Fun and Games

This is a picture of one of my favorite classes at this time. We meet Monday and Wednesday mornings. In the class, we design and test games! This was the busy busy one earlier this semester. Now its fun and games!

Did you look at the picture. can you find me?

I don't know how else to put it: Im bald. like bald bald. with a razor bald.
Why? not quite sure myself at this point, maybe boredom, probably mostly out of curiosity. I found out that I look quite silly, but it is also very comfortable, and less of a hassle.
When? last sunday night I used the clippers, then monday night I shaved it with a razor.

I don't think i will cut it again for some time. and most likely not back to bald, knowing how silly i look.
I put some pictures here. They are all from my class last wednesday.

The Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Right-of-Way

It was a wet, cold and rainy autumn night. He was in a neighborhood that he had never seen before. As he entered the small pontiac he noticed that the windows had fogged up since he left his car five minutes earlier. Not thinking anything of it, he stepped into the car, switch on the defrost and headed on his way. At the stop sign at the end of the block he waited, thinking the extra few seconds would help clear up his passenger side window. Thinking it was safe, he pressed the gas pedal to take him across the silent one way street to the next block. The car was half way across the road when a flash of light hit his eyes, followed by a loud thud and a sharp jerk to the left. Time didn't slow down, sound wasn't dampened, nor were there any screams or sirens, it wasn't a movie, it was real. Then I woke up; just kidding, cuz it was real! As it happened, a large Jeep SUV was rolling down that one way street when it met with the hapless pontiac. Without thinking, the young man jumped out of his car to the other vehicle. Knocking on the fogged over driver's side window he yelled "Are you okay?!" The window rolled down revealing two young women. The driver crying bitterly, the other yelling, hurling accusations and insults at the young man. "Look what you did" she cried, to which he quickly countered, "I don't care about the cars right now, are you both okay?" He hadn't even checked himself to see if he was hurt. "Yeah we're fine, thanks alot!" She sarcastically confessed.

this 3rd person story mode is hard. now I'm switching over to regular mode

To make a long story short, the police were very nice. They deemed the accident my fault because it was the Jeep's right of way, which was a fair assessment in my opinion, despite the fact that neither one of us saw one another until we hit. I got a citation that says I have to go to court on January 5. I want to get this moved to another time, cuz I gotta wedding to go to the next day. Also, since I delivered for a Chinese place, I lost a job because I lost my car in the accident.
There's basically two ways I could' ve looked at this whole situation. The first is to realize that my car is beyond reasonable repair, I lost my delivery job, I have to go to court the day before a wedding, and it was all my fault. I have the right to complain and moan and groan and whine and grumble and gripe and wail and bellyache and ... you get the point. I consider this the WRONG way of dealing with the situation.
The other way to look at it is to recognize that God is sovereign, so whatever it seems, this whole happening is a good thing. Not good like big house 5 cars in suburbia, but good because it is from God. After all, what did I lose? a car? a job? big whoop. it's just a car, and I have two other jobs. Not only that, but I didn't really like the job, not because it was stressful, but because it was taking away from the time I needed to get my work for school done. While I was in the car waiting for the police to finish the papers, I was calling some people to let them know that "I got into an accident, but I'm ok, everythings ok". I was making jokes, laughing, and just staying at ease.
I called my friend John, who I worked with at the Chinese delivery, he's the one that got me the job there. He's not Christian, but I had shared with him how much I didn't want to work there any more. When I told him what happened over the phone he plainly said "well I guess God delivered for you." I thought he was making a play on words about the delivery job and that fact that I am a Christian, so I didn't know what to say. Then he said, "you know, you were saying you didn't want the job anymore." I realized he was encouraging me. That was probably the best encouragement I have had about the situation, and it came from an atheist.
On my way home that night (I had to take the train) I was able to be a blessing to a family and a blind homeless man named "The Big Doowop, or Whop for short" That was nice.

