Ninja Heaven

2007-05-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm bringin' repugnant back. yeah.

2007-04-18T07:54:00.000-07:00

I thought I should update my blog some time. Enjoy the new babe. I went to Leuven yesterday. Leuven is almost perfect, and the 'almost' is just to qualify it. I can't actually see anything bad about it, but I'm sure I would if I was around more. I'm thinking about getting a Master's degree after CTS. My present suffering are not worth comparing to the glory that awaits me in Leuven. Or Jerusalem...

I'm trying to get back in contact with some people I haven't seen for a long time. It's good, maybe.

es gefaellt mir...

2006-07-16T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm working now. Got my new guitar (the Telecaster pictured somewhere below). Worked on my guitar's setup until it was as good as it could get without having the frets dressed. Sold my amp. Changed some of the wiring on my new guitar (took the Neck Pickup out of the tone circuit). Bid on a new amp (Peavey Classic 30). Learned some German. Listening to a lot of Queen. Pink Floyd "Pulse" has just been released on DVD... haven't bought it yet... hmm...

I also got an EQ pedal, which I'm going to tear apart and put in my strat at christmas... maybe..

I think Fight Club is maybe a Christian movie. I watched it like 4 times in the past week or so. Tyler's message is not so different than Jesus really, just a bit different in execution. That might be an exaggeration, but the message of the movie certainly is in harmony with the teachings of Christ. Some may disagree with this, but the movie itself doesn't advocate the kind of violence and anarchy which it's main characters embrace. In fact the end of the movie deals with facing the consequences of a juvenile romance with nihilism, and shows that though it's characters are facing real problems, they have not found any real answers. The situation they are left with really compels me to Jesus all the more. It seems like he really had answers for these problems.

Anyway, notice that my skin isn't really good enough to have pictures take of me this close... and then have the saturation turned so high that every imperfection looks like a bright red spot. And boy, my lips look soooo red. Oh well, I'm still hot.

The Competition is NOT on!

2006-06-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

I Returned my German course to B&N because I found out I could get it for $60 cheaper on Amazon.com. The competition may begin on Saturday at the earliest, but probably next week.

In other news, I'm trying to sell my amp, the TSL602. It's in the picture. I want to sell it because I want something smaller. This amp is huge and loud, and it has more gain than I could ever use. I don't really do the Metal thing anymore. It also weighs 79 friggin' pounds (36 kilos or something). Buy it.

I'm thinking about getting a Peavey Classic 30 instead. Lighter, not overly powerful, you can get the tubes cooking at lower volumes... Mmm... I think nobody who reads this cares..

Dear Al responded to my question on his advice blog. HIGHLY RECOMENDED READING.

Gordon Fee wrote me back. He said he appreciated my email and that he probably would not be coming back to CTS any time soon because of his health. I guess he's a bit sick and the jet lag does really bad things to him.

Those are all my little updates

2006-06-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

I got my German course today.

I also put a guitar on layaway. It's the guitar in the picture.

It was a good day.

Yet another homecoming

2006-06-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

This time to Portage, the center of the universe. On the 11th, I fly.

To prove it, I go to school with a Finnish man who has been through Portage, and will do so again this summer. Finland is not really so close to Wisconsin, but he's been to Portage.

Anyway, I decided to grace the internet with my shining face once again. I've got a new crush, but nothing interesting to report...

Hmmm... What else is new? One exam left... Got good grades on my papers, which is nice, because I actually worked hard on them.

I've been inventing a language in my free time. It's almost as messed up as finnish but not quite. Basically, it takes all of my favorite traits from Indo-European languages and mixes them together, along with a few extra verb moods and a couple more cases above the eight of Russian. The pronunciation is the vowels as in Spanish, the consonance as in English with a few exceptions (the 'r' is rolled softly, the 'j' is as in French, and the 'x' is as 'ch' in German), and a light accent is placed on the second to last syllable. The roots come mostly from Greek, some from Latin, and a very few from Danish and German. Three Genders. Tons of rules, but once you know them, they're all regular... and the homage to Danish, the definite article ('the') is placed on the end of the word.

sovibesorito means "I personally need to sleep more". Initially, most of the grammatical inspiration came from my Greek studies, but as the grammar was developing, I started reading a little about Finnish and Japanese Grammar and some linguistic theory, which lead to some really crazy ideas. Maybe I'll publish the grammar on here when it's in a more final form.

What are my plans for it? Just to please myself I guess. Maybe if I write a work of fiction than needs some other language in it. I like the idea of writing a journal in this language. Javant Biarujia invented a private language because, he said, "public words simply could not guarantee me the private expression I sought." I like that idea.

I hope to do some theological writing this summer.

Hmmm...

Homecoming

2006-04-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to denmark tomorrow.

Strange thing. It feels remarkably like going home... and going to wisconsin often feels like going to some weird place to visit the family. But, of course, Wisconsin is home, and in some way it always will be.

But is Denmark home also?

what makes a home, really?

Wikipedia defines home thus:

Home is a place where a person lives, perhaps spends much of their time, or where a person is comfortable to be. While a house (or other residential dwelling) is often referred to as a home, the concept of "home" is broader than a physical dwelling. Home is often a place of refuge and safety, where worldly cares fade, with things and people one loves becoming the focus.

Hmm... I dunno. We have a saying, "home is where the heart is." Funny.

I don't know where my heart is. When I'm in Wisconsin, I just want to leave, even though part of me feels very secure there. I like Belgium... or at least I like school here... But I really want to be in Denmark.

However, It could be that I am really just wanting to be in the past. I may just want the same relationships and dynamics as when I left. Unfortunately, those things do not exist anymore, at least not there. I suppose I will find out when I get there if Denmark is my home.

But I don't know.

But I like that. I think I'm at an age where I thrive on uncertainty and possibilities. Maybe I have no home simply because the very idea of home goes against the thing inside me that is trying to expand... Like a plant that you have to keep on moving from pot to pot.

I know that MC is not the right pot for me anymore. I'm trying to grow in a direction where the MC pot won't allow. But maybe one day Denmark will be the right place. There's more than one pot in that country, I guess.

For some reason... I feel as if I want to look into Austria, Germany, Ireland, and England. Maybe one of those places will become home.

But it doesn't really matter. I'm young, life is good. I will grow old and settle somewhere at the right time. I kinda think the time matters more than the place anyway... Like, when I'm ready, I will know where home is.

I want to learn German so bad right now. All the best books are in German. GERMANGERMANGERMANGERMANGERMANGERMANGERMANGERMAN.

2006-03-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

I miss people.

I miss my friends from Master's Commission. Some of them are going through some tough shit right now. But I'm irrationally upset on their behalf. It's healthy to feel for your friends, but it's too much.

I think something in my life is out of balance right now. For the first time in a long time, I think I'm depressed for a real reason...

But I don't know what.

I need to pray and think.

2006-03-10T08:29:00.000-08:00

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth.

