Category: Personal

Personal posts to me

Posted on

Reach Out

Eventful. Different. I enjoy randomness and change. I ate my first meal today at McDonalds (Spicy Premium Chicken Sandwich) — it was okay. Two o’clock I went to the church — I helped install the projector screen and I moved the microphone to the back where the computer is (so we can record the messages to the computer). I came home and my dad fixed something up that we never had before — it was good, filled me up. They left and gave Jenna some at work (or that’s what they said they were doing). While they were gone I got a call saying someone we know, his dad committed suicide. I guess I’ve never thought I’d know anyone in this time period who’d do that. I suppose I was wrong. It’s just so sad. One shot is really two shots. You’re not just killing your body, but you’re pushing yourself into eternity in an instant. I’ve just been hoping and praying the family gets over this easily and that as much evil the enemy meant to come of this, much more good will come out of it. To say the least, today has been a very different day (on many fronts, I suppose).

My church is having a get-together tomorrow night. Play games and socialize. I guess there’s not much to say until after the event though … I do like hanging out with the church family though, great fun!

My Glorious is one of my favorite worship songs. I bought the “Our Love is Loud” Passion CD from iTunes since they were two dollars off. Overall, that has been the best Passion CD ever released, in my opinion. Speaking of Passion, Passion 07 registrations starts next week (well, they’ll sell out within a few hours, I’d guess). It says the official site will be up next week. They will probably do a few awesome videos that make me want to go even more … maybe I’ll get to go this year.

Common sense. You know it’s going “out of style” when you do a search for it and you see ads on how to get “common sense” on eBay. For those that have no clue what common sense is, read this nice definition. It’s true that I don’t have common sense on everything (no one really does). I mean, if I worked on cars since I was a kid, sure I’d have “car common sense” and be able to diagnose problems better than someone who spent four years in college learning all about how to fix it. It’s the same way with everything, though. It’s bad, really bad, when someone who has eight years of book sense think they know all about something yet don’t know anything about how to actually diagnose a problem. Sure, there is always a ten-step manual that can be followed, but honestly, it could be something not even listed and someone with common sense would pick it up first — not the one with a ten-step program on how to diagnose the problem. I guess I’m just posting this to say that, in college, try to get lots of hands on experience with what you’re learning (real world, not lab experience). It’ll help in the long run. It’ll be bad the day jobs start requiring common sense and college education is just a “want” (not required). If I ever started a business I’d like to do a common sense test … college is good and dandy, but I’d want people with sense for the job.

Respect. Youth. It bothers me deeply when I see an adult (obviously greater than 25 to 30 years) does not respect youth and younger adults. Some just think they’re better or know it all. Others just want someone to beat down, so they find someone who doesn’t matter: youth. I don’t know everything. An adult who’s 98 doesn’t know everything. Would these people ever send Timothy out today? Or would he have to go to college before he could be any help to Paul? Paul obviously thought very highly of Timothy (or else he wouldn’t be referenced so often by Paul, nor help Paul in writing and sending the letters to the church’s). 1 Corinthians 16:10 says tells the church of Corinth to “treat him [Timothy] with respect”. Now, am I against adults? Of course not. I normally get out of situations where adults think they’re better than youth. Youth are told to respect those in authority (which is good), but those in authority need to also show respect.

Men in the church. The other day when coming home from school, I was listening to the radio and they were talking about why, there aren’t as many men in the church. They made the argument that one reason is that church is seen as a feminine thing and, for the most part, only tailors to the females. They brought out and excellent example of how there was once a church with a prayer room that was decorated with ribbons and such. The church wanted to reach more guys, so they asked them to come in and completely remodel the room. What they did was remodeled the room with items such as Celtic shields and the like. When I think of the remodel, it can have a deeper meaning and actually be exactly what a prayer room should be for — spiritual warfare. Finally, after the remodel, the guys were more “at home”, but the females loved it so much they couldn’t even stay away. There were many other examples too, but this was the one I liked a lot.

