tapiocapuddin

Look for stories and pics from my trip, reflections on my 2 year blog anniversary, thoughts about the death of Terri Shiavo, and how sports really can be good in the days to come. Right now I'm enjoying having my Co friend over, no school work, and recovering from a lack of sleep. :-)

Most of you have probably heard that Abdul Rahman was released and given asylum in Italy. I recently read an article by Compass Direct on the persecution of Christians in Afghanistan that specifically covered Rahman's case. Even though Rahman is free, keep praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ. All over the world many are still facing persecution for their faith. Rahman was lucky to have made the news, many are not.

My guestmap wouldn't let anyone post on it anymore, so I've given in and gotten a frappr. If you don't want to make an account, just let me know, and I'll post you myself! :-) There are no excuses left, pin yourself up!

Journey 24/7 (formerly Varsity) Weekend '06 (I actually had '05 here at first :P) finished up last weekend with both wins and loses. Still, God is good! I'm very proud of my sister for studying hard for Bible quizzing and doing an awesome job. She also won a gold certificate and best in the instrumental fine arts competition! She did hard things, and it paid off. Not just in the here and now, but also in the future as she applies God's word to her life and serves others through her music.

My other sister competed on the piano today and won first place! I just love playing the proud older sister role. :-D

While adding to my quote collection, I found this one from a few weeks back:

[Regarding leading a teen astray on Adventures in Odyssey] Bart Rathbone is a bad guy. Those Harris boys would beat him up. -My Dad

Have a great weekend!

I was sad to hear tonight that Dr. Ronald Nash has gone to be with the Savior. It was the spring of 2004 that I first heard of him in my Principles of Biblical Reasoning class where his book, "Faith & Reason," was our main textbook. I spent hours listening to his lectures and laughing at his jokes. I learned so much. And now he has joined those of the faith who are cheering us on. I will always remember the importance of the law of non-contradiction, noetic structure, and of course, that the Cleveland Browns rule. :-)

-Marry a woman who will keep you humble.
-Now, if some of you have been taking the law of non-contradiction casually, before you go to bed tonight, I want you to utter this sentence, "I am a heretic." And do you know where heretics go when they die??
-Never joke with a liberal.
-My lectures have nothing to do with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
-…hair restorers…they don't work, they don't work.
-I have never contracted myself!
-[on the Law of Non-contradiction] You see, it used to be that NOBODY challenged that rule. If they did - they were probably residents of an insane asylum. Ok? Well of course today............they are presidents of liberal universities in America. And I bet they also get "Professor of the Year" award from their intellectually illiterate students.

Now that we are so old and mature and wise,
We realize how time flies,
We must do today,
And never good delay.

-Katrina

A few weeks ago, my family visited some missionary friends near San Francisco. They had just come back from a trip to India recently and were sharing about their experiences. Of Indian heritage themselves, they were deeply touched by what they saw. Being the former ACAer and PHCer than I am ;-), I asked about the government situation. As you probably know, there are strong Muslim and Hindu influences in the country. Sometimes men will kidnap girls as young as 12 to marry them. The family had no rights after the marriage, and the girl would be forced to say she was happy or be killed.

In order to counteract problems like these, it is now against the law to convert anyone to another religion. In order to become a Christian, you actually have to sign a statement saying your were not coerced into changing. Not only is this legally messy, it also makes witnessing very hard.

These kinds of laws have also been used to unjustly jail Christians, as has happened to three women in Indonesia. I don't know about you, but hearing about first hand missionary experiences in other countries deepens my prayer life and gives it new meaning. It also makes me so thankful to live in the good old United States, problems and all. :-)
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Afghanistan is another country with laws even worse than India. Right now a man is facing the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity! Please keep this man and others like him in your prayers!

Read more:
Afghan Man to Be Executed for Converting to Christianity?

