The World of Biggs

My Blog has moved!

2005-10-07T23:57:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have moved my blog to my website!

If you have a link to this blog or something of that nature I would appreciate it if you updated it. My new blog is at http://www.briancbiggs.com/blog/.

However, I would also appreciate it if you linked to my site instead at http://www.briancbiggs.com/, which encompasses my blog.

-Brian Biggs

OU v Texas

2005-10-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

I don't like to poll this way, normally I would just make an actuall poll... but I didn't have time... So comment and tell me who you think is going to win and why!

P.S. I might make an actual poll later...

P.P.S.? Thanks Mee, I am now using www.bluehost.com and this weekend I'll start using wordpress!

I'm Certain

2005-10-06T11:35:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty certain now that I'm going to change over to wordpress this weekend and move my blog to http://www.BrianCBiggs.com/. And I want to continue to add to the site, but what should I add? I know I will start putting some appologetics things on there, but what do people want to read or hear or see?

And what should I write about in my blog? Don't misunderstand, I have alot to write about, but what would people be interested in reading about?

Moving soon

2005-10-05T06:46:00.000-05:00

Eventually I'm going to move my blog to http://www.briancbiggs.com/. I don't know when... I have wordpress set up, but I haven't had time to change the template... I really just want it to match the rest of my site, once I figure out how to do that I'll move.

Once I move over the other site perhaps I'll begin writing better. I really wish that people would comment when they read this.

I don't know what to write about... I look around and I see a crazy world, only getting crazier. The more I pay attention to the news the more I am convinced that we are in the last days or at the very least the last days of the United States. The US is following the historic path to destruction. Now, I am not telling people to give up and I don't think the US is beyond saving, but I think it must be a severely drastic change.

I could go into all the details, but I don't feel like writing several pages at 6 in the morning. And if I were to write it most people would not read it; people don't seem to like long posts.

Added Later: While I will most likely be switching to wordpress, I have discovered an easy way to add the ability to comment on my site. This is one of the major problems I had while writing my own blogging system: managing comments. So, I will still most likely switch to wordpress, but I will continue to experiment with my own system...

Secluded Thoughts

2005-10-04T07:23:00.000-05:00

Isolation. This seems to be encouraged by the world. We build devices to help us communicate, but in reality I would say they isolate us further. I think I am beginning to dislike TV more and more; not entirely there are things I like about it, but it is a very distracting thing. And by that I do not mean that it distracts me from school work, I mean it distracts from life. When I watch an exciting movie with adventure in it, I want to go out and have an adventure. But I have never figured out how to do that, so if any of you know how to go out and have an adventure let me know. I have learned that an adventure is not merely chosen, but it happens and more often than not you are chosen instead of you being the chooser. But movies evoke a longing for adventure and I think that when we cannot find it we become depressed or look to another movie to find the sense of adventure.

Technology is not evil in and of itself, but it separates people while telling them they are closer together. Communication is not fully expressed in spoken or written language; that is not to say I am against written communication, quite the opposite. To communicate to the fullest degree, it must be done face to face. Communication is then and only then channeled through all of our senses. We have many unspoken forms of communication and technology cannot ever fully convey these.

As I am locked into a routine that has little allowance for leisure I have withdrawn to using technology as my main form of communication with my friends. While I will continue to do this, much is lost in the messages. There are some who would enjoy this isolation, the ability to talk to someone without looking them in the eye; but I miss it dearly. Do not misunderstand, I come into contact with people and talk with people throughout the day; however, the talk usually consists of small talk, work or news. It feels as though the lonely boxes that are my bedroom and cubicle are slowly tightening around me. If I did not have Christ I don’t know where I would be. I would like to make it clear that I am not depressed, simply lonely. Why am I writing about all of this? I don’t know.

THIS WORLD IS INSANE!!!

2005-10-02T23:02:00.000-05:00

Let me start off by saying that I had a pretty good weekend.

I went to my high school's football game on friday and we lost, but that's nothing unusual. Here's what happened... I went in (oh and aparrently it costs me five dollars now) and sat next to the band. Well at half time it started to rain and fans and both the Memorial (my school) Band and the Broken Arrow Band left. Well it just so happened that the rain only lasted about ten minutes and that week was the promotional week where some middle school bands came and played along with the high school ones. So, some of the middle schoolers were there... a couple had trumpets... I borrowed one and I was the band in the second half of the game. Now, if you have never stood by yourself and played your school's fight song in a football stadium... well, you're normal; but you should try it! It was so awesome to stand there and have people clapping to the clear, resounding sound coming from the trumpet I was playing. Alright... it wasn't clear and resounding EVERY time... but there was atleast one time it was... I haven't really played in about a year or so.

Anyway, moving on to why the WORLD IS INSANE! If you haven't heard about the explosion at OU, well now you have. Someone blew themselves up; why they did this and if it was intentional is up for debate right now, the details of the situation seem to be sketchy.

Also, AOL news (which of coarse is reliable and accurate. lol) took a poll that said 21% of people attribute the hurricanes to God and 67% attribute it to things such as Global Warming (and yes, 21 + 67 = 90). Well to that I say we should stop Global Whining! What's wrong with people? Why do people beleive in Global Warming? The same reason the believe in Evolution! Ahhhh!!!

If that wasn't bad enough... AOL had a section in the polling page where you can "discuss" the poll. The topics included things like "Only Idiots believe in God!" Well, this Idiot has quite a bit to say about that! I will say this and I will not take it back: Claiming to be an Atheist is intillectual suicide! Yes, the Bible is very correct when it says "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' (Psalm 14:1) If you would like to debate this, email me, call me, contact me somehow!

I am sick of forums! For about a week or so I have been on Tulsa Now's forum. I am sick of this kind of communication! I want to talk to people face to face! This world is encouraging isolation in the guise of communication! Now, I am not against reading and writing, far from it! I am against reading and writing REPLACING face to face communication. But that is how I talk to many of you, because it is much cheaper than by phone or driving. And I feel VERY isolated.

TCC (Tulsa Community College) seems to promote PC (Political Correctness) any chance it gets and I am sick of it! PC means always having to say you're sorry! "Tolerance is the virtue of a man with no convictions." - GK Chesterton. I wil continue to say FIREMAN, yes FIREMAN. You will NEVER hear me say FIREPERSON! (unless in disgust). I am sick of having to write "He or She" and "Him or her" every time! I don't mind writing it every now and then, but what they want is RIDICULOUS! No language does that! Spanish assumes something to be masculine unless otherwise specified! Why can't English do that, it used to! I hate feminism! I don't hate women, quite the opposite! But I cannot abide the feminists' rhetoric! There are posters around TCC for a feminists club where they go and promote things like abortion! I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP! IT WAS ON THE POSTER!

If you look around you'll see the world going nuts! Only 7% of my generation believes there is such as thing as absolute truth according to a George Barna poll! That's scary! There are many things I have seen recently that has scared me, and I am not talking about my posts about China.

However, I am not discouraged! All this means is that we have a big job. Sure, the job is bigger than we can handle, but I know someone who can handle it! John Kelsey. Joking, it's God. That's not to say john Kelsey doesn't do some amazing things, but he needs God as much as anyone else. There are many reasons to be encouraged! I have been encouraged these past few months while seeing God working in Tulsa. It's absolutely AMAZING, the things that are being set in motion here!

Here are some reasons to be encouraged:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for everything under heaven-" Yes, this is sorta like Destiny + Free Will. Our Free Will cannot change God's plan, but it remains Free Will. Ecclesiastes 3:14 "I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him." Many seem to see Ecclesiastes as a discouraging book; but I see it as a very encouraging book. But it is also one that must be carefully tread and not taken out of context.

Habakkuk 1:5 "Look among the nations! Observe! Be atonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days- You would not believe even if you were told."

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." (This one is NIV because I memorized it that way... Most of the time I use NAS, but if I memorized it in the KJV or NIV then I will most likely stick with that when quoting it. Max Barnett once told me to learn a verse in one version only, because if you try to memorize it in more than one version you'll most likely find you no longer know it.)

There are many other verses that I could list, but this post is already longer than most people will want to read and I think you get the idea: God is in control. And if that isn't encouraging I don't know what is!

"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil." --J.R.R. Tolkein

Secrets of the Universe

2005-09-30T11:30:00.000-05:00

At the request of Justin Thomas, I am writing about the SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE! And I might start doing this every friday.. depends on who reads this...

This is not a secret, but a little know fact: "Secrets of the Universe" and "Bottle of Water" sound almost the same in Turkish... So, next time your in a restaurant in Turkey and you are thirsty, make sure you overpronounce "Bottle of Water" in your best Oklahoma-accented Turkish, otherwise the waiter will... uh... laugh at you.

Todays secrets are:

1. Did you know that you can set up a crosswalk anywhere? Okay, you can't add the "walk" light, but that's irrelevant anyway. You can install the button for a crosswalk anywhere with ease. This is becuase no wiring is required. When you press the button at a crosswalk, the only result is that you feel good. And if you get impatient you always have the luxury of pressing it several hundred times.

2.The United States owns the moon. Sure, the United States and pretty much everyone on the planet will say that isn't true... And sure there's nothing on the moon... But think about it; What did explorers do when they came to the New World? They claimed it... sure there were already people here and sure the Pope had already divided up the land... but they claimed it. What did people do when they climbed a mountain that as far as anyone knew had been previously unclimbed? They stuck a flag there and claimed it... ok, they didn't always claim it... What did people do here in Oklahoma when there was the land run? The first person there staked the land off and they claimed it. There's an American Flag on the moon... hence the US owns the moon.

3. The winning oreo was eaten, despite the commercials warning people not to eat the million dollar orea. It tasted good.

4. This is how you can make your own Wormhole! This will be very usefull for all of you who want to become time travelers! This is a trick time travelers have been using for centuries... actually, there's no longer a way to tell. First, you'll need to gather some supplies:

2 Neutron stars
1 kg of Exotic Matter
2 Space ships
2 Time dialation devices
1 Existing wormhole
1 Toaster

You use the space ships to travel to the the stars and you use the wormhole to communicate between the ships. Now, the time dialation devices exist so that you won't be stuck in the dialation that will be cause when you collapse the stars. However, since this device doesn't exist you can do without it if you can't find one.

The toaster is so that you can toast waffles. The exotic matter will be thrown in after you collapse the stars into black holes so that it will keep them stable. You probably can't find this either, but that's okay because you're about to die anyway. Since there isn't a known way to collapse the stars, and no way to ensure that two black holes would connect, that wouldn't work.

So, while you both lingered too close the the stars, the gavitational fields were passed through the wormhole and you're wormhole started sucking in the stars' matter. If the wormhole is on your ship this means you are dead. If your wormhole is outside your ship it means you are about to die! Because, the stars will lose their mass, you're changing ratios withing the star and it will go supernova and kill you all.

On the brightside their'll be a wormhole there... it just happens to be the one you brought earlier. If you couldn't find one, well the brightside is that you're alive... unless you died trying to find one.

An alternative solution is to place all of the materials in a large bowl, mix for 1 minute. Then add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, mixing inbetween. Then pour it in a 13' greased pan and bake it at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Then let it cool for 15 minutes.

5. Men like dogs; Women like cats, No exceptions. Dogs are always boys; Cats are always girls, even when they aren't. Where did I come up with that? If you had read the title you would know that it is a secret! So, assuming this to be an indisputable fact, here is the secret:

What women like in cats, they hate in men. Conversly, what men like in dogs, they also like in women. Proving that women are the confusing ones.

A woman will talk about how independant her cat is and how it stays out for days at a time before coming home and how it comes and goes as it pleases. This is spoken of in a positive way. Now... think about what would happen if you replace the word "cat" with the word "man" in the above sentence? You see, It's confusing.

A man likes how a dog will come when it's called, how a dog knows who is boss. I don't think I'll continue this paragraph...

In short, women should forget number 5. If anyone has questions about anything in the universe (that's everything) you should send them to me... it would make this segment MUCH funnier! Adios, and remember to tune in next week; same Bat-time, same Bat-Channel, as I talk about water... oops!

Correction?

2005-09-28T07:12:00.000-05:00

I have been informed that RCA makes televisions in the US... However, I have not been able to confirm this yet. I have also discovered that Toshiba and Panasonic assemble their televisions here in the states... However, they are Japanese companies, so that isn't a clear win.

Any comments or additional info about the United States dilema would be appreciated.

The geopolitical scene

2005-09-27T07:45:00.000-05:00

Before I start talking politics... if you want something amusing (it helps if you are from OU) go to www.Briancbiggs.com and go to the "Look-alikes" section.

I'm sure everyone has seen the promo's for the new show Commander in Chief starring Gina Davis on ABC. Well, I think they should just come out and say what they mean and rename it Elect Hillary. Now that I've said that, I won't waste any more time on it.

