Do you guys know what happiness is? I’m glad you asked.
Few things going on:
Muscle Milk: Over the past four months, I’ve been working out consistently, eating quite abit more than usual, and training with a personal trainer. As a result, I have gained 20 pounds, all in my arms, chest, and legs (i.e. none in my waist/bell-ay). One of the more humorous parts of this is my consumption of a weight-gainer protein powder, called Muscle Milk. I can’t really effectively explain how large the jug that holds it is, so I’ll just link one of the larger images I could find:
I think that does it justice.
Facebook: Not really sure what triggered it, but today I made a decent effort to update my Facebook page to more accurately reflect reality. Uploaded a picture, fleshed out the friend list, harassed siblings. You know, normal stuff.
Clarkston: The city of Clarkson, described here, has been on my heart. Several of our church had discussed this city in the past, and it seems to keep coming up. In a few weeks we’re going to go hang out with some peoples we connected with, and see what the deal is.
Blogs: Thinking about shutting down CashMoneyJesus, keeping this domain, and giving it a facelift. It seems that in the course of blogging, there are many casualties, be they about Kite Ariel Photography, Vespas, Financial Topics, or Cooking. So, expect ye old CMJ to redirect to this blog in the near future. sad.
Job: Finally left the bank, which is just as well as my department was about to be obliterated in a few short days from when I gave my two weeks notice. New job is totally awesome, and I’m really enjoying it.
Miley: I’ve developed a slight man-crush on Miley Cyrus. Or rather, if I wanted to speak correctly, I’d say Destiny Hope Cyrus. but whatever.
I think that covers it for now. Tooda-loo!
FL: Obama supporters with signs break in to a Hilary rally. Hilarity ensues.
I have labored to create the perfect portable, youtubetastic, portable hug. Formerly, I only had the visual component down, but now Josh has provided me with the perfect audio component.
Without further ado, please follow the following instructions.
1. Begin playing “Youtube Video A.” Ensure that you hear music playing. It is critical to what I might like to call, a “great success.”
2. Scroll down to “Youtube Video B.” The moment you hear the music from Video A singing “na na na na na na na na na na na, na na na na na na na naaaaa”, begin playing Video B. If numbers are more your game, its at 0:17 in the video.
3. Enjoy the 28 seconds of perfect sync between the audio and visual components of your digital hug. Eat that, e-cards.
YouTube Video A
YouTube Video B
I don’t do this very often.. but sometimes a Youtube video stands completely on its own, and needs no accompanying content. Not that I update too often anyway. Big ole hat tip to my Pakistani comrades blogging up a storm over at buthyaar.com.
If you ask for a FL, you obviously didn’t watch this video.
So this fine evening, the following items are on my agenda:
Domestic
- Multiple loads of laundry.
- Perhaps some ironing if I’m feeling especially spunky. Though at 10:40, it seems unlikely.
Leet
- Downloading the pre-purchase edition of The Orange Box, mainly for the appearing-to-be-delightful Team Fortress 2. As a side-effect, since I already own Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One, first person who can actually run these two programs that asks will receive a free licensed copy of both from me. The Orange Box comes with both, but since alot of people already own these two, Valve is allowing users to give them away as gifts, fo’ free. So feel free to leave a comment if you’d like one/both.
- As a sidenote, that above-mentioned game is downloading on a currently headless PC. Why is it headless? Because…
- I’m wiping a customer’s PC and re-installing Windows and some of their applications. I spent about 3 hours on Friday attempting to clean said machine off, but ultimately I failed (Jeremy, you could even say I epic fail’d). So, since they need this machine roxxing by Monday, being the trooper I am I brought it home and am haxing away.
I think that’s about it. Alittle heavier on the leet side than the domest side, but what can you expect.
FL: User-created Super Mario World levels that play themselves. leet.
Things you need to know, might already know, or have known for awhile:
1. I had laser eye surgery (“pew pew”, as it were) on Thursday. It was pwnage. Despite my now somewhat addictive lifestyle of using artificial tears (I call it my “eye weed”, or if you prefer a more clinical term, my opthamalic marijuana), it was a resounding success. Doc sez the addiction to the eyedrops will go away, like all good addictions.
2. We moved. We’re now officially (it was unofficial, but rumored previously) polygamists/cultists/communists/hippies now, as we are adults with the financial wherewithal to live on our own, but have chosen to live with these folks.
3. I resigned my job today at the bank, as I have accepted a position at a IT services firm. This is great in a large variety of ways, though to be specific:
- Commute goes from 12.2 miles, a drive that takes 45 to 55 minutes each way to… 5.73 miles, a drive my wife says will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Money goes up.
- Training and advancement will go from being a distant possiblity to a near certainty.
