i just checked my grade summary: A, B, B. thus, it's not a bad start, but obviously i've got to work harder. i will go to sleep early, wake up early each day, God willing. hopefully, that'll help me study better.

back in UCD, so expect my blog recordings to pick up speed again.

i guess i'll start with this: GO NINERS! damn, whadda game... whadda game... it was pretty much up to the Giants to muck it up for them to win it... the game was admittedly in their hands... go Garcia! get ready for Tampa Bay, and study up Defense, or you're not going to stop them!

i finished recording my first song, Unknown to the World! anybody want it for a free DL, you hit me up on AIM!

i'll comment on what Bob wrote to me:

"Can God sin? As a matter of fact, this is actually a
nonsensical question because of the very definition of
sin. Sin is all that is apart from God - apart from
His nature, apart from His character. The question is
in the same vein as "Can dark be light?" God is NOT
able to sin any more than I am able to become an
eggplant.

Numbers 23:18-20 - God is not a man, that he should
lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?

This can be confusing because the gods portrayed in
other religions, such as in Greek or Roman mythology,
are fallible - they get drunk, they sleep with women,
they commit evil. They have no obvious allegiance to
an idea of "good", but instead just have some level of
power, and because of this, they seem to be able to
"do bad things", or what we think of as "sin". The
Christian God, on the other hand, is THE standard for
truth and for good. God's acts are purposeful to
carry out His plan for the universe, and the whole of
time and human history is for God to bring glory to
Himself. What we can be thankful for is God's
character - that His standard is all-good, and that He
has the absolute power to back up that standard."

REPLY: the very definition of God is basically an all-powerful, all-present, all-knowing being who upholds moral right justly, or something along the lines of that. what's interesting, (and you can make a case by this of how Christianity is correct, while other religions aren't) is that other gods of other religions are basically based upon what we think gods are... thus you have these powerful beings who do shameful things... sleep with other beings, are punished by other gods for crimes, and often don't care about upholding moral right. even the Jewish God is somewhat portrayed as this being who does all the things we talked about, but we don't see a tender, caring God. some of us might think "oh if i were God i would be disgusted by the filth that these humans are creating, and would happily punish them." thus, we mold our God, it's not really who God is. the Christian God portrays him as all the things we listed so far, BUT also that he cares for us and is willing to become less of what he is so that we could be joined together. the Christian God has a HUGE emphasis on love; if you've read on the specifics on the crucifixation, the whipping, and the ensurance that someone undergoing crucifixation would die, you would have to realize someone would have to be willing to do this out of love and nothing else.

"A deceptively simple question, but it opens up many
important and deep questions of theology:

Life is not a series of notations in a ledger of
"good" and "sin". God does not look upon His children
with a disapproving eye, thinking, "Hm, I'm going to
wait for Jeremy to look lustfully at that girl and
then BAM! My Son will leave him behind." The gift of
grace is given once for all (Hebrews 7:27), and those
who have accepted this gift are no longer sinners, but
instead saints who still sin.

HOWEVER... does this then mean that we have license to
sin? Not at all! Because this once for all
substitutionary grace given to us because of Jesus'
sacrifice is only evident from the other side; i.e.,
God's. This gets somewhat into the concept of
predestination, which is a fascinating topic if people
don't get too heated or passionate. A short summary
as to how it applies here:

God knows who His people are, and have known since
before He created them. These people will be and are
"saved". However, since we are human, we live within
the scope of time and space, we live based upon what
we know - and what we know is where our heart is with
God right now. I don't know whether I'll still be
following God 10 years from now. I don't know for
ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN whether I'm within the family of
God's people. I think what's most important, though,
is to not worry about each extreme: being legalistic
to the point of paralysis about "sinning right before
Jesus comes", or to be so free and certain about my
salvation that I don't have to continue to grow my
faith. Jesus says that he is the Way, the Truth, and
the Life, and true freedom is found in him. How?

Psalm 37:4 - Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will
give you the desires of your heart.

What do we do? Delight ourselves in the Lord. Enjoy
His Word, pray, sing and make music, live lives of
faith, tell others about Him - in other words, to not
just do the things He wants us to, but to cultivate a
heart that enjoys this life. And our heart's desires
will be molded to those of God, and we draw closer to
Him as a result. This is freedom - freedom from fear,
freedom from laziness, freedom from the trappings of
this world that so easily entangle.

So what's the conclusion? Live a life of faith.
Don't be thinking about sinning and not sinning, but
instead dwell upon and delight in God and His
presence. The rest will take care of itself."

REPLY: thanks for reassuring me. perhaps the reason why this concept disturbs some Christians is this verse: "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?(Roms 6:2)" so some might take the act of sinning as being cut off from God's family AGAIN. and i guess i have to remind myself how we shouldn't mold God into the person we want... he probably is more compassionate to us than we think. live a life of putting him in the center of your life, and you shouldn't have a problem. i remember reading "The Case For Christ" and in one part of the book Lee questions a pastor why God would confine people who don't believe in him to hell. his response? something along the lines of this: in the beginning man sins because he begins to see himself in the middle of the universe; as a result, all sorts of crimes we hear about happen: murder, adultery, rape, robbery occur. God doesn't confine others to hell because they didn't believe in him; he does it because these are the type of people who repeatedly think the world revolves around them. they refuse to give up their spot in the universe for something better. another look at it: if God took his hands off the world, we would essentially create hell.

"End-times prophecies can be fascinating and fun to
corroborate with real-world events, but I do think
there's a danger in spending too much time with it
because we can't know for sure what is being referred
to in these prophecies. Some that we think are
fulfilled may not actually be fulfilled, and others
which we think are a long way off may have already
come to fruition.

Matthew 24:36,42-44
36"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the
angels in heaven, nor the Son,but only the Father.
42"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on
what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this:
If the owner of the house had known at what time of
night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch
and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So
you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will
come at an hour when you do not expect him.

We don't know for sure. We can see some clues. But
the goal is to keep watch, and to prepare."

REPLY: i guess it is true: you can't tell for sure when the Son of God is coming back, or when we'll be pulled up towards heaven. however, there are few signs which hint that the end is coming near, aside from that, it is very vague(we can safely say that God promises that trouble will constantly escalate in magnitude for Christians until the day of judgment, and Jesus even notes how there are certain signs which HINT at what has to happen before he'll come back, though he doesn't tell the exact time when he'll be back). and even aside from these clues, we have our own individual deaths to deal with... just because sign X hasn't been fulfilled doesn't mean i can wait out some 20 some more years... what if God decides to take me early? there was this janitor who struck it rich in a Vegas casino by simply placing 1 coin in the slot machine while cleaning up, and then he died on a huge vacation trip to celebrate his winnings to a hopeful future life. i think though all of this is useless, true or not; as a Christian, do we really need to worry about the signs that hint at the coming of the end of the world? we have accepted Christ, are in his family, are walking in communion with him every day, and have a guarenteed spot in heaven. there is no need to worry about what will happen in the future, because God will take care of us each and every day.