We are still in Beta.

I think we lose sight of things quite often. I’m not talking about some huge goal you lose sight of, I mean the simple things. The things you overlook because you start taking them for granted. Nature for example. How often do we take it for granted? How often do we walk past all this beauty, and just thing, it’s just another tree, or just another raindrop. Or how often do you ignore it totally? You don’t even think of it at all, it’s just…..there…..or in the way.

See I’ve been doing that lately, and it’s hurting my relationship with God. I’ve been taking things for granted, nature, my house, my family, my friends, my computer, phones, cars, school, everything, and it’s making me not rely on God.

So I’ve decided, I’m going to try to stop taking things for granted. I’m going to try and get back to basics. Enjoy walking home from school, maybe even to school. I’m going to try and be productive with my time, and try things I wouldn’t normally do. I’m going to think twice about picking up my laptop, and go read the Bible instead, or build legos, or ride my bike, or something. I really don’t know. I haven’t done this in a while. Not since last February. Let me tell you, 2 weeks without the computer, it changes you. It is wonderful. So I’m going to do it. See you in 2 weeks!

**Warning the post below is a joke. The viewpoints expressed in the post below are in no way connected to the thoughts of the author. Please don’t hold anything against him, even though he is the creator of the thoughts. The purpose is to make you laugh, not get mad. Thank you**

So I’ve solved the worlds problems. Basically it came about during a communications class. See we were doing persuasive essays, or debates. So I decided that there are 2 ways to solve all of these problems. The first and simplest way, is to take humans out of the equations. See there wouldn’t be so little salmon if we hadn’t built all the dams. Which then when we needed salmon, and the sea lions started eating them, we wouldn’t have to kill the sea lions, or not have enough salmon.

Another example is assisted suicide. Should it be legal? Well it doesn’t matter if their are no humans who want to kill themselves, or doctors who wanted money.

Then there is the most obvious fact being, that we couldn’t debate (argue) about these topics if humans didn’t exist. Thus take humans out of the equation and the world would be perfect.

So the other idea I came up with was this.

So to start with, there are to many nuclear weapons and we are afraid of starting wars. So to get rid of the nuclear weapons we just have to bomb the Wal-Marts. See there are also to many Wal-Marts, which are putting small businesses out of business. Now this also solves a few extra problems. See Wal-Mart is an equal opportunity employer. This means they will employ anybody equally, rapists, murderers, illegal immigrants, thieves, and kidnappers. So we blow up the Wal-Marts and we get rid of these people, Wal-Mart and Nuclear Weapons. This then causes radiation. Which will cause diseases and surely terminally ill patients. So the people who survive the Wal-Mart bombings will either die painfully, or have to be administered drugs to help them die. Unluckily the USA will have made it illegal for a doctor to perform assisted suicide, so the Mexicans and Canadians will be practicing it instead. So all of these people who worked at Wal-Mart and now have Terminal illnesses will have to go to Mexico or Canada or some other country. So the Mexicans and Canadians and people of other country’s who are coming to America illegally, because they can’t find jobs will have jobs assisting suicides. Unfortunately the US will also have raised the driving age to past 25, because our brains don’t develop till at least 25, and then we need some practice. So no one can drive to these places to get the “help” they need at killing themselves. So, they will have to ride whales. This in turn will solve 2 more problems. It will save the whales from whale hunting, and while riding whales the people can shoot the Sea Lions eating our salmon. Thus problems solved. Now what about the Myspace debate? and Teacher Dress code? You might ask. Well I will tell you. We will use Myspace to plan this entire operation, and make sure everyone is wearing the right clothes at the same time. Not to uncomfortable, not to distracting, but just right. Now the world is at peace. And thus, the end of my theory on how Myspace will solve our world problems.

So this is now my 4th laptop I’ve owned. I got it last Wednesday. I like it a lot. It is sweet looking, and fast. I can actually run some video games on it, like Halo. OOOOOHHHH, AHHHHHHH. Haha. So in case you are wondering for some random reason (maybe your a geek like me) here are the specifications!

-AMD Sempron Mobile 2800+ (1.6GHZ)

-768Mb Ram

-64 mb Shared Video memory

-40GB Hard Drive

-CD Burner, DVD Player

-15 inch LCD

-802.11 b/g wifi

-Oh and it’s an Acer Aspire 3002LCI

So I don’t know if you understood any of that. But hey! It’s what it is. I like it a lot, and guess what. I bought it for $325 dollars!!!!!! They sell for about $450 on ebay! I sold my previous laptop on Sunday for the same price. $325. So I am happy. It was a lot slower, and a Dell. Anyway, hope that um…… I didn’t waste your time to much, maybe I just made you laugh, maybe smile, maybe you now just think I’m crazy. Oh well!