Charismatic/Pentecostal

61%

Neo orthodox

61%

Roman Catholic

54%

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

54%

Emergent/Postmodern

54%

Reformed Evangelical

50%

Classical Liberal

46%

Modern Liberal

46%

Fundamentalist

36%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

Well, now I know what I believe (for the record, The trinity isn't that central to what I believe)

Cheap music

2006-01-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

link of today:
allofmp3.com

P.S. Listen to Katie Melua.

Furthermore, a new semester has begun, and that means I get to write more papers. It's great.

Someone Pick me up from the Air Port

2006-01-13T02:50:00.000-08:00

I'll be there on tuesdat at 4:40

Isn't it Daniels Birthday?

The Dormatory Boys

My Visa has been approved

2006-01-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

but it won't get here until next week.

Holiday is over

2006-01-09T20:15:00.000-08:00

And I'm still at home, Official status? lost in space.

Well, apparently the Brussles visa office had closed my file so that was part of the hold up, but they have realized that everything I need for a visa is in it so they are considering re-opening it. That is the report from friday... or was it thursday.

We're calling them again tonight to see what is going on. They are extremly unfriendly.

That's not really fair of me to say, only half of them are extremly unfriendly. Most of the rest are just unhelpfull, but a few are acually both friendly and helpfull. They don't answer the phone very often.

muffin tops:

2006-01-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

Attention all girls!!
Do not were pants that squeeze your fat into unnatural shapes, or push it up over you pants. This is a thing that should not be. There is only one kind of fat that looks good pushed up, and this is not that kind. This does not mean that thicker girls cannot wear low rise jeans, It just means that they need to to WEAR THEM IN THE RIGHT SIZES. I don't give a crap what size you wish you were, wear the size that doesn't push your fat out.

In other news, I'm going to be late for school. classes start on Monday, and my visa isn't here yet. I want it. I'll get it, but sooner would be better than later.

I went to some second-hand stores and scored some awesome clothes. Some brown corderoys (sp?), a rockin blazer, and a leather jacket.

2006-01-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

I've been watching the fashion channel lately. I really like it, and I kinda feel bad about that. I really like good looking clothes. I kinda think it would be awesome to be a designer, but when God wants you to teach the bible in a new way, it's probably a good idea to do it. That would be more fun... still, maybe I aught to learn to use my mom's sewing machien this summer. Sweet beautiful clothes.

I suppose

2005-12-18T15:08:00.000-08:00

the CIMC crew wants an update of what I've been doing.

Well, I've been working at a resort in the summer, and now I'm in school.

I actually worked at the Kalahari Resort. The largest indoor waterpark in the US. I was a bell boy at the beginning and later I was transfered to work as a host in one of the three resuraunts. The pseudo-italian one. We had a seafood buffet every Friday night. It was unbelievably good. Most of the people I worked with were babes. A lot of them were eastern europian babes.

All the American babes there were dumb as rocks, and most of the slovic babes had bad attitudes. There was this one Polish girl that was pretty cool, but... meh... moving to Belgium at the end of the summer and all (and she was totally in love with some guy who was shipped to Iraq or something, even though he didn't love her back).

As for guys, there was one middle aged australian jerk that was pretty clever. There was also this bulgarian man who was the best of them all. He was so funny. He was always laughing, but he wasn't laughing at peoples jokes or anything like that, he was laughing at people for being stupid, but not in a way that they could tell unless they knew him. Sometimes, randomly, he would say the most dirty, awesome things. I wish I could have hung out with him outside of work some time.

In the beginning of the summer, I hung out with my friends, but then they all got apartments in the cities where they were going to school, so I was alone.

Then I went to camp as a councelor. That was rad. I tried to promote CIMC, but I didn't have any takers. I'll probably try again next year. But I had a lot of fun with my guys.

Then I went back, and I was laid off from my job for a little while, and I had no friends around, so I started building flutes. Then my job started again and I was building flutes and working all the time, and I felt like I was in Master's again because I never rested. Then I started resting more.

Now, I'm in Belgium. About to go home, to build more flutes.

But what have I been doing in belgium? Research.

I'm going to post some of my research here, after I can distill it down to it's basic elements. I'll take out all the long words that I used to impress the teachers, and put in more ridiculous comments.

Well, if it isn't little miss Aaron Christianson

2005-12-14T02:26:00.000-08:00

Back on the blog scene again. due to numerous requests for more fine programing, I'm back in action.

Nothing interesting. I'm at a bible school, and everyone acts like a freakin' nun. Nothing scandalous to report. No chemistry with the babes here either. All the interesting girls are married or engaged, which is great for them, but it doesn't help me any. We'll see what santa brings to school next year. I actually attribute the boredom here to a lack of rockin' babes (certainly couldn't have anything to do with the bachelors).

Damnit CTS, do something interesting before I go to class naked just to see what happens. This is a threat. The academics here are great, and I actually enjoyed writing my papers... and writing everyone else's papers (you know who you are [edit: this is a joke. I edited some papers, but I didn't actually write any but my own]), but nobody ever does anything freaky.

In other news, I'm thinking about writing my own systematic theology on the Word of God. While writing my last paper, I realized that there is a wealth of biblical material relating to the doctrine of scripture that is NOT considered in the systematic theologies I have read so far (admittedly not too many). I also realized that hermeneutical methods are entirely dependent upon this, and somehow that our hermeneutics aught to reflect our doctrine of inspiration. That is not to say that the current models are bad, they have served the church very well for quite some time, and I believe that they are fundamentally solid. However, it seems that the finer points, even in conservative circles, are more based on modern logic than the Biblical witness. Certainly they can be supported biblically, but it seems that they come to the text with answers rather than questions. I would like to try to look at scripture with a clean slate, assuming only that it in some way is representative of truth (Drawing this conclusion the inner witness of the Holy Spirit). I realize that this is impossible, but it must be attempted at least. Luther said at one point that the church should constantly be in a state of reformation, constantly evaluating old positions.

It must seem very impetuous of me to think that I am qualified to do such a thing. Well, I think that really, nobody is qualified to do it. Further, even though there may be others that are more qualified than me, I want to give it a try myself. So try and stop me. I know you can't!
In my defense, I do have at least one qualification: I am contemporary. Because this is true, it means that I at least have a decent shot at re-articulating the doctrine to communicate to the contemporary audience. The problem, I feel, lies in the rigid language used to express the doctrine, especially in contrast to the divers methods that God has used to reveal himself, even within the canon of scripture. In past times, the former model of inspiration may have been very effective to communicate what is truly in scripture, but when I read it through my cultural lenses, I get a very rigid picture that does not conform to what I see in the text.

I assume there will be many problems along the way.

Therefore, I would like to post my ideas as they are being developed on this blog so that I can get feedback from my readers.

More coming soon.

2005-06-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

So, Master's is over.

No post Master's Depression yet. Last summer I just wanted to go back the whole time. That is not the case now. I have no desire at all to return to Master's so far. I expected to, but now it's not there. Yay. Looking for a Job. I applied at RadioShack. Could be fun.

