Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I love my sisters

well I had a fun weekend. My sisters desided to take a road trip to come and see me. they are starting school today and they wanted to do some school shopping. Mom let them come to bismarck and spend the week end with me.

I was excited because it woudl be a chance for me to spend some time with my sisters who are now in 12 grade. but I was worried because i am not someone who likes to go out on the town and my sisters are. I did not want them to end up going all over the poace and leaving me behind, however they were content to do what ever even if that ment renting videos and watching them in my apartment.

we spent the first day shoping. I took them to a very nice second hand store where they both made off like bandets. we walked the mall and did some shopping up north of town. one of the kids from my youth group desided to Join up with us at the mall and stay for dinner. He was surprised when we got back to my apratment that all three of us Girls took the tiem to un pack everythign we had bought, sourt, remove the tages, and foild the cloths that we had bought. after all you must remind yourself what all you bought, foild neatly so they don't get wrinkeled, and condence into one back because even though you got them all at different stores you really only need one shopping bag. (and you must never do this at the mall because wail at the mall you must have something that shows how many stores you have been to.)

for dinner that night we made mom's fabules chicken fried stake. and we did it almost flawlessly. there was not a lot of drippings left over from the stake so the gravy was not so good. oh and for those who have lived with me in the past the most amazing thing happend. I cooked and the fire alarms did not go off.

the next day we worked on our song for sunday. some ladies at the church asked me if the three of us would sing, so we agreed, we sang Ginni Owen's If you want me to. we went out to dinner at Jonny corino's which is the best italian resteront in bismarck. and to top it off we went to a movie. No reservations. it was a fun film and I highly recomend it...though wait for it to come out of video it was definetly not a must see at the theater.

the last thing i must add is that i have sucsessily addicted my mother and sisters to Gilmore girls. in fact my mother had me buy the first season for her because i had her watch an episode form the second season when she had visited a month ago. and my sister megan... everytime we got back to the apartment she turned on the telli and it on. they almost watched half of the second season on saturday.

I can not wait till they deside to come back!

Monday, August 20, 2007

a day of morning


Today i have learned that the weekly world news is going to end on Agust 27. although i never could convince my self to buy one of these out ragious news papers i have enjoyed several laughs at the bezzar headlines that grace the Magazine rack amoung the headlines about who really killed that little girl so many years ago, how many children Brad and Angelina have, and who's in rehab, whos cheating on who and with who.

It was a place where the line between reality, fantisy, and the spiritual could live side by side. to think that these headlines would be gone is very sad for me.

the headline I will always remember was the one about the two lovers from the titanic that had been found floating in life preserver. it was a neat picture after all.

I also will always remember the song some speach and debate friends wrote in honnor of the world's only reliable news paper. "it's in the weekly world news So you know that it must be true, it's in the weekly world news!"

sadly we must prepare to bit our finel fairwells to bat boy, big foot, the world's biggest cat, Alein invaders, the aligator that lives in the underbelly of the big apple, and the lockness monster. for without the weekly world news thier voices will be silenteds.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

thoughts from Zola Levitt

Zola Levitt was the greatest Messianic Jewish teacher of our time. he was raised a jew and then because a Christain. His ministry was dedicated to showing jews that Jesus was their long awaited messiah and helping gentile Christians understand the Old testiment and thus better understand the New Testiment.

I was watching an over veiw of his ministry, it was a celibrationof his life. He died a year ago. And one of the things he said in one of the clips on this video was, "when God chooses a people, Saten chooses a people." he said this in reference to the political and phisical turmoil that has gone one in isreal sinse it because a nation.

Now I have been taking my youth group threw a serise called facts that provide a basis for faith. this series was not to make an argument for christianity but rather to strangthen the faith that each of them already have.

this week I wanted to talk to them about Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Scrolls also known as the Gnostic scriptures. and when I Heard Zola say this about God and saten both choosing a people. my thoughts turned to these to librearies. Both have had a huge impact on the western world, mostly on the religious commuinty. the Dead Sea Scrolls have shined a spotlight on the Old testiment and "have ushered in a new era of Biblical study" as Josh McDowell said.

at the same time the Gnostic libreary has cast a shadow on what the New testoment says about Jesus, his followers, and the early church.

these two librearys are the most talked about finds of modern Archeoloagy. each dealing with the bible, and each going in a different direction.

with Zola's statment i thought "uh...maybe the find at Nag hammadi was some what orcistrated so that Saten would add valitity to the causes that have been bringing the question of the Historical Jesus."

