Life

Death of a Hard Drive

Wed, 7 May 2008 11:52:21 -0700

So, my MacBook’s hard drive quit on me last week, right as I was publishing some new updates to the site.

Being the genius that I am, I didn’t have anything more recent than October backed up, so I’ve been working on recreating the last few months’ worth of content, etc.

On the plus side, this prompted me to create some new content, such as the new Featured Music and Featured Websites pages for the MadCast section.

Now that I have recreated most of the website, I’ll be backing up my site more regularly.

Is The Bible Stupid?

Sat, 12 Jan 2008 11:56:03 -0800

EX 21:7 ACTUALLY SAYS: "And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do"  This is not approving the practice, but rather setting regulations on the exisiting practice. Remember, the people during this time did not have the entire Bible to look back on and learn from, so they had a lot of problems and practices that weren't necessarily good. If you read the Old Testament, you'll see a lot of laws laid down by God. But rather than take the people and strangle them to death, God met them where they were, and brought gradual changes. I'd like to think God's followers have come a long way since then, but I'm not sure if that's true.  EX 35:2: God takes worship seriously. It's really not a hard rule to follow; just don't show up to your job.  I Cor 11:14: (I assume he meant to say "first corinthians," since there is also a "second corinthians") Obviously, long hair is relative. Back then, many men wore their hair in a length we would consider "long." The point of this verse, IN CONTEXT, is that men should not dress or present themselves as women, and vice-versa.  1 Cor:19-24 has nothing to do with what he's talking about, but I'll forgive that, seeing as the video appears to be incomplete, and he may have been referring to a previous passage upon which he was basing his argument. Regardless, I am familiar with the verse he's referring to, and back then, let's just say they didn't have the "technology" that women of today have to their advantage, so there was some reasonable basis for this rule. They called it "unclean" for a reason.  Keep in mind, that some laws, particularly those that are often misunderstood, were written for people in a specific time, in a specific society. While the overall moral and spiritual principles of the Bible are universal, not all of the laws are.  So much for "no out of context BS."

Actions Without Words?

Mon, 8 Oct 2007 13:50:41 -0700

I received the following comment on my blog entry, Disrespecting Other Religions.

Chicachicaboomboom:
Why are we so concerned with telling people that they are going to hell?
Perfect loves casts out all fear. Gods spirit draws all to His Spirit and his love is available for everyone. He is not saying always do the right thing or I'm going to pound you. If you want others around you to be saved, help them with your actions. True Christianity is action not words

First off, thank you for reading and contributing, Chicachicaboomboom (if that's your REAL name :-D ).

Now, as previously explained, I am concerned with telling people about Hell for the same reason you might tell someone there is a bomb in their car; you don't want a really bad thing to happen to them. Besides, if we're not supposed to tell people about Hell, why is it even IN the Bible? Is it one of those things we KNOW about but don't actually TALK about because we're embarrassed? God is pretty blatant about it in the Bible, and while it's true He is a God of mercy, grace, and love, he is also a God of justice, and I think that's important to know.

Perfect love DOES cast out all fear. But that lack of fear doesn't come from ignorance of the truth. That lack of fear comes from the full knowledge of the entire truth; that yes, Hell is real, but it's avoidable, and if you give your life to Jesus, you will have nothing to fear. It's HIS perfect love that casts out the fear, not us pretending that bad things don't exist.

Why are we hesitant to tell people about it? Is it because we worry about what they'll think of it or what questions it will raise? Do we like to present a more palatable gospel, where eternal damnation isn't a factor, and the truth consists of lollipops and daffodils?

I agree that actions are more important than words, but I have to disagree with you about true Christianity being "action, not words." After all, if that's so, why do we study the 788,280 words we call the Bible? It seems words were important enough for Jesus to use to tell parables, for Paul to include in his letters, for God to inscribe on walls and stone tablets, and for to use in your comment.

Perhaps a more accurate statement is this: True Christianity is shown in actions that match the words you speak. I mean, if Christianity is actions without words, what will you do when someone asks you why you do the things you do? Mime the gospel?

Here's some other food for thought:

"And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, 'Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.'" Act 11:13-14

Words by which you may be saved? Sounds pretty important to me!

