All that typing about girlfriends in my last post reminded me that I have some things to say about girlfriends:
One day I was visiting a nursing home here in Pullman and I was visiting this one guy who asked me if I had a girlfriend. I answered him directly, "No." His response was, "Then what do you do for sex?" I thought to myself that if I ever have a girlfriend, I should probably not go around saying, "So and so is my girlfriend," because if I do so, people will think to themselves, "Joshua has been having sex with So and so." You know, going around and saying the equivalent of, "So and so has been having sex with me," just wouldn't be very nice for dear sweet So and so.
So I decided that I needed to come up with another term for the significant other that Jesus may or may not give me later. Of course I realize that if such a term catches on it will doubtlessly become corrupted like all sorts of other terms have, e.g. girlfriend didn't always mean "female meeting sexual needs," but I guess that all I care about is that it doesn't become corrupted until after I am through with it, i.e. until after I become married.
So I did come up with a term and you have already read it in the heading: Very Important Person. Whenever I introduced my "girlfriend" to someone I can say, this is So and so my VIP and explain why I don't want to call her my girlfriend.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
The End of an Era (and other pictures)
I think that this first picture sort of represents what I have been and what I will be as far as image goes. In the past there have been a number of things--like shaving and cleaning my face and wearing clothes that look somewhat acceptable instead of clothes that just work and not wearing a crash helmet in unorthadox places--that I thought I would change someday when I needed too, like after I had a girlfriend who cared about how I looked. Now I am thinking that I will have to change all of those things before I get a girlfriend so that I can get a job as a professional and keep it from one day to the next. So yeah, that is what the black helmet represents. The car in behind me in the picture represents the relatively normal image that I will probably wind up with.
These other pictures are images of me and my roommate fighting with foam broadswords. His skill is superior to mine.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
The Author of (our) Salvation
This posting includes a lot of rambling. If you want to read the part about the author of salvation immediately, skip down to the third to the last paragraph.
Last night (night of 02/22/06) I went to a place called the Nuart Theatre in Moscow Idaho with my roommate who is named Warren. A man named Eric Engerbretson owns the place and plays his guitar and sings and plays his harmonica in the lobby on Tuesday nights from 9 pm to 11 pm. The lobby is used for selling Christian books and coffee and soda. The auditorium is used for concerts and free movies and church services. Last night was an unusual night from my perspective.
I didn't want to work on homework, but I wanted to access the internet while I was there so I packed all my computer things into my backpack. Warren and I traveled the eight miles between Pullman and Moscow in my car which I call the Illuminate 2. I imagine that I will post an entry about the name of my car later. I parked the Illuminate 2 and noticed that I had left my backpack at the house that I live in which is called The Embassy. I don't really know how The Embassy got its name. I thought to myself, "I guess I can just sit and listen to music and read a book." I got started with a book called Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis and read through the whole first entry (Screwtape Letters is a fictional compilation of instructional letters written from one fictional demon to another regarding the deception and capture of members of the race of men), but while I was reading, Warren made contact with the people playing chess at the table next to me. He got me set up to play a man named Reed. I beat him easily because he made three mistakes and two of them were made consecutively. We played a queen's pawn opening. I fienchetoed my queen's bishop and I had one diagonal and one file clogged up by my queen's pawn. I gave him a half hearted excuse to get it out of the way and he fell for it (probably thinking that he had some really clever plan). Then he fell into a fork between his rook and his king. He moved his king to the wrong spot and I made it a fork between his king and his queen, the latter of which he lost. I went on to win the game.
Warren decided to play with him next (since I wanted to quit while I was ahead and it was Reed's board). I began to talk with the man that Reed had been playing with while I was reading the Screwtape Letters book. This man's name is Nate. I asked Nate about his house and found out that he used to live in a fraternity but that he moved out because the people there drank too much. I asked him how much drinking was too much. After a bit of discussion, someone mentioned the Bible and the reference in Ephesians about not becoming drunk came up. I went on to ask him about whether or not he belonged to Jesus. He told me that he considered himself to be saved. I asked him why and told me that he considered himself to be saved because he had quit a lot of his sinning since he began college. I kept asking him questions about sin and how it should be dealt with and how God should deal with it because I was trying to get him to tell me that the work of Jesus is the basis upon which Jesus can justify a sinner, but he never mentioned Jesus. I had to set him straight and I pointed out Acts 4:12. He invited me to his Bible study and I'll probably go at least once because there may be other people like him attending.
