Blogging Again.

I've abandoned this blog for too long.  I'm going to start posting again and make an effort to keep it regular.
At the moment I have nothing particular to post about, so I'll just write a brief update of what's going on in my life.
Currently, I have 16 piano students, which has been a big help to my income as piano tunings have been slow.  In fact, January was very slow (for some reason it usually is): I only had one tuning.  This month (February) I've had four tunings and another one scheduled for tomorrow.
I'm hoping eventually to save up enough money to buy a piece of land somewhere in the country south of Portland and start a homestead.  I've still got a ways to go with that; hopefully I'll be able to start a homestead before the dollar becomes worthless.  When THAT happens, anyone whose assets are mainly in dollars will be a pauper for life.  Speaking of which, I'm supporting Ron Paul for president, since he's the only one who wants a gold standard for the dollar (in addition to being the only one who takes his oath to the constitution seriously).
But I digress.  I don't like politics much (the good guys usually lose if they bother to run at all).
So, where was I?
O, yes.  Life.  Well, that's all that's going on right now.  I'll post more later.

Sword Fighting

Someday, I'm going to get my hands on this set.
I'd like to learn how to do this with Arthur...

Battle Swords in Action from Douglas Phillips on Vimeo.

Pianos, Harps, and Election Day

This last month, October, I officially made more by tuning pianos than I did working part-time as a custodian.  That's a good milestone for my business.
Today, November first, I tuned a piano for some folks, and when I was done I tuned a Celtic harp they had recently inherited, as the tuning pins were the same as on a piano.  I'd never played a harp before, let alone tuned one.  I guess I can put that on my resume.
Tomorrow is election day.  Everyone is making predictions, so here's mine:
Republicans will pick up 70 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and 10 in the Senate.
I think there is a greater chance that I have underestimated than overestimated.  We'll find out tomorrow.

I turned 24 today.

Yes, the rumors are true.  As of today, God in his grace has given me 24 complete years of life.
They have been good.
Looking back, I see his faithful hand guiding me.  I continue to look forward to what he will do tomorrow.
Thank you, Lord.  I owe everything to you.

Two True Stories of Good and Evil

And a Question to Ponder at the End

In the beginning, God created everything. He created the world and created the first man and woman to rule over it. It was a good and perfect paradise because God is a good and perfect God. He is a holy God. The man and woman lived in this perfect world in perfect harmony with their Creator. There was no death, and no pain. It was beautiful.

But it did not last. One of God’s angels rebelled, and came to the man and woman, asking them also to rebel. The man and woman chose to rebel against God, and corrupted themselves. They became filthy and repulsive in God’s sight, but God still loved them. He promised he would save them – he would send a savior, one of their own descendents, who would defeat this rebel angel, called Satan – the devil. He would deliver those who trusted God from their wretched condition.

As the first man, Adam, had rebelled, so also his sons and daughters rebelled – they were born as rebellious creatures, inheriting their father Adam’s corrupt nature. Some chose to believe God and trust his promise to send a redeemer. Many more chose to continue rebelling instead, and even to make their rebellion greater, twisting the truth and believing lies.

Now, after the passing of many events, the world became full of many peoples and nations who spurned their Creator. Most of the people did not know the truth, and had grown up knowing only the lies their parents believed. Those who knew God were few, and knowledge of the Creator was disappearing everywhere. It seemed Satan was having his way.

But God had not forgotten his promise to send a deliverer. He called a man named Abraham, and sent him to the land of the Canaanites. He promised to give him this land, and make him the father of a new nation, from whom the promised deliverer would come. Now some time after Abraham died, his descendents went down to Egypt to escape a severe famine. They lived there for several generations, and grew into a mighty people. The Egyptians did not like this, and made them slaves. But God delivered the children of Abraham, the Israelites, from Egypt with a mighty display of power, and sent them back to the promised land – the land of Canaan. He revealed to them his most personal name: Yahweh, the One Who Is.

