Happy New Year!

It's a rare time, the new year, when usually stubborn people are willing to self examine. It's called, "New Year's Resolutions"; the most common of these resolutions being a diet--one that I'm partial to. However, one great resolution would be to start taking faith in Jesus Christ more seriously. It's a time when people might be a little more open to conversation and the gospel. It's an opportunity to start making a difference for God.

This last year has been full of ups and downs. Honestly, I'm positive that this year won't be any easier, but maybe I've been letting my attitude down and allowing things, people, and circumstances a little too much power in my life. The new year is like a second chance, a new beginning. Not really a change, just a number and a fresh set of months, but people's minds make it feel like a change. We hold it up in celebration and then carry out these strange promises to ourselves and others that we're going to break habits that have followed us for months and years. Unfortunately, the failure rate brings discouragement and many don't realize that it takes a continual attempt after attempt to truly accomplish what they've set out to do.

Well, don't lose heart. Look to Jesus Christ, our strength. I really mean this. Read your Bible like you mean it, pray with your attention to Him, and live out what He's teaching you. The New Year's resolution is inherently weak. It's not done because Jesus has changed you, but out of ritual. I do believe, however, that it can be a starting point, a groundwork that opens us up for true inspiration to change.

It's Christmas Time Again!

Well, for the time being, MySpace is down--I can't logon and therefore cannot edit it--so I'm putting this video here. My buddy Darren sent me this. Christmas lights on steroids. Turn up your sound and enjoy!


FreeVideoCoding.com
Click here to open this video externally.
P.S. Sometimes this video may not work. This is because Yahoo! has limited my bandwidth, which is the drawback to free webhosting. It takes an hour before it's back up and running again.

A Writer--Not A Finisher...Apparently

So, as a writer, I'm quite tormented. It seems that free time is a scarce thing--and when I do finally come by it, I use it for other things, like posting on my blog apparently. I'm actually posting because I saw my mom's comment and realized that it's been exactly one month since my last post--my last, incredibly weak, post.

Yet again, I've decided to rewrite my book Nefroidak. It is now 16,315 words, which comes out to 61 pages of incredibly unsatisfactory storyline. I admit to being my own worst critic and I'll also admit to rewriting this story ten or twenty times (lost count), but each time I take a crack at it, I learn more about writing, I learn more about character development, and I become unimpressed with the garbage I've written down. Luckily for Maggie, I didn't make her read this latest version. She gets annoyed, understandably, when she reads part of a story, without an ending, and then I never even get to the ending and, in fact, change the whole thing around.

Pastor Al has told me numerous times that J. R. Tolkien spent an exorbitant amount of time on his works, but C. S. Lewis told him to quit making adjustments and just send it in for publishing, but it doesn't really apply to me, because I have never actuallly written the entire story out. As sad as it sounds, I have never even written a complete outline. That's what I'm working on tonight, hopefully. I know the end, but I still haven't decided on a beginning.

I have written a somewhat lengthy introduction that puts forth the premise. I've pasted it below. Let me know what you think and please pray that this story eventually gets written.

What happens when man finds himself being looked upon as a god? He forgets that he once had a God and his mind becomes clouded with the illusion that perhaps his line is responsible for the placement of peoples throughout the universe. The Spanish were seen as gods by the natives of the Americas. Men of this new era have now encountered new worlds filled with vastly different species who remember their creators as being surprisingly human. Man thus is justified by those who went before him believing himself to be of greater stature and importance because he himself is godlike, confirmed by the paintings on the walls of the ancient civilizations littering the galaxies.
Unfortunately, this is the way of man. His imperfection leads him to believe in his perfection. His clouded thinking allows him to ignore his flawed conclusions. This creates the perpetuating error of self exaltation. The beginning came and men fell. They populated the earth and expanded their knowledge beyond the planets of this solar system becoming increasingly filled with evil desires. God snuffed out the growing empire of man on earth with a deluge. It was the end of the great travelers and the beginning of a new line governed by law and then given grace. The men who traveled far off chose to forget earth and their beginnings. Science and knowledge, war and conquest dominated their priorities now.
The changes started with arms races, then moved on to genetic alterations, increasing the quickness of the reflexes, the focus of the eye to see farther, the strengthening of the muscles to wield more power on the battlefield, and the lengthening of life spans in an attempt to cheat death. It soon led down the path to new species, half man, half animal.
Appearances drastically changed, physical structure underwent vast adjustments, and segregation, misplacement, and war resulted, creating new civilizations of people. The fast paced war moved on, amnesia prone, leaving behind species of men on abandoned planets. In this manner, original humans were not forgotten, but remembered and revered as gods; esteemed as creators.
Upon the exploration conducted by modern men, the civilizations welcomed them warmly, and worshiped them as creators. This power gave men the impression that they were superior. They considered all others beneath them. Division between races continued.
The love for self drove away the memory of God. Wars were waged against Christianity and man chose to turn from their only hope. It was not by the will of God that this happened, but by the will of man, for God so loved men that he gave them over to free will. Men allude to His existence in speech and in actions in this time, but seldom give it much thought. Amnesia and self-indulgence fed the desire to remain ignorant. Men cooperated with their sinful freedom, despite the evidence written on their hearts. Because of this, they were allowed to wander from God completely. Their hearts were hard and unmoving. Hope, it seemed, was lost. The gates of heaven grew quiet, in wait for a great change in the hearts of men.

The Terrible Flood!

Maggie found this online. It's really funny. Click Play.







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The Blessed X

The Blessed X was recently updated. Check it out.

"About My Day" Post

Tonight was a fun night. Maggs and I went to my parents house and had German Beer Roast and Spezla. It is my favorite meal. Maggie and I always have a great time having dinner with my family, because we laugh so much. The laughter alone is enough to keep me from ever moving away.

I had a chance to hang out with my little sister Cyndi tonight and she helped me make my myspace a little cooler. We listened to some cool music that she's discovered and ultimately added a cool music video to myspace. I found out that Cyndi is one of the most entertaining people ever to watch while she's online. She does about fifty things at once and never allows you to be bored.

Now I'm home and just about to go to bed. I haven't just posted a simple "about my day" post in sometime, so I figured I would now. It's a short post, but it'll do the job. I'm off to bed now.

Bible

My Bible fell apart yesterday at church. The first two hundred or so pages fell out in Sunday School. I felt a deep sorrow. I've had it since Maggie gave it to me as a present about four years ago. She had my name engraved in it. It was the first New International Version I'd ever owned and I loved it. I was able to read it and understand it very easily compared to my King James. I loved my King James, but I loved the NIV even more. It was great to read and I'm a little ashamed to say, I looked forward to reading it because it was much easier to understand than the KJV. There's no fault with KJV, in fact, I understand it very well now, but at the time I receieved my NIV I had a difficult time with it.

I'm currently looking to buy This One right now. It's the coolest Bible I saw on Zondervan. It has notes upon notes. Anyway, Scott just arrived for apologetics, so I'm going to wrap this up and hang out with him.

Apologetics