Nathan's Old Blog

2004-05-11T16:12:00.000+12:00

Ok, my blog is shifted:
http://theeel.blogspot.com
Sorry for any inconvience this may cause.

2004-05-03T17:26:00.000+12:00

|Grrr...|
Comments aren't retrieving for me

But Thanks to all those who have posted comments!

2004-05-03T14:01:00.000+12:00

|What I've been up to|
Herein I summarize my life, what has been going on, etc.

Most of what I've been doing has been busified, so Its quite hard to keep in touch with what I've done. Its not so good for the blogging.
Anyhow, I have been working hard at university, doing my honours year. It has been challenging having to give presentations and seminars. So far I've done two, (I've got about eight in total) which have gone pretty well, despite my nervousness, and its effects on my clarity. I am so thankful for cognitive aids - Powerpoint with speaker notes makes it so much easier on my memory.

With Christian Union I've been involved in the running of the main prayer meetings, and a monday night cell group. I'm also involved in the exec, which does take up a lot of the time. I'm finding it a good time to continue growing in leadership. I'm not sure I'm really doing all I could and perhaps should do, but I try.

Soccer has been happening, which is cool. I play indoor some wednesdays, church league some saturdays, and have a regular kick round some sundays. Its good for my skills.

Ok, Thats a quick summary of where I am at. I'll be writing another general summary of what my plans for the future are soon. (Before the aforementioned future hopefully =)

|Poem: Fruyulops|
We wander here
We wander there
Tasting the fleeting tastes of the fruyulops
Floating round and round
Floating in and out
Taking a piece here
Taking a piece there
Chewing on one
Swallowing
Moving on

until next time, Adun Toridos!- I mean... cye!

2004-04-30T22:11:00.000+12:00

|What does the future hold?|
I guess this is a question I'm wondering about currently.
Any suggestions, leave a comment...
I've a multitude of ideas, but can't distinguish between them.

2004-04-27T15:31:00.000+12:00

|Poetry|
Is it legitimate to put off something that needs to be done for a period of time so you can fully capture the emotion of the in-between stage in poetry?

2004-04-25T21:43:00.000+12:00

I feel like I've spent too long in one place, I've spent so much of my life in such a small space. One of these days I'm going to leave. You have been warned.

Anyhow. Here's some stuff I learnt over the holidays, which I was smart enough to write down, so I can type them out for you now.

|Good Preachers|
Good Preachers are not analogous to Good Speakers. A good speaker can use stories, persuasion, techniques, and arouse a response in people, can get them to change their mind, even their behaviour. A good preacher can probably do the same, but they have one more quality: They use the bible. They are in touch with the spirit, they pray for the people they are preaching for wanting to see the spirit move in them, and they realize how the spirit moves: Through the word of God.
So, its all good to have speakers motivating us, and informing us, but they aren't as good for our souls as are preachers. Give me a preacher anyday.

|Talking|
Less spiritual, but I've often thought about it, (ironically, often at the expense of not talking) as it does seem to affect me in a lot of my life. We use conversation in our everyday life, to improve our relationships. To be good at conversation is good. Some of this is probably pretty basic, or intuitive, but I just feel like writing about it, in the hope that perhaps by doing this, I'll be able to come up with ways to be a better conversationalist

So... what makes good conversation? Well, one part I've been thinking about is the idea of topic finding. It seems that once a topic is agreed apon, two people can talk about it for quite some time, provided both parties are sufficently talkative, and dont make conversational blunders.

Following on from one topic to another can be called topic bridging, and is quite easy, because you are bridging from one topic to another, and usually this happens naturally. Initial topic finding is quite hard, because you have to come up with something from scratch. There is a barrier starting the talking, breaking the ice if you like, and there is a lack of any feedback about potential topics (like you get with topic bridging).
Then there is a grey area in between bridging and initial topic finding. We'll call it secondary topic finding, but it can look bridging and intial topic finding, depending on the latency. It occurs when the conversation on one topic dies down (or hits a bump) and another topic isn't found. This is that silence that is rumoured to happen every seven minutes, when everyone goes quiet for a while, but then an extrovert says something, cracks a joke, and they keep talking.

Today I'm mostly going to blog about (initial) topic finding. This is the primary skill, if you have no problems here, you won't have many problems in the other areas. The section below outlines how to start a good conversation
Basically, the question here is, how do we start a good conversation? This is where pick up lines come in. I mean..... Uh... Who mentioned pick up lines? Not me. Nothing to see here, moving right along.
As I was saying, ways to start a conversation:

Firstly, you may want to start small. Ask the time, make a comment about something you've both done, crack a joke, something small. That way you both start to get a feel of talking to the other person, and start to get an idea of what they may talk about. You can then use bridging to get on to a bigger topic, and from there you are in.

You also want to try and focus on them. People are more likely to like talking about things relating to them. Its human nature. No-one likes talking about something that they aren't interested in. You are probably interested in most aspects of your life, but they probably aren't interested in all of it, so don't fall into the trap of talking heaps about yourself. You also want to think about them as well, and not about yourself. What type of person are they? What do they like?
The flip side of this is that sometimes you can opt to share something personal. It can be a good idea, it gets them thinking, and the conversation deep, but beware of the pitfall of turning it into a lecture. Because then, when you finish talking, the conversation finishes, and you have to do some more topic finding.

Hypothetical and random questions are often good here. I am a fan of these. "If you could commit any crime, what would it be?" "If you were stuck on a desert island, what would you take?" "If you were a fruit, what fruit would it be?" etc, etc. A more strange one does benifit with a bit of framing - "I was thinking..." "Someone asked me the other day..." "I was reading..." These have the benifit of enabling the person answering to go as deep as they like, or just passing it off.

Man. I wonder how many people have made it to the end. If you made it throught, Good work. You deserve a grumblecake!
I probably have added a whole lot of stuff in there that should be under the topic I defined - its hard to try and write about just one part of talking.
Your comments would be much appreciated. Is "topic finding" a useful concept? Or should I just stick with conversaton starting? What other useful tips would you have to help someone start a conversation?

2004-04-20T22:46:00.000+12:00

|How to lose your faith in ten days|
Hey guys, I've had a few ideas over the past while about how Satan attempts to get at you. I mentioned one way earlier - That of getting you to do stuff that goes against what you believe, and slowly getting you to change.
Another couple of ways is to attack your lines of communication. There are two major sources of support for Christians - God, and other Christians. If Satan can drive a wedge between these, he's got you where he wants you. If he can cut one source completly off, its quite dangerous, and if he can cut both of them completly off, you'll need a miracle. (Good thing he's a God of miracles huh?)

Cutting you off from others:
Fellowship is so important. You need it, you need it, you need it. What is it? Fellowship is more than just christians hanging out with each other. Its christians hanging out, and encouraging each other, spuring each other onto growth. Honesty is a vital part of this, because it enables everyone to keep track of everyone else, to tell them what they need to hear, to pray for them, and to generally encouarge them. The trick Satan has is to make you be ashamed of what you've done, and so you are afraid of being open and honest to Christians. Pride can also get in the way here, as you don't want people to think you are any less than you like to portray yourself.
Getting caught in the trap of being closed to other christians is really bad. You fester on the inside, and don't have a chance to talk to anyone about it. The longer you are dishonest, the harder it is, as you don't want to lose your image, and you are starting to feel a little embarrassed about being a hyprocrite. You thought you could ignore it, but it starts to be all of you that isn't seen by others. You need to let other people in on your struggles. We all go through them, so there is no need to be ashamed. We all don't tell others about them to different degrees, so no need to be ashamed there either. Tell someone whats going on!

Cutting you off from God:
This is far more dangerous. A healthy Christian has disciplines that enable them to continue with their life and their relationship with God even when the going gets rough, and the feelings seem to dissappear. If these disciplines aren't continuing, the christian is at the mercy of their emotions and what happens around them - If the feeling goes, there is no depth to their relationship, and so it dries up.
Sins get in the way of this. You miss a reading because you feel guilty. You don't want to face up to your sins, so you skip your prayer. God is forgiving guys. He expects us to make mistakes. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you! Don't get caught up in a cycle of guilt and sin and more guilt and more sin. Know that God forgives even the worst sinners, and he is waiting for you to return, not to put you down, but to build you up.

These two go hand in hand. If you aren't close with God, it'll be so much easier to put distance between yourself and others. And the same the other way round.

In conclusion, be honest, to God and Man, and don't put up barriers in relationships.

cye!

2004-04-20T13:44:00.000+12:00

|Listening to God|
Theres no point asking God for the answers to stuff you already know, theres not point praying to God asking for direction when you aren't actually seeking direction in the means he ordained. Its really rather rude to God if you have easy access to his word, good friends who you can rely on for good advice, and a good brain to work things out, but you don't use them to discern his will. Whats the use of saying 'I want to know whats going on' when you don't make any attempt to do so, aside from telling God about it.
Don't hide from what you already know. Don't waste your time pretending you don't have the answer. Pray to God, and look at his word, and talk to others. Perhaps my life would be a lot better if I was good at applying this principle of guidance.

|A question for Christians|
Do you believe the eternal state of Christians is far better than that of a Non-Christian? If so, what are you doing about it? If you aren't doing anything about it, something is wrong with your reasoning. And you're probably slipping, even if you arne't aware of it. If you continue to act against what you believe, your beliefs subtly start to change. Its Cognitive Dissonance, and its dangerous. Know what you know, and act on it.

|busy, tired|
These two adjectives describe me now. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to go to easter camp and tscf conference. Whats done is done. Now I must do the best with what I have.

cye!

2004-04-12T23:46:00.000+12:00

|Actual holidays?|
I've been away from wednesday till now at Easter Camp
Tomorrow I go to tscf conference till sunday.

maybe i'll come back rested. maybe not

cye!

2004-04-06T15:16:00.000+12:00

|Non-holidays|
I'm in the library for the second day of the holidays, again. The scary thing is that I think I'm enjoying myself. Its not that I enjoy spending hours looking up different things, and trying to sort out what people were trying to do in their experiments, but rather, I kind of enjoy the fact that I'm on the edge of what people know, and if I was to do an experiment right now, it could quite possibly expand that knowledge. Its somewhat exciting.