Now, the Canaanites had become a terribly evil people, worshiping idols, murdering and oppressing, believing lies about God, and exporting their lies to the nations around them. They had become so evil, they even burned their children alive, so that their false gods would give them good fortune. They were polluting the land with their evil, so Yahweh ordered the Israelites to wipe them all out – lest their evil remain in the land and turn the Israelites away from Yahweh who loved them.

But they did not completely obey Yahweh, and let evil remain in the land. And this evil influenced them. The Israelites would leave the God who loved them and worship false gods, and behave evilly, doing as the Canaanites did. So Yahweh handed them over to their enemies. The Israelites would repent for a while, and God would deliver them and bless them and give them peace – but then they turned back to their rebellion again. For centuries this went on, until finally the Israelites became so rebellious that God used powerful empires to destroy their land and take them into exile.

Yet even then, Yahweh forgave them, and brought a remnant of them back to the land. Then, the time came, and Yahweh sent his own Son. He revealed then that He is a triune God – although He is one God, and one being, He is three separate and distinct persons, each one of whom is God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Yahweh sent His Son to earth: His Holy Spirit caused a virgin to conceive Him in her womb. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, who became a step father to the Son of Yahweh. Yahweh instructed him to name the child Jesus, which means Salvation.

And so, God stepped down and wrapped himself in the ruined flesh of Adam. He grew into a man, and he went around the nation of Israel, preaching to all that he was the promised one sent by God.

Many did not believe him, especially those who held powerful positions – and they hated him for it. They devised a plan to kill him. Jesus knew their plans, and could have easily escaped. Yet, he chose not to. He delivered himself to them, and they crucified him, torturing him half to death and then nailing him to a wooden cross and leaving him to slowly die, displayed before all Israel. And as he hung on that cross, God the Father poured out His wrath on His only Son, whom He loved dearly, punishing Him as if He had done every evil thing that every descendant of Adam had ever done. As if He were the wicked rebellious creature that every descendant of Adam ever was. Then it was over, and all of the wickedness of man had been punished. Jesus died. But death could not hold the Son of God. Three days later, he rose again. He appeared to his disciples many times over the next forty days, and then ascended into heaven, to sit down at the right hand of the throne of His Father.

God sent the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ disciples, and they preached the good news of the Salvation that Jesus had given them. Many believed, and the followers of Jesus – who became known as Christians – grew to a great number. They were persecuted for their beliefs, fed to lions and burned at the stake, tortured and murdered by the thousands by the brutal Roman Empire. Yet, their number continued to grow. Finally, there were so many Christians that an opportunistic Roman politician general, desiring to become the next emperor, declared himself to be a Christian so as to get the support of the followers of Jesus. He prevailed over his foes, and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christians suddenly found themselves with power, and like the Israelites before them, they began to adopt the ways of wickedness around them. Aiding this process, most of the pagans in the Roman Empire pretended to become Christians so that they could attain a better legal standing, yet they clung to their old pagan ways of thinking. Christianity, and the gathering of believers, called the Church, became powerful; they also became like the pagan Romans before them, and began to oppress those who didn’t believe as they did, rather than preaching the gospel. Those who dissented were persecuted, along with heretics who believed outrageous lies and Israelites (now called Jews) who did not believe in Jesus.

In addition to the above chaos, the Roman Empire began to disintegrate; it broke into an Eastern half and a Western half, the latter of which began to be overrun by barbarians.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The above story is true. None of the names have been changed. The following story is a sequel. It is also true, but the names of many people, places, and books have been changed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, during this difficult and tumultuous time, many people fled to distant lands. One of these lands was called Terren. Terren was full of many towns and communities; most of them were native Terrenians, but many were also settlements of Jewish folk who had fled Israel, as the Romans and even the “Christians” had been brutalizing them. Many confused heretics had also fled to the land of Terren, along with people still faithful to the teaching and good news of Jesus who had dissented from what the Church in the Roman Empire was doing.

