So...after a haggard three days of having to get ready to leave on Wednesday...I find out that our plane doesn't actually leave until 7pm. So what do I do with myself for the hours of time spent not packing since I spent the last three days working so hard on it?? Why, meaningless posting of course!!! I found this video on my friends MySpace and if you like classical music or any music really, it's hilarious. Just a quick disclaimer, the guy swears once in the middle and then a few times at the end, so if that bothers you at all, just watch the first half. So while I'm off flying for hours on end...enjoy this movie!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Turkey
Hey guys, so just a heads-up I'm gonna be in Turkey for the next two weeks so I won't be posting much (or nothing at all really!). I'll put up a long post about the trip when I get back--with pics, and lots of cool buildings for TJ ;)
So until then -- gilay gilay (which is goodbye in Turkish, but i'm sure i butchered the spelling there).
So until then -- gilay gilay (which is goodbye in Turkish, but i'm sure i butchered the spelling there).
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Hitch
I watched the movie "Hitch" last night (with some fastforwarding), but I found it interesting how the movie talks about relationships between men and women. Obviously the film is not based on a Christian view point, yet it brings up some very interesting ideas.
1. "No woman wakes up and thinks 'I would really like not to be swept off my feet today'." -- So true. That's all there is to say there.
2. "Women beleive that they can figure out anything about a relationship from the first kiss." I don't know about other women, but since I don't plan and really kissing anyone until I get engaged I would hope there are other ways to figure out a relatioship. Like having a conversation--i find conversations communicate much better than kisses. A kiss can say 'i love you' but a conversation can say why. Also, there is the effort each person puts into the relationship. If someone is going out of their way to spend time with someone else...that communicates something. And, from a Christian perspective, is God coming first? The amount of commitment that a person gives to God is a good indicator of how commited they will be to you. If God comes first, everything else falls in line (not always easliy mind you...but it will).
3. "Women respond to you when you respond to them". Again, true. We do really like people to listen to us and then be able to repond inteligently. It shows respect. And I'm pretty sure the same goes for guys, too. Everyone wants to be heard and respected.
4. Okay, so I must take issue with the fact that marriage was never mentioned in the film (i didn't actually get to finish it, but unless someone got married in the last 10 minutes--and it didn't look like anyone would--no marriage mentioned). Any Godly relationship should be focused on finding someone to share your life with. Not right away of course, but the end goal shouldn't be having someone to live with until you get fed up with them and then ditch. I did like, however, the strong stance they took against one-nighting. This is a much needed lesson in our world of instant gratification. Will Smith really does take a stand against problems in our culture and I respect him for that. I don't agree with everything he does or stands for, but its certainly a step in the right direction.
{June 18th edit}okay so that'll show me to write a review of a movie i didn't finish. They do get married in the end. go figure.
1. "No woman wakes up and thinks 'I would really like not to be swept off my feet today'." -- So true. That's all there is to say there.
2. "Women beleive that they can figure out anything about a relationship from the first kiss." I don't know about other women, but since I don't plan and really kissing anyone until I get engaged I would hope there are other ways to figure out a relatioship. Like having a conversation--i find conversations communicate much better than kisses. A kiss can say 'i love you' but a conversation can say why. Also, there is the effort each person puts into the relationship. If someone is going out of their way to spend time with someone else...that communicates something. And, from a Christian perspective, is God coming first? The amount of commitment that a person gives to God is a good indicator of how commited they will be to you. If God comes first, everything else falls in line (not always easliy mind you...but it will).
3. "Women respond to you when you respond to them". Again, true. We do really like people to listen to us and then be able to repond inteligently. It shows respect. And I'm pretty sure the same goes for guys, too. Everyone wants to be heard and respected.
4. Okay, so I must take issue with the fact that marriage was never mentioned in the film (i didn't actually get to finish it, but unless someone got married in the last 10 minutes--and it didn't look like anyone would--no marriage mentioned). Any Godly relationship should be focused on finding someone to share your life with. Not right away of course, but the end goal shouldn't be having someone to live with until you get fed up with them and then ditch. I did like, however, the strong stance they took against one-nighting. This is a much needed lesson in our world of instant gratification. Will Smith really does take a stand against problems in our culture and I respect him for that. I don't agree with everything he does or stands for, but its certainly a step in the right direction.
