Aloha, peoples!
Today's blog is going to be about the Sermon on the Mount. Now that I've said that, I'll give you a moment to laugh about the title of this blog. Okay, so now that you're done, I'll get started.
Matthew 6:19-24 deals with treasures in heaven. You've all heard the saying before, but I believe that repetition breeds redundancy. Regardless of this, I will break it down for you: what you have here is not going to last forever. What you have in heaven, however, is. Therefore, you should store up for an eternal life and not your earthly life.
What does this mean, this concept of storing up treasures? How does one accomplish this? Well, by spreading God's Word and following His commandments, of course!
Let me give you a hypothetical scenario: You're a captain in the Air Force Reserves with good pay, a sweet life, an awesome family, and no worries yet. (Yeah, I know it's not likely, but this is hypothetical, remember). One day, your boss comes in and says, "Major What's-his-face just retired, and there's a promotion position open for you. It means better pay, bigger house, and more power in the workplace. Oh, and there's only one downside--you have to move to Washington, you'll see your family about three times a year, excluding holidays, and your children will grow up without a father figure. Whaddaya say?"
So, if you choose the Mo' Money path, you'll be doing a disservice to your family, but getting tons of dough. However, if you chose the Family Life, you'd be choosing to raise your family. The first way, the Mo' Money Path, leads to riches on earth, which will pass away. However, if you make the other choice, the Family Life, you'll be able to train up your children to do what's right, love on your wife, and generally be a good dad. So if Mo' Money leads to riches on earth, then the Family Life leads to riches in heaven.
Now, this isn't a blue pill, red pill moment. What I'm trying to say is that your choices affect how you will be rewarded in heaven. If you choose to be a slob and not work for others, your heavenly rewards will be little. If you work your heart out helping people, then your heavenly rewards will be great. Does this mean that our only motives for helping people should be selfish? No, that's not the point. The point is that unselfish sacrifice is repaid with eternal rewards.
Peace out, Phoenicians.
--JesusFreak
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Is Anyone Else as Pump(kin)ed as I Am?
Halloween...a time of rotten teeth and gingivitis, of hyper children and cranky parents. A time when anybody who's masochistic enough to be driving on the night of the 31st deserves a Purple Heart for their trouble, and when every house in the neighborhood has orange, black, and purple adorning its lofty eaves, with a giant rubber spider and a Skeletor doll thrown in for good measure. When tempers are high (and in some cases, teenagers), caution is low, and three-foot-tall Power Rangers roam the streets with plastic jack-o-lanterns saying "trick-or-treat!"
Is it sinful if I'm one of those cynical jerks who would answer their cries with "trick" and douse them with a water hose?
Yeah. Probably.
But what's more "sinful" is when people try to turn little kids eating candy into a legal issue. Next thing you know, we're only going to allow our kids to trick-or-treat for candy that's been blessed by the Pope! (All I can say is that'll certainly get rid of any vampire costumes...)
Yes, I know, Halloween is historically a holiday with pagan backgrounds, and the general gist of it is kind of Satanic. I mean, making kids wear stupid flappy costumes symbolic of TV shows that they're either addicted to or have never seen before? And you tell me that's not evil! Pah! The nerve!
In the article, Mr. Hamm says, "How should Christians think about Halloween? Well...probably the same way we think about Christmas." A good point--of equally pagan backgrounds is the obviously Christian (and by that I intended sarcasm to be implied) holiday of Christmas. If you're celebrating Christmas because you're honoring the Roman god Sol Invictus, then you're missing the point. If, however, you're celebrating it because that's the day you remember Christ's birth on, then you're right on Target.
As an ending note, I think it's disturbing how the church spends so much sermon time and money on why we shouldn't participate in Halloween when in fact we have more important things to worry about. Like preventing Westborough Baptist Church from going to a gay pride parade and burning He-Man pinatas in Army uniforms. And stuff like that.
Peace, love, and Minecraft!
--JesusFreak
P.S. Oh, and by the way...
"Happy" Halloween.
Is it sinful if I'm one of those cynical jerks who would answer their cries with "trick" and douse them with a water hose?
Yeah. Probably.
