God's Word in favor of cherry picking their favorite verses in order to express their skewed views.
they have no love for the lost, and on the "schedules" part of their website their prayer to God is "please destroy this land". this is not the prayer of a christian. the example the Bible sets for how we should pray is "please heal this land", and just as the prophet daniel did, seeking repentance and forgiveness for the sins of his nation, saying "forgive us".. in other words, taking responsibility for the sin of his people.
the westboro people have shown no interest in the mercy of God, and only in God's swift judgment. though God's judgment is indeed swift when it does come, from the first page of the Bible to the very last, what we see is God's mercy and patience toward people who do not deserve it, God's patience towards those who offend Him.
the whole point is that a christian is someone who has first understood his own sin against a holy God and therefore the infinite mercy required to be forgiven of it. therefore, the attitude of a christian, saved only by the grace of God, and not his own "goodness" or works, should be one of mercy and grace towards other sinners. again, not something the westboro cult is doing. they have instead picked the two most inflammatory topics they could (gays and war), and have fashioned their own self-promoting message out of it. notice they only preach the judgment of God, and never the forgiveness and mercy of God.
to clarify a few things they say, it is true that the Bible says God hates sinners (not just f**s, a word i personally dont like btw) but _all_ sinners -- not just their sin. this is a hard doctrine for many to swallow, much less understand, but it is true. without the doctrine of God's hatred for sinners, we cannot fully grasp the notion of God's love for these sinners once He decides to love them, despite their sin, and redeem and supernaturally change them. He goes from infinitely (and righteously) hating the sinner who offended Him in every way (thus declaring himself an enemy of God), to infinitely loving them FIRST (ie, before the sinner is even able to "choose" to do the right thing, or repent, or love God). this is akin for example to say, a jew who had his whole family tortured, slandered, and murdered before his very eyes, and then deciding to love hitler and forgive him --even before hitler repents or "apologizes"! (wow, just writing that makes the concept sound so alien.) but the God of the Bible takes it a step further and not just forgives, loves and even purifies (giving a new heart, new desires) but it says that He even adopts us as his children! imagine loving, and adopting your hated enemy!
clearly, this is not the God these people are preaching. theirs is a different God to the one described in the Bible.
so in summary, these guys are not christians, and ironically, unless they repent, they too will likewise perish.
agh, i just realize i forgot to mention not just the forgiveness of God, but what it required for Him to forgive.. the death of Christ. ok, heres what i wrote:
of course, keeping in mind that to forgive us, it required that God's own Son take upon Himself the punishment we rightly deserved to pay the debt we owe.
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