Done.

This morning, I strolled into the math office at MCC, turned in my final exam and my last homework assignment, and walked out of there a free man. My life as A452** is officially over!!

Good Times...

I went up to Grace Youth Camps and Retreat Center, now known as Grace Adventures, Friday night for a reunion of all the people who went through the summer program, SALT. We stayed until early Saturday afternoon, singing songs, hanging out, playing cards, building forts, flying kites, and other eccentricities that only GYC SALT campers would understand the reason for. It was an overall fun time of just sharing life, and I really enjoyed it.

Sunday was full of homework, and I've come to a point in mathematics where I don't want to know what comes next. When one homework problem takes up an entire sheet of notebook paper wide ways, there's no longer a purpose. But, I'll probably still end up doing an independant study of Calc 3 next semester because all the other Calc 2 highschoolers are. Ah, the intensity of mathematical peer pressure.

What More Proof Do You Need?!?

Kitten Survives 275-Mile Ride Next to Car Engine

This is more proof that all cats are demon-posessed. They are Satan's minions on Earth.

If you don't believe me, try to put any other small animal next to a car engine for a 275-mile ride. They won't survive.

Even though I am very stubborn about this belief, I will open up the floor for anyone else that has a theory of how this cat survived.

Heaven

What will heaven be like? That was part of the discussion I had with Jillian and Dan today during English.

As a lot of our discussions tend to go, I was on one end of the spectrum, Jillian felt differently, and Dan had a happy medium that was similar to both of us.

I think that heaven will be a state of pure joy and awesome fellowship with God. We will finally be intimate with God to the extent that no man can comprehend. All of our nagging questions about theological topics and the very nature of God Himself will no longer matter to us. We will know these answers in a far deeper way, through experience. It won't be a state of apathy, however, but there will definitely be more important things than whether all 5 points of Calvinism are correct. There will be perfect love among everyone as it was originally intended. All the things that nag at us now will be long behind us.

Another viewpoint that was brought up but not elaborated on was that heaven would be Earth as it was originally. I do believe that God will restore creation as is talked about in Romans. He will make all things new and I think we'll be surprised at how perfect creation will be when compared to how it is now. Things like death, decay, disease and mutations will all be gone, but not only those things will be made new. Think of the most glorious Lake Michigan sunset. When we behold them, we're put in a state of awe, and it's hard to imagine what they'd be like without the tainting of sin, but we know that He will make all things new when He returns to set up His earthly kingdom. The absolute beauty of it all, combined with the most intimate fellowship imaginable make me yearn for the day.

Heaven and the restored earth will be awesome. I think we'll finally understand completely God's awesome power and majesty in a way that we can only begin to touch upon now.

Any other thoughts on heaven?

Things I'm excited about:

1. Christmas Break is just around the corner.
2. My friends and I are having a trilogy-athon of great movies over break.
3. My college class is almost over.
4. I'm going to Maine next summer with 2 or 3 friends.
5. The last semester that counts for anything in High School is wrapping up nicely.
6. We put up our tree and outside lights on Saturday and they look good.
7. Winter Retreat with my youth group is coming up soon. Youth Group
8. I won't have to drive to MCC 3 days a week anymore.
9. I have my favorite teacher to make fun of next semester for English.
10. I'm graduating in May!

It's That Time of Year...

It's Chrismastime! I really do enjoy Christmas, and I've always had an understanding of the true meaning, but somewhere between the day after Thanksgiving and December 24th, that understanding was pretty much put on the backburner while I basked in the glow of materialism. I realize that it is impossible to escape the American Christmas, but this year I'm working really hard on keeping God the center of it all.

One of the ways that I'm trying to focus on God is by praying whenever I'm aware of Christmas music on the radio. I normally pray a fairly short prayer of thanks for what He did at Christmas and what He will do when Christ comes again. I am really enjoying this and it makes me realize how often I hear Christmas music in one day. I don't do it every time that Christmas music is playing since I don't always realize it because of my wandering mind, but I would say that it is a great reminder of what God did, is doing, and will do in the future. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to strengthen their relationship with God this season. Try it!