But what's more "sinful" is when people try to turn little kids eating candy into a legal issue. Next thing you know, we're only going to allow our kids to trick-or-treat for candy that's been blessed by the Pope! (All I can say is that'll certainly get rid of any vampire costumes...)
Yes, I know, Halloween is historically a holiday with pagan backgrounds, and the general gist of it is kind of Satanic. I mean, making kids wear stupid flappy costumes symbolic of TV shows that they're either addicted to or have never seen before? And you tell me that's not evil! Pah! The nerve!
In the article, Mr. Hamm says, "How should Christians think about Halloween? Well...probably the same way we think about Christmas." A good point--of equally pagan backgrounds is the obviously Christian (and by that I intended sarcasm to be implied) holiday of Christmas. If you're celebrating Christmas because you're honoring the Roman god Sol Invictus, then you're missing the point. If, however, you're celebrating it because that's the day you remember Christ's birth on, then you're right on Target.
As an ending note, I think it's disturbing how the church spends so much sermon time and money on why we shouldn't participate in Halloween when in fact we have more important things to worry about. Like preventing Westborough Baptist Church from going to a gay pride parade and burning He-Man pinatas in Army uniforms. And stuff like that.
Peace, love, and Minecraft!
--JesusFreak
P.S. Oh, and by the way...
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Special Olympics Bowling, a.k.a, "The A Team"
Dear readers,
On Monday, I was privileged to go with my class to Oakwood Bowl as part of a volunteer service to help the Special Olympics Bowling teams. Things were very uncomfortable at first, but after the bowling began, things got a little more exciting. I found myself sitting forward in my seat sometimes, praying fervently that the bowler would get a strike. There was one guy named Richard Bernshaw who bowled fairly well and was extremely encouraging to his teammates. I can barely remember a time when Richard wasn't yelling encouragement to his friends as they began to bowl. Another man, whose last name was Grimes (I can't, for the life of me, remember his first name. Brain fart.) bowled over 100 every single game, and always tried to bowl his best. He would get really excited when he got a strike, almost crying with pleasure. My favorite part of that morning was watching him bowl two strikes in a row, because he became so happy. The thing that I learned the most from this experience was that these guys always tried their best, and they didn't let a bad game or a gutter ball get them down. They always came back, consistently having a positive attitude and encouraging their teammates while waiting for their turn. Such devotion to others and team spirit is something that I wish I could have.
Sincerely,
--JesusFreak
P.S. (and if you're disappointed by the blandness of this post, please forgive me--I'm feeling very understimulated at the moment. So just to make you happy {because I like to pretend I'm cool like that} here's a funny picture:
On Monday, I was privileged to go with my class to Oakwood Bowl as part of a volunteer service to help the Special Olympics Bowling teams. Things were very uncomfortable at first, but after the bowling began, things got a little more exciting. I found myself sitting forward in my seat sometimes, praying fervently that the bowler would get a strike. There was one guy named Richard Bernshaw who bowled fairly well and was extremely encouraging to his teammates. I can barely remember a time when Richard wasn't yelling encouragement to his friends as they began to bowl. Another man, whose last name was Grimes (I can't, for the life of me, remember his first name. Brain fart.) bowled over 100 every single game, and always tried to bowl his best. He would get really excited when he got a strike, almost crying with pleasure. My favorite part of that morning was watching him bowl two strikes in a row, because he became so happy. The thing that I learned the most from this experience was that these guys always tried their best, and they didn't let a bad game or a gutter ball get them down. They always came back, consistently having a positive attitude and encouraging their teammates while waiting for their turn. Such devotion to others and team spirit is something that I wish I could have.
Sincerely,
--JesusFreak
P.S. (and if you're disappointed by the blandness of this post, please forgive me--I'm feeling very understimulated at the moment. So just to make you happy {because I like to pretend I'm cool like that} here's a funny picture:
You are most welcome.)
Nerdfighters...ATTACK!!!!!
Greetings, Decepticons!
