Psalm 16: 2

Into The Mystery--Jason Gray

2010-05-04T13:59:00.000-07:00

This song really puts words to what I've been going through in my Walk lately...

"I've begun to realize

That my faith is compromised

When I put God in my pocket

Like a keepsake in a locket

I know something must be wrong

If I can understand it all

'Cause a love that is unending

Wasn't meant for comprehending

The time has come for letting go now

I'll say goodbye to the god that I control

Go beyond everything I think I know

Into the Mystery

I'll walk away from the image I have made

Take a breath as I make a leap of faith

Into the Mystery

In the room of my belief

The walls are closing in on me

And the cracks of doubt are growing

With every wind of change that's blowing

And I know I've got to leaveBefore it all falls down on me

So here I go now

CHORUS

The path behind me

Disappears

The sky gets darker

And my way's unclear

But the less I'm sure of

The more I have to trust you to meet me here

I know You will meet me

Here in the mystery

I'll say goodbye to the god that I control

Go beyond all the things I think I know

Into the mystery

I'll walk away from the image I have made

Take a breath as I make a leap of faith

Into the mystery

Now the scales are falling from my eyes

And every moment I'm taken by surprise

Deeper into the mystery of You"

Words & Music by Jason Gray, Mark Heimerman, Kyle Matthews

There's Light at the End!

2010-04-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

There's Light at the End!

When you're walking through a dark tunnel and there doesn't seem to be an end, keep pushing through, you'll get there! There's always light at the end of the tunnel(:

We all go through some really hard times, especially us believers in Christ, but doesn't mean we just give up. Look to the Lord for strength and encouragement, let Him be your ferm foundation; He has a plan(:

I personally have been going through some hard times, especially college right now, and as I make time to spend in His word (the Bible), He helps me cope with situations through out the day. Just knowing that someone is their, backing you up, gives a sense of relief!

To God Be the Glory,

-JesusFreak(Granti)

On An Idea Put Forth in C.S. Lewis’ Essay, “The Funeral of a Great Myth”

2009-11-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

On An Idea Put Forth in C.S. Lewis’ Essay, “The Funeral of a Great Myth”

The theory of evolution is a wonderful fantasy as well as a very popular conviction, and for good reason. It is tragic and satisfying, comfortable and touching, perfectly “unified” and keenly interesting. With its charm, romantic characteristics, and brick-like confidence, it has won over the hearts and minds of many willing followers. “It is one of the most moving and satisfying world dramas which have ever been imagined.” (Lewis). In the rhythmical tragedy referred to as “evolution”, man consistently emerges as the hero of the day, becoming better and better as time ticks on, this image of humanity is, of course, quite attractive to those belonging to the human race. The satisfying knowledge that against “millionth, millionth” chances, the race of man has grown, thrived, created, conquered, explored, united, cultivated, believed, and so on, is undeniably gratifying (Lewis). And this fairy tale’s ending adds an almost delicious tension to the thing: “Nature, the old enemy who only seemed to be defeated, has been gnawing away, silently, unceasingly, out of the reach of human power. The Sun will cool—all suns will cool—the whole universe will run down. Life (every form of life) will be banished without hope of return from every cubic inch of infinite space. All ends in nothingness. ‘Universal darkness covers all.’ . . . the hero has swiftly fallen from the glory to which he slowly climbed: we are dismissed ‘in calm of mind, all passion spent’. . . . it has . . . complete finality. It brings us to the end not of a story, but of all possible stories . . . “ (Lewis). Still, superbly catastrophic endings and unfortunate heroes are not all this grand delusion has to offer the “open-minded”, it also promotes genuinely convincing ideas. Lewis says this of evolution, that the “odd idea commends itself to the imagination by the help of what seem to be two instances of it within everyone’s knowledge. Everyone has seen . . . Acorns become oaks, grubs become insects, eggs become birds, every man was once an embryo. . . . secondly . . . everyone has seen Evolution really happening in the history of machines. We all remember when locomotives were smaller and less efficient than they are now. These two apparent instances are quite enough to convince the imagination that Evolution in a cosmic sense is the most natural thing in the world.” And as if all this was not enough, it gives yet one more confirmation, that “art and civilization as we now know them are only the crude or embryonic beginnings of far better things” and humankind is growing together as one unified movement, improving, civilizing, and enlightening as it goes along. It’s a more or less “sing-song” way of viewing existence, who wouldn’t want to perceive such a thing as being true? “Let no one say we are an unimaginative age: neither the Greeks nor the Norsemen ever invented a better story.” (Lewis). Over the ages, mankind’s search for his origin has been laid to rest upon finding this quaint fabrication, making it one of the most riveting, mesmeric and popular tales ever to be told, ever to be re-told, ever to be taken hold of.

Hallelujah!

2009-11-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

"Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.' "

Revelation 19:6-7

A Weird Thought?

2009-11-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

I believe it was about 2 weeks ago at English class, when I came across this very weird topic/thought. In my English class, our teacher had us watch this video of some kids being "told" what to do and how to behave by these cruel, evil teachers. These teachers were not letting these kids "think for themselves." Well there was this one kid who began to dream were every kid started to rebel against the school. The children began to burn down the building, tear it limb from limb, and then they built this bomb fire where they began throwing the teachers in. But this was all a dream thank goodness(:

After the video was done, everyone started saying stuff like "we agree with the video" or "why can't we freely think for ourselves." My teacher also agreed with the students. I was SO annoyed, but giggling on the inside. How foolish can you be. We go to school to be taught new things, right? So we have to be told what to do and how to think. If we were to "freely think" for ourselves, we wouldn't learn anything. My good friend Mackenzie had a good solution to this problem, "Freely think on your own time." (:

So that was a very interesting day, and a very remember able one too. It gave us all a good laugh(: Ha ha, the things I go through for my future job/family.

Now hopefully I described everything to where it made sense and gave a pretty rough picture of the video. Thanks for listening - Grant

Pic of the Day

2009-11-20T11:32:00.000-08:00

Kate, dancing.

A Little C.S. Lewis for the Day

2009-11-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

Here I sit, at this desk, with my warm coffee in a not-so-shabby-if-I-do-say-so-myself little coffee cup (it’s like my favorite one, it’s bright red and has teeny-tiny little-bitty hearts all over it). And here is what I just thought to myself, you people absolutely must get to read this one part of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis. This stupendously funny part comes in right after Edmund, Lucy and Eustace Clarence Scrubb have come on board Dawn Treader. The weather has been perfect; the beautiful little ship is King Caspian’s and he’s had it built to pretty much carry him--and his crew--to the end of the world, if that tells you something about its quality. Ever since he stepped aboard Eustace, the fussy, British, around-eleven-year-old boy we’ll hear from momentarily, has received the best care possible. Anyway, he starts a journal to “put things in his own words”. Here is what he says. Enjoy.

“August 7^th. Have now been twenty-four hours on this ghastly boat if it isn’t a dream. All the time a frightful storm has been raging (it’s a good thing I’m not seasick). Huge waves keep coming in over the front and I have seen the boat nearly go under any number of times. All the others pretend to take no notice of this, either from swank or because Harold says one of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to Facts. It’s madness to come out into the sea in a rotten little thing like this. Not much bigger than a lifeboat. And, of course, absolutely primitive indoors. No proper saloon, no radio, no bathrooms, no deck-chairs. I was dragged all over it yesterday evening and it would make anyone sick to hear Caspian showing off his funny little toy boat as if it was the Queen Mary. I tried to tell him what real ships are like, but he’s too dense. E. and L., of course, didn’t back me up. I suppose a kid like L. doesn’t realize the danger and E. is buttering up C. as everyone does here. They call him a King. I said I was a Republican but he had to ask me what that meant! He doesn’t seem to know anything at all. Needless to say I’ve been put in the worst cabin of the boat, a perfect dungeon, and Lucy has been given a whole room on deck to herself, almost a nice room compared with the rest of this place. C. says that’s because she’s a girl. I tried to make him see what Alberta says, that all that sort of thing is really lowering girls but he was too dense. Still, he might see that I shall be ill if I’m kept in that hole any longer. E. says we mustn’t grumble because C. is sharing it with us himself to make room for L. As if that didn’t make it more crowded and far worse. Nearly forgot to say that there is also a kind of Mouse thing that gives everyone the most frightful cheek. The others can put up with it if they like but I shall twist his tail pretty soon if he tries it on me. The food is frightful too.”

Giggles(:

Pic of the Day

2009-11-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's me (with about ten shirts on).

It's not my fault--I was born a weirdo.

Originality

2009-11-14T13:34:00.000-08:00

From Mr. C.S. Lewis,

"...no man who bothers about originality will ever be original... if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed ..."

Pic of the Day

2009-11-13T17:28:00.000-08:00

My Stormy Sky.

Spaghetti, Leggings and Cocoa

2009-11-12T22:06:00.000-08:00

Hello!

In the past few days since my last post I: made a lot of spaghetti, did a good deal of reading, spent way too much time sick in bed, really enjoyed some great fellowship, had some important discussions, ummmm took some nice walks, did a little writing and a ton of thinking, didn’t do enough chores…. and blah blah blah (:

Last night I went to bed at about 10:30, I was feeling pretty bad (I had a nice cold going on), so, I just kind of laid there and laid there and did some more laying there… I think it was at around 5:00 or 6:00 am that I fell asleep, finally! So anyway, I ended up being in bed until lunch time!!! Thankfully, I’m feeling ever so much better now.

At this very moment, I’m sitting here at the computer, with an uber 90’s look (leggings and a hoodie, I’m sorry to say), a half-gone hot cocoa, and my mind, heart and Bible opened to 1 Corinthians 13.

Pic of the Day

2009-11-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

Today!

2009-11-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

Today was another good day and school. I finally found out that I got a 90% on my Calculus test. That score made my day(: And to top that off, the Michaels and Pattons are getting together for another rad Bible Study in 30 min.
I don't have school tomorrow, because its Veterans Day!!

Thanks for listening,
Grant

Pic of the Day

2009-11-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

Me out in my squishy back yard with lovely plaid rain-boots on my chilly feet

Two OUTSTANDING words, for your eternal enjoyment!

2009-11-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

#1 OUTSTANDING word:

trenchant--adjective

"vigorous or incisive in expression or style"

#2 OUTSTANDING word:

conflusterated--adjective

(Now, I don't know that this is really a real word, but I said it last night, and... I like it by golly!)

