Voice in the Wilderness

mOvEd?

2005-11-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

Hey WoW!
I have not written in this blog for so long.......I forgot about it till now.......Funny. Anyway I moved, kinda. I have a new website but it is nothing like what this used to be. It is more of a gathering of my daily ramblings, with some links to other peeps ramblings. Yeah, you can visit my new site by clicking on the picture. I don't even know if anyone will read this, but if you do its just to let you know what was up with me not posting in so long. Oh, and if you ever linked to me and didn't already, you should probably either take the link off your site completely or at least change it. So yeah..........There is not much more to say. Bye!

God Speaks

2005-09-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

These billboards were started in 1998 by an anonymous donor who started with nine billboards. Now in 2005 there are 10,000 all over the country, since the project was taken over by different billboard companies as public service announcements. This just goes to show how something so small can be turned into an amazing accomplishment, if you let God lead you. You should check out the website here and see for yourself how this ministry has grown. There you can read the whole story and see the rest of the signs. Enjoy!

This Could get Ugly

2005-08-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

I saw this commercial for the first time from the Virtue Magazine, and it blew my mind. Not in a good way. It made me ask myself, "What are people thinking?". I can understand a mother feeling pain when her son dies, but do you have to go this far? I know that if I was a marine and my mother started acting this way, protesting the war I was fighting, it would embarrass me! I do not blame her for feeling pain for the loss of her son, I have seen this sort of pain first hand and it is horrible, but do you have to go this far?

As a friend said, " Man, at the beginning your going "sniff sniff" then she blasts the president. Its like sugar-coated Bush-bashing".

Here is where it gets really ugly. Those who do not air the commercial are being accused of oppressing the rights of free speech.

Here is the way our Liberal ruled news media puts it.

A Utah station, KTVX, would not air the ad because local managers found the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in the this Iraq war".

And now because these managers want to run their business their way, they are being accused opposingng Constitutional rights!

Here is the problem. We now not only have Liberals running the news media, but we have them translating our Constitution! With those two powers in their control we could be in trouble.

Boy, this could get ugly.

I'm still here

2005-08-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

WoW! It has been a long time since my last post! But I am still here, and thanks to some encouragement from my friends I am back and blogging again. I figured I would start by talking about my California trip. So here it goes..............

After a day and a half of traveling I was finally in Clovis, California. Once all the people finally arrived at the Fresco University (the campus I stayed at) there were a total of three-hundred people there to help with the project. This group was to fix twenty-four houses in five days. Some homes were being repainted while others were getting new fences and roofs. I was part of a crew which re-roofed and put in a new fence around a house. I spent most of my time on the roof though I did help with the fence a little, and managed to hit my leg with a sledge-hammer in the process. Even through I made silly mistakes like that my first day I caught on to the work quickly. I even earned a nick-name while working on the roof, "skooter", a name which accurately explains itself.

After work we would come back to the campus, shower, eat and go to worship. The worship services were awesome. The worship leader, who's name escapes me, did an awesome job. After worship we would have a speaker, Matt Furbey, come up and teach us different things about what we were doing or what we could do to get closer to God and help those around us to grow closer. These worship services were anticipated daily by my friends and I. But the best service by far was the one held on Wednesday night. We did not have a teaching by Matt, just a lot of worship songs and prayer. This night I over came my fear of praying in front of people and prayed out-loud in front of all three-hundred World Changers.

During my time in California I had the chance to talk to a group of teens living in the neighborhood where my work site was. This group of five asked me and some friends why we were there doing what we were doing. We were able to share with them all the answers to their many questions and show them the Light I had been learning about all week. I hope and pray that someday they will look back on what was said there and turn to Jesus.

Also on this trip I had a chance to have a lot of fun visiting Yosemite National Park, Universal Studios, Beverly Hills and Hollywood.

That about sums my trip up. Little did I know at the time but that was only the beginning of my summer, and now before I can even try to slow down my summer is over. I am officially starting my Jr. year in highschool tomorrow. Wish me luck (and pray that I pass this grade!).

That is all for now but be sure to check back soon because I will not have anymore long breaks between posts, because I am back!

Check This Out

2005-06-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post before I leave. But I just wanted all my readers to check this out:

When you click on it, it will take you to Agent Tim's site which is getting better every day. It is a fantastic site and it is worth reading.