Hungarian city holds pageant to choose handsomest Santa Claus
Finally, a place in this world that has not lost the true meaning of Christmas. I'm so proud of my Hungarian friends.

This really is a funny idea. It'd make a great reality show, Santa Idol. They could have guest judges and a spin-off show called Easter Bunny Idol. They'd have guest judges like elves and the real Santa. I'm sure Fox would run with this idea, they'd take anything and make it a show.

OK, Americans, make sure you haven't left your stupidity on the bus...

I've decided to periodically give out an award to those Americans that never forget to bring their stupidity wherever they go.

This award shall be known as the "You Didn't Forget Your Stupidity On The Bus Award."

Today, we have a definite winner from the state of Washington, Mr. Phillip Quinn. However, he will not be able to accept his award due to an inconvenient death. Accepting the "You Didn't Forget Your Stupidity On The Bus Award" for Mr. Quinn will be his trailer park landlord. Mr. Quinn won this award in a brave act of stupidity by setting a lava lamp on the stove in his trailer. The lamp exploded, sending shards of glass into his body.

To read more about Mr. Quinn's sacrifice for the cause of stupidity, check out this article:
Lava Lamp Left on Stove Explodes, Kills Man

All Hail the Queen of Jeopardy!

'Jeopardy!' Whiz Ends 74-Game Win Streak

It's about time. Jeopardy is starting as I type and I just found this article.

See, this blog brings all the big news before it airs on TV!

I'm thinking about starting a sympathy card to send to Mr. Jennings. If interested please comment.

"But Lentels Don't Come From Pigs..."

The title of this post was the product of an argument in jest with my friend Jillian. She is a vegetarian and she was trying to gross Dan and me out about ham. She told us that ham is a pig's butt and it was gross because they had to kill the pig. Someone mentioned that they ham has necessary protein and she responded that you could get that protein from lentels. It was then that I said "but lentels don't come from pigs..."

But what if they did? Questions to ponder....... Right up there with "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

We're all wizards...

I was thinking today (I sometimes do that on Saturdays) about how the differences in the wizards in LOTR can teach us some things about our Christian lifestyle.

Gandalf worked for the same cause throught the trilogy: peace on Middle Earth and the banishment of evil. But in the Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf the Grey, was not as effective as he was in The Two Towers and The Return of the King as Gandalf the White. Gandalf the Grey was not able to stand up to Saruman the White and was slow to recognize h0w his old friend had changed. I would suggest that this is becuase Grey is a color that is in the middle. It's not white, and it's not black in the same way that warm is not hot, nor is it cold. This is relevant to us because it points out how we need to not be "in the middle" with our Christianity. Being in the middle hinders our purpose to promote God's kingdom and be His representatives.

Another point that can be drawn from this example is that it took a seemingly horrible event to transform Gandalf the Grey into Gandalf the White. Gandalf's battle with the Balrog was an apparent defeat and a source of hopelessness for the fellowship, but it was absolutely necessary to prepare Gandalf to become Gandalf the White and fulfill his purpose absolutely. In the same way, things happen in our lives that we view as horrible, harmful, and destructive, but these things are what we need to bring us to our knees, make us swallow our pride, and rely on God fully. It is in retrospect that we can look back on these things and see how they helped prepare us to be _________ the White, more prepared and ready to fulfill our purpose to be God's representatives on Earth. So when things happen that we view as bad and not of God, we must realize that He is working these bad things together to shape us into people better equipped to serve Him. This is best said in Romans 8: 28-29
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

That's about all I've thought through up to this point. I had a longer post ready to publish with just the Bible reference missing, but when I went to Biblegateway.com to get the reference, I tried to return to find my post had vanished. Feel free to tell me what you think.

That which shall be known as my first post...

Hello, all! This is my blog that friends have been pestering me to make. I've just set it up, so I'll post more later.