A Look Back, A Look Forward, And a Look In.

A Look Back:
What happened? As you may have guessed this is the part where I talk about the nearly two year absence of new posts. So again, what happened? I'm afraid there's not much I can say about why I didn't post, I can only restate the obvious fact that I didn't. There were so many ideas cooking up in my head which never saw the light of day, there were even a couple of times when I started to write and then, a few sentences in, deleted everything. While I have my doubts as to how much help my simple ramblings were to people, I hope that my posts were at least able to provide a different perspective to get you think about your own beliefs and I am truly sorry for my total disappearance.

A Look Forward:
What's going to happen? Well, I'm afraid I have to be just as bad as I was with what had happened. Simply put: I don't know. I would like to promise that I will post more frequently, but I really can't. My hope is that I will be able to at least provide a look in at certain aspects of my life and faith that I've been going through and that you may also be going through. For the present however, I will again be starting classes at college very soon and will be working through the fall so I don't know if I'll have the will (or sanity) to write. Currently I will not be promoting the blog on any sites unless and until I get something out fairly regularly.

A Look In:
What is happening? Well, this summer has been fairly... stressful for me. I've been really trying to nail down what I want to become and also who I'm becoming. Those may sound like the same thing, but I can assure you, they are not.
Who I want to become: this is mainly just what sort of job do I want and then what sort of things will I need to do to get there. And while I have these locked in for the moment (until the new semester starts) I still have to wonder if this is really what I'm meant to be doing. It's a difficult question and it starts to tie in with the other thing: who am I becoming? I think this is probably something that just about everyone has to face at some time or another. It's a much broader question than the first, since it can encompass everything about a person from their job to their personality to their faith to their looks. Yes, I do think that looks play a role in this, as people tend to judge you based on how you look so I think it would be a bad idea to leave them out, you just have to remember their place.
The second question was a fairly recent arrival to my already overcrowded mind and has been an extremely poor house guest, refusing to be quiet and settle down with the rest of my thoughts. However I think that it's one of those necessary things. Something to push you beyond what you currently are, to challenge you and probably change you. I'll be honest, I've generally been pretty comfortable with who I am, I knew my flaws (or thought I did) and I gradually came to accept them. I saw myself through my eyes but I realize my eyes aren't the ones that count.
It hasn't been fun, it hasn't been peaceful, it certainly hasn't been convenient, and I'm afraid it hasn't been finished. But it has been good.

And so, I end this with a simple question. To you.
Who are you becoming?
E&V -Chris

Seeds

I've been thinking a lot about the Parable of the Sower, I'm sure most if not all of you know the parable, I thought I'd post it anyways,
Matthew 13:1-9
 1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.

There are a lot of different ways you can think about this, what got me started thinking about it was hearing someone say the parable was about the seeds, not the sower. Well, personally I don't really agree, I think the story is actually about the ground, to try to explain this a little, I'll give you what I think the different things represent.
We (the Christians) are the plants, which actually aren't mentioned in the story, we are where the seed comes from.
The seeds are our testimonies or witnessing's depending on what you want to call it
The Sower is Jesus, or the Holy Spirit
The Ground represents groups of people. And finally,
The plants represent individual people.

Okay, now you know what I think stuff represents, I guess you could say that there isn't actually one important part, every part is important, but the point is to show what happens when we evangelize. Some seeds fall on the path, these do not grow at all, I think this might represent people who refuse to listen. The seeds that fell on the rocky ground grew quickly but were scorched by the sun (which may represent the world), I think this represents people who believe, but as soon as something goes wrong, they lose interest.
The seeds which fell among the thorns, I think are people who believe, but then other people come and persuade them away.
The seeds that fell on the good soil are the people who believe, and grow in their faith, and eventually bear fruit.

Thankfully you don't have to take my meanings, Jesus Himself explained what He meant:
Matthew 13:18-23
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. 20 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22 Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

Now, I didn't really read the section from 18-23 until after I had written my meanings, I did that so I could see if I actually got close, I think I did pretty well, I pretty much missed the one of the thorns but I think I got pretty close to everything else.

This also raises the question of whether or not a Christian can become "unsaved" I think this passage seems to be saying that, but I do know that a lot of people would argue the opposite. While I would love to go into that, I think I should probably wrap this post up.