I need to have Devo time after I write this. I've been doing quite awful at that since Master's ended. Not that it's a matter of salvation or anything, but I think it's just time that put it back in my routine again. Mornings I suppose. Hung out with a friend last night. We (and another friend) canoed on Silver Lake while the sun was setting, I played my whistle a bit. The "other friend" went home and we picked up a different "other friend" and we drove around backroads a bit while they smoked pot. It's quite normal for me to be around that because all of my friends do it multiple times per week. It's just the way it's aways been so it's not really weird. It's not tempting ethier, Mushrooms are the only drugs that are tempting to me anymore; sweet, beautiful, Mushrooms. Luckly for me you have to order those in advance to get them, so it's not something I can really fall into in the moment. Anyway, we went to my house and ate some Cheese Burger Hot-Pockets and drank green tea. We finished off the night by watching "Last of the Mohican" with Daniel Day Lewis. He's so freakin' good, but it's kinda a boring movie. If you want to see an amazing flick with him, you have to watch "The Crucible", not the old one from the seventies, but the one from the ninties. It's so good.

It's nice to be back to my classical guitar. It's such a classy instrument. Not only that, but apparently my family has a history of whistle playing. My dad had an old tin whistle which sounds tops, and a Native American flute that' cool as well. The Flute is ridiulously easy to play.

My mom also had an old baroque recorder, hand made it looks like. Sounds beautiful. I've gone more or less whistle crazy since I've been home.

My church it seriously messed up and there will likely be split soon. There are a bunch of lunatics that want my Pastor out. One of them is my youth pastor, the Assistent pastor of the church. Well, was... he resigned. He apparently plans to take over the church. It's pretty awful. My Pastor is a really good man, and my youth pastor is... less good, I guess. It's not really that many people that want my pastor out. It's just a vocal minority. Unfortunatly the whole Decon board is leaning that way. It's really too crazy to tell everything in a short way. It's all long and complicated, and all that I can really say is that you should pray for my Pastor because he's facing a lot of baseless opposition right now. The AoG District people are supporting him, but they say that there is no way to avoid a split, the only thing Pastor can do is Damage Control.

Initial Physical Evidence

2005-04-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

We (Pentecostals) derive all of our theology of initial evidence from for instances in Acts when the Holy Spirit came on people and they spoke in tongues. We must take into account what the other Biblical authors say. I was first struck with the error of the doctrine of initial physical evidence when I read Paul saying:

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
1 Corinthians 12:27-31 [TNIV]

Being that the answer to all of the questions is 'NO', I would assume that it is 'NO' on the speaking in tongues as well. Beyond that, the Greek construction says:
'me pantes glossais lalousin'

Now, 'pantes glossais lalousin' would be the normal way to simply ask 'Does everyone speak with tongues?' But the particle 'me' (normally translated 'not' when it is not part of a question) means the question expects a negative response, and so the NASB more correctly translates the question 'Not all speak in tongues, do they?'

I asked my thoroughly Pentecostal pastor back home this question, and he said, 'This chapter is referring to tongues that are for the edification of the group, and not all are meant to give a word in tongues in a group setting', which seems somewhat valid and I was satisfied for the moment, though when I looked back later I noticed that not all of the Gifts in the immediate list fell into line with this idea (apostles, prophets, teachers... something funny is going on here)... and so the defense breaks down...

Furthermore, as I was doing my study this year in Ephesians I found some verses that were quite convincing to me.

In the blessing at the beginning (v. 3-14), Paul is going through the benefits we have received in Christ. In verses 13 he says:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.
[TNIV]

It goes on to say in verse 14 that the Holy Spirit is the deposit on our inheritance, meaning we see its empowering in our lives immediately (as where at the resurrection we will be made perfect in holiness and delegated God's authority as part of the Body of Christ. It begins to be more clear how the Spirit is a foretaste of this).

Later in Ephesians there is another verse that sticks out:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6 [TNIV]

Paul’s 'one spirit' and 'one baptism' thing doesn’t really stand so well with the Pentecostal 'second act of grace' thing.

And then there is his whole rejection of 'a different spirit' in 2 Corinthians 11:4, where he is dealing with false teachers and says:

For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
[TNIV]

Some more places where we are told that we receive the spirit by belief…

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by your observing the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Galatians 3:1-5 [TNIV]

This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God
1 John 4:3 [TNIV]

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Luke 11:13 [TNIV]

These verses seem like sufficient material to put an end to the doctrine of 'second act of Grace', and 'Initial physical evidence', but then we must find some other way to understand why Acts says what it say. This took some work on my part (yeah, actually all of this did).

Luke clearly does not consider himself a theologian; he leaves his own theological comments out of the story almost entirely (Unlike John, for example, who gives a whole lot of theology to explain the story). He does communicate Theology, but only through the words of others. Acts can be a wonderful homiletics course, being that it has preserved some of the finest sermons ever delivered (directly from the mouths of the Apostles). The Theology in Acts comes out of the things people say

Being that the focus of Luke is 'the continuing power of Christ through the Holy Spirit to spread the Gospel to the entire world against all odds and opposition', and everything he says builds up to assuring his readers of their inclusion, it is difficult to support the whole initial evidence thing.

How then, do we treat the recordings of manifestations of the spirit's power in Act's Aught they be tossed aside? Certainly they are prime examples of how the message was carried to the ends of the earth. The gifts in Luke can only be understood in the way that they relate to the mission. Case by case:

Acts 2: The spirit comes to empower the Disciples

Here the tongues have a very clear purpose. The disciples knew that they had received the Spirit because there were little fires above their heads, so there wasn't much of a question about it. When they spoke in tongues in this case it was a testimony to those attending the feast from all parts of the world, a sign that the gospel was to be preached to all nations (because it literally was at that moment, in their own languages [though there is some question as to if the 'wonders of God' includes the Gospel]).

Acts 8: Grace for the Samaritans

The Biggest problem with using this text to support Initial evidence is that it doesn't actually mention Tongues! Read it through: No tongues.

Let assume though, that what Simon saw was the Samaritan's speaking in tongues (which is entirely possible). The purpose for this evidence was to show that God had included the Samaritan heretics (they were kind of like Mormons of Judaism or something). The reason I believe it didn't come until the apostles arrived was that it would have only been established on the testimony of one witness, and not even an apostle at that. In order that the testimony of the gentiles receiving to be authentic it had to be tested by the standards of the Torah. Peter and John were exactly the guys to do it (They were the leaders man!).

So God was interested in saving the Samaritans as well.

Acts 10: The Gentiles receive the Spirit

Here again, The Jews would have never believed without a sign, so again it is established with a sign, given to more than one witness, basically the same story as above. (If you want to see how opposed the Jews were to this just look at their relations to Gentile inclusion in chapters 11 and 15, and even Peter's aversion to the idea earlier in chapter 10. The Jews wanted them out, but God wanted them in, so he gave those hard headed folks another sign).