Here's what I say it means: "A mix of confused and flustered, with a pinch of frustrated"

Pic of the Day

2009-11-09T16:24:00.000-08:00

My little work-out pal, Gi Gi

Wow.

2009-11-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Amazing isn't it?

Another Quote

2009-11-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

From Ninon de l'Enclos

"That which is striking and beautiful is not always good but that which is good is always beautiful."

Great Day!

2009-11-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day!

I had a great day at school today. I got 2 test and 1 project back today and I was very happy when I got them. I got an 82 in my Engineering project, a 100 on my Calculus Worksheet(which is a take home test but 10x harder), and an 87 on my Engineering test. These three things really made my day(: Right now I'm studing for my Calculus test tomorrow, so pray that that will go well.

Two days ago we finially got back to doing the Bible study with the Pattons, and boy was that a blast. It was great to get back to hanging out with one another and studing Gods word with our sibs. I can't wait for next week(;

Thanks for listening,
Grant

Great Quote from Mears', What The Bible is All About

2009-11-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

"For me to live is Christ" (1:21) Can you say this? Is Christ everything to you? Do you live for Him? Is your one aim and purpose to glorify Him?

Listen to the cries of the people of this world. What are they?

To the successful businessperson it is, "To me to live is wealth." To the scholar it is, "To me to live is knowledge." To the soldier it is, "To me to live is victory." To the young man, "To me to live is pleasure." To the man desirous of recognition, "To me to live is fame." To the high school student, "To me to live is recognition."

So we could go on and listen to all the voices of the world, but one is heard over them all--"To me to live is not wealth nor knowledge not fame nor glory but Christ. Christ first, last, midst all, and always Christ." (Mears 521)

I got this amazing quote out of Henrietta Mears' book, What The Bible is All About. It's a GREAT book I think it's one of the most important books I've ever been able to read. It's totally revolutionizing our Bible Study.

Hello (:

2009-11-03T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Today I did get up on time(: I slept well and I'm so thankful! I got up at 6:45 got ready for the day, and went downstairs I wrapped up my reading for the week, had a little quiet time with God, and then it was 8:oo, and time to go to Writing class. Writing class was a snazfest. I had a really great time, I got to come up with 7 random sentences (of course, they did have rules, they all had to be openers, we had to come up with them all in two minutes, ect. ect.), here they are:

Desperately, Mary rushed out the door

Tossing the book behind her, Jane recited her poem by memory.

The sleep,y drooling, black dog always slept by the fireplace.

Exhausted, and ready to drop, Joe fell asleep quickly.

Since Harlan couldn't sleep, he went out for a walk.

If he hadn't sent the letter, it would have been a disaster.

The family was in danger.

So that was fun, and the rest of class after that was great too. We spent most of our time talking about Huck Finn. After class I got all of my chores done for today. And here's the dessert: Tonight is Bible Study!!! We have had to cancel the last two, and it seems like it's been years since we (the Michael and Patton kids) got together! So yep, that's my day. Either Grant or I will most likely post something about how the Study goes(:

The Past Three Days of My Life (:

2009-11-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well hey guys,

The Harlan David Show went great. Harlan did his first instrumental, oh my word, the boy can play! Mom and Dad and I had a fun night in Portland, one of the things that made the night uber spicy was that it was the night before Halloween. So think about it, night before Halloween+Portland=...... haha an interesting time. Let's see.... OK for example, while we were in the cafe, this dude came in with his silver-lipstick-girl-friend (I'm kind of guessing on the girl-friend part), well they were all dressed up and one of the, shall we say "finer points" of this fruit-loop's ensemble was the five butter-knifes he had like taped to each hand, oh yeah Baby, you read it right. Dad's comment to his creativity was this "Wow. He could probably butter like 10 bagels at a time!!" my dad is funny(: So anyway, take it all together, the night was totally classic.

Saturday (Halloween!)

Let me tell you, this Halloween was very very different then any other Halloween I've experienced before(: We spent the Evening with our church family at the Taylor home, doing a "reformation trivia night". It was great fun for everyone, I think.

Sunday:

Sunday Sunday Sunday, it's great most of the time, but this last Sunday was REALLY hard for me. I was feeling pretty awful that day and I didn't get much sleep the night before. I slept in terribly late and got up finally at 10:30 (!!!), got ready for the day, and when it was time to take off for church (2:00) I had a really hard time making up my mind whether to go or not, I made up my mind to go and just tough it out. We got there and I was very glad to be with my church family for a time of great worship, but honestly I was exhausted the entire time... after we did worship and listened to the amazing message and had communion together (and tried to keep Cyrus calm--THANK YOU Grant!! And thanks for praying over communion! ) we went over to the big gym (our church is currently in a nice large school building) and.... what did we do there....? Oh, we mostly just watched the little kids (and the not so little "kids") play. Actually we--Grant and I--had a truly edifying conversation about family stuff, sweet times(: I'm so grateful for my brothers and sisters in the Lord. After that we decided to go to our friends home, with most of the rest of the church, it was fun and we got to celebrate Cyrus' and Mom's B-days (Cy is now 1!!), but by that time I was so ready to drop! We finally got home and I did drop! After a relaxing shower that is(:

Monday (Today)

Today I slept in again! I went to sleep last night at about 10:00, but then I woke up about 10:45 and was feeling bad, so I did my fair share of tossing and turning and got to sleep finally at about 4:00 am (thank you Lord!!). Well after a night like that you may not be to shocked to hear that I slumbered right through my alarm, and my sweet, precious, awesome, understanding, merciful mother didn't wake me up (thank you Mom!!!). So after that adventure, I made myself get all rallied up, got ready for the day, stumbled down stairs and tried to make myself somewhat useful. I checked over the chore chart and got most of my work for the day done. Then it was time to head off to guitar lessons with the Michael fam, my lesson went well, I'm working on pretty much my favorite song of all time. I got home, helped with house work, got school stuff out of the way, and then enjoyed some time reading to and playing with my lovely little sibs. And at about 7:00 some spunky young LDS Elders stopped by (I was expecting them, we had talked for a bit last week), they wanted to meet Mom and Dad so you know, there was plenty of hand shaking and "Well Hi, my name is so-and-so" and "now, where did you say you come from?" and this-and-that and all those such things until Mom and Dad had to go, so we said our ta ta's and exchanged phone numbers. Now we're supposed to be planing another time to meet with them soon...

Well that's the past three days of my life, in one nice chubby nutshell...

Hope you lived through all that reading(;

Grace and Peace to you all, dear ones.

Monday:(

2009-11-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

Haaaaaaaa....Monday:(

Today was back to school day. Even though I didn't want to wake up and go back to school, the beautiful sunshine encouraged me to go. I had a good time at my guitar lessons. I was able to successfully play the song that was assigned to me last week, and today was the day that my engineering group got to present or project to the rest of the class. It went pretty smoothly, but I'm not sure what our grade is yet. Sad thing is that we ran out of time and weren't able to show our awesome video of our test): I finished typing up my 5-7 page essay and now all that's left is revising and editing. So that was pretty much my day. Still can't wait till tomorrow. Back to the Bible Study;)

Thanks for listening,
Grant

P.S. Kenz, are you feeling up to a Bible Study? How are you feeling?

Saturday!

2009-10-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Finally It's Saturday!

I thought that this day would never come. The school days just kept coming and coming. Right now I'm finishing up my Engineering homework, YES!!, and debating on if I should call the Pattons to see if they would like to go on a nice clear walk, but I do still have to ask Mom, which I'm sure she'll say that its fine. She's at my little brothers soccer game with my Grandmother, my sister Lauren, and one of her best friends Bryna. They'll be home in about an hour.
So pray that I can finish my homework really fast and that mom will say yes to a walk(:

Grant

P.S. We're also going to a movie tonight, to get away from all the tricker treaters(;

Looky here, Looky Here,

2009-10-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

Just found this quote. Thought it was pretty cool(:

From Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

"Love does not dominate; it cultivates."

Today... (is that original or what?!)

2009-10-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all,

Today was fairly uneventful. I woke up, went to the chiropractor with the fam, got home, did housework and school, did some reading in Huck Finn (I'm now at chapter 12 of the 18 chapters that I get to read this week for writing class next Tuesday), ummmm my little sister, Bryna, is over at the Michael home for the night, I have an orange shirt on, and soon I'll be leaving for "The Harlan David Show" (My guitar teacher, Harlan Edlin is playing at a café down in Portland), so yeah, other than that not much is going in my life on this nippy Fall day...

I'll let y'all know how the show goes, hopefully sometime Tonight after I get home, or Tomorrow.

Thinking and Reading

2009-10-29T22:59:00.000-07:00

Today... I don't know what I did, really, I pretty much don't. But, it was a good day, I spent it with my best friends.

I did a good deal of reading, I read out of each of these books: Huck Finn (of course!), The Politically Incorrect Wife, 10 Challenges of A World Changer, Philippians 4, What The Bible is All About, and Sacred Singleness. One of my big "revelations" Today was this: when I start thinking a lot, I start reading a lot, I guess that's just kind of the way I work, for better or worse. Another thing I thought about was that it's really not the quantity of ones thoughts that count, it's the quality of your thinking and thoughts that matters, " . . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise think about theses things." just something I was chewing on... ( Philippians 4:8).

Well, I think I'll go do some more thinking and reading (and maybe a little sleeping) now.

TTFN

Oh wait, check this quote out from our good friend, Mr. C.S. Lewis,

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."

Is that not great!?

Day at College!

2009-10-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

Howdy everyone,

It's been about 2 months...I think....since the last time I posted. I'm finally in college, working towards my degree(Mechanical Engineering). School has been great, not a blast, but I'm sure I've got it pretty easy compared to some other people I know. I'm taking Calculus 1, Intro to Engineering, and English 101.
Today was a pretty easy day at school. I only had Calculus 1 and Engineering. English was cancelled. I was able to complete my math worksheet that is due next week Monday in the math help session...Awesome place to learn. So right now I'll be working on my daily math homework, which shouldn't take very long, and then do some revising on my Essay 2.
So that's pretty much it. I will hopefully try to right something each day, so stay tuned.

Grant

Pic of the Day

2009-10-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

My Lovely Sister

Maybe Odd Things Make Me Happy....

2009-10-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hey peoples, so check this out, reading Huck Finn last night, I came across one of the absolute best "short staccato sentences" I've probably ever seen!!! Here it is: "It's a lie. Judge Thatcher's got it. You git it. I want it." Isn't that great! I just love Twain's writing! I'll give a little history for that amazing piece of genius. After "pap" comes back to town and demand's Huckleberry's money, Huck says he "hain't got no money" and then pap says: well, I guess you just read it(: Anyway, maybe odd things make me happy....

