still at it

Romans 6:1-4 from memory
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that those of us who were baptized with Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried with Him through baptism and into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead for the glory of God we to may live a new life.

Romans 6: 1-4 Actual NIV
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Almost there.

I have been thinking about baptism lately. When Genesis begins creation is dark and formless. It is what other religions would call Chaos. God is hovering over the waters and calls for light. Our soul is dark we are baptized and then our life has God's light.
It is popular to say that our God is not one of rituals. He judges people for their heart, but when I read the Word, baptism certainly seems more than just an outward announcement.

How important is baptism by water for our salvation?

Romans 6: 1-4

Me trying to type what I've memorized
What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know, that those of us who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized in his death. We were therefor buried through baptism and into his death so that ...

Actual NIV text
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Fail!

To help myself memorize what I am reading I am going to start writing on it.

Wind

John 3:8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

So true.
Where does God want me? What am I here for? What are His plans for me?
"He knows and that's all that matters," I have told myself and others dozens of times.
Sometimes I feel the Spirit throws me into a turbulent storm and other times a calm breeze. I never know where I am going, but that would be like knowing what God's destination for a wind is. It needs to get there. It will get there, and me knowing God's plan for it makes no difference.

I just finished The Shack and am about to start reading Water For Elephants. The Shack was very good. It allowed me to look at creation and its creator from a different perspective. Many criticize it. I can see where they are coming from but I think the point is for people to open their eyes. Water For Elephants is just a fiction not a Christian fiction. I bought it because The Shack was on a "buy one get the second half off" rack and I felt like spending money.

From the Chapter I'm memorizing

I have been in a spiritual slump since oh let's say all of '08. I have been trying to figure out the problem and Romans 6 has answered it. The problem is I'm not dead.
To be given new life by Jesus means you were resurrected with Jesus. To be resurrected with him you must have died with him.
I focus too much on trying to worship God and "being in love with God." That's actually not what we're meant to do. We are meant to live and die and be resurrected with Christ. We are to exist in Him. That is how I fail as a Christian.
I want to have a quiet time with God. I put some time from my day and worship Him. I set parts of my week away for church. That is living an earthly life of a Christian not living in Christ. Oops. Something to work on, I guess.

Hood Rat

Young Goldie

Look at that little brat. You can just tell she was a pain in the butt. She's lucky she's cute.

True Art

Memorization

Question: As far as memorizing the Bible which one should I do?
memorize 50 different verses
memorize 12 chapters
or memorize a book

I was memorizing Bible verses last year and liked it. I guess I stopped because I got lazy. I want to get back to into it. I could try a verse a week or attempt at remembering a whole book. I don't know.

Upward Calling

Matthew 20:29-34 (New International Version)

Two Blind Men Receive Sight

As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"

The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"

Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.

"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

CT "It's you and me Boyd"
MB "The blind guys?"
CT "Yeah"
MB "OK"

P.S "In the midst of this conversation Mr. Boyd and I have decided Pilgrim's Progress sucks," Chris Tomlinson.

sad

Psalm 130

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

I hear you my psalmist brother.

I have been in quite the spiritual slump as of late. I call out to God but get no answer. It all seemed to start January this year and has been a downward slope since.

I am completely fascinated by this current Batman series. 'Batman Begins' was great and the 'Dark Knight' was even greater. The question is: Who will be the next villains for the approximately two movies in the future? I put my fan-boy hat on and did my research. Here are three characters I would love to see.

3-Zsasz

Zsasz is a serial killer who cuts tally marks into his skin after each subsequent murder. He regularly refers to his victims as zombies and he insists that he’s liberating them from pointless existence by slitting their throats. He briefly appeared in Batman Begins as an inmate in Arkham Asylum where he was identified as a hit man for the mob. During the film, his recognizable scars could momentarily be seen during his escape from Arkham. His potential is obviously very high since he has already been imagined and introduced into the film’s universe.

2-The Riddler

The cerebral nature of the character seems to lend itself well to Christopher Nolan's more mature and thoughtful approach, and the character's rich history provides abundant potential. This character can be creepy in so many ways. Of course whatever the director, Nolan, decides to do, would be better than any ideas I have, but I have come up with some. What if his clues made no sense? Maybe he is insane from getting high off of the Scarecrow gas over and over. They alluded to people selling it as a drug. I hope he is even creepier than Joker. So much potential.

1-Black Mask

Black Mask (Roman Sionis) is a deranged mob boss in Gotham city who wears a skull-like mask carved from his mother's ebony coffin. His parents were wealthy, self absorbed elitist. They befriended the Wayne family purely for status reasons. Roman always grew up hating Bruce Wayne. The beauty of this character is Roman hates Bruce while Batman is after the Black Mask. Supposedly, Black Mask has been used a number of times in comics. To the die hard fan he is pretty significant in the Batman canon. Becuase of his dark character, he would make a great addition to the Batman series. Even though I had never heard of the Black Mask before I did some research he is still my number one pick.

