U2 - Miss Sarajevo live from Milan

Is there a time for different colours? Different names you find so hard to spell?

What God has to do with my Math 12 class

Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is the application by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal of decision theory to the belief in God. The Wager posits that it is a better "bet" to believe that God exists than not to believe, because the expected value of believing (which Pascal assessed as infinite) is always greater than the expected value of not believing.
In Pascal's assessment, it is inexcusable not to investigate this issue:

"Before entering into the proofs of the Christian religion, I find it necessary to point out the sinfulness of those men who live in indifference to the search for truth in a matter which is so important to them, and which touches them so nearly."

-Blaise Pascal

Darfur Genocide : an eye-witness account

This is one of the most informative videos I've seen. The man narrating/presenting is former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle. He was a member of the African Union team monitoring the conflict in Darfur, where he took hundreds of photographs documenting the atrocities.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
-C.S. Lewis

Stanley Jordan plays Autumn Leaves

Do you understand this?

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning. -C.S. Lewis

I'm struggling with this one...what is he saying?

Tal Farlow - The Legendary Guitar of Tal Farlow

Instrumentation

“In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
-Acts 9:10-16 (New International Version)
In this passage, there is a word that always jumps out at me…Instrument. I do hate to zero in on one word, from this passage…but it has made a big impact in my heart- instrument.
You see, a big part of my life is music. My dad is a band teacher, and I grew up with music. I play trumpet and guitar…pretty well. Acctually, when I have spare time, rather than watch TV, I am almost always playing my guitar.
So that is why this “INSTRUMENT” word always stick out to me when I read this passage.

In so many ways we are God’s “chosen instruments.” He picked us out, then he bought us, and he constantly takes care of us, and I believe…(with all humility) he takes a certain delight in us.
An instrument is a tool that you use for a purpose. Different instruments serve different purposes, different functions. There are many types…many roles.
Now let me tell you- there are good instruments and bad instruments. Some are just total plastic, sears instruments- and no matter how well you can play they never sound good…they never play in tune.
You see, when we are out of tune with God, we find that God can’t express Himself through us any longer- He can’t SING THROUGH OUR LIVES anymore.


Be in tune with God's heart by spending time with Him- through prayer and reading the Bible.
And then,
May HIS beauty, HIS imagination, HIS power, HIS creativity, and HIS love resonate through your life.

Worship

September 19th, 2006

Worship is “Unity through Diversity”
Archbishop William Temple once wrote-
Worship is,
-Submission of will to His purpose
-Quickening of conscience by His holiness
-Nourishment of mind by His truth
-Purifying of imagination by His beauty
-Opening of heart to His love
All of these gathered in adoration is the greatest expression of which we are capable.
This quote is from a Ravi Zacharias sermon…called “Worship: A clue to the meaning of life.” Please check out his website- Honestly, stop reading this right now and go to rzim.com, Then you can download this sermon and listen to it on your ipod or whatever.
I guess that my own problem with worship is that I can never properly describe it! I can’t narrow it down, get my thumb on it. You see, I believe that worship is really, in many ways, life’s greatest pursuit. It is why we are here. To have a relationship with God. To love GOD.
This is why I can’t wrap my head around it. It is endless. It is infinate. It is like a taste of heaven. A taste of eternity. God’s love is a love we can never fully understand.
However, we can be transformed by it!
Quickening of conscience….purifying of IMAGINATION. Nourishment of Mind.
May we never, ever, find the end.