Today I'd like to draw your attention to the nerdfighting scene. Basically, these two brothers named Hank and John Green decided in 2007 to communicate via Youtube, by creating a channel called "vlogbrothers" and posting occasional videos. Their nerdy humor and love for the philisophical pursuits eventually landed them in the vast halls of internet fame. John Green is a prolific author who has written three books (An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska), and Hank Green is a very sciency/musical/HarryPotterFanboy person whose exploits include playing the guitar and singing on at least two albums of funny, nerdy songs. The followers of the vlogbrothers are called "nerdfighters", whose self-proclaimed goal is to "decrease world-suck", which is exactly what it sounds like: the collective bad stuff of the world.
Now obviously, the only way to truly decrease world-suck would be to spread the love of Jesus to people around the world, because ultimately all world-suck comes from Satan and the opposite of world-suck comes from God. But since the vlogbrothers aren't (from what I can garner) Christians, you won't hear a lot of that in their videos. And while it's true that doing little things like positive pranking and working for charities do affect the world-suck levels, we have to realise that it's not us doing the nerdfighting, it's God. Which is really cool, knowing that God is a nerdfighter, because that means we've won the war against world-suck inherently.
How would one become a nerdfighter? To borrow from the popular philosopher's statement, "I think, therefore, I am," you wish, therefore, you are. Kind of like Christianity, you don't have to undergo any strenuous rituals or tests to become a nerdfighter. You just have to want to improve the world's situation. Much like Christianity, where the only qualifying factor is a love for Christ.
Oh, and by the way...
Today I'd like to draw your attention to the nerdfighting scene. Basically, these two brothers named Hank and John Green decided in 2007 to communicate via Youtube, by creating a channel called "vlogbrothers" and posting occasional videos. Their nerdy humor and love for the philisophical pursuits eventually landed them in the vast halls of internet fame. John Green is a prolific author who has written three books (An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska), and Hank Green is a very sciency/musical/HarryPotterFanboy person whose exploits include playing the guitar and singing on at least two albums of funny, nerdy songs. The followers of the vlogbrothers are called "nerdfighters", whose self-proclaimed goal is to "decrease world-suck", which is exactly what it sounds like: the collective bad stuff of the world.
Now obviously, the only way to truly decrease world-suck would be to spread the love of Jesus to people around the world, because ultimately all world-suck comes from Satan and the opposite of world-suck comes from God. But since the vlogbrothers aren't (from what I can garner) Christians, you won't hear a lot of that in their videos. And while it's true that doing little things like positive pranking and working for charities do affect the world-suck levels, we have to realise that it's not us doing the nerdfighting, it's God. Which is really cool, knowing that God is a nerdfighter, because that means we've won the war against world-suck inherently.
How would one become a nerdfighter? To borrow from the popular philosopher's statement, "I think, therefore, I am," you wish, therefore, you are. Kind of like Christianity, you don't have to undergo any strenuous rituals or tests to become a nerdfighter. You just have to want to improve the world's situation. Much like Christianity, where the only qualifying factor is a love for Christ.
Oh, and by the way...
Nerdfighter salute. Which looks a lot like the bird, if done incorrectly.
*nerdfighter salute*
--JesusFreak
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
INFORMATION THAT YOU MUST KNOW TO CONTINUE SURVIVING!!!!!
Actually, the title of this post is both misleading and grammatically awkward, but
I doubt that's going to increase your interest in what I have to say anyway...
Salutations, fellow barn animals!
Since I have no real information to give, other than something which I'll mention for dramatic effect at the bottom of this post, I thought I'd look up random information and give it to you for free.
What a treat. I know, I know, Christmas came two months early.
Jane Austen's last words were "Nothing but death," in response to her sister, Cassandra, if there was anything she wanted. Ironic, yet somewhat fitting.
Jane Austen's last words were "Nothing but death," in response to her sister, Cassandra, if there was anything she wanted. Ironic, yet somewhat fitting.
While on the subject of great literary figures, Edgar Allen Poe was thrown out of West Point for showing up for inspection in his birthday suit.
Did you know that The Jedi Church is actually a religion? It's based in New Zealand, and if you want more information, CLICK HERE to go to the website. I'm not joking.
There are two words in the English language that rhyme with orange: Blorenge and Gorringe. The Blorenge is a mountain in Wales, and Gorringe is a respectable British surname.
The Nazi Germans killed four million more Russians than they did Jews in WWII.