Chapter 19: A sign of the reality of the Holy Spirit

These Disciples did not even know there was a Holy Spirit, nor had they been baptized as followers of Christ, but followers of John, so Paul fixed the baptism thing and they received the spirit. Being that they were skeptical of the Spirit, he made his presence quite clear, in the form of tongues. We do not need this kind of evidence today because we are made sure from the epistles that we receive the spirit at salvation. Of course, it is worth noting that Pentecostals often do receive such a confirmation. I have a theory on this: Pentecostals don't believe that they have the spirit without a sign, so they very often receive one (God wants us to be sure if there is any doubt in our minds. Our awareness of the spirit in us is fundamental to living a victorious Christian life).

In conclusion: Speaking in Tongues, in the book of Acts is a sign of receiving the spirit, though it was most often a sign for others who would doubt that a particular people group would have access to the spirit. This becomes very evident when we notice that Luke, who is often very concerned with specific details, does not specify how may spoke in tongues. He always says 'They', being that his primary concern is with the people group as being 'in', as opposed to the individual being 'in'.

I believe that we are baptized in the spirit at salvation, and may be empowered by the spirit for various tasks as the need arises, though it is always there, guiding us in the truth, revealing God to us, and giving us the ability to do what is right (though us taking advantage of the opportunity is another matter all together). The gifts are given at specific times, much like moments of ecstasy, and special revelation, and the like.

So, experientially, and Biblically I do not like this whole 'Initial evidence' thing. It reeks of the same kind of elitism that was bringing down the church in Corinth.

2004-08-03T23:31:00.000-07:00

I ordered a birtheday present for my mom last week. Her birthday was Monday. It's going to arrive tomorrow (technically today). I wanted it to be on time, but it's not. I got UPS Express Shipping, and it still didn't cut it.

That sucks.

I need to drown my sorrows in more Bibles and cigars.

There is a christian book store in my town. It's a tiny junky one, but I buy books there sometimes just to give it buisness. I know I could get them cheaper online, but I like to give them buisness anyway. I found out today that there is a small church upstairs that meets on sunday nights at 6:00. It's officially southern baptist, but the pastor told me it was more of a non-denominational thing. I'm going to check it out I think. The pastor strikes me as a little underqualified or maybe just unprofessional. I don't really know, but he seemed nice enough (which is probably much more important than professionalism for a pastor), so I'm gonna check it out and see what's up with all that.

I hung out with some of my old friends tonight. They were all smoking the reefer and drinking, just like they always did. I wasn't overly tempted to join in, but was merely content to watch 'The Animal' starring Rob Snider with them, which was great.

Later on they were talking about getting some sweet, sweet, amazing hallucinogenic Mushrooms... the only drug I ever miss... So I decided that I probably shouldn't hang out with them too much, especially when they have such things in their possesion. Because, as we all know, Mushrooms are amazing in their greatness, and...
wow...
words cannot describe how enjoyable I find them...

So, yeah, I need to keep myself away from that kind of thing. Mushrooms were the reason I stopped doinng all other drugs. Nothing else was even fun after that. I stopped doing mushrooms because they became impossible to get, at some point in there i re-deticated my life to God and and stopped trying to get mushrooms... It's dangerous, because I still don't regret doing them at all, I've only had positive experiences with them... Hmmm...

Stay off shrooms kids.

I'm working on a paraphrase to Isaiah 58 right now. After that I'm going to do 1st John. My paraphrase kicks The Message in the bum.

ALERT!!!

2004-07-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention that many viewers of this site DO NOT SEE THE AWESOME SIDE-BAR. That is the single most important feature on the website.

If you do not see the side bar, scroll to the Bottom of the page.

WOW!!

ok, now make your freaking windo bigger... Look, It's a side bar now!!

If that didn't work, increase your screen resolution and make the window bigger. There is a side bar here, I promise.

when ever I mention 'the babe' in my posts, it's over there. The guestbook link... it's there... the add for the Holman CSB, it's there too...

Oh look, My links are there as well.

Get your rear in gear and realize the awesomness that is the Ninjaaron sidebar

2004-07-31T20:00:00.002-07:00

hey, I just found the craziest thing on the internet. I was looking around at Blog stuff on google and I came across this program called 'BlogBot'. It's this program that askes you questions about your day, and writes a blog for you to paste on your site. It's nuts! You can also set stuff like additude and tone...

Here's my try for today:

------------
Today I woke up at 9:00 and had some leftover tuna casserole for breakfast. After a little morning devo and crusing the net I headed of to work at the Gas Station. When I got to work I found that I only had to work for one hour because the woman I was scheduled to work with called in sick, so we had to close early. When I got home I watched some news and smoked a cigar. I never tried that before, so I figured I would find out what it was all about. It was no great thrill. I mean really, the news? who cares? ;-) I think I smoked it backwards which I believe had no great positive effect on the flavor. I don't really understand the hubub about cigars... So I've quit smoking today, which was not nearly as difficult as everyone says. Anyway, I decided that it was not a moral offence to smoke one cigar (though I could see a problem with doing so regularly). Not that I plan on doing it durring Master's or anything...

After that I called one of my friends and we chatted about all kinds of stuff. I eventually steared the conversation towards the bible. He's a skeptic, so I try to sneak it in there occasionally. A skeptic is like an atheist, but they are smarter. They don't really believe God exists, but they know he cannot be disproven so they don't rule it out entierly. Anyway, he likes Jesus and all (seriously though, everybody likes Jesus), and he likes hearing about stuff in the Bible, but he doesn't really believe it or anything. But anyway, I get him to think about God, which I guess is the best I can do. He was raised Catholic and knows the basics of salvation I believe, and I mention them occasionally, but it's just not getting in there. I don't really think he's at a point where he is desperate, which is often what really gets people on their knees. Well, the seed is there for later I guess.

Next I went on Crosswalk.com forums and fought the heathens, as usual. Nothing helps build a biblical basis for theology like fighting about it.

When I tired of that I got on my blog and made up some crazy lie about a program that writes your blogs for you. Who would believe crap like that anyway?

2004-07-26T00:57:00.000-07:00

I got a new suit. It's a tailor-made Hardwick. It's black. It's hot. I had the pants cut with a cuff because I deserve it.

The only problem is that when I wear it I have to step lightly because don't want to impress the heal of my shoe too deeply into the puddles of what used to be females which inevitably fall at my feet. To leave such tire tracks on the heart would not serve them well later in life. I must walk softly.

In related news of me being super conceited, that Girl at the gas station that I thought had a crush on me... guess what: she does. On of my other co-workers told me after he got pissed off at her for getting him in trouble.

"Man, that B*tch, Jenn Chester, Got me in a ton of trouble, by the way, she has a crush on you."
"Is that what she said?"
"yup!"
My first instinct was an honest reply: "That makes sense."