What did I do Today...? Well, I got up, and stayed in P.J.s until about 4:00 (maybe more like 5:00 actually...) when a Grant called to ask if some of us wanted to go on a walk, Mom was just getting home, so I wrapped up my chores, got dressed, put a hat on went out side. I had a really great walk (if, a little totally freezing), we all talked and ended up being out for about an hour or so. Then we said ta ta and got home. At home, I helped with din din clean up, and........ hmmm, oh I read a little more of Huck Finn (I'm now at chapter 7 of 18). At the moment I'm finishing up this "writing practice (;" and getting ready to go see if Liz still wants to watch a movie with little old me.

So good-night y'all!

P.S. I've heard rumors that the famous Grant is coming back to the blogging world!! It's very hush-hush so don't go spreading it all around like a "pack of flat heads", and, if you do, you didn't hear it from me... (Twain 11)

Yo (:

2009-10-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Yo yo yo,

So after I checked the old "chore chart", I moved on to grander things (well I don't know if they were really "grander", but hey, doesn't that have a nice ring to it?). I got dressed (I always go to class in my cozy P.J.s because it's an on-line class so it's right here at home, happy me...), randomness--I have soooo many tees but almost no longer-sleeved shirts!! Freaky, right? Anyway, after that, I made up some Roasted Red-Pepper Cream of Tomato Soup and Grilled-Cheese for the fam (Now, that may sound like something fancy, but I assure you, it is non-other-than about the most simplistic thing you can make when Costco does most of the work before you ever enter the kitchen). Then I picked up after lunch time. Then I checked E-mail to fine that Mr. Turnbull had sent me my homework for the week: to read the first 18 chapters of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I read the first few chapter and it was GREAT, no AWESOME, no hmmmm.... truly BRILLIANT!!

I wish I could keep going, but that all the time we have for Today!

See you all later(:

Cheers...

Here I am again...

2009-10-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am again(: Hello!

My day has consisted (so far) of waking up, going to Mom's room and disturbing the poor sleepy-head's rest to ask her if she could proof-read my paper (this, she did with no complaints, wow is she the best... !!!) for writing class which starts at 8:00, going to writing class (it was great as always, thanks to my AMAZING tutor, Mr. Turnbull), in writing class I got to recite a poem ("Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Frost) by memory and read my para to the class, now I'm just finishing my piece of all-natural-something-rather-bread, sipping the last few sips of my coffee and getting ready to go check out what chores I have for today...

More to come (hopefully)...

Hey Peoples(:

2009-10-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

Hey Peoples(:

I can't believe how crazy long it's been since the last post. I've missed it...

We let's see... I turned 16 while I was away (I had the most fully perfect Birthday I've ever had (: ) I don't know what else I did, it's all a blur...

Let's move on to the here-and-now (:

Today I went to bed really late (I say "today" because it was past 12:00), then I got up way late too, then I showered really late, then I looked around for something cozy to throw on (as it was freezing out) and found a beloved burgundy turtleneck I just got out of storage, then I went to guitar lessons which went fine (... not GREAT because I didn't get much practice time in this week...), then I got home and did my chores (yee-haw!), at the moment, I'm listening o a mix of "Tenth Avenue North" and a discussion going on between Em and Liz about whether we should make up some deviled eggs to have with din din or not.

Mr. Turnbull's word of the week

2009-09-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Mr. Turnbull's word of the week:

Word: "Gravitas"

Definition: noun--dignity, seriousness, or solemnity of manner

ORIGIN: Latin, from gravis ‘serious.’

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged--by Dorothy Sayers

2009-09-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged
by Dorothy Sayers

Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as a bad press. We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine—dull dogma as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama.

That drama is summarized quite clearly in the creeds of the Church, and if we think it dull it is because we either have never really read those amazing documents or have recited them so often and so mechanically as to have lost all sense of their meaning. The plot pivots upon a single character, and the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: What think ye of Christ? Before we adopt any of the unofficial solutions (some of which are indeed excessively dull)—before we dismiss Christ as a myth, an idealist demagogue, a liar, or a lunatic—it will do no harm to find out what the creeds really say about him. What does the Church think of Christ?

The Church’s answer is categorical and uncompromising and it is this: That Jesus Bar-Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, was in fact and in truth, and in the most exact and literal sense of the words, the God “by whom all things were made.” His body and brain were those of a common man; his personality was the personality of God, so far as that personality could be expressed in human terms. He was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be “like God”; he was God.

Now, this is not just a pious commonplace; it is not commonplace at all. For what it means is this, among other things: that, for whatever reason, God chose to make man as he is—limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—he [God] had the honesty and the courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace, and thought it was worthwhile.

Christianity is, of course, not the only religion that has found the best explanation of human life in the idea of an incarnate and suffering god. The Egyptian Osiris died and rose again; Aeschylus in his play, The Eumenides, reconciled man to God by the theory of a suffering Zeus. But in most theologies, the god is supposed to have suffered and died in some remote and mythical period of prehistory. The Christian story, on the other hand, starts off briskly in St. Matthew’s account with a place and a date: “When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the King.” St. Luke, still more practically and prosaically, pins the thing down by a reference to a piece of government finance. God, he says, was made man in the year when Caesar Augustus was taking a census in connection with a scheme of taxation. Similarly, we might date an event by saying that it took place in the year that Great Britain went off the gold standard. About thirty-three years later (we are informed), God was executed, for being a political nuisance, “under Pontius Pilate”—much as we might say, “when Mr. Johnson-Hicks was Home Secretary.” It is as definite and concrete as all that.

Possibly we might prefer not to take this tale too seriously—there are disquieting points about it. Here we had a man of divine character walking and talking among us—and what did we find to do with him? The common people, indeed, “heard him gladly”; but our leading authorities in church and state considered that he talked too much and uttered too many disconcerting truths. So we bribed one of his friends to hand him over quietly to the police, and we tried him on a rather vague charge of creating a disturbance, and had him publicly flogged and hanged on the common gallows, “thanking God we were rid of a knave.” All this was not very creditable to us, even if he was (as many people thought and think) only a harmless, crazy preacher. But if the Church is right about him, it was more discreditable still, for the man we hanged was God Almighty. So that is the outline of the official story—the tale of the time when God was the underdog and got beaten, when he submitted to the conditions he had laid down and became a man like the men he had made, and the men he had made broke him and killed him. This is the dogma we find so dull—this terrifying drama of which God is the victim and hero.

If this is dull, then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting? The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused him of being a bore—on the contrary, they thought him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certified him “meek and mild,” and recommended him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies. To those who knew him, however, he in no way suggests a milk-and-water person; they objected to him as a dangerous firebrand.

True, he was tender to the unfortunate, patient with honest inquirers, and humble before heaven; but he insulted respectable clergymen by calling them hypocrites. He referred to King Herod as “that fox”; he went to parties in disreputable company and was looked upon as a “gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners”; he assaulted indignant tradesmen and threw them and their belongings out of the temple; he drove a coach-and-horses through a number of sacrosanct and hoary regulations; he cured diseases by any means that came handy with a shocking casualness in the matter of other people’s pigs and property; he showed no proper deference for wealth or social position; when confronted with neat dialectical traps, he displayed a paradoxical humor that affronted serious-minded people, and he retorted by asking disagreeably searching questions that could not be answered by rule of thumb.

He was emphatically not a dull man in his human lifetime, and if he was God, there can be nothing dull about God either. But he had “a daily beauty in his life that made us ugly,” and officialdom felt that the established order of things would be more secure without him. So they did away with God in the name of peace and quietness.

“And the third day he rose again.” What are we to make of this? One thing is certain: if he were God and nothing else, his immortality means nothing to us; if he was man and no more, his death is no more important than yours or mine. But if he really was both God and man, then when the man Jesus died, God died too; and when the God Jesus rose from the dead, man rose too, because they were one and the same person. The Church binds us to no theory about the exact composition of Christ’s resurrection body. A body of some kind there had to be, since man cannot perceive the Infinite otherwise than in terms of space and time. It may have been made from the same elements as the body that disappeared so strangely from the guarded tomb, but it was not that old, limited mortal body, though it was recognizably like it. In any case, those who saw the risen Christ remained persuaded that life was worth living and death a triviality—an attitude curiously unlike that of the modern defeatist, who is firmly persuaded that life is a disaster and death (rather inconsistently) a major catastrophe.

Now, nobody is compelled to believe a single word of this remarkable story. God (says the Church) has created us perfectly free to disbelieve in him as much as we choose. If we do disbelieve, then he and we must take the consequences in a world ruled by cause and effect. The Church says further, that man did, in fact, disbelieve, and that God did, in fact, take the consequences. At the same, if we are going to disbelieve a thing, it seems on the whole to be desirable that we should first find out what, exactly, we are disbelieving. Very well, then: “The right faith is, that we believe that Jesus Christ is God and man, perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Who, although he be God and man, yet is he not two, but one Christ.” There is the essential doctrine, of which the whole elaborate structure of Christian faith and morals is only the logical consequence.

Now, we may call that doctrine exhilarating, or we may call it devastating; we may call it revelation, or we may call it rubbish; but if we call it dull, then words have no meaning at all. That God should play the tyrant over man is a dismal story of unrelieved oppression; that man should play the tyrant over man is the usual dreary record of human futility; but that man should play the tyrant over God, find him a better man than himself, is an astonishing drama indeed. Any journalist, hearing of it for the first time, would recognize it as news; those who did hear it for the first time actually called it news, and good news at that; though we are likely to forget that the word Gospel ever meant anything so sensational.

Perhaps the drama is played out now, and Jesus is safely dead and buried. Perhaps. It is ironical and entertaining to consider that at least once in the world’s history those words might have been spoken with complete conviction, and that was upon the eve of the Resurrection.

-------------------------

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957) was one of the most prolific and influential British Christian intellectuals of the twentieth century—a category that she shared with literary greats such as G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis. Most widely known for her mystery novels involving the famed detective, Lord Peter Wimsey, one cannot also overlook her success as a playwright, a translator (of Dante, no less), an apologist, a poet, and a literary critic.

A highly creative individual, she had a way of imagination that made everything of which she wrote truly come alive. To her, being created in the image of God meant using her creative capacity to its fullest. In his elegy of Sayers, C.S. Lewis wrote, “She aspired to be, and was, at once a popular entertainer and a conscientious craftsman: like Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, or Moliere…it is only such writers who matter in the long run.”