The US is in trouble... it has been for a long time. We definitely don't have favorable trade and we are nowhere near self sufficent as a nation. None of this is anything new, but it remains a problem; a growing problem. We haven't built a TV inside the US in ten years, the majority of our plywood comes from overseas... the one thing we had going for us since the sixties, information technology, we've given up and now Japan is the leader. What do we have left? The answer is not much.

The above is just a glance at the problem that we have had... I have not even mentioned the moral decline. Historically most empires / world powers / nations last about 200 years. I think the US is in its last stages as a world power and possibly as a country. Are we going to be conquered militarily? No; we could take on the whole world and win! No, the US will defeat the US, then it will be conquered.

The President plans to rebuild New Orleans and provide relief from the hurricanes... where is he going to get the money? He will not raise taxes to get it- he'll borrow it. And where from? China. We already continue to buy goods from China with money borrowed from China... who do you think will win with this strategy in the long run? China is becoming a formidable superpower. Yes, most of the people are poor, but the nation is becoming the most wealthy in the world. Once China has control of the economic market it will devestate us. The Venezualan government hates us, and we buy the majority of our heavy crude from them. What happens if they start selling to China instead? Do you know what heavy crude is turned into? Desiel. And what do we use Desiel for? Shipping goods via truck; goods such as food, furniture, gasoline, natural gas, dirt, garbage, everything.

This can be turned around, but it will take a miracle; and thankfully I know someone who can help with that. But just in case something doesn't work out you might wan to learn Chinese, French, German and Russian. That's in addition to the Spanish you are learning while preparing for Mexico's completion of it's invasion due to our salutary neglect.

Web Page as promised

2005-09-27T07:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, for those of you who are at OU: remeber when I said I wanted to make a wep page of people who look like other people? I finally started it, it's at Http://www.briancbiggs.com/ go to the "look-alikes" section. Is there supposed to be a dash or should it be "lookalikes?" Oh well; let me know what you think. Soon I'll add Justin Thomas to the page and I'll just keep adding to it.

Advertisers

2005-09-25T23:57:00.000-05:00

Apparently some people have decided my blog is just space for free advertising. Well, since these people like free advertising, I will assume they like other free things as well; such as free ipods, free cruises, free x-boxs and other assorted prizes waiting to be found on the internet... And, using this assumption i will try to help them out, by signing them up for these free items. DON"T USE MY BLOG TO ADVERTISE. If I know you, then fine, I probably won't object to you advertising on my site. In fact, just ask me and i'll put something up for you. I doubt it will help you much, but if you want I can add something to my blog.

I think I will move this to http://www.briancbiggs.com/ some time in the near future. But until then i will continue to delete non-sincere, generic solicitation in my comments!

I have visitors!

2005-09-24T21:04:00.000-05:00

So, people seem to read this now. Dang it! Now I have to provide CONTENT! Oh, by the way Meeciteewurkor, thanks to you I have learned what Wordpress is... I've installed it in my other site, but I don't know when I'll get around to using it. I had already planned on making a switch over to BrianCBiggs.com, and I was in the middle of writing my own blog system. However, using a free one seems much easier and I think I'll probably go the lazy way and use Wordpress unless I come up with a truly amazing idea. Yeah, I'll be using Wordpress.

This means I'll probably have to add content to my website as well. Dang it. Okay, well, soon I will start adding content and I'll start off with why Chris Medlock should be mayor. I figure that'll get me through April even if there is nothing else to write about.

Which brings me to my next topic: Chris Medlock should be mayor! Reasons for this will come later on, but you'll have to come back to read about them.

What can I talk about?

2005-09-23T07:33:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been thinking about people; not specific people, people in general. And I have come to the conclusion that I don't know anything about people. However, my previous assumption was that I knew quite a bit. I think JRR Tolkein sums it up best in The Lord of the Rings (the book is better, by the way [oh and it is NOT a trilogy; the movies may be, but The Lord of the Rings is one novel with six volumes]). He says, "Hobbits really are amazing creatures! You can learn all that there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years, they can still surprise you."

However, I think my situation is more dire than simply being surprised. I don't know what to talk about anymore. I can tell people what I do at work, but I can't tell people specifically what I work on. I suppose that's cool that I work on a top secret project, but it limits me conversationally. I could talk about news and current issues or the Creation / Evolution debate. But most people don't want to talk about that. I could talk about school, but there isn't much to say. After that all there is to discuss is my walk with God and my weekends (which usually overlap with politics and the Creation / Evolution debate).

Now, I have considered writing something funny in this blog once a week. Justin Thomas wants me to write about "The Secrets of the Universe" (it would be a joke, not actual science for any of you who didn't pick up on that). But my problem doens't lie in writing, but in actual conversation. I can't seem to hold much of a conversation with anyone anymore it seems. And I think it is getting harder to talk to those of you in Norman, because we don't have common events, etc. to talk about. All I have what I've ruled out above.
I guess it comes back to a similar dilema I have had: when people ask me who I am I give them my name. I think names are important, do not misunderstand me on that point! I think names are extremely important. However, telling people my name is Brian Biggs doesn't tell them who I am. If I were Max Barnett or Jim White or someone of the like, perhaps my name would simply answer the question: my name would have gained an equal value or atleast it would be much closer at any rate. But how does one answer the question "who are you?"

This weekend and today

2005-09-19T15:56:00.000-05:00

Y'Arrr! As ye well know today be National talk like a priate day! Twas started by Dave Barry some years ago. I 'ad a fine weekend, twas busy but fine. I met many people and the President of Calvary Bible College came to my church. The rest you can read about at my website: http://www.briancbiggs.com/ or you can call me!

What's going on with me...

2005-09-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

Well, soon my website (www.briancbiggs.com) will be up and running with new stuff. Tonight it should have its original contents back at the very least. Of coarse, nor ever visits there anymore, so... yeah. Just letting you know in case you accidentally run across it.

Also, I am going to meet Oliver North (again) and Bruce Wilkinson this weekend. Unless I can get a ride to Arbuckle Lake (or is it Lake Arbuckle?)

I have also decided that I won't be talking about any national news on my blog, for a good while anyway. I think I'll stick to Oklahoma News and Tulsa News. For example, the gas tax failed overwhelmingly! This is good news. It was an amazing, resounding, no to raising taxes! We have enough money to fix the roads, it's just being mispent. The people for the tax readily admit this... and yet, they want to give people who mispend money MORE money? And when gas prices are already high? In Oklahoma, where we have toll roads everywhere you look? Come on now, this was doomed from the beginning.

Katrina (Continued)

2005-09-09T17:30:00.000-05:00

Apparently my last post came across as harsh, uncompassionate, unsympathetic, hard-hearted and judgemental. That is NOT what I intended. All I intended was to point out the situation down there. I may not have made myself clear, but I attempted to (and I did so trying to avoid people raising the very arguments that you raised, Clayton).

I wrote "I don't think everyone from New Orleans is evil, I do think we should try to help the refugees or survivors or whatever they are being called. I did not want those thousands of people to die and I don't want anymore to die." Do you understand? I didn't wnt anyone to die and I still don't want anyone to die. That includes the looters, homosexuals, people who couldn't leave and people who wouldn't leave. I also wrote, "I am not saying do not help them and I am not saying every person that went through that is immoral. I am saying we have seen a great many who are."

I am not opposed to helping the people there and the people who came from there. All I was trying to do was point out the situation. Yes, there are people who want to leave; and thankfully many are leaving. However, there are still plenty of people doing the horrible things that we have been talking about. Yes, I understand that when the May 3rd tornado hit, the last thing that people thought about was sex. That is why what is happening with the Southern Decadance (their name, not mine, however appropriate) Parade (or Week or whatever it's called) is so backwards. And I don't know how many people are still involved in that. Before Katrina there were going to be about 100,000. And some still went even with Katrina, i don't know how many, but they are there. And people are still being shot at also. Once again, I don't know how many people are shooting.

Now, notice that I never said we should not help the shooters or homosexuals. I simply pointed out what they are doing. I know that in one of my comments I mentioned that I find it hard to be compassionate... to the people doing the horrible stuff. Now, I didn't say I wasn't compassionate, I didn't say don't be compassionate, I said I find it hard. If I had said I find it hard to tie my shoes, would we have an argument over it? I wouldn't be saying I can't tie my shoes or that people shouldn't tie their shoes.

But I never said "they are a bunch of stupid people who only want to have gay sex and be in immorality and that they were idiotic for not leaving." And I certainly did not try to convey that message or attitude. And I still do not understand the comment made about making arrogant claims. If I made any I would like to know which ones they were, so that I can either clear up what I meant or appologize.

I never meant to sound heartless or make the people from New Orleans as wicked, immoral people that we shouldn't help. All I was trying to do was point out the horrible situation that we are left with after Katrina. And I wasn't trying to write this to discourage people or make all of the people of New Orleans look like sick criminals. I wrote this to point out the desperate situation down there. The people who are trying to help run into problems when the people they try to rescue don't want to be rescued or shoot at them. I am not saying we should abandon them, but I wouldn't and don't know how to help people when they act like that.

I had no idea that trying to write about what the situation in New Orleans is would turn into a debate about whether or not compassion should be shown. I thought that would be obvious. I think I've made it clear what my intent is this time and in the future I will try to write with more clarity.

Semi-Recent Happenings

2005-09-08T19:07:00.000-05:00

Okay, by now everyone knows Hurrican Katrina swept in and destoyed New Orleans. Was is God's judgement? I don't know. However, I do know that 100,000 Homosexuals were in or headed towards New Orleans for the Decadance Parade. There are still some of them there from what I understand, doing things I won't talk about. I know what happens during Mardi Gras, and I bet you do too. They also had gambling... So, New Orleans was a horrible city. Was Katrina God's judgement? Once again, I don't know.

This I do know, however; God does give sinful people over to their sin as punishment. Everyone knows that Katrina hit New Orleans or atleast pretty close. Everyone also knows that there are plenty of looters, plenty of people shooting at people providing help, and plenty of people who won't leave their city which is in ruins. There are people surrounded by water full of corpses and disease is sure to spread, yet they refuse to leave. I am not so sure that it was Katrina that destroyed New Orleans, I think Katrina revealed an even bigger problem that was already destroying it.

Let me be perfectly clear here: I don't think everyone from New Orleans is evil, I do think we should try to help the refugees or survivors or whatever they are being called. I did not want those thousands of people to die and I don't want anymore to die. However, I for one will not miss New Orleans.

Many people today are blaming different levels of the government for dropping the ball. Why? The evacuation was MANDATORY even before Katrina hit! My grandparents live in Florida; they've been through a few hurricanes to say the least! They've never heard of an evacuation that has NEEDED to be mandatory! These people should not have stayed; they knew it was comming! Now, I will say that the local (city and state) should have evacuated the Hospitals! There are people who need dialysis to live, people who need insulin, people who need power for their life support systems! Look, did several levels of the government drop the ball? Probably, sure. But the government is NOT our babysitter. It is not the job of the government to provide the nessessities of life! Our government does do that and I am not saying that is bad, but that is not its function!

During disasters our nation has seen people rise to the occasion time and time again and do what they can to help their fellow man. That isn't very apparent here is it? We have seen looters, thieves, and con artists. Why? I think it is because Katrina brought to light the disaster that was already there. I am not saying do not help them and I am not saying every person that went through that is immoral. I am saying we have seen a great many who are.

On another note, I'm going to redesign my website so that it's much better and it will have much more content and it will be kept current. Eventually I may switch my blog over to there, I dunno... Anyway, check my website soon, I'll let you know when it is up...

Cause and Effect

2005-09-06T06:53:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered which is more important: cause or effect? I thought about this for a little while and I beleive it is neither. Here's the way I came to that conclusion: you can rename cause and effect to the means and the end. So, the question becomes: does the end justify the means, the means justify the end or neither? Well, we know the the end certainly does not justify the means; many things could be accomplished by killing people, but that's a horrible way to accomplish something! No, the end does not justify the means, the effect is not more important than the cause.

Well, what about the cause justifying the means? Well, the path to Hell is paved with good intentions. If someone thought they had found a mixture that cures every disease and they put it in the water supply and it killed everyone in that city... well, they had a good cause... No, their intent was good, but they still killed everyone; it doesn't work.

So, there you have it: cause and effect are equally important! What about the people who say that "it's not the destination, it's the journey?" Simple; they're wrong. I think people who say that probably haven't reached the right destination or perhaps they are afraid of the destination they are headed towards. And when I say they I am not refering specifcally to Hell, I can also mean they are afraid of God; not that they FEAR God, but are AFRAID of God. Although I suppose it is not without reason to be afraid of God, He will make you uncomfortable. In Miracles, CS Lewis wrote, "There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion ('Man's search for God!') suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He has found us?"

You see? You don't have to look at it in an eternal perspective to see that it is true, but it certainly helps. There are two possible destinations: Heaven and Hell. I think the destination is important! And the journey is also important, becuase that determines the destination. So the idea that "it's not the destination, it's the journey" is simply wrong. Cause and Effect, the means and the end, the journey and the desitnation; whatever you call it, they are equally important!