2004-04-06T10:54:00.000+12:00

|Intellectual Gossip|
Its interesting when people say "Scientists have shown ..." or "Statistics say ...". The problem is that science, statistics are hardly as clear cut (and studies have shown 67% of statistics are made up on the spot) as the person who quotes them makes them out. As I have learnt reading numerous articles on the topic of inattentional blindness, statistics, experiments can be contested. This is part of the reason why in the scientific literature, any mention of other evidence needs to be referenced, so the reader can check it out.
So, if you are going to make an appeal to authority, or mention another source, its always a good idea to be able to trace it. Otherwise you may get what I like to call "intellectual gossip". Ideas that are passed on from person to person, but don't retain their original constraints.

Take for example the whole greek love words. (eg. Phileo, Agapae, Eros) They are all have different meanings, no-one disagrees with that. But the problem is that a lot of emphasis has been on the differences in words, and in the end people seem to equate agapae with the highest form of love, God's love, completely pure, unselfish, wanting the best for others, the love we all should have. Well, I hate to break it to you, but agapae is really really common in new testament greek, so much so that I would believe it to be more of a default word, and is also used in relation to the love of sin. Is that God's love? I doubt it. But don't trust me: check it out for yourself - get a transliteral version of the bible, and look up random references to love. I'm guessing most of the time it'll be agapae.
Another example is the Left-Right brain idea. According to a lot of people one side of the brain is for boring maths and logic, but the other side is this amazing playground of intuition and emotional smartness. Some people use only their logical side, and thats why they have bad social skills. Sorry guys, the brain works together as one unit. This is the function of the corpus collosum. Its true that people with unilateral brain damage can behave in strange ways, but brains that don't work don't always show us how brains that do work operate. The brain is mostly symmetrical, and laterality differences are not as pronounced as much as people emphasize. But don't take my word on it, look it up yourself, and check to make sure what I'm saying is correct.

Don't spread half-truths - Don't be an intellectual gossip

2004-04-03T23:33:00.000+12:00

|Redemption|
I love the way life is filled with second chances. God grants us second chances all the time, and even when we don't deserve them. I think I've worked out why I was so happy in the other post (and still continue to be): Grace. God keeps giving me what I don't deserve. He keeps giving me good things, and keeps on giving me oppurtunity to do good to others. It's great!

2004-04-02T15:52:00.000+12:00

|All iraqis loathe americans|
I watched the news the other day, and was saddened to see the ambush.
I heard the news yesterday of the iraqi ambush of the america. Its sickening, we all know that, but I just want to write this post against a misconclusion that people may or may not draw; that all iraqis loathe americans.

For a start, this is a generalization, and all generalizations are false.
Seriously though, I don't think this is a good conclusion at all, and its related to why I don't join in with student protests. The problem here is not the iraqi people, but a few antisocial iraqis. I heard that a local cameraman said that most iraqis were inside, and didn't approve of the attack. This may be true, this may not, but the point is, we only saw a limited number of extremists on that video, and that limited number of people doesn't represent the majority.

Some may say, if there are people who are that extreme, there must be a decent number who are also opposed to america. Perhaps that is true in some cases, but political views are usually not "normally distributed", but polarized. In any given group, there's usually a few extremists. Even in the scientific world (which I've been learning about recently). Anyway, the point I'm trying to argue is that the voice of the extremists is not the voice of the people

This is why I'm against student protests (protesting in general is ok), because those protesting are not a representitive voice. People in this country have democratic rights, so they shouldn't have to resort to making a nusance of themselves to be heard - there are other methods at their disposal.

At the end of the day I'd rather listen to 10 people who are talking than one person with a megaphone.

2004-03-30T21:52:00.000+12:00

|James|
I like the book of James, because so often its an excellent antidote to intellectual extremism. Someone will say, 'we are saved by faith alone', this is true, but we can't forget about works (James 2) Someone could say 'we can't get closer to God than we already are' which is true to a degree, our position in christ is always the same, yet we still can 'draw near to God and he will draw near to us' (James 4)
Another good thing about it is that its quite applicable in its teaching. It seems that James was a pragmatic man, and focused on the applications, rather than working from theory to show how we should live. (kinda like he's the polytech, and paul's the university)

I would recommend reading this book to add a balance to your understanding of christianity, espeically if you are an action person, and find it hard to wrap your head around stuff like romans (face it - we all do). Mind due, I wouldn't recommend you concentrate only on this book, but to read it as part of the whole bible.

In short, read James, and read the whole bible. Even memorize them. all of them? its possible! I know of at least two people who have done it. Say, maybe thats a good resolution? To memorize a book of the bible. Might have to think about it a little first. Its a big commitment. But I'll let you know whats going on.

cye!

2004-03-28T20:56:00.000+12:00

|Rights|
People have a right to be stupid.

maybe?

2004-03-28T20:18:00.000+12:00

|Complete|
My U2 CD collection is now complete. I have within my possession all the albums U2 have released, including the 2 E.P.s (under a blood red sky & wide awake in america) and the 2 best ofs (along with the B-sides)

Its nice to know I've spent lots of money to complete something that doesn't really matter.

|Relationships|
Its been a while, I think I can talk about relationships again. This time I have an excuse - I'm doing an intimate relationships paper at uni, so I have to think about this for my degree. Got that?

A lot of people think that its all about finding that right person, to have a relationship with. My latest relationship theory is that the important thing is not the person in themselves, but the relationship that you have, and you could have.
The problem with picking someone with qualities that are good for you is that it is too objective, and if everyone took it to the extreme, there would be a whole lot more stalkers.
What is going to matter is what type of relationship you can have with someone. Can you really honour God together? Can they assist you in your ministry? Can you build each other up? Can you make each other happy?
I guess the reason I think this is good is that you only have to look at what is there, and not what characteristics they may or not have, because the chances are, if their characteristics aren't available to you in a relationship now, then they won't be available for you later, so there's no use imagining what could be.

Anyway, this is a random thought that probably doesn't make sense seeing this is the first time I've written it down. Perhaps some comments could be added?

cye!

2004-03-25T15:27:00.000+12:00

|how to stop people blowing themselves up|
Ok, I found this in the drafts, so I'm just going to post it as a one liner (well, not its a two liner, but what the hey)
Perhaps we could accept the fact that this generation are going to keep blowing themselves up, and conctrate on the next generation, and look at how we can prevent the next generation from doing the same to themselves. Just a thought
(ok, a multi-liner then.)
cye!

2004-03-25T15:25:00.000+12:00

|What I question about ethunasia|
I can't see the difference between youth sucide and ethunasia. Just about everyone dislikes youth sucide, and don't think anyone should commit sucide. Whats the difference between a young person who's life is unbearable committing sucide and an old person who'd life is unbearable participating in voluntary ethunasia? Both are taking human life, which we don't have the mandate do to, and hence, wrong

|A comparative approach to ethics|
Its funny, the theme of the last few posts have been about what is right and what is wrong. I think its time to move on, but before I do, I thought I'd make an observation on how I have argued that some things are right and wrong.
I've noticed the way I argue is to find another similar issue from which I make comparison. Its a good way to look for arguments for and against things, but it requires that people have a similar view to you on the compared issue. I guess that's why you need to compare with things that are quite obvious.
Anyhow, thats just a thought, and hopefully the first fruits of some posts that aren't about intellectual arguments over ethics.

cye!

2004-03-25T09:41:00.000+12:00

The windows seemed a whole lot cleaner when I looked out of them yesterday. They haven't been cleaned. It's funny how sometimes things just look better because of the way we feel. I guess I'm feeling a little elated, which is weird, as I have nothing to explain it. Weird.
God is Good.

2004-03-24T10:21:00.000+12:00

|Finally|
Hurrah! They are considering a law change:
"...The change would make it legal for someone who owns a legitimately obtained CD to make one copy for their own private use. Under the widely flouted current law, all copying, even for personal listening, is banned...."
Read Further:-->

How silly is it to have a law that says I can't use mp3s for CDs that I have legitimatly purchased the listening rights to? Hopefully this is the start of a law change that will allow people like me, who support the artists I enjoy listening to by buying their CDs, to make use of technology to enjoy the music without breaking the law.
I don't think a law change is going to make it easier for pirates, but even if it does, theres not a lot of point taking away my rights so that another person can enforce their rights. It just doesn't make sense.

For those of you who don't know, I am greatly opposed to intellectual property theives, the so called "pirates", as I view what they do as robbery, just like anything else - You may have noticed a metaphor in an earlier post, which tried to explain to the world how injust I think it is to steal someone elses intellectual property.
Have a read of it -->
On a more pesonal note, when you steal off a recording company, you force a price raise on CDs I buy, so, you are stealing from me.
And to end on a biblical note:
"He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need." (Ephesians 4:28)

Added in response to comments:
A lot of people argue that they are being ripped off by buying music at full price. I don't really have a lot of respect for people who use this as justification for piracy.
I think that a lot of cars are over priced, but you don't see me stealing them! What a ridiculous idea! We have no right to dictate how much people are selling things for! People have the right to sell their property for whatever they want, and WE HAVE NO RIGHT TO TAKE THIS RIGHT AWAY FROM THEM! Are you going to go to a car sales man, and tell him that his cars are overpriced? No! He has a right to his property! The Right we have is to not buy they goods. We can either buy an alternative good or not consume it at all.
(If there was a monopoly on a necessary good, that is bad as people have to buy stuff at outrageous prices, but we have the monopolies commission (yes, only one monopoly commission), and you will have a hard job of convincing me that music (in CD form) is a neccessity. Besides, because it is a monopoly, competition keeps prices down to a level that is reasonable. If it were possible to produce quality music legally, it would be done.)
Those in the music industry are not thieves! They provide a service for us, which we can choose to accept or to decline. If we choose to exploit them, we let ourselves down, and our society down. If everyone was a pirate, there would be no music system.
Pirates? No - Parasites are a better name. They live off the rest of us, not prepared to pay what others pay. I am disgusted.

I've gone a little emotional... Here's a summary of what I'm intellectually saying:
Pirating is stealing of intellectual property which is just as bad as stealing.

2004-03-23T11:20:00.000+12:00

Its interesting to see what kind of posts different people comment on.
The question is, what type of person is going to comment on this post?