Field Marshall Rommel, the "Desert Fox", was in charge of the defense of Normandy's beaches from Allied invasion. On June 6th, D-Day, he was on leave in France celebrating his wife's birthday. He, and many other Nazi officers, believed that the Allies would invade at another place, and not for two weeks.
Boy, were they wrong.
General John Sedgwick of the Union spoke the most humorous phrase I think I've ever heard while leading his troops into battle: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--", upon which he was shot by the enemy.
"Swanilda" is the name of a character in the ballet Coppelia. The name "Swanilda" actually means "battle swan".
The scientific name for the robin is turdus migratorius. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "bowel movement", eh?...
"Floccinaucinihipilification" is the declaration of something being useless or valueless. The irony in this is my reward for having to type that out.
Novercaphobia is the fear of your step-mother. Pogonophobia is the fear of beards. Scolionophobia is the fear of school.
The first time the letter "C" appears in the English spelling of a number is 1 octillion, or 10 to the 27th power.
And finally...
I have a new blog!
Yes, I have a new blog. It's got maybe three posts so far, but I thought I'd give it a shout out. Just type in www.houseofstrider.blogspot.com and you should get there pretty quick. And if any of you understand where House of Strider comes from, I welcome you, fellow nerds.
Peace out,
--JesusFreak
Sunday, October 10, 2010
The Chapel Project
Greetings, O creatures great and small!
Today we're actually talking about what we've been listening to in chapel all week long: Andy Braner's apologetic message. In other words: why do you believe what you believe? A very good message, I will agree--young Christians ought to be able to defend their faith with absolute certainty against the world. And as Andy proved to us, the world is working like clockwork to defeat us and bring us away from God.
At first, I thought: yaaaaaayyyy, Spiritual Emphasis Week. When combined with homecoming, we're never going to get ANYTHING done in ANY class...whoopde-pancake-flippin-doo...
But as the week went on, despite the fact that everyone came to school dressed in their best not-school clothes, I kind of enjoyed this year's week. Not really as enlightening as last year's, but still pretty cool.
Here's the part that I found to be the most important (to me) of the whole week: Christians are supposed to be careful of our relationships. How, you might ask? Well, first off, we have to watch our relationship with God. As my dear Choir teacher says, "God isn't someone that you just pray to when a family member's sick or you need help on a test." In other words, we're not supposed to treat God as a magical genie who does whatever we want, whenever we want. God is completely in control, and you are not.
To reinforce my viewpoint of how insignificant we all are, here's a picture. This was taken by the Voyager spacecraft before it began to leave the Solar System. At the request of Carl Sagan, NASA told Voyager to take a picture of Earth from 3.8 BILLION MILES away.
This is what turned up:
Today we're actually talking about what we've been listening to in chapel all week long: Andy Braner's apologetic message. In other words: why do you believe what you believe? A very good message, I will agree--young Christians ought to be able to defend their faith with absolute certainty against the world. And as Andy proved to us, the world is working like clockwork to defeat us and bring us away from God.
At first, I thought: yaaaaaayyyy, Spiritual Emphasis Week. When combined with homecoming, we're never going to get ANYTHING done in ANY class...whoopde-pancake-flippin-doo...
But as the week went on, despite the fact that everyone came to school dressed in their best not-school clothes, I kind of enjoyed this year's week. Not really as enlightening as last year's, but still pretty cool.
Here's the part that I found to be the most important (to me) of the whole week: Christians are supposed to be careful of our relationships. How, you might ask? Well, first off, we have to watch our relationship with God. As my dear Choir teacher says, "God isn't someone that you just pray to when a family member's sick or you need help on a test." In other words, we're not supposed to treat God as a magical genie who does whatever we want, whenever we want. God is completely in control, and you are not.
To reinforce my viewpoint of how insignificant we all are, here's a picture. This was taken by the Voyager spacecraft before it began to leave the Solar System. At the request of Carl Sagan, NASA told Voyager to take a picture of Earth from 3.8 BILLION MILES away.
This is what turned up:
If you don't get it, look closer at the first beam of light from the right. In the middle, you will see a tiny blue dot.