I know that i may be sounding quite the mistic at the moment. but could it not be that when God revelied a set of scriptures to reafirm the truth of his word, Saten did the same?

Monday, August 13, 2007

follow up

Yesterday in sunday school the gentalman who leads the youth groupon sundays gave a leson from Acts 8 and 9. wail talking about the Etheopian andPhillup He mentioned that he belived that because God had Phillup taken away after the ethiopian was baptised there is no need for follow up, ever. so long as they have a bible then your job is done when they are converted.

I wiped my head around so I could see him and thought What? I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it because i did not think that it was the right time to discuse wheither or not that was true all the time. mostly because the last time i happened to say that i disogreed with him we ended up haveing a 15 minuet debate about why one of us was right and one was wrong, and i did not think that was opropreate at the moment.

I don't know how i paied attention to anything else after that because my mind thought about a diagram i had seen either in my youth group or in Mike McNeal's class. It shows that you could just do the evangelism thing and not worry aobut anything after that, you may win people but they may never get very deep or lead any one else to christ. the other option is to pour into three people about christ and in desipleship so they go out and do the same for three more people each, and then the ones they have desipled go out and do the same thing.

Peter said that some of the things paul said were hard to understand. and one proffessor said that reading the historical books "may lead to Culture shock."

to have someone who came to christ in an emotional situation and then leave them with a bible, is not very kind. I am not saying that the bible can only be understood by theologens in thier ivory towers. rather that it is irresponcible to not atleast help a brand new convert find a church where they can be nurtured by people who are more mature in thier faith.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

reading intervention

I think i am gettign very close to that place where to much is too much. I reolised that I am curently reading on an almost daily basis six books and on an about weeky basis two others. all these books are iether for pleasure or devotional purposes.

I read every young women's battle for my just woke up devotional to kinda help wake my mind up, and then at breakfest i move on to Utmost for his highest which depeneding on how much breakfest I still have i follow this up by Pulpit crimes... which is an interesting book he makes some good points but mostly he attacts the post modern church and the seeker sensitive movement... then in the after noons when i have time I crack open the illiad.. yep i am still on my first read through of this book....and in the evenings I try to read a little of Writers on Writing as kind of a writing devotional before i start writing for the evening. then lately when i get into bed before i do my daily bible reading i have been reaching for my copy of daughter of the forest...almost barrowed wolf skin from the liberary to replace it with...

then i have been reading the freedom writer's diaries for a form of resurch, and also i have been sneeking into barnes and noble to read harry potter because i have no desier to own the book and i did not put my name on the book list at the liberary like i did the last two times the books came out.

then today I made my weekly trek to the liberary for some gilato and the writing workshop i have been attempting to create. and guess what... well i guess you don't have to guess because i am going to tell you any way. the liberary is celibrating star wars thirty years of being in existence. so all three of their front display tables were covered with star wars books. there were books that i hadn't known about but now that i have seen them i know i must read them. the han solo triligy, the clone war novel, the Rogue planet, then this mini sereis that seems to focus on Ben kenobie (pretty sure i spell that wrong) that looks interesting.

but the book that made it into my hand was one of three collections of short stories: stories from the Mos eisly cantina, which gives a short story for all the strange and bizzar people we saw in Star wars 4 a new hope when ben and luke go into the cantina to find Han. the next one was called tales of the bounty hunters which gives a story for the bounty hunters we see in the Empire strikes back, and then the third one is Stories from Jabba's palace which gives theback stories for the different carectors we see there in the return of the jedi.

I read the first story inthe liberary and then read the second one as i walked back to my apartment.

will someone stage an inter vention please, i am now reading 8 books six of which are not on my reading list for this month.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

VBS

the wonderfulest part of the sumer in church buisness. VBS. our theme is Indiana Jones. and i have been having so much fun because I am incharge of the story telling which means i am Dekota Joe. I love VBS and i love being one of the leaders now that i am too old to be one of the kids.

the sad thing is more and more churches are not having VBS anymore. many times it is because they can not get enough helpers. and i think that is sad because VBS was one place where I learned alot about God and Jesus. not to menchion i can still sing many of the songs i sang wail at VBS.

and i guess i can not imagen why anyone would not want to be involved in this ministry. it's fun I have been volinteering at VBS sence i was in Jr. High. but then that is just me.