2004-03-22T12:03:00.000+12:00

|Late|
Did anyone notice the time on my last post? I was up pretty late. Its not good for sleep to have exercise late at night, because it means you have to cool down before your body can shut down. But having a blade at night is quite therapeutic, so I imagine I shall do it again sometime.

|Doing things by halves|
Imagine you are sorting books that are being taken in at a rapid rate. At first you start to sort them by their unique number, which is all good, it helps you keep track of them. Ok, so you've done this for about half a day, and you've managed to sort out all the incoming books, and are ready for a bit of a break, but then someone comes along and tells you to change your tatics. They think you should order them by subject. That would have been a good idea, and you probably would have taken it, if you hadn't started the task already. To impliment the new plan, you'd have to resort all the old books, which would slow down intake of the new books, so even though the new plan would have been better from the start, it is a worse plan now that another plan has already been started. (When we ran the second hand book sale at university, we sorted by subject, right from the start - good idea)

That is why I think its stupid for people to protest against America and tell them to get out of Iraq. Invading Iraq may have been stupid in the first place, but now that it has been done, occupation is the best option. If the handing over of power is rushed, I don't think it would be best for the people of Iraq. Imagine what chaos a country would be in if you took out the ruling government and justice systems, and then just left it all.
Perhaps they should hand it over to the U.N.? Maybe they should have straight after they took over (its somewhat debatable - America has a right/responsibility to be in Iraq, because they were the ones who started the invasion in the first place) but its probably a little too late now. If they were to hand it over, there would be a whole lot of issues, the U.N. would have to work out exactly how things are done, and come up with a plan for the future.
I think its better if we all wait until may when america plans on pulling out.

|Terrorism works!|
It looks like Spain is pulling out of Iraq.
Again, I would say not to do things by half. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to be in Iraq in the first place. But it is not a good idea to pull out now! Why? Because it sends messages to potential terrorists - terrorism works. What ever happened to the no-compromise stance people are meant to take against terrorism? If one country bows to the pressure of terrorism, it makes it a whole lot harder for the rest of us.

If the reason Spain got attacked by terrorists was because they were in Iraq, does this clearly not demonstrate the links between Iraq and terrorism? So then people should stay in Iraq

I feel sorry for the allies of america. On one hand they are fighting a battle with people who would kill them, on the other hand they are fighting about people who tell them they shouldn't be killing. Where are the people telling the terrorists to stop?
I wonder when peace protesters will realize that passive protest won't work when terrorism is in the equastion? I bet terrorists like it.

hmmmmmm......

2004-03-20T02:25:00.000+13:00

a guy drops a coin, looks, sees its only a five cent piece and walks on. How lazy was that?

i stopped blading this evening, paused for a rest and noticed steam was coming off my head. pretty gnarly.

i spent two hours fiddling with formulas and data i invented on a spreadsheet - the price of having an active intellect.

i wrote a poem the other day, its called rise and fall. Not much, but it'll give me an excuse not to write anything else at this hour:
i saw you yesterday
i saw it
and I remembered you
and I remembered how it began

it was normal
plain and simple
normal, but it worked

but you were scared of it
scared of having it out there
uncertian of its use
you cut it off
left nothing in its place
not letting it grow
you didn't carry it
you hid it

then came the day
you were tired of halting its growth
you were tired of holding back
so you let it grow
slowly but surely
it grew beyond what it was
golden, glorious

but today, today
something eats at it
holes appearing
holes growing
its incomplete
is it falling to pieces?
collapsing under the pressure?

what isn't broken still grows
its starting to cover the holes
cover them over, cover them
perhaps you can stay
perhaps you can rise again

Ten points to the person who guesses what it was originally talking about at the non-metaphorical level.

ok. bed time

cye!

2004-03-16T11:20:00.000+13:00

|the search for the 100th sbemail|
Has so far only yeilded this
Keep your pants on

2004-03-15T22:48:00.000+13:00

|Skilled Christians|
Like one of my resolutions I made in a previous post, I'm not sure what I think about this.
Consider a brainy new-christian. He will be able to understand what a lot of passages say, just because he's got a good brain on his shoulders. Consider a brain-dead old-christian. He doesn't even know any greek words, because he doesn't have much of a brain on his shoulders. Now, which one is better off?
At what point is intellect considered to be a spiritual gift? Can we consider physical/psychological giftings to be spiritual gifts? A good motivational speaker who knows how to get a point across may be much better at getting people to change, (even when he hardly reads his bible) than an agoraphobic who has a masters in divinity.
Where does a spiritual gifting end and a non-spiritual gift begin?
Its hard to make sense of it all.
What I know: Spiritual gifts are good. Physical gifts are good. All gifts come from God.
What I'm pretty sure of: Its better to have a really bad speaker who reads a bible than a good one who doesn't read his bible.
What I'm sure is not: (which the other one could imply) That physical gifts are useless
A possible solution: Spiritual gifts and physical gifts are good. You want both. If you don't have both, ask God to help out. "(God's) ... strength is made perfect in weakness ... ", "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously..."
Add in the fact that all are not called to give sermons " ... having then gifts differing according to the grace God has given, let us use them"
A conclusion: Don't try to do what you definitly aren't called to. (After questioning what you aren't called to, always being ready to disprove what you thought you weren't called to) Do ask God for giftings in areas you are called to.

This post has changed from start to finish. What I intended to say I don't feel the need to say anymore. Perhaps I should summarize what I've said. Maybe later. When I do I shall have to look at the issue of calling, or perhaps I'll procrastinate, and leave that one alone.

|Cell Groups|
Had our first indivituated (I hope that thats past tense of the verb individual) cell group tonight. I was leading. Please pray for me when I'm doing this. I often wonder if I'm doing the best I can do, so pray for this (that I do do the best I can and that I don't worry about it unproductivly)

gotta go.
pretty tired
cye!

2004-03-07T21:20:00.000+13:00

People should be fully committed to singleness or getting marriedness. Sitting on the fence only makes things messy. If you don't let people know what is going on, they might get the wrong idea and start to get the idea that you could be a possibility. I guess I'm calling for decisiveness. Not knowing what is going on means that one has to spend a decent amount of time wondering what is going on. This is wasteful. It is bad because it increases the chances you're going to let your imagination get away on you, and increase feelings for someone without a proper base for the feelings.
Um, so yeah. Be decisive, and honest.

I'm not sure that makes that much sense, but in summary, the world is easier if it is simple, and the world is simpler if people are open about whats going on.

Um...
Yeah

cye!

2004-03-05T15:51:00.000+13:00

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Once I caught a fish alive. 5, 6, 7, 8, Nathan better stop posting or he'll be late. For book sale stuff
Sorry, Too tired and busy to write anything meaningful

2004-03-02T00:07:00.000+13:00

Its amazing how time flies. Its almost been a week since my last post. I guess I've been putting off this post, as I've been giving everyone a chance to read my previous one. :)
I hope I haven't accidently offended anyone in my postings, in fact, I hope I never accidently offend people, (unless something greater is at stake). This blog isn't intended to offend anyone, but rather to inform, and hopefully change people for the better.

|Forwards|
Oh, To add to my list of rules:
Don't forward me mass forwards promising free stuff if I forward it on, or threatening bad stuff if I don't forward it on.

|Next post:|
Expected after the CU book sale ends. Probably near the end of the second week of march.

cye!

2004-02-25T21:19:00.000+13:00

|Pruning Forwards|
I would like to encourage all of you, my valued readers, to prune your forwards (if you are in a habit of forwarding e-mails). If you don't often forward e-mails, I would encourage you to read the rest of this post and encourage all those who forward to you to prune their e-mails.

What is Pruning?
Pruning Forwards is a simple process by which the sender removes all the previous headers of the forward.

Why Prune?
Firstly, It saves on message size, and so helps those who have a slow connection to the internet. Waste not want not.
Secondly, It saves on time. If you have a mail client, and people with hotmail have been forwarding attachment inside of attachment, it takes forever to open up the 15 odd attachments. It is frustrating. (It is also frustrating that few people on hotmail seem to know how frustrating this is)
Thirdly, and most importantly, is helps cut back on spam. A clever way for spammers to collect e-mails is to intercept massive unpruned forwards, and harvest all the e-mail addresses. Cutting all the headers out means that all the people who have had it sent to them in the past are not vulnerable if a spammer gets hold of the forward later on.

BCCing
Another important way to prevent spammers getting hold of e-mails is to put the recipents in the bcc: field and not the to: field. This witholds the e-mail addresses, so if a spammer gets hold of the e-mail later down the track, there are no e-mails to harvest.

Feel free to ask any questions, if they are general enough, I'll answer them in the post, and perhaps it'll turn into a FAQ on pruning and bccing

I'm thinking of insisting that people prune and bcc if they send a forward to me. Perhaps it will start a code of forwarding etique, where it will be considered rude and highly offensive to send an unpruned forward with people in the to: or cc: field. Do you hate spam? Perhaps you should start pruning and bccing, and encouraging people to do likewise.

cye!

2004-02-25T20:11:00.000+13:00

|Homestarrunner|
I took a quiz. While quizzes are usually not my usual waste of time, this one was about homestarrunner

2004-02-24T10:15:00.000+13:00

|Bad|
I missed my first lecture.... This is not good.

2004-02-21T12:54:00.000+13:00

|Wireless|
Theres something cool about blogging outside. Technology is finally being useful.

However comments aren't working for me on some blogs, so If I haven't commented on your blog recently, blame the software.

cye!

2004-02-21T01:08:00.000+13:00

|Story time!!!|
Tom worked in a fancy lettuce factory since he was five. He spent all his money feeding his family, (or what remained of it after the bread winners had been killed in a racist incident two years ago). As he got older and older Tom still had to support his family, (His two sisters were on expensive drugs after being infected with a disease thats really bad, but doesn't kill very well) but they started to make a little money on their own. (His brother started work at the frozen cabbage factory) So Tom decided to invest his money somewhere where he thought was important: Knowledge. He took up night school at the local college and took a few papers in the brand new subject 'Invention'. He was quite the apt pupil. He worked himself till there was nothing but bones on his hands (Its a metaphor in a metaphor folks, his hands were just well worn) and passed with a diploma in invention. So, he started working on his own invention. He slaved away at it for 3 years, only getting an hour sleep each night (the fancy lettuce factory had asked him to work late hours). It was a bad time, he was only just making ends meet, and the costs of materials for his invention forced him to take out a loan. But he knew if he could finish it before his debtors caught up to him, he'd be able to pay it all back, and finally live a normal life with his brother and two horribly sick sisters.
And what do you know? He finally made the break through. He did it! He did the impossible. In a great feat of genius he invented a really cool device that everyone loved. He sold a couple of them, and started to make some real money. One of the people who purchased the device of him found out that it was very easy to make one, provided they got everything just right (getting it just right was what tom had spent YEARS on) So that evil person went ahead and made a whole lot of these devices, and sold them to his friends. Then someone posted a 'how to make that really cool device that everyone loves' on the internet, and so people all round the world could enjoy the fun and joy that it brings. The world was a much happier place because of tom. Everyone had their really cool devices that everyone loves, so everyone was content. People started to forget about guns and war, and peace broke out because there was nothing left to fight for. Ah! What a marvelous world!
Pity about Tom. He didn't get that much money from the couple of sales he had made, so his debtors were out to get him (even though they were content, they still wanted the money so they could buy a bigger version of the device that everyone loves) So Poor Tom was forced to work long hard hours in the fancy lettuce factory fr the rest of his life. He never managed to pay his debtors back, and so he never even got to own one of the cool devices that everyone in the world loves. Poor Tom!