My Thoughts on Stuff (as usual)

2005-08-30T23:21:00.000-05:00

This is me writing a post that you’ll read and likely not respond to… But, it's just some of my plans, random thoughts, etc.

I have a few things I'd like to point out:

1) I have a website here and soon I will update it regualarly.

2) Kevin Gerber has a blog and it's awesome! it's here

3) No, I not living in Norman, I am living Tulsa. And no, I am not commuting....

4) I have a website here and soon I will update it regualarly.

5) I'd like to think I'm funny... (I know some people think I quiet and stiff and mellow... and you're just flat wrong)

Things that freaked me out last weekend:

1) A couple of Awkward moments around Dan Hay... I still haven't actually had a real conersation with him...

2) People already knowing I'm going to TCC

3) Elliot Edwards telling me I'm "big stuff around here" (I don't beleive a word of it Elliot... and even if it were true, why tell me?)

4) Going up to Kevin Gerber and telling him I like his blog...

5) Kevin Gerber telling me he liked mine...

6) Holly and Debby going into a different duplex, yet sitting in the same positions, which confused me and made me think I had visited a duplex twice...

Things to come:

1) Me. I'm coming to Norman this weekend! I'm giving you 3 days to figure out how to avoid me!

2) Labor Day! (Hopefully I can spend some time on my website)

3) Higher Gas Prices! I think we need to take a more refined look at this situation...

4) You reading this and most likely not commenting... NO! Comment! Tell me what I need to say to get some response out of whoever reads this! I know someone does... and I sure hope Kevin Gerber doesn't visit my blog as ofter as it's visited!

That's it! I've had it! You go out and have an awesome day right now or I'll come down there!!!

The Weekend

2005-08-28T23:47:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I came to Norman to see Adam’s wedding and to see everyone I could in Norman. It was an awesome weekend, even if I was kicked off of a bus, temporarily lost my luggage and left my shoes in Norman…
So… Adam is married! Wow. The wedding was great and the reception was fun. I like dancing… however, I seem to have a problem; I have trouble dancing in situations like that presented at Adam’s reception. This doesn’t make any sense whatsoever though! I dance around my backyard at night and I dance like crazy! I dance until I am tired… Now, in case you don’t know this, there aren’t people in my backyard, there isn’t any music, there’s grass, some trees, a shed, a small garden, a bird bath and a stone bench… At the wedding reception there were people dancing, there was music; there was a stage, and things you would want when you dance… My backyard: grass. Reception: set up for dancing. But where do I dance? My backyard! It makes no sense! What’s wrong with me? Why am I afraid to dance in front of people? Now… I could dance in front of people and make it funny without a problem (preferably to jazz), but I’ll do a lot of things to make people laugh.
Sunday I went to Trinity and that was great! I loved being back there. However, many people would ask me if I was just here the weekend. Apparently news spreads fast, but there were some people who hadn’t heard and they were quite surprised. I felt a little uneasy around some people that I normally wouldn’t and I’m pretty certain that the reason is my leaving OU for a year. I am sorry for that, but there is nothing I can do to change what has happened and I hope that I haven’t lost more than financial aid and time in Norman. I also had the problem of wanting to talk to people, but not knowing what to do or say. I know whom I want to talk to, but I don’t know what to talk to them about. Or maybe I would talk to them and run out of things to say quickly and the conversation would die much more quickly than I would have liked. I suppose I still want to get to know people better, but I don’t know how to go about doing it. I have thought about calling a few people, but I am not good with conversations on the phone and I wouldn’t know how to start one… wait a sec… I suppose it’s like that without the phone as well.
I can’t figure out how people work. The more I learn about people, the less I know. I suppose it’s similar to what Gandalf says in the Lord of the Rings (by the way, it’s one novel, not a trilogy!). Gandalf says, “You can learn all there is to know about hobbits’ way in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you.” Tolkein was very insightful. Tolkein claimed that he hated allegory and the Lord of the Rings was not allegory; I don’t believe him (about his book, he probably did hate allegory). I think it turned out allegorical despite his intentions. I think that whatever an author writes will most likely turn out to reflect that person’s worldview and may be allegorical of their worldview as well.
On a similar subject, I like Dan Hay. And whenever I see Dan I always wonder what he thinks of me. When we are together it seems to be awkward. I don’t know what to say to him and I suspect it’s the same way for him. So, I don’t think I actually have a point, but I am wondering what to do. I also think Beck has the wrong impression of me… I’m not sure how to explain this one, but I’ll give it a shot. Okay, there are two general sides to my personality; one is a quiet side that listens to people and is pretty laid back. The other side is that of being outgoing, funny, and talkative. I’m not sure Beck has ever seen side two… I’d be willing to bet he thinks I’m a quiet, shy nerd who likes star wars. Well, you wrong Beck! There I said it. Wait… if you don’t think that Beck, well, oops. Sorry. I am still shy… but it seems to be at selective times.
So, if anyone is reading this I am asking you if you have any advice about how to call people I don’t normally talk to and just my basic dilemma with people altogether. And if you aren’t Beck or Dan, you are NOT compelled to tell them about this blog or this entry! And if you are Beck,and If you read this and get upset at me… well… how about I buy a car from your dad and we call it even?

I'm in T-TOWN

2005-08-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

In case you haven't noticed (which is fine, I'm not being sarcastic), I'm not in Norman, I'm in Tulsa. I'll be going to TCC (Tulsa Community College). However, I am excited about it, I am starting to see what God has in store for me and that is always exciting. On the other hand, I'm not in Norman, which means I am not with you guys (OU people) and that is going to be hard. However, I will see you guys every so often and I plan to be back in a year, we'll see if that happens. However things turn out, I guarentee you haven't see the last of me!

I am going to start reading The Shaping of Things to Come. My sunday school teacher, and Principal of Mingo Valley Christian School, Denise Queen, recently gave the sunday morning sermon at my church (Memorial Bible Church) because the Pastor was in Texas. He talked about the book and told people to write the name down so that they don't accidentally buy it, then get mad at him for recomending it.

I have been pretty busy recently and school is about to start and my life will be full throttle. But that's fine with me! I don't know what to talk about! I've been so busy recently this weekend I just might get out and have some fun! That's right, me, having fun! If you read anything I write you'd think I was an uptight, negative, sad, obsessed person and if you know me you wouldn't think that, you'd know that... HA! That was a bad joke... eventually I'll starting putting good jokes online.

But getting back to the subject: having fun! We ought to be having more fun... by that I don't mean slacking off or anything of the like; I mean living life to the fullest, taking risks for God, etc. As Christians it seems that we think of God as Love, and He is. But look at the Jews; to them God is life! Why do Jews know how to live life and why do they love life so much? Well, many have speculated that it's because it's taken from them so often with almost everyone trying to kill them... But I already said the answer, to them God is life. Consider the word L'Chiam and consider the song by the same name from Fiddler on the Roof. The Musical number describes the word really well. It's to lift your glass (for those of you who are Baptists: pretend there is water or grape juice in the glass!) to life!

I need to let go and live life! There are times when I am uncomfortable and uneasy around people, maybe ever around you! You can tell when this happens because I don't say anything (joking). There are actually times when I don't talk because I have nothing to say! Gasp. That's why I don't talk... I'm listening! You should try it sometime, you can learn alot about people. I am now resolved to live a joyful life! So, next time I write something that sounds desparing, sad, angry or whatnot, just think of me writing it... wait a minute... nevermind. I'll be joyful, but don't expect what I write to be happy all of the time, although, I will write encouraging things...

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! Halelujah, Grace like rain falls down on me! My Deliverer is coming, My Deliverer is staning by! He will never break His promise, He has written it upon the sky! This is the Day that the Lord has made! I will rejoice and be glad in it! Oh what can seperate us; Take us away from Your Love? It is bigger than the highest mountain, flowing down like a river, river from above!

One of my all time favorite quotes: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil." --Tolkien

Recent Happenings

2005-07-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything here for a long while... I've been busy with work and I've been working on some behind-the-scenes stuff for my website that I hope to have working soon... it's a shame you won't ever directly see it and will probably never notice it... Anyway, I've been working on my website and the Tulsa Beacon Website (eventually it will look very different). I have also been writing an Op Ed for the Tulsa Beacon and it will come out this Thursday.

What have I been up to besides working on my computer? I helped Chris Medlock a little with the recall fiasco and both Him and Mautino won and are still City Counselors! I've watched movies such as The Island, Batman Begins, War of the Worlds and Cinderella Man. I also went to Discovery Land and watched Oklahoma, which was fun.

I've just been doing stuff around Tulsa and soon I'll be doing even more. I've talked with Dan Hicks a few times recently and the past two times he has talked with me he suggested I run for mayor. I am hoping Chris Medlock runs for mayor; however, I would consider running as an independant and trying to split some of Lafortune's votes. And if Lafortune wins the primary I would be the only conservative and if Medlock wins I would drop out. I would be able to bring up several issues in the campaigns that Lafortune would like to avoid... I'm considering it. If Dan or someone else were to ask me to do it a third time it would help convince me to do it. I would also have to convince my dad it is a good thing. I'll also have to pray quite a bit about it.

The Project Impact people will be back from Illinois soon and that's exciting! That's pretty much all I have to talk about right now as far as my personal life...

New Website!

2005-06-25T18:09:00.000-05:00

I have a website now! It is www.BrianCBiggs.com ! It isn't fully functional yet, but it's a start. I'll still continue this blog for now... not that it has much use now... If you want to find out more about Dan Hicks and the Tulsa Zoo or just Tulsa or Me (yeah, right), go to my new site and check it out!

The Zoo (con't)

2005-06-09T20:16:00.000-05:00

I probably wasn't very clear in my last post, so here are a few things to clear up: Dan Hicks is awesome! I in no disagree with what he did. What I don't like... or rather who... is Mayor Bill LaFortune. He hasn't helped Tulsa much at all... in fact he has hurt it. Now, I don't know for sure what the Mayor's intentions are and the previous post was speculation. However, there has been a vote, that's it; a vote that didn't have to occur. We will yet see how the Mayor deals with the zoo.

Dan Hicks and the Tulsa Zoo received national coverage in the media yesterday. THAT is a victory! However, Dan and Bill LaFortune were both asked to be on Good Morning America. Well, LaFortune refused and they wanted them both or neither. LaFortune was recently advised to back off of the zoo exhibit. We'll see how he acts. If he lives up to his record he'll back off. But how could anyone back off of this after the coverage it has received?

If I were mayor I would've shown up on Good Morning America and I would definately stand by my decision. However, if I were mayor I would've yanked all that crap out of the zoo instead of adding our display. That idol would've been gone as quickly as possible and the globe would come next. After that anything that assumes evolution is a fact or possibly anything that mentions evolution would go. What would we be left with? Animals.

Well, it seemed a move made by a godly man did nothing more than put up more religious material at the zoo (the account of Creation would be there, that's the one redeeming quality). I am not blaming Dan for the other stories being put up, so don't get that idea! I blame the Mayor for that! But God did use this and will most likely continue using this, as we can see. It received national coverage! Now, the questions remain: Does LaFortune have a spine and a heart for God? And what will happen next?