{June 18th edit}
Changes
Some of you will notice that my blog layout will start changing very frequently. I'm spending the summer trying to learn some HTML coding so I'm using my blog as a place to practice. So if it looks horrible at some points--forgive me. I'm just learning :)
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Mow
The Game of Mow has now begun...
There is to be no talking...
Questions may be asked only by following the proper order...
The Two of spades has been played...
Five of spades....
Five of hearts....
Penalty--talking
Penalty--failure to say I love you
I love you
knock
knock
knock
NUDITY!!!
knock-knock--I hate you all
seven of spades...
Have a nice day
nine of spades...
penatly--failure to say having a nice day
pivo
what the heck is happening here???
pivo has ended.
There is to be no talking...
Questions may be asked only by following the proper order...
The Two of spades has been played...
Five of spades....
Five of hearts....
Penalty--talking
Penalty--failure to say I love you
I love you
knock
knock
knock
NUDITY!!!
knock-knock--I hate you all
seven of spades...
Have a nice day
nine of spades...
penatly--failure to say having a nice day
pivo
what the heck is happening here???
pivo has ended.
Ps.
That's weird, I have to write the PS, before the actual post so it will be below it. anyhoo...sorry for the wacky post, if you have never played Mow before it won't make any sense. It's a hilarious, awesome, incredible card game that everyone needs to play at least once in their life :) I just thought some explaination was necessary.
~me
~me
Monday, June 4, 2007
Pre-destination
A few months ago I had a conversation with a few others about pre-desnination on "Hold Fast". I thought it was interesting, but becasue of school we never had a chance to finish up. But school is over (yay) so I want to see if I can start it up again.
It seemed that from the conversation two main points were brought up.
In favor of pre-destination: how can God not predestine all things if He is all powerful??
Against pre-destination: How can God cause evil to happen if He is good??
I understand the point of those who beleive in pre-destination, but I fall in the camp of those who don't agree with this belief. I beleive that when the Bible says that God gave reign of the Earth to men, He allowed us free will to govern it as we chose. We decided to give the world over to Satan and therefore sin rules in this present world right now. Now God still has control, but there is a difference between having control and making every decision. I think that God has so much respect for our free will becasue He is a God who desires covenant relationship with His people. This cannot take place, however, unless the other party has total control to decide if they will enter into the relationship or not. God doesn't want an army of worshiping robots, He desires the love of His children as He said to the city of Jerusalm "how many times I have desired to gather you beneath my wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks". But the nation of Israel refused to follow God. This verse shows that though God desires all to come to Him, He will force nobody. The chicks chose not to come and it greived God's heart. How then can God desire for all to be saved and then send some to Hell? It is not consistant with His nature. God desires that all would come to salvation, Jesus died for all men. That is clear in the Bible. If God chose ahead of time who would be saved and who would not be, then why would He not save all men? That would be consistant with His nature, but pre-destination says that God sends some men to heaven and some men to hell. It is Satan that sends people to hell, not God. God's desire is to save, Satan's desire is to destroy. I beleive that God knows what will happen, but He does not cause the evil in the world to take place. He is allowing it for a time, because we chose to let the world fall into darkness. He is fixing our mistake and allowing us to help Him bring it back into light. And as for salvation, the Holy Spirit speaks to us all, but only we can decide if we will listen. If God made us go to heaven, no matter what we did, then we would be worshipping robots and not his close friends.
However, the fact that the Bible aslo says God controls all things is important and a valid argument. I believe that God's control, however, is not dependant on pre-destination. First, it is not necessary to make every decision to control something.
So I'd love to hear what you all think (and even if you were not a part of the previous conversation, please feel free to add your opinion. The more the merrier!!).
It seemed that from the conversation two main points were brought up.
In favor of pre-destination: how can God not predestine all things if He is all powerful??
Against pre-destination: How can God cause evil to happen if He is good??