Today we had a guest artist, actually a VSAA alumni. He was pretty cool. We did some theatre exercises with him and then he talked about how the point of it was basically to show that we have to move on in life and not let things affect us. I agree and disagree. Recently A LOT has been going on in my friends lives. I would go into detail but there is really too much to talk about. Basically it has all been bad, and it’s abnormal. My personal opinion is that it is from the Devil. The Devil does attack us. One of the biggest mistakes of Christians is to NOT acknowledge the fact that we are being attacked by the Devil. Basically when you don’t acknowledge the fact, you can’t fight it. If you don’t accept the fact that you are at war, how can you defend yourself? You can’t.

Ephesians 6:11-12

“Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

So accept the fact of the Devils attacks, and then fight back. Defend yourself… with what? Prayer, the Word of God, and living for God.  I think this section says it better than I can

Ephesians 6:14-18

“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

So spiritual warfare is real and it’s powerful. Look at this section…. Read it like it is; a fight, a war, a battle. Change your perspective when you read it, and it could change your mind and life.

Now as for me not agreeing about just “getting over” things, I think you don’t always need to just “get over” it. See forgive and forget…. That isn’t the motto. We need to acknowledge the problem, face it, and conquer it… or solve it. Make it a part of you. Not sweep it under the rug.  This is never the best idea. It will come out later if you sweep it under the rug. What happens when the rug is moved? You have to face all the problems at once, rather than just one at a time.

If you read Matthew 18:15-17 it will talk about when someone does something hurtful to you and how to deal with it. So what happens if you just sweep it under the rug by ignoring it, or by just saying “yeah whatever, you’re forgiven”? It could end up being worse later because they could bring it up again, or you could because you haven’t dealt with it. It isn’t really gone, you still hold hurt feelings. The best approach would be going and talking with them one on one, and if that doesn’t work bring in another person. That is what Matthew 18:15-17 talks about.

So I agree that you need to get over things, but in the right way. Use it to make yourself a better person. As for not letting it affect you, well let it affect you, but in a good way. That is what I am really getting at.

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;”
You are not your own. This is a very interesting thought. How many of us live for ourselves? Do you? I know that usually I do, and I wish I didn’t. My body is not my own and therefore I need to live like it isn’t mine. It’s been interesting because during communications class we have been doing pros and cons of a topic. One of the topics thats been brought up is assisted suicide. Now my personal opinion is that it is murder to commit suicide. The Bible says that “You are not your own”; therefore you don’t have the right to kill yourself do you? It’s murder. This applies in other aspects of life to. If your body isn’t your own, then shouldn’t you treat it like you would treat another persons body? You would care for it…. Personal hygiene, eating healthy, not doing stupid and dangerous things. Basically you need to take care of yourself, or should I say take care of God’s workmanship. God created you, and loves you and wants you to take care of yourself, his temple. He gave you free choice, yes you can make bad decisions, but he doesn’t want you to.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (The Message)
“Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.”

So what does this mean? It means not everything is good for you to do. Yes it is legal for you to drink past 21, yes it is legal to have sex outside of marriage, yes it is legal to be stupid…….but does that mean it’s good for you, or it’s what God wants for you? NO! God wants you to be smart and safe, and therefore even though he has given you freedom to do whatever you want, it is not all benifical to him.

1 Corinthians 10:23 (NIV)

Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible”—but not everything is constructive.”

So treat your body with respect, and care for others. If you don’t own your body, God does, and God wants you to care for others. He wants you to be blessed through helping others. Truthfully you don’t own your body, it is a gift from God that he is giving your freedom. Do you know what that gift cost God?

His only son.

He died.

For you.

He died on a cross.

With nails.

He was beaten.

Made fun of.

Jeared at.

Spit on.

Mocked.

Kicked.

And hung on that cross to die.

For you.

Will you accept that gift? Will you choose to give it back to him? By sacrificing your body for God? Will you let God call you to do his work? Will you listen and follow? I can say that if you do, if you accept the gift and follow God, you will be blessed.

Luke 6:22

“Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.”

John 13:17

“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

James 1:12

“Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.”

Wow…. If you stick it out through hard times, say when you are letting God use your life, what will you get? “the reward is life and more life”. Isn’t that amazing? The more life you give, the more of yourself you put into you work, the more life you will have. What an amazing thought, promise and blessing. Will you give the gift back to God?

Only you can answer that.