Tulsa Leadership is a Zoo

2005-06-07T23:45:00.000-05:00

Have you ever seen the Tulsa Zoo? There is a six-foot statue of Ganesha (a Hindu god, the son of Shiva) outside of the Elephant exhibit. To greet you at the front of the zoo is a smooth stone globe that sits and spins on water. Children are encouraged to push and move the globe around. It seems nice until you read what is inscribed on the globe, “The Earth is our Mother. The Sky is our Father.” Those are just a couple of examples of religious icons you’ll find at the zoo. You can also find enumerable exhibits that state evolution as fact.
Anyone guess what the zoo doesn’t have? The account of Biblical Creation! Of course you would expect a zoo in city in which a whopping 3% believe in Darwinian evolution would support evolution and have nothing about Biblical Creation which is believed by the majority… wait… never mind. So why does the zoo support minority religions? Why does the zoo have religious icons at all? Why does it have a six-foot Hindu idol?
Well, Dan Hicks proposed to put up a display (with his own money, not taxpayer money) that would show pictures and give the account of Creation directly from Genesis underneath. He even met with the city attorney and made sure everything was legal. He presented his project to the Mayor and the Parks and Recreation Board and it was voted on this morning.
Did it pass? Partly. They’ll put Dan’s board up along with the evolution view (which will still be talked about as if it were fact) and then they’ll use taxpayer dollars to put up other boards around it depicting other accounts of creation that are ridiculous. And I can almost guarantee they’ll label all of those views (which includes ours) as mythology.
Even with all that being said, there is still a bigger scam being thrown at us. The Mayor has the final say in what happens at the zoo. The board that voted this morning is an ADVISORY board! Do you see where this is going? Yes, Mayor LaFortune voted for display (along with the amendment that provides the other displays). So, now the Mayor turns to Dan Hicks and the Christians and says he was for them when the zoo fiasco occurred. Then he can turn and tell the people at the zoo that they got what they want. The vote was a charade to appease the Christians and give the zoo and opposition what they want.
Now, there was more opposition than I had expected at the vote. But those people were all making ridiculous claims and no one cared to listen to what our side was saying. They claimed it was unconstitutional: the city attorney had clearly stated it was in the beginning. The First Amendment was created to protect the church from the state, not the state from the church… it seems to be doing the opposite nowadays. The cried that evolution was science: evolution is anything but science (with the exception of variation within species). The scientific method is based solely on observation, and evolution has never been observed (with the aforementioned exception which was not what was being debated) and therefore cannot be scientific.
There were some Unitarians and some Interfaith Alliance jerk at the vote. They claimed that not all Christians and Jews believe Genesis to be true. Well, guess what! It doesn’t matter! God didn’t ask man how he should be made or what to put into the Bible! The Bible defines what Christianity is, not man! That’s the whole point! If man defines what Christianity is than we are no different from pagans! And does anyone care about what is right and what is true or do we only care about how people feel about the truth and how people interpret it?
CS Lewis pointed out in one of his radio broadcasts that there is a bigger gap in the change of culture in our present time than the change that occurred from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance. For example, art has always had one specific interpretation and message, which never changed until recent times. Nowadays art doesn’t have to represent anything or resemble anything. Well, that is a brief example of what is happening to culture. When there were a few who ruled many Satan found it easy to corrupt those where in change and hence, whole nations. When we established a practical democracy I’m sure Satan found that it was much harder to corrupt a nation. However, he did not just give up… he used a few old tactics: one of which is divide and conquer. If everyone’s opinions are different then they are very well divided and thus, easily conquered. How do you get everyone to have different opinions? One way is relativism. Another way is what he used in the Garden of Eden; make people doubt God’s Word (i.e. Evolution). Anyway, the point is moral decay is spreading and very few people believe in absolute truth. People are absolutely sure that everything is relative. People don’t care about the truth and they try to cage God in a church building. What used to be public affairs are now private and what used to be private is now public. You don’t agree with evolution? Keep it to yourself is what you’re told! Nobody cares about trying to discern the truth!
What will happen at the zoo? I believe I know, but I can’ say for sure. But I do know we had a loss today; it would probably have been better not to have the display put up at all if they are doing as they said they would do. I don’t know what I can do, but I feel very compelled to take action and take back my city! I just don’t know what I can do yet. But anything would be better than to watch Tulsa fall down around me! I didn’t even mention Casinos or the raise of crime because of Casinos or the airport in any of this, did I? Well, Tulsa does not look good, but we live in a fallen world and we have hope, so I definitely won’t give up! Tulsa needs prayer!

Small things... Hey, why not have a poll?

2005-05-25T19:27:00.000-05:00

Soon I will post a very important and serious post, but I don't know how to post it yet and it will likely be some time before I do. So, in the meantime here is a more lighthearted post.

I recently saw Star Wars with a group of people. We went at the first showing and I went dressed as Darth Vader and dueled many people with lightsabers. What did I think of the movie... I'm still not sure. It was pretty dark, but it answers many questions... it had the same acting, but a better script... there are good points and bad points... I have no idea what my opinion is yet.

I don't know how many people will read this, but what the hey: Here's a poll and it's inspired by a conversation I had with someone here in Tulsa...

Leave you answers in the comments: Do I look like, resemble, etc. Harrison Ford and or Prince William?

I've been told I look like both... I have no idea... if you're reading this please comment.

2005-05-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

The End of the Semester Will Soon Be Here

2005-05-11T01:45:00.000-05:00

I had a great weekend! There was the Spring Banquet; I am going to miss many of the seniors, Justin Thomas in particular. I saw Hitch and Hotel Rwanda and they are good movies. I took Courtney Johnson to the Banquet and she was awesome and looked beautiful. I don’t think I did very well when it came to that aspect of the weekend, I think I was boring… I didn’t say much at all. I think I started off the year as funny and have digressed to boring… Oh well. I have very little idea what I’m doing when I’m around people. I just try my best, but I usually walk away from a conversation talking to myself about why I should have or should’ve have said something. I think I’ve done some pretty stupid things this year… actually, I know I have. I don’t want to have some sort of quarrel with anyone or tension or anything. If anyone wants to tell me something… the way they feel about something or tell me that I’ve done something stupid or that they’re upset with me or if they want to give me advice - whatever it is, I hope they tell me before the end of the week. And I’m not talking about obvious things that have been cleared up, like the plastic wrap on Beck’s truck, the syrup on Justin’s car, running a blatantly red light (with four people in the car to boot), or any other major stupid thing I’ve done that’s been cleared up. Yes, I’ve pulled a few pranks; usually under the influence of Nick Onorato. I would like to take this time to point out that he’ll get into just as much trouble without me, that my intention is never to hurt anyone and that I do apologize. Getting back on topic, I’m going to miss Justin Thomas.

I’ve come to love Norman over this year and felt like I have a family at the BSU. The summer will be fun, but I think I will be much more excited about the fall, when I live in an apartment and I get to see everyone again. I didn’t meet a lot of people I’m friends with now until this semester. I look back at this year and I wish I had gotten to know many people more. I’ve made a great many mistakes over this year, yet people are there for me. I can hardly believe the friends I have here. It’s very true that I am still nervous around some people and I don’t talk much around some people. I am grateful beyond description to have friends like I have. Many times I don’t know how to fully express how I feel about people and it seems no matter what I say I cannot express it right. And as I look towards the summer I wonder what it will bring. It seems that any time I plan to do something in the future that involves other people it doesn’t work out quite right. Some example off this are: I bought and received racquetball equipment over the Christmas break and I really enjoy racquetball. How much have I played this semester? None. I bought a surround sound system for my room and planned to have people come to my room and watch movies. Did it happen? No, I never even invited anyone. I wanted to go out and have lunch with some people just one on one. Did it happen? Once, it wasn’t my doing at all though. Anthony Chastain had dinner with me and he set the whole thing up. But other than that I never asked anyone if they would have lunch with me. Why did none of these things happen? I don’t know, but I want to fix it.

On a completely different note, there is a man in Tulsa named Michael DelGiorno. He is a Christian, conservative talk show host. There is a site called www.MichaelDelGiornoSucks.com where he is criticized. Well, my dad is on the show every so often and he emailed me a couple of days ago and was excited because he was quoted on the website. Maybe one day there’ll be a www.CharlesBiggsSucks.com or a www.BrianBiggsSucks.com; it’s an exciting thought.

2005-05-06T16:06:00.000-05:00

This World

2005-05-04T18:15:00.000-05:00

Dang. Being a Christian is hard work... as if that wasn't obvious... It's a spiritual battle with 20 million fronts. If you've ever played Risk or Axis and Allies or studied history then you'd realize how hard it is to fight on 2 fronts... Everyone seems to have their own method of attacking Christianity and the answers aren't always obvious. Don't get me wrong, I'm not discouraged; instead I'm excited. I have found that I like apologetics (not for the sake of winning an argument, but for evangelism) and I know that there have and will be many times when I won't have the answer, but that's fine. I know where I can find an answer and I'll get back to them. As I look ahead I can see many times in the future where I will be asked difficult questions about God, but I know God will be there and who better to ask?

2005-05-02T14:36:00.000-05:00

Take the quiz: "Which Wheel of Time Character Are You?"

Rand
You are Rand, the Dragon Reborn and Lews Therin Telamon, also known as Lews Therin Kinslayer because you went mad and killed everyone you had once loved. Now reborn as Rand Al'Thor, you are doomed to go mad and kill everyone you love......again!Oh well you have three cute women in love with you, enjoy it while it lasts my friend

Culture War

2005-05-02T09:01:00.000-05:00

Society is going downhill. Our values are disappearing; Christianity is slowly becoming erased or dulled in public places. No one has a problem with God as long as He stays in his cage: the church. And if He leaves there He had better “catch up” with our culture. Christianity had better reevaluate some of its doctrine to keep with the times. And why are Christians so arrogant, always saying Christ is the only way? That isn’t very tolerant. Besides, it’s all relative and up to interpretation. The Bible can be interpreted many ways and it’s only a book written a long time ago by uneducated, unscientific men anyway. Jesus was a good teacher and philosopher, but that resurrection thing? That’s a bit ridiculous! And Hell? Come on now. Why would a good God who loves us ever send anyone to Hell? Hell probably doesn’t exist and even if it did I’m a good person. Just look at Tulsa’s Bishop (not Catholic) Carlton Pearson’s doctrine here.

What’s happened to our culture? How have we digressed this far? I thought we were a Christian nation! That’s what my roommate thought! Too bad what he found was anything but Christian! What happened? Let’s go back to the beginning: Genesis. What? How can Genesis be pertinent to today? It is the beginning and has affected everything that has happened through history. In Genesis there is Creation, then the Fall and sin and death enter into the world. The world hates God and fools say there is no God.

It comes down to this: some of our culture says the Bible is false, some say it’s true, some say it needs revising because it’s inaccurate, some say sections of it are true and some say it’s allegorical. Those are messages being spread in our culture.

First question is: Why is this happening? I Corinthians 1:22-23 says, “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness…” So, what does it mean by saying that the message of Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews, but foolishness to the Gentiles? Let’s look in the book of Acts. First we’ll look at what Peter did. You can read what Peter says to the Jews in Acts 2. Now look at what Paul did. You can read what Paul says to the Greeks in Acts 17. What happened? Well, Peter went to the Jews and preached the gospel and about 3,000 people were saved. Paul went to the Greeks and preached the same message and they said, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” and “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities.” They didn’t understand what he was saying.

What was so different about the Greeks and the Jews? Easy; the differences in their religions. The message of Christ simply builds upon the Scripture the Jews had. Whereas the Greeks didn’t have that, they had many Gods and all sorts of things that conflict with what the Jews believe. So what does Paul do to get the message of Christ across to the Greeks? He starts from the beginning (amazing concept), stating that God created the world and works his way through the foundation that the message of Christ is based upon: the fall and the coming judgment. Notice that the Jews already had this basis, so all Peter had to talk about was Christ. Now notice that the Greeks had a different belief, so Paul had to give them the basis that is the Old Testament before Christ made any sense to them. Now look back at I Corinthians 1:23 where it says a “to the Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness…” Do you see how it works?

Now, is our culture (figuratively speaking) a Jewish culture or a Greek culture? Greek. So what do we have to do to get the message of Christ across? We have to go to the Old Testament and show them that God created the world, man is fallen, we were given the Law and no one can keep it, and we will be judged one day according to the Law. Then Christ will make sense. A doctor won’t give you medicine without telling you that you are sick; it doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t go and invite your neighbor over to your house because theirs is on fire without telling them that theirs is on fire; why would they go? But if you tell them their house is on fire they’ll listen to you and leave their house. You have to tell people about the Law and their sin. You also have to tell them about God’s grace, you’ll most likely do more harm than good if you tell people their going to Hell and then not tell them about Jesus.

Many Christians today will tell you that it doesn’t matter whether people believe in evolution. I would disagree completely. But here are my thoughts on the evolution / creation debate; I am all for the political battle, but as far as one on one is concerned start with defining your terms and beliefs, then tell them about Christ. If evolutions should come up while you’re witnessing you can address it quickly and concisely, then get back to Christ. While it is something important to address, I don’t think it should become the main issue.

We will have to take back our culture one person at a time. Sure, there are and will be Christian congressmen, but not everyone is going to be in a political office, so do what you can where God has placed you. Those are some of my thoughts on our culture.

Brian Teaches Grammar and Spelling: Part Two

2005-05-01T19:07:00.000-05:00

Rules to remember when spelling:

If you completely forget how it's spelled, spell it fonetikly. Use i before e except after c or except in a word where e goes before i. If its a name of something specific, generalize; Example: Sudan becomes Africa. You'll get the point across to Americans... the downside is Africans will hate you (especially if they're from Sudan).

If you can't think of a word, use a dictionary or thesaurus. If you don't have one of those, make up a long word like Ronny Rogers does or make up one like Bush does. If that doesn't work make up a word that sounds foreign, like pescadores.

Rules to remember when using grammar:

Your sentences must agree. A bad example of this is anything John Kerry says. But really, they must agree. That said, we is moving on...

You should try not to speak in a passive voice. A bad example of this is Ghandi or Thoreau. Your statements should be clear and concise; You should really, really try very hard to avoid being overly wordy in the sentences you write when you write them. Don't use contractions.
Make sure the end of the sentence is not where the prepositions are at.

If you can't remember these rules it is always a good idea to use a pen name; one that sounds foreign. That way people will excuse the bad grammar and spelling. You should also make it sound cool, like Antonio Banderas. See, it's not hard to make up a cool, foreign sounding name. It can help you out of many a jam.