Lots more details, but it all boils down to this: I don't count this wreck as a loss, but really as a gain. I feel like God didn't take something from me, but gave me something I did not deserve. I can't really explain it very well, but all in all, I thank God for it.

Here at IIT (not ITT), there are a few "Christian" clubs.
Campus Crusade for Christ
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
Remnant in Covenant
Rejoice in Jesus Campus Fellowship
IIT Bible Club
I want to break down my experiences with each one of these clubs in my next few posts.

Campus Crusade for Christ comes first for no particular reason other than alphabetical- I went to a bunch of their meetings/Bible Studies when they first came to campus. One guy transferred from another university to IIT to be the president of the Club so it could get started with the help of some staff hired by the national CCC, Mark Covell, and Beth Ann Nelson.

Mark likes Napoleon Dynamite, so you might be able to tell that he and I got along pretty well, until he found out that I was in another Christian club on campus. When I told him the Church I went to he told me that "you should, no you need to change Churches," because apparently the church was trying to control my life. I had in mind at that time to change churches, but not because they were trying to control me (like Mark was), but because they were growing more liberal every day. Closer and closer to being like this church: New Community Covenant Church, which happened to be the church he was going to at the time. So he basically told me that unless I left the club I was part of (which had ties to my old church) and switch to another church, there could be no way that I would be able to represent IIT's CCC as a member in a leadership position. Kind of like gently kicking me out of the club.

Then I started going to a book/Bible study with a couple guys from CCC and a couple other guys. The Book was Wild at Heart by John Eldridge . After the first meeting I realized that this book just isn't very Christian. Basically the message of the book is that men have to be manly, act on our impulses, those desires we have are given by God, so go for it! Yeah! A lot of people just love the book, and I think I know why: it gives people an excuse to act on sinful desires.
One other guy besides myself in the group seemed to recognize the abhorrent teaching in this book. The leader of the group wanted us to all get together to have a guys movie night, he suggested a bunch of R rated movies, mostly movies full of bad language and at least one had a nude scene. When I commented that maybe we should consider a wholesome movie, he basically said that were all grown up and we can handle it, besides, the author of the book recommended these ones. Every night of the meeting he would call each one of the guys to make sure they were coming. Half way through the semester I stopped going to the book study, he never called.

CCC along with IVCF is sponsoring an event on campus called "Porn Nation: the naked truth" I cant say anything about the event except that the advertisements around campus are very provocative, not in a good way.
the verse that comes to mind is Romans 3:8
And why not say (as we are slanderousley reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just. [NASB]

I know that there may be people who disagree with my take on some of these things, that's ok, I might be wrong. I would be happy to listen to another POV.
well, I'm about done. got other stuff to do.
ciao

Do you want a sign from God?

This is an excerpt from an article I read recently by Ray Comfort, the rest is here.


Tony sat patiently on the “red-eye” flight, and passed the long hours of the night by reading a Bible that his wife had given to him a few hours earlier. She had convinced him that he had sinned against God by violating the Ten Commandments. What she said was true. Tony had broken the Commandments. He had lied and stolen, and he knew that if he stood before God on Judgment Day he was in big trouble. The words of Jesus echoed in his mind: “Whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart.”

The opened pages brought back a flood of childhood memories from his days at Sunday school. He remembered a number of Bible stories. Of course, there was the one was about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, and rising on the third day. Then there was the story that put the fear of God in Tony as a child. It was the narrative of the man who ignored the things of God and instead stored up treasures on earth. God said to him, “You fool. Tonight your soul shall be required of you.” Others stories such as Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, Moses and the Red Sea, and Daniel and the Lion’s den came to mind as well.