Interestingly, I didn't see the humor in it until he started laughing, at which point I realized that such a response was the model of perfection for what could be said to such a decalration.
I was serious of course, being that I am such a sleek, sexy ninja; the ensuing female panic responce is only to be expected. It's strange that this attration of her's is based solely on looks (for we have barely spoken), in that I have a weird skinny body. I never thought myself much of a looker, more a charmer actually (who can resist my bushido?

Main Entry: Bu·shi·do
Pronunciation: 'bu-shi-"dO, 'bü-
Function: noun
Etymology: Japanese bushidO
: a feudal-military Japanese code of behavior valuing honor above life).

As a side note, God is not impressed by any of this; Not The suit, nor the swooning women, nor the bushido. I guess it's a shame and a flaw that must be exersized from my nature, that I am so very impressed with myself.

2004-07-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

I was looking in the KJV bible (I know, I'm gonna burn forever for it), and I actually found that their is a ban on homosexuality contained within the Ten Commandments. This is an earth shaking discovery!!

here:
Exodus 20:17
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's (...) ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's."

There you have it! thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's ass.

I told my mom in the middle of church durring a Preaching that was about an 1.5 hours (Flemming would have rolled over in his grave if he was dead). She didn't know whether to laugh or be offended. I think she succeeded in both. Anyhow, the sermon was about how we are to deal with the devil. It contained a lot of talking a no real points. The exegesis was awful, and the preacher was contiually refering to satan as "ol' slewfoot". He kept on saying that we need to treat Satan like a rattle snake instead of a cream puff, as some of us do. I don't know what that means. Apparently he had four pages of notes and only got through two of them, however he was simply repeating himself. I would have liked to see his notes.

ick.

Michael Card is totally awesome. If you don't think so, don't speak. Ever.

"I shall not offer burnt offerings unto Yahweh my God of that which doth cost me nothing..."

2004-07-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

How about an essay on worship? seems to be some general confusion on this topic. My interpertation is that worship is the way we show love to God. The English word 'Worship' comes from an Old English word 'weordhscipe' which might be translated now days as 'worth-ship', or worthiness... more or less. I take this to mean that worship is what happens when God shows us who he is, and our responce is to think that he is really great... but to think that so much that it causes us to get up and do something about it.

It is interesting to note that there is no Hebrew word that can directly be translated as worship (though there are a few that have that possible meaning in Greek that are used in the New Testament). There are a couple of words which croperatly contain different aspects of worship... For example: Praise, service, offering, and sacrifice.

The earliest form of worship we see in the Bible is animal sacrifice. We see it in the Story of Cain and Able. I don't truly or honestly see why Cain's offering was rejected. Some say he didn't have a right heart, others say it was because of a Divine mandate to sacrifice animals. Either one might be true, but there is no biblical evidence to support either claim. I will not claim to understand anything which I do not, nor will I attempt explain... So I can't really use this passage as an example of anything.

The next time we see worship in the Bible it is just after the flood. The first thing Noah does when he gets off the Ark is to burn some animals. This form of worship obviously had a profound effect on God, and and God decideds never to flood the earth again (thanks for that one, Grandpa Noah). Why did God do this? The explanation given in the text is that it smelled good. I suppose that most people do like the smell of cooking meat, but I somehow have this crazy idea that the smell wasn't really what God was into... we shall see as we dig further into this topic.

Back in these days, and even up through the times of the Judges weath was measured in livestock. When people sacrificed animals they were paying a big price to do so. At the detication of the Temple King Soloman sacrificed 22,000 cattel and 120,000 sheep... let's assume that the average price of a bovine is around $3,500 (high for a female, but low for a male) and a sheep is much cheaper, around $200 a pop (yes, I did some research... I could be a little off, but I'm an idiot, so what do you expect)... This sacrifice cost solomon about $1 Billion, or 6 billion DKK. That is a ton of money. These were just his personal sacrifices. He gave God ONE BILLION DOLLARS JUST BECAUSE HE FELT LIKE IT!! However in total it says that there were more animals sacrificed at the detication of the Temple than could be counted... not to metntion the cost of the building itself, which was mostly made from the finest imported goods, and by expert foriegn craftsmen... God was perfectly tickled pink by all of this and his shekina rested in the temple so that no preists could preform the sevices... After Solomon prayed for the detication of the Temple, God sent fire directly from heaven to consume the offerings.

There are some other notes to make about the cost of sacrifice. Abraham was obedient in sacrificing his own son, which monetary value cannot be given to. Also, the Quote at the top of this post is something David said... It was after the God's anger had broken out against Israel in a plauge because of David's census. David was going to try and appease God by making a sacrifice. Araunah offered to give him the bulls for free, but David was appaled by the idea and hence said:
"No, I insist on buying it, for I cannot present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing!"

This also pleased God, and the pestilence ended.

Another important part of worship is Praise. This inculeds sacrifices and, but is not exclusive to them. It includes songs, poems and prayers (apparently our requests and reliance on God's strengh are also a form of worship). There is some evidence that it includes musical compositions and even improvisation (Amos 6:5). We first find this after the crossing of the Red Sea, when Miriam writes a little tune and runs about with her tambourine (undoubtably, this is a loathsome instrument). Later, David made it a regular part of the worship at the Temple We also find that the musicians were to be skillful and loud (Psalm 33). That's fun, isn't it... I know many an old lady in my church who might greatly object to King David's loud worship service. Anyway, when David was choosing those to lead the singing, he appointed a certian group of Levits 'because they were skillful at it'. So we find that worship leaders are not to suck at singing.

May I at this time implore all of you that suck at singing to please step away from the microphone. This is the will of the Most High God. If you suck at singing, don't do it as worship in front of other people. Sing your heart out from your seat, but you were not divinly appointed to be the worship leader... Sorry, pet peeve. You all know the kind of people I'm talking about.

It seems as though almost any kind of asthetic expression can be counted as praise. Prose, Poetry, Music, The temple articles were all covered with beautiful engravings. Apparently God has appreciation for the fine arts (He aught to, he is ultimately the artist that created the world... And his book is pretty good too). The thing about that is, the people who did these sorts of things for God deticated their lives to doing a good job of it. They strove for absolute perfection in their art and God was pleased... If we had such an attitude today I wonder if we would have that great song that says 'Yes Lord! Yes Lord! Yes Yes Lord!' over and over again. Seriously folks, God is looking for the best. Look at the Psalms compared to our songs, or the Poetry in the last ten chapters of Isaiah... That stuff doesn't suck at all. Someone that I look up to as understanding the true the spirit of writing music for God's service is Bach. Bach studied music as a science to find the most pleasing combinations. He delicately worked out every nuance of his works until they had reached perfection, and he was far and away the best organ player durring his life time. As a result, People are still getting saved though the works of Bach. In China the Gospel may not be preached, however Bach cantatas are allowed. Musicians have been known be so interested by his music that they find translations of the lyrics, which often contain a clear Gospel message. There are more than a few recorded cases of this being enough to lead them to salvation.