Afghan Man to Be Executed for Converting to Christianity?, Update

Trial Update

Faith under Fire

To see more pics from the first ever Rebelution Tour conference, click the links below:

Alex #1
Alex #2
Basketball
Brett
Isaac
Napoleon Dynamite
Couldn't Hear Him
Weather Man

What Friends Are For-all three

Being a Rebelutionary isn't easy as we're "creating a counter culture", and friends to help you along and work with can make all the difference. Brett laid out 6 ways to choose companions:

1. You must have a hero
Oh, many of us have heros--Kobe Bryant, Barry Bonds, Josh Groban, etc. But why are they our heros? Are there drawing us closer to Christ? When you read their stats/music, are you encouraged to stand up against the culture? Are you in awe of God's holiness and desire to live for Him after being around them? I'm thinking no. Now how about Jonathan Edwards, Henry Morris, and Verna M. Hall? Hint: your answer should be yes! Pick a hero, read all their writings, study their lives, pattern yourself after what you see that followed the Bible. Heros are not overrated. You just need to pick the right one.


2. Make friends with dead people
"You won't find friends more...readily available than dead people." Read, read, read the writings of the past greats. We can learn so much from those who have gone before us. Earlier today I was reading parts of Jonathan Edwards' journal and thought he could almost be quoting Paul! The lives of the Christians greats were so immersed in the Bible that it overflowed into their writings. Dead isn't always bad.

3. Make use of the contact sheet in the back of your workbook
Uh, I didn't. But I did meet new people and strengthened the relationships I had. It has already been neat discussing what I learned with those friends. Here's a substitute if you weren't there: Go read The Rebelution blog! It's the best blog out there! (Corrie, Brooke, Michelle, etc., you didn't read that...)

4. Find the secret Rebelutionaries
There are really people out there with the same goals and aspirations. I became good friends with the E family after K heard my graduation speech. Up until then, I didn't even know we shared a lot of the same beliefs! It might be hard, but "you can find them by being an obvious Rebelutionary." Be proud, be brave.

5. Seek out the godly and wise and serve them and learn from them (can't remember the exact wording. again, those notes would be gold to me...)
While dead people have their place, sometimes it's nice to be able to talk to someone and be able to hear them respond. Who better to mentor you than those godly, wise people who have done the youth thing and learned from it. You can probably find two of them in your house as I type: not your cat and dog, your parents!

6. God is the Ultimate Companion
He's the source, perfecter, and finisher of the Rebelution. Before and when all else fails, He's there to carry us along. He is the source of our strength as we battle against the culture. He's our Savior and Lord--the reason for which we fight.

To end the conference, Gregg Harris challenged parents to become Rebelutionaries as well. Their role might be different, but their part is as big. Psalm 127:3 says, "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of the warrior, so are the children of one's youth." Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, was the writer of that psalm. It was pointed out that the reason why he prized wisdom above all to request it of the Lord was because it was valued by his father, King David. That love was passed down to Solomon as he was instructed by his father to pursue wisdom. Parents are given their children not to patronize, provoke, and spoil (sorry, couldn't think of another 'p' word), they were given them in order to craft, mold, and shape them into the sharpest arrows. Parents need to be prepared to work hard also and be ready to give certain attention to specific parts, such as "work[ing] on the tail end of your arrow occasionally."

"We are in an intergenerational relay race" where the parents are handing off to their youth. Being a Rebelutionary doesn't have an age limit, standing for the Lord is necessary in each generation.

Do Hard Things-Brett Harris

Competence. What is that? Well, for starters, something lacking in our youth today! It's the "ability to do something well." It includes knowledge and skill, but "never think you're not skillful enough to be competent." Competence is important because "the side with the most competence always wins the culture war." For Rebelutionaries, this requires a qualifier: we are to "aim for excellence" in things that matter. "It doesn't matter how well you do nothing." Being homeschooled, going to church, or even just knowing when to be quiet often gets you the award of greatness by many teachers, parents, and pastors. We often settle for our second best knowing it made the "acceptable" level. Do Hard Things counteracts this mind set. As Joel said in his letter to The Rebelution, we should say "That was nothing. Watch this." "There's always something harder to do." Colossians 3:23 says, "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men." People are often easy to please; it's God who knows what we're really capable of as He is the one who gifted us with our talents and abilities. One reason why culture has such low expectations is because "it can't handle [us] when [we]'re strong." The disclaimer to remember about Do Hard Things is that hard things often start out as small things. While not flashy, one can't do bigger hard things if the smaller hard things are too hard. Note: parents are good encouragers and enforcers of this; parents who attended the conference are VERY good encouragers and enforcers of this. ;-)

Advice: it is "not a good idea to sink your own ship."

