Awesomeness.

I found this on failblog.org.  This is pretty awesome.  Every girls dream.

Reconstruction

I reckon that I am a bored man, or a very foolish one. I have decided to remodel part of the basement of the house I live in which I finished remodeling just under a year ago. The primary reason is because this will give us more living space, which we need; and one less bedroom, which we don't necessarily need. Hopefully people will like this as we will be listing our house on the market again in the spring. So Obama had better make some changes and people need to continue in their American Way of overspending and racking up debt. After all, credit is the American Way right? I saw something at adventconspiracy.org that was interesting. Americans spent like 450 billion on Christmas each year. 450 billion. Wow. That number is really staggering. Especially when the best gift one could receive at Christmas is free. In order to show people that that gift is worth it and that we like them, I guess we have to spend 450 billion dollars. I wonder how much of that 450 billion is put on credit cards and not immediately paid off? I would imagine most of it if I know America at all.
So I'm off topic. My basement remodel will hopefully allow my house to sell quickly in the spring and make at least enough to cover the cost of it. If I'm really lucky perhaps I'll even come out on top so that the hundreds of hours spent finishing it last year will come to fruition. So, wish me well...

Illiteracy

So, in this book I'm currently reading by DA Carson, he talks about the problem of Biblical Illiteracy prevalent in today's society, both in the church and outside of the church. I realize that to those outside the church biblical literacy isn't at the top of thier priority list. However, the issue that is extremely depressing to me is that those in the church have little knowledge of the Bible. Even just finding a book in the Bible is difficult to a majority of people in the church who are below the age of 40. The issue is that if they can't find a book in the Bible, what does that say about their understanding of the Bible. I've noticed a trend (one that I'm a part of) of younger Christians going to Bible College so that they can learn the Bible. Is it just me, or shouldn't that be the church's job? After all, what is the primary function of the church? Shouldn't it be to function as the body of Christ? How can the body function when it doesn't even know what it's job is, or what it believes? Another disheartening result of not knowing the Bible is that it shows the importance of one's faith. When we don't know what the Bible is intending to communicate (notice that this isn't what it "means" to us which is a whole nother post to come), we can't follow it. When that happens, suddenly we are much more prone to being swept up in something that may sound good, but in actually is quite unbiblical. There is a tremendous need for churches in western culture to do a much better job of teaching it's members both how to read and study the Bible (not in a reader response method) and what the Bible is actually communicating. I hold a very strong belief that if the church was properly doing it's job, then less people would feel the need to go to Bible College. Now I am in no way against Bible College, however one shouldn't go and spend thousands and thousands of dollars to learn something that the church should be doing.

Hi-Tech

So this is attempt number two to post to this blog from my mobile
phone. You can't tell it's attempt number two. You'll just have to
take my word. It could be attempt number nine, but why would I lie
since I've already admitted that the first try failed?

-Andy

Jury Duty

So, I'm sitting here in a room in downtown.  I get to listen to music, surf the old web, watch crappy daytime tv (non-cable too), and await to see if I'll be deciding the fate in anyone's life today.  Jury duty is actually strange to think about.  Twelve strangers who are strategically chosen by a team of legal experts (based upon a series of questions) will decide the fate of an individual.  What makes this strange is that thanks to reader response literature critiquing methods, what each person hears and how they understand it can be totally different.  What is true to you isn't true to me.  Whatever happened to absolute truth?  That is one of those flaws that those who set out argue that a text means whatever the reader wants it to, not what the author wants it to forgot to think about.  Once this became common in a text, it was quick to invade our culture.  What is true to one person, is not necessarily true to another person.  This is extremely problematic when truth exists whether you wish to accept it or not.  Not believing that 1+1=2 doesn't make it untrue.  If I believe that 1+1=3, according to reader response, makes that true to me.  Forget logic and reasonable understanding, it's true to me, so it's true.  This problem holds massive logistical problems when we come to the understanding of who God is.  Whether you believe in God or not does not make Him exist or not exist.  You can choose to not believe in God if you want to, but that doesn't make Him disappear or go away.  So back to jury duty, I realize that the idea of it is great, but I don't know how I would feel to have a group of people decide my fate based upon their worldview, whether they know that that is how they judge their decisions or not.  Having a pluralistic truth standard in today's society actually scares the hell out of me.  Thankfully the hell is out of me thanks to Jesus.

Amelia

Here's a picture of Amelia.  She's my daughter who was born on August 14, 2007.  She's quite a handful and is known to take good pictures.  I know, she's adorable.  

The crazy thing that you wouldn't guess about Amelia is that she had major heart surgery just over a year ago.  Her scar has almost totally disappeared and she has no effects from the surgery at all.  I guess the crazy thing is that doctors are able to cut open an eight pound baby and do major heart surgery.  Even more amazing is to think about what God can do.  He created the heart and it's parts.  He also created a desire for life in humans.  This is made evident both through an eight pound, three month old baby fighting to live as well as an old doctor doing the surgery in order to save someone's life.  God desires for humanity to desire Him in their lives.  He wants all of us to fight for life, only the life he offers is so much better than what we think we want.  When the apostle John writes about eternal life, it's not something that is going to come after we die; it's something that is here now.  We can have a life way better than imaginable if we're willing to take a chance.  My wife and I took a chance with Amelia and life is amazing.  While major heart surgery is not always needed, we have to be willing to give up what is most valuable to us is we are ever going to experience it the way that God intended.  Isn't it worth giving Jesus a chance?