2004-02-15T22:23:00.000+13:00

|Road trip|
I'm leaving for a road trip tomorrow, so I won't be blogging for a couple of days. We will be keeping a road trip journal with the other two guys (my brother, and jason f) Unfortunatly its going to be a paper one, but then we can have sketches, attach photos and stuff, so that should be good.

Yeah.
See yas after thursday!

2004-02-14T15:00:00.000+13:00

|Work...|
Is over! Yay. While I do prefer cleaning windows to a lot of other jobs , its good to be free to concentrate on what you want to concentrate on, not concentrating on something which gets you money.

|Courses|
I haven't decided on my courses yet, but I have learnt that its not a good idea to think about them in the shower, especially during a water shortage. Well, now that its raining, I guess its doesn't matter much anymore?

Man. I'm not blogging enough. Maybe once I'm well rested I'll be able to write something worth reading

2004-02-11T18:14:00.000+13:00

|Quote|
"... where would the worst place in the world to be stung by a bee?"

This was from last friday, by none other than me.
I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, you can probably guess what misfortune befell me.

2004-02-09T18:35:00.000+13:00

|Resolution|
At my 21st I was congratuated because I know what I believe, and why I believe it. Taking this encouragement, I have decided to add strength to strength by knowing what I am not sure about, as well as what I know

2004-02-03T22:19:00.000+13:00

|A First|
This is my first blog from my laptop. Yay!

Unfortunatly Ive been setting it up, and have more setting up to do, so I can't write much more without eating into my sleep.

Thnks for reading!
cye!

2004-02-02T19:17:00.000+13:00

Hey all!

How's it going

|Life Fm|
I'm told life fm is now broadcast over the net -->

The rest of this post is classified as a rant

|What makes worship hard for me:|
1) Modernization of hymms, Hymmization of modern songs.
This one is a trap that a lot of people fall into. I guess the main problem here is that the songs are being changed. So I have one way of singing it, but others have other ways of singing it. I think mine is better, they think theirs is better. Who's right? I don't know. Its simpler to leave the song as it was written, in its original form (once it leaves the development stage ie. if you've just written a song, feel free to revise it until you come up with the best version, before you release it)
Hymms sound really good as Hymms, adding a drum beat and guitar often doesn't add to the song
Songs sound good as songs, slowing them down, playing them only on piano doesn't often add to the song.

2) Meaningless repetition
This problem is quite a biblical one. In the sermon on the mount we are told not to use meaningless repitition when praying. Praying is addressing God, and worship is also addressing God. In the Psalms we have 'Selah' which is thought by some people to mean, go back and repeat from the start. This isn't so bad, neither is singing a chorus or refrain, because the verses add new meaning to the refrain. What bothers me is the repitition of something over and over and over again. Singing a song twice is ok, unless the song has repitition built into it (eg. verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus, a specific example: Shout to the Lord - uses I, then we, which is good when we sing it once, it allows a little twist when we sing it a second time, giving a little more meaning, but repeating it again just gets tedious)
If you want to repeat a song that you like, throw another song in there so that you're not repeating things over and over again.
Repetition makes me bored, and I'm guessing, if God could be bored by worship, he would be bored by repitition that is meaningless. Imagine having a conversation with someone where you went right back to the start and said the same things all over again! Or reading something that just repeats itself, over and over again
Meaningless Repitition starts to turn songs into mantras and worship into brainwashing. Not good

3) Singing songs that aren't really worship songs as if they are.
This one is quite simple. It bothers me that sometimes we are having a worship service, and then we throw in a song that doesn't address God, or speak of his groodness, but rather speaks to other people in the congregation, to fellow Christians. There may be a place for these songs, but it needs to be recognized that these songs are not being sung to God, so don't raise your hands and eyes to heaven, look at the people around you, you are singing to your brothers. I suggest these songs shouldn't be included in with worship songs, but in a seperate bracket, or somewhere we it is appropriate

I guess the last two really bother me because it shows people don't seem to be thinking about the worship. If we are worshiping God, we are to worship him with all of us! This means that we aren't just running through the motions,we aren't just getting caught up in the moment, but we are concentrating on what we are singing, we are actually praising God. We are not simply singing songs! Worship is Worshiping God, not music!!!!!

cye!

2004-01-30T19:50:00.000+13:00

|Whats going down|
It occured that I should inform you guys about what is going down in my life. Its this:
-Am currently reading through 1,2 Thessalonians, 1,2 Peter to expand my biblical knowledge
Have finished reading my first Joshua Harris book (his second), which was good. His perspective is good - we need to glorify -God in everything, and his teaching on fellowship and conversation are good, even for people who aren't in a relationship.
-Am busy with window cleaning
-Am also busy with preparing for the CU second hand book sale
-Am also busy with a social life
-Am also busy with other CU stuff and uni stuff
-Am hopefully getting a computer of some description which shall aid my business (We wish)
-Am is an interesting chord (sorry), I meant I'm intending to learn the guitar... soonish
-Got bongos for my 21st, am learning them

Thats a small snapshot of my life now.
cye!

2004-01-29T21:07:00.000+13:00

Thanks for chosing Nathan's Blog, would you like to buy a combo meal?

|Alcohol|
I've added another reason to my list as to why I don't drink beer: Fire.
Playing with fire is dangerous enough without intoxicating effects.

|Contraception|
I think I've finally added the last nail in the coffin in the anti-contraceptionist in me.
We follow one (simplified) string of the argument that was previously unresolved, at least in my mind:

Contraception is bad because it is artifical and changes God's plan for sex

Contraception is ok because we use medicine, to artifically change a lot of things.

Babies are not a disease to get rid of, but a blessing. How dare you equate babies with diseases!!!!
Here is where the latest thought comes in:

Arms are a gift, but in some cases they are amputated in order to make the individuals life more prosperous. We are allowed to exchange one gift for another, to chose our future.

This is similar to the 'be fruitful and multiply' argument. Multiplying isn't always profitable for being fruitful, and that is where I believe we have choice. We need to use our resources to the best of our ability, to control them, and this includes our reproductive systems.

Incidently, while I'm on the genesis mandate, the 'be fruitful and multiply' is followed by 'fill the earth and subdue it'. What happens when the earth is filled to the brim? or overflowing? (Maybe it is, maybe it isn't) the command to multiply is to, at least in part fulfil the next bit.
Also while I'm on topic, the multiply doesn't just have to be multiply ourselves physically. It can also be multiplying our possessions (when used in combination with be fruitful, perhaps we get a single instruction rather two?) , and now that we are in the new covenant, mutliplying ourselves through discipleship. Its not just about reproduction! God may be a male but he doesn't have a one track mind.
Enough on that.
Have a good one.

cye!

Comments aren't working for me, so I've appended this onto the end of the post, (With reference to some contraceptives being considered murder):
Should have clarified the issue - Readers who have read the ybc website discussion about contraception would have hopefully picked up that I disagree with contraceptives that destroy the zygote after fertilization of the egg. Thats far too dodgey, and it crosses out the use of some (most) contraceptive pills, as they contain something to kill the zygote if the eggs still manage to get fertilized

2004-01-25T16:29:00.000+13:00

|RSS Feeds|
My readers have clearly stated what they want - They want RSS feeds!
So, I've done the required pointing and clicking, and here it is: -->

|Birthday|
I'm now 21! Yay. My birthday was actually on the day of my last post.
We had a big party, lots of cool people were there, and we had a bit of fire soccer and fire staff, despite the fire ban. Oh well. Its was good fun, and there were adequate precautions.

|John|
John has written a couple of posts from brisbane

Thanks for reading guys. Hope you enjoy the RSS feed
cye!

2004-01-19T22:30:00.000+13:00

|Technical difficulties|
Apologies to those who have been having trouble accessing my blog. Explorer appeared to dislike the site.
May I recommend Mozilla? It seemed to cope with it pretty well.

For those of you who haven't noticed, there is now a little --> after the comments. This opens the comments in your current window (or in a tab if you middle click with Mozilla Firebird) Hope you enjoy it.

cye!

2004-01-19T22:19:00.000+13:00

|Random Bad Joke|
There were nine peanuts walking down the road. One of them was assaulted! (peanut)

|Random Thought|
Everyone has at least one weakness. Everyone has made at least one mistake. Everyone has let down at least one friend. Everyone has given up and left someone behond.

Thats enough of this random posting.

cye!

2004-01-19T17:17:00.000+13:00

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Nathan, Happy Birthday to you.

bye

2004-01-15T22:12:00.000+13:00

|What I learnt on holiday... Continued|

Disciple is not Judgement Discipline is for our Good! It is part of our sanctification, which is part of our salvation, which is oh so vital. (talking about God's disciplining of us) I kinda learnt the idea of 'short-circuiting" the process - If one has done something not quite right, the sooner we confess and change the better. The longer we wait and delay, the more we may feel the discipline. So deal with it - now!
I kinda strengthened my conviction that God is good. The bad stuff that happens to us is for our good. It kinda makes it easy to talk to God, because you know he loves you, and you know his purposes - that he wants you to be holy. Theres a common ground when you both want the same thing - Holiness - and it makes life a lot easier.
Identity
I have to know who I am. I can't rely on others to define who I am. I need to know what I believe, I need to know what I want, I need to know who I am, so that I can give it all to him.

|Book|
Hmmm.... dan seems to be thinking similar thoughts to me. A book. I was thinking I could write a mini-book, and probably not get it published, but have a big lot of writing that I could call 'my first book'. It would likely be about fulfillment. How to have an awesome, satisfied life. (Because, I am obviously one of the leading authorities on this)

|Work|
This is going good, but I'm a little tired, and don't get to blog as much, and don't get to be free when all the shops and toll-free numbers are open, so I can't work out if I'm meant to have $400 more than I have, nor can I spend it. Kinda frustrating.

|Question|
Is it fair that 20% of people control 80% of the worlds resources? Its an interesting question. What do YOU think?
(Ta matt)

Thats about it, so, until next time......
cye!

