Celebration!

Well, not really. Under normal circumstances I would celebrate breaking the 200 hit mark for my blog, but…

it’s just not so exciting when my friend tells me he refreshed my site 84 times today. Eh.

Baptize me

I really am going to get around to that series on baptism…someday.

Anyway, I wanted to refer you all to that crazy Mexican’s post on baptism. I myself was baptized three times, (once as a child in a Roman Catholic baptism, then again later when I was like, um, 8-12? and then again when I was 14-15). so I figure I have to be in the community by now.

The 8-12 year old baptism was one brought about by my church’s teaching that baptism occurs after “getting saved”. As the semi-pelagian catechism puts it:

Q: What is baptism?
A: Baptism is the act whereby, by the performance of something that seems quite silly in front of everyone, I prove that I really, really mean it.

So yeah, basically a believer’s or credo baptism that follows profession of faith in Christ.

After going through a period of intense doubting and even professing agnosticism/atheism, I eventually returned to my Christian roots and got “really saved.” I don’t really know what was genuine, but the most change and consistent Christian living has occurred after that 14/15 year old conversion. I was then baptized about a month afterwards.

I’ve read some different ideas about baptism these days, and I could see myself moving in a paedo-baptist direction in the future. Even my reading of pivotal passages like Romans 6 has changed. I’m not dogmatic about such things. I typically say, “If you profess faith in Christ, get baptized as soon as possible.” A stricter stance than that will have to come with much thoughtful and prayerful study.

That’s all I have to say for now. Have a blessed weekend, everyone!

False Expectations

Isn’t it amazing how we can fantasize about these alternate situations in our minds and expect them to be realized in our horribly crooked world? How depressing.

(read: emo)

Give me disease but not the germs

 More ThouShaltNot goodness.

Let Your Silence Sing

These leaves aren’t as loud as I’d prefer
This machine doesn’t love me enough
Tomorrow won’t see last year occur
And is the sun too bright?
This wheel is not sufficiently square
Is there nothing else to breathe than air?
This ground is much too hard to tear tonight
You can’t dance to this smell at all
This book just tastes like words
This house of cards will someday fall
And is the sea too wet?
These buzzing bees make too much honey
Why can’t this holocaust be funny?
Your love for me won’t earn you money, I bet

I’ll take the world on my own terms
I want disease but not the germs
I want the moon to cling to me
So let your silence to sing to me
An endless endless symphony
Till all I lost instinctively returns

Your teardrops cannot change the wind
Your hands can’t see the waves
The things I say can I not rescind?
Is every word a vow?
Why won’t this house provide me rain?
Why can’t this deafness hear me complain?
And why wasn’t I told that love is pain till now?
I try to stave off your anger with feathers
And I try to sleep but the days bleed together
With a needle and thread I would hold back the weather
But the tide’s coming in
And my courage was never brave enough
And my hunger never gave enough
And my abandonment never saved enough to start again

So I’ll make the world on my own terms
Give me disease but not the germs
I need your moon to cling to me
So let your silence to sing to me
An endless endless symphony
Till all I lost instinctively returns

The leaves cover up all I’ve become
This machine has long broken down
Tomorrow is gone, today is numb
And the sun’s asleep
Your wheels have carved a street so wide
And you’ve missed the point but still denied
In hopes somehow that all your pride you’d keep

Those Crazy Vegetables

“Well, to make a short story, um, even shorter, the prophet Nathan (Pa Grape) tells King George a story (with the aid of a beautiful flannel graph) about the rich man and the poor man with the sheep . . . you know. Anyway, King George decides to make things right. Thomas comes home from the pie wars (without his mind) and King George gives him a hot bath and his own rubber ducky. Thomas gets his mind back and his ducky back, and King George promises never to be selfish again. (Too bad things didn’t work out so well for Uriah the Hittite and David in the Bible.) Is this the way you want your children to learn the Bible?


I found the above funny, and the following sad:

“High school youth groups are run more like secular encounter groups rather than a place where the rigorous study of God’s Word takes place with its real-world application.7 Although not written specifically about VeggieTales, the following comments are appropriate: “It is tragic that churches have trivialized God by creating a user-friendly deity who lacks mystery and transcendence.”
All from this great article by Gary DeMar.

Welcome Frank to the blogsphere!

Everyone please join me in welcoming my good friend Frank to the blogsphere. He is a musical genius, and if I were you I’d find some way of getting his autograph before he hits the big time. Yeah.

Update on my mom

My mom was able to leave the hospital last night. They think the pain is muscular (not sure if I’m convinced). I mean, do you give morphine to people with muscular aches? Eh, whatever. Thank you all for your prayers, and may God bless you for them.

The delayed mini-mEmE

Byron of the fantastic Nothing New Under the Sun has tagged me, so here I go. While reading this, please pretend I am cultured.

1. A Piece of Art that you Love

I’m particularly fond of the Christ Eleemon Mosaic because I was first introduced to it while reading N.T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, a book which, according Ben Myers’s book meme, changed many people ideas about Jesus and history.

I also luckily was able to find a sweater with this exact mosaic on it. Under the picture it reads, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Gorgeous, eh?

2. A Line in a Song or Line of Poetry that Reaches Your Core

I listen to a ton of music, but unfortunately don’t know much poetry, so here’s a bit I like:

You were born into the world a situational Pariah
Spoke in tongues, misunderstood like some unrecognized Messiah
At the bottom of the sea, I was bathed in your forgiveness
Now the world has split in three, leaving me your only witness
Is there proof you ever lived? Is there something more transcendent?
Will these moments die with me? Are they no so independent?
Could a child in five hundred years be given recollection
Of your smile, of your eyes through divinest intervention?

From ThouShaltNot’s The White Beyond

3. An Experience in Nature that was Really Special and/or Spiritual

I love the ocean, so anytime I get to be on a sea glistening with intense sunglight, I’m happy.

4. The Movie that Changed the Way you saw the World.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve encountered a film that’s done this to me.

5. A Piece of Music That Makes You Cry

I was rehearsing O Sacred Head Now Wounded with my high school choir. This wonderful work has been repeated endlessly in my head after practicing it so much. Well, on our last rehearsal I felt very emotional. So yeah, no crying. But emotion is good, right?

I tag people whom I hope are more cultured than I: JMac, Mike the Mexican, Kyle the Potter, Matt Lemieux, Will Gray, and Krystal, if she ever starts blogging (yes, that’s a hint!).

My mom

Last night my mom had to go into the hospital. She’s been having some serious pain for the past few days. Say a prayer for her if you can remember; I’d greatly appreciate it.

UNC and some other things

I’ll be visiting the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a few days. Hopefully by the time I get there I will have started on my application essays. Gah.

Lately I haven’t been feeling like going away for college. I’ve become extremely infatuated with high school and I just wish senior year would last longer.

I’ve also been very, well, nervous, I guess, lately. Jumpy, hyper, excited, thinking, restless. Whatever you want to call it. So if you see me pretending I’m playing DDR in the lunch line, don’t worry – I haven’t completely lost it.