-Johnny Suavo

2005-05-01T01:50:00.000-05:00

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Ken Ham

2005-04-26T01:18:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was able to go to an Answers in Genesis conference. Ken Ham is the man I wanted to hear. This all took place in Tulsa, in Tulsa Bible Church. Well, I heard Ken Ham speak, I had him sign my copy of Evolution: The Lie. He told some funny stories. He made some verry good points. He is the strongest, clearest voice for Creation and he is a missionary. He is from Australia and he came to the US as a missionary. And do we ever need missionaries! Actually we just need to take a stand and take back our nation, our culture. I'll talk about this more soon.

And Apple wins!

2005-04-26T01:11:00.000-05:00

Somehow someone at the BSU had their computer infected with a virus. It happened to be a worm and was being spread over AIM. Well, it just so happens that I love Apple, hence, I have a Macintosh. PC virus's don't affect me at all. If you've been infected I've found this site: Click Here. I hope this will help you if you received the virus.

Tony Wu

2005-04-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

Thursday night after Vespers I talked to Tony Wu... or , rather, he talked to me. I only said a couple of things and he did the rest of the talking. Do NOT get me wrong, I enjoyed every minute of him talking to me, so don't thing the above statements were meant in a bad way. I wish he would have talked more.

Tony talked about gratitude versus complaining. He spoke of knowing Christ and telling others about Christ. He asked how we could tell others about Christ if we really don't know him ourselves and pointed out just how important knowing Christ is. He was not saying that we should not witness, or that no one knows Christ... but each and every one of us will spend eternity getting to know Christ, so it stands to reason that we can always know Him more.

Tony also spoke of critically examining ourselves. He said that gratitude is tied in with it. I think this is true. We should critically examine ourselves and search our motives. Gratefulness is incredibly important. How dare we complain about something! God has given us everlasting light, He has given us hope. God gave His life; He gave His only Son, as payment for us! We belong to Him now! He has given us everything we have and He deserves our praise and our thanksfulness! Do you see why complaining is wrong? I am not saying any of you reading are complaining and I am not directing this towards anyone. All I want people to see is the importance of gratefulness.

Tony also told me of how he came to know Christ and what followed. What a story that was! I am very glad he told me. Tony Wu is an amazing guy with an amazing story. And I am very glad I was able to speak with him.

Questions

2005-04-20T00:52:00.000-05:00

What do you do when you don't know what to say. I stand in a group of people and I can't think of anything to say. What do I do? Why can I cay things in some groups, but not in others? Why can't I think of anything to say most of the time I'm around people? The answers? I don't have them.

I try to talk to some people and I seem to fail. I want to get to know them a little more, but I don't know what to say to them and our conversation is dead. What should I do in a situation like this? People are easy to figure out sometimes... but at other times they are very hard. I wish I understood people. There are some times when I think I understand people, then a little later I realize I was dead wrong and I have no idea.

On another note, I recieved comments on a few of my posts and then my posts seem to change. Why is this? Because people read my posts and I knew it. As soon as that happened I wrote like I was writing to an audience other than myself and God. Now, I am not saying it is bad to do that and I still will. However, I do not think that was my original intent in making this blog. I like writing to an audience, but I also like journaling. I think journaling makes me take more consideration of my life and helps. Yes, this is online and perhaps it will be read, but that shouldn't change my writing completely. My point is that I will not always acknowledge an audience or explain things.

I will try to write funny things in this blog. One day I will write something funny. And perhaps I will once again write something worthy of more than one comment. But it seems that I cannot getmuch of a response from people unless it is a short story about people who are popular... I don't know what it takes to get comments, but I would like to write something that receives comments sometime.

Catering

2005-04-17T00:15:00.000-05:00

Next time you go somewhere and there is catering: thank the caterers! I am dead serious! Today I was a caterer, and I did not like it.

Yesterday I found out that I am to report to the Museum of Natural History or be fired. Well, I wasn't told I would be fired, but I was told no excuse would be accepted. Now, My dad owns the Tulsa Beacon and I take sports photos. Today was the Spring Game... I was there with my dad. But I had to leave early, so that I could go work at the museum. I had no idea what I was going to do and I was told I would work from 3:30 until close. The museum closes at 5.

I figure I'll work there a couple of hours, then I go have dinner with my dad. I'd been looking forward to having dinner with my dad for weeks, maybe months. Because I knew he would come for the Spring Game and we would go have dinner. Well, my boss doesn't care. I had to cater at a Fraternity / Sorority meeting in the museum that started at 8 PM. I was there over 8 hours. This took up my day. I was going to spend that day with my dad! I was going to have dinner with my dad!!! I had planned on the spendig the time after my dad left with God, my Heavenly Father! I think now you somewhat understand how much I was looking forward to this day and how much it meant to me.

But no. Yesterday it was taken away from me and I didn't even realize it. Yesterday I was stripped of that time with my Father and I don't even know why. Why didn't the normal catering staff work? Why did they use OU food service staff? Why was I chosen from Couch Express? Why? Why couldn't I go have dinner with my father? That meant quite a bit to me and I would atleast like to know why it was taken from me.

I have been sick for more than a week. Then I get better in time for what I have been looking forward to: a day with my dad. But then I had to spend my day waiting on rude, impatient, messy people. The only good that I can see at the moment coming from this is that I am getting paid. But I would rather have had dinner with my father.

I am going to go to Tulsa next weekend. I don't care how I get, but I will get there. And if my boss tries to schedule something like that again I'll probably quit. Next weekend I am going home, having dinner with my father, listening to Ken Ham speak and not working or thinking about work.

Time for a serious message again

2005-04-15T19:44:00.000-05:00

One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven - Mark Cahill. It's a good book. If you're wondering what one thing you can't do in Heaven is; it is share the gospel with those who need it.

Think about that for a while. Once you die, you cannot share your faith with those who need to hear it. So, when should you share your faith? When you live! Which is NOW. What's stopping you? Fear? Better things to do? I don't think so. God didn't tell us to go and preach the gospel when we have time, or if you have the courage. God gave us a command, and if we love Him, we will obey His commandments.

Now comes the question: how? Well, however the Spirit leads. Yes, there are many ways you can go about doing it, but I am no expert about it, and I'm not writing this to instruct people how to evangelize. I try to start by asking questions. But I will say this: no one will want a cure until they understand they're sick.

NOW: What will you do for eternity? Have a relationship with Christ. If it is so important that we will do it for eternity and it will take eternity to do it, isn't it important enough for us to do now? I should think so; it is what being a Christian is all about. It is about letting God be in control of your life; Your WHOLE life, not just part of it. It is dying to yourself daily and taking up your cross for Christ and following Him. That should be the most important part of your life, your time alone with Christ.

We are to be servants. The idea of a servant has changed over time. We are to be like slaves. We are to follow God completely; in EVERYTHIGN we do. It doesn't matter how much sense somthing makes, if it is not God's desire for us to do that, we shouldn't do that. And we need to wait on God's timing. Many mistakes Israel made were because they did what THEY thought made sense or they did it in THEIR timing.

I am not perfect, in fact, I am far from it. However, I know these things to be true; and I know that as I try to follow Christ daily and as I try to let God rule my life, He will help. That is what HE wants from us: a relationship and Lordship. Once He has that, He will use us in ways we cannot begin to imagine.

I love Photoshop

2005-04-15T14:17:00.000-05:00

I am not trying to start a competition with Holly, I would like to make that clear. But I love to doctor picture and video and I thought I would post these pictures:

I would like to point out that I did make my head bigger than Arnold's. I just thought I would proportion my head to the size of the body and my head... yeah, it wasn't that much of a difference and I think it looked better that way. This isn't my best work... but I thought it would be fun to post...

If anyone wants something doctored and Holly is busy or something...

Tents... There are tents on the South Oval

2005-04-15T01:38:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen the tents on the South Oval... well, you are blind, you don't go to class, you are a commuter with no South Oval classes, or you don't go to OU. You might have wondered recently: Why are there tents covering the South Oval? The answer: Someone or some people put them there! Unless, of course, they evolved there... from the... ground and... trash on the ground... Then erected themselves over time... Oh... wait... nevermind.

Brian teaches grammar and spelling

2005-04-13T17:11:00.000-05:00

I’ve been reading blogs and comments on blogs… People pay no attention to spelling or grammar. I am not perfect, but I think it’s time for a little lesson in spelling and grammar.

Lesson One: Commas -
Many people only use commas when listing three or more items. There is much more to the comma than this. Commas can be used to separate parenthetical phrases. When you are reading and you come across a comma you are supposed to pause. It is, however, a short pause. So what do you do if you want your reader to pause for quite a while? Add more commas! Commas are really very simple,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Lesson Two: Spelling –
There are several words I have seen misspelled over and over again. Such as: yea instead of yeah, o instead of oh. People will switch the order of “I” and “e” all the time. To save time I will just list words most people misspell: accident, apparent, similar, Wednesday, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis, cat, potato, choreograph. You get the idea; learn how to spel.

Lesson Three: Apostrophe –
Many people get confused about the apostrophe. When using it to show ownership place it before an "s" at the end of the owner. If the owner is plural, place it after the “s”. Confusion arises in instances such as my name: Biggs. Is it Biggs’? Is it Biggs’s? Is it Biggses’s? The answer to those is yes. Another point of confusion is "it’s". Do you put an apostrophe after “it is” or after an “it” if the “it” is the owner? And how do you remember which one? The answer: people won’t notice, use an apostrophe in both cases.

That ends this weeks lesson. Come back next week to learn more grammar and learn to write good.

My thoughts on Sin

2005-04-13T11:05:00.000-05:00

In my egroup the other day, we were talking about pride. This got me to thinking and here's what I've come up with:

Pride and greed are very related and overlap. Here's how they are related; They are found in our deepest motives: in our heart. They focus everything we do towards ourselves, and since we are not God, this is wrong. We are a fallen race and don't deserve and honor or glory or anything but death. So, everything we do for ourselves will lead to destruction. If we are self-centered we can do nothing of eternal significance whatsoever. I am going to take it farther and say that if we do anything centered around man it has no eternal significance and only leads to destruction. We can do things for other people and it will still be wrong if it is centered around man.

That is the basic idea behind sin. Are we living for ourselves or are we living for God and obeying Him? When put in this light it is very simple. However, pride, greed and selfishness are very blinding. That is why I think it is so important to wake up in the morning and pray. Only God can pull back the cloud of self-centered rebelion that fogs our mind. That is why we are commanded to die daily to ourselves, why we need to focus our lives around Christ.

Recently I found this poem in my room. I have no idea how it got there, but it was there. Okay... I can't find it anymore. Wow. Well, the poem was about a person who thought that he was too busy to pray that morning. Then, throughout the day, he looks to God asking Him why He didn't do things. God lovingly and responds "You didn't ask." It was a beautiful poem... that's why I know I didn't just imagine it... still can't find it. If I find it I'll post it.

It's been a while

2005-04-12T00:48:00.000-05:00

I haven't written anything in here for some time. For a couple of days I didn't know what to write. Then, on Thursday, I became very sick. For 4 or 5 days now I have been sick and it is not fun. I'm tired most of the time, my throat is sore, I have a horrible headache and feel as though I must hold my head together with my hands. Then I went to Goddard. I had to wait 3 hours, but then I was able to see a doctor. Seems mostly I needed was rest and fluids. Oh and apparently the only other thing I needed was to overdose on advil and take a few tablespoons of some... i dunno, stuff. Anyway, I'm feeling much better.

Senior Banquet / Spring Banquet / BSU Banquet

2005-04-06T03:28:00.000-05:00

Chris Goree told me last semester about the banquet and told me to ask then... I thought it was a little soon. Anyway, I found that this is the time to ask. Several guys asked me who I was taking or planning on taking... Well, I decided I was going to ask Courtney Johnson. Now, the question was this: how do I ask?

Well, there's the goldfish idea- many people suggested that one. I didn't really care for that one too much. Andy used the flour / flower idea. There is just plain asking... I wanted to be more creative, though and put a bit of thought into it. The other option presented to me was to send someone to ask for me; but, man, that is really lame!

None of those ideas had too much appeal to me. I thought back through the week and remembered watching The Princess Bride at Nick Onorato's apartment before pranking the girls. I remembered it becasue it was the first time Nick had seen it and Preston was there, so we had a big guy, a fencer, and an italian... I thought it was funny... Anyway, I remembered the Princess Bride and that is a classic, classic movie. It is funny, exciting, romantic, everything and I love it. So I decided that I would ask somehow with incorperating something from the Princess Bride.

Well, it turns out I like costumes... yeah, who would've guessed? I went to Wal-mart and bought some material and mmade a mask and then I dressed up as the Dread Pirate Roberts. Yeah, no one seems to remember who that is, but it's the man in black (Wesley) from the Princess Bride. I dressed up like him. I had Beck help me arrange things and orchestrate the timing of the events. I found Elliot Edwards on Walker 7 and he was going to play Indigo [in-deeg-oh].