Alright well I will continue to write when I get back, so be sure to check in later!

California Here I Come

2005-06-13T15:54:00.000-07:00

In exactly five days from now I will be leaving Maryland and on my way to Clovis, California. I can not believe it is that close already! As most of you know I am going there on a missions trip with my youth group. We will be gone for twelve days (June 17-28) and will be staying very busy while there. We will be fixing about 25 houses! I will be just one member of 350 who will be working on this project. Re-roofing the houses in Clovis will be one of the main jobs I will be helping with.

Re-roofing may not sound too hard. But I will tell you now, I had a small taste of it this past Saturday and it is hard, hot and hard. When you get on top of the roof everything changes. The
temperature, your ego and your point of view. You start saying things like, "It did not look this steep or this high from down there!". All in all it was fun and I learned a lot about roofing (considering I knew nothing about it to begin with). I think I will be ready for the work laid out for me once I get to Clovis.

While there we will doing more than just working on the houses. For example this Sunday I will be attending the Saddleback Church, which is pastured by the author of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren.

Well that is all the time I have for now. I will tell you all about it when I get back!

My First Homeschooling Post

2005-05-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Before I start writing today I want everyone who is reading to know this. If you not homeschooled I have absolutely nothing against you. I have many good friends who go to school and my grandparents have worked in the public school system as school teachers. The reason I have decided to write on homeschooling today is purely in response to a website my friend showed me, the Illinois Leader. (By the way thanks Tim for showing me this lets see if I do OK with it.) The writer, Scott Thomas, made some bold claims against homeschooling here and here. All I am attempting to do is answer some of the things he mentioned.

I have to say some of the quotes from Mr. Thomas surprised me, so I decided to show them to you.

".......there is statistical evidence that points to home schooled students performing better than the public school average on standardized tests. So what?"

Wait a second! You mean to tell me my test scores don't matter to you? You want to tell me that the effort of kids who do go to public school and score high does not matter to you? Isn't that what education is about? To score high and graduate with honors and in the near future get a great job for which you worked hard for. That is the point, hard work. The hard work of a society is what makes it prosperous. If we let the grades slip slowly downward then society goes with them. The generation of high scoring students (homeschooled and public schooled) is going to be the future of our country. You can not tell me my grades and the high scores of others don't mater.

Now moving on to the next surprising quote:

"But, much more common, from my observation, is that parents choose to home school as a form of protection for their children.

Typical of the emails I received from listeners is this: 'We don't want them (children) to be indoctrinated by tolerance of everything & everyone (except for conservative Christians), Pro-gay lifestyles, Evolution-is-fact teaching throughout the curriculum (and not just science), Prayer in school is forbidden, and many other examples that permeate the academic agenda.'

I don't like all of that junk, either. But, at what price, protection?"

When I read that last line my first reaction was, "Fantastic just one more person telling me 'you are so sheltered and don't know what real life is like'" But then I thought, I am sheltered. There is no getting around that. This does not mean I don't know the same things other kids know it just means I do not have to deal with them as much as others do. But I have dealt with people who think I am narrow minded because I don't accept certain evils. I have been challenged by evolution, but in school I have written papers on how and why it is not and cannot be true. I have been rejected by "friends" who would not accept me for various reasons. The only difference I can see between being "sheltered, young and naive" and "knowing what it is like" is I felt more prepared when I was challenged. So yes I am sheltered but I am not stupid.

The second part of his quote I would like to address is when Mr. Thomas asked, "But, at what price, protection?" Here is my question for you, Mr.Thomas, can you put a price on protection? Jesus gave his life for our protection from death and Hell. What would have happened to us if He said, "Well at what price protection?", do we want to know what would have happened? Now I do not want my readers to think I am comparing salvation to the way we chose to school. The point I am trying to make is protection does not have a price. My mom and dad have talked about sending me to a school, but there are ways I would still be under their protection, no mater what it cost them. They have made sure I have a solid foundation in the Bible. They closely monitor what I do on the internet and what video games I play. Where I am going, what I am doing and who I am with are never unanswered questions for them. So I am not saying that public schools are unproductive in and of themselves, it is what is allowed to happen in some of them that can put us (students) in bad situations.

In my closing I would like to remind you, if you go to a school I have nothing against you. I am open for any comments you may have. One last thing before I go. I have often thought it is not the schools that are the problem, but the system which they are now controlled by. I want to be taught how to think not what to think.