(That doesn't really sound as cool as it should)

2004-01-11T15:58:00.000+13:00

John has started a blog for while he's in australia. Check it out -->

2004-01-07T19:15:00.000+13:00

|My 21st|
For those of you who are able to make it, you are welcome to come to my place on the 17th of January (2 days before the day) to celebrate my turning of 21. I am thinking fireball soccer may feature, but we shall see. E-mail me for further details, (if I haven't e-mailed you already.)

|My continuing holiday saga|
Mt Te Aroha
While in Te Aroha, I thought I'd better go climb the highest 'mountian' in the neighbourhood. So I did. Then I climbed back down after finding no view at the top because of clouds. Ah the futility of it all.

Farms
Got to spend some time on my uncles farm, and got to do a milk, which wsa kinda cool. Wouldn't mind doing that for a summer. Especially as I'm told it pays a wee bit more than window cleaning. With Josh's wedding likely to be happening in auckland, as well as the next YBC, this could be a feesiable option, provided someone would take me as a milker.
Also went to matamata on a saturday and thus see Naomi, and have a chat.

wood christmas
I got to spend time with a whole lot of people who I vaguely know from the last extended wood christmas I went to three years ago. It would have been more enjoyable if I knew the people better or if there were more people with similar interests to myself. I think I had a headache or was tired or something as well. Meh.

YBC
The next stage of my holiday was in dunedin. I drove down to the youth bible conference, arriving at 8:30 all ready for duties and then talks and discussions for which I was unprepared. I was rather tired that day. (Tiredness seems to be a common theme for this holiday)
Lots of random stuff happened at YBC, one of which involved me getting a haircut, which I haven't got photo's of yet.
The talks were by Stuart Bonnington, a guy from melborne and Alf Bradfield, a guy from southland. Both were good guys and good speakers. Stuarts talks were on Mission, and what is needed for it. Alfs talks were on discipline. Those who God loves he disciplines.

|What I learnt on holiday|
Ok. This is the important, more meaningful bit.

From Stuarts talks:
Context is Vital It never hurts to be reminded again and again that it is never a very good idea to directly apply a passage by 'name-switching' us for someone in the passage.
Mission cannot just be done It needs to be done right. We can't just go round preaching, we need to make sure that we are doing it correctly and in a God honouring fashion.

Will continue at a later date....

2004-01-04T23:00:00.000+13:00

|Excuse for blogging?|
Ok, I haven't blogged in ages, and I'm making an excuse for blogging. The reason being I probably should be sleeping, or at the very least lying down having a good read of the bible in my own bed (its been a while), maybe doing some writing, definitly some praying, until the sweetness of being in God's presence fades into the sweetness of rest.
Instead I'm waiting for movie to download. dan thinks its worth the wait.

|Holiday|
I guess I may as well tell you guys what I've been up to for the past wee while. Here goes:
Wedding
We flew up to hamilton on the 20th and then drove out to cambridge. After doing some last minute shopping and dropping our gear off at the back packers we were staying at we went to the wedding of Simon and Karen van Rij. Yay! I like weddings. I think the only problem I have with weddings is that it reminds me that I haven't had mine yet, that and repetitiveness. I sussed out a few things for what I'm going to have to have\not have for my wedding. One of those would be to just have old hymms. New songs are good, but they don't really fit in as well as a rousing song on human voices. Another thought I had was to over do the fire thing. At this wedding they had a lighting of the candles, which I thought was pretty cool, but I reckon that it would be cooler if they lit a fire staff and danced down the aisle.... The problem with that would be getting soot on the wedding dress, so I guess I'd have to settle for a wire frame of an appropriate symbol going up in flame.
The reception was also good, and would have been even better if I hadn't been really tired and on a table with people who I didn't really have much common ground with. (aside from my brothers and sister, but I can talk to them at any time) Not really a lot to do about that. I'm only a less well known cousin - I hadn't even seen the bride until she walked up the aisle - so I got to go on one of the back tables. Such is life.
Then there was a dance afterwards, which was cool, although I didn't dance. I guess it was more like an extended reception with music playing and a dance floor there for people who are that way inclined.

van Rij Christmas
The next day we got to hang out with the extended family, and have a brunch thing. It was highly enjoyable. I had one chat with Stuart which was interesting. I shall not discuss it here and now, but no doubt the topic will come up later.
I was also still a wee bit tired from going to bed late the night before, and being woken up relativly early, so I couldn't make so much of meeting with cousins, but we did get to exchange presents in time honoured fashion.

Te Aroha
From here we drove to Te Aroha, the hometown of my Mum, and the residing place of my only uncle on mum's side and the last of my grandparents. Grandma was recovering from radiotherapy for some cancer on her lip, and it was somewhat sad to see her having difficulty eating because of a radiation-burnt mouth. But we did see improvements.

Well, now the movie has downloaded. Impressive, but I wouldn't download it if your connection is a bit slow. I shall lay aside my chronoscope for now, to get some sleep, but I shall likely take it up again in the morning.

cye!

2003-12-27T16:07:00.000+13:00

Nathan's away. Just before he headed off to the airport (on the 20th) he told me to put up a post telling you guys that he'll be away until the 3rd. I'm a bit lazy, but, here it is.

Yeah. Have a great new years.

2003-12-14T18:20:00.000+13:00

|Advice on Advice|
I remember in the fellowship of the Rings, Frodo comments to one of the elves who he meets near the shire that one should never ask advice from an elf, because they do not tell you yes or no. I think that elves are pretty wise in giving advice. Giving a yes\no answer it isn't helpful. Rather if you discuss the options, it will help the person work it out for themselves. Than will also help them work out future problems.
Sometimes in giving advice people already know which one they should choose. In this case I'm thinking that a discussion is still good, rather than a yes or no answer. If you give them the answer that they shouldn't shoose this is bad, as they will use it as justification for not choosing the right answer. Discussing it with them will hopefully lead them to the right decision, and hopefully cognitive dissociation will kick in, making sure they make the right decision

The golden rule: Discuss, don't Dictate.

Of course there may be cases where the answer should be obvious. (eg. should I kill my spouse and marry the person I'm having an affair with?) But I would stick to my guns: You need to discuss it, and show them how to think it through, show them biblical principles they can use to solve the problem. Telling someone yes, or no is insulting to their free will

|New answering machine|
They put out a new answering machine! Check it out ->

2003-12-13T12:48:00.000+13:00

In an attempt to get my blog back on track, heres me getting everyone up to date with where I am.

I went on SLC shortly after the precious post, which was very useful. The funny thing was that it was on romans 3-8, which kinda covered exactly the ideas I'd already been exploring. We were slaves to sin, but Christ has set us free from the slavery of it What we look forward to in heaven is this completed work. Perfection, complete freedom from sin, and our inheritance being finally realized. Its pretty cool

For the last few weeks I've been working, which is my main excuse for not blogging. I'm window cleaning, 8-5 mon-fri. Its quite a cool job, outside, get to drive round the city, hang out with some cool people, earn some $$$.

What have I learnt over the past few weeks?
Thats a good question.
Ummmmmmmm...............
The importance of being open and honest:
I've been learning that Honesty and Openness are important.
Uh....
I'm not really in a writing mood at the moment.

But at least you get something to read.
Have fun.

~cye!

2003-11-11T22:51:00.000+13:00

Ok.
I'm really behind in blogging. Sometimes you are doing so much temporal stuff that it seems like nothings happening.

Anyhow.
|The free gift thingy: |
Good to get a few comments.
Why does the spirit work in us to make us want to do good? Surely wouldn't it be easier to just save us and leave it at that?

The free gift isn't salvation, free ticket to heaven. Rather the free gift is salvation, by justification and sanctification. You can't pick and choose just the justification, or just the sanctification. They are both parts of the same process, the same thing. Inseperatable.
If you genuinely want to be saved from hell, you will want to be saved from sin, which causes hell. If you genuinely want heaven, you should want to get closer to God, as heaven is restored communion with God. So when the spirit works to make us desire heaven the spirit doesn't just make us desire God's good things, but God himself.
Living a moral life, going to church are ways we can see that God is working in others, and this is why people get concerned when we see people not doing this, because it means they aren't being changed as God has intended. Whether this means that they do not have the spirit working in them (What to do then? ) or that the spirit is "having some difficulty" we can't tell from the outside. Its best to just to help others as we can.

The coold thing is that no matter how stupid you are, how many times you stuff up, (how infrequently you blog?) how messed up your life is, how many ex-girlfriends you have, how big your criminal record is, how good looking you are, how motivated you are, how good a speller you are, it doesn't matter. God can, and continues to work in me and you, even though we do not deserve it.
Its a gift well worth recieving.

cye
(I hope that wasn't too fragmented. I wrote it once, then went thru, and added bits in here and there)

2003-10-28T22:50:00.000+13:00

|I'm so 1337|
I'm now running Mozilla Firebird on my PC (finally) and I have installed Winamp 5beta. I'm at the peak of technological sophistication.

|A Free Gift|
Many Christians would claim that salvation is a free gift, yet at the same time, it seems like we have to do something to accept this gift. (ie. Live a moral life, go to church, etc...)
How would you explain this paradox?
(I'll post an explaination later. I'm wondering how people would go about answering this, so a couple of comments would be cool)

cye!

2003-10-28T10:38:00.000+13:00

|smspop.com|
I got an e-mail advertising this service which allows you to send texts directly from your PC. Good idea. Worth a look into, just for future reference. Now obviously the most importatnt piece of information is how much its going to cost. I look at the promotional stuff, and theres mention that it will cost, but no mention of how much. Go to the FAQ, costs. Oh here it is! It costs a 'pop' to send a text in most networks. Cool. Just what I wanted to know. I wonder if they will accept kubers for their pops.
Perhaps it was a good idea, but I'm not going to bother with it. If they don't have the decency to tell me the price up front, I'm a lost customer. Someone should speak to their marketing people.

cye!

