Bowling, Poker, and FOCUS

Ok, so this week has been a little crazy, but I thought I would post on some of the highlights. Sunday six of us went out for a fun time of bowling. There ended up being 3 guys and 3 girls. Naturally it turned into a guy vs girl grudge match. Naturally the guys let the girls win. But enough chit chat... onto the pictures:

The Girls Team


The Guys Team


Me showing how it's done!


The many faces of Mica.



The final scores: Guys 292, Girls 314 (like I said, we let the girls win!)

The following night we went to Becca's for a good ol' homecooked meal. Following that we had a fun time listening to depressing country music and playing cards. Life is good.

A good game of Euchre.


KJ playing poker... and losing!


Mike, the winner... what else is new!

Then Wednesday night, a different group of us went out to a thing called FOCUS out at Lincoln Christian College. As always it was a blast. We sang some praise and worship songs (DCB songs rulz the house!) and there was an awesome sermon on the power of prayer.

So that pretty much hits the highlights of this week so far. Until next time...

Splits and Divides... REFORMATION!!!

Ok, recently my doctrinal views have fallen outside that of the Church of Harry Potter and Latter Day Wiches. If I thought it was possible to reform this holy church, I would do so. But I have found none. Therefore KJ and I have undertaken to split from the church and form a new one... The Church of Lonesome Losers. We hope that after many years of wallowing in self pitty and preaching damnation against the The Church of Harry Potter, we may resolve our differences.

If you are alone, sad you are alone, and never have any hope of having a girlfriend, our church is for you. Come and wallow in self pitty, meet other pathetic losers such as yourself, and realize the cold truth... you will die sad and alone For more information, please go to KJ's BLOG.

You might be a redneck if...

You might be a redneck if you've ever taken your mom's van muddying:

Oh the country... welcome to my world!

Seders and the Cross?

NOTE: Having written the blog below, I realize it is harsh. I also realize that alot of effort went into this seder and I'm not trying to hurt those people. However, I do feel strongly about this. Hence, the blog:

Ok, so lately something has really been bothering me. Well, alots been bothering me. But one thing in particular has come up. Last Thursday, CSF did what's called a Jewish seder, aka a Jewish Passover Meal. I went, thinking it sounded cool. I walked away sort of perplexed. Having contemplated it for a couple days, I think I've realizied why I'm annoyed and subsequently, as I will attempt to explain, why I think its a smack to God's face.

To begin, let me explain a little bit about this seder. It was essentially a traditional Jewish Passover, even so far as to have the authentic seat for Elijah (I believe was the prophet). I guess the bigger point, is that the reason we supposedly did this was to mimic Jesus last supper. However throughout this entire meal, Jesus was never mentioned. Infact he never really came up. There wasn't even a seat for Jesus.

This led me to thinking, why even do this. Yea it sounds hip and cool. But in reality, this week should be to focus on Jesus, God's son. God sent Jesus as a living sacrifice to atone for our sins. That's a pretty big gift. In doing so, God wiped away the old convenant, that which he made with the Jews. So, to celebrate this gift, we revert back to Jewish traditions? If God sent his son to atone for our sins and free us from this old convenant in order to make a new one, then why are we spending this week focusing on a tradition of a culture who denies Jesus existence?

These are just my thoughts, I am leaving this open to debate. Please feel free to post your comments. However, if you quote scripture, please provide a reference to where it came from.

Birthday Extravaganza

Insert: I think Mwall is about to flag me for a delay of blog, so I'm stopping programming and pulling this out of draft to finish it... Matt, this ones for you!

This week has been crazy. On top of spring break this week, there ended up being a three day celebration for my birthday. Woot for friends and family! So here we go...

On Wendsday, March 16 (my actual birthday) my parents took me out to Red Lobster. MmmMmm Good! They also got me a new digital camera. So now I'm a real blogger!

This is my dad and mom (excuse the bluriness... I was still learning the camera... GOSH!)


This is my new camera... I found out quickly that you should not use flash when taking a picture of a mirror.

That was pretty much it for night one. Night two got a little more cRaZy! 7 of us took a trip down to St. Louis to meet up with some friends for a night of eating at the Cheesecake Factory and line dancing.