Emily continues to show progress in occupational and physical therapy. Her left hand is now reaching, touching and fingering items. She can also hold an item for a short time if placed in the left hand. There is some progress with speech therapy, but it is slow. Emily is scheduled to have the g tube placed in her stomach on March 16 [morning CST]. We meet with the surgeon today. It will probably be a two-day hospital stay.
We'll keep you updated. Thank you for your prayers.

Emily is now six years old and progress towards recovering is slowly moving forward. This tube will allow food to be directly delivered into her stomach as she still cannot eat or talk. We're praying that the seizure effects have not caused permanent harm. Thank you so much for praying!

Labels: Prayer Requests

Gospel of the Kingdom-Gregg Harris

Gregg Harris started out by describing how important character is for Christians. How we live out our lives shows how important the gospel is to us and how much we believe it to be true. It is "the fruit of our faith."

Our culture follows Satan in trying to pervert the good things that God created. And "when we separate the pleasure [that comes from doing those good things] from the purpose [they were created for], it leads to destruction. We have only to look around us to see this happening. Marriage is a big one. God's commands aren't there to box us in or to hold us back. "Every command of God is nothing less and nothing more than a delivery to get God's blessings to you." "We have been duped by a liar [Satan]."

"Our glimmer of hope is the gospel." And "if you believe the gospel, it will show up in what you do." Obedience is the product of faith. God has given us the power to say "no to temptation" and "yes to righteousness." As we live out this freedom to do right, the obedience and character we display reflects our faith in the gospel. "Our faith is validated by our works." At the end, we were challenged to ask ourselves "Do you, before God, believe the gospel? Do you believe enough to obey?"

Read more.

Regenerate Our Culture is bringing some great writers to you with articles that deal with politics, religion, and life in their new webzine! I'm excited just looking at the first page, so join me in reading the first articles delivered fresh off the keyboard:

The Journey Has Begun
Completing the Mission
Debate: Why we do it
Rising Up, Focusing In
Rhetoric, Reason, and Reality through Literature
God Breathed?
Are the Rings of the Lord?

Don't forget to check out the Blog Network!

Meadow Vista, California--You are now famous!
The day that seemed like years off in January is now here and gone. (Note: life speeds up as you get older) The first ever Rebelution Tour conference is over, but it was a blast while it lasted! For starters, it was cold and snowy, but nothing a 4-wheel drive Tundra can't handle. ;-)

We picked seats on the back row (something never done in my "we sit in a circle" church (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with sitting in a circle!)) and settled in surrounded by friends. Apart from actually meeting Alex and Brett Harris (the twins were little when I attended Josh's teen conference), seeing friends that live far away was so much fun! Lots of laughter, some pics, discussing the missing white chocolate, meangling, and declaring Ice Breakers Sours and oranges to be some of God's good things.

The four sessions were each awesome! I think my favorite was the Rebelution, but it's hard to pick. I think I'll leave it up to The Rebelution and other bloggers to describe each in detail (unless you have my sn and really want to know) and instead give you some quick summaries and quotes:

Rebelution-Alex Harris

Describing the "myth of adolescence" prevalent in society today, we took a trip to the past to see how some of the greats grew up. Guys like David Farragut and George Washington spent their time doing great things at young ages. And in their time, they weren't the exception! Alex used his former desire to own an elephant (anyone thinking playground status?) and his research on them to link us to the expectations our culture has put on us. Read this for the story. Today the twine is the low expectations and the twig is...I can't remember. :'( This is where I really wish I had copies of all their notes!! And I couldn't find the Google article he used...

