1. I have a tendency (as I've heard seems to be part of the curse of the Fall upon masculinity) towards laziness. Vicki encouraged me with this Bible verse quite a while back, even before she was married.
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Galatians 6:9
2. God is good. How do we know this? The contrary is impossible. Christians have a distinct advantage because, as Paul comments to the Jews, "unto them were committed the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2b). You don't have to look much further than Scripture to draw the conclusion that God is good. This knowledge is unconsciously expressed in our languages-- "good morning!" draws its indicative/subjunctive wish from the phrase "God's morning!" (indicative--"the morning is good;" subjunctive--"would that the morning be good."). However, even non-Christians operate for the most part on the assumption that God is good, or at least that nature and evolution and chance have a benevolent and purposeful feel for this planet. All those ideologies rest upon the principle that power and wisdom originate from below and continue to rise with time, as if the master of the universe were baking bread. Evolution requires progress to be beneficial; "natural selection" is just code for "turns out this worked," which presumes that producing offspring is the primary drive for life. Life-drive, yes. Primary, no.
3. Pet peeves are like phobias: they are both rational annoyances / fears taken to ungodly extremes. This has been part of the working definition my Abnormal Psychology class has been using: mental disorders can oftentimes be described as being an overactive or prolonged or excessive natural human emotion. Phobias are sometimes natural fears taken to extremes (spiders, snakes, heights, tight spaces, puncturing objects). Then again, sometimes they aren't (agoraphobia--open spaces). Freud says... unconscious problems. The Bible says "you are a sinner: repent and look to the Christ." But sometimes these problems are merely chemical imbalances within the brain. The brain =/= the mind.
-This is partly why I remain at UCI studying psychology. I want to be able to identify physical problems while always keeping an eye on more fundamental problems of the psyche.
4. Corporate Designated prayer is like 4-part hymn harmony is like a well-structured essay. They all hold to a thesis (The Lord's Prayer, the key + Bible verse, the thesis), and build off each other, and point to the same goal. Are they more beautiful? Subjectively, certainly. Objectively, not necessarily.
5. Mark: "So this one time I made a cookie. It was THIS big (gestures arms to 1' x 1' dimensions). Then some guy bought it for a diamond."
Thomas: "Was it real?"
Mark: "Of course not! I traded him a fake cookie!"
Me: "...a fake cookie for a real diamond. Seems fair."
Mark: "Yeah, and then I tried to sell the diamond. The diamond wasn't real. So I traded the diamond back for the cookie. Then I made the cookie into a car."
Me: "Does your cookie-car run on milk?"
Mark: "Yeah, you just pour milk into the engine!"
Me: "To roll down your window, all you have to do is take a bite out of your car!"
Thomas: "You can't do that..."
Mark: "You can if it's a cookie-car."
6. We recently recited the following question from the Westminster Larger Catechism as a part of Westminster OPC's congregational reading, which reminded me that teaching is a really heavy job, reader. Reader, I covet your prayers both now and in the future.
Q 130. What are my sins as a superior? (application of the 5th commandment)
A. My sins as a superior are, besides the neglect of the duties required of me, an inordinate seeking of myself, my own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure, commanding things unlawful, or not in the power of inferiors to perform; my counseling, encouraging, or favoring them in that which is evil; my dissuading, discouraging, or discountenancing them in that which is good; my correcting them unduly; my careless exposing, or leaving them to wrong, temptation, and danger; my provoking them to wrath; or any way dishonoring myself, or lessening my authority, by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behavior.
7. Last month, one of the memory verses I required of the children was Revelation 4:11. It goes like this:
"You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."
The grammar lessons and theology lessons seem to go over their young heads, but maybe it won't pass over you. Semicolons perform the function of connecting two sentences a little more intimately than a period. Thus, the first part of the sentence must be understood by the second's context. Why do we render unto God glory, honor, and power as we ought? He created all things, and by His will they exist and were created. It's important to note the present tense in the word "exist." Our God didn't step away from the oven for a second; rather "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28a). No, our Savior breathes us into existence just as He ordains worms to eat trees and ordains winds to scorch trees and ordains fish to swallow men and ordains men to tear their clothes in contrition and ordains animals to fast and cry out for redemption.