My Word of The Day--"Immense"

2009-09-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

Word: Immense

Definition: adjective--extremely large or great, esp. in scale or degree

Origin: ORIGIN late Middle English :via French from Latinimmensus ‘immeasurable,’ from in- ‘not’ + mensus‘measured’ (past participle of metiri).

Synonyms: huge,vast, massive, enormous, gigantic, colossal, great, verylarge/big, monumental, towering, tremendous; giant,elephantine, monstrous, mammoth, titanic, kingsize(d), economysize(d); informal mega, monster,whopping, humongous, jumbo, astronomical, cosmic,ginormous

Antonyms: tiny

My Word of The Day--"Bedraggled"

2009-09-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Word: "Bedraggled"

Definition: adjective--dirty and disheveled : bedraggled refugees--we got there, tired and bedraggled

Synonyms: disheveled, disordered, untidy, unkempt, tousled, disarranged, in a mess

Antonyms: neat, clean

Origin: early 18th century

No Fear in Love

2009-09-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

1 John 4:18

"Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of judgment, and this shows that his love has not been perfected in us."

Random Thought

2009-09-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

I think that there is a hugely big difference between RELATIVES and FAMILY...

-Kenzy

No Grave by The Newsboys

2009-09-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

Lay my body down on Mercy Street

Or deep beneath the darkest seas

Lay my body six feet under down in Old

Noarlunga

Right beneath the ghost gum trees

Doesn't matter where

You won't find me there

No grave

Gonna hold my spirit down

Ain't no grave

Hold my spirit down

Lord knows they'll never keep me in the ground

Ain't no grave

Hold my spirit down

It's alright mama, now don't be sad

It's alright, don't cry for me

They can lock my flesh and bones up until kingdom come

But my spirit will be free

It doesn't matter where

You won't find me there

It's a dead end search

It's a nowhere thread

Looking for the living down among the dead

No devil in hell

No angel above

Can separate the saints from the love of God

Yes, I know, I do like to post songs a lot.

Vizzini

2009-09-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is "Never get involved in a land war in Asia." But only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when DEATH is on the line!"

-Vizzini

Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism by C.S Lewis

2009-09-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Originally entitled 'Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism', Lewis read this essay at Westcott House, Cambridge, on 11 May 1959. Published under that title in Christian Reflections (1981), it is now in Fern-seed and Elephants (1998).

"This paper arose out of a conversation I had with the Principal one night last term. A book of Alec Vidler's happened to be lying on the table and I expressed my reaction to the sort of theology it contained. My reaction was a hasty and ignorant one, produced with the freedom the comes after dinner. One thing led to another and before we were done I was saying a good deal more than I had meant about the type of thought which, so far as I could gather, is no dominant in many theological colleges. He then said, 'I wish you would come and say all this to my young men.’ He knew of course that I was extremely ignorant of the whole thing. But I think his idea was that you ought to know how a certain sort of theology strikes the outsider. Though I may have nothing but misunderstandings to lay before you, you ought to know that such misunderstandings exist. That sort of thing is easy to overlook inside one's own circle. The minds you daily meet have been conditioned by the same studies and prevalent opinions as your own. That may mislead you. For of course as priests it is the outsiders you will have to cope with. You exist in the long run for no other purpose. The proper study of shepherds is sheep, not (save accidentally) other shepherds. And woe to you if you do not evangelize. I am not trying to teach my grandmother. I am a sheep, telling shepherds what only a sheep can tell them. And now I begin my bleating.

There are two sorts of outsiders: the uneducated, and those you are educated in some way but not in your own way. How you are to deal with the first class, if you hold views like Loisy's or Schweitzer's or Bultmann's or Tillich's or even Alec Vidler's, I simply don't know. I see - and I'm told that you see - that it would hardly do to tell them what you really believe. A theology which denies the historicity of nearly everything in the Gospels to which Christian life and affections and thought have been fastened for nearly two millennia - which either denies the miraculous altogether or, more strangely, after swallowing the camel of the Resurrection strains at such gnats as the feeding of the multitudes - if offered to the uneducated man can produce only one or other of two effects. It will make him a Roman Catholic or an atheist. What you offer him he will not recognize as Christianity. If he holds to what he calls Christianity he will leave a Church in which it is no longer taught and look for one where it is. If he agrees with your version he will no longer call himself a Christian and no longer come to church. In his crude, coarse way, he would respect you much more if you did the same. An experienced clergyman told me that the most liberal priests, faced with this problem, have recalled from its grave the late medieval conception of two truths: a picture-truth with can be preached to the people, and an esoteric truth for use among the clergy. I shouldn't think you will enjoy this conception much once you have put in into practice. I'm sure if I had to produce picture-truths to a parishioner in great anguish or under fierce temptation, and produce them with that seriousness and fervor which his condition demanded, while knowing all the time that I didn't exactly - only in some Pickwickian sense - believe them myself, I'd find my forehead getting read and damp and my collar getting tight. But that is your headache, not mine. You have, after all, a different sort of collar. I claim to belong to the second group of outsiders: educated, but not theologically educated. How one member of that group feels I must now try to tell you.

The undermining of the old orthodoxy has been mainly the work of divines engaged in New Testament criticism. The authority of experts in that discipline is the authority in deference to whom we are asked to give up a huge mass of beliefs shared in common by the early Church, the Fathers, the Middle Ages, the Reformers, and even the nineteenth century. I want to explain what it is that makes me skeptical about this authority. Ignorantly skeptical, as you will all too easily see. But the skepticism is the father of the ignorance. It is hard to persevere in a close study when you can work up no prima facie confidence in your teachers.

First then, whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I distrust them as critics. They seem to me to lack literary judgment, to be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are reading. It sounds a strange charge to bring against men who have been steeped in those books all their lives. But that might be just the trouble. A man who has spent his youth and manhood in the minute study of New Testament texts and of other people's studies of them, whose literary experience of those texts lacks any standard of comparison such as can only grow from a wide and deep and genial experience of literature in general, is, I should think, very likely to miss the obvious thing about them. If he tells me that something in a Gospel is legend or romance, I want to know how many legends and romances he has read, how well his palate is trained in detecting them by the flavour; not how many years he has spend on that Gospel. But I had better turn to examples.

In what is already a very old commentary I read that the fourth Gospel is regarded by one school as a 'spiritual romance', 'a poem not a history', to be judged by the same canons as Nathan's parable, the book of Jonah, Paradise Lost 'or, more exactly, Pilgrim's Progress'. After a man has said that, why need one attend to anything else he says about any book in the world? Note that he regards Pilgrim's Progress, a story which professes to be a dream and flaunts its allegorical nature by every single proper name it uses, as the closest parallel. Note that the whole epic panoply of Milton goes for nothing. But even if we leave our the grosser absurdities and keep to Jonah, the insensitiveness is crass - Jonah, a tale with as few even pretended historical attachments as Job, grotesque in incident and surely not without a distinct, though of course edifying, vein of typically Jewish humour. Then turn to John. Read the dialogues: that with the Samaritan woman at the well, or that which follows the healing of the man born blind. Look at its pictures: Jesus (if I may use the word) doodling with his finger in the dust; the unforgettable nv vuz (13:30). I have been reading poems, romances, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this. Of this text there are only two possible views. Either this is reportage - though it may no doubt contain errors - pretty close up to the facts; nearly as close as Boswell. Or else, some unknown writer in the second century, without known predecessors, or successors, suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern, novelistic, realistic narrative. If it is untrue, it must be narrative of that kind. The reader who doesn't see this has simply not learned to read. I would recommend him to read Auerbach.

Here, from Bultmann's Theology of the New Testament is another: 'Observe in what unassimilated fashion the prediction of the parousia (Mark 8:38) follows upon the prediction of the passion (8:31). What can he mean? Unassimilated? Bultmann believes that predictions of the parousia are older than those of the passion. He therefore wants to believer - and no doubt does believe - that when they occur in the same passage some discrepancy or 'unassimilation' must be perceptible between them. But surly he foists this on the text with shocking lack of perception. Peter has confessed Jesus to be the Anointed One. That flash of glory is hardly over before the dark prophecy begins - that the Son of Man must suffer and die. Then this contrast is repeated. Peter, raised for a moment by his confession, makes his false step: the crushing rebuff 'Get thee behind me' follows. Then, across that momentary ruin which Peter (as so often) becomes, the voice of the Master, turning to the crowd, generalizes the moral. All his followers must take up the cross. This avoidance of suffering, this self-preservation, is not what life is really about. Then, more definitely still, the summons to martyrdom. You must stand to your tackling. If you disown Christ here and now, he will disown you later. Logically, emotionally, imaginatively, the sequence is perfect. Only a Bultmann could think otherwise.

Finally, from the same Bultmann: 'the personality of Jesus has no importance for the kerygma either of Paul or John... Indeed, the tradition of the earliest Church did not even unconsciously preserve a picture of his personality. Every attempt to reconstruct one remains a play of subjective imagination.'

So there is no personality of our Lord presented in the New Testament. Through what strange process has this learned German gone in order to make himself blind to what all men except him see? What evidence have we that he would recognize a personality if it were there? For it is Bultmann contra mundum. If anything whatever is common to all believers, and even to many unbelievers, it is the sense that in the Gospels they have met a personality. There are characters whom we know to be historical but of whom we do not feel that we have any personal knowledge - knowledge by acquaintance; such are Alexander, Attila, or William of Orange. There are others who make no claim to historical reality but whom, nonetheless, we know as we know real people: Falstaff, Uncle Toby, Mr. Pickwick. But there are only three characters who, claiming the first sort of reality, also actually have the second. And surely everyone knows who they are: Plato's Socrates, the Jesus of the Gospels, and Boswell's Johnson. Our acquaintance with them shows itself in a dozen ways. When we look into the apocryphal gospels, we find ourselves constantly saying of this or that logion, 'No. It's a fine saying, but not his. That wasn't how he talked' - just as we do with all pseudo-Johnsoniana. We are not in the least perturbed by the contrasts within each character: the union in Socrates of silly and scabrous titters about Greek pederasty with the highest mystical fervor and the homeliest good sense; in Johnson, of profound gravity and melancholy with that love of fun and nonsense which Boswell never understood though Fanny Burney did; in Jesus of peasant shrewdness, intolerable severity, and irresistible tenderness. So strong is the flavour of the personality that, even while he says things which, on any other assumption than that of divine Incarnation in the fullest sense, would be appallingly arrogant, yet we - and many unbelievers too - accept him as his own valuation when he says 'I am meek and lowly of heart'. Even those passages in the New Testament which superficially, and in intention, are most concerned with the divine, and least with the human nature, bring us fact to face with the personality. I am not sure that they don't do this more than any others. 'We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of graciousness and reality... which we have looked upon and our hands have handled. What is gained by trying to evade or dissipate this shattering immediacy of personal contact by talk about 'that significance which the early Church found that it was impelled to attribute to the Master'? This hits us in the face. Not what they were impelled to do but what impelled them. I begin to fear that by personality Dr. Bultmann means what I should call impersonality: what you'd get in a Dictionary of National Biography article or an obituary or a Victorian Life and Letters of Yeshua Bar-Yosef in three volumes with photographs.