Perserverence

October 6th, 2006

I can’t believe I made it through this week.
I’ve been averaging about six hours of sleep these last few days, between early morning music and doing homework late into the night. It’s a wonder I can get through my math, and my parablolas, and chemical balancing, and solvents, and vectors, and resultants…
Have you ever felt that your brain is simply crammed? Like you are so saturated you can’t take anything else in?
But I found that late (very late) last night, when I was completely wrecked and exhausted, this idea, this biblical idea came right to me. It was a breath of fresh air, a flood of the soul-
Perserverence.
“Perserverence is more than just waiting. It’s about how and why we wait. It is the ability to stand and THRIVE under pressure.”-McManus
“Perserverence is more than endurance. It is endurance combined with absolute assurance and certainty that what we are looking for is going to happen.”-Chambers
Life requires perserverenece.Character requires perserverence.
Wisdom comes from perserverence.Transformation comes from perserverence.
I believe that the only way to thrive under pressure is to wait on The Lord.
And my reasoning is biblical-
“O Israel, how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles? How can you say God refuses to hear your case? Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”-Isaiah 40:27-31
Sometimes I wonder if this verse is the only thing keeping me alive.I have them taped on my ceiling and whenever I am just toasted my eyes always stumble across these phrases.
It is my hope that they will also resonate in your heart.
Perserverece.
Another step towards transformation.

Juggling or Orbiting?

October 29th, 2006

I keep on dropping the ball.
I try my very best…and then I drop the ball.
I try to juggle all my friends, schoolwork, music, my walk with God, and all my “stuff.”
But I always drop the ball.Always.I fall short of my expectations. I fall short of what I want.
I guess there comes a point in life where we realize that we can’t make it on our own. We give up…maybe you could call it surrendering.
I believe that when we put Christ in the center of our lives…all of our juggling turns into orbiting. We stop trying to make things work and we start letting God take care of everything. We let go of our little desires, our “stuff” and we discover a greater force. Christ becomes like the blazing sun in the centre of the solar system of our lives. The little planets start to orbit around his brilliance. Things start to become balanced by His gravity.
So I’m asking you to make Christ the centre of your life.
Because we can’t make it on our own. We drop the ball…
I just want to finish this with some words I’ve been reading from the word. The bread…
“But you have made me as strong as a wild bull. How refreshed I am by your power! With my eyes I have seen the downfall of my enemies; with my own ears I have heard the defeat of my wicked opponents. But the godly will flourish like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted into the LORD’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare, “The LORD is just! He is my rock! There is nothing but goodness in him!”
Psalm 92: 10-15 (NLT)

Burdens

November 10th, 2006
I hate my backpack.It’s so heavy.
This week I was transporting four textbooks in my backpack on my bike to and from school.
My backpack was so heavy.
I could have rode so much faster without it.
What can you do when your burden is overwhelming?
I guess there are two types of burdens. One burden is right for us to bear, and one is wrong. We should never bear burdens of sin or doubt, because Jesus took care of them, and comtinues to take care of them. But on the other hand, there are some burdens that God has placed on us, which he doesn’t intend to lift off.
Oswald Chambers wrote, “If we set out to serve God and do His work but get out of touch with Him, the sense of responsibility we feel will be overwhelming and defeating. But if we will only roll back on God the burdens He has placed on us, He will take away that immense feeling of responsibility, replacing it with an awarness and understanding of Himself and His presence.”
There are many servants of God who set out with great copurage and all the right motives. But without intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, they are defeated. They don’t know what to do with their burdens and they get weary…and fall.
So what can we do?
“Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.”-Psalm 55:22 (NLT)
Never try to seperate yourslef from a burden God has placed on you. Instead, commit them to God. But don’t just cast them aside, rather, put them on His shoulders, them jump on the same shoulders. Then you find that your burden is lightened with His companionship.
In the end I discover that it is not my backpack I need to get rid of. Rather, I just need to let God do my pedalling.

No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.

