So I'm going out of town tomorrow, down to San Diego. I'll be back Sunday, January 4th. I'm away from e-mail and all that good stuff for these days, but I will have my phone. Happy New Years!

oh yeah

I can't believe how much more devastating earthquakes are in Third World countries. This earthquake in Iran has a death toll maybe as high as 40,000...and it was around the same magnitude as the one we had here in California just a few days ago, which had a death toll of 2. I mean, 40,000?! How does that happen?! That's a huge tragedy. Apparently in 1990 50,000 people died from an earthquake in Iran. That is simply crazy.

you have been more faithful

The youth group is running church services this weekend. Tonight went fairly well, and I am looking forward to tomorrow. It's a lot of fun being able to minister alongside the students. I'm excited for this upcoming year. I know my leadership skills are going to have to continue to grow, and I want to grow the youth ministry. I have such a great team of volunteer adult staff - I just need to harness all of their powers! I am not yet the leader they deserve, but I will try. I don't know, I just had a good night, I'm having a good time of things. Get to fly down to see Janelle in a few days...all is well.

The Holy Observer. I haven't extensively read through the site, but on the surface it appears fairly amusing. Satirical evangelical news. Obtained via link from Jordon Cooper.

curse you pearl jam

So Pearl Jam was getting big during my Jr. High years and experienced the height of their popularity during my time in Jr. High and High School. Their album Ten hold a special place in my heart. Eddie Vedder's voice is also fun for me to sing along to.

About ten minutes ago Jesse left for work, and Evenflow started blasting from my computer. I of course, assuming nobody is home, begin to sing along with gusto. About a minute later I hear Jesse knocking on the door to my room. I opened the door and we sat there for a moment, staring at each other in silence. A sheepish grin crawled onto my face and my eyes darted from side-to-side. The two of us then burst into laughter.

Yahoo! News - Chirac to Seek Law Banning Head Scarves

Okay, I'm not a huge fan of the "humiliation of women" thing or the subservient place it appears Islam puts them in. But this has got to be one of the most ridiculous things I've read. A quote from Chirac - "Secularism is one of the great sucesses of the Republic. It is a crucial element of social peace and national cohesion. We cannot let it weaken."

I hardly think people wearing scarves is going to screw up your social peace. Unless you demand everyone else be like you and want to impose your own moral rules on them. It's ridiculous to me how far some governments will go in order to remove any hint of religious devotion in order to "preserve freedoms" or some other such garbage. I am all for not having state-endorsed religion, but this is the state-endorsed religion of secularism. Puh-lease.

I don't have time to be more detailed or thoughtful in my criticism of the French.

those were the days

Right now ESPN is playing an "NFL's Greatest Games" that's recounting the 1998 Wild Card game between the 49ers and Packers. That was an awesome game. Steve Young was still the QB, Garrison Hearst was in his prime, and TO didn't have an ego yet. Not to mention that the Niners were a) in the playoffs and b) winning games. Watching the replay is pretty sweet.

Um, yeah. So the A's get rid of Tejada, Foulke, Hernandez, and Long...and they retain Rincon? The same Rincon that almost lost Game 1 of the ALDS for us last season? The same Rincon that is good for about one homer per time he's up on the mound? Harumph. As Netters chants to herself, I must chant to myself..."Billy Beane has something up his sleeve..."

Other than those sporting woes life is good. Janelle is in town and we're getting to spend time together. Return of the King opens tonight. Christmas is around the corner. Ministries in full swing and I'm busy, but not overwhelmed. Yeah, things are pretty sweet. Everything's not perfect but things are definitely good.

Also - up to this point at most staff meetings (which I have on Tuesdays) I have been missing Janelle. I am either planning stuff and wishing she were at least in town and not down in Santa Barbara or if she was in town wishing she were right there with me. Well today staff meeting was good - and I was really encouraged by the fact that I would get to go home to Janelle after it. My heart and mind were totally engaged in the meeting and I was stoked that my fiancee was in town. Okay maybe that doesn't make sense to you. But it does to me.

This would be sweeeeet.

Please please please. Sign Tejada! Sign Foulke! Ditch Rincon! We already got rid of Hernandez and Long...waaaah... I want it to be baseball season and I want the my beloved Athletics to stop breaking my heart by overachieving in the regular season and the first 3 games of the playoffs only to implode. Last season really hurt, especially after that extra-innings Game 1 against Boston. Just thinking about it annoys me. Oh well.

not that any of you care

This BCS stuff is a little annoying. I don't particularly care about the way the National Champion for college football is determined, considering Cal won't be anywhere near a title game for the forseeable future. I do, however, like to complain about things and I do like to try to point things out that I think are a little silly. I think it's silly that there's no playoff in College Football. This whole idea of a BCS is kinda stupid if you ask me. A playoff would really help the situation, or at the very least eliminate a lot of the whining that goes on in the sports world. Of course some people would just moan about the way playoff participants are chosen, but I'm sure more people would be pleased with a playoff. Whatevs...I'm just happy Cal is in a bowl this season. Hooray for Tedford. I hope we get to keep him around for a while.