That then is my first bleat. These men ask me to believe they can read between the lines of the old texts; the evidence is their obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the lines themselves. They claim to see fern-seed and can't see an elephant ten yards way in broad daylight.

Now for my second bleat. All theology of the liberal type involves at some point - and often involves throughout - the claim that the real behavior and purpose and teaching of Christ came very rapidly to be misunderstood and misrepresented by his followers, and has been recovered or exhumed only by modern scholars. Now long before I became interested in theology I had met this kind of theory elsewhere. The tradition of Jowett still dominated the study of ancient philosophy when I was reading Greats. One was brought up to believer that the real meaning of Plato had been misunderstood by Aristotle and wildly travestied by the neo-Platonists, only to be recovered by the moderns. When recovered, it turned out (most fortunately) that Plato had really all along been an English Hegelian, rather like T.H. Green. I have met it a third time in my own professional studies; every week a clever undergraduate, every quarter a dull American don, discovers for the first time what some Shakespearean play really meant. But in this third instance I am a privileged person. The revolution in thought and sentiment which has occurred in my own lifetime is so great that I belong, mentally, to Shakespeare's world far more than to that of these recent interpreters. I see - I feel it in my bones - I know beyond argument - that most of their interpretations are merely impossible; they involve a way of looking at things which was not known in 1914, much less in the Jacobean period. This daily confirms my suspicion of the same approach to Plato or the New Testament. The idea that any man or writer should be opaque to those who lived in the same culture, spoke the same language, shared the same habitual imagery and unconscious assumptions, and yet be transparent to those who have none of these advantages, is in my opinion preposterous. There is an a priori improbability in it which almost no argument and no evidence could counterbalance.

Thirdly, I find in these theologians a constant use of the principle that the miraculous does not occur. Thus any statement put into our Lord's mouth by the old texts, which, if he had really made it, would constitute a prediction of the future, is taken to have been put in after the occurrence which it seemed to predict. This is very sensible if we start by knowing that inspired prediction can never occur. Similarly in general, the rejection as unhistorical of all passages which narrate miracles is sensible if we start by knowing that the miraculous in general never occurs. Now I do not here want to discuss whether the miraculous is possible. I only want to point out that this is a purely philosophical question. Scholars, as scholars, speak on it with no more authority than anyone else. The canon 'If miraculous, then unhistorical' is one they bring to their study of the texts, not one they have learned from it. If one is speaking of authority, the united authority of all the biblical critics in the world counts here for nothing. On this they speak simply as men; men obviously influenced by, and perhaps insufficiently critical of, the spirit of the age they grew up in.

But my fourth bleat - which is also my loudest and longest - is still to come.

All this sort of criticism attempts to reconstruct the genesis of the texts it studies; what vanished documents each author used, when and where he wrote, with what purposes, under what influences - the whole Sitz im Leben of the text. This is done with immense erudition and great ingenuity. And at first sight it is very convincing. I think I should be convinced by it myself, but that I carry about with me a charm - the herb moly - against it. You must excuse me if I now speak for a while of myself. The value of what I say depends on its being first-hand evidence.

What forearms me against all these reconstructions is the fact that I have seen it all from the other end of the stick. I have watched reviewers reconstructing the genesis of my own books in just this way.

Until you come to be reviewed yourself you would never believe how little of an ordinary review is taken up by criticism in the strict sense; by evaluation, praise, or censure, of the book actually written. Most of it is taken up with imaginary histories of the process by which you wrote it. The very terms which the reviewers use in praising or dispraising often imply such a history. They praise a passage as 'spontaneous' and censure another as 'labored'; that is, they think they know that you wrote the one currenete calamo and the other invita Minerva.

What the value of such reconstructions is I learned very early in my career. I had published a book of essays; and in the one into which I had put most of my heart, the one I really cared about and in which I discharged a keen enthusiasm, was on William Morris. And in almost the first review I was told that this was obviously the only one in the book in which I had felt no interest. Now don't mistake. The critic was, I now believe, quite right in thinking it the worst essay in the book; at least everyone agreed with him. Where he was totally wrong was in his imaginary history of the causes which produces its dullness.

Well, this made me prick up my ears. Since then I have watched with some care similar imaginary histories both of my own books and of books by friends whose real history I knew. Reviewers, both friendly and hostile, will dash you off such histories with great confidence; will tell you what public events had directed the author's mind to this or that, what other authors had influenced him, what his overall intention was, what sort of audience he principally addressed, why - and when - he did everything.

Now I must record my impression; then distinct from it, what I can say with certainty. My impression is that in the whole of my experience not one of these guesses has on any one point been right; that the method shows a record of 100 per cent failure. You would expect that by mere chance they would hit as often as the miss. But it is my impression that they do no such thing. I can't remember a single hit. But as I have not kept a careful record my mere impression may be mistaken. What I think I can say with certainty is that they are usually wrong.

And yet they would often sound - if you didn't know the truth - extremely convincing. Many reviewers suggested that the Ring in Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings was suggested by the atom bomb. What could be more plausible. Here is a book published when everyone was preoccupied by that sinister invention; here in the centre of the book is a weapon which is seems madness to throw away yet fatal to use. Yet in fact, the chronology of the book's composition make the theory impossible. Only the other week a reviewer said that a fairy-tale by my friend Roger Lancelyn Green was influenced by fairy-tales of mine. Nothing could be more probable. I have an imaginary country with a beneficent lion in it; Green, one with a beneficent tiger. Green and I can be proved to read one another's works; to be indeed in various ways closely associated. The case for an affiliation is far stronger than many which we accept as conclusive when dead authors are concerned. But it's all untrue nevertheless. I know the genesis of that Tiger and that Lion and they are quite independent.

Now this surely ought to give us pause. The reconstruction of the history of a text, when the text is ancient, sounds very convincing. But one is after all sailing by dead reckoning; the results cannot be checked by fact. In order to decide how reliable the method is, what more could you ask for than to be shown an instance where the same method is at work and we have facts to check it by? Well, that is what I have done. And we find, that when this check is available, the results are either always, or else nearly always, wrong. The 'assured results of modern scholarship' as to the was in which an old book was written, are 'assured', we may conclude, only because the men who know the facts are dead and can't blow the gaff. The huge essays in my own field which reconstruct the history of Piers Plowman or The Faerie Queen are most unlikely to be anything but sheer illusions.

Am I then venturing to compare every whispter who writes a review in a modern weekly with these great scholars who have devoted their whole lives to the detailed study of the New Testament? If the former are always wrong, does it follow that the later must fare no better?

There are two answers to this. First, while I respect the learning of the great Biblical critics, I am not yet persuaded that their judgement is equally to be respected. But, secondly, consider with what overwhelming advantages the mere reviewers start. They reconstruct the history of a book written by someone whose mother-tongue is the same as theirs; a contemporary, educated like themselves, living in something like the same mental and spiritual climate. They have everything to help them. The superiority in judgement and diligence which your are going to attribute to the Biblical critics will have to be almost superhuman if it is to offset the fact that they are everywhere faced with customs, language, race-characteristics, class-characteristics, a religious background, habits of composition, and basic assumptions, which no scholarship will ever enable any man now alive to know as surely and intimately and instinctively as the reviewer can know mine. And for the very same reason, remember, the Biblical critics, whatever reconstructions they devise, can never be crudely proved wrong. St. Mark is dead. When they meet St. Peter, there will be more pressing matters to discuss.

You may say, of course, that such reviewers are foolish in so far as they guess how a sort of book they never wrote themselves was written by another. They assume that you wrote a story as they would try to write a story; the fact that they would so try, explains why they have not produced any stories. But are the Biblical critics in this way much better off? Dr. Bultmann never wrote a gospel. Has the experience of his learned, specialized, and no doubt meritorious, life really given him any power of seeing into the minds of those long dead men who were caught up into what, on any view, must be regarded as the central religious experience of the whole human race? It is no incivility to say - he himself would admit - that he must in every way be divided from the evangelists by far more formidable barriers - spiritual as well as intellectual - than any that could exist between my reviewers and me.

My picture of one layman's reaction - and I think it is not a rare one - would be incomplete without some account of the hopes he secretly cherishes and the naïve reflections with which he sometimes keeps his spirits up.

You must face the fact that he does not expect the present school of theological thought to be everlasting. He thinks, perhaps wishfully thinks, that the whole thing may blow over. I have learned in other fields of study how transitory the 'assured results of modern scholarship' may be, how soon the scholarship ceases to be modern. The confident treatment to which the New Testament is subjected is no longer applied to profane texts. There used to be English scholars who were prepared to cut up Henry VI between half a dozen authors and assign his share to each. We don't do that now. When I was a boy one would have been laughed at for supposing there had been a real Homer: the disintegrators seemed to have triumphed for ever. But Homer seems to be creeping back. Even the belief of the ancient Greeks that the Mycenaeans were their ancestors and spoke Greek has been surprisingly supported. We may without disgrace believe in a historical Arthur. Everywhere, except in theology, there has been a vigorous growth of scepticism about scepticism itself. We can't keep ourselves from muttering multa renascentur quae jam cecidere.

Nor can a man of my age ever forget how suddenly and completely the idealist philosophy of his youth fell. McTaggart, Green, Bosanquet, Bradley seemed enthroned for ever; they went down as suddenly as the Bastille. And the interesting thing is that while I lived under that dynasty I felt various difficulties and objections which I never dared to express. They were so frightfully obvious that I felt sure they must be mere misunderstandings: the great men could not have made such very elementary mistakes as those which my objections implied. But very similar objections - though put, not doubt, far more cogently than I could have put them - were among the criticisms which finally prevailed. They would now be the stock answers to English Hegeliansim. If anyone present tonight has felt the same shy and tentative doubts about the great Biblical critics, perhaps he need not feel quite certain that they are only his stupidity. They may have a future he little dreams of.