Written on November 15th, 2006
Here is an excerpt from C.S. Lewis’ “The Horse and His Boy.” It is the third book in the Narnia series. I have read these pages countless times, because it is such a great description of God. If you plan to read the book, this might give it away…I hope they make the film soon.
“And being very tired and having nothing inside him [Shasta- the main character], he felt so sorry for himself that the tears rolled down his cheeks.
What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the Thing (or Person) was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing. His invisible companion seemed to breathe on a very large scale, and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had come to notice this breathing so gradually that he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock.
It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in these Northern countries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had something to cry about, he stopped crying.
The Thing (unless it was a Person) went on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it. But just as he was becoming quite sure of it, there suddenly came a deep, rich sigh out of the darkness beside him. That couldn’t be imagination! Anyway, he had felt the hot breath of that sigh on his chilly left hand.
If the horse had been any good - or if he had known how to get any good out of the horse - he would have risked everything on a breakaway and a wild gallop. But he knew he couldn’t make that horse gallop. So he went on at a walking pace and the unseen companion walked and breathed beside him. At last he could bear it no longer.
“Who are you?” he said, scarcely above a whisper.
“One who has waited long for you to speak,” said the Thing. Its voice was not loud, but very large and deep.
“Are you- are you a giant?” asked Shasta.
“You might call me a giant,” said the Large Voice. “But I am not like the creatures you call giants.”
“I can’t see you at all,” said Shasta, after staring very hard. Then (for an even more terrible idea had come into his head) he said, almost in a scream, “You’re not - not something dead, are you? Oh please - please do go away. What harm have I ever done you? Oh, I am the unluckiest person in the whole world!”
Once more he felt the warm breath of the Thing on his hand and face. “There,” it said, “that is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows.”
Shasta was a little reassured by the breath: so he told how he had never known his real father or mother and had been brought up sternly by the fisherman. And then he told the story of his escape and how they were chased by lions and forced to swim for their lives; and of all their dangers in Tashbaan and about his night among the tombs and how the beasts howled at him out of the desert. And he told about the heat and thirst of their desert journey and how they were almost at their goal when another lion chased them and wounded Aravis. And also, how very long it was since he had had anything to eat.
“I do not call you unfortunate,” said the Large Voice.
“Don’t you think it was bad luck to meet so many lions?” said Shasta.
“There was only one lion,” said the Voice.
“What on earth do you mean? I’ve just told you there were at least two the first night, and-”
“There was only one: but he was swift of foot.”
“How do you know?”
“I was the lion.” And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, the Voice continued. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”
“Then it was you who wounded Aravis?”
“It was I”
“But what for?”
“Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.”
“Who are you?” asked Shasta.
“Myself,” said the Voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again “Myself”, loud and clear and gay: and then the third time “Myself”, whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it.
Shasta was no longer afraid that the Voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost. But a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.
The mist was turning from black to grey and from grey to white. This must have begun to happen some time ago, but while he had been talking to the Thing he had not been noticing anything else. Now, the whiteness around him became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink. Somewhere ahead he could hear birds singing. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now. A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun.
He turned and saw, pacing beside him, taller than the horse, a Lion. The horse did not seem to be afraid of it or else could not see it. It was from the Lion that the light came. No one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.”

Salvaging my old blog

The next few posts are entries I wrote previously.