His wife had also insisted that he needed the Savior. She warned, “If you die without Jesus Christ, you will face the Law that you have broken, and it will be harsher than the law of gravity. You must repent, and trust Jesus…like you would trust a parachute to save you.”
Tony had a dilemma. How could he know if the Bible was true? Who wrote it? Was it written by God or by men? Could he trust its words? He glanced at two gospel tracts his wife had put into the Bible. One was titled, “Scientific Facts in the Bible.” It listed about a dozen scientific facts that were written in the Scriptures thousands of years before man discovered them. That didn’t impress Tony at all. He wanted concrete evidence. The other publication was called “The Bible is Full of Mistakes.” Despite the title, the tract actually listed biblical “signs” of the end of the age. These signs were said to be earthquakes, famines, violence, diseases, lawlessness, wars, occult interest, the increase in travel and in knowledge, and a number of other things. As he glanced over the “signs,” Tony mumbled, “These have always been around.”

There was one prophecy that did impress him though. It was the one about the Jews obtaining Jerusalem. In 1967, the Jews regained Jerusalem for the first time in 2,000 years. This was an event that Jesus said would take place as a sign of the end of the age. It was interesting, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to know who actually wrote the Bible and whether or not he could trust it. Was it indeed “written by God” as it so often claimed to be, or was it simply written by men?

Another thought that his wife had mentioned was that God had deliberately filled the Bible with stories that would be offensive to anyone with a proud heart. His purpose in doing this was so that all who came to Him for salvation would have to come through the lowly door of humility; God “resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.” As Tony sat contemplating these thoughts, he admitted that that was a common thread throughout the Bible, from Adam and Eve, to David and Goliath, to Jonah and the whale, to Daniel and the lion’s den, to Noah and the Ark, to Sampson and Delilah, to Jesus being born in a stable, and walking on water. Anyone with any intellectual dignity would never stoop to believe such trite fairy tales. “Stoop” was the operative word. To believe in the Bible one would certainly have to come down a notch or two. If that was indeed what God had done, the words of Jesus did then make sense: “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes” (Matthew 12:25, italics added).

All these thoughts and reading made Tony’s eyes suddenly feel heavy. He closed them momentarily. As he signed deeply, he heard a sober male voice over the speaker system. It was the captain warning that the plane had serious engine trouble, and that it was about to crash! He then informed the passengers that there was parachute under their seats, and after reading the instruction booklet that was in the seat pocket in front of them, they were to immediately put on the parachute.

As Tony took hold of the publication, he read the bold print on the cover:
“Important! Emergency Parachute Instructions…your life depends on your understanding of these instructions.”

He opened it further and saw step-by-step directives. It spoke of the importance of strap adjustment. It also said how to avoid being sucked into the jet engines, where to locate the rip cord, when to pull it, how to make sure the parachute didn’t become twisted, and how to land without serious injury.

As he looks at its words, he wondered who authored the publication. Was it the parachute manufacturer, the airline, or did someone else pen it? Another even more urgent warning came over the speaker system. The sober voice said that the aircraft door was about to open, and that cabin pressure would suddenly drop. It said that it would be too late to put on the parachute once the door was opened. The voice said, “Put it on now!”

Tony ignored the warning. His mind was absorbed with other thoughts. “Who was it that wrote the instruction booklet? Was it some weirdo? Or was it authored by the airline? What was their purpose in writing it? Perhaps it was written by the parachute manufacturer, or then again, it may have been...”

His thoughts were stopped mid-sentence by a deafening roar. The aircraft door had been opened. Cabin pressure dropped. In a split second, air was sucked from Tony’s lungs. His eyes filled with terror as he gasped for precious air. Suddenly, he was ripped from his seat and pulled towards the open door. With all his strength, he held onto a seatback as the irresistible vacuum pulled him closer to the opening. His fingers weaken. In an instant, he was gone...sucked into the blackness of the night.
As he plummeted in unspeakable terror towards the unforgiving earth, ten words echo in his mind, “You fool. Tonight your soul shall be required of you.”

Suddenly Tony awoke. The open Bible was still on his lap. His hands were dripping with sweat. His breathing was fast and heavy. It was a nightmare. His wide eyes fell onto a passage of scripture:
“For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent...For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness…” (1 Corinthians 1:19, 22—23).