2003-10-27T23:23:00.000+13:00

I lost my blogger link and sitemeter link. Weird.
Hopefully there now

2003-10-25T12:32:00.000+13:00

|Great Highlights|
Hehe. It amused me when I saw a hair care ad advertising hair dye that gives highlights like kids. Perhaps if people didn't use hair dye and UV resistant hair product in the first place, their natural highlights would be able to come out. Our society over-empahsizes the ridiculous. Did you know that 40% of 13-17yr old's spending was on unda-wears? If a fraction of the money spent on feminine "beutification" was put into the lots of awesome stuff for strong nathan fund this world would be a much better place. I think I'd waste it in a better way than its being wasted now.

2003-10-22T22:34:00.000+13:00

|Welcome to our world|
James Nathan Arthur Has come into the world. Yay. Congratulations to the parents!

Not much else to say.
Anyone want some kerosine?

cye!

2003-10-19T17:34:00.000+13:00

|Apology|
Hey.
I realize I haven't blogged in ages. The problem hasn't been that my life is uneventful. Rather I keep coming to this screen and my mind just goes blank. Anyhow. I've something today.

|Good stuff|
I spent some time with a friend from school the other evening. It was good to catch up with him, but even so it was better to learn that he's still keeping to the straight and narrow. It was encouraging.
Coming from a christian school, one sometimes get the impression that everyone is falling away, everyone is giving up their faith. Its depressing, but only an exageration. The fact of the matter is that God is faithful, and he will look after his own. And lately I've been realizing this. Sometimes people will seem like they've gone off the rails, but they often come back.

At the end of the day, its not up to us. We've just got to trust God.

I don't think I've expressed myself properly, but hopefully you get what I mean

ok
got to go.
cye!

2003-10-06T21:45:00.000+13:00

|Warning to readers|
This blog has taken one step closer towards becoming more like strong bad e-mails
Bwahahahaha

|Unfairness|
Is fairness a good idea? Ask some random people off the street whether life should be fair, and most of them will agree.
Its a funny concept really. We try and normalize our entire society, so that everyone has a fair chance. But what is fair? At school and university I was advantaged over others because I can remember academic stuff well. Is this fair? I was also advantaged because I was brought up in a decently well off household. Is this fair?
If we are trying to make sure everyone has a fair start to life, we really have to all start off in 'equal' situations. So this means that we have to tax the kids of the rich, to even things up, so that the parents of children can't spend more on the kids. The problem with this is that this is unfair on the parents of the kids. It means that they can't spend more on themselves if they want to. So either way we're going to give someone a raw deal.
So I don't really think there's really any 'fair start' to life. Unless we want to take all the kids off the parents, and put them in institutes, how successful kids are will depend on the success of their parents. We never come into this life with an even playing field.

So what of the concept of fairness? How should we conduct ourselves in a fair manner?
Perhaps it means that we don't treat anyone on the basis of anything but their actual characteristics? That is, if we are going to choose to hang out with someone, we should not choose on the basis of what doesn't matter: skin-colour, looks, accent, richness, but rather we should choose to do so by what counts. (eg. Personality, Approach to life, Ethos: Often these can be correlated with more superficial things, via culture, but at the end of the day, these don't matter.)

|Dirty Rotten Scoundrels|
This movie is great its up there with shooting fish. I recommend you see both of these films. They are better than Catch me if you can. (But aren't based on a true story)

cye!

2003-10-05T17:42:00.000+13:00

|ad homen and hiding behind arguments|
An interesting thought occured to me today. Sometimes people make the claim that there were two responses to a certian command which they believe we should obey. Either we can reject it, or accept it. If we reject it we obviously don't have enough faith in God to trust in the results. One example would be the guys I met from a christian commune. They didn't say it upfront, but they were subtly saying that true christian has to live in a commune without any personal posessions. Because I don't live in a commune, I am obviously not a christian. If the bible did say this, I hope that I would join a commune, but I believe the bible does not tell us this.
Here we have the problem. If people are not obeying, it sometimes can be because they don't want to obey. So they of course argue with the command, and I imagine can get quite passionate about it. The other option is that they genuine don't believe the command. (as above) How can we tell the difference between the two? In one, they are genuine and are using their intellect in a God-honouring way, in the other, they are rebelling against God, and using their intellect to get out of it. I tend to think that there is little difference between the two on the outside, (especially as the person may be fooling even themselves) and that we as humans are often not discerning enough to pick up on the differences.

Anyway, I would like to encourage you all in the following:
1) If you disagree with someone, look to your own heart, and make sure you are not arguing a point just to get out of something
2) If you disagree with them, assume that they are arguing from the right motives. It would not do to tell someone to stop hiding behind arguments when they are genuine. Tell the other party clearly why you disagree with them, and provide proofs.

If someone wants to hide behind their arguments, I'm not sure what to do, except pray that God will convict them. Should we be upfront and confront them? Or should we be subtle, using ourselves as an example of humility? Its hard to tell. Especiall when we are never sure of their motives

I hope you will make sense out of this. I be tired
cye!

2003-10-01T20:48:00.000+12:00

|National Vegeterian Day|
Today was National Vegeterian Day. To celebrate the people who make such a sacrifice to lower meat prices, I had bacon and eggs for lunch today. Yummy

2003-09-30T17:22:00.000+12:00

Last night I cut myself shaving with an electric razor. I'm not sure whether or not I should be embarassed or proud

2003-09-29T21:53:00.000+12:00

Hey everyone!
Its me, your favourite blogger, Fred!!!
I suppose I should put one of those titles that Nathan uses:

|P-Man|
I've got something to confess. I was P-man. I wanted to play the devils advocate so I kinda used a anonymous pseudonym....
Yeah. Sorry about the bad name. I'll try to come up with something more imaginative next time.

|Status with the ladies|
Well, while Nathan has been trying not to let it out to anyone that he has his eyes on someone (come on Nato! just let it out) Me and Dianne have been getting on just fine. Yeah. Just thought you might like to know that... Because real people often have real girlfriends.

|Christian Union|
Its been good to see what Nathan has been doing with CU lately. We need to make sure that we pray for him. Especially as he gets his systems sorted out for next year, so that he can be efficent in the use of his time.

well, catch ya all later

2003-09-29T21:37:00.000+12:00

|Music|
Today I'm trying to work out what it is that defines good music. What makes some songs annoying, and others meaningful? What makes a song appeal to one person and not to another?

The people who wrote "Breaking the addiction of rock music" define good wholesome music by having the emphasis on the first and third beats of the bar rather than the second and fourth. (I'm not sure what this precisely means musically but anyway...) Its a rather funny book really. The first sign of the addiction to rock music is the denial of the addiction, the last is resistance to people who oppose rock music. Pretty ad homen really.
Anyhow. The reason I brought this book up was because it draws a distinction: Music that sounds good, and music that is good for you. This is a valid distinction, and worth noting.

|Music that is good for you|
The problem is that good sounding music isn't always good for you. So you need to work out what you should listen to not solely on the basis of how it makes you feel.

I'm going to be pretty vague here and define music that is good for you as music that has a good effect on you. In other words it can vary from person to person, and its up to the person to be discerning in what effect it has. Just a few thoughts:
1) Its not just the lyrics, but neither is it just the music. Lyrics can be bad, actual music can be bad, they both can be bad, especially when we take it the wrong way.
2) Some people may be able to cope with one type of music, where another may not. People who can cope with hard to cope with music (eg. Deathmetal) shouldn't push their tastes on others, as it can cause others to stumble

I hope I don't sound spineless by saying its different from person to person. I'm just trying to establish a good measure by which we can work out whether we should be listening to the music we listen to. So ultimatly its up to us to decide on which music is good for us, to use discernment, and put away what might make us less Christ-like, and less fit for service.

And thats my challange for you today. Go out and listen to some heavy metal music, and see what influence it has on you. Then go listen to some classical music and see what effect it has on you, listen to some pop, listen to some regae, etc... and see which of these has good effects on you.

|Music that sounds good|
I kinda have no idea what to say now. I feel like its kinda silly to talk about a theoretical issue and detract from the pratical challange. So I'm going to leave discussion of this to a later date.

cye!

2003-09-28T23:15:00.000+12:00

|Movies|
Finding Nemo is a good movie. So is Pirates of the Carribean. I haven't seen the second one, but I plan on seeing it. I assume its a good movie because I've only heard good things about it. (Except that mum got scared at one point and almost smacked a random guy in the face, but mum gets scared at anything.)

|Criticalness|
In the past I've decided that a degree of skepticism is good. Now I'm going to say that a critical mindset is good.
A critical mindset is good.
There. Done.
I guess an explaination would do well here. Ok:
As christians, and as servants of God, we have a responsibility to be efficent. We cannot be totally efficent if we are not prepared to judge performance, and think how we could have done things better, so that we can do things better. We always need to strive for perfection, and the first step is to recognize imperfections. Blinding ourselves from the truth of our failings isn't going to help anyone. Honesty is good.

I'll just add some qualifiers:
1) Sometimes its not our place to criticise. But generally, if we are involved in something, its good to criticise
2) Its bad to give criticism to other people who are not involved, if you are not planning on handing on the criticism.
However, you can criticise things external to us, and discuss it with another person, if you are doing it from a mind set that you are aiming to learn from it for yourself.
I guess the key is motives: If you are aiming to build people up, criticism is good. If you are aiming to tear people down, criticism is bad.

I love the ending like this: It doesn't matter what you do, provided you have the right motives. Perhaps I should add, if you have the right motives, and are using the best methods possibe.

|Christianity|
Is this an add on to our life? No! Its a life in itself. We are to be constantly living with a christian perspective, seeking what we may do for Christ. It isn't to be merely restricted to activities that we do every so often for him. If we really want to glorify Christ, you need to do everything for him.
But you don't have to. We're still talking grace here. We aren't saved by what we do, or how we serve Christ, but mark my words, your life will be a lot more enjoyable if you invest to eternity. Just read ecclesasties. Stuff you do on earth is going to whither away. Something to think about. Make sure you are living for eternity, and make sure you enjoy living for eternity (otherwise it becomes labourous)

(I feel like I've tried to fit waaaay too much into that, but oh well, I'm speed-blogging.)

|Power Blogging|
Power blogging is a newly discovered blogging technique whereas the blogger just writes what is on his mind. The credit for this goes to Louise Kennedy. (Give her a hand folks) For suggesting I simply write whats on my mind. I wonder if she meant it like this though - The constant streaming of thoughts.
I've just had a scary thought. What happens if I start thinking about something I don't want the world to know???? The world will find out my secrets... nooo... must not think about her, can't let them know that I actually am..... muussttt... sssttoooppp powwerrrrr blogggingggg......