Most of the native Terrenians believed in many false gods, and worshiped idols. Yet many were turning and becoming Christians, or at least they believed that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was the true and only God. Yet truth was mixed with lies; some did not believe that Jesus was the one Yahweh had promised to send; others believed, but perverted the good news of His Salvation with lies.

In this land of confusion, where the truth lived in the midst of lies, there was a man named Nedio. Satan appeared to Nedio, disguised as a faithful angel of light named Gabriel. He told Nedio that God had chosen him to be a prophet, to tell the truth to the people. But Satan cleverly mixed lies into the truth, claiming as many of the heretics did that Jesus was merely a man, not the Son of God, and that God was only one person. He also told Nedio that he was going to be THE prophet, the final and greatest prophet of God. He told Nedio to write these things down, and so he did. He wrote them down in a book. Nedio preached this message to the people around him; he preached many years, but was only able to convert a hundred people. Nedio, thinking himself to be greater than he was, was arrogant and conceited. Many people did not like Nedio, and became his enemies. They made life very hard on him. The chieftain of his home town Shelton, whose name was Gilbert, hated Nedio and chased him out of Shelton.

Finally, Nedio had had enough. If people would not follow his teaching and give him a hard time, he would not be gentle and nice anymore. Nedio picked up his sword, and so did his followers; they began to go from village to village, forcing the inhabitants at the point of the sword to become Nedians. If they did not obey him, he slaughtered them. Many chose to be slaughtered rather than to deny what they believed to be true. Nedio, realizing that he might need the food from the crops these people grew, instituted a new law in his religion: You could remain a Jew, or a Christian, or a whatever, and not become a Nedian, and you could still live; however, you would have to pay a hefty tax to Nedio, and be a second-class citizen with no rights. If you decided to convert and be a Nedian, you would be eagerly welcomed; but if you left the Nedian faith and became something else, you would be promptly executed. Nedian became increasingly violent. He moved to attack a city of Jews; the Jews immediately surrendered peacefully, but no matter: Nedio ordered his men to execute all the men of the city, and to take the women as their slaves and their wives. In another situation, Nedio ordered his men to rape the women the captured in a village in front of their husbands.

During this time, Nedio continued to write in his book, the Holy Book of his religion. He wrote many lies about God, and many hateful and violent things about those who did not follow him. He also wrote that anyone who was a slave was that way because God had made him to be inferior. He also claimed that women were inferior to men, and that men should beat their wives if they so much as suspected that their wives had rebellious hearts. Nedio also created a harem for himself. He created a limit on his followers, telling them they could only have four wives; but after that, they could do whatever they wanted with their female slaves. Yet, finding that he himself wanted more than four wives, told his followers that God had given him a revelation, telling him that because he was such a special person he could have as many wives as he wanted. One of the wives he chose for himself was a six year old girl. He also wanted the wife of one of his sons. He had his way, with another convenient revelation.

Now, Nedio had grown so powerful, that Gilbert, his old enemy, decided to make peace with him. He came and asked Nedio for peace between them. Nedio asked, “Do you believe that I’m the Great Prophet?”

Gilbert confessed, “I still am not quite sure about that.”

“You Moron! Confess that I’m the Great Prophet before I cut your head off!”

Gilbert instantly became a Nedian.

By the time of Nedio’s death, his followers had conquered the entire region of Terren. They then turned their lustful appetites to the remant of the Roman empire, and the great Persian Empire. They pillaged and conquered, murdering thousands, if not millions of people. They conquered Africa, much of Asia, and almost conquered Europe as well.

Almost.

God stopped them. For a long time, the Nedians were mostly content with what they had conquered.

Many centuries later, the religion of Nedianism grew restless and once again desired to have its early glory, and conquer the world for its twisted god. For the god that Nedio preached was not the True, Holy, Loving God, but rather a fake god of lies, hate and wickedness.