I just don't very well understand how people can think that they are saved and explain their salvation without mentioning Jesus who is the only savior.
If you don't have any idea what I am talking about, then please take some time to learn Hell's Best Kept Secret. I didn't think it would change my thinking before I heard it, but I was wrong and I was glad to find out.
Last night (night of 02/22/06) I went to a place called the Nuart Theatre in Moscow Idaho with my roommate who is named Warren. A man named Eric Engerbretson owns the place and plays his guitar and sings and plays his harmonica in the lobby on Tuesday nights from 9 pm to 11 pm. The lobby is used for selling Christian books and coffee and soda. The auditorium is used for concerts and free movies and church services. Last night was an unusual night from my perspective.
I didn't want to work on homework, but I wanted to access the internet while I was there so I packed all my computer things into my backpack. Warren and I traveled the eight miles between Pullman and Moscow in my car which I call the Illuminate 2. I imagine that I will post an entry about the name of my car later. I parked the Illuminate 2 and noticed that I had left my backpack at the house that I live in which is called The Embassy. I don't really know how The Embassy got its name. I thought to myself, "I guess I can just sit and listen to music and read a book." I got started with a book called Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis and read through the whole first entry (Screwtape Letters is a fictional compilation of instructional letters written from one fictional demon to another regarding the deception and capture of members of the race of men), but while I was reading, Warren made contact with the people playing chess at the table next to me. He got me set up to play a man named Reed. I beat him easily because he made three mistakes and two of them were made consecutively. We played a queen's pawn opening. I fienchetoed my queen's bishop and I had one diagonal and one file clogged up by my queen's pawn. I gave him a half hearted excuse to get it out of the way and he fell for it (probably thinking that he had some really clever plan). Then he fell into a fork between his rook and his king. He moved his king to the wrong spot and I made it a fork between his king and his queen, the latter of which he lost. I went on to win the game.
Warren decided to play with him next (since I wanted to quit while I was ahead and it was Reed's board). I began to talk with the man that Reed had been playing with while I was reading the Screwtape Letters book. This man's name is Nate. I asked Nate about his house and found out that he used to live in a fraternity but that he moved out because the people there drank too much. I asked him how much drinking was too much. After a bit of discussion, someone mentioned the Bible and the reference in Ephesians about not becoming drunk came up. I went on to ask him about whether or not he belonged to Jesus. He told me that he considered himself to be saved. I asked him why and told me that he considered himself to be saved because he had quit a lot of his sinning since he began college. I kept asking him questions about sin and how it should be dealt with and how God should deal with it because I was trying to get him to tell me that the work of Jesus is the basis upon which Jesus can justify a sinner, but he never mentioned Jesus. I had to set him straight and I pointed out Acts 4:12. He invited me to his Bible study and I'll probably go at least once because there may be other people like him attending.
I just don't very well understand how people can think that they are saved and explain their salvation without mentioning Jesus who is the only savior.
If you don't have any idea what I am talking about, then please take some time to learn Hell's Best Kept Secret. I didn't think it would change my thinking before I heard it, but I was wrong and I was glad to find out.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Romance
I plan to start with a list of things that I think are romantic. I don't mean the romance like that involved when a husband gives his wife a gift or even makes sure that she never has to visit the gas station or park her car in the driveway in front of a garage full of shop tools. What I mean is the romance defined as
2. Walking along the shoulder of a highway
3. Wrecking a car and walking away knowing that I did all the right things to avoid the wreck (this probably comes from Star Trek III)
4. Broadswords (I think that the reason that swords seem so romantic may be that God invented them. Genesis 3:24)
5. Driving at night because it kind of emphasizes the difference between walking and driving.
I guess I'll camp on this one because I can't seem to think of very many more. When a person walks from point A to point B, he sees just about everything between those two points. When a person drives between the same two points, she never has to think about most of the things between them; it is like she has jumped into hyperspace or has climbed into a discontinuity machine and doesn't really know what happened. Sometimes a person will ask me how I got from one place to another and when I tell them, "I walked" or, "I ran," that person will look at me as though the origin and destination were light years apart. A person driving at night sees even less than a person driving during the day, perhaps as little as white dots in pairs, white lines, and yellow lines.