Phew. Managed to break out of the power blogging just in time!
Heh. I shouldn't play round with the feminine pronoun.
I must say, I'm rather apologetic for the suggestions that have been going round with regard to my status with the ladies. I do like to joke around a bit about it, but it gets a bit silly sometimes. I guess asking hypothetical questions about Romeo and Juliet don't help either. So yeah. Ignore my stupidness, and look at my awesomeness. (That way you'll think I'm really awesome)

Ok.
I think I'm done. There may be a grammar error because the spell checker thought a word was wrong (=not americanized) and changed it to something silly. oh well

cye!

2003-09-25T22:26:00.000+12:00

|New Phone|
I have a new Cell phone. Its got a new number. Is it a good idea to post cell phone numbers on the internet? I guess it can't hurt for a couple of weeks. So here it is:
0274245133

I'll delete this post next month

cye!

2003-09-24T20:49:00.000+12:00

|Grace|
Its great living under grace. No matter what we do, we know that God loves us. Its an awesome concept. I like God. No matter how many times I let him down, he's ready to forgive, and work all things together for my good, and the good of those who love him. I really take comfort in God's soverignty and grace. The two of these fit in well together. Not only does he want us to do well, but he can make things work together for his grace.
Praise him!

Today I lead the CU meeting. It was good. I think I was a bit nervous. But I trust God used it anyway. Yay

cye!

2003-09-23T01:58:00.000+12:00

|Grood Day|
Today is good. great. good and great. It feels like the Future is already here.

Added Later:
Today I got my full! That explains the good. (but not the great :))

2003-09-22T22:10:00.000+12:00

|Untitled|
(Is the title 'untitled' a contradiction or what?)
There is definitely something to be said for waiting on the Lord. I tried to do a little search to find a couple of verses that would illuminate what I'm saying. The problem is, there are way too many of them. The bible just keeps saying it again and again: If you trust the Lord, he will not let you down. This isn't just talking about big things such as salvation. He wants to have a relationship with all of you. He wants to be involved with all your life.
If you accept that God wants the best for you, and you are prepared to act on this, prepared to do what is right in his eyes, and not in your own, he will bless you.

I feel like this is so simple, but I've made it all complex. Basically, God is grood, and delights working all things to our good, if we will but trust him.

yay. He's cool.

(Apologies for not posting much. Been busy.... Really!!)

cye!

2003-09-16T23:25:00.000+12:00

|CU Exec|
Lord willing I will be the treasurer and prayer co-ordinator of Christian union.
Its going to both a priviledge and a responsibility. I would appreciate your prayer as I begin to serve the CU community.

2003-09-16T18:11:00.000+12:00

|Excuse|
Um...
I've been real.. busy. Haven't had the time to blog, or things to blog about.

|Discipline, A balanced life|
I've come to the conclusion that we need to live balanced lives, not just spiritual lives. As christians, we have spiritual obligations, which are important to fulfill. But we cannot presume our life will be full and meaningful if we do not maintain discipline in other areas. So that means if you are a student you need to make sure you are studying your degree and the bible. If you are a brother, you need to spend time with your siblings. If you are a eater, you need to eat. If you are living in a messy room, you need to tidy it from time to time. If you're working you need to work. We cannot be narrow minded and assume that God will be pleased with us if we have a half-hour quiet time, yet neglect a righteous, upright life.

|Quiet Times|
Which brings me to a question. What are quiet times for?
Firstly I will say they are a means, not an end. They are a means to draw near to God. They are not an attempt at good works to please God, but rather an attempt to live properly in God's will. So how can we utilize quiet times to achieve these goals?
1) Quiet times are designed to make us change. So we aren't just to read the bible, we aren't just to get warm fuzzy's because of it, we aren't to have our intellects tickled. We need to look for application, and room to change in our lives.
2) Quiet times are meant to be a pleasure, not a pain. If we look at it as a pain, we end up resenting it, and enduring it, and think that the enduring makes us spiritual. We should endure the costs of having a quiet time, but look at what we gain, and decide that the pain is worth the peace that drawing near to God gives us.
3) A quiet time quiet time doesn't stop. It merely moves onto a different phase. Again this is moving away from the whole attitude of 'If I do this for 15 minutes, God will be happy'. We need to keep the lessons we've learnt in our mind for the rest of our day.

I've kinda assumed you will be studying the bible in quiet times. I think this is a reasonable assumption. Scripture is God breathed, and profitable for teaching, correction, reproof and training in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every Good work. Devotional books that tell nice wee stories and look briefly at a well-known verse are nice, but in my opinion they don't really cut the mustard. If you really want to get you teeth into real spiritual food, you need to look at scripture. Good devotional books point to scripture, but never replace it. They are a good aid to help you get into bible study.

|The 'D' word...|
Yeah. I've been thinking about this a bit more, and I'm thinking a stepwise approach would be good. You should endevour to be honest with the other party in ever increasing amounts, and see how they deal with those levels.
Anyhow.
Tea time
cye!

2003-09-09T11:01:00.000+12:00

|Scripture Memory|
In order to get closer to God I've decided I need to do more memorization, so I've come up with a strategy to ensure not only that I memorize stuff frequently, but that I maintain my memory. I've devised a table in the back of my 'morning book' with various 'slots'. As I memorize verses, they come in the top, move down the slots, until the reach the final slot, the 'learnt slot'. But if I forget a verse it gets moved to a higher slot, until I know it, then it moves down again.

The first slot is for my current verse. I revise this daily. At the moment its 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which is about to move into the second slot, because I've attempted to memorize it before, so I've a decent knowledge of it. The second slot is for the verses I've just memorized. I've got room for two. My goal is to revise these every second day, so that means I'll revise one verse a day from this category. The next two slots are the 'revise weekly' and 'revise monthly'. I've arranged these so I've got four in the weekly slot, and 16 (in 4 groups) in the monthly slot. My goal is to look at one of these a day (alternating between the weekly and the monthly slot), and to check up on my memory of it. Finally there is the learnt slot. I don't have anything in there yet, because I haven't put a verse through the full rigours of the system, but when I get a decent number in there I'll be doing one of those a day.
So thats 4 verses that I plan on revising a day:
1) Currrent Verse
2) One of two Recent verses
3) Alternating between the list of four and sixteen
4) One from the learnt list, which as time goes on will increase to a large size. (I may have to start doing 2 a day to accomadate this)

Pretty easy huh? :D
I reckon 15 minutes a day, plus half an hour sorting it out on saturday is a reasonable sacrifice to make.
The other part of the plan is to do a little devotion on all the veres I've learnt, so that I know what its saying, and what it means, rather than just knowing words. Because we always must remember - memorization is not an end in itself, but a means. The result you want from memorization is greater spiritual growth, so to do this you need to make sure you meditate on the verses you're learning.

Well, thats about it. I'd appreciate it if when you guys are talking to me in a couple of weeks or months were to randomly ask me how this is going in the future. Not so that people are continiously bothering me about it, but so that you can encouage me to keep going.

God bless
cye!

2003-09-08T09:49:00.000+12:00

|Interesting early morning conversations|
Nathan's Body Clock: Hey body! how about you wake up now? You don't usually wake up this early, but it would be cool to wake up
Nathan's Body: Ok. Sure
Nathan's Mind: Huh? Whats happening! Its early, I haven't set my alarm and I'm awake. I guess I may as well get up.

Yeah.
It was pretty weirod.
But cool. I wanted to get some good bible study in this morning, and I did. God is good.

|Blogging|
Hmm...
I haven't been doing a lot of this recently. I guess I've just been.... preoccupied. I'll try to be more interesting in the future

cye!

2003-09-05T12:23:00.000+12:00

|Weirod|
I fixed the comments. Don't ask me how. I just moved a line of code from one location to another.

2003-09-04T22:58:00.000+12:00

|TROGDOR|
I just got an awesome high score with the Trogdor game.
1669!!!
"Beat that score Strong Sad!"

Part of it was because I found a secret area, but the rest was due to my skill (at wasting time on the net)

cye!

2003-09-03T17:20:00.000+12:00

My comments aren't working....
And I can't work out why

2003-09-01T18:50:00.000+12:00

|Rants|
These are posts, or parts of posts, which often do not make complete logical sense or could be considered inappropriate by different readers. They are written about issues which the reader feels strongly about, and does not feel heard.

Care should be taken when reading rants, and one should not take offence at what the writer might say

2003-08-31T21:10:00.000+12:00

|Justice and Mercy|
I like these two words. On the surface they seem contradictary, but these two guiding principles are vitally important for the Christian's life.
Justice = Giving people what they deserve
Mercy = Giving people what they don't deserve

At an individual level, we are to give people justice when they have done good, or when they have been wronged. We need to show mercy to people who have done wrong.

2003-08-28T16:54:00.000+12:00

|Banner Adds|
I was thinking how nice the site might look without the annoying banner add at the top.

But I've come to the conclusion that to do so would be unethical. Technically we can justify getting rid of the banner ad, because we did not agree to having it at the top of the site. But I don't think thats the attitude we should have as Christians. We should be aiming for justice, Not just legal correctness.
The banner add is up there for a purpose. To generate money, so we can blog, and so you can read this. The advertisers pay for the chance that you may click on the add. (So support my advertisers! Click on the banner!) Now if I remove the banner ad its taking away the advertisers potential clients.
They are paying, allowing me to blog, and if I get rid of the banner ad its returning evil for good. Its taking away potential customers, to which they have a right to advertise to, which comes down to robbery. And I'm not going to do it.

So, if you ever wonder why I have that ugly banner up the top, thats why.

cye!

2003-08-27T18:32:00.000+12:00

|Back|
Well, I'm back from my time in Arthurs Pass. You probably didn't miss me - I'll forgive you, I was only gone a night.

|Hot Topics|
I've made a spot on the left, 'hot topics' so you can continue to post your comments on the previous threads while I write some more posts. I'll be editing the 'hot topics' regularly, so there may be nothing there next week. I might consider linking to other places there as well.

|Prayer|
This is good. I'm planning on doing more of this than usual during these holidays.

cye!