The last aspect I will touch on is service. Paul exemplifies what it means worship our Lord in service. He figured that He owed Jesus eveything in his life that was worth anything. The practice in those days if you owed a debt you couldn't pay was not to declare bankruptcy as it is these days (I will not go overboard about some of the christians that seem to have tried this modern method with God). In those days you became a slave until the Debt was paid. Paul found that it never was quite paid off. He urges everyone to become a slave to Christ (Romans 6-7), and to present themselves as a 'living sacrifice' (Romans 12:1). What does that mean? It means you give your life. You give up what ever you were before and whole existance is to Do what God has commanded you. It means changing the way you think letting your actions follow in due course (Romans 12:2). Just before He died, Paul said that he was finally pouring out his life as a Drink offering. He let God totally use him up until nothing was left to be used, and then he finally surrendered his very breath as a final act of service for furthering the gospel. I know that some people have dreams of being a martyr. I can admit that there is something very romantic about the idea of dying for what you believe in, and if I have to die some way that wouldn't be a bad option. But make no mistake about it. Nobody is going to be afforded any such honor unless they have first lived and been utterly spent by God in life. Only then could someone possibly die for God's Glory.

There is another aspect of being a living sacrifice which is worth noting. Animal Sacrifices were purified by a washing before they were slaughtered and offered. In order that your life be a sacrifice that is pleasing to God, you must be clean. Your service is worthless if you don't live according to moral standards.

The underlying theme is that true worship is costly. The more it costs, the better. God doesn't care about our cheap worship. Anyone can sing a song or say a prayer, but God is looking for a lot more than that.

The last verse I will touch on was one that Jesus quoted on multiple occasion:

'I desire mercy, Not sacrifice.'
Hosea 6:6

Before anything else, God wants us to show love. All that other stuff can go strait to hell because at the end of the day God doesn't need any of it. It's just a stupid game if we are not loving others. It's dead, dry religion.

2004-07-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time without an update, so I've updated the babe as well. In bad taste I might add.

I work at a gas station, It's going well, kind of fun... that's why I've been away...

Ok, it's only part time... Ok, The real reason I haven't updated is... a couple of things... I've been relentlessly debtating with the heathens at crosswalk.com... and I've been going on this online message board based game my brother plays to talk about Jesus to the people on it... A lot of them are really cool, but none of them believe Jesus is the son of God... Many of them actually do believe in God, and even take stock in some of what the Bible says (because they are sensable people and they can see that the Bible makes some sense). Some of them actually used to be christians themselves... No converts yet... It's looking doubtful...

Aside from that I've been studying a lot of Bible, like normal, and buying those books that Flemming told us to buy. I just got the 'International Standard Bible Encyclopidia'. It's so amazing... it's full of words and knowledge and great things. I'm perfectly tickled pink. Weeeee... I also bought some audio lectures by a secular professor. The're about the bible as the roots of western literature. They are fun and insightful, but they mostly tell me things we either learned in class or I have read elsewhere. The most valuble part about them is learinging to look at the Bible as a work of art, which I think we all knew that it was... but man... it's really really artful.

I think I'm going to write some Bible Essays on this blog tonight... if I have the motivation later on...

There is a cutish girl where I work that is always checking me out... and getting caught by me... and not stopping... She's no mega babe... but cute... that's the good news.

The bad news is that she is sixteen... and she acts sixteen... and she's not a christian. Well, she believes in Jesus... but she really doesn't have a problem with having sex... before marrage... and really not before dating either... or even before friendship actually. So, this is an interesting way for God to test me... To resist the temptation of horny sixteen year olds... It won't be to tough... There is a lot of reasons why not to, appart from pleasing God even.

Of course, being that I have commited my life to God to the extent that I have done so, if I decided to behave inappropriately there would be divine punishment. The girl would probably get pregnant. Then her parents would have me put in prision. Then I would have a kid and and child support to pay. Then the road could split in a couple of directions: Either I would end up marrying that girl because of my guilty conscience (which I do not wish to do), or she would marry someone else while I was in prison. I would loose everything that I actually care about, and I would probably end up staying in Wisconsin forever.
God would do something like that if I screwed up so badly, I have no doubts about that.
Not to mention that she acts like a high school girl anyway (note that I did not date any girls in high school. Not to gaurd my heart. I didn't date because I thought they were all stupid. There was one girl in my high school I would have dated, and I didn't even care enough to try).

No, it is better to stay away from all of that. I am not ready to be daddy (I'm sure the thought frightens most of my readership). Someday I will be that man, but now I am still just a kid myself. At times I wonder if anyone can fully be counted an adult until they have so completely devoted to something outside of themselves as a parent is to thier child. At times I wonder what makes a man. I fidget and check my pants. That must not be it... I doubt I will ever know what makes a man, or will ever realize if I should succeed in doing so myself.

2004-07-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a job at a GAS STATION! YAY!

That's just wonderful.

gas station...

I've been goining to crosswalk.com forums a lot to argue about theology. It's been good for my brain. My life is presently boring...

I discovered something great in the Bible this morning... In Isaiah 64:6 when it says
"All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags"

It doesn't actually say 'filthy rags' in Hebrew, it says 'and like a garment of the times are all our righteous acts.'

nothing special right? Well 'A garmet of the times' is the hebrew idiom for something a woman wore to keep things clean when she was having her period...

Therefore what the prophet is really saying is this:
"All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like A FREAKIN' USED MAXI PAD!!"

Just remeber that. You may have a good opportunity mention it (people do like to quote that verse an awful lot). Wow, that's digusting. Behold the power of the Word of the Lord. It really does cut right to the heart of the issue.

2004-06-29T01:12:00.000-07:00

I saw 'Blow' for the first time tonight. It was really good.

I also saw 'Don't be a Menace to South Central while Drinking Juice in the Hood'. It was really, really dumb.

I also got called a 'Free Thinker' (as an insult) on the crosswalk.com forums for saying that we should love homosexuals as christ would have, instead of being tyical, homophobic christians. I guess that's kind of awesome.

I think I'm not going to get hired at Wal-Mart. That's low- being rejected by Wal-Mart.

Tired.

2004-06-26T20:48:00.000-07:00

I just found the most awesome website about translations of the Bible EVER!

Comparing Bible Translations

It's so stinking awesome because it takes apart a whole bunch on modern and antiquated translations of the Bible, and show every tiny aspect of the philosophy behind them and the manor in which they persue it. It also talks about the textual decitions (which manuscripts were used in various locations), as well as any theological biases a given translation may have (they all do).

It's writen by a bible scholar, so his bias towards literal accuracy is clear, although I think Most of the people reading this site would pobably apreciate that as well. Most of his claims are simply observations that people with any slant would agree with. Y'all would probably be most interested the conclusions and least interested in the historical background and textual basis (textual basis is actually über important, but it's kinda boring unless you are a mega geek like me). Notice his top three translations... how many of them are endorsed on this site? oh yeah! (two for three ain't bad... I own and use all three, of course).

hmmm... I bet Dane's couldn't give a crap less about either of the last two posts... Probably most of the Americans either...