Posted on

Randomness

I’ve not written in my blog much this month — only two posts!  That’s not good.  I guess I can attribute it to (aka: blame it on) school and slight hole I’ve been in here lately.  I’ve had several papers due this month.  Spring Break is in two or three weeks … I’m kind of ready for a week of not worrying about school.  Over the past few days I’ve been trying to catch up on bugs and features for E-Blah, it’s gone alright.

I don’t have that long, so I don’t want to dwell too much about those things.  The Passion Worship CD’s have made it to the iTunes home page.  This is awesome news.  Currently the latest preview from Passion ’06 has made a solid #5 for total album sales.  I’ve been reading the 286 Blog, very interesting stuff.  Reading it makes me want to go to Passion ’07 (in Atlanta, GA!!).  I need some people to go with me though (hotel and all).

Jason Upton is an awesome worship leader! I’ve known of him for a while.  I’ve just never really listened to him since about a week ago.  All his CD’s are on their shoutcast radio station. I’ve been playing that (it’s added along with the other five radio stations on my playlist — ChristianRock.net, The Night Watch, One Jesus, ChristianHardRock.net, CMRadio).  While on the topic of music, I found that Family Force 5 released their CD on iTunes earlier than the main release date.  I bought it … it’s so diffrent.  Randomness is good!

Posted on

A Day Late

It appears that I haven’t posted to my blog in two weeks or so.  I believe that is a record.  I’m not sure, but what’s it mater, I’m posting now.  A lot has been going on over the past few days, so I have a reason (or do I?) for not posting.  At the beginning of this week, I had two papers to write (one I just edited, but it was still work).

On Thursday, I helped at church with building the little place where the computer is going to be located.  When I got home afterwards, the remaining parts of the church computer were waiting at the door.  Therefore, I took a while, built the computer, and installed everything it needed.  I have to admit, the parts that are in the computer – I have never worked with four of the pieces of hardware.  I built my computer with secondhand hardware about a year ago (in March 2005, I believe), and at that time, the Socket T (775) was not even out yet.  There was not anything different since I have installed countless Socket 478.

Continuing in the subject of computers, I have seemed to be working on increasingly more computers lately.  I enjoy working on them and helping people out.  I wish I could do a start up computer repair shop around here.  Never know, I guess, it could happen.  There seems to be more activity with working online with Internet work lately too, and it has helped monetarily.

I finished The Visitation last week.  Author Frank Peretti put a lot of work in creating a relatable story of an ex-pastor who had problems with the church – someone whom changes from more of a bitter person to one of humbleness and dependence on God at the end.  The main story incorporates another story of the ex-pastors younger life starting from his early days as a Christian up to college and meeting his wife all the way, up to where the story was to that point.  The ending was not exactly something expected either.

In class on Wednesday, we discussed a story that we read (actually I’m not entirely sure where we’re at on the syllabus, so I didn’t read it).  The story, Harrison Bergeron, is a great example of how lame the world would be if political correctness lead the American people.  As the story puts it, “everybody was finally equal”.  If someone did not have a handicap to make them equal, the government made sure you did (as not to corrupt the others).  Intelligence was like an ignorant bliss.  While I thought the story was not that tasteful, there is some truth in it.  Political correctness is one of the major terrorisms of our time.  Do not offend people?  If you offend someone it is like you are evil and looked down upon.  There are fine lines between intentionally offending someone, don’t get me wrong.  However, in life there are times when people are going to be offended (sometimes speaking out of love to someone about a problem they’re having that’s sinful could offend someone, for example).  The truth is, with political correctness there’s this false sense of “peace” – but there’s no peace.  Instead of overfeeding someone while they’re around, people just do it when they’re not around.