I understand the point of those who beleive in pre-destination, but I fall in the camp of those who don't agree with this belief. I beleive that when the Bible says that God gave reign of the Earth to men, He allowed us free will to govern it as we chose. We decided to give the world over to Satan and therefore sin rules in this present world right now. Now God still has control, but there is a difference between having control and making every decision. I think that God has so much respect for our free will becasue He is a God who desires covenant relationship with His people. This cannot take place, however, unless the other party has total control to decide if they will enter into the relationship or not. God doesn't want an army of worshiping robots, He desires the love of His children as He said to the city of Jerusalm "how many times I have desired to gather you beneath my wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks". But the nation of Israel refused to follow God. This verse shows that though God desires all to come to Him, He will force nobody. The chicks chose not to come and it greived God's heart. How then can God desire for all to be saved and then send some to Hell? It is not consistant with His nature. God desires that all would come to salvation, Jesus died for all men. That is clear in the Bible. If God chose ahead of time who would be saved and who would not be, then why would He not save all men? That would be consistant with His nature, but pre-destination says that God sends some men to heaven and some men to hell. It is Satan that sends people to hell, not God. God's desire is to save, Satan's desire is to destroy. I beleive that God knows what will happen, but He does not cause the evil in the world to take place. He is allowing it for a time, because we chose to let the world fall into darkness. He is fixing our mistake and allowing us to help Him bring it back into light. And as for salvation, the Holy Spirit speaks to us all, but only we can decide if we will listen. If God made us go to heaven, no matter what we did, then we would be worshipping robots and not his close friends.
However, the fact that the Bible aslo says God controls all things is important and a valid argument. I believe that God's control, however, is not dependant on pre-destination. First, it is not necessary to make every decision to control something.
So I'd love to hear what you all think (and even if you were not a part of the previous conversation, please feel free to add your opinion. The more the merrier!!).
Saturday, June 2, 2007
I Graduated!!!!
Yipee!! Graduation is over and I'm done with high school!!!!!!!! The ceremony was so great. My parents got to give me my diploma and they spent about four minutes just talking about how proud they were of me and how they really beleived that I would do well in college. It was so sweet, I almost cried. All the parents of the seniors got to do that, it was almost as sweet watching my friends and their parents as it was being on stage with mine.
I also got to give a valedictorian speech about posst-it notes!! I'm copying the speech below (unlike Sam, nothing exciting happened to me while i was giving it, but I think it went well anyways).
So now it's on to college!
My Speech: God's Will in a Post-It Note
Good afternoon everyone, I hope that you all are having a wonderful time at graduation. First I want to thank all of you for being here to support us as we graduate and many of you, parents, grandparents, teachers and others for helping us as we worked our way through school.
I want to start today by telling you all a story. Many years ago there was a man who was working in a laboratory to create a “super-adhesive”. He developed many chemical formulas for what he knew was going to be the strongest glue ever made. But each time he made his glue, it was annoyingly weak. The adhesive would release its hold on two pieces of paper at even the slightest pull. He tried again and again to make his glue stronger, but he failed every time. Then, he realized that his invention, though not a “super-adhesive” as he intended it, was actually a very useful product and to this day we all use post-it notes.
I love this story because it is such a good example of how God’s Will can sometimes work in our lives. When we start out (like graduating from high school) we can sometimes think that we have God’s plan all figured out. But along the way, things don’t work out. Our glue just won’t stick. It is in these situations that we can have one of two responses: we can get frustrated that the glue won’t work, or we can make a post-it note!
The prophet Daniel and his friends Hannaiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known as Shardrack, Meshack and Abed-nego), had to deal with this very situation in their lives. These four young Hebrew men remained faithful to their God even in the idolatrous land of Babylon. For their dedication to Him, God gave them favor with the Bablyonian king and gave them positions of great influence in that nation. At that point they were probably thinking, “this is great, God is giving us these positions of influence so we can live here and bring God glory in this nation.” Though this was a major part of God’s plan for them, it was not all He had in store. After a few years, King Nebecadnezzer built a giant golden idol and commanded all the people to worship it. Of course, they would not do that, so they refused to bow down to it. This action got them a quick trip to a blazing furnace. Now though the Bible doesn’t say exactly what Shadrack, Meshack, and Abed-nego were thinking as they were being led to the furnace, I can imagine them wondering why God had given them all this authority in Bablyon only to let them die. God’s plan probably wasn’t working out very well in their heads. But they had the right response, they decided to trust in God and hold fast to His commandments. God did not let them die that day, but instead kept them safe in the middle of a fire so hot that it killed two men standing near it. This miracle showed the entire nation of Bablyon the power of God in a way that was unequalled by any other recorded act that these young ever men did.