Thanks to Elliot we were able to set up the scene in the stadium. I went out to the stadium to get reaady with Elliot and we walked around awhile while Elliot locked up. Then we went partway up a ramp and practiced the scene. Beck came with Courtney and brought a small crowd with him. I was sort of expecting that, but it still suprised me a little. But Elliot and I started yelling our lines (even though I don't think they made out the words) and fenced our way down the ramp where I pretended to knock him unconscious. I then asked Courtney if she would go wtih me to the Banquet. She said yes and I was glad and releived. I took off the mask and apparently a couple of people didn't know it was me; that really suprised me; I suppose I was wearing a mask though...

Afterward Elliot gave us a tour of the stadium. I didn't talk very much and I feel really bad about that, but I didn't know what to say. I think I probably stuck my foot in my mouth when I did speak. I think I talk about my Dad's newspaper alot. I think that might annoy some people. I simply think about the Tulsa Beacon and my dad alot and it just seems to show when I speak sometimes. I think everyone had a fun time in the stadium. We were even able to go into the locker room.

I hope everyone had a good time. I sometimes wish I would speak more, but I don't know what to say most of the time. I am trying to get better. However, there are times when I think I make things a bit ackward because I stick around a group of people and I don't say anything. I really hate doing that.

LEAVE A COMMENT!!! I think you should leave a comment... please?

Oh, What a Night! (This is a story, read it!)

2005-04-02T13:19:00.000-06:00

It was April Fools night, there was a house full of girls with no parents around, its the weekend... yeah, something was bound to happen. Preston Dronberger, Nick Onorato, and I decided we didn't want to miss this opportunity. Preston brought his now famous mask and we looked up where the Jaques lived (where all the girls were). We took Preston's car and found the house, then found a place to park on another street.

We snuck around to the side of the house. There were two windows and Preston was going to scare them with the old man mask. The girls were watching Shakespeare in Love. We had no idea how long this movie was or what the end looks like, so we simply had to keep watching while we waited. About a half hour or forty-five minutes later the movie ended and one of the girls (i didn't see which one) came up to the kitchen window and Preston came into sight and scared her. She ran and told all the girls about what she saw, but they didn't beleive her and I think she convinced herself she didn't see anything.

Well, Mary Powell came over to the sink (I did not get a good look and from what I hear it was Mary, but it could've been Beth) and she was looking down. Preston wanted to get her attention so he could scare her to he tapped the window. The sound alone scared her and made her jump. She went and got someone to come back to the window with her. Preston walked by the window and they screamed.

Nick took off laughing and running. I waited a minute and took off after him; I crossed the street then ran towards the car. I looked back across the street at the house and saw Preston run around the side of the house into about ten girls who were streaming out the front door. There was even more screaming. I waited a minute for Preston to cross the street and catch up with me. He slowed down as we neared the corner of their street because he thought Nick was behind us. I tried to tell him that it wasn't Nick, but he didn't hear me or ignored me and Emily Jaques came running into veiw where Preston thought Nick was going to be. We high tailed it back to the car when she came into sight.

Everyone jumped in Preston's car and we started to ride off. We rode past the girls and turned around to ride past them again. This time Preston stuck his head (with the mask on) out of the window. We heard them yell, "Preston," as we drove off into the darkness. After a couple of miles we decided to head back and drive down their street. They were inside, but watching the door and one of the girls was outside. We decided to head back to the dorms.

We arrived back at Walker. Preston couldn't find a place to park, we decided to go back and prank them again; however we thought we would be really crafty and go back in Nick's car, since we had been seen in Preston's car first. So Nick backed his car out and Preston took his parking spot, then we set out. We saw Danny Beck and Chauncy park while we were leaving the parking lot, so we stopped and hinted about what we had done and what we were up to. Then we sojourned forth...

...to a 7 Eleven to look for things to spray on their cars. We came up empty. So we went to the one place you can find almost everything: Wal-Mart. We ran into some suspicious characters in that store: Andy Messick, David Worcester, Nathan Presley, Adam (I don't know how to spell his last name; Nathan's Roommate), and Michael Cam (listed in no particular order). They had the same idea we did, but they were a little late and had nothing to prank them with. They decided against pranking the girls. We also saw Aaron Foster and Micah Walker while we were leaving.

We headed back to the Jaques house armed with silly string. We parked in the same place and made our way over to the house. This time the front door was closed and we thought it would be easier. Nick and I tried to write things with the silly string... it didn't work, so we just sprayed it al around. We heard some noise and we hid to the side. Nick ran off without Preston and I seeing him again and he jumped a fence. I looked back towards the rear of the house, towards the backyard. I heard noise back there and tried to tell Preston, but I was busy running away. I ran around the garage and heard the front door open, so I dove between two cars. Meanwhile, Preston saw girls come out of the back yard with buckets of water. He ran around front and almost ran over me, he was cut off several directions but managed to escape. I realized that I would quickly be caught where I was and ran after Preston.

We stopped halfway down the street and looked back. The girls weren't chasing us and we didn't know where Nick was. Was he caught? Is he hiding? Should we go back? We didn't know, so we stood there awhile. Preston called Nick and found out that he had hopped a fence. We ran off. We ran to an alley behind the houses. We never expected to run into Matt Jaques back there, but... well, we did. Matt Jaques and Elliot Edwards had planned to prank them also, but saw us first. Matt pointed to Nick's car and asked who's it was. We told him.

Matt went to go talk to the girls. We called Nick again. He said thatr he thought he had heard a man's voice nearby. We looked and saw that there was a neighbor watching the house from his backyard and to look out. To make a long story shorter, we had been looking at Nick who had been watching the girls from a neighbor's backyard. He hopped the fence and we went back to his car.

Wow. That's what I said when we saw Nick's car. It was covered with what seemed to be Bengay powder and bandaids. We still cannot figure out who did it or when... All we know is that Matt Jaques knows who did it. Well, that was enough for us to decide to prank them again. We were driving out of the neighborhood, when, who did we see? Micah Walker and Aaron Foster sitting in car. They saw us and Aaron ducked down and Micah looked straight forward and kept still. We pulled up next to them. They had decided to prank the girls as well. They changed their minds after talking with us... everyone seemed to. They gave us the cups and tape they were going to use and went to Emily's house.

We drove to 7 Eleven again. We ran into a security guard who told us we needed to get the girls back and that if it were him he'd be egging some cars now... Anyway, we picked up some Dawn dish soap, flour and toilet paper. We drove back and parked on a different street. We received a call from Matt Jaques (probably in the bathroom or somehting) and he told us to wait until they (him, Elliot, Micah, Aaron) had left to prank the girls again. He said they would try and calm them down and make them think it was over before they left.

We waited around until we got the call, then we waited a little more. We decided to be more careful this time. Preston and I stayed inbetween Emily's house and her neighbor's (on the not-coldasack side). Nick went out and hid behind Sarah Dandridge's car because she was parked on the street and visible from the house. At this point we thought it was Sarah that had gotten Nick's car. Nick sprayed her car with the soap, then put the flour on when we heard some screaming. Nick ducked behind the car again.

A few of the girls ran out to look at Sarah's car. Nick realized they coming towards him, so he popped up and ran. Apparently the girls didn't know he was still there, because they all screamed. Sarah yelled that it was him and yelled at him and called him on his phone. Then, Sarah and some of the girls got in the car and drove off. Emily and another girl passed the alley that Preston and I were in. We had laid down and had watched the whole thing and the girls didn't see us.

After a few minutes I decide I would jump the fence into the backyard. But before I could Nick jumped over the fence and found us. We then went and started getting the other cars. Well he heard some of the girls and we ran around the other side of a neighbor's house, this time on the dead end side. Nick and I jumped the fence, but Preston didn't think he could do that, so he just ran away.

Well, it was just alot of me and Nick hopping fences after that. Eventually we gave up and talked with Emily and Erin (the only two left at that time). We called Preston and told him. We found out we had made a mess on Erin's car and that she had nothing to do with Nick's car, so we cleaned her car. Then we talked with Emily and Erin awhile.

Well, I left out some of the details and some we have not figured out yet (such as Nick's car). But that is the basics of what happened (atleast from what I know). Nick and Sarah cleaned their cars today (Saturday). If I left somehting important out or got something wrong please tell me. Or even if I didn't still leave a comment!

This world is so frustrating!

2005-03-31T01:13:00.000-06:00

I was able to convince Travis Dunlap to come with me and talk to the Mormons. He was very easy to convince, all I had to do was ask. We spent about an hour preparing, then went to their... I don't know what it's called... building. It didn't go well this time either. We went back and forth... but we were very limited in what we could argue. According to the Mormons, they have the preisthood and only they can interpret scripture correctly. Well according to us, we (Christians) have the Holy Spirit and have no need for a preisthood and anyone with the Spirit can interpret Scripture. Well, as you might have guessed this presents a problem. In their eyes we will bend Scripture to fit our veiws and cannot interpret it correctly, so we can't use Scripture to argue a point with them. And Science is not the Word of God, so we can't use that either. And their experience seems to defy logic according to them and so we can't use that either. So we really have nothing left with which to make any kind of point. Hmm... Ever seen children playing some sort of tag game where one of them is making up the rules? Well, it usually turns out that the child that makes the rules has made them to their advantage, so that they will win the game. Well, if one of the other children figure this out then they will start to argue over the rules and it just becomes a pointless faceoff. That's what we have here. The Mormons will only discuss Theology on their terms and I can't accept that. Travis and I could not make the least bit of progress with them.

John Kelsey warned me that this would happen. I have told them the gospel and told them the truth. If they refuse to heed the words Travis and I spoke to them, the words the Spirit has brought to their ears, then it is soley on their heads. The next time that I see them (in passing) I am going to ask them a final question or two and if they give me the same cop out answers they've been giving me then I'm giving up on them. I will tell them that too. There is a man in my church in Tulsa named Denise Queen. When he was a young man he joined the marines. He made several basic commitments as he joined; such as praying before every meal. Well, he met a man and witnessed to him and spent quite a bit of time with him. He was making very little progress with him. One day he was sitting with this man to eat and he started praying before the meal. Some of the guys sitting around them started making fun of Denise. The man Denise had been witnessing to chimed in with them. Well that was more than Denise could take. He stood up and yelled at the guy, telling him how much time and effort he had put into becoming his freind and witnessing to him and that he was done. Denise told him that he wasn't going to waste his time on him anymore and that if this man wasn't going to change he could go to Hell for all he cared, but he was done witnessing to this man. An hour later the man showed up at Denise's door and Denise led him to Christ. I'm not saying that the Mormons are going to come to Christ because I give up on them, but stranger things have happened and I could be spending that time with other people that are willing to listen.

Earlier today I read part of the Oklahoma Daily (OU's Student paper). I read the opinion section and the garbage there. There were two letters to the editor talking about the Intelligent Design Theory. I agreed with a couple of things they said; One, this is a religious debate, and two, Intelligent Design is just Creation Science trying to pander to the secular world. Now, I like Intelligent Design, but I like Creation Science alot more. The writers didn't understand what they were talking about and didn't present a convincing arguement at all. This is both a religious and scientific debate; HOWEVER, it is BOTH Evolution and Creation Science that are religious, but many of the arguments lie in the realm of science. However, people don't seem to see that science and religion overlap each other almost completely. Evolution is just as religious as Creation, but that is a topic that I will not elaborate on today. One of the letter-writers said that he had enough faith to combine evolution and creation and that he felt sorry for those who didn't. This only shows how much he has missed the point and how clueless he is to religion. "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I will listen gladly, talk to me about the duty of religion and I will listen submissively, but don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand." -C.S. Lewis. And people don't understand that there are two incompatable worldveiws here clashing. The whole point of this story is that the Oklahoma Daily will publish garbage like this.

I am not only determined to run a newspaper next semester, but I will also send in letters to the editor of the Daily an to the Sooner Infomation Network and other places that publish and I will do it this semester. But I will run paper and it will have a Christian worldveiw and bias and will not run garbage like in the Daily without the truth behind the matter along side it, if it is run at all. I don't want other worldveiws dirtying my paper. It will be a ministry, and even if the paper doesn't reach any non-Christians, perhaps it can bring about a better unity or cooperation between ministries here on campus. We will see what happens; but whatever happens I guarentee you I will be out there telling people about the truth in some fasion.

The Calling

2005-03-30T00:38:00.000-06:00

I have learned quite a bit today. One thing I have noticed is that alot of things that are convicting are also encouraging. That applies to what I heard over Spring Break at Glorietta as well as what Ryan Polk said tonight as a speaker for Jesus Week, and what Ronnie Rogers has been speaking on. We are called to die to ourselves and daily take up our cross. We are called to live our lives for Christ and like Christ. As Ryan Polk talked about, that means we must strive for holiness. Holiness is not a following a list of do's and don'ts; but it occurs in the heart and is becoming Christ-like. It is not asked is something alright, but will this honor God?