A few people out there would like to see just what America would look like if liberals ruled it (putting “ruled it” lightly).  This story by Kurt Vonnegut explains exactly what America would look like – an ignorant dictatorship ruled by rulers who control their subjects every move, idea, thought, feeling, emotion … put simply: their entire life.  Thankfully, I think a few people are seeing how they can pull their handicaps off and get out of the liberal mindset.  Unfortunately, there are still many people with their handicaps … and it seems like some enjoy theirs a little too much.  I just hope they’ll see the light one day …

Posted on

Created to Worship!

I’ve been silent here lately. I’ve not really had much to write about. I’ve been trying to set more of a time a part for God; sometimes it can be tough though. I want to pray and seek God more. Passion ’07 is going to be in Atlanta this year (well, January of next year) I would like to go. I may try to go; maybe I can find a group of people to go with before then. Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman are coming to Auburn on the 17th of next month. I’m thinking seriously about going to that. It’ll be $20, but that’s not too bad.

My family and I committed to Living Water Worship Center tonight.  Tonight’s service was awesome.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in this city (and nation!) this year.

This morning I was just really depressed with a lot of things.  I’ve been just worrying about things instead of just letting God handle them.  I have a lot of things I feel like I need (like a job) – but I’ve not been able to find or get those things.  The main “job” related areas I have a longing to be involved in are computers (I favor administration, actually) and church (while that’s broad, I guess within that it’s technical or youth oriented).  Lately it’s been like walking through a desert (the last three years, perhaps?), but I know my perseverance is not in vain.  Sometimes it’s just like the song by Ginny Owens, “If You Want me To”:

So when the whole world turns against me
And I’m all by myself
And I can’t hear You answer my cries for help
I’ll remember the suffering Your love put You through
And I will go through the valley
If You want me to

I know it’s all in God’s hands.  Guys like to be in control (although we may say we don’t), and I guess jumping off just doesn’t feel safe sometimes.  I have a cartoon of a blindfolded child who’s just walking off of a cliff – and Jesus is right there to catch him.  It’s the faith of a child.  Once you fall off that cliff, you must be totally dependant on God to catch you – even if it’s a great distance away.

I want to go where God sends me.  I’ve been thinking over the past few days of some goals for this year (or maybe next few years).  I’ve made a few goals (finish reading the old testament, for instance).  I want more goals though; I hope I can get involved more in church (and talk more).  I want to go on a mission’s trip.  While that’s the only thing I’ve really been thinking about, it’s important.  I believe it’ll be one of the most awesome adventures I’ve ever had (and I want more adventures!).  I believe it would really alter my life, and I would be sharing the Word of God with people who may have never even heard of Jesus.  I want to do that soon.

Finally, I want to advertise the best Prayer and Worship radio station on the Internet, and that’s The Night Watch.  I’ve had the station on my list for a while but never really checked it out too deep, but when I did I started to really enjoy it.  In the Christian Rock world ChristianRock.net is still, by far number one.

Posted on

Updates of Nothingness

Wow, looks like I’ve neglected my blog over the past week or so.  I’ve been trying to think of something to public to write on, but haven’t really had many ideas, so I’ll just flow where I go.

Over the past week I’ve been reading more than I’ve done much else.  I spent a good part of tonight reformatting my laptop and getting it back up to running condition.  I’ve worked a little on MinistryTalk.com tonight.  Tim has wanted to send the actual MP3 messages to a few other servers so that it’s not as load bearing on just one server.  There’s a lot of things that are still yet to be implemented, so I’m hoping to start adding them as the weeks progress.

Posted on

Evolution?!