Here's a closer look:
That's how small we are in the infinite cosmos. THAT is an example of objective truth, or truth that has no influence from man's opinions.
When you realize something that huge, it begins to affect the way you think about life and how you treat people. Knowing that your actions, while they may seem significant here, have NO effect on the vast majority of the universe is a big shocker for some people. But when you think about it, Earth is kind of blessed. As illustrated here, even though Earth is, as a famous astronomer remarked upon viewing this photograph, "A mote of dust in a ray of sunlight", God thinks of us as more than just a speck of dust.
Think about it.
The universe is literally infinite (to our limited standards of knowledge), with limitless possibilities for life and fruition on planets too numerous to be counted, as paradoxical as that sounds, and of all the places for God to send His one and only Son to die the most horrible death for the salvation of a species, He sent Him HERE???
That must have caused some havoc in the angel labor union!
.....sorry, I forgot. Sacrilege, and all that...
If we are so insignificant, yet also significant in God's eyes, then that should shape the way we act to people, and to God. No, not to be like the Pharisee who prayed to God saying, "Thanks, God. Thanks blessing me, unlike that tax collector over there." That's the kind of attitude that the devil wants you to have.
What the devil doesn't want you to say is, "Thanks, God. Now I'll show Your love to everyone else, as well." If you really understand how lucky we are to know God, and I mean REALLY UNDERSTAND, how much pride do you have to despise everyone around you by not telling them AND showing them about God's love?
Something to think about...
And now, I will leave you with this LINK to a video about THE GAME, in case anyone's still interested.
Peace, love, and Japanese Sprite!
--JesusFreak
When you realize something that huge, it begins to affect the way you think about life and how you treat people. Knowing that your actions, while they may seem significant here, have NO effect on the vast majority of the universe is a big shocker for some people. But when you think about it, Earth is kind of blessed. As illustrated here, even though Earth is, as a famous astronomer remarked upon viewing this photograph, "A mote of dust in a ray of sunlight", God thinks of us as more than just a speck of dust.
Think about it.
The universe is literally infinite (to our limited standards of knowledge), with limitless possibilities for life and fruition on planets too numerous to be counted, as paradoxical as that sounds, and of all the places for God to send His one and only Son to die the most horrible death for the salvation of a species, He sent Him HERE???
That must have caused some havoc in the angel labor union!
.....sorry, I forgot. Sacrilege, and all that...
If we are so insignificant, yet also significant in God's eyes, then that should shape the way we act to people, and to God. No, not to be like the Pharisee who prayed to God saying, "Thanks, God. Thanks blessing me, unlike that tax collector over there." That's the kind of attitude that the devil wants you to have.
What the devil doesn't want you to say is, "Thanks, God. Now I'll show Your love to everyone else, as well." If you really understand how lucky we are to know God, and I mean REALLY UNDERSTAND, how much pride do you have to despise everyone around you by not telling them AND showing them about God's love?
Something to think about...
And now, I will leave you with this LINK to a video about THE GAME, in case anyone's still interested.
Peace, love, and Japanese Sprite!
--JesusFreak
Friday, October 1, 2010
Friends...Great. Mr. M Has a Grudge Against Me...
Hello, peoples.
I'm not really excited today, because of the assignment: friends. Thank you, Mr. M. Thanks for reminding me about the fact that I am becoming increasingly unpopular. You're a real life-saver. Except you're not round.
Several qualities I would like to have in a friend...well, for starters, they would probably need to be great masters in the art of unconditional love. That would be required, no doubt, since I'm probably going to remain a nerd for the rest of my life. This is also (thankfully) a very Christian quality, since God's love is unconditional. As I said in my previous post, Christians are supposed to be like Jesus, and Jesus was constantly going to the lowliest of society instead of those who had money and were important. *hint, hint*
Another important thing (we're assuming that they're Christian, of course) is intelligence: I don't enjoy hanging around with people who can't think for themselves. If you have a problem with forming your own opinions about something and standing by it, then I don't necessarily view you as a lesser person, but I'm going to have a much harder time relating to you. My reasoning for this is that (again, assuming the person is a Christian) to be like Christ, you have to be able to think deeply about things for yourself. Jesus knew what His purpose and message were, and He wasn't afraid to go mano a mano with the Pharisees and Sadducees about it. He even smacked down the devil in a 40 day long tempt-fest, all using verses from the Bible (click here for confirmation. Not the Catholic kind, sorry.)