A mysterious or fascinating quality or appeal, as of something adventurous, heroic, or strangely beautiful--dictionary.com1. Static on analogue radio or television, expecially on the AM commercial or amateur band on the signal of a DX station (I probably picked this up from my amateur radio experiences)
2. Walking along the shoulder of a highway
3. Wrecking a car and walking away knowing that I did all the right things to avoid the wreck (this probably comes from Star Trek III)
4. Broadswords (I think that the reason that swords seem so romantic may be that God invented them. Genesis 3:24)
5. Driving at night because it kind of emphasizes the difference between walking and driving.
I guess I'll camp on this one because I can't seem to think of very many more. When a person walks from point A to point B, he sees just about everything between those two points. When a person drives between the same two points, she never has to think about most of the things between them; it is like she has jumped into hyperspace or has climbed into a discontinuity machine and doesn't really know what happened. Sometimes a person will ask me how I got from one place to another and when I tell them, "I walked" or, "I ran," that person will look at me as though the origin and destination were light years apart. A person driving at night sees even less than a person driving during the day, perhaps as little as white dots in pairs, white lines, and yellow lines.
Monday, February 13, 2006
Parents
As I was typing my last post (the one about influences) I thought to myself, "I should honor my parents by expanding my mention of their positive influence on my life."
So here I go:
I guess I will begin generally. I have never been arrested, I have never caused anyone to become pregnant, I am not addicted to smoking, drugs, excessige food or alchohol, pornography, masturbating, or anything else that I can think of, nor am I in great financial debt (i.e. I owe them some). So for starters, let me just say that my parents have not caused me to fall into many of the foolish habits that many parents introduce to their children.
I will continue discussing the negative side: As the movie Polyanna points out so explicitly, a person's bad points are easy to find. In a way I have often been unhappy with my homeschool pre-college education. When I become unhappy about this I remind myself that even though I had never had a day of formal high school instruction, I tested into college classes as a result of all three my community college's pre college tests: reading, writing, and mathematics. This is more than half the people taking the same tests can do. This was a direct result of my parents teaching.
It is quite possible that my dad had a strong influence on my decision to become an engineer. He became a mechanical engineer after attending a community college and the University of Washington. I am about to become a civil engineer after attending Everett Community College and Washington State University.
I just realized that my memorization of hundreds of Bible verses in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Bible Quizzing program was a result of my mother's influence. When I was entering the eighth grade my mother told me that I should begin Bible Quizzing. I did not want to begin Bible Quizzing and my dad said that I was learning enough Bible from Awana, but it was decided that I had to try it for a year. After attending my first quiz meet, I determined to continue Bible Quizzing until I had to stop at the end of high school.
It is because of my father's instruction that I received real teaching from real teachers at a community college before spending loads of money at a four year university. My father received the same instruction from his step dad and I have seen second hand the discouraging consequences of attending a four year university engineering department straight out of high school.
Come to think of it, my mother's father is indirectly responsible for my memorization of hundreds of Bible verses because he led my mother in Bible Quizzing when they were both younger than they are now.
I don't really know how to end this. Perhaps by saying that instruction has saved me a lot of trouble.
Proverbs 4:13
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.
NIV
So here I go:
I guess I will begin generally. I have never been arrested, I have never caused anyone to become pregnant, I am not addicted to smoking, drugs, excessige food or alchohol, pornography, masturbating, or anything else that I can think of, nor am I in great financial debt (i.e. I owe them some). So for starters, let me just say that my parents have not caused me to fall into many of the foolish habits that many parents introduce to their children.
I will continue discussing the negative side: As the movie Polyanna points out so explicitly, a person's bad points are easy to find. In a way I have often been unhappy with my homeschool pre-college education. When I become unhappy about this I remind myself that even though I had never had a day of formal high school instruction, I tested into college classes as a result of all three my community college's pre college tests: reading, writing, and mathematics. This is more than half the people taking the same tests can do. This was a direct result of my parents teaching.