- I have had my stint in the banking world, and found it wanting. The paperwork is nothing short of incredible, the regulation is enough to get you fired, and the always-present possibility of merger and your department being dissolved doesn’t really suit me well. New job will be in Information Technology, which is alooot closer to what I would do if I was just chillin’ at home on a weekend than what I ever did or would do at the bank (CashMoney Jesus not withstanding, as the corporate financial world and personal finance are worlds apart. I need to do a post at some point about how working at a bank precludes almost 0 skills with a person’s ability to handle their own finances).
There’s a few other reasons, but they perhaps aren’t blog material, despite my rather weak attempts to hide this blog from the world.
FL: You wouldn’t steal a baby. - it’s true, dude.
(I was directed to this article by a new friend of mine, Jamie Cain. Jamie is H’s new headmaster at the school she’ll be teraching at. Recently, a discussion came up regarding church buildings. It’s actually kind of sad, Jamie’s wife Kristi was simply posting about the new Hindu temple in Atlanta… and the end of the post was about the last that temple was discussed. The conversation ended up revolving around the place of church buildings in Christianity. You can read the discussion here.)
Following some discussion on the topic of where a church is to meet, Jamie directed me to the article from ChristianCourier.com, entitled Are Modern “Church Buildings” Digressive - that is to say - ‘Does the use of a modern “church building” constitute a digression of the divine pattern?’
The article goes on to build a case for the fact that there is no pattern to where a church worships, concluding with some archaeological evidence that early church buildings (prior to Constantine) did exist.
Starters
To start with, there is a very odd sense of negativity throughout the article, starting with a burst of scare quotes (i.e., putting terms in quotations as a means to discredit their validity) - examples: “a binding pattern”, “families.”, “homes,”, etc. Toss in a few sentences like: “The advocates of this theory, however sincere they may be, are terribly misguided.” and “This claim, quite frankly, is ludicrous.” And we’ve pretty much gone ahead and set ourselves up for some good ole-fashioned confrontational dialogue! Yeehaw!
[as a side note, it reminds me of nearly every single book, chapter, paragraph, blog post, or speech I’ve ever read/heard on Intelligent Design. But do not let me get distracted!]
The Meat
Despite this odd sense of angst noted in the above paragraph, the main section of the article does present some points of note. Let’s work through them.
Item 1. - Author’s Point: The church initially met in the outer courts of the temple, therefore we have proof that the early church did have large group meetings.
My thoughts: It seems that in pursuit of the ultimate smackdown (some would say “ultimate pwnage”…), the author conveniently choose to ignore the fact that plenty of believers in house church meetings see the value and worth of larger corporate gatherings, seperate from the main house church meeting. In fact, if that were acknowledged, this entire point is nearly null, so it makes sense that it would not be mentioned.
Although there yet remains a large difference in POV’s- while the author would say the Temple was the early church building, I see this part of the temple more as a public area. Why? Because the Temple was free to use for such gatherings, and there were plenty of other people doing plenty of other things. A modern day version of this would be a public park, or perhaps on a town square in the downtown area of a small city. The Temple was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a place the early Christians specifically setup to do church and church-related activities, and nothing else.
Item 2. Author’s Point: The early disciples did meet in homes at times.
My thoughts: I guess this is some sort of consolation prize, perhaps to setup for the next ultimate smackdown.
Item 3. Author’s Point: Occasionally a rented a public facility, a school was used. Hah! See, it’s not just houses!
My thoughts: I realize it’s unfair to nitpick given that my views obviously do not align with the mystery person this article was written to, but I find myself in agreement with the author here. There certainly is a precedent for public facilities to be used (see Item 1). What this has to do with church buildings being built seems to be at best tangential.
Item 4. Author’s Point: Persecution played a part in where to meet.
My thoughts: I know this is getting repetitive, but I agree again. Where I disagree is when he points out that it justifies using church buildings during more tranquil times. While history by no means reflects it (see the comment thread on Kristi’s blog, link above, for more of my thoughts on the topic of church history), the New Testament was written to people that it assumes will be persecuted. Verses such as 2 Timothy 3:12 (”In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”) come to mind.
The reasons for this lack of persecution can be discussed at another time, but to try and use a lack of persecution as an argument for church buildings seems to be a bit short-sighted, especially given the possibility of persecution in our lifetimes, and the plights faced by our brethren around the world.
Item 5. Author’s Point: There is no foundational, spiritual connection between a worshiping body of people, and the place of their meeting.
My thoughts: Buried in all of these other points, I would say this is probably the strongest thing the author has to say on the topic, at least in my eyes. This point truly diffuses the importance of the topic altogether, and is worthy of consideration.
I shall mull further on this point.
Item 6. Author’s Point: The “house church” theory would suggest that no congregation could grow larger than that which can be accommodated in a private home.
My thoughts: Here we go with those scare quotes again.
The best reply to this point I can offer is this verse:
“What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” 1 Cor 14:26
It says everyone. As in, each member of the church. So, to address the point at hand, yes, I see the worth in congregations being small (20 or less people). Beyond this number, it’s difficult to know one another well, and its very difficult for everyone to be able to contribute verbally to the meeting. Is there some rigid size that is an upper limit? Of course not. The experience of others seems to indicate that 10 to 20 works best.