Let the Fool be a Fool

2005-04-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 26:4-5
Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.

What? That is what I thought the first time I read this verse. I also thought that the second, third and forth time I read this verse. The more I tried to come up with an answer the more confused I was. You might have felt this way when you read this verse. The one thing I have learned about reading and understanding the Bible it is this, sometimes it takes an experience to happen in your life for you to understand. Sometimes we have to see things first hand. I had an experience recently which made this verse a little more clear to me.

I may have already told this story to you, but just bear with me while I explain to those who have not heard. As most of you know I have recently moved to a new house. As we all know when you move you meet new people. The first person I met introduced himself as Jr. Right after introducing himself he informed me, "I sucked". (I do not want anyone to be shocked or offended that I have used this word in my blog, I am just telling a story and I could not think of a word to replace it with.) After a week or two I found that Jr. likes to mouth off. We all have met at least one "big mouth", so you guys know what I am talking about. Jr. likes to lie, cheat, use dirty words, bad mouth people and acts like an all out punk. He even went as far to say,"Logan you are a wimp and could never fight me." (Why he brought this up I will never know.) recently he called my little sister "the B-word". At this point I was already sick and tired of the guy. Now I had the perfect excuse to show him I wasn't the wimp he thought I was. I was, for the first time in my life, ready to fight. Wanting to fight.

But then I thought about the verses above. I knew, obliviously, Jr. was a fool. But was I willing to become the fool? Would I just let him see himself as wise? What was the answer? Should I fight or not? Here was my decision.

Foolishness is something I decided to measure. I think the verses were trying to get us to measure foolishness. We can measure it on a scale from 1 to 10. Mouthing off, cussing, and lying could be 1-5. So we don't have to do anything lest we be the fool. I came to this conclusion because of this verse.

Proverbs 17:27-28
He who has knowledge spares his words, And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive.

So if someone is being a fool in this way (mouthing off) we should just leave it. But what about the rest of the scale, 6-10? The things that go on this higher part of the scale are these. Physical fighting, if the fool hits you, a friend or a family member, and stealing. If someone hits you and you don't do anything then you will make the fool look wise in his own eyes. Or if the fool takes something that is yours and you know it and just let him go, then you are the fool. (I know that is really obvious, but I did that once because I did not want to be mean.)

This is my way of rating foolishness. The Bible does not give us this scale from 1-10 but I hope you can understand what I am trying to say. The story I was telling has not ended yet. But so far I have not fought Jr. If all he ever does is mouth off and brag he stays on the lower side of the scale and I will not do anything lest I be the fool. But if he goes to the higher side of the scale I will have to do something.

That is all I have for now but stay tuned for more of my brilliant insights. Right whatever. ;-)

Ethos

2005-04-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

I have started a study in school called etymology. In short this is a study of the individual histories of the words in our language. It can be tedious at times and sometimes very boring, but I found something very interesting. I found that the words ethic and ethics come from the Greek word ethos, witch means character. I looked up the word character and found these definitions:

Qualities of honesty, courage, or the like; integrity
moral or ethical quality
good reputation

I thought of our country as a whole. We call it a Christian nation, but is it? I decided, by looking at our country as a whole, it is not Christian. People are not honest and they lack integrity. There is so much argument of what is moral, that to many it has become all grey with no absolute. There are so many other problems that I could list, but that is not what I want to talk about.
Last night I was at my youth group listening to a youth leader talking about the upcoming missions trip. He said we could make a difference. I had heard that before and believed it but I had never thought of the next thing he said. He told us that eleven men had changed the world, turned it upside-down, completely altered the world they lived in.
Change, that is what this country needs. In my last post I said Christians need to do something to share their faith. Now in this post I am saying we should work hard on our own country. How can we change the world when our own country is in chaos? If eleven men changed their world, there is no reason that we can't change our country. We need to bring character back to this country, and we can't wait to do so.