We derive a little comfort, too, from our mathematical colleagues. When a critic reconstructs the genesis of a text he usually has to use what may be called linked hypotheses. Thus Bultmann says that Peter's confession is 'an Easter-story projected backward into Jesus' life-time'. The first hypothesis is that Peter made no such confession. Then, granting that, there is a second hypothesis as to how the false story of his having done so might have grown up. Now let us suppose - what I am far from granting - that the first hypothesis has a probability of 90 per cent. Let us assume that the second hypothesis also has a probability of 90 per cent. But the two together don't still have 90 per cent, for the second comes in only on the assumption of the first. You have not A plus B; you have a complex AB. And the mathematicians tell me that AB has only and 81 per cent probability. I'm not good enough at arithmetic to work it out, but you see that if, in a complex reconstruction, you go on thus superinducing hypothesis on hypothesis, you will in the end get a complex in which, though each hypothesis by itself has in a sense a high probability, the whole has almost none.

You must, however, not paint the picture too black. We are not fundamentalists. We think that different elements in this sort of theology have different degrees of strength. The nearer it sticks to mere textual criticism, of the old sort, Lachmann's sort, the more we are disposed to believe in it. And of course, we agree that passages almost verbally identical cannot be independent. It is as we glide away from this into reconstructions of a subtler and more ambitious kind that our faith in the method waivers; and our faith in Christianity is proportionally corroborated. The sort of statement that arouses our deepest skepticism is the statement that something in a Gospel cannot be historical because it shows a theology or an ecclesiology too developed for so early a date. For this implies that we know, first of all, that there was any development in the matter, and secondly, how quickly it proceeded. It even implies an extraordinary homogeneity and continuity of development: implicitly denies that anyone could have greatly anticipated anyone else. This seems to involve knowing about a number of long dead people - for the early Christians were, after all, people - things of which I believe few of us could have given an accurate account if we had lived among them; all the forward and backward surge of discussion, preaching, and individual religious experience. I could not speak with similar confidence about the circle I have chiefly lived in myself. I could not describe the history even of my own thought as confidently as these men describe the history of the early Church's mind. And I am perfectly certain no one else could. Suppose a future scholar knew I had abandoned Christianity in my teens, and that, also in my teens, I went to an atheist tutor. Would not this seem far better evidence than most of what we have about the development of Christian theology in the first two centuries? Would not he conclude that my apostasy was due to the tutor? And then reject as 'backward projection' any story which represented me as an atheist before I went to the tutor? Yet he would be wrong. I am sorry to have become once more autobiographical. But reflection on the extreme improbability of his own life - by historical standards - seems to me a profitable exercise for everyone. It encourages a due agnosticism.

For agnosticism is, in a sense, what I am preaching. I do not wish to reduce the skeptical elements in your minds. I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else.

Such scepticism might, I think, begin at the very beginning with the thought which underlies the whole demythology of our time. It was put long ago by Tyrrell. As man progresses he revolts against 'earlier and inadequate expressions of the religious idea... Taken literally, and not symbolically, they do not meet his need. And as long as he demands to picture to himself distinctly the term and satisfaction of that need he is doomed to doubt, for his picturings will necessarily be drawn from the world of his present experience.'

In one way of course Tyrrell was saying nothing new. The Negative Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius had said as much, but it drew no such conclusions as Tyrrell. Perhaps this is because the older tradition found our conceptions inadequate to God whereas Tyrrell find it inadequate to 'the religious idea'. He doesn't say whose idea. But I am afraid he means man's idea. We, being men, know what we think; and we find the doctrines of the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Second Coming inadequate to our thoughts. But supposing these things were the expressions of God's thoughts?

It might still be true that 'taken literally and not symbolically' they are inadequate. From which the conclusion commonly drawn is that they must be taken symbolically, not literally; that is, wholly symbolically. All the details are equally symbolical and analogical.

But surely there is a flaw here. The argument runs like this. All the details are derived from our present experience; but the reality transcends our experience: therefore all the details are wholly and equally symbolical. But suppose a dog were trying to form a conception of human life. All the details in its picture would be derived from canine experience. Therefore all that the dog imagined could, at best, be only analogically true of human life. The conclusion is false. If the dog visualized our scientific researches in terms of ratting, this would be analogical; but it thought that eating could be predicated of humans only in an analogical sense, the dog would be wrong. In fact if a dog could, per impossible, be plunged for a day into human life, it would be hardly more surprised by hitherto unimagined differences than by hitherto unsuspected similarities. A reverent dog would be shocked. A modernist dog, mistrusting the whole experience, would ask to be taken to the vet.

But the dog can't get into human life. Consequently, though it can be sure that its best ideas of human life are full of analogy and symbol, it could never point to any one detail and say, 'This is entirely symbolic.' You cannot know that everything in the representation of a thing is symbolical unless you have independent access to the ting and can compare it with the representation. Dr. Tyrrell can tell that the story of the Ascension is inadequate to his religious idea, because he knows his own idea and can compare it with the story. But how if we are asking about a transcendent, objective reality to which the story is our sole access? 'We know not - oh we know not.' But then we must take our ignorance seriously.

Of course if 'taken literally and not symbolically' means 'taken in terms of mere physics,' then this story is not even a religious story. Motion away from the earth - which is what Ascension physically means - would not in itself be an event of spiritual significance. Therefore, you argue, the spiritual reality can have nothing but an analogical connection with the story of an ascent. For the union of God with Goad and of man with God-man can have nothing to do with space. Who told you this? What you really mean is that we can't see how it could possibly have anything to do with it. That is a quite different proposition. When I know as I am known I shall be able to tell which parts of the story were purely symbolical and which, if any, were not; shall see how the transcendent reality either excludes and repels locality, or how unimaginably it assimilates and load it with significance. Had we not better wait?

Such are the reactions of one bleating layman to Modern Theology. It is right that you should hear them. You will not perhaps hear them very often again. Your parishioners will not often speak to you quite frankly. Once the layman was anxious to hide the fact that he believed so much less than the vicar; now he tends to hide the fact that he believes so much more. Missionary to the priests of one's own church is an embarrassing role; though I have a horrid feeling that if such mission work is not soon undertaken the future history of the Church of England is likely to be short."

Just Thinking on Paper...

2009-09-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

I’m finding (which, of course, only means that God is showing me) that living to get to the next “fun” thing is a dire waste of time, and, in truth, a waste of life. I’ve been down the road. I know personally, where it leads. And it’s a terrible place to be, Regrets, Hurt, and, ultimately, Brokenness are the dismal characters that dwell at the end of the path of pleasure and self-satisfaction.

I’m seeing more clearly than ever, thanks to the grace of God, that the only way to find real, true and lasting joy is to realize that He has you where He has you for a reason. Our earthly life is not about working towards the fun, it’s much more about finding satisfaction in the work (most of life really is work), knowing that it’s all God-given--finding our satisfaction, identity, and purpose in Christ.

My prayer is that I will live my life out for Christ and no other, “a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God” which is my spiritual worship.

“Then Job got upand tore his robe.He shaved his head,and then he threw himself down with his face to the ground.He said, 'Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there.The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lordbe blessed!' In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with moral impropriety.^”

Job 1: 20-22

Getting Up on Time

2009-09-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

In her bedroom, at about 6:00 am, MacKenzie Patton’s little white alarm clock fervently tried to get her out of bed. She was the sort of person who, in her own mind, could never get enough sleep--and thus never wanted to get up--especially when she was even more exceedingly comfortable than usual in her warm black loft bed. Such was the case early one frosty fall morning as the crisp gold, brown and red leaves blew in the characteristically dim light just outside the window.

“Oh no,” she thought to herself, as the buzz of the frantic little device got louder. “My crazy alarm is at it again--trying to ruin my life. Well! We’ll just see how that goes, Mr. Annoyance!” she said, as she pulled one of her absurdly numerous pillows over her head. “No, no, no! Every time I put another pillow on top of my head it seems to only get louder,” she declared. “Despite what you may think, you have not won this battle yet, you mad little fellow! How could I possibly answer to myself if I did such a thing as to deprive my poor body of such very necessary sleep--how? I have consulted with my feet, and they have absolutely no wish of getting out from under these covers-- which are so perfectly suited to their desires--and into the harsh, bitter world of frigid floorboards and chilly carpeting… no wish at all. So be still and let me sleep!”

“BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP, BEEP-BEEP,” was the only reply the noisy little nuisance made. “Ugh! Will you not settle down? If I get out of bed now, who can know what horrid fate might await my unfortunate soul? For instance: I might catch a cold, a wild alligator might charge and attack me, or I might even have to suffer being tired for some portion of the day!” (You see, MacKenzie had a dreadful tendency of making excuses for staying in bed on icy fall mornings--and this morning was a fine example.) “Anyway, I think it’s absolutely unnatural for anyone to get up at such an hour. Look outside for yourself! It’s practically the middle of the night. So, of course, I cannot…I should not get up. Who ever would think of getting up in the middle of the night? Ha, no one that I know of--certainly not! It would be complete madness!” MacKenzie had, at that point, talked herself into thinking that no person on the face of the earth was “mad” enough to get up at 6:00, which she had decided was “nighttime”, however her estimation was about to change.

As she proceeded to turn over, attempting to ignore the persistent “BEEP-BEEP” of her alarm, a quite different sound fell on her ears; this one was more of a BROOOOOM BROOM… GLUG GLUG GLUG GLUG… “Help, oh help! Is the whole world is against me now?! First "BEEP-BEEP" and now "GLUG GLUG"! What next?” Suddenly, she sat up in bed and thought for a moment. Where had she heard that "GLUG GLUG" before? “Ah ha! Dad’s going to work. That’s his truck! O.K., I guess if he can do it I can do it.”

She decided that maybe it wasn’t quite as nutty to get out of bed at 6:00 a.m. as she had thought. She climbed down her ladder, walked over to her alarm, turned it off, opened her door and sleepily walked out. So started the day for MacKenzie, one frosty fall morning… as the crisp gold, brown and red leaves blew in the characteristically dim light just outside the window...

Poisonous Rubbish.

2009-09-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

I think the post title says it all.

If the Universe has no Meaning...

2009-09-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

-C. S. Lewis

When Life Gives You Lemons... or When The Michael Family Gives You Crab-Apples...