8. Calvin says I have power over him, but not authority. Regardless of this statement and my involvement, he's onto something important about sovereignty. A nation-state must have both of these things in order to be declared "sovereign" over its own declared peoples and territory. Interesting.
9. #105 You Felons on Trial in Courts.
by Walt Whitman. 1900. Leaves of Grass.
You felons on trial in courts;
You convicts in prison-cells--you sentenced assassins, chain'd and hand-cuff'd with iron;
Who am I, that I am not on trial, or in prison?
Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with iron, or my ankles with iron?
You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs, or obscene in your rooms,
Who am I, that I should call you more obscene than myself?
O culpable! O traitor!
I acknowledge--I expose!
(O admirers! praise not me! compliment not me! you make me wince,
I see what you do not--I know what you do not.)
Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked;
Beneath this face that appears so impassive, hell's tides continually run;
Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me;
I walk with delinquents with passionate love;
I feel I am of them--Ibelong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
And henceforth I will not deny them--for how can I deny myself?
Yet, Mr. Whitman, the Christian can say "Jesus's blood washes even my conscience, and His Spirit makes me ready and willing to follow His passions instead of mine."
10. For my Health Psych. class, my group studied and researched Uganda. I wish I'd have gotten in touch with Erika Bulthuis (http://myheartisfilled.blogspot.com) sooner-- she's being super cool and missionary-ing in Uganda with the OPC missionaries. Anyways, the gist of the project was the figure out what plagued the country and what sort of care was available and stuff. Turns out dysentery likes to catch after HIV turns to AIDS. If Calvin hadn't had similar stomach-flu symptoms, I would have felt extraordinarily sympathetic in the past 48 hours.
11. Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee; who dieth thus dies well.
("O Sacred Head Now Wounded"'s hidden last verse!)
And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Galatians 6:9
2. God is good. How do we know this? The contrary is impossible. Christians have a distinct advantage because, as Paul comments to the Jews, "unto them were committed the oracles of God" (Romans 3:2b). You don't have to look much further than Scripture to draw the conclusion that God is good. This knowledge is unconsciously expressed in our languages-- "good morning!" draws its indicative/subjunctive wish from the phrase "God's morning!" (indicative--"the morning is good;" subjunctive--"would that the morning be good."). However, even non-Christians operate for the most part on the assumption that God is good, or at least that nature and evolution and chance have a benevolent and purposeful feel for this planet. All those ideologies rest upon the principle that power and wisdom originate from below and continue to rise with time, as if the master of the universe were baking bread. Evolution requires progress to be beneficial; "natural selection" is just code for "turns out this worked," which presumes that producing offspring is the primary drive for life. Life-drive, yes. Primary, no.
3. Pet peeves are like phobias: they are both rational annoyances / fears taken to ungodly extremes. This has been part of the working definition my Abnormal Psychology class has been using: mental disorders can oftentimes be described as being an overactive or prolonged or excessive natural human emotion. Phobias are sometimes natural fears taken to extremes (spiders, snakes, heights, tight spaces, puncturing objects). Then again, sometimes they aren't (agoraphobia--open spaces). Freud says... unconscious problems. The Bible says "you are a sinner: repent and look to the Christ." But sometimes these problems are merely chemical imbalances within the brain. The brain =/= the mind.
-This is partly why I remain at UCI studying psychology. I want to be able to identify physical problems while always keeping an eye on more fundamental problems of the psyche.
4. Corporate Designated prayer is like 4-part hymn harmony is like a well-structured essay. They all hold to a thesis (The Lord's Prayer, the key + Bible verse, the thesis), and build off each other, and point to the same goal. Are they more beautiful? Subjectively, certainly. Objectively, not necessarily.