There’s been something that’s caught my attention …. to some extent …. lately.  It’s the little Nasa “Stardust” mission.  I’ve not read up on it or rolled around in it like some people do, but the entire purpose of it had me dumbfounded.  I go to a very popular website who’s main purpose is to provide technology news.  From time to time there comes these topics on evolution.  For instance, there’s some “scientific” test being done in some vacume or something to show how the “Big Bang” occured.  Sometimes it seems like I’m the only one with a level mind.  I’m almost positive if these people were in their right mind, they’d see how foolish they look.  Maybe?  Then there are the rest who aren’t that sure what their right mind even is because everything that’s truth is just an allusion to them.  What?  How can there be no absolutes?  There can’t.  An absolute is “not to be doubted or questioned; positive” (dictionary).  I’ve honestly tried to think of a good reason as to why people believe in evolution.  Do they realize how complex life really is?  Do they realize how if we were just a little closer to the sun we’d burn alive?  A little further we’d freeze?  Do they realize that any sort of “big bang” would have to begin, it self, somewhere?  There could never be an “explosion” that would bring about something if there’s nothing to explode in the first place.  The evidence that has been used to prove evolution has been revoked countless times.  This all makes me wonder — if these people, these scientists, were to try to disprove evolution would they see how foolish and dumb it really sounds, and actually is?  They’ve tried to disprove everything in the Bible but they’ve been, countless times, proven wrong.  First you have those saying the history is wrong — then later you have them find the history to back up that it WAS right.  I wonder if a few were to try to actually prove creation if they would still see evolution as an even feasible solution.  I doubt it.

After a certain amount of time the dating techniques scientists use have proven to be uneffective (thus making the dates wrong).  Almost all early civilizations have an account of a flood.  There has been finds all over that seems to question whether there was an actual civilization that was on earth pre-flood.  Underwater currents could move things and put them in actual layers when the flood waters were to go back to their original states.  Right there could make it look like thousands of years are burried all at once, when in actuallity they weren’t.  A lot of this is just my speculation and reasoning as I know the underwater currents are quite strong, and could easily move things around and make them settle anywhere.  Trying to interperate pre-history from a scientific standpoint may seem good …. but so far they’ve done me no good and have yielded no evidence of anything.  Thus I must ask, why is Nasa, being funded by my tax dollars, allowed to carry on their senseless “discoveries”?  I’m all for exploring the galaxy, it’s interesting the pictures they bring back.  I’m just tired of seeing people waste my money on some crusade to find truth where there is none.

Change of subject now …. we got, in the mail, an invitation for the new movie based on the book by Frank Peretti, The Visitation.  It’s going to be shown in Montgomery and it comes out the 20th.  I can’t wait to go!  I’m going to try to go the day it opens.  I was reading Piercing the Darkness, but I believe I’m going to read the other book I had sitting out (to read after it) … The Visitation.

Well, I have some sort of “essay” work to do for English, so I’m going to go get that done.

Posted on

Then It Left

I’ve been more and more busy here lately.  I started back to school.  Thursday was all mixed up — my schedule (along with others) had the wrong room number, so we were all late to class.  If once wasn’t enough, it happened with both of my classes.  That was out of place, never happened to me before.

I finish the book I was reading, “This Present Darkness”.  One of the best books I’ve ever read.  I’ve been reallying thinking about it.  I’ve started reading the next book, “Piercing the Darkness“.  So far it’s a little confusing, but I’m so tired right now anyway.

I woke up (after tossing and turning the entire night) a little before 8 this morning.  I took my sister to work at 9 then headed to the church.  We got a lot of work done.  I painted some and patched the walls that had holes.  It’s really starting to look better (it looks so diffrent from the first time we showed up back in August).  I got home around 5:30.

Now, the real reason why I wanted to write tonight was because of something completely diffrent than what I wrote about.  I want to write about it, but right now I’m so tired and I can’t think straight.  I guess I’ll shorten it into a few sentences. When I was lost (not a Christian), I remember countless times where I worried about everything.  I hated everyone, it was a time I never want to repeat or go into.  Did everything change overnight?  Nope.  At the time I was in like 7th grade — thus, did my homework go away?  I wished.  What did change I can’t explain.  I just know that the evil that was there was washed out in a name that Satan fears and trembles by.  I wouldn’t trade my relationship with Jesus for anything.  Nothing at all.