2003-08-25T22:37:00.000+12:00

|Openness|
Let me start with a story. Its a simple boy meets girl. Lets call them Romeo and Juliet. Romeo meets Juliet in his first year at university, and they end up hanging out a whole lot, because they have a lot of mutual friends, and their best friends even end up going out. This triggers something in Romeo's mind - Perhaps they could be a potential couple? Romeo puts this in the back of his mind, because he doesn't want to risk the friendship. But the thought doesn't disappear! It keeps coming back. So reluctantly, he begins to consider her as an option. Less reluctantly he starts to form conclusions about their compatibility. Finally with a great amount of happiness he comes to his conclusion: They are just right for each other. So, he waits for an oppurtune time, and asks her out on a date.
Stop for a second. How well do you think Romeo has handled the situation? Is this how we as christians should conduct ourselves?

Story continues: Meanwhile, Juliet in her innoence, has been thinking they are only friends, and is completly unprepared for Romeo's question. She's somewhat scared, and very confused. She turns him down. Romeos heart is broken. The don't talk to each other again. (Except on the wedding of their best friends - even then its only on the surface)

I consider the progression I just described to be a secular, american way of doing things. We see it in the movies. The guy and the girl are either friends, maybe good friends, or they don't know each other at all. Then one of them asks the other out, and bang! They are going out. Both parties are expected to make the decision seperatly, and come to the same decision. I believe this is quite unreasonable, and also quite impratical. I would like to propose a different approach to this.

Openness, I believe is the key here. Instead of developing your ideas on your own, I think it is a good idea to run it past your Juliet. I'm not saying that as soon as any thought about a girl enters your mind you should tell her, but rather, when a thought does enter your mind, you should weigh it up carefully. If there is a reasonable chance that you would make a good couple, then you should tell her what you are thinking. You need to tell her that it isn't a final decision, but that you want her to start thinking, and hopefully the two of you can discuss it together, and come to a decent conclusion, together. No game, no hidden motivations, just working through it together.

This isn't always advisable - There are cases where it would be plain stupid to do this. But I believe if you know her well enough to consider her an option, your relationship will be deep enough so that you can discuss the issues in a mature, God centered fashion. The question is, at what point should we be have this honesty? Its hard to lay down a precise time, but I'm thinking earlier rather than later, but not so early that its only a passing crush. You know yourself. When it starts to become an issue, thats when she should know.

So, How should have Romeo dealt with his like for Juliet?
Well, Romeo should have talked it over with her once he started to seriously consider her as an option. He obviously knew her pretty well, and they had a strong friendship. If Juliet doesn't see any potential for a relationship, this is good, because Romeo finds this out earlier rather than later, and the friendship will be intact. But if Juliet realizes that there is indeed potential for a God honouring relationship, then they can work it out. They can set aside time to get to know each other, and then their relationship can progress, with a sense of unity, both of them knowing what is going on, both of them trusting in the other to be honest about how things are going. This sets the relationship to a marvelous start, and they end up beating their best friends to get married, have a great honeymoon, move to a cottage in a french fishing village, have 5 left handed children who are expert soccer players, and live happily ever after!

I love a happy ending.

Feel free to comment. This idea is still young.

2003-08-24T20:52:00.000+12:00

|Tactics of the enemy|
We had an interesting service today. The passage we were looking at was Daniel 10, where we see the clear supernatural struggle between good and evil. And It made me wonder, how come the devil works so subversivly these days?
He doesn't seem to act in any way that can directly attributed to the supernatural. And then I remembered/realized what it is. Whenever there is even a microscopic chance that someone may come to disbelieve the devil will not reveal his hand. His strategy is to remain hidden, and try and convince us that there is nothing outside of this world, yet at the same time he is working at us to destroy anything we may be doing for the kingdom.
The good news is that we now live in a Post-Christ world, and spiritual powers have all but been defeated, and the Angels of God are there to support us! And they are awesome. Daniel barely had enough strength to stand in the presence of one sent to him. Its pretty mind-blowing.
So: Live in the Holy Spirit, Pray to the Lord often, and don't forget the spiritual reality

cye!

2003-08-22T13:25:00.000+12:00

|Election Results|
Well, elections happened. And I got on exec, with 3 other guys and 2 girls. No point mentioning names because if you know the people, you'll know who's on anyhow. And it might get posted on the uccu website anyhow.

Thanks for your prayers. I would appreciate prayer that the new exec will get on well with each other, and we will be unified in our efforts to honour God.

cye!

2003-08-20T23:11:00.000+12:00

|UCCU Elections|
Christian Union is having its elections for exec and president and V.P. I'd appreciate your prayer for me and the (7) other guys running for the (6) positions.
So yeah. 2 of us are going to miss out. Pray that God's will will be done.

cye!

2003-08-20T10:57:00.000+12:00

Ah.. Caps lock day is over. Now I feel like my written prose is so insignificant today. Anyhow.
|Tree|
This link was mentioned by the mysterious 'DB' I have no idea who he is, but the links pretty cool.

|Faithfulness|
Of of this weeks themes has been faithfulness. I learnt from a female friend of mine that unfaithfulness is one of the worst qualities to have in a guy. So... how should a single guy ensure he is faithful? I suggest people should have a little think about this, and making allowance for the uncertianty that the future holds.

cye!

2003-08-19T18:20:00.000+12:00

|ARCHIVES|
I'VE FIXED THEM. FINALLY. SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY. I GUESS I JUST AREN'T ENOUGH OF A GEEK TO BE ABLE TO SOLVE ALL OF BLOGGERS PROBLEMS

2003-08-19T18:01:00.000+12:00

|CAPS LOCK|
THERES A NEW BLOG IN DA HOUSE! CHECK IT OUT. THE CAPS LOCK BLOG!

2003-08-19T17:24:00.000+12:00

|NEW EMAIL!!|
THEY'VE DONE A NEW E-MAIL
THIS IS AWESOME!!!

CYE!

2003-08-19T15:44:00.000+12:00

|GENERAL PEOPLE STRATEGY|
HERES A GOOD WAY TO BE THINKING WHEN YOU LOOK AT PEOPLE. I DON'T THINK YOU NEED TO CONSIDER MUCH MORE THAN THESE
IS THIS PERSON SAVED:
NO -> HOW CAN I BRING TRUTH INTO THEIR LIVES, AND CONTRIBUTE TO THEIR SALVATION?
-> SPEND TIME WITH THEM
-> SET GOOD EXAMPLE
-> SHARE TRUTH
YES -> CAN I ENCOURAGE THIS CHRISTIAN?
NO -> FELLOWSHIP WITH THEM
YES-> ENCOURAGE THEM

|PEOPLE OF THE POST|
GOES TO NATHAN TUDOR AND THE REST OF THE UNI IMPACT TEAM. THEY HAVE BEEN AND CONTINUE TO BE A GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT TO ME. THEY KEEP REMINDING ME OF STUFF SUCH AS THE PURPOSE WE ARE TO HAVE (AS ABOVE), AND GIVING ME IDEAS TO DO WHAT I WANT TO DO.

CYE!

2003-08-19T11:43:00.000+12:00

|CAPS LOCK DAY|
TODAY, THE 19TH OF AUGUST IS SET ASIDE FOR SOMETHING VERY CLOSE TO MY HEART.
CELEBRATE CAPS LOCK DAY WITH US!!!

2003-08-18T00:01:00.000+12:00

|Sitemeter|
This is pretty groovy. You can get hits for random reasons.
Like I've had a few google searches leading to my blog:
"Romantic Blog Layouts": I'm glad google thinks the new layout is romantic!
"Earth Special Forces": I've no idea how people linked to this blog from that.... I'm not a closet dragon ball z fan...
"Adding emoticons to msn to small": What on earth was this guy looking for? Well, I hope he found the slap emoticon!
"Elements of a good movie": Thats kinda strange. I don't watch enough of these to decide on that.
"chocolate chippie biscuits recipe": Dang at first it truncated the 'chocolate c', so I'd thought someone had been looking for hippie biscuits. Now that would have been random. But it wasn't. Oh well.

Better get some sleep

cye!

2003-08-17T22:17:00.000+12:00

|The Original Website Reveals Secrets!|
I never realized that Marzipan was the daughter of the King of Town. I guess that must be why he summoned H*R to find out what was happening to his sheep. A prospective son in law is easy to con into stuff. (So I've heard....)

2003-08-16T16:44:00.000+12:00

|Test Entry|
This is me showing Matt how to use blogger.

2003-08-16T14:14:00.000+12:00

|Revised Comments Template|
I changed the template for the comments as well. It kinda looks like Scotts comments.

2003-08-16T13:49:00.000+12:00

|Fixations|
Ok, I've mostly fixed things now. Hope you like the new blog layout.

2003-08-16T00:19:00.000+12:00

|My friend|
Often when I come home at night I see my friend working on the web. I guess he works mostly at night because he won't be disturbed. But he doesn't mind talking to me. Most people would be put off by his looks - He has hairy legs, a pincer like jaws, a large body with funny markings on his back - But I get the feeling he lives a lonely life and I do hate it when someone has nobody to talk to.

Its quite nice talking to a spider. He weaves his thread in little circles, round and round, these threads barely visible. Its truely a wonder. Sometimes I want to get a fly and put it in the web, to save him the wait. But he's quite a self-sufficent little chap and it would be quite an insult to feed him as if he was a house pet. He doesn't care much for the goings on in the world, he doesn't care much for work or university, but he listens very politely anyway. You end up forgetting all your worries and cares as you watch him build his web.
Its just nice to know that he is there. And its nice to spend time looking at the little things in life.

2003-08-15T11:55:00.000+12:00

|Careless Code Changing Can Cause Costly Complications|
Oh dear. I seem to have partially destroyed the code for my blog.... heh heh heh... At least you can read my posts, and the bit about me. The comments weren't working (But hopefully they've been fixed now), and you can't see the dates.
I guess I may as well go for a new template. Maybe this weekend I'll fix it

2003-08-14T17:46:00.000+12:00

|nice|
Heh. Now its really homestarrunny!

|Unity|
Be expectant. I'm going to write a post about christianity unity.

2003-08-14T13:47:00.000+12:00

|Romans 13:11-14|
I find these verses encouraging:

"And do these things, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for our salvation is nearer than when we first believed
The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armour of light.
Let us walk properly, not in revelry and drunkeness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and in envy
But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no allowance for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts"

cye!