Passion. The movie website is up, much of the content is still not functional but it's up nonetheless. I am really looking forward to this film.

um

Yikes that's a long post. Are such things too long to even consider reading? Maybe I should just put up little bits of stuff. I'm still learning about this whole "content" concept.

okay so every day might have been a little unrealistic

But I can still put stuff up here periodically. Once again the internet connection at my house is down, or so sporadically functional it's as good as down. Harumph I say. Harumph.

So I've continued to read through 2 Chronicles and 1 Corinthians. I have a thing for numbered C-books, what can I say. I also just realized that I've been sittin in the coffee shop with my headphones on for about 35 minutes, but I haven't been listening to anything in the headphones. I should try to fix that, or something. iTunes has a radio function, it seems to work rather well. Better than any streams I got from Winamp.

Yesterday as I read 2 Chronicles 9 a couple things stood out at me. Basically this chapter is talking about how magnificent Solomon's kingdom was. First the queen of Sheba visits, she is totally overwhelmed by Solomon's wisdom and his kingdom, and in verses 5-8 it says:

She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw it with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me; you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the LORD your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.

Emphasis mine, of course. I think it's awesome how the queen visited Solomon and saw all these wonderful things but Solomon made sure she understood why he had them all. He made sure that she understood it was because God was with him, that God provided it all. Not only that, but it was clear to her - she saw his life and what God had given him and actually praised God because of it. That's what I want my life to be like. Not that I have all these things or am particularly wise...but I want to make sure I am always giving credit to God for the good things in my life. I want people to look at my life and praise God, and be able to see him.

Now on to 1 Corinthians 5. Paul spends this chapter talking about "expelling the immoral brother." I note that this letter is addressed to the church at Corinth which apparently is going through some division and lack of unity. People within the church are trying to get supporters for themselves, they're carrying out their own selfish agendas within the church and messing it up. So Paul may be specifically talking about these people. He definitely does speak rather harshly about someone claiming to follow Christ but living differently. I tend to err on the side of mercy and not judging at all, though it would seem Paul wants me to think a little bit about that.

He differentiates between people that claim to be Christians and those that don't. He says:

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you." -1 Cor. 5:9-13 (NIV)

I'm glad this isn't the only passage dealing with intrachurch discipline. There is a process to go through, you don't just 'expel' people when they do something wrong, because we all do wrong things. But this does communicate the idea that there comes a point when you have to tell someone that what they're doing is wrong and you will not tolerate it within the Body, especially if they are causing strife.

That's all for now.

let's see how this works

I've got this idea to post up here each day what I've read out of the Bible and some of my thoughts/reflections/questions etc about part of what I've read. Not because I am the holder of any particularly useful insight, but because I think it'd be useful in the very least for me. It will help me to consider more fully what I'm reading and to process it a little bit. Maybe you will get something from what I write, or maybe you can help me with questions I may have, or maybe you'll get bored by it all and not pay attention. All of those things are fine...that's just something I want to try to do with my site here. I will still post as much as I currently do about other things, but I want to add this as a constant to this blog. That way I may have some kind of reason for people to come back regularly. Anyway, blah blah blah, that's the deal with this.

I am currently reading through 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament and 1 Corinthians in the New Testament.

Today I read Chapters 4-6 of 2 Chronicles, and Chapter 2 of 2 Chronicles.

In 2 Chronicles 6 Solomon prays to God to ask Him for various things. His prayer seems to focus on asking God to forgive those who honestly ask for it. The passage that stuck out to me most though was this:

If a man sins against his neighbor and is made to take an oath, and he comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this house, then hear from heaven and act and judge Your servants, punishing the wicked by bringing his way on his own head and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness. - 2 Chr. 6:22-23 (NASB)

This is similar to Matthew 5:22-24 where Jesus tells people to set their relationships right with others before they worship God. To me this shows a God very concerned with the way we treat other people and with the status of our relationships. We can't treat other people poorly, hate them or hold bitterness against them, and at the same time worship God in the way He wants us to. That's a pretty big thing. I also like how it communicates a constancy between the God of the OT and the God of the NT, who so many people like to say are night-and-day different.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 talks about how when we talk about God it's not about being clever or convincing others with what we know. Preaching/talking about God should be about Him and His power to change hearts, not about our own cleverness. I wish I would have learned that lesson in high school when I was so concerned with arguing the right way to win people over to my point of view.