Endurance And Victory!
-Chris

Kestrels Midnight Song, Review

Some of you might recall the interview I did a short while ago with author, Jacob Parker. Those of you who don’t recall it, I suggest finding something to improve your memory. Anyways, I recently was able to get my hands on a copy of his book, Kestrel's Midnight Song, I found it somewhat different than I expected but very much to my liking.
Micah is a young shepherd who is very attached to his sheep, however small his flock may be. When Micah’s master sends him and his sheep to the Castle of the land of Gable to pay for the taxes with wool, Micah has no idea what to expect. Along the way he encounters many dangers to him and his sheep along with a mysterious but somewhat simple man named Bart. He also meets two travelers who have learned of a secret plot by a secret group of men known only as the Marauders to free their head captain, Kestrel, from a tower prison and take over the kingdom of Gable. Micah and his sheep may unknowingly be part of the secret plot to free the ruthless Kestrel and reunite him with the legendary Caelum flute.


If you’re expecting a typical fantasy of huge-battles/legendary-weapons/romance/mystical-creatures/one-ring-to-rule-them-all type of thing, you might be a little disappointed, or you may like it. Not to say that this doesn’t have awesome stuff like the Aegre Bird (see the cover) and the Caelum Flute, but it seems to be much more about the people than about armies. In some ways Kestrel’s Midnight Song seems to be a parallel of us and Christ, Micah the shepherd seems to have an irrational love for his sheep, climbing down a cliff in a blizzard to find a lost lamb. Just think about how much more Jesus loves us.

KMS is an excellently written book, although there are a few misspelled words, they aren’t too obvious. One of the things I really liked about KMS is how Parker displayed his faith, I’ve noticed in some Christian novels that “Christian” pretty much means “clean” while other books practically shove Christianity down your throat (not that either of these are necessarily bad), Parker seems to have taken the path of just assuming it’s true, there’s no huge back-story about the Jesus figure of this world, just Christians. I also love his display of the forgiveness of sinners and what it can do, it all comes down to one line “He loves you”

I highly recommend reading Kestrel’s Midnight Song by Jacob Parker

He likes to be asked

Hello everybody! Sorry it's been a while, anyways...
Points if you know where this quote is from, bonus points if you know who said it, here's the full quote:
"Wouldn't he know without being asked?' said Polly. 'I've no doubt he would,' said the Horse (still with his mouth full). 'But I've a sort of idea he likes to be asked.
Okay, so this is from The Magicians Nephew by CS Lewis (as most, if not all of you probably already knew) and it has kind of gotten me thinking, which sometimes does actually lead to something good (at least I hope it does). So, I've been thinking along these lines for a couple days, even before I remembered the quote. A lot of times I get kind of upset with God because He doesn't seem to be listening to me, but I started realizing that most of the time it was because I wasn't asking anything. I was just going along, knowing God knew everything about me, knew what I was thinking and would just work with that, it didn't really matter if I prayed about stuff or not, because God already knew... Right? Well... yes... and no, God does know everything about you and what you're going through and all that, but God doesn't want to be some impersonal machine just cranking out everything we need and sending it down when he sees we need it. God wants to be asked. Although, I kind of have to add a disclaimer, just because you're praying for stuff doesn't mean you'll get it, God will do what's best for us, and that can mean holding something back that we really want. Like no sane person would give a baby a lit candle or something like that, even though the baby may really want it, by not allowing that baby to hold the candle you are protecting it from something it doesn't understand. In time, as the baby grows up, it's able to understand more and is able to hold the candle without burning itself.
I really have two main things in this post, and surprisingly, both have CS Lewis quotes! Here's the second one (even more bonus points if you know where it's from, although it's rather easy)

"My dear Wormwood, the most alarming thing in your last account of the patient is that he is making none of those confident resolutions which marked his original conversion. No more lavish promises of perpetual virtue, I gather; not even the expectation of an endowment of 'grace' for life, but only a hope for the daily and hourly pittance to meet the daily and hourly temptation! This is very bad."