In a land across the sea that had been settled by Christians, but was now forgetting much of the truth of God, there was a pastor. He was a rather ornery and strange individual. But he knew enough to recognize evil. He looked out at the world and saw people everywhere being murdered by the followers of Nedio. He looked at the book that Nedio had written, and read all the perverse and hateful things that Nedio had written. He read the books compiled by his early followers describing all the evil things Nedio had done. This pastor was revolted by the evil, and wanted the whole world to know just what he thought of Nedio and his evil teachings.

So, the pastor decided to publicly burn copies of Nedio’s book.

Now, this pastor was probably not wise in the actions he took.

But I ask you now this question.

Is he not justified?

Well, I'm Back.

I haven't posted anything since NEFC. I was trying this last summer to become a consistent blogger, and, well, I got busy. So I gave up again.
Now I'm back after a good, long hard summer of ministry. I'm no longer going to Multnomah University this year, as I can no longer afford it. Currently, I have a part time job at my church, and am using my free time to work toward becoming a certified piano tuner and technician. That is a short update on my life up to now.
I really think I'll be blogging a lot more frequently now. There's been a lot of things on my mind lately that I want to right down. Things that are important to me, like issues where the truth is attacked. If there's one thing I hate, it's when the truth is attacked and people's mind are put into a paradigm of falsehood. It happens in the political realm, it happens in the theological realm, in the hermeneutical realm, in the realm of ideas of how one is to live -- and I believe that all these "realms" are ultimately one realm, just like the European and Pacific theaters in WWII are part of the same globe. Whenever the truth is attacked, it's ultimately because someone does not want Scripture to be authoritative. And sadly many times, it comes from people who think they uphold the authority of Scripture, even when they unwittingly undermine it. The philosophy of the world is that "man has all the answers." The rules we live by and our philosophy of life is built on fallible man's fallible ideas, rather than the infallible Word of God. And this philosophy has affected many Christians in ways they do not (and perhaps will not) recognize.
All that to say, I've got a lot to write about. There are so many important issues where the authority of God's Word is under attack. So look for further posts.

Wood Burning

A couple days ago (Tuesday, right after we ate that delicious pizza), we burned a lot of dead, junky, and lopped off wood ("We" being myself, my brother Nat, Andrew Moses and Josh Manus). For those of you who don't know the four of us by face, here's some pictures.

Clockwise from Top Right: Andrew Moses, Myself, my brother Nat, and Josh Manus. Now, they say that a picture is worth a

thousand words. Well, a movie is worth a thousand pictures (literally). So I threw a little heroic production together for y'all to enjoy.

Pizza!

Mmmm, Mmmm,

Mmmm! What else can I say? Pizza at NEFC is THAT GOOD. Mrs. Moses makes it just right. Each pizza comes out on a pan, loaded with Peperoni, ground beef, cheese, spice, peppers, and generally anything else delicious.

Josh Manus loves eating it.

So do I.

I'm so glad we have it every week!

Loading the docks

Today we put the docks in the lake. Or the great H-dock, I should say. It's a giant dock shaped like an H in the middle of the waterfront, hence the title "H-dock". It's made of about twenty-docks segments, each one weighing about 300 pounds. We used the tractor we were renting to lift them up with cables and drop them in the water, and then we stood on them and paddled them like canoes into their positions. We then linked them together (each dock has eye-bolts on its sides, so we fit a metal rod through the eyebolts, and keep the rod in place with cotter pins). A lot of good, hard work. It's nice to have it done. Now we have a place to swim and dock all our saiboats. I'm in the three tractor pictures, with the life jacket and hat. Andrew is helping me steady the dock while Mr. Moses opporates the heavy machinery. To the right is Peter Burger; he and his brother scuba-dived to find the ropes that ancher the floats to which the sailboats attach. To the left is the finished H-dock.