2009-09-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Greetings Ladies and Gents',

Today, my big adventure was making crab-applesauce. Applesauce is one of my specialties, I love making it! But until this very historic day, I've never made it with crab-apples. I see now, that I was missing out most tragically. Grant and his younger bro. Greg (a.k.a. Greggy(; ) , brought over a bunch of beautiful, freshly-picked crab-apples today. And, at first, I had no clue what in the world we'd ever do with them, ha ha. But, I ended up having a great time, and now I have one more spiffy little skill to add to the list (plus, as you can see, it made Freja pretty happy)!

Thanks so much Guys!

The Prep'

2009-09-02T21:58:00.000-07:00

I was amazed at the beautiful color these things have!

I cut them.

AND... peeled them! Amazing right?

Yummm...

2009-09-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

All chopped up...

Added Stuff... Some of this, Some of That...

2009-09-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

I wish I could take a picture of how this all smelled!

Stick It All in a Nice Big Pot

2009-09-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

A Rockin' RED Applesauce!

2009-09-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well, you do have to cook it first...

(;

2009-09-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks again Michael Fam!

September

2009-09-01T08:17:00.001-07:00

Wow! a New Month, as Mackenzie said yesterday. September, the time when everyone starts waking up real early and begins school again, can't wait, ha ha. I guess I'm due for a new avatar picture soon. Hopefully fall doesn't fly-by like the last 8 months, but doesn't take to long to get over with. Hope you guys and gals are enjoying the last few days of summer ):

Grant

Wow!

2009-08-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow starts a NEW month! Yippee! Ha, it's gone way too fast as always...

Hmmmmm... well, I'm too sleepy to say much, other than that... ha ha(: I'll talk to you all next month!

-MacKenzie

Forgiveness...

2009-08-31T22:40:00.000-07:00

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

-Mark Twain

I have held many things in my hands...

2009-08-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”

-Martin Luther

Thought by Grant

2009-08-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

I like to imagine when I pray. I like to wonder how God will solve the predicaments that I'm in. I know, God knows best, and I'll trust him till the end.

Grant

Another Quite Time With Kenzy…

2009-08-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

A Quite Time With Kenzy…

“You know my heart

You know my soul

You know my comings and goings

You know it all

And I adore You”

-Phil Joel

Theme scripture:

Psalm 139: 1-4

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”

“He sees you down by the water line

Knows what you're thinking all the time

He sees the rising of the waves

When the tide starts rolling in

He lets you know it's gonna be o.k.

God is watching over you

As always

You are loved

Whatever you go through

He's right beside you

God is watching over you

As always

And if you think He'll ever leave you

You better think again”

-Phil Joel

Thought:

He made me--He knows all about me, and every sin (large, as well as “small”) that I’ll ever break His heart by committing. Still, He wants me, He welcomes me, and He loves me.

His steadfast love never ends!

-MacKenzie

How Can I Keep From Singing--By Chris Tomlin...

2009-08-28T07:19:00.000-07:00

There is an endless song Echoes in my soul I hear the music ring And though the storms may come I am holding on To the rock I cling How can I keep from singing Your praise How can I ever say enough How amazing is Your love How can I keep from shouting Your name I know I am loved by the King And it makes my heart want to sing I will lift my eyes In the darkest night For I know my Savior lives And I will walk with You Knowing You'll see me through And sing the songs You give I can sing in the troubled times Sing when I win I can sing when I lose my step And fall down again I can sing 'cause You pick me up Sing 'cause You're there I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord When I call to You in prayer I can sing with my last breath Sing for I know That I'll sing with the angels And the saints around the throne One of my favorite songs...

Just for Giggles...

2009-08-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

I just walked into the kitchen and saw my sweet little two-year-old baby sister, Freja, EATING BUTTER! And even more interestingly, feeding it to my sweet little 10-month-old baby brother, by putting it on her lips and kissing him!

Note to self: keep the butter dish up a bit higher!

Hahahahaha I am laughing so hard(:

The LORD is my portion--By John Newton

2009-08-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

The LORD is my portion
By John Newton

From pole to pole let others roam,
And search in vain for bliss;
My soul is satisfied at home,
The Lord my portion is.

Jesus, who on his glorious throne
Rules heav’n and earth and sea;
Is pleased to claim me for his own,
And give himself to me.

His person fixes all my love,
His blood removes my fear;
And while he pleads for me above,
His arm preserves me here.

His word of promise is my food,
His Spirit is my guide;
Thus daily is my strength renewed
And all my wants supplied.

For him I count as gain each loss,
Disgrace, for him, renown;
Well may I glory in his cross,
While he prepares my crown!

Let worldlings then indulge their boast,
How much they gain or spend!
Their joys must soon give up the ghost,
But mine shall know no end.

Headed For The Wedding!

2009-08-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

First, this is one of my all time very most absolute favorite music videos. Additionally, I love as well as wholeheartedly support the Newsboys!

I’ve always watched this music video and thought, “I want my wedding day to be just like that, a total celebration!”

I still think of that every time I see it! Recently though, I had a new, different thought. It was this--I should view my walk with Christ like an engagement, wanting to spend every spare moment with my betrothed, longing to know Him more deeply. I should look at heaven, like the wedding day portrayed in this video, a purely blissful celebration! And if I did that, wouldn’t it change everything for the better? Anyway, one of the most important reasons our gracious God gave us marriage, is that He knew it would help us to see Him and our relationship with Him more clearly!

As lovers of Christ, we are “headed for the wedding”! What bliss there is in that thought! I’m going to devote myself to seeing my relationship with Christ in this light. I know that every step closer to Jesus is a good step. And the more clearly I see Him, the more clearly I see everything.

Part of a song called “You’re Beautiful”, by Phil Wickham:

I see your face in every sunrise

The colors of the morning are inside your eyes

The world awakens in the light of the day

I look up to the sky and say... You’re Beautiful

I see your pow’r in the moonlit night

Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright

We are amazed in the light of the stars

Its all proclaiming who you are... You’re beautiful

I see you there hanging on a tree

You bled and then you died and then you rose again for me

Now you are setting on your heavenly throne

Soon you will be coming home... You’re Beautiful

When we arrive at eternity’s shore

Where death is just a memory and tears are no more

We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring

Your bride will come together and we’ll sing... You’re Beautiful”

Take a moment to direct your thoughts heavenward. Imagine the entire family of God, His bride, finally perfected… glorifying the Lord together… all the saints, past and present, to more tears, no more pain, no more guilt… old friends reunited, never to part again… awesome.

-MacKenzie

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

2009-08-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

This is pretty much my favorite song ever(: It's been in my head all day...

-MacKenzie

College

2009-08-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

Well I'm getting ready to go back to school soon. I'll be attending Clark Community College in September and I've been busy getting my schedule all set up, along with my moms help of course...common I'm only 16. I'm pretty excited, it'll be a new environment that's for sure. Wish me luck as I work towards my Mechanical Engineering degree.

Thanks for listening,
Grant

My Thoughts On Grant's Post, "Quote That Makes You Think"

2009-08-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Grant's post: "'Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.' -H. Jackson Browne"

My thoughts

Amen Brotha! Hallalujah! Good word, good word!

Ha ha sorry, just had to be funny there for a sec. ...

But for real now. That is SO true. My goodness, I've seen it proved over and over again. I think I would even say that what you do when you don't know whose eyes are watching, is WHO YOU ARE.

Praise be for the redeeming power of Jesus precious blood! Thank the Lord, that we are found without blemish before God, in Christ Jesus our priceless savior!

-Kenzy

We got a Gerbil!

2009-08-10T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

We just got a new Gerbil today and so far its name is Rodie(It may change, who knows). It's a lot of fun to watch. She's down stairs right now rearranging her home, really.

Thanks for listening,
Grant

Quote That Makes You Think

2009-08-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking." -H. Jackson Browne

Grant

If the devil were wise enough...

2009-08-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

"If the devil were wise enough and would stand by in silence and let the Gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm. For when there is no battle for the Gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power. Therefore, nothing better can befall the Gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning."

Martin Luther
Tried for heresy, 1521

Hello Striking

2009-08-08T18:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, I have some seriously beautiful sisters.

Tillamook Oregon/ Cape Lookout

2009-08-08T16:18:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Me and my family went to Tillamook Oregon/ Cape Lookout for the week. We had a excellent time there. The weather was perfect about 80% of the time. The ocean was beautiful, and riding the waves was fun. We made bond fires every night, got in trouble once, hehehe. All in all, I'd give this trip an A+. I can't wait to go again next year.

Thanks for listening,
Grant

The Gospel

2009-08-08T16:17:00.001-07:00

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

-Martin Luther

Martin Luther--on prayer

2009-08-08T16:14:00.002-07:00

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.

-Martin Luther

Rebel With A Cause

2009-08-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

Twitterpated

2009-08-04T05:34:00.000-07:00

A bit ago, I was listening to a pod-cast, a part of Gregg Harris' series "say hello to courtship" ( in which he shares some great insight, I wholeheartedly recommend it). He used the word "twitterpated", and I thought it would be fun to look it up and see what good old google had to say.

Anyway, I came across this really cute video on YouTube--enjoy!

Flower: [about two birds fluttering around] Well! What's the matter with them?

Thumper:Why are they acting that way?

Friend Owl: Why, don't you know? They're twitterpated.

Flower, Bambi, Thumper: Twitterpated?

Friend Owl: “Yes. Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. For example: You're walking along, minding your own business. You're looking neither to the left,nor to the right, when all of a sudden you run smack into a pretty face. Woo-woo! You begin to get weak in the knees. Your head's in a whirl. And then you feel light as a feather, and before you know it, you're walking on air. And then you know what? You're knocked for a loop, and you completely lose your head!”

Thumper: "Gosh, that's awful."

Flower: "Gee whiz."

Bambi: "Terrible!"

Friend Owl: "And that ain't all. It could happen to anyone, so you'd better be careful."

Ha ha ha...

-KeNzY

Rules And Principles

2009-08-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

"For me, the difference between rules and principles is this -- rules tell you what to do and not to do, but principles give the reason and rationale behind the rule -- if you live by the principle, the rule will be a consequence rather than an objective. For example, if the rule is 'don't hit your little brother', we could instead follow the principle 'love your neighbour'. As well as stopping us from physically hurting him, it may lead us to do other positive things for him too. Rules are limiting, but principles are empowering."

-Nathan Bailey

This guy has great insight.

-KeNzY

Osteen Said What?

2009-08-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

This guy is infuriating to the max.

