HARMLESS THOUGHTS

I believe that there is a high correlation between how much we love God and how much we love others. The degree to which we love God is shown in and by our love for other people. There are many places in the Bible that allude to this fact. One place in particular is seen when Christ is questioned by the pharisees: But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, " `YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." --Matthew 22:34-40 Notice that the question that was asked was, ...what is the greatest commandment? Yet when Christ respond...

I think that this is really amazing. And Cool. Coffee Art. Anticipating the Day Light of the Harbor The site is just coffee , and all of this art is done with coffee. Just coffee. Espresso for the darker spots, a lighter coffee for the lighter areas. It is all done in the same method that you would paint with water colors. See the entire gallery here . The artist is a distant cousin to one of the students in my computer class. She showed it to me, and I thought that I would pass it on to you.

In the last year I have had 2 monitors burn out on me. And I think that I am about ready to lose another one. I like to type my own tests. OK, actually I don't really like to type them, but I just don't like those pre-made tests that come with the curriculum. I am a fundamentalist when it comes to Math. I like to stick to the basics. Some of these more recent text books like to cram in several different topics and methods all together. But I don't like that. I can remember when I took math growing up: If you had a chapter on fractions, then you would get like 100 fraction problems. Now, if there is a chapter on fractions, they give you 5 fraction problems, a few story problems, some problems with decimals, a couple of pictures of fraction situations, and several review questions. I know that this concept of integrating several different things together seems sound, but I just don't think that it works in reality. If students are going to remember how to work wit...

Johnny Carson 1925-2005 I know that I am barely old enough to say that I was a part of the Carson era. But I do remember watching his show. It was usually on the couch at my girlfriend's house, as we were waiting for Letterman to come on. I don't remember alot about the show, because my attentions were focused on the girl... not on the TV. Here are a few quotes of his that I found on the internet: "If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." (I have actually heard this one before.) "If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead." "The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money." "My success just evolved from working hard at the business at hand each day." "People will pay more to be entertained than educated." "Married men live longer than single men. But married men are a lot more willing to...

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." -- 2 Timothy 3:16-17 I believe that the Bible has the answers and the directions to any trial, tribulation, or temptation that you may encounter in your life. The Bible is there to equip you: completely and accurately. The Bible has not become outdated. And regardless of popular opinion, there aren't exceptions to the answers it provides. But lets be honest, the Bible is a huge book. It is filled to the brim with information. And when you are in the middle of a crisis situation (whether yours or someone else's) you may not have the time to find what you need. Any Biblical tool can become very useful, and almost essential. So, you don't need to be a counselor to think that the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling is an excellent book. Even though it was written with the purpose of...

I have gone and done something a little bit on the geeky side. I have signed up to receive a sonnet-a-day. Each day I receive in my e-mail a sonnet by Shakespeare. And I freely admit that I am surprised at how much I love to read them. Here is one that I read the other day that I really enjoyed. Let not my love be call'd idolatry, Nor my beloved as an idol show, Since all alike my songs and praises be To one, of one, still such, and ever so. Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, Still constant in a wondrous excellence; Therefore my verse to constancy confined, One thing expressing, leaves out difference. 'Fair, kind and true' is all my argument, 'Fair, kind, and true' varying to other words; And in this change is my invention spent, Three themes in one, which wondrous scope affords. 'Fair, kind, and true,' have often lived alone, Which three till now never kept seat in one. --William Shakespeare

Recently my wife landed a job at Port City Java . Besides the extra income, I am seeing all sorts of benefits to this new job. (1)The free coffee. (2)The free cappucinos. (3)The free lattes. (I don't know if I am spelling any of these things correctly or not...) (4)Being able to have my wife order my coffees for me because I am never really sure what I am ordering until I take the first drink. (5)Finding out what a barista is. (6)More free coffee. The list of benefits is huge! And I haven't even gotten into the secondary benefits yet. Things like: having more time to do school work at home or being able to watch a Jackie Chan movie on a weekday. There are all sorts of secondary benefits. But the neatest thing about this job is how she got it. You can read all about it in her post titled, the story of my life . But I still feel the need to make a couple of comments about it myself. I must say, the way she finds jobs is amazing. I mean, even in this case, she didn...