Arrived Safely

My brother Nat and I flew out from Portland, Oregon to Portland Maine this Thursday, to spend another wonderful summer at New England Frontier Camp. This will be my fourth time -- and very likely my last; I'm taking a change of pace in my life. I will likely not continue studying at Multnomah University next year, despite not graduating after four years (cue sad violin music). So next year I will probably not be here in Maine again. Alas!
All that to say, I want to make the most of this year here. And part of that is consistently and faithfully updating my blog while I'm here. My brother Isaac isn't with us this summer as he's getting ready to head off to the Merchant Marine academy (which reminds me, I need to finish the video of his graduation and post it on youtube). Isaac was always writing email updates and sending them, so I figured he was covering for me and I slacked off. This time, I don't have Isaac to cover for me, so I've got to do all the updating myself.
Some of you reading my blog may not be familiar with New England Frontier Camp, so I'll explain a little bit. NEFC is a Christian Boys' Camp loosely associated with Christian Boys Brigade, located in the woods in the general vicinity of Lovell, Maine, next to the beautiful lake Kezar. We have six weeks of camp starting at the end of June, going through August. Those six weeks are a great time...
...but I won't spoil it for you. To find out more, you can visit nefc.org, and continue to follow my updates.

Pre-Pre-Camp Update

Well, it has been a long while since I’ve updated. I am here at NEFC – in fact, I’ve been here for about a week and a half now. Today is Monday, and Pre-Camp (that’s when all the Summer Staff arrives) will officially start on Sunday. Right now, only the six of us are here – Mr. Moses, Mrs. Moses, Andrew Moses, Josh Manus, my brother Nat and myself. Friday, my brother Ezra will come up and join us (I’m excited about that!) and stay through the first week of camp. Andrew Kjellman (That’s pronounced like Chell-man), another good friend of mine, will also join us Friday, so they’ll be eight of us here until Sunday.
The six of us have been doing a lot of work around camp. This last weekend we had about a dozen people come up and help us get some work done – raking, weed-eating, mowing, and general clean up. The grounds are looking a lot better!
We had a honeymooning couple stay at camp last night. We gave them the health lodge to stay in. This morning, before they left, Andrew, Josh, Nat and I formed a quartet and attempted to sing “In the Jungle” for them. We did pretty good for not having practiced much.
There’s a lot more to write, but in the course of this update it has gotten late and I need to go to bed. So, good night, y’all.

Camp for the Summer!

I have finally come to a decision on what to do this summer. Or, rather, God has made his decision clear. I will once again be a senior counselor at New England Frontier Camp in Lovell, ME. I was a senior counselor there in the summers of 2005 and 2006 as well, but not in 2007 (though looking back I wish I had). So I am returning to camp!

Now, there are plenty of Christian camps in my state, Oregon, so how is it that I am going to ME to minister? Well, this may sound strange, but the Camp Director, Mr. Moses, lives in Portland and goes to my church. (He’s originally from the New England area, so he’s been connected to the camp for a while). We are leaving for camp Sunday, May 25^th; we being me, my brother Nat, and my good friends Andrew Moses (Mr. Moses’ son) and Josh Manus, and Mr. Moses himself. We will be driving across the country in Mr. Moses’ trusty suburban, complete with a trailer loaded with supplies in the back. Mrs. Moses will fly out there ahead of us, so there will be six of us at camp. We’re going extra early this year; we’ll be at camp for two and a half weeks before “pre-camp” officially starts – and that’s another two weeks before camp itself begins. So we’ll be at camp for a whole month (June) before any campers arrive, and just the six of us for the first half of June.

I will do my best to keep you updated on the summer.

Shalom!

Well, if you tried me, you must be wondering about my definition of soon. It's been over two months! Well, y'all might like to know that I just got my lower two wisdom teeth removed. The doctor wanted to take all four out, but I wouldn't let him. So now my jaw aches a little, I'm keeping gauz in my mouth (for a few more hours, anyway), and I'm going to have to eat soft foods like Applesause and Pea soup for a while (Pea soup is good if it doesn't have what I call O.T.I.s -- Offensive Texture Inconsistencies. I like it to be perfectly thick and smooth. No carrots, no bacon bits (yuch!).
So, I'll try to post again soon. But I obviously can't guarantee anything.