Do Something

2005-04-11T03:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Sunday, so of course, as on all other Sundays, lots of people go to their various churches and Sunday-school classes. Yesterday's lesson reminded me of a conversation I had with one of my friends. I asked on of my him if he was a Christian and he responded, "Well yeah, I go to church". According to his definition if you go to church you are not only a good person but you are also a Christian. He could not be more wrong. The only way you can be saved is, as I have said before, not by your own self but by the gift Jesus has offered you. But is that it? If I ask Jesus into my life, go to church and read my Bible is that it? I would have to say no, that is not it. You are saved but I think God wants you to do more. The last thing Jesus told us before He left this earth was:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." - Matthew 28:19-20a

Judging from this verse God did not want us to sit around and do nothing for our faith. There is always a place for Christians to help. I feel that having this blog is a perfect way for me to do something for my faith. If you are a Christian you can write, sing, act or just simply tell people about your faith, but to do nothing can not be an option. Here is a perfect example. Almost a year ago I was at a True Love Waits seminar witch was held at my church. At the seminar the speaker told us about a way to outwardly express our decision to wait: purity rings. This was the first time I had ever heard of them but I knew I was faced with a choice to make. I could:
1. say it was a stupid idea and forget about it
2. make the promise but I won't ware the ring because I want to hide my decision from some people
3. wear the ring and keep the promise even though it would be "uncool" in some of my friends eyes.
For those of you who know me you know that I decided to ware the ring. The point I am trying to make is if you are a Christian you cannot rightfully chose to hide your decision, and you have to do something for your faith. I am not saying it will be easy, it has not been for me, but I am saying that it is the right thing to do and God will reward you later.

Oh yeah one more thing to think about. Remember the story of Jonah? When he tried to hide from God he found that he could not. Well neither can you.

Back!

2005-04-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

I am back from Pennsylvania! As most of you know I went there for my great-grandma's 100th birthday. The party had a nice turnout and there were about fifty of my relatives there. Relatives in the sense that they are somehow remotely related to me, most of them being all or part German. It was fun and the food was better. We went to a German restaurant where I had something called Hungarian golosh. As weird as it sounds it was pretty good, but then I will eat just about anything!

Now, moving on to a new topic. I wanted to talk about what my dad and I were talking about a few days ago. We were talking about people. We were thinking of how wrong we can be sometimes. I thought about sin. Sin, the thing that keeps us separated from God. Sin, the thing we are born into. Then yesterday I was listening to a song by Kutless, you might have heard it:

I am not just a man
Vastly lost in this world
Lost in a sea of faces
Your body is the bread
Your blood is the wine
Because you traded Your life for mine

My conversation with my dad came to the same conclusion as Kutless. Sin will keep you from God, but God paid the price for your sin by letting Jesus die in your place. Now I know most of you have heard this before, but here is what was different. I came to the conclusion every one is in this same situation of complete helplessness. No matter what I do I can not buy my own ticket to heaven. That is the best part. No matter what I do, good or bad, it is not by my power that I am saved. Think of the huge burden that people carry, the burden of trying to save your own life. To be responsible for your own "life insurance" instead of having a bank back you up. I know it can be hard to let go of your life and give it to God, but after you do you are "insured". He has bought your ticket to heaven all you have to do take it. You can not help yourself, so let Him help you.

Update

2005-03-31T18:01:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately being a blogger does not mean I will always have good news, and this is one of the times I will be the bearer of bad news. Terri Schiavo has passed away. Get more of the story here. The fight is lost for Terri but it does not mean we have to let more of these kinds of deaths happen.

I will not be posting anything else until sometime next week. I am going to Pennsylvania for my great-grandma's 100th birthday. Wonder if I will live that long? Tell you more about it when I get back.

"Pray Without Ceasing"

2005-03-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

These are the words of Paul when he wrote to the Thessalonians. He said in chapter five verse sixteen through eighteen:

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

The will of God? For me to pray without ceasing? That is a long time to pray. This subject has been on my mind for awhile now and I have been asking myself, "What does this mean?". I have decided to find the answer to my question and share my findings with anyone who cares to read on.

The first thing to do is define prayer. Prayer is a privilege God has given us, the privilege to talk to him. To cast all our cares on Him, confident in His promise to listen. Prayer is our way to communicate to the God who made us. We can say a silent prayer to ourselves or we can pray out-loud with others. But how do we do this constantly? The Bible tells us to so it must be possible, but how?

If we take a look at Philippians 4:8 we see this well known passage:

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy--meditate on these things."

Here is what I think. Maybe prayer goes beyond the basic definition above, maybe these eight thoughts Paul gave us can be included in our prayer and meditation.