In contrast, God's expectations of His children are much different than our godless society's. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Not many young people will call themselves "children," but many of them are willing to act like them. Alex challenged us that instead of being "conformed to this world," we need to "be transformed by the renewing of [our] mind[s], that [we] may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2). We need to "Wake up!" and "Break the twine!" As Josh said before them, these years are the "launching pad for life."

-[Teens today are] forced to remain childish for longer than necessary.


*Please excuse the quality of these pics and the ones to come. They're a compromise between dark and blurry. Let's just say churches should never put windows behind the stage...

My wonderful sister took this pic. :-)
Whoa, I knew something was up when 11 people had visited my site this morning. For one, my friends don't exactly get up before 7:00 am PST and run to read the latest news. Except maybe Luke my crazy 5:00 friend...

So for my friends, who are probably the only ones who don't know, I was pictured and linked on The Rebelution! Brooke, I guess my linking policy has been terminated...

Welcome, new visitors! My blog was actually started for friends who moved away and Patrick Henry College classmates, so be prepared for anything. ;-)

*Props to Corrie for being Corrie. :-D

Letters like these give me the warm fuzzies...

I do want to commend you on your work. You showed good research and insight into a very important miracle in John. I appreciated your footnotes, bibliography, use of Scripture, practical points, and the interviews you conducted. I know you learned a great deal from this assignment.

Keep up the good work. It's good having you in class this semester.

...until I realize he probably sent the same message to everyone in the class. :P

Today was a wonderful, long, but too fast day! My family and tons of our friends attended the first ever Rebelution Tour conference! I know some of you want quotes, notes, and pics, but that'll have to wait as I need sleep and have some readying to do for church tomorrow. It's going to be like an extended Sunday 'cause of today. And I'm loving it!

If you're wondering where the satire is, I am too. I'll let ya know when I've found it again. Valete amici!

In many churches today, worship has become a time to sing about how the world and even the gospel revolves around us. Christ is not the focus, we are.

Some missionary friends recently came back to the states after serving for many years in a foreign country. There were shocked by how much mainstream Christianity has changed. The husband said that you used to be able to sit down in church and know that the brother or sister sitting next to you shared the same beliefs because they were founded on God's word. Now topics like abortion and gay marriage threaten to split many churches and denominations!

I'm going to use a popular song to hopefully show how much this self-centered worship has creeped into the churches.

Above all powers, above all kings
Above all nature and all created things
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man
You were here before the world began

Above all kingdoms, above all thrones
Above all wonders the world has ever known
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure what You're worth

Crucified, laid behind the stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me, above all

Oh no, was that your favorite song? Do you sing it regularly in church. I have to admit, it's one I have enjoyed and sung at church as well. While the song starts out great proclaiming Christ's greatness, the ends emphasizing who? Us! We are why Christ died; it's all about us! Now please don't misunderstand me, I do believe Christ loves us and died for us, but we are not solely and even the "above all" reason. What my missionary friend pointed out is nicely reflected in a quote Bob Kauflin posted not too long ago:

There is an error to avoid, the danger of seeing the loving obedience of Christ as primarily and exclusively for the sake of man, when, in fact, it was primarily out of love for God that he accepted the cross (Heb. 10:7). Dr. Geerhardus Vos stresses that our Lord's Messiahship was "absolutely God-centered." "Jesus," says Vos, "accepted the cross out of a motive of love for God even more than, and before He accepted it because of His love for man...In dying, as in all else He did, He hallowed God's name." This is a truth too often overlooked, and it in no way detracts from the wonder that Christ loves each one of his people with all of his love.

