"Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit" (3 John 1:2), “‘For I will restore health to you,
and your wounds I will heal,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 30:17a).
Unfortunately the 2nd one is a little out of context, as it is talking about Jerusalem, but I think the principal applies.
Well I am at the library working on my exegetical paper and Mormons got briefly mentioned at the study table. This caused me to think back to that one verse which Mormon’s used to justify the 2nd group of Israelites who went to Central America. That verse is John 10:16
16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
Those other sheep are supposed to reference those people, and they have several references to this verse by Joseph Smith where he states the people “understood [Jesus] not” when he said this. But if you stop taking verses out of context and look at what Jesus is saying, you see that he is talking to Pharisees and Jews. When you look at the figurative meaning of “sheep pen” and bringing them together as “one flock”, you have to think a little. Although not necessarily a complete rock solid evaluation, I would say that logically you could say that if those other sheep being not of that pen meant a separation of distance, then by bringing them together as one flock would be removing that physical separation. On the other hand, if that was a social and spiritual separation (as was the perceived separation between Jews and Gentiles), then that would be bridged. Well, that other flock in Central America died, so that never happened, while on the other hand, Jesus did bring together the Jews and Gentiles as God’s loving grace spread unto both! Isn’t it wonderful!
But it is so so terrible how misled the Mormon’s are! The devil is so freakin crafty! Why do we keep this truth from our misled friends!?!
Listen to their sermons, probably read their books, ie. Crazy Love. I know C.S. Lewis and other people are awesome too, but I’m counting just the live people who are within my limited perspective.
http://www.cornerstonesimi.com/special/media_player.html
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/why-we-all-need-the-gospel
This last link I believe I have already posted, but I just love it. It is a scripturally supported sermon, and it should be something that we could easily get from our own reading. It is so simple, yet essential, but still somehow missed by the Church, and by the church, I mean people in church, not the organization.
If you disagree, listen to Francis Chan’s sermon first, then tell me why you disagree. Do you (dis)agree?
Please watch this. Or at least read the transcription of the message below. You won’t get all the emotion and nuances of inflection, but it is better than nothing.
that is allowed right? Things are just falling into place. When God is on top, things just line up. When you look at your feet, your path will bend and curve, but if you keep your eyes up focused on God, your path will be straight.
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan— that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE….
That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student—a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
[disclaimer: not originally mine]
I think I used to never fully understand how Jesus was just praying all night long in the garden. I guess I just attributed it to the awesome nature of Jesus, but as my prayer list grows, I can easily see how Jesus could be there praying not only about the situation that he was in, but praying for all his friends and followers and just about everything!
I am like a recovering alcoholic, but my addiction is videogames. I played maybe 1.5 hours yesterday. Didn’t seem like that long, but I’m sure it must have been. The reason I am classifying it as an addiction is that… pause (I went to sleep a little early last night but I was dead tired all day regardless and so…) whenever I started to go out of consciousness, which took no more than 8 seconds with my eye lids closed, I began to dream. Each of these rapidly onset dreams were me in the Call of Duty Black Ops game. It was terrible. It happened in nearly every class and even during chapel. I thought it representative of how my mind isn’t actually dedicated like I want it to be.
One of the songs in praise chapel contained these lyrics:
The more i seek you, the more i find you. The more i find you, the more I love you.
This is so true!! I show my love by seeking him more, because when I seek, I will find. Why does my will fight this so much!?
Although I don’t take away my earnest desire to stay awake in class, I think overall this semester I have been staying up too late. I don’t feel tired by then, a second wind comes in. Unfortunately my tiredness hits me in the evening. So I think I have just accumulated a lot of sleep debt and need to start being in bed by 10 and 11, which means I need to start getting homework done earlier, and being more responsible. I need to start praying more. I need to shape up and be proud of how I used my day. =/
those are all the random thoughts that were flying through my head. I am pretty much going to disregard everything, continue to be jovial with him, get even more sleep, twiddle my thumbs in class, and do all the available extra credit, and study a whole bunch for the next test, and kick butt on the next assignments. So yeah… why am I explaining myself… oh well, my typing down what I am going to do (what I need to do) will make it more likely that I do it.