Yours For Spreading The Truth,

KeNzY

On a New Month...

2009-08-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

My Friends,

I said I'd have more to say about the "grand event" of the new month, and here it is...

Three big things I thought a lot about last month (and will continue to think a lot about this month!)

God is bigger than I am.
How important it is to keep my quite times.
How unfaithful I am and how wholly faithful He is.

Three big things I learned last month.

People really like some Gospel tracts/Gospel tracts are not generally offensive.
I don't think I'll ever be patient enough to grow my hair out very long.
I would much rather shovel dirt all day with someone I'm truly close with, then go for a limousine ride with my favorite actor, or the president or some such person.

Three parts of The Word that I had (and still have) on my heart and mind last month

Romans 8
Psalm 16: 2
Revelation 19:6-7

Three big things that happened last month

Two of my sisters turned 14!
My youngest baby bro. got his first teeth in!
I made this blog and determined to keep it going (;

What an awesome month July has been!

My tentative themes for August’s blogging will be how we relate to God as His Bride, His love for us, the marriage of the Lamb, relationships with other believers, love, friendship, etc., etc., etc.,….

Stay tuned!

For His Glory Alone! Maranatha!

KeNzY

Affection

2009-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."

-C.S. Lewis

-KeNzY

A New Month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-01T05:19:00.000-07:00

Yeeeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaah! Hooray! Yippee!

A new month!!! Let me think for a while, and I'll get back to y'all with more to say about this grand event...

-KeNzY (my new signature for this month's blogging)

Me and one of the cutest tiny little baby joys in my life

2009-07-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is Freja, A.K.A. "Baby Freja". She's a perfect two-year-old button, one of the brightest lights in my amazing life and yes, I know I'm a little obsessed...

-kEnZy

Kenzy Says...

2009-07-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

"Coffee is the lifeblood that fuels the dreams of champions"

-Phil

So true, so true(;

A Quiet Time with Kenzy...

2009-07-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

One of my "quiet times" with the Lord...

Theme verse: Psalm 16: 2 “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

Thought: Every beautiful thing, everything I love and hold dear, every truly GOOD thing, is a gift from my merciful Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is a list of A FEW of the things that I love, things that I see and feel God’s goodness, love and presence through, good things. (haha “These are a few of my favorite things…”)

My family: their faces, their voices, their hugs, their laughs, the things they talk and think about, their humor, their hands, their spirits (in other words their “hearts”), playing with them, studying with them, working with them, loving them, being so loved by them, the joy we share in Christ, worshiping God with them, watching younger and older brothers and sisters growing in their walk with Christ and getting to know Him more deeply (what an immense privilege!), their beautiful minds, their courage, their humility, their talent and creativity, their awesomeness, the way that each one of them is so fearfully and wonderfully made, just doing “nothing” with them, reading with them, staying up late with them, the fact that I’m a generally insane person--and not uncommonly a seriously irritating one--yet they put up with me!
Living in a free country! Thank God for America!
The Bible. I’d be lost without it.
And sooooooooooooooooooo many more. I think I’ll make this an on-going list(:

James 1: 17

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

-kEnZy

Totally random funniness...

2009-07-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

I was over at a customer's house with my parents the other day, and he said that he thought people who wear glasses, look "kind of like moles when when you see them with out their glasses on".

Tell me if I'm wrong, but that simile totally got me, hahahaha...

Just for giggles...

-Kenzy

...The Marriage of The Lamb Has Come...

2009-07-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

Revelation 19:6-7

Winging it...

2009-07-26T06:13:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was talking with a friend, we were chatting about some plans he had for the week. My friend said that he didn't know how it was all going to come together, he said he planed to "just wing it". My response was that "winging it" was great practice for life, we both laughed.

My mom was in the room at the time and heard what we where talking about--this what she said: "Yes, winging it is great practice for life--a life of faith.".

-kEnZy

The Darkness Has Not Understood It

2009-07-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

John 1: 5

"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

Interesting...

Has someone ever made fun of you for doing something you know God wants you to do? Have you ever had your motives guessed wrongly? Have you ever been accused of doing something for a wicked reason, when all you’re trying to do, is follow God?

I have. And it’s maddening to the extreme. I’ve wondered to myself countless times, “Why can’t they just get it?”.

I think this verse, John 1: 5, is the answer. We, the people of God, shine with the blinding radiance of the Holy Spirit, in a world of sickening darkness. The world cannot understand us. They will not understand us.

But, we don’t answer to them, we answer to God, our Heavenly Father. He’ll never leave us, and He’ll never give us a task without also giving us the strength to carry it out "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" Romans 8: 32 .

Grace and Peace to you Brothers and Sisters, as you faithfully seek His will,

-kEnZy

Thrive--NewsBoys Song

2009-07-24T05:43:00.000-07:00

(I grew up on this stuff.)

Down here in the valley
Every shadow you see
Has its own story
Down here in the valley
Every puddle of mud
Comes from tears and blood
And it's so hard just to get warm
That the chill turns into despair

Will you lift me up with tender care?
Will you wash me clean in the palm of Your hands?
Will hold me close so I can thrive?
When you touch me, that's when I know I'm alive

Down here in the valley
Nothing's able to grow
'Cause the light's too low
Folks spend their days
Digging 'round for diamonds and gold
Till they just get old
And they don't know anything else
They don't know they're breathing bad air
But I'm tired of living like this
And my soul cries out, "If you're there..."

Will you lift me up with tender care?
Will you wash me clean in the palm of Your hands?
Lord, hold me close so I can thrive
When you touch me, that's when I know I'm alive

Call me up to your side
Draw me up to your light
Let it blind me
Lord, refine me
Refine me out of my mind

Will you lift me up with tender care?
Will you wash me clean in the palm of Your hands?
Lord, hold me close so I can thrive
When you touch me, that's when I know
I know I'm alive

Will you lift me up with tender care?
Will you wash me clean in the palm of Your hands?
Lord, hold me close so I can thrive
When you touch me, that's when I know I'm alive

Lord, lift me up with tender care
Will you wash me clean in the palm of Your hands?
Lord, hold me close so I can thrive
When you touch me, that's when I know
I know I'm alive

Music by Peter Furler / Lyrics by Peter Furler and Steve Taylor
© 2001 Dawn Treader Music (admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) / Soylent Tunes / SESAC

I love this song...

Definition of "thrive" from thew Merriam Webster dictionary

"to grow vigorously"

-kEnZy

A Thought on Love...

2009-07-23T23:12:00.000-07:00

Love could be described as "The excruciatingly beautiful feeling you get when your heart wants so badly to touch another heart, that it tries to leap from your chest in order to reach it.".

-kEnZy

Despair

2009-07-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

"To despair is to turn your back on God."

-Marilla Cuthbert

"The Noble Art"

2009-07-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

'Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world."

-Martin Luther

Wow . . . the "greatest treasure in the world". Interesting . . .

-kEnZy

So Beautiful

2009-07-20T05:55:00.000-07:00

"In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction is was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. Sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard. It was so beautiful he could hardly bear it.”
~ C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

Isn't it funny, when you read something, and you find that it's exactly how you feel, or what you think, but, it's also something you've never been quite able to put into words yourself? That's how I feel about this quote. It describes part of how I feel about God. He's so infinitely beautiful that, at times, I can hardly bear it.

-kEnZy

God Weeps

2009-07-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

"No one in a lifetime has been so spurned, so misunderstood, so much hated without cause as God is every moment of every day by millions of people, each of whom he loves more than we could conceive. No one is touched as deeply by humanity’s anguish as its Creator. No one is as aware of suffering humanity as God is, and no one loves with the intensity that God loves."

I just thought this was a really interesting thing to think on.

Here's were I got it : http://net-burst.net/hot/god.htm.

Tell me what you think.

-kEnZy

The Eyes of The LORD

2009-07-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

2 Chronicles 16:9

"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His."

Whoa. Just picture that! The eyes of THE LORD moving "to and fro" seeking out His beloved children--those whose hearts are completely His--that He may strongly support them. Brothers and sisters, that's us!

-kEnZy

God's glory...

2009-07-17T16:58:00.001-07:00

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.

-C. S. Lewis

I know it makes two Lewis quotes in a row, but this is just awesome.

-kEnZy

Psalm 16: 2

Into The Mystery--Jason Gray

There's Light at the End!

On An Idea Put Forth in C.S. Lewis’ Essay, “The Funeral of a Great Myth”

Hallelujah!

A Weird Thought?

Pic of the Day

A Little C.S. Lewis for the Day

Pic of the Day

Originality

Pic of the Day

Spaghetti, Leggings and Cocoa

Pic of the Day

Today!

Pic of the Day

Two OUTSTANDING words, for your eternal enjoyment!

Pic of the Day

Wow.

Another Quote

Great Day!

Great Quote from Mears', What The Bible is All About

Hello (:

The Past Three Days of My Life (:

Monday:(

Saturday!

Looky here, Looky Here,

Today... (is that original or what?!)

Thinking and Reading

Day at College!

Pic of the Day

Maybe Odd Things Make Me Happy....

Yo (:

Here I am again...

Hey Peoples(:

Mr. Turnbull's word of the week

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged--by Dorothy Sayers

The Greatest Drama Ever Stagedby Dorothy Sayers

My Word of The Day--"Immense"

My Word of The Day--"Bedraggled"

No Fear in Love

Random Thought

No Grave by The Newsboys

Vizzini

Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism by C.S Lewis

Just Thinking on Paper...

Getting Up on Time

Poisonous Rubbish.

If the Universe has no Meaning...

When Life Gives You Lemons... or When The Michael Family Gives You Crab-Apples...

The Prep'

Yummm...

Added Stuff... Some of this, Some of That...

Stick It All in a Nice Big Pot

A Rockin' RED Applesauce!

(;

September

Wow!

Forgiveness...

I have held many things in my hands...

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”

Thought by Grant

Another Quite Time With Kenzy…

How Can I Keep From Singing--By Chris Tomlin...

Just for Giggles...

The LORD is my portion--By John Newton

Headed For The Wedding!

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

College

My Thoughts On Grant's Post, "Quote That Makes You Think"

We got a Gerbil!

Quote That Makes You Think

If the devil were wise enough...

Hello Striking

Tillamook Oregon/ Cape Lookout

The Gospel

Martin Luther--on prayer

Rebel With A Cause

Twitterpated

Rules And Principles

Osteen Said What?

The Greatest Drama Ever Staged
by Dorothy Sayers