2004-06-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm back home now. I enjoyed my little journey and had fun with friends aside from a few little problems, which were my fault entirely, so all in all, I can't complain. But enough about My mom...

I got a new Bible translation on my treck to Willow Creek. It's part of the KJV tradition of translations meaing subsequent revisions of the the same basic text and translations philosophy (to be very literal and accurate in rendering, while beautiful and poetic in form):

Tyndal- 1525... Tyndal was actually the first English Bible ever to be printed
Geneva Bible- 1560 (which was actually a bit more accurate than the KJV)
The Bishop's Bible- 1568
King James Bible (the KJV or AV)- 1611... Interestingly, the version of this Bible that we now find in stores has spelling that was updated in 1769.

here the stream splits in a few different directions

The English Revised Version (RV- 1881) and the American Standard Version (ASV- 1901) were both revisions of The KJV text.

the ASV was considered by most to be the better translation. It was a good deal more accurite, and it used better manuscripts than the RV. There were two revisions of this particular version which are both very famous and very good. The Revised Standard Version (RSV) came out first in 1952 (followed by a slight update in 1971), and The New American Standard Version (NASB) in 1971 (updated in 1996, This is the one Flemming loves. It's actually the favorite in almost all academic circles).

The RSV is known for it's grand style in modern English whilst still maintaining a very high degree of accuracy. It is more popular than the NASB, which decided to throw style out the window and go for strait ahead literal accuracy. It has been said that if all the Greek manuscrips were lost, the New Testament could be reproduced by translating the NASB back to Greek . The RSV is probably more faithful to the spirit of the KJV translators. It was, until around the late 1970's, what the NIV has now become (That is, the standard Bible of protestants who that aren't into KJV. The RSV is a good deal more literal than the NIV).

Two revisions have have sprung from the RSV. The NRSV (that 'N' standing for 'New') came out in 1989. It is a good translation, however it has sucumbed to the trend towards Gender Inclusive Language even for pro-nouns, which I officially deam to be LAME!

The other revision is as as recent as 2001. It is the English Standard Version (ESV). That Is the one I bought at Willow Creek. It is much the same as the RSV (only 7% difference). It has The grand style of the KJV in living English with the deadly accuracy of modern textual scholarship. I think it's pretty stinking cool. I think it's a bit better than NIV (NIV is part of the KJV tradition, but only in a loose sence. It not a revision), but it's also a more difficult read.

The Holman CSB (NOT part of the KJV tradition in anyway. It's on of the only literal translations that isn't), which I love so much, is a bit stronger in capturing the correct nuances of Greek in our current language, but the ESV slightly more literal in a 'word for word' sense. They are actually The two main front runners for replacing the NIV as the most popular current translation (the NIV hasn't been updated since 1985, with it's original publication in 1973, and the TNIV ('T' for Today's) has gone the way of Gender Inclusive Language which, I will repeat, IS LAME!).

So, I like the ESV, I like it a lot. It almost feels like a hybrid of NIV and KJV because it uses a lot of renderings similar to NIV, but it's actually more accrate than both of them. A good Bible, It's still not up the the level of the CSB but man, it sure does sound prettier.

Here are the Test Verses I used for the other Bibles:

Galatians 5:12
'I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!'
1 John 3:16
'By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.'
James 4:14
yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Song of Songs 8:6-7
'Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
Adore is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the LORD.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
all the wealth of his house,
he would be utterly despised.'

It's great that it uses 'the flame of the LORD'. I am much pleased by that.
If you want to check out more quotes from this version, they have it on biblegateway.com

Oh yeah, there is one other member of the KJV family. It is not cool at all. It is the NKJV. The NKJV is for those crack heads that believe that the KJV is the only inspired version in Engish. It uses the same flawed manuscrips as the KJV (The Textus Reseptus, based on the screwy Byzantine manuscript family, as opposed to the earlier and more sensable Alexandrian family of manuscripts. The problem is only really huge in the New Testament. The Old Testament Manuscrips are much more in agreement). They simply took out the archaic forms of 'you', as well as the antiquated verb endings, and other really old words that no longer carry any meaning. So, it's still based on outdated scholarship, and really isn't faithful to the true spirit of the KJV, which was to be as accurate as possible in all regaurds. If you like the KJV, just use it instead of the NKJV, because it's way more awesome sounding with all the old words. If you want to learn more about the KJV only issue, then check out this site.

I'M SUCH A NERD... but enough about my mom...

2004-06-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

Looks like my guest book server is coked up again...
That's sad.

2004-06-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

I had a crazy dream last night... I drempt I had a mullet again, but it was longer all over. It looked great... I want another one, just like the one in the dream...
[the dream]
Anyway, I was back in my high school for some reason, and This really gross girl was trying to be my girlfriend or something, and I was trying to... not let her... and at some point I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror... and I saw it... My beautiful mullet... and I had lamb chop sideburns... and I was wearing a wife beater and one of those 'vest's with padding that is like a jacket with no sleeves'... It was so rednecky... Anyway, I hated the outfit, but I really dug the mullet and lamb chops... Maybe I should go for that look some day...

I wonder if it was a vision from heaven of what angels must look like? It could've been. Don't laugh, this is serious...

I kept on cracking butt hair jokes to my mom today... I think I'm going to braid my butt hair later tonight...

No matter.

Hebrews 5:12...

2004-06-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

I just went out to Devil's Lake (state park) with one of my female friends (*see note) from high school. She's interested in christitianity. She went to an Episcapalian (sp?) church all of her second semester, but she isn't sure if she believes in Jesus and the Bible. She believes that there is a God, and she thinks that It just might have something to do with the God of the Bible (apparently she was reading some book about biblical interpretation, and she felt something, and she started crying and blah blah blah... the kind of thing that is difficult to explain to people who aren't christains, but I'm sure you guys know what it was she felt). She has trouble accepting some parts of it... She wants to believe, but she was brought up as a Unitarian Universalist, so it's difficult for her to commit to something as concreate. I answered some of her questions and I told her some things that she found quite interesting. She only had a KJV bible, so I lent her my NLT and gave her a book with background on each of the books in the Bible. hopefully the word of God 'will not return void' (Isaiah 55:11).

I also gave her my recomended reading order of some of the bible for new christians, or those that a curious. I devised it very systematically (which I doubt suprizes any of you).

Mark
Acts
Romans
Genesis
Exodus
John
Hebrews
Revelation

Mark is first, because the story of Christ is the most essential part of the faith, not to mention that it is a sure fire way to open the door for the Holy Spirit to do it's work of convicting and all that. I chose Mark for the first Gosple because it's just the story, and doesn't rely on the reader having a knowlegde of scripture, because it was writen to Romans. It's also the fastest paced account, so the reader is not likely to loose interest (I considered using Luke first because it has some very beautiful imagery and good literary style, but Mark faster and less theological, so I went for it instead). Next comes Acts because it is also very fast paced, and full of cool stories, and full of lot sound doctrine snuck in all sneaky like. Mark and Acts lays the historical foundation of christianity in a fast, interesting way. Next, it's time to use your brain...