Finally (although this isn't the only thing I look for), I want a friend to be someone who won't treat me like crap when I do something stupid. I'd like a friend that actually cares when I'm having a bad day, and will try to cheer me up. I'd also like someone who can laugh at everything, but can also be serious. If possible, I'd particularly like them to be deep, philosophical types. You know, the kind of person that sees beauty in everything and isn't afraid to say it, who will spend hours talking about anything from the meaning of life to the different kinds of food they've eaten, someone who'll listen if I need to talk about relationships, and has such a deep connection with God that they respond immediately to His call.
Oh, and can I have some fries with that order?
Something I need to change about myself...well, aside from listening more, I'd probably say that I'd need to be less of a dork. But unfortunately, that's who I am. So you're out of luck, all you hordes of people clamoring to be my friend.
*silence*
...speaking of being a hermit...
Friend outside of OBA...I don't really have any good friends outside of OBA. Then again, most of my "friends" IN OBA, I wouldn't classify as best buds. More like, "people-that-I-hang-around-with-to-make-myself-feel-accepted".
To close, I'd like to mention a thought I had today: When you worry about accomplishing something, it becomes a lot harder to do. If, however, you apply yourself without worry to the task, you will find that it becomes marginally easier than once thought.
Hope this helps in some way.
Have a Holly Jolly October,
--JesusFreak
I'm not really excited today, because of the assignment: friends. Thank you, Mr. M. Thanks for reminding me about the fact that I am becoming increasingly unpopular. You're a real life-saver. Except you're not round.
Several qualities I would like to have in a friend...well, for starters, they would probably need to be great masters in the art of unconditional love. That would be required, no doubt, since I'm probably going to remain a nerd for the rest of my life. This is also (thankfully) a very Christian quality, since God's love is unconditional. As I said in my previous post, Christians are supposed to be like Jesus, and Jesus was constantly going to the lowliest of society instead of those who had money and were important. *hint, hint*
Another important thing (we're assuming that they're Christian, of course) is intelligence: I don't enjoy hanging around with people who can't think for themselves. If you have a problem with forming your own opinions about something and standing by it, then I don't necessarily view you as a lesser person, but I'm going to have a much harder time relating to you. My reasoning for this is that (again, assuming the person is a Christian) to be like Christ, you have to be able to think deeply about things for yourself. Jesus knew what His purpose and message were, and He wasn't afraid to go mano a mano with the Pharisees and Sadducees about it. He even smacked down the devil in a 40 day long tempt-fest, all using verses from the Bible (click here for confirmation. Not the Catholic kind, sorry.)
Finally (although this isn't the only thing I look for), I want a friend to be someone who won't treat me like crap when I do something stupid. I'd like a friend that actually cares when I'm having a bad day, and will try to cheer me up. I'd also like someone who can laugh at everything, but can also be serious. If possible, I'd particularly like them to be deep, philosophical types. You know, the kind of person that sees beauty in everything and isn't afraid to say it, who will spend hours talking about anything from the meaning of life to the different kinds of food they've eaten, someone who'll listen if I need to talk about relationships, and has such a deep connection with God that they respond immediately to His call.
Oh, and can I have some fries with that order?
Something I need to change about myself...well, aside from listening more, I'd probably say that I'd need to be less of a dork. But unfortunately, that's who I am. So you're out of luck, all you hordes of people clamoring to be my friend.
*silence*
...speaking of being a hermit...
Friend outside of OBA...I don't really have any good friends outside of OBA. Then again, most of my "friends" IN OBA, I wouldn't classify as best buds. More like, "people-that-I-hang-around-with-to-make-myself-feel-accepted".
To close, I'd like to mention a thought I had today: When you worry about accomplishing something, it becomes a lot harder to do. If, however, you apply yourself without worry to the task, you will find that it becomes marginally easier than once thought.
Hope this helps in some way.
Have a Holly Jolly October,
--JesusFreak
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