It's been a long time

Does anyone read this blog anymore?
If you don't I don't blame you. It's been almost half a year since I last updated. Not good.
I will very briefly sum up for you what's happened in my life.
I am no longer at The Master's College. It got too expensive. I knew I would have to at least take a year off and work before I could go back. But the Lord in His sovereignty had other plans. At the very last minute, he provided for me to attend Multnomah Bible College while commuting from my house in Gresham.
My time is brief so I will now end this update and ellaborate on the details on my next post, which SHALL BE SOON. Try me.

"You lost your WHAT!?!?"

That's right, folks, I lost my cell phone! I left it at LAX when we got on the plane. Sometimes absent-mindedness can be a little inconvenient. What a way to start off Chorale Tour, huh?














It's kind of funny. I used to convince myself I would never ever ever own a cell phone. The thing would be like a chain, holding me captive to its technological benefits.

Well, that's exactly what it did!

Now, it's gone. I'm getting back to normal life now.

You know, folks, God is faithful. He'll take care of me, just like he used to before I got a cell phone. And He's sovereign over everything, including this trip. So, I have no need to worry over my cell situation.

This chorale tour has been amazing, and it seems like we've already done so much. And it's only Tuesday Morning -- the adventure has only begun! God is really blessing us and our ministry. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Picture Time!

Shalom, Y'all! I promised some pictures, didn't I?
Hee hee. Hmmm, should I keep my promise?















Well of course. So here goes:


Here's Paul Elsworth, obviously happy with his delicious treat...
















There's Mandy Madrid, also eating though you can't see her food.
















Here's one of Doc and Pipes (Doctor Plew and Kyle Swanson, who plays the Irish bag pipes, hence the name "Pipes").
















Karl's being his usual smiling self:
















As you can see, I like taking snapshots of people when they aren't posing for the camera. Snapshots of reality, you might say. You see, whenever someone notices that I'm taking his or her picture, he or she makes a weird face. Well, a few are somewhat normal. Jason Hunt, for example:
















His younger brother Corrie, on the other hand, tends to, um, well, see for yourself.
















Oh, Come on, Corrie, no one's laughing... Oh, wait a minute. I guess Karl is. Hee hee.
















Yikes, Grant Fonda? What are you doing?
















"Um, posing for the camera?"
Hee hee. It's going to be a great tour.

The Adventure has Begun!

Greetings, everyone!
Wow, this semester is finally over. I’m now an upper classman in college . . . half way done!
This year, instead of going straight home, I’m going on a two week tour with the Master’s Chorale across the eastern States. I’m excited for this tour, since it’s my first one. We’re going to be singing in a lot of different churches, and staying in people’s homes. It’s going to be a great two weeks of bonding for us. And, I am looking forward to what God will teach me.
I’m going to make an effort to leave a “journal entry” for each day here, though I am not sure when I’ll be able to upload them to the site. Some entries may be uploaded a few days late.
I’ll try and include pictures too – as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words.
I’ll keep you posted!

Beginning Spring 2007

Well, I am going to start using this blog more often now. Hee hee, if I even blog, that is. This semester is going to be probably the busiest of my life. I have the usual 16 1/2 credits, but now I'm doing 20 hours of work study (with plant ops!), to make up for the fact that I had no work study while I was in IBEX last semester.
Besides Chorale and Collegiate, I'm taking five classes: Elementary Hebrew II (of course!), Milton (a 400 level class), Biblical Interpretation, Foundations of Science, and Computer Hardware (nothing to do with my major, but I need to increase my computer skills. It was the only computer class available this semester without prerequisites).
I'm also working in the college cafeteria during brunch, to help pay for Choral Tour at the end of school.
I expect to learn a lot this semester, outside the classroom. I'm begining to feel tired already from all the work -- my hope is that God will teach me to depend on Him for strength. Also, please pray for me, that I will stay in God's Word daily. This is my greatest challenge, and my greatest weakness. And it is absolutely vital in order to live in obedience to God.

By the way, I have found this great verse in the Tenakh (Old Testament), and am memorizing it. It pretty much sums up the focus of the Gospel.