In Mark 12:30 Jesus said:

"And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength"

The same commandment can be found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. If we follow this commandment, which is given to us three times (God might be trying to say something here), and truly love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength maybe we would be thinking of the eight thoughts Paul gave us more often. Maybe if we were constantly thinking of these things and loving God all the time, maybe we would be praying without ceasing. Constantly thinking of good things and always listing for His voice and speaking back to Him, always without end feeling His presence. Sounds like heaven.

Easter!

2005-03-27T04:57:00.000-08:00

I don't have a lot of time today because it is Easter! I have to go and play in the Praise Team at my church in a few minutes but I wanted to say this. Yes, it is Easter and time for a big dinner and some candy, but what does Easter mean? Easter is the day we take to remember what Jesus did for you and me, sinners. He took the burden of the world upon Himself and died horribly for us. The great news is he did not stay dead he conquered death and rose on the third day! I don't serve a dead god I serve the One who has looked death right in the eye and beat it. So have a great day and have fun but remember to remember Jesus and don't ever forget what he did for you.

Hope?

2005-03-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

In my last two posts I have referred to the world as a wilderness and as scary place where people murder people legally. If we look around at this hopeless world what do we see? Do we see people helping others and peace between countries? Do people care more about others or themselves? Do we see any hope? I know as a Christian that I have a hope in Jesus, but what does this world look like without Him? I think I had a small look at what life is like in this world, without Jesus. I was talking with my friend a few days ago and I asked him how he was doing, (I will not post my friend's name because I don't know if he would like it so for this story I will call him, Friend). He said something like this, "I am depressed, sad, worried, angry, lonely, and I feel empty". No lie that is what he said. He went on to tell me he was an atheist, he did not need a god or religion and he did not want me to give him a speech. We went on talking and I told him I thought he was right, " You don't need a god or religion," I said. He was shocked. Friend thought he was going to get another one of my "Christian speeches" but there was no speech needed. I told him he needed, not a god or a religion, but my best friend who never leaves, Jesus. He thought I was crazy and asked me to stop talking, but think about it. Friend's life is an example of someone without Jesus, might be like your life in that way. He has rejected Jesus every time I tell him about Him, so in return he is lonely and depressed. With out Jesus there is no hope in this world. None. People like Friend and maybe you have no hope other than my friend, Jesus.

What is this world coming to?

2005-03-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last night I noticed the top five for the most popular searches on MSN. The first was "living wills" followed by "Terri Schiavo". Since this seems to be the topic of today, I decided it is what I will talk about. I looked up the word living in the dictionary and I found that it means "the means of maintaining life". Means of maintaining life, things like breathing or a heart beat. Then I looked up murder and found this definition: "to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously". We know Terri is still breathing on her own and she has her own heart beat meaning, according to our own language, she is living. But they have taken her feeding tube out depriving her of needed food, water and all nutrition! She will die of dehydration or starvation now because of their decision. According to our own definition of murder, "to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously", they are murdering her. Not just killing, this is a murder. Unless you don't think starving someone to death is barbaric in which case I would have to call you crazy. So lets take a peek into the near future and see what this world might be coming to. Heaven forbid, but if they murder Terri what will be coming next? Will we (we referring to our country) allow more killing of brain dead people? Maybe when you are old and useless and depend on constant help from others and are just a "nuisance" they will kill you. Or what if you are not even old what if you are just retarded and not contributing to socity? Lets look at what people do to babies. They kill them in abortions! So in the future we have the murder of Terri, babies and possibly old and "useless" people. Fantastic!

Finaly!

2005-03-24T16:37:00.000-08:00

Finaly, I have a blog set up and I am writing my first post. I am going to need a little time to figure out how to use everything so bear with me. I started this blog partly because my friend Tim told me to get one. Secondly I think it is realy awesome to be able to talk about the world the way I see it, and maybe get just a few to listen. But I will tell you now, the way I see the world is probaly not the way you would expect a 14 year old boy to see the world. Why? Because I am a homeschooled Bible beliving Christian who could care less what anyone thinks about me. I think there are a lot of things in this world that need changed and I belive I can make a difference. Hence, I found the name for my blog, Voice in the Wilderness. I think this blog could be a voice crying out in this wilderness I live in. Just like what John the Baptist did to prepare the way for Jesus the first time He came, we need to prepare the way for when He comes back.