Three of the cool guys who tagged along.


The only 2 girls who came. Also the two people who orchestrated this fiasco... from Florida no less!


Another cool guy who tagged along... apparently just to buy a movie.

After eating at the Cheesecake Factory (which was amazing) and racking up a 250 dollar bill, we decided not to go line dancing. That and all of us were full and none of us (except one) knew how to line dance. We ended up driving back to Mike's apartment and playing a good game of poker... which I lost.

Mike on the left getting his game face on and JK on the right counting the stash he probably took from me!

Oh and incase any of you are wondering how I can do all this, I mean stay out till 3:30 am and still drive home, let me let you in on my little secret...

24oz cup of coffee!

Finally, on Friday, the third night of my birthday, Kati organized something really cool. She had about 10 people stationed all around campus. I had to start at the first person, get the clue from them, then figure out where and to whom to go next. After I got through everyone it ended up we headed back to my house for pizza, cake and movie watching. We watched Ladder 49 by the way, which is an excellent movie.

So that's about everthing on my birthday. Once I get through some of this homework I will post again. Have a good one all!

Arg...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7182628/

I'm usually not that political, but I saw this and it annoyed me. Anything else this country wants to pervert, destroy or fornicate? I guess it shouldn't surprise me though, it is California after all. They would be the first to destroy the morality of God's marriages.

Edit: As I said, I don't really keep up with politics. My friend Michael just informed me California is the second state to destroy the morality of God's marriages. Massachusetts was the first. Also, incase "God's marriages" struck you as an odd statement:

"Haven't you read the scriptures?" Jesus replied, "They record that from the beginning 'God made them male and female.' And he said, ' This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.' Since they are no longer two but one, let no one separate them, for God has joined them together."
~Matthew 19:4-6 (NLT)

God's Plan...

After two posts on the south, I think I'm going to switch gears a little bit and talk about life and Christianity. I have come to see life as kind of like a Bob Ross painting. If you've ever watched Bob paint on PBS, then you may know what I mean. He starts off by painting this beautiful scenery portrait. Its got a lake, big blue sky, a "happy" little rock, and a nice cottage. It's perfect, it's exceptional, it's just as it should be, seemingly finished. But then out of nowhere he makes a long black line running from the top right of the painting down to the bottom. Why? What is he thinking? Then he starts adding to it, a little highlight for bark, some branches, some leaves. When he's done, the painting isn't what it was. No, it's become richer, fuller, the dominance of the recently added oak tree brings a new dimension to it.

The thing is, while he's painting the oak tree, it's hard to see how it benefits the painting much at all. When he's finished, that's when it becomes so much clearer. I think God acts much the same way in my life as Bob Ross does with his paintings. Recently things seemed to be going really well, neigh perfect. Then in one fell swoop things went completely wrong. Well they seemed to go wrong. Like I said, it's hard to appreciate the oak tree when its still a big black line on a seemingly perfect painting. However, I know that God put me in this situation for a reason. Someone I care a lot about one time shared with me the passage from Jeremiah 29:11. I had read this passage before, but then they pointed out the previous verse, which I had never noticed:

"The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
~Jeremiah 29:10-11 (NLT)

The trials that do us the most good in this life are never easy. They may take 70 years, 7 years, or just a year. But for those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ, we can have faith in the fact that no matter what happens God will always have a plan for us. I have no clue where God is taking me right now. But for the first time in a while I'm ok with that, even at peace. I have faith that one day this will all make sense, that this big black line will begin to fill in and become what I can't even imagine now. To finish this post, I think I'll leave you all with the lyrics to an awesome Matthew West song from his album Happy:

There You go changing my plans again
There You go shifting my sands again
For reasons I don't understand again
Lately I don't have a clue
Just when I start liking what I see
There You go changing my scenery
I never know where You're taking me
But I'm trying just to follow You

Chorus:
It's out of my hands
It's out of my reach
It's over my head
And it's out of my league
There's too many things
That I don't understand
So it's into Your will
And it's out of my hands

There You go healing these scars again
Showing me right where You are again
I'm helpless, and that's where I start again
I'm giving it all up to You
~Out of My Hands, Matthew West

The South Part 2

So again I'm avoiding doing a reading assignment for school, oh well. In response to my last post, a girl I don't know named Ashley wrote:

Is Virginia really the South? I live in Tennessee but was thankfully born a
Yankee and no one I know really calls Virginia the south. Now WEST Virginia,
they have just enough hick accent to throw them into the "backwoods" category of
America.

