Psalm 119:97-104

"Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.

Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.

I have kept my feet from every evil path
so that I might obey your word.

I have not departed from your laws,
for you yourself have taught me.

How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!

I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path."

Man, this is pretty mind blowing... Just imagine... It's reading stuff like this I realize how incredible immature and underdeveloped my relationship with God truly is...

blog post #104

so i've posted just over a hundred of these. what strikes me is that none of them stick out in my mind. they all seem wholly unremarkable, actually with a few exceptions, most posts on other people's blogs would fall in the same category. apparently then, our posts are not intended to change the world or ourselves. Why then are blogs so popular? what compels so many of us to write something on a semi-regular basis? obviously, i can only answer for myself, and the most honest answer i can give is; i don't know. I would like to say that it helps me vent frustrations, or it is a way to gather my thoughts, or a way to communicate with the three of you who occasionally drop by this blog. but, honestly, i write posts simply to write posts. why i occasionally feel the need or choose to do so, is actually unclear to me. my days are no different whether i post here or not. i do not sleep better having posted during the day.

I don't know why i just wrote this post or chose this topic; i guess i just felt like it...

Dr. Egelkraut

My NT theology prof said something today that made me think, it wasn't that it was so revolutionary or a completely new concept; it was more a poignant reminder of something I/we often get our thinking muddled. We are not saved by what Jesus taught, but by who He is and what He did. It is so easy to get sucked into an Evangelical sort of Bibliolatry. The Bible can't save us. The Bible is true, but Christ is the Truth!! No one comes to the Father except through Christ! (John 14:6)

I want to travel

to somewhere i've never been, preferably where they speak a language that is uncommon and where they typically do not know English. Where there's strange but incredible food. Oh, and they'd have to have beaches....
see... who wouldn't want to spend a few days here?

Miuro

I don't know if this Miuro thing is the coolest or most retarded iPod accessory I have ever seen. Apparently it can even follow you around the house. Have we really become so lazy and addicted to our music that the speakers have to follow us around as we move from one room the next?

I think so many of us have become slaves of convenience. We can't even be bothered to get out of the car when we go to the bank or pharmacy. We're so busy trying to not waste any time that we don't have time to just "be". When was the last time any of us just sat; without the TV on, a book in our hand or a paper to write. Even our relaxation time is busy: be it running, knitting, kayaking or getting coffee at Starbuck's. It seems to me that we've lost the art of being still. Lars Saabye Christensen writes about having lost the "in-between time". Everything is in the "immediate", and now. He uses the example of the a digital vs. a 35mm camera. With the 35mm there would be a time between when the picture was taken and when you saw it developed, now the digital images are immediately approved or rejected. We don't have to wait for anything anymore. There are only delays. If it (whatever "it" might be) is not there immediately, then it's delayed or running late. To wait for anything is near impossible; "WHAT!?!? TWO whole days to ship!?!? I have to wait that long!!!! I'd better become a premium member so they'll Fed-Ex it over night...."

Sadly, this whole attitude and lost art of being still is sorely evident in western Christianity as well. When was the last time you went to a church service and was encouraged to sit still for 10 minutes without anything being said or done on stage? I'm ashamed to admit that I hardly ever simply stay still in the presence of God. I come to God with a to-do-list a mile long, and demand an instant response and gratification.

It's kinda strange

...i've noticed that my MySpace friends list has been dwindling recently... not sure who's gone, and whether they're trying to tell me something...

A thought or two, on this and that

I've really enjoyed this book so far. I'm reading it as a part of a course at school. It's evangelical, but Ladd interacts with many of the more liberal scholars. It's refreshing to read a book which deals so well with both sides, rather than simply and quickly dismissing the other side (in this case the liberal scholars), simply because they are the "other side". All to often both sides throw out the baby with the bath water, much could and ought to be learned from either side (in any discussion, argument or controversy). Granted, the sides might never agree, but is that always the most important thing; to be right, or prove the other side wrong? I'm not promoting compromise or not taking a stand for orthodoxy and the Biblical essentials. I just think that all to often we muddle up what the true essentials are. Chrysostom said: "In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, charity. In all things, Jesus Christ." Nothing but a great big "AMEN!" can be added to that.

The Danish language

This is one of my all time favorite skits. Scarily not too far from the truth.
Done by three of Norway's funniest comedians; Harald Eia, Bård Tufte Johansen and Atle Antonsen (from the show "Ut i Vår Hage"):



btw, there's some crude language

Audio books

Leah got me a iTunes gift card a while back to get some audio books for my commutes back and forth to Columbia. I'm struggling to decide. There's something about the whole iTunes thing that makes me feel uncomfortable as well as incredibly indecisive; it's weird not to be able to physically handle the albums and go up the the register to listen to the music (or in this case audio book). Call me old-fashioned. I dunno. it just seems like there's something missing from the shopping experience on iTunes contra a record store...

btw, anyone have any recommendations?

Well it's been too long

and too much has happened, for me to even bother to try to catch you up on what's been going on. It'd just be boring anyways, here's a video that's more interesting than anything i might be able to spew out...