Furthermore, the author goes on to entertain some thoughts about taking the house church model to a more rigorous test: why don’t house church members require the body of believers to live in the same place? His point is to call such thoughts absurd, I find it amusing that this would be an argument against house church when we live in a culture that is more disconnected and individualistic than ever. I think his point is a great idea, in fact two of our house church members just moved in with the couple who owns the house where our church meets :P.
Item 7. Author’s Point: There is archaeological evidence that there were church buildings in use after the time of the apostles but before Constantine.
My thoughts: A valid point, but not necessarily of great importance, as it seems to me that the argument revolves around the actions of the apostles, not their predecessors - whether those predecessors be 100 years in the future or 1000.
Conclusion
I must confess that I was a scad bit unfair to the author, as the article wasn’t written to convince specifically me, and therefore my answers to some of the points serve the purpose of me using this post as my own soap box =P. It seems to me this article was written not to really convince anyone, but just to serve as an apologetic’s guide to dealing with house church loonies. 
It’s getting late, and I’m supposed to be moving all this junk to another house in roughly 36 hours. Please comment, disagree, agree, do what you do.
FL: Kid tricks the other team to hold up a sign that says “We Suck”, gets suspended - oopsie-doo.
Context: Eric has a flex spending account at work, which is basically a use-it-or-lose-it tax-free chunk of change that is deducted from work. It looked as if I was going to have a heavy amount in excess of what I could actually use, and was trying to think of some creative ways to spend it.
Eric and Mr. d10 are discussing options:
Eric: I think I’m gonna get laser eye surgery, and it looks like there will be like, alot, left over. [this assumption turned out to be false, but whatever]
d10: Well if you have so much leftover, I could just get my eyes done too.
Eric: Well, yeah, if you were my dependent, maybe. [can only use money on self, spouse, or dependents]
d10: You mean like a tax dependent, not like an emotional dependent, like I am.
Eric: Exactly.
d10: And how do you even document that your an emotional dependent anyway?
Eric: In tears, man. In tears.
Today from 11am to 7pm the Chipotle that’s just opened on GA-20 in Buford at the Mall of Georgia is offering free meals to all that comes. It’s not just a free entree, you can get free guacamole (which, if you happen to be reading Mr. Ardell, is “Things I Love About America #1″ :p), free chips, free drink.
I think me and the ladyfriend will be up there about 6pm. You should come hang out if your in the area!
Here’s a link to the location where the grubbins be free.
FL: Atlanta Humane Society using old Michael Vick jerseys for dog bedding - pwntastic.
Today during my lunch break I came across three fascinating Wikipedia articles:
Feel free to peruse the above links if you like, I’ll talk about each of the three below:
Guerrilla Gardening: As usual, Wikipedia has the best one-paragraph summary for what this means:
Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of nonviolent direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists take over (”squat”) an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it.
While I’m sure it would be fascinatingly easy to devolve into a political discussion regarding this topic, but as usual, this isn’t my aim.
I’m more surprised to learn that this is the formal name for the practice that Shane Claiborne describes in The Irresistible Revolution for planting flowers in trashed TV’s in abandoned neighborhoods of the poorer areas of Philadelphia. I also wonder what the effects are on a community of this type of action, for the better or worse. Things to think on.
Seed Bombing: This one’s just awesome, and heavily related to the previous topic:
Seed bombing, also known as “Seed Grenades” is a technique of introducing vegetation to arid soils or otherwise inhospitable terrains. A seed bomb is a compressed clod of soil containing live vegetation that may be thrown or dropped onto a terrain to be modified.
How awesome is that. Wonder how hard it is to make a seed bomb. All you’d really need is soil, water, a very hardy plant, and then maybe some sort of biodegradable netting that would encase the “bomb.” My gut tells me (or rather, the place where my gut would be if I had a gut, so perhaps “the place 2 to 3 inches in front of my stomach tells me”) that the Internets most certainly has the answers I would seek on such a topic.
Food Security: This one was listed a related article to Guerrilla Gardening:
Food security describes a situation in which people do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. World-wide around 852 million men, women and children are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty; while up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty.
I had never considered there would be such a succinct term to describe this problem. The article goes on to explain some views held by various organizations on how to bring food security to more people, and some potential risks to food security world wide.
Its good idea for us to have reminders such as this of what our brethren worldwide face as a daily reality. How and when and with what means we alleviate such a problem, I have plenty of ideas and few answers.
Oh, and between this blog post and this one, I must be becoming a hippie or liberal or communist or something. Sorry about that. I think I’ll blame it on Josh, as he’s the only hippie liberal communist I know.
FL: Awesome slideshow of 101 odd pictures - Instead of trying to describe this funny link better… look at the following photo. If it makes you giggle, you’ll appreciate this link.