Last Sunday at our church , the music pastor told us a story about a man named Jack Arnold, who had been his own pastor at one time. He told us about how this man had died close to the end of his sermon. Then again this morning during our teacher's devotions I got to hear the story again. Jack Arnold had at one time been the pastor of the church that is associated with the school where I currently teach. This morning I got to hear a little more about his story. After being a pastor for many years, he founded a ministry called Equipping Pastors International . So when most men are considering retirement, this man was founding a new ministry where he would be traveling around the world, going into the most remote places of Africa and training the national pastors. He was like a one-man seminary. And as you know, there are no luxury hotels in the deepest parts of Africa, so he would simply live, sleep, and eat with the people that he was training. All done for the furtherance of Chris...

Gossip. What is this? Most of the time we think of a couple of older women sitting around discussing everyone's business. It is usually accompanied with some, "did you hear what so-and-so did?" or "I can't believe she is seeing someone like that!" or "...well I heard..." and so on. Sometimes we start to visualize the housewives picking up their "prayer chain" in order to discuss certain "prayer requests" with each other, and before you know it, information that should have been kept private has been spread to an entire church during their toddler's afternoon naps. But is that what this word is referring to? Are the only people that are prone to gossip older women playing bingo? A couple of years ago I was given a little tool to determine whether or not information should be shared: If the person that you are getting ready to share with "...is not part of the problem or part of the solution..." then they do not need...

If you are new to visiting this site, or if you have been here often, I would like to direct you to the menus located under the title. I have arranged the majority of my oldest stuff into categories. I would love it if you would consider browsing through to see what is there. Also, would you please consider signing my guest map? It doesn't take long to do, and I would really appreciate it! Thanks!

I have decided to get rid of the "haloscan" commenting. I fought against it for awhile, but it just seems silly to have two different commenting systems. I also realized that haloscan comments disappear eventually. None of my old posts have comments anymore. If you just posted on the other comments, I am very sorry.

The rain fell softly and slowly, its pitter-patter lulling the man into thoughts of comfort, but never warning him of the oncoming storm.

Most, if not all of us have been through tough times. Times that seem bleak and hopeless. Times that shake the very foundations of our belief system. Regardless of whether these times were brought about by our own sin, or by the sin of others, it felt like we were hanging on a precipice. The circumstances were hard, very hard. Seemingly the hardest that they could be and we were contemplating letting go. When we are in those conditions, we know the right path. We know the way God would have us go. Sometimes we don't want to admit that we know... We like to wallow in our own misery because we simply don't like the right path. Then there are times when the right path seems a bit risky. We know that there are all of those "Bible Promises" out there, that guarantee that God's way is the best. But when you are in the midst of it, it just doesn't seem that way sometimes. The right path begins to take more of the shape of a rickety old rope bridge over a raging rive...

Blogger Idol Week 5 I love... green VW beetles passing notes in class driving around until 2:00 in the morning staying up really, really late watching movies and hanging out with friends ... because I love you. I love... long distance relationships driving far to watch a late movie giving instructions on driving a stick writing extra long love letters and paying huge phone bills ... because I love you. I love... sleeping two hours a day working all hours of the night trips to Chicago a band called Worm and learning about Keith & Rich ... because I love you. I love... working third shift taking care of a whining puppy stopping by the office with snacks & root beer sleeping 4 hours a night and eating mexican food for breakfast ... because I love you. I love... five and a half hour drives going to school & skipping chapel meeting new friends sleeping 5 hours a night changing diapers watching movies whenever there's time b...

A week to date of dieting and the scales reads....(drumroll, please) 181 pounds! That's precisely 13 pounds lighter IN ONE WEEK! Just thought I'd let you all know....must go...too faint to type...

I weigh more now, than I ever have in my life. I weighed in at 194 lbs. on Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe it. 194 lbs. That is only 6 lbs. away from 200 lbs. and I refuse to go there. There is no way that I am going to top 200! Not gonna happen. So... The diet started on Monday. I have never been on a diet before. I have thought about it, I have toyed with the idea, but then I went ahead and ate that extra Krispy Kreme . It just wasn't that important to me. I didn't really care how much I weighed, but I never thought that I would even get close to 200 lbs.!!! A little depressing. So a dieting I will go. I am not going to say which diet I am on. It is a fairly well-known diet. But I am going to be giving weekly updates on my current weight. I just figured if I made it public knowledge, it might help me to stick to it. So here I am at 194 lbs. and counting... down.

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in." -- C.S. Lewis