Justice and Mercy

Romans: 14-16 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy."

He is a just god. It wouldn’t be right to put a person in jail after someone has paid their bail. I often have heard the expression, “he’s paid his time.” What does that mean? As far as I can figure, it means if a person does a crime and he or she has paid their fair punishment and admitted their wrong then it is only right to consider this individual free of wrong.
That is the same reason it would be unjust for a loving and holy God such as Yahweh to punish us for our sins. The debt is paid. We are sinless. Jesus has paid our bail. He has done OUR time. Even thought it was our time, He paid it.

Luke 1:50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

See, mercy and justice coincide but are not the same. As far as I can explain mercy is when an individual is not given the punishment they deserve. Justice is when only those who are guilty are punished. God was merciful to send His son down to earth to be put on a tree and shoved in a cave. Jesus taught us even though we had ignored Him so many times before. He pitied us even though we deserved our earthly fate. He showed us mercy, because we didn’t deserve it, and in essence that’s what mercy is. Unjust.
But we have accepted his mercy and our now forgiven. We are guilt free. Halleluiah.
Amen? Am I right? Are you guilt free?
You should feel that way. Not because you do not wrong but He’s paid your time. Now that’s justice.

Psalms 11:7For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.

The Fabulous Moolah

This
Week

I, much like our little friend here, am all tuckered out. It has been a busy week. It is the week of

SUMMER SPECTACULAR!
For those of you who do not know,Summer Spectacular is where about 3,000 children spend the whole week (Monday-Friday) at Saddleback Church. And I literally mean 3,000.
That means every day I normally work a night shift I also work that morning as security. Working security means not allowing any adults on campus including parents and staff with out name badges. Let's just say some people were not happy with me. After getting sunburned all morning I get an hour and a half break and work to 11pm. It's awesome. So blessed.
Anyway I have work at six in the morn. It's only a few hours away now, so I better get to bed.

God Bless

Jungle fever!!!!

Tarzan and Jane love to have vacations. Their most recent spot was Thailand. But where ever T&J, go so comes justice.
Let's just say that there are a few dozen whale poaching pirates out of business in Thailand right now. After that was Tea Time!
A nice old lady named Suki may have gave us I mean Tarzan and Jane some of the best tea ever. It's hard to say. They are quite the tea connoisseurs.
They also had some alone time. Tarzan spent his fighting some evil Thai wizards. They thought they could summon evil dinosaurs on Tarzan. Yeah right. Tarzan eats magically conjured Tyrannosauruses for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Meanwhile Jane had some spicy curry. She loves spicy curry.
Boy was Thailand beautiful.

Answers to the Top Ten Questions I have never been asked

#10
A Phoenix.

#9
I would like to be more of the Wise Mentor and less of the Comic Relief. But I have learned sometimes laughing is the wisest thing to do.

#8
That's a hard one to answer. I'm going to have to think a little more on that one.

#7
Also tough but it might be that one time I said, "Well, they're not made outta Sporks!"

#6

When my Mother taught me the smartest guy in the room is not necessarily the happiest.

#5
Being lonely. Wouldn't anyone say that? Oh by the way I can't think of the answer to number 8. Iv'e seen too many funny things.

#4
When Ashley came back from Rwanda, and even though she had been traveling for days she was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

#3
It's a tie between: Sitting on the porch with my dad that one time I was visiting from California and he gave me those bonds. And moments with my small group.

#2
Hard to answer but I always lose things and they will just magically appear. Maybe that's what I'm going through right now. I'm not losing hope even though I'm lost.

and...

#1

Jesus Christ

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Upward Calling

Upward Calling

Matthew 20:29-34 (New International Version)

Two Blind Men Receive Sight

29As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"

31The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"

32Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.

33"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."

34Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

CT "It's you and me Boyd"
MB "The blind guys?"
CT "Yeah"
MB "OK"

P.S "In the midst of this conversation Mr. Boyd and I have decided Pilgrim's Progress sucks," Chris Tomlinson.

Hello Blogverse

I just wanted to be cool and have a blog. Since I really do not know what I am doing with this thing I made two. One will be for fun and the other few of you will ever end up reading.
This will be the fun one so here are some of my ideas: funny stuff, making fun of people in my life, displaying a picture and writing a poem about it or my life as a janitor at Saddleback Church.
I would like to keep a consistent theme on this blog. You should find out by the next post which one I have decided to follow through with.

P.S
The other post is called Wisdom of a Fool