It is quite possible that my dad had a strong influence on my decision to become an engineer. He became a mechanical engineer after attending a community college and the University of Washington. I am about to become a civil engineer after attending Everett Community College and Washington State University.
I just realized that my memorization of hundreds of Bible verses in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Bible Quizzing program was a result of my mother's influence. When I was entering the eighth grade my mother told me that I should begin Bible Quizzing. I did not want to begin Bible Quizzing and my dad said that I was learning enough Bible from Awana, but it was decided that I had to try it for a year. After attending my first quiz meet, I determined to continue Bible Quizzing until I had to stop at the end of high school.
It is because of my father's instruction that I received real teaching from real teachers at a community college before spending loads of money at a four year university. My father received the same instruction from his step dad and I have seen second hand the discouraging consequences of attending a four year university engineering department straight out of high school.
Come to think of it, my mother's father is indirectly responsible for my memorization of hundreds of Bible verses because he led my mother in Bible Quizzing when they were both younger than they are now.
I don't really know how to end this. Perhaps by saying that instruction has saved me a lot of trouble.
Proverbs 4:13
Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.
NIV
Influences
I have been reading a bunch of blogs recently, just today in fact. Because of this, I became influenced to have my own blog, so here it is. I began to wonder what I should type about in my first blog and I thought to myself, "I should type about influence and try to determine other ways that I have been influenced."
So here I go:
Parents: I have had the same two parents for my whole life. I lived with both of them in one house for 21 years. Both of them have always been quite opinionated and have never told me to go find my own version of truth. My parents homeschooled me all of the way through high school because they knew that kids found in run of the mill classrooms are fools and the Bible told them that "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
Because of my mothers interpretation of verses like Philippians 4:8, I refuse to play video games that involve running around killing people or even robots. This means that my growing up video games included Packman, Stunt Island, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Sim City, Need for Speed and Capture the Flag, but did not include Doom, and the like. My parents also determined that I should not get used to putting the petal to the metal as soon as I hear sirens, so I have also avoided eluding police cars in video games as well as in real life (although I do get some satisfaction from driving through speed traps without having to reduce my speed).
The Bible (hopefully): I have read it twice and memorized more than most people. It includes instructions that I like (e.g. Proverbs 19:2 It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.) and instruction that I do not like (e.g. Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.).
The Bible also contains instruction regarding the avoidence of Hell and the aquisition of eternal life. Romans 4 is the passage that helped me understand that if I couldn't believe God's promises regarding his gift of eternal life as a result of righteousness given to me as a result of my faith, I was calling Him a liar (calling God a liar is absurd). Oh, and while I am thinking about the Bible, let me reiterate a biblical theme: Jesus is the King.
So here I go:
Parents: I have had the same two parents for my whole life. I lived with both of them in one house for 21 years. Both of them have always been quite opinionated and have never told me to go find my own version of truth. My parents homeschooled me all of the way through high school because they knew that kids found in run of the mill classrooms are fools and the Bible told them that "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm."
Because of my mothers interpretation of verses like Philippians 4:8, I refuse to play video games that involve running around killing people or even robots. This means that my growing up video games included Packman, Stunt Island, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Sim City, Need for Speed and Capture the Flag, but did not include Doom, and the like. My parents also determined that I should not get used to putting the petal to the metal as soon as I hear sirens, so I have also avoided eluding police cars in video games as well as in real life (although I do get some satisfaction from driving through speed traps without having to reduce my speed).
The Bible (hopefully): I have read it twice and memorized more than most people. It includes instructions that I like (e.g. Proverbs 19:2 It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.) and instruction that I do not like (e.g. Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.).
The Bible also contains instruction regarding the avoidence of Hell and the aquisition of eternal life. Romans 4 is the passage that helped me understand that if I couldn't believe God's promises regarding his gift of eternal life as a result of righteousness given to me as a result of my faith, I was calling Him a liar (calling God a liar is absurd). Oh, and while I am thinking about the Bible, let me reiterate a biblical theme: Jesus is the King.
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