Now I truly hope that none of you will be threatened to be thrown into a fiery furnace, but we are frequently thrust into situations where God’s plan is not clear to us. However, if we trust in him and remain open to the idea that God knows His plan better than we do, He will bring us through it and looking back we’ll be able to see how God’s actual plan brought Him much more glory than the plan we thought He had.
It is so important that we seek God’s will for our lives. But equally important is listening to what God is saying when situations don’t work out. Sometimes He wants us to push though and stick to the original idea, but other times He wants to us to realize that His Will was something totally different than what we originally thought it was. So don’t be afraid to make a change and invent a post-it note!
Thank you.
I also got to give a valedictorian speech about posst-it notes!! I'm copying the speech below (unlike Sam, nothing exciting happened to me while i was giving it, but I think it went well anyways).
So now it's on to college!
My Speech: God's Will in a Post-It Note
Good afternoon everyone, I hope that you all are having a wonderful time at graduation. First I want to thank all of you for being here to support us as we graduate and many of you, parents, grandparents, teachers and others for helping us as we worked our way through school.
I want to start today by telling you all a story. Many years ago there was a man who was working in a laboratory to create a “super-adhesive”. He developed many chemical formulas for what he knew was going to be the strongest glue ever made. But each time he made his glue, it was annoyingly weak. The adhesive would release its hold on two pieces of paper at even the slightest pull. He tried again and again to make his glue stronger, but he failed every time. Then, he realized that his invention, though not a “super-adhesive” as he intended it, was actually a very useful product and to this day we all use post-it notes.
I love this story because it is such a good example of how God’s Will can sometimes work in our lives. When we start out (like graduating from high school) we can sometimes think that we have God’s plan all figured out. But along the way, things don’t work out. Our glue just won’t stick. It is in these situations that we can have one of two responses: we can get frustrated that the glue won’t work, or we can make a post-it note!
The prophet Daniel and his friends Hannaiah, Mishael, and Azariah (better known as Shardrack, Meshack and Abed-nego), had to deal with this very situation in their lives. These four young Hebrew men remained faithful to their God even in the idolatrous land of Babylon. For their dedication to Him, God gave them favor with the Bablyonian king and gave them positions of great influence in that nation. At that point they were probably thinking, “this is great, God is giving us these positions of influence so we can live here and bring God glory in this nation.” Though this was a major part of God’s plan for them, it was not all He had in store. After a few years, King Nebecadnezzer built a giant golden idol and commanded all the people to worship it. Of course, they would not do that, so they refused to bow down to it. This action got them a quick trip to a blazing furnace. Now though the Bible doesn’t say exactly what Shadrack, Meshack, and Abed-nego were thinking as they were being led to the furnace, I can imagine them wondering why God had given them all this authority in Bablyon only to let them die. God’s plan probably wasn’t working out very well in their heads. But they had the right response, they decided to trust in God and hold fast to His commandments. God did not let them die that day, but instead kept them safe in the middle of a fire so hot that it killed two men standing near it. This miracle showed the entire nation of Bablyon the power of God in a way that was unequalled by any other recorded act that these young ever men did.
Now I truly hope that none of you will be threatened to be thrown into a fiery furnace, but we are frequently thrust into situations where God’s plan is not clear to us. However, if we trust in him and remain open to the idea that God knows His plan better than we do, He will bring us through it and looking back we’ll be able to see how God’s actual plan brought Him much more glory than the plan we thought He had.
It is so important that we seek God’s will for our lives. But equally important is listening to what God is saying when situations don’t work out. Sometimes He wants us to push though and stick to the original idea, but other times He wants to us to realize that His Will was something totally different than what we originally thought it was. So don’t be afraid to make a change and invent a post-it note!
Thank you.
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