The Strangest Dream.
December 10th, 2006

Last night I had the strangest dream. It was so long, and fun, and I didn’t want to forget it so I wrote it down (all three pages.) It is all true, and all in order. All I added was a bit of flow…
It was the day of the concert. It was the biggest concert that our band had ever played. I tuned my guitar and stepped onto the stage. The stadium was packed with roaring fans. Halfway through our first song, we all fell to the ground from a terrible blast. It passed all the way through my chest. An explosion had gone off in the crowds!The crowds started running for their lives, then we figured out what had happened; the German terrorists were back for more! They had already tried to destroy our band with a fire-breathing dragon. But this time they had gone too far. They had spherical hand-bombs that exploded on impact (looking back- they looked just like my potato death star, from teh banquet.) Fearing for the worst, we threw down our instruments and ran.There were bombs going off everywhere, and I lost track of my band mates. I sprinted out of the stadium and jumped into my car. I drove as fast as I could to the Nanaimo harbour and stole the closest boat I could find.
Oh no. As the boat started to cruise, a fighter jet flew overhead. A stream of bullets flew across the surface of water. I thought I was going to die. Then I noticed a second plane. A dogfight was fast under way! The two planes shot at each other franticly All of the sudden the second plane flew straight into the ocean and starred sinking.I had had enough of all this action. I turned on the boat and headed for Scotland.
After a few days I arrived in a port not too far from the city of Glasgow. I met some nice Scottish folks and I told them what had happened to me. They decided to let me stay the night with them. I made friends with their son and the next morning I took the bus from their house to school.“How long is the ride?â€? I asked the boy beside me.“Not long," he replied, “Only about twenty minutes to Glasgow from here."
Once the bus arrived at the school I ran. I did not want to go to school in Glasgow, because I had already graduated. So I decided to go shopping instead. Glasgow was a gorgeous city with many glass buildings. It was not like the Glasgow I had read about in books. The sun was shining down bright and clear. The city was to hi-tech, the sidewalks moved like a treadmill. I decided to head into a really fancy purple mall. As I walked through the doors I noticed there was a small jazz combo playing. As I got closer I noticed who it was. My old high school combo was playing! Robert, Jeremy, Kyla, and some other guitar player were playing some songs. Once they were done I went to talk to Robert, my old friend.“Fancy meeting you here in Glasgow Robert!" I said to him.“Yeah, you should see all the sports cars they have over here!" he replied.“What is your favourite one?" I responded.“Well, the other day I bought a Lamborgini Gallardo, it’s incredible. The speed limit is way faster here in Scotland!"
“Well, that is wonderful Robert, I will see you later!"
“Wait, before you go Mark, you can’t miss the pipeline!"
“What is the pipeline?" I asked.
Robert proceeded to tell me about a wonderful mode of transportation called a pipeline. In the middle of the mall you could wrap your arms and legs around a big steel tube and a vacuum with suck you from place to place. It was incredible!I got off the pipeline and headed into a London drugs store. The man working the till tried to persuade me to buy a knife for my mom’s Christmas gift. But before I could reply to him, he fell to the ground. It was the strangest thing. Since I was trained to handle emergency medical situations, I assessed the man. He was unconscious, but his pulse and respirations were both fine, so I called the ambulance and they took him away to the hospital.I decided to check out the rest of the store. I went downstairs to the basement were a Jazz Band was rehearsing. Their guitar player could hardly play, and his tone sounded so bad! So I asked him if I could play, and he let me sit in. The conductor counted in the piece. I knew the song! It was called “Cerulean Sky." So I played the guitar part with great precision and tone. The guitarist was thankful that he could hear the part. Then I left the London Drugs store and caught a bus back to the Glasgow harbour.The bus driver seemed friendly so I introduced myself.“Hi I’m Mark!" I said with gusto.“Hi Mark, my name is Ruth, but you can call me Mrs. Stefanek." The bus driver replied.“It is a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Stefanek" I said as I sat down on a seat behind her. As we were driving I noticed there was a few policemen and some paramedics on the side of the road. They were taking care of a patient, who was lying on a park bench.“Are there a lot of medical emergencies here in Glasgow?" I asked Mrs. Stefanek.“Oh yeah, there sure are," she replied, “Everyone loves a good medical emergency!"
The bus soon arrived at the harbour. Within five minutes I found my boat. I talked to some locals and they told me that not to far away there was a river that ran into the ocean. So I made my way along the shore and I found the mouth of the river. I headed upstream. The forest around me was thick, and it was as green as an unripe banana. The boat was handling wonderfully, so I decided to pick up the speed. As I was accelerating my lint brush flew out of the boat because of the wind!
“Oh no!" I screamed, “My lint brush!" I leapt from the boat and dove into the crystal clear water. It was only about twenty feet deep and I could see everything underwater perfectly. I grabbed my small beloved brush. As I was surfacing I looked around the canal. There were massive roots growing down into the side of the riverbed. In was a really great moment of underwater bliss.
Then I surfaced,
Woke up from my REM sleep.
And faced the day.

It was the longest and most exciting dream of my life. Gareth says “It was the tukey talking.”
Thanks to all the sponsors of last nights banquet…delicious and hallucinogenic!

Erwin McManus