5. Mark: "So this one time I made a cookie. It was THIS big (gestures arms to 1' x 1' dimensions). Then some guy bought it for a diamond."
Thomas: "Was it real?"
Mark: "Of course not! I traded him a fake cookie!"
Me: "...a fake cookie for a real diamond. Seems fair."
Mark: "Yeah, and then I tried to sell the diamond. The diamond wasn't real. So I traded the diamond back for the cookie. Then I made the cookie into a car."
Me: "Does your cookie-car run on milk?"
Mark: "Yeah, you just pour milk into the engine!"
Me: "To roll down your window, all you have to do is take a bite out of your car!"
Thomas: "You can't do that..."
Mark: "You can if it's a cookie-car."
6. We recently recited the following question from the Westminster Larger Catechism as a part of Westminster OPC's congregational reading, which reminded me that teaching is a really heavy job, reader. Reader, I covet your prayers both now and in the future.
Q 130. What are my sins as a superior? (application of the 5th commandment)
A. My sins as a superior are, besides the neglect of the duties required of me, an inordinate seeking of myself, my own glory, ease, profit, or pleasure, commanding things unlawful, or not in the power of inferiors to perform; my counseling, encouraging, or favoring them in that which is evil; my dissuading, discouraging, or discountenancing them in that which is good; my correcting them unduly; my careless exposing, or leaving them to wrong, temptation, and danger; my provoking them to wrath; or any way dishonoring myself, or lessening my authority, by an unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behavior.
7. Last month, one of the memory verses I required of the children was Revelation 4:11. It goes like this:
"You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."
The grammar lessons and theology lessons seem to go over their young heads, but maybe it won't pass over you. Semicolons perform the function of connecting two sentences a little more intimately than a period. Thus, the first part of the sentence must be understood by the second's context. Why do we render unto God glory, honor, and power as we ought? He created all things, and by His will they exist and were created. It's important to note the present tense in the word "exist." Our God didn't step away from the oven for a second; rather "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28a). No, our Savior breathes us into existence just as He ordains worms to eat trees and ordains winds to scorch trees and ordains fish to swallow men and ordains men to tear their clothes in contrition and ordains animals to fast and cry out for redemption.
8. Calvin says I have power over him, but not authority. Regardless of this statement and my involvement, he's onto something important about sovereignty. A nation-state must have both of these things in order to be declared "sovereign" over its own declared peoples and territory. Interesting.
9. #105 You Felons on Trial in Courts.
by Walt Whitman. 1900. Leaves of Grass.
You felons on trial in courts;
You convicts in prison-cells--you sentenced assassins, chain'd and hand-cuff'd with iron;
Who am I, that I am not on trial, or in prison?
Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain'd with iron, or my ankles with iron?
You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs, or obscene in your rooms,
Who am I, that I should call you more obscene than myself?
O culpable! O traitor!
I acknowledge--I expose!
(O admirers! praise not me! compliment not me! you make me wince,
I see what you do not--I know what you do not.)
Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch'd and choked;
Beneath this face that appears so impassive, hell's tides continually run;
Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me;
I walk with delinquents with passionate love;
I feel I am of them--Ibelong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
And henceforth I will not deny them--for how can I deny myself?
Yet, Mr. Whitman, the Christian can say "Jesus's blood washes even my conscience, and His Spirit makes me ready and willing to follow His passions instead of mine."
10. For my Health Psych. class, my group studied and researched Uganda. I wish I'd have gotten in touch with Erika Bulthuis (http://myheartisfilled.blogspot.com) sooner-- she's being super cool and missionary-ing in Uganda with the OPC missionaries. Anyways, the gist of the project was the figure out what plagued the country and what sort of care was available and stuff. Turns out dysentery likes to catch after HIV turns to AIDS. If Calvin hadn't had similar stomach-flu symptoms, I would have felt extraordinarily sympathetic in the past 48 hours.
11. Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee; who dieth thus dies well.
("O Sacred Head Now Wounded"'s hidden last verse!)
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