Romans comes next because it is the Most complete description of Christian Theology to a Gentile church. It does not rely too heavily on the Old Testament either, so it's great for newbies. It gives some understanding of what this Chritianity thing is all about.

Genesis and Exodus are next because they are very vivid stories that are quite interesting and they lay the foundation for the Jewish identity and Law, Which is essential if you ever want to plum the depths of christianity...

John follows, because by this time the Gospel story could use some refreshing, and the reader will be able to more fully understand the deeper implications. It really communicates the humanity of Jesus very well, and brings to light the beauty of what he did. Hebrews follows here, much the way Romans followed Mark and Acts. This time the Reader has some of the More difficult consepts in their head, and will have a less confusing time of this rich theological treasure.

The Last book is Revelation, for a couple of reasons. It's totally wild, which is fun, and the last two chapters make up one of the most beautiful sections of the entire Bible.

So, there it is, after that, I just recomend that they either read some of the shorter epistals (sp) or go back and fill in some of the OT history, or go where ever they want... It's all pretty good, if occassionally difficult (speaking of which, I'm reading through Isaiah right now... Oh man...).

That girl has such a beautiful personality. She is always trying to do humanitarian type stuff, and she genuinly wants to help people (Last semester she did a writing workshop for prisoners). She is very intellegent, but her heart is still gentel. She would make such a great christian (she already lives more like it than a lot of 'christians' I know). I hope something hits her at home... You guys should pray for her, her name is Emily.

I've been talking to a lot of unsaved friends about God lately (They usually bring it up, with questions because they know that I was off at Bible school). They are all intellectual types, so there are some hurdels that are difficult for them to come over. I know that I can't absolutly prove christianity to them, because it can't be proven... It makes it tough. I'm praying that God can use some supernatural means to touch them... I've been asking for prophetic word type stuff for them so they would have a big fat confirmation, but I've not recieved anything yet... Well, actually I think that girl might be about to have another 'divine touch' type thing, so I'm going to ask her in a couple days when the time feels right... I'm not 100%, but I was praying about it, and that's what I feel right now, who knows? I've told her to ask God to make contact back (she does talk to God, but she has never really expected him to talk back). Back me up in prayer on this please.

In other news, the more I read in the HCSB, the more I love it. All those of you who are really comfortable reading in Engish should buy one. It's soooooo good. It better be good, it took 15 years to produce... I've decided it's definiently easier reading than NIV, not to mention that it's more accurite. It's all together a superior translation. Too bad it's not been out long enough for there to be a study bible in this translation... Rock'n'Roll

I think The Olsen Twins may be thew first in a new feature on this site: "The Babe of when ever I update The Babe"

* Note: For all of those nosey readers out there, the female friend is not a girlfriend, or even a romantic interest, or even particularly attractive. She never was a girlfriend (though she did have a crush on me in Jr. High). Don't worry ladies, Aaron Christianson is still an eligible batchelor! (Sorry to make all of your souls incinerate with Lust, I was born like this).

2004-06-14T23:33:00.000-07:00

I just made a bunch of updates. Love me.

2004-06-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

I have a guest book now I guess. I am so awesome... Maybe later today I'll write about the study bible I got a couple of weeks ago... and the commentary... That's totally Rock'n'Roll

2004-06-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

I got my instructional drivers permit. That's a step in the right direct.
I'm going to apply for some crap jobs today. Part time, of course, lazy bum that I am. I plan to take Tour de Force beginning on Friday, where I hope to hitch a ride to Rockford on a bus that is returning from a Camp. I will then proceed to hang out with Erin, Gabe, and Rachael, Hopefully that Nate guy who slept in my room also. He was fairly rockin'.

On Saturday night Rachael is going to Sold Out, and I will be accompanying her there, but going home with Rebecca (how could I resist saying such a thing?). I'll be loafing around Chicago until Wednesday, so hopefully I will see some more of the super friends (what a lame show it was). Following that little escapade (oh yes, there will be adventures), I will be driven up to Beloit by Rebecca, and I will spend the night at my Grandma's house. My grandma will then take me on home to dear sweet Portage (that is a big lower case yay).

I got a new Bible. It's the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB or CSB). It rocks quite hard. It's one of the Most accurite translations (right after NAS and NAB, the catholic one), but the language is very modern (it came out in 2003), and It's about as readable as NIV (sometimes more, sometimes less). It's not the most eliquently phrased (I always liked NIV and KJV for that junk). It's a bit more everyday, which works well for some things and not so well for others...

Galatians 5:12

"As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!"
NIV
"I wish that those who are disturbing you might also get themselves castrated!"
CSB

Sounds pretty good... I think I like the word 'castrated' better than 'emasculat'... It's got a bit more bite....

1 John 3:16

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."
NIV
"This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers"
CSB

The CSB compairs very favorably on this verse. It retains the pronoun found in the Greek instead of naming Jesus Christ, Though this is slightly less clear, it is a bit more poetic. It does, however, drop the 'And', which makes the language less cumbersome. Nice! 2pts. for the CSB!

James 4:14

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
NIV
"You don't even know what tomorrow will bring- what your life will be! For you are a bit of smoke that appears for"
CSB

well, KJV will always take the cake on this verse "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." An I think NIV gets quite a few style points for turning the question 'What is your life', but the rendering given by the CSB is a bit more accurite... A bit of smoke? not bad...

Song of Songs 8:6-7

"Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love,
it would be utterly scorned."
NIV

"Set me as a seal on your heart
As a seal on your arm.
For love is as strong as death;
ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol
Love's flames are fiery flames-
the fiercest of all.
Many waters cannot extinguish love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give all his weath for love,
it would be utterly scorned."
CSB

Well, I don't know why the last line of verse 6 is only ever translated correctly in the NASB, where it say's "The very flame of the LORD" That's important. It tells us something very significant and intensly personal about our God. Check out the beginning of Ezekiel 16... beautiful...

Interesting point on the rendering of YHWH in the CSB... It usually renders it 'the LORD', just like all the others (except the JB and NJB, official English translation of catholics everywhere except America), but occasionally it translates it as 'Yahweh' when it is significant as the personal name of God....

Well, I guess that it for today kiddies,
Untill next time this is Aaron "I will climb the palm tree and take hold of it's fruit" Christianson, signing off.

2004-06-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

Well, hell froze. I made a freakin' website.

It's only because Rebecca told me to. This site I hereby deticate to an arbitrary something other than myself because I do not want this to serve as an online Journal, because they are lame. Now I need to get some photo software on this stupid computer just so I can make cool backgrounds. How lame is that?

I suppose now also need to find image hosting and guest book crap, not to metion brush up on my HTML and Java.

This is so hyper-homo. What a waist of time.