I have seen too many people who claim to be Christians not live the way they should and it angers me. I must hold myself to that same standard, though and I will try. It should not upset us too much when non-Christians don't live the way they should, it only makes sense. But it should greatly greive us and anger us to see Christians not live the way they should; that is, when on purpose, we should help those who struggle, but at the same time not approve of it, but we should also rebuke and chastise those who obviously are sinning. Jesus was angry with those who were religious when He was angry in the Bible. That isn't to say that He doesn't mind those who don't beleive sinning, but you understand what I am saying. It is Christians we should get upset with when we see them sinning and not living the way they should. I am not sure I have stated any of that clearly... I hope that you understand what I am trying to say.

We are called to better society in a Biblical manner. We are not called to change society to better humanity or any reason like that, but to give honor and glory to God. So, how can we as Christians sit back and watch while people murder unborn children and remove feeding tubes and call pornography art and use foul language on television and in movies, and promote homosexuality and sexual immorality, and promote sin? We are not called to passively watch and say that it's not that bad, or say how bad it's getting. We are called to go out and change the world. We need people to stand up. I look at the new testament and how twelve men changed the world; yet we have a few hundred here at OU and we have a hard time impacting the 22,000-ish here on campus. Is God not working? No, God doesn't change; so the problem must be us and the way we live our lives. We have the same Spirit the Apostles had and we have the same calling. All we have to do is let God change our hearts and then we simply have to trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. It's very simple, yet we make things so complex and we get confused, but all we have to do is set our focus on God and becoming more like Him and obey Him and honor Him in whatever we do and He will use us to do things we couldn't ever imagine. Its that simple, but because of our nature we get confused and we become distracted and rationalize things, then talk about how complex things are. Some things might really be complex, but start with the simple things and the complex ones will become much easier. Just get in the Word, memorize it, hide it in your heart. Meditate on His Word. Pray and seek God. Fellowship with other Christians. Witness to those who are lost. These make up the Navigator Wheel; the Christian life. These are simple things. Be sincere and just do it.

What a day!

2005-03-28T19:24:00.000-06:00

Today was the start of Jesus Week here at the University of Oklahoma, where many campus ministries are working together to try and impact this campus. It was also a beautiful day here in Norman and I don't think it was a coincidence. It is also Islam awareness week and religious freedom week apparently. It is an interesting week; we tell them Christ is the only way, the muslims tell them that Islam is the only way and the religious freedom group is telling people to choose their one way. Yes, they say ONE way (atleast in sidewalk chalk), that surprised me.

This morning there was a earthquake in, yes, Indonesia! It was a 8.7 earthquake and it killed 2000 and left many thousands without homes. It didn't cause a tsunami this time, but it scared alot of people. Indonesia is just outside the 10/40 Window and the tsunami last time hit countries in the 10/40 Window. I beleive there is a connection. I beleive that there is a reason (outside of geology) that Indonesia was hit again. I beleive it was God; at the very least God allowed it, but I don't beleive God passively allowed it to happen. God is a jealous God and He will judge those who turn away from Him, even if it is not in this life. I beleive that 9-11 was a wake up call or a warning shot for us. For a few weeks or a month or two afterward the churches were filled. But shortly afterward we were back to normal.

As a nation we are trying to remove God from our culture and becoming numb to Him. Eventually this will lead to the persecution of Christians and ultimately to the downfall of our nation. I pray that our nation can be turned towards Christ and that it doesn't completely forsake and turn its back towards Him. There are Christians out there, taking a stand and making a difference. But many stand alone. I think many Christians have been so indoctrinated with our culture that they will go to church on sunday, then the rest of the week they go through life as any other person would and daily accept the different world veiws presented to them. Instead, Christians should be living the life worthy of their calling and should be daily dying to themselves for the sake of Christ and should know Christ more and tell others about Christ and reject other world veiws at ANY cost. Ronnie Rogers (Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Norman) once gave a sermon about Christianity being transformational, not adaptive. A transformation is a quick, conscious change; whereas adaption is a slow, unconscious change. Culture is adaptive, Christianity is not. The first amendment protects the church from the state, not the state from the church. Christianity is NOT passive; we need to be actively rejecting other world veiws, taking a stand for Christ at any cost and changing our culture and changing people's lives. We aren't called to complain about our immoral culture, or resent it, we are called to change it. At Men's Fraternity (a men's ministry at Trinity) we have been given a definition of a man. A man rejects passivity, leads courageously, accepts responsibility and seeks the greater reward, God's reward. Think about what that means.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

2005-03-28T01:01:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! In my church in Tulsa, Memorial Bible Church, we have a tradition where if someone says, "He is risen" (Meaning Christ), then people respond, "He is risen indeed!" I think its a great little tradition. Anyway, I had a great Easter; I was home, the sermon was great and hey... its Easter. I was a little down-hearted when I saw someone who had two glowing rabbit lights in their yard and a calendar that said "Egg Day" instead of Easter... It shows where we are as a society when there is 'Turkey-day' instead of Thanksgiving and 'Egg-day' instead of Easter. Not to mention, gasp, Christmas! Oh wait... uh oh... I mean X-mas. I was almost politically incorrect and religious and I could have offended someone! And I forgot to mention Kwanzaa! Oh wait... nevermind. I celebrate CHRISTMAS... (emphasis on CHRIST). And Kwanzaa has no roots in Africa, it is completely American. In 1966 Kwanzaa was created by a former black militant, Marxist and convicted felon, Dr. Maulana “Ron” Karenga. Kwanzaa's creator called God (Jehovah, the Christian God) a myth. Kwanzaa is not based on tradition, religion or anything respectable, but it is based on race.

While I am glad it is Easter and I celebrate Christ's resurection, I despise the current state of our culture and the lack of courage and Christian leadership. Our society needs to be redirected big time or it will fall. But before it falls Christinas will persecuted, and its already started. I don't think its too late to change our society, but it will take alot of hard work, courage and leadership. It will take people who are willing to take a stand, no matter what the cost. Everyone will die someday, you might as well die right with God if He asks you to give your life. So, my advice and what I'll try and apply in my onw life is: take a stand, speak out, be courageous, be steadfast, be Godly, stand up for God and don't fear the consequences.

This fall I think I'll start a newspaper

2005-03-26T16:50:00.000-06:00

No, It won't technically be a real newspaper; it won't have subscribers and it will be free. I almost ran the OU Beacon newspaper this semester at OU, but I felt I would be too busy to do that. I think that if I'm at OU next semester that I'll run it or start it up again or whatever needs to be done. And if I'm not at OU I'm not sure what I'll do, but I'll start something; probably with the name Beacon in it. If I'm not at OU, but I still live in Norman I'll probably call it the Norman Beacon or something like that. Well, whatever I call it, I want to write something that people will read. So if anyone reads this please leave a comment!

People have always criticized my dad when he has run his own paper. And I hope they will continue to. It shows that he is doing what needs to be done. Now, that is not to say that if someone criticizes you that you are right. My dad writes about contraversial issues and people get mad. But there is right and there is wrong and it needs to be pointed out. Yes, my dad is biased and so am I. You cannot remove bias, when you write you cannot be objective, you simply have to try to be fair. That doesn't mean you can lie; you MUST tell the truth, however, the words you use, who you talk to, any pictures, the way you state things, and the order in which you tell facts all contributes the mental picture you give people and is always biased.

Someone Reads This!

2005-03-25T21:01:00.000-06:00

Apparently someone out there reads this, or has read this! I guess I was wrong! And that person is either a subscriber to the Tulsa Beacon or at the very least has heard of it. Well now that people are reading this I'd better watch what I say. Wait... nevermind, I still consider this a journal and am determined to write what I think regardless of who reads it. Now, I realize that I was harsh when speaking about Mormons in an ealier entry. I, however, take nothing back. For the record I never said they were possesed, I said someone warned me that they could be possesed. As far as my opinion on that matter is concerned I see it as a possibility. I don't know for sure whether they are or not, but I do know that they oppose Christianity. I am not sure what people consider them; cult, sect, religion... But I see everything that is not Christian as a cult, and therefore consider Mormonism as a cult. They are very good at imitating Christianity and they have an impressive knowledge of scripture. But, as nice as they may seem sometimes, are still a cult. And as far as demons are concerned, I don't know if they posses Mormons, or how many or anything like that, but I do beleive that they influence them at the very least. If you read The Screwtape letters by C.S. Lewis then you will probably understand what I mean. Lewis starts the book saying that the Devil delights in those that are fascinated by demons just as much as he delights in those who don't believe in them or are ignorant of them. We know that demons are at work in this world. The spiritual battlefield contains more than just Christians and non-Chritsians.

On a lighter note, I am in Tulsa for Easter weekend. I am glad to be home for a couple of days. I'm going to go to Danny Beck's house tommarow for a party or get-together or something. I'm not sure what it is exactly or how many people will be there, but I think it will be fun. I have been going to Beck's e-group (Bible study) recently and getting to know him better and I think it will be fun going to his house. Even if it is a long way south.

Funny stuff... funny ha ha, or funny strange? You decide.

2005-03-25T01:18:00.000-06:00

So I decided to hand out Jesus Week flyers. Alot of Jesus Week flyers. I don't know what is so hard about taking a peice of paper... Or what is so hard about holding on to said paper, but people don't seem to want to take them, and some that take them drop them... Or worse they'll throw it away. If that's all they're going to do with it, why take one at all? When they drop them on the ground I like to run and pick it up then hand it to them and tell them that they dropped it. I've gotten alot many different responces to that. I handed a flyer to the girl that designed them... I still don't know why she took one. People can come up with some strange excuses for not taking them. It would probably be easier just to take it then to think up excuses. I've heard "I'm Catholic" and "I'm nondenominational." So? Until about a month ago I was nondenominational, and even if I still was I would be handing them out. These excuses make no sense. I have also heard "I'm Jewish, but I'll take one anyway." This is similar to the time I went selling subscriptions to the Tulsa Beacon door to door. People aren't good at coming up with excuses or lying; alot of them aren't beleivable. And why do they need excuses anyway? Why don't they just say no? I like handing out flyers and with the excuses it just makes it more fun, that is if you can talk with them and they don't just say the excuse in passing.

At Vespers I talked with Kels about mormons. I came up to him and asked if he knew much about mormons. He just looked at me and told me that if God had clearly put a mormon in my life or clearly shown me that I should witness to them, then do it; but otherwise try to stear clear. Oops. Well, I have spent some time last semester with 2 mormons. Just yesterday I talked with 2 of them and agreed to meet with them again on wednesday. He also told me that we have been witnessing to them so much over the years that they only send their best to OU. They also change them out every six months or so. That is encouraging in some ways. It means we've been getting to the ones they send recently and they need to switch them, then reprogram the ones that were here. I also see it as encouraging that I have dealt with tough ones. Now, they are all tough, but if these ones are some of their best I see it as very encouraging. Here is an idea: next year there will be two new mormon missionaries; I talk with them, ask them what they do. I then try and watch them witness to other people, then I follow up with those people and teach them the truth (without the mormons present). Its an idea.

I was talking with Danny Was... Wasi... Wasiel... Hmm... Danny W. And He said I was really funny. I didn't fall down or hit myself or anything; I was just sitting on the couch talking, so he must of meant I was funny via talking. I'm not sure what this means or entails. I'm not sure what Danny Wasielewski meant by it. Wait a minute, let me make sure I spelled his name right: D-A-N-N-Y, yeah it's right. Well, I hope he's right and I really am funny, otherwise I'm not funny and I sure don't hope for that. I hope that's what he meant and it wasn't some mix up where he didn't finish the sentence and he meant funny smelling or funny looking or something like that. I suppose he isn't the only one to say that... and I've had some people ask me where it comes from. I don't know the answer to that, if I did I'd write a book telling people how to be funny and I'd be rich, but everyone would know my secret, so I wouldn't be funny anymore. I'd then be rich and boring... so you don't have to ask where it comes from anymore, because even if I knew I wouldn't tell people, because then I'd be rich and boring instead of dirt poor and funny. Elliot Edwards also told me that he'd been watching the follies video and that I was funnier each time he watched it... What does that MEAN? I suppose that's a complement and a good thing... but still; WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? (I understand the literal meaning of the words, its the implication I'm wanting, in case you didn't get that). (Yet another example of how jokes aren't funny when they're explained.)

I don't know what to title things anymore

2005-03-24T00:14:00.000-06:00

Today I only had two classes and a little studying to do, not a whole lot. Wrong... I did a ton of stuff today. I started my day off with Men's Frat at Trinity. I love starting my day with that. Then I went to pray with the guys on Walker 3. After that I read the Bible a while, then I went to class. After class I went to the Union... I didn't eat anything, but I did talk to the new Mormon Missionaries. I met with them at 6 this evening. It didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I have hope that it will go better.
I went over to Adams to try and get someone to go with me to talk to the Mormons. I was hoping Nick Baker would go. He didn't and neither did anyone else, but I was able to spend alot of time talking with Nick and Matt and I enjoyed that. I've been wanting to get to know them better and I was able to today. I went to their Bible study and I just talked with them awhile today. I still want to get to know them more... I'm not sure how to go about doing that, but I suppose I could just keep showing up at their door. I still hope someone will go with me next time I go to talk with the Mormons. Craig Bagley and Nathan McClain don't want to go and I was surprised by that, but I can see why they don't. Nathan warned me about them being possesed, but at the very least, them knowing scripture and arguments and apologetics well. But even Satan knows scripture. I still hope I can convince Nick Baker to go with me, but I understand if he doesn't. I just think it would be alot easier if two people went instead of one.