As you can probably guess this is from The Screwtape Letters, from Uncle Screwtape to his nephew, Another thing that I did was just go "Dear God, please give me all the peace, hope, joy, long suffering etc. that I'll need for the rest of my life. Thank you. Amen" Okay, it wasn't really like that but the meaning was the same, pray one prayer at the beginning and then just sit back and relax... Uh, no. Sorry, doesn't work like that. God isn't selling some "Cures-All Character Defects" magic ointment, which you only need to replace at Christmas and Easter. I know that I kind of covered this is the last section, but I have really started praying a lot more, I'm not trying to brag, and I think the real reason is that I've started realizing that I need a lot more, and also just asking for stuff like self-control, when I need it, instead of putting in an order the night before.
Anyways, sorry that was kind of long, I hope it prove useful to someone.
Endurance and Victory!
Chris

The Balance Of Everything

Okay, I know the title sounds a little wacky, but I think sometimes we need to start paying attention to the balance in our life. Why? Because so often as humans and Christians, we get to thinking one way and start leaning more and more towards that view. For example, some people think work is necessary (as it is) but they start to focus only on work and neglect any sort of leisure, aka. doing something for the pleasure of doing that thing (more on that in a later post) as I believe you will agree, this is unbalanced. On the other hand it is also unbalanced to only do things you like all the time and not to bother working or learning. We also have the ultimate environmentalists who will do anything to save a plant or animal and on the other hand we have people who are just like "I don't care about what happens" I should know, I was one, and then I thought to myself, "this is stupid, what am I doing?" just because some people went to an extreme to save anything, after seeing some of the stuff they were willing to do, I went to the other extreme and just wouldn't be bothered about it. The Bible does tell us to be stewards, does that mean to kill people in order to save animals? No! But that is what some environmentalists want to do. As Christians we can also greatly unbalance things, such as the issue of Mary in the Bible, on one hand we have the Catholics who seem to put Mary on the same level as Jesus, which I believe is a great mistake, but on the other hand pretty much the rest of the Church seems to ignore Mary because of the attention the Catholic Church gives her. Mary is a very important person in the Bible, I don't think it's right that we ignore her while studying the lives of other men and women in the Bible, the balanced approach seems to try to look at Mary with the same perspective as we do with the other people in the Bible. That means not just reading about her around Christmas and then getting on to the "more important" stuff, but we also shouldn't be worshiping her every Sunday. Find what's in the Bible, see what's there, don't skip anything. One thing I've noticed about humans in that we like to argue, sometimes we may even take a point we never intended to just because we're debating or merely don't like the way some people argue their point (as in my environmentalist example) we just don't want to be associated with them. The point is: look at your life, is there something out of balance? I'm pretty sure you'll find something. Are you willing to fix it?

Back From Camp!

Hey guys! In case you didn't notice, it has been a while since I posted on this. Most of the reason was camp, since that is now over I will probably fall asleep for the next two days but after that I will hopefully have a TON of great stuff to post!
Endurance and Victory!
-Chris

Venom and Song

The Seven Elven Lords of Berinfell have come back to the lands and the peoples of Allyra. After living on earth as any humans would, they've come back to rule over the seven elven tribes and defeat the Spider King once and for all. However, they cannot succeed so easily, for standing in their way is the Spider King's mountain fortress; Vesper Crag. Full of Gwars, Drefids, Warspiders, evil creatures known as Wisps and human slaves from our own world. The Seven teenaged lords have been sent to a special training ground where they will learn to fight as one. They undergo grueling tests but emerge victorious, but they also learn of a dark secret in the Elven history. However, it is soon realized that their training is not enough, they must undertake a journey to an ancient castle to find the keystone, and along with it, the secret of the Rainsong. This alone may enable the Elves to make a successful attack on Vesper Crag. But will it be enough? Find out in Venom and Song.

This is an excellent book, well written and engaging
Not to say that there aren't some problems with this book, there are a great many characters, which can be confusing, especially if you start with the second book, so my suggestion: Don't! Really, go find a copy of Curse of the Spider King somewhere and read that before continuing, you'll understand Venom and Song so much better. Also, skip the character page, it'll just confuse you. If you want, go back and read about a character when you come across him in the story.


Written by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper


Books by Wayne Thomas Batson: The Door Within, Rise of the Wyrm Lord, The Final Storm, Isle of Swords, Isle of Fire

Books by Christopher Hopper: Rise of the Dibor, The Lion Vrie

Books by both:
 Curse of the Spider King, Venom and Song

To find out more go to the book's website: The Berinfell Prophecies