I think we should distinguish between three definitions or uses of the word "south". The first is the use of the word south to describe the southern states that broke away from the Union during the Civil War. In this respected Virginia is to be considered south. Now, the other two uses of the word south come from its two connotations. The first connotation is the "respectable south" I guess you would call it. It's the polite, respectable, well mannered way southern people seem to be. The second connotation is the hick, uneducated, backwoods, married his cousin and only drinks moonshine. I don't, however, think either one of these fully defines true southerners. I think people often mistake the backwoods accent and slowness which with southerners take life as a sign of poor education. In reality, the south is just a different culture is all.

So how do I fit into all of this? Well, I don't have an accent, and I've never really lived in the south for any considerable length of time. I was almost to young to remember most of my time spent in Virginia. Furthermore the ten years spent in Florida really doesn't count either. Just to clarify, FLORIDA IS NOT THE SOUTH! Florida is place for old people to retire to and wreak havoc on the roads. It would be better classified with another state like California or something. However, I can claim lineage and upbringing. My mom is a Georgian, accent and all. Although the accent has faded over the years. Since my dad was in the navy, while he was out to sea for anywhere from 2 to 6 months, my mom was left alone to raise me and my sister. We were definitely raised southern. We were taught proper courtesies, to be respectful, to love fried chicken, to only drink tea that pours out like syrup, and to hate General Sherman.

If I were you I would count myself lucky to be living in a place like Tennessee. My grandpa owns a cabin near Coker Creek and I always enjoy when we get to go down and see him there. In fact, I think that if I ever had the chance to move down south, Tennessee would rank number one on my list of places I'd like to live.

Ok, now to actually get something done today... maybe.

And here we go...

Ok, so this is my first time "blogging". I guess I'm doing this cause it beats doing homework. Also I figured that since everyone else is doing it I should jump on the bandwaggon.

Perhaps now would be a good time to tell a little bit about me. I live in a little town called Mechancisburg in central Illinois. It's about 20 miles due East of Springfield. It's not a very big town, only about 500 people. At one point we had a flashing light at one intersection, but they shut it down cause it cost to much run. I guess the best thing we had was a gas station, but that too shut down not to long ago. We have a bank though, and what a bank it is. It's even got an ATM machine. We also have a fire department, which I'm a volunteer firefighter for. It's about the closest thing to excitment we have out here.

I haven't always lived in the north though. No sir, I'm a born and raised southerner. I was born in Portsmith, Virginia. Sometime after that my family moved from there to Florida (where my sister was born) then back to Virginia, then back to Florida. Why so much moving? My Dad was in the Navy. You get used to it I suppose. Once he retired though we moved to Illinois cause that's where he's from. My mom's from Georgia, by the way. If you really want to know, I think the north is ok, but its not the south. It's a whole nother world up hear. It's not that there's anything wrong with the north0. It's kind of like being raised in the ocean then moving to dry land. Maybe if I'm lucky God has plans to move me back south of the Mason Dixon line again, well see.

Speaking of God, hear's a fine time to talk about Him. Although I guess anytime is a good time to talk about Him. It wasn't until recently that I became what I would call a true Christian. I guess what made the turnaround for me was a thing called Christian Student Fellowship out at the University of Illinois at Springfield. If you haven't heard of UIS, don't worry, when we get our quad we'll be a real campus, then everyone will know. But back to CSF, its a really cool thing. When I first started going their last semester, what struck me was how the people who went their truly had hearts seeking after God. Now I know all sorts of awesome people, 3 of whom I will get to room with next semester!

Ok, I think that's enough blogging for one day. I have other things to do, like go to http://www.homestarrunner.com and wast time. Have a great day and God bless!