My Life

2005-03-23T07:40:00.000-06:00

I just got back from Men's Fraternity. I love starting my day like that; I would like to start everyday like that. I like getting up early, going to Trinity, listen to Ronnie, discussing things and starting my day thinking about God and my life. I have realized just how much of an impact my dad has had on my life. Not did he bring me into this world and raise me and provide for me, but I have started to act like him. My major is the same that his was and my goal right now is to work for him and one day replace him as owner as the Tulsa Beacon. I love New Life Ranch, it is probably my favorite place in the world. And I love New Life Ranch because of my dad. The only areas I don't really act like my dad in are responsibility and discipline and probably the way he interacts with people. And I am working on those, and I am confident that those will come in time.

Men's Frat has really challenged me in alot of areas of my life and I hope to change. Ronnie himself has challenged me in several areas and he said he wants to talk with me again at the end of the semester, before I go home for the summer. I hope to be able to tell him good news. I want to center my life around Christ, but it is very difficult and I often find myself leaning towards thinking about myself or perhaps other people, which is natural. "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love." And those things aren't bad in and of themselves, but they are when they are out of place, out of perspective and priority. I want to remember to do everything for God and honor Him in the little things. If I can do that the big things should fall into place. It is like Bob Brandon's story (the one he told at Glorieta) about the shelves Max Barnett told him to paint. He painted the visible parts, but Max had him go back and paint the parts that were not visible as well, because we don't do our work for man, we do it for God. I think I forget that too often. It is definitely one of my goals to honor God in all I do, and I'm going to try and start with the little things. Once I do that, I think the bigger things will seem much easier.

Man... I need to focus more

2005-03-22T23:13:00.000-06:00

I was talking with Chauncey tonight and I came to a realization. I realized why journaling is better than blogging: journals (pen and paper) are private and blogs are public. Now, this is obvious, but I will consiously think about people reading what I write when I write it, instead of writing what I really want to say. But I don't care anymore. I'm going try harder to live with my life focused on Christ now. That is going to take so much work, but it is what I've wanted for a long time and it is still what I want and now I'm just going to take it up a notch. I can't be self-centered. I realized that I talk alot about myself... and I haven't thought about it being self-centered because I like to talk about things I know about and I know quite a bit about myself. But I really need to focus on others and Christ a whole lot more. Pride is a hard thing to deal with, it encompasses alot and seeps into many areas in my life. I've realized pride deals with failures as well as successes and I've had alot of failures and I need to remember that pride can come from those as well. I need to stop being so selfish in my thought processes and my veiw and I need to keep in mind that humility is between God and I, and is determined by our veiw of other men. What that means is that if I have the correct veiw of the relationship between God and I, my veiw of others will be in perspective as well and it will help rid me of any pride I have.

Those first three or so entries are horrible. They don't have the perspective I was talking about. I need to step back and ask myself how I can glorify God in doing this no matter how small a task. If I can do that with everything I do, then man I'd be living the life I need to be living. But I don't do that. I need to remember that I do things for God, not man and that God will see absolutely everything. I need to remember that what I have is not only knowledge it is life and a relationship and that it applies to every little thing I do. I think I'm going to be alright as long as I can remember that and remember to think before I open my mouth and say things before I think through how to say them or write them.

I want to get many people to pray for the Tulsa Beacon. I strongly beleive that God will provide for my dad, but even if He doesn't its fine. But even if I think God will provide I need to pray for it and I want to get many people to pray for it. I want the Tulsa Beacon to continue and God to continue to work through it. And I would also like it if my family didn't lose everything... but God will provide if they do, so really its about God using the paper to change Tulsa. My vision at the moment is to change Norman, but my long term vision right now is to have a big impact on Tulsa, then expand from there. But I can't do anything without God and my dad and his newspaper, his ministry, his job, his life needs prayer.

I'm stupid and I'm an Idiot and a fool

2005-03-22T14:53:00.000-06:00

After reading my previous posts I feel very stupid and self-centered. When I look towards Christ and all that He has given me and why I am supposed to live my life I feel fine. No, I feel amazing and there's no way I can be depressed or complain or any of that stuff. I don't want pity and I definately don't want selfpity, so I'll try not to write anything like that again. Be encouraged and have an amazing and great day! Actually, have an amazingly great day!

See... There's no reason for this that I can see

2005-03-21T00:14:00.001-06:00

No one is going to read this! I don't know why I'm bothering to write it. I'm not going to tell people about because then I'll feel very self-centered and no one is going to know this exists without me telling them because the only way they would is if they read my facebook profile... so, no one is going to know this exists. Let's face it: no one wants to read my facebook profile, let alone this blog which talks about my life. If someone wanted to know about my life they would call me or talk to me or IM me. But no one calls me and really only 2 people IM me and no one will ever go out of their way to talk to me, but I don't expect them to either or think less of them because of that. I once was depressed because no one calls me or IM's me or comes to my room or invites me to things... But I will not be depressed anymore. Its Spring and I refuse to be depressed! I don't care if everyone hates me, I won't be depressed. All those things that made me depressed are nothing new, and I was happy just the same through high school and last semester; why should it change anything now? Now, would I like people to call me or IM me or come by my room or talk to me or invite me to eat with them or just something? Yeah. It would mean the world to me if someone came by my room just to talk to me or see how I was doing or see if I want to eat with them. Will I think anything of it if no one ever does? No. That's just life, and expecting things like that seems selfish and prideful. I feel I am being self-centered even writing this and the past few entries, but I suppose this is about me and that is how I feel. I've been trying to get to know people better, especially freshmen, but it is really hard for me and I don't know what to do. I suppose I'm afraid that I won't be at OU next year and I'm afraid that I won't have freinds. If I come back I'll have freinds, but if people don't call me now, what will make them call me when I'm in Tulsa instead of Norman? If people don't really tallk to me now, they're not going to talk to me if I live in Tulsa instead of Norman. I guess that's really what had me depressed; if I don't come back next year, will I have any freinds? I am sure that I'll have atleast 3, but it won't be the same. None of them live in Tulsa. I guess I've just been worried about not coming back and only having 3 people remember me. I would pay quite a bit of money to know what people thought of me. Do people think I'm a jerk? Do they think I'm a loser? Do people have opinions of me at all? I suppose that this is Really self-centered, but I still would like to know what people think about me. I don't want to be disliked, but don't want to be popular, I don't want to be funny, I don't care if I'm well liked or not, all I really want is to know someone (besides the guys who live on my hall) considers me their freinds and will miss me if I'm not at OU next year and will remember me.

Second Post...

2005-03-21T00:14:00.000-06:00

I'm still not sure why I'm doing this... Who'll read it? I don't know... I'm still typing, so I suppose I'll keep this up. I heard today that Disney is producing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They'd better not screw it up... if they do they will soon find out how much power God really has I should think. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a direct allegory to the Bible and I should think God would be a little upset if Disney twisted the gospel... not to mention all of the other corrupt stuff they do and the other world veiws they advocate. I am certain that Christians will lash out at Disney if they mess it up. Atleast I hope they will if Disney changes it.

I liked Ronnie's sermon this morning. It was about where Jesus went when he died. He talked a bit about the different spiritual places and he covered a bit about demons. It was really interesting and I am now going to start a study on the matter and I'll probably end up writing a paper over it when I'm done.

I don't know what this will be

2005-03-20T00:14:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what this will end up being. But I am going to do it anyway. I just got back from a trip with the OU BSU to Glorieta, NM. I had an awesome time and learned alot about God. It wasn't just information, in case you're wandering. There are times when I want to learn and I learn knowledge. But I was able to spend time with older, wiser people and really see what they were saying in there lives. I was able to see a whole week of it. Now, I have seen it before... However, I saw so much of it at once and non-stop. I have seen this before and every time I am changed. I don't want to live conference to conference, but I love going to things like this.

I also was able to get to know some people a little better and I definately got the time with God I wanted, but I still would have liked more... I suppose I'll always want more, but that's life... this life anyway. I would have liked to have gotten to know some people better still, but I was afraid and that's something I really need to work on. We aren't supposed to fear anything but God and that is a different kind of fear; we have not been given a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7). I really want to know these people more; however, recently Travis Dunlap asked me why and I could not give an answer at the time. I think I know now, though. For the sake of fellowship, freindship and learning (in Christ). Those are some of the reasons Christians should be freinds.

Travis was definately right in asking me that when he did. Before Glorieta I was depressed; I thought the only freinds I had were Travis, and the guys on Walker 3. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I must not have been thinking clearly. I have freinds; I have alot of them. I was thinking that because no one but Travis and the guys on Walker 3 ever called me or came to my room or looked for me and I was rarely ever invited to things that I had no freinds except for them. But I was wrong; people don't have to do those things to be freinds. In high school, absolutely no one called me, or came over, or Instant Messaged me, or invited me to anything, or invited me to eat with them; but I still had freinds. But anyway, I was depressed and thought I had no freinds and no one liked me, but I was wrong. People probably still won't call me and people might not invite me to eat with them and most people still probably won't talk with me unless I start the conversation, but it doesn't matter. The point is, if I do come and try to talk to them, they will talk with me. If I need help, they'll help me or give me advice at the very least. It doesn't matter if no one ever comes up to me and starts the conversation and no one ever comes by my room. It doesn't matter if people forget my birthday, and I might have a final (I haven't checked) and might be alone that day. All that matters is my relationship with Christ and my ministry. It doesn't matter if people don't like me or are indifferent about me, all that matters is what God thinks. Anyway, Glorieta helped me get over my stupid depression.

I had a simple revelation one day when I was there. I fall down alot and run into things alot and do things like that. But I only do it in front of other people to make them laugh (some of the times I do those things its real). But I realized the simple concept of them not knowing I do it on purpose and them thinking I'm clumsy. It is a very simple idea, but I never put much thought into it until now and it really disturbed me. I still like making people laugh, but I don't think I'll use that method half as much now. I think that's one of the reasons I did stand up instead of a skit or something. I wanted to make people laugh with me and I wanted to do it without falling over or pretending to hurt myself or do any sort of physical comedy. I wanted to make people laugh just by talking. And I did. I don't know how many people thought I was funny, but I know that some did and I was happy. I don't want to make everyone laugh all of the time. I don't want to be the center of attention all of the time, but there are time when I do want people to notice me and there are times when I want to make them laugh. There are times I don't want people to notice me and times I want to be alone. But there are also times I wish people would notice me and times I am too scared to say something to get them to notice me or to sit with them and times when I am too scared to say or do something I think would be funny. I want people to notice me sometimes, but I don't want them to notice me and think of me as clumsy. There are times when I have opened my mouth and stuck my foot in it (a couple of times on purpose actually), and that just reinforces the idea that people think you're stupid if you don't talk, but if you open your mouth you remove all doubt. That is why I listen most of the time, in Proverbs it tells us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. I know that it doesn't matter what people think of me, but sometimes I wish people... I don't know... Sometimes I wish people... I still don't know. I wish people knew what I thought, or wish they'd want to know... no that's not it... I wish I could tell people the things I wanted to say... I wish I could express myself clearly... I wish I had the courage to do it, I wish I show people... I don't know... show them something.

I suppose I just want people to know who I am, I wish I knew who I was. When someone asks you who you are, they really want to know your name. When people ask how you're doing, they want a one word answer usually. I do not ask these questions like that, but perhaps I have become numb to answering them. I'm not sure who I am exactly. There are many people I would like to be like... my dad, Max Barnett, Ronny Rodgers, Kels, Rich Bartlett, Denise Queen, John Conner and several other godly men. I have been really convicted by the song "This is your life" by Switchfoot. The chorus is "This is your life; are you who you want to be?" and I have to answer no. I am going to try to be that person, but it will take a long time and the changes might be very slow, but I will become that person I think. I want people to think of me and think of a godly man, who is generous, who is wise, who knows scripture, who is freindly... no, who is a freind, who is smart, who will do what is needed and what is right and someone who people like talking to. I have a long way to go. I already made a commitment to help anyone I can and talk to anyone who wants to talk to me (that one is easy) earlier this year. I try to get in God's word every day and I try to learn verses, but I can do better. I try to be a good freind to people, but it is very hard and most of the time I don't know what to do. All I know is I want to keep changing my heart (not just my actions) and I want to be that man someday and I will keep trying. One of m troubles is I don't know what to do around people and I become scared.