"So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air." 1 Corinthians 14:9

Pretty straightforward: Clear words are important!

And if there's any question about Hell... click here.

Is it really any different?

Sat, 4 Aug 2007 20:03:20 -0700

The main difference between Christianity and pretty much every other faith, is this: Every religion is pretty much Man trying to reach God. Christianity is God reaching out to Man.
As part of our human pride, we like to think we can reach God if we're just good enough. If we follow his laws, do enough good deeds, try to not do bad deeds, etc. The problem with this is that we're only human. We can't follow all of His laws all the time --no matter how hard we try. I mean, look at some of the ten commandments:
First Commandment: Don't worship any other Gods. I may not have literally worshipped another "god," but how many times have I put something else in higher importance than God? Isn't an idol just anything that's more important than God?
Fifth Commandment: Honor your mom & dad. I know I've been disrespectful to my parents a number of times, especially all the times I disobeyed them when i was younger.
Sixth Commandment: Do not commit murder. I've never killed anyone, but I know there've been times when I wanted to hurt someone, or do harm to them in some way. Is that really so different?
Seventh Commandment: Do not commit adultery. I've never done THAT, but I've lusted in my heart. Like they say, it's the thought that counts, right?
As far as the eighth, ninth, and tenth Commandments: I've stolen, lied, and coveted.
Wow, that makes me kind of look like a loser. And what's worse, I don't know of anyone who hasn't done most of the same things, if not more! History has shown time and again, that humans are doomed to fail when it comes to following God's commandments. The Old Testament is pretty much just a record of God's people making the same mistakes over and over again, for thousands of years! The New Testament puts it this way: "For all have sinned, and fall short of the Glory of God." It doesn't matter what you do; you're not going to ever be able to make up for all the things you've done wrong in life. And, unfortunately, the only way to earn your way into Heaven is to be perfect. Ouch.
That's where Jesus comes in. Jesus is God, in human flesh. In order for there to be justice, a crime must be paid for. Now, we COULD pay for our own sins, but that would involve spending eternity in a not-so-pleasant place.
But God loves us too much to let that be our only option. So, he made the ultimate sacrifice; the only sacrifice pure enough to pay for our sins. He gave his perfect life, untarnished by sin, for us. He paid for our sins, so that we could spend eternity with Him. The only thing we have to do is accept this free gift, and give Him our lives in return. We just need to do what we can to trust in Him, and follow Him, and He takes care of the rest.
It sounds like a really good deal to me. And I know that if it wasn't for His love and sacrifice for me, there's no way I'd ever make it to Heaven.
So, that's a summary of what my faith means to me. Feel free to ask me to clarify anything.

Re: Women have a right to choose?

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 22:35:00 -0700

After posting the last blog, I received several responses. Here are my answers to one of them. You can read the full response I received by clicking here.

"The reason is because that before 24 weeks, the fetus is not viable. It cannot survive, even with technological advances as sophisticated as they are."
wrong. check this out.
24 weeks is just the arbitrary time frame given by doctors simply because they needed to set some sort of time frame. it's not the truth.

"And what happens to these kids? Barely any of them make it to college."
I never went to college (other than city). I guess thats a good excuse for aborting me.

"So many of these parents are putting their children into a system that constantly fails at giving the children decent homes and the potential for good futures. If I were a woman and I got pregnant and didn't plan on keeping that child, I would rather have an abortion than put my child through such a corrupt and failure of a system...I would feel more guilty about giving my child a horrible, unloving future, than not giving it a future at all."
So, because we judge that the child will have little to no future, it's our right to destroy their chance of having any future at all? Does that mean we can just go to the slums, where hundreds of children are being raised with very little chance of a future, and go around killing them to put them out of their misery? Check out The Pursuit of Happyness. It's a good movie because it shows that no matter where you come from in life, things can alway look up. I think worrying about the child's future as an excuse for abortion is a load of bull crap.

The Penal code may define murder as "the killing of one human being by another human being with malice aforethought." I think selfishness=malice, and I can think of few things as selfish as abortion. In a nutshell, abortion is killing your offspring for your own sake.

Sorry, but I stand strongly by everything I said.