I may have talked before about how I have realized that my view of student-professor relationships was a little skewed, as I nearly saw them as an enemy (slight exaggeration), but my perceptions of Professor’s are breaking down more and more. What professor is comedic in an email?! What am I supposed to make of that? “No need to be incredibly sorry; just “sorry” is enough :-) Let the apology fit the “crime.” [in reference to my late work] Thanks for turning in the work. See you later today. I trust you’re doing well. It’s a joy to have you front and center in the class.” This is from the class that I seem to always fall asleep in. I don’t think he always notices, but is he being sarcastic with me sitting in the front? idk… And then he just came up to me in the library to say hello or something, and I didn’t no what to talk about so I brought up my poor test grade and how I needed an A, and how I was sorry for falling asleep even though I was trying really hard. He said that he nearly woke me up on Monday, but I looked like I was having a good sleep; that was the day where I was pretty much out the entire period. I don’t even want to calculate whether it is possible for me to get an A anymore.
No matter how hard I try, I always fall asleep after lunch. Last semester it wasn’t really a problem because I had an hour before my class, now I eat and go to class. And I made it so close today, but in the last 10 minutes I dozed off only to be awoken by my peer. I folded my arms so that I wouldn’t start reclining on them, but I just nodded off. Arg! The only reason I was able to delay it so long was by working on my computer. I even went to bed before midnight last night, and took 2 naps yesterday, and drank a caffeinated soda (Barqs) at lunch. The only thing left to do is start jabbing knives into my leg so the adrenaline and pain kick in. Are there anti-sleeping pills?
It seems so obvious to me that there are so many wrong things in Catholicism. The necessity of an intermediary, seriously? The one vague idea behind this topples under the weight of everything else in the Bible. And if the “facts” about Mary are debunked, then the Pope loses his ability to be infallible while on the throne. I mean this has been used only a few times to justify doctrine, but it does get make the Catholic church loses its credibility. And then purgatory loses its credibility and then Catholics just shape up and turn towards Jesus instead of ‘the church’ and then a lot more people can truly follow Jesus. Then these people who vainly put their prayers to Mary and Saints, are they actually following Christ? Well, the same can be said about the millions of “christians” who put God solely as the creator of the universe.
They drove a 17 or 18 hour round trip to come visit me for approximately 1.5 days. It went by super fast and I wish I could have just lounged around more with them and talked and talked. Seriously, I don’t think anybody has cousins more awesome than me (and they are second cousins at that! [like that even matters]). I love them so much. They even brought me Canadian White Cream Honey, the best stuff ever.
I keep adding stuff to my prayer list, but I haven’t actually sat down and prayed dedicatedly recently. Do I eventually stop praying for people? Can a prayer list get too large? I will just say no, that sounds silly. I feel that would be trying to limit the power of God.
This weeks theme in chapel is finances. Lady was talking about all the great things with money and how credit score isn’t really as important as saving money, but it brought up the issue that I have been thinking about. Well it didn’t address it, just made me think about it. I have a job here at school and so I actually have money in my bank account for the first time. I have been saving pretty well (though I could cut down on a little spending, especially in the food department), and feel that the money is just sitting there doing nothing. On the one side I know that eventually I’ll need to buy a car I suppose… and there could be emergencies… but I feel I could be helping somebody, putting it to a good cause. I don’t want to live my life continually building financially security always saying that it could be needed later. As an engineering student I kind of expect that a fair amount of money will fall into my lap (well I know I’ll work for it…) and I want to continue to live frugally, but will I just save and save and never give? I know that 10% is good, but I feel once I have more I should be able to handle more than that (but once I have kids, who knows how much they’ll cost).
so busy. I have had such little time. And then when I do… I zone away watching TV. I have to wake up in less than 7 hours. Pray that the weather is good so my cousins can come down from Canada, otherwise I don’t know when I will be able to see them. I really wanted to think and blog about something. My only thoughts seem to come during Praise chapel. Why is that. Am I not taking anytime to sit down and pray… not really. And now I am going to bed… arg… Lord, take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory; take my life and let it be yours.
Sitting here in a room down the hall from mine. Just finished some homework due Wednesday while Matt and Mafu are taking naps on the couch/futon .
Nevertheless, among churchmen, beyond their rites and ceremonies, luxury is a crime. It seems to disclose habits which are not truly charitable. A wealthy priest is a contradiction. He ought to keep himself near the poor. But, who can be in contact continually, by night as well as day, with all distresses, all misfortunes, all privations, without taking upon himself a little of that holy poverty, like the dust of a journey? Can you imagine a man near a fire who does not feel warm? Can you imagine a labourer working constantly at a furnace, who has not a hair burned, nor a nail blackened, nor a drop of sweat, nor a speck of ashes on his face? The first proof of charity in a priest, and especially a bishop, is poverty.
Francis Chan at 2011 Pastor’s Conference. 25 minutes through it so far. It is so awesome.