Bob goes on to say,

I've heard it said that Jesus died on the cross because he would "rather die than live without us," and that the cross shows how much we're worth to God. While I can understand the motive behind these and similar thoughts (that the cross demonstrates God's profound love for us, which it does), they tend to obscure where our focus should be. If thinking about the cross leads me to think more about myself, I've missed the point. Jesus died to uphold His Father's justice and righteousness (Rom. 3:21-26). My sins alone required the death of the Son of God. The reason Jesus confidently endured the cross was not ultimately because of His love for US, but because of His love for His Father and His zeal to uphold His glory.

John Piper states in his book, "When I Don't Desire God," that "the death of Jesus was the means by which he regained his place of glory with the Father and came into the fullness of his own everlasting joy. His joy was blood-bought at the price of his own obedient death."

In the end, we have even more to praise God about--for who He is. Because isn't worship supposed to be about Him in the first place? Bob Kauflin said it best when he said, "The cross sets us free from constant self-love to passionately love the One Who created, sustains, and redeemed us."

This past week has been a sad one for the Christian community. We lost two great people of the faith who worked to reveal God in history. The first was Rosalie Slater, the author and educator whose books grace the shelves in many homeschooling families' libraries. Miss Slater went to be with Jesus last Friday, and is now seeing Providence face to face.

On a side note, would you keep James Rose's health in your prayers? As one of the only people left from the "big red books," it's sad to think that someday he must go too. We have gotten to know him over the years through our school and ACHI conferences, and his words of wisdom are often repeated in our home.

The second was a man who not only impacted my family and Christians at large, but also stirred the scientific world. Dr. Henry Morris was one of the first scientists in the 20th century to go back to the Bible for his worldview. His Institute for Creation Research is a must visit for those who are ever in the San Diego area! When I was somewhere around 9-12 years old, my family visited the museum, and I determined that I was going to read every single word there. It was awesome! And the Ice Age room actually felt cold. ;-) Because of this man's vision, many have been reached not only with a biblical worldview, but also with the gospel.

As we're saddened by the loss of these two godly people, let's remember that we are the next generation to take over the promised land! The baton is being passed down, it's up to us to follow the old paths, continue rebuilding the walls, and living sold out lives for Christ!

Other tributes to Miss Slater:

Doug's Blog

King's Meadow

Foundation for American Christian Education


and Dr. Morris:

Doug's Blog

Pat Roy

Had to repost this to celebrate! And because I don't feel like getting cold to take more pics. ;-)

I'm reposting this 'cause it was another wonderful Wednesday as I got to chat with them online for an hour today :-D, and the prayer request is still valid.
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My cousins in Ukraine called the other day. It was so nice to hear their voices
again! If you remember, could you pray that they would find a place to live? The house they're living in now is being sold, and they haven't been able to find
anything where they're moving (5 hours away). Little Danielle said, "Mommy,
I'll be happy where ever we go, as long as we're all together."

Something neat is that they and a former missionary family in my
church know some of the same people. While ministering in Russia, my cousins
had friends go to the seminary in Samara which is where the man in my church
taught. It really is a small world!

I have the neatest family! Theological questions? Want to learn how to: use a gun, throw a tomahawk, shoot an arrow, play the socks off a piano, make borsch, milk a cow, program a computer, cut hair, arrest a bad guy, or pull teeth? Someone in my family can help you out! Too bad we're just so spread out over the US...plus Ukraine... *needs to get a passport*

And with that, I turn my attention back to papering which has to be done by tomorrow night! *gulp*

Since most of you are or were PHCers, you understand the desperate state that our culture is in. You are most likely doing what you can to help to stop this downfall, but sometimes it may seem like trying to stop a train at full speed. On this horizon, Regenerate Our Culture has stepped up to the plate. An organization working toward "regenerating our nation’s worldview away from the post-modernism holding it and back to the Christian worldview it was first built on" (italics in the original), they will be focusing on politics, religion, and everyday life through a webzine and a blog network. Be sure to check out their site for more information and join me in the countdown!

For some reason, the Regenerate Our Culture button will show up on the sidebar, but not the post, and I'm not html savy enough to understand why or how to fix it. :-( So you'll just have to turn your head a little to the right and click it over there.