How often have you talked with Mormons?

I've had the pleasure of meeting some very zealous and kind Mormons at Escondido Charter High School (ECHS). After getting to know them, we began discussing some scriptures in a small group earlier this week. One girl in particular was speaking with a friend and bringing up a passage from James 2 that states:

"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."

"But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?"

I carry a small pocket bible with me during my work day so when the student being talked to by the Mormon girl asked if I had a bible I gave it to her...with a caveat. I brought up a passage from Ephesians 2 and asked if either of them could reconcile the two passages:

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Any useful thoughts before I post the rest of the conversation and more of my thoughts later?

Obama the robot?

In the video below, Obama is shown smiling beside 130 diplomats at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City.

My dad writes to me, "Man, Mindless Automaton, or Cardboard Cutout? You decide:"

How to use math to choose a wife.

The article "How to use Math to Choose a Wife" makes me think of the movie "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." A pertinent explanation for the movie, as given by Wikipedia, is this:

"In the [movie], a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer, Deep Thought, specially built for this purpose. It takes Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the answer, which turns out to be 42. Unfortunately, The Ultimate Question itself is unknown."

The hilarious clip is below:





In questioning the unknowable, I thought of the movie "Serendipity" and how the (deeply romantic, yet impersonal) universe carries out its will by means of the deliberate use and application of random chance. The tool of choice for this romantically inclined, yet neglectful overseer is serendipity. Yes, it is the applied gift of serendipity, or chance, that binds the hearts of young lovers together! So go on! Trust in the firmament and find your future mate through its mother-like scheming to hook you up with some stranger. Chance its mathematical form when you don't even know the question that will lead you to the equation that supposedly explains your lack of ability to attract a significant other!

Ironically enough, though I laughed quite hard at that scene from the original movie when I first saw it in high school, I actually became grossly depressed. I thought the meaning of life was a wonderful romance with a beautiful woman; thing was, I was an incredible specimen of the perfect dork! Not having that woman in my life left a tickle in my brain that didn't go away. Yet, having a woman at that time would have simply masked the itch as I pretended to know what love was. So, my depression didn't depart for almost two years when I finally buried it by subverting it into passive-aggressiveness. I didn't know how to handle problems so I hid from them. Of course, I couldn't deal with my faults without understanding my true nature first. All I could do was cover them with another layer of lies.

It was impossible to know a solution to my lacking state. I failed to live up to every standard I set for myself so I dropped them lower, continuously. I couldn't find meaning in an impersonal universe, no matter what its gifts, knowing that I would ultimately die and return to the dust from whence I came. All this stemmed from a stupid movie, and a vague knowledge that there was more to life than the number 42!

Friends, don't put your life and happiness in the hands of something that is unknowable. I hope that the answer "42" makes you laugh...and then, like me, causes you to seriously consider what the most important question you could ever ask would be. That question will reveal your heart and what you put your hope in. If that question does not ultimately satisfy you then you need to know that there is One who will teach you the answer to The Only Worthy Ultimate Question: How may I enjoy my Savior forever? The answer? Trust in God, ask for forgiveness of your sins, and proclaim His glory throughout all creation! You will be clothed in His righteousness forever and never die and it will be a work that He works in you because He loves you specifically!

Statistics of CO2 usage.

My dad wrote this to me:

I’m musing about “carbon footprints” in light of this highly misleading Greenpeace “graph” (lies, damn lies, and statistics):

Talk about “inflating” your statistics. Balloons, being roughly spherical, increase in volume as the CUBE of the radius. It’s dishonest to use the height of 3D objects to represent a linear graph, and plays on the innumeracy of a large portion of the population. It smacks of subliminal manipulation.

It would be more accurate to compare GDP vs. CO2 emissions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_ratio_of_GDP_to_carbon_dioxide_emissions

You’ll notice that the United States comes up in the middle.

Sometimes it’s good to be in the middle. Here’s a mileage vs. speed chart for a typical automobile. In this car you’ll go the furthest on a tank of gas at about 40mph, and always remember, you can’t do worse than zero, which is what you’re getting when you’re at a stop light (or living in Chad):

To put it all in perspective, the United States feeds hundreds of millions of people worldwide with what is probably the most efficient agricultural production industry in the world, and fossil fuels are an absolute necessity for the production of that food.

Screw that up and people will starve.

By my conscience...

To my readers:

Some previous blogs I posted on this site were written in anger on my part. Whether or not there was an element of Godly anger, I realize that I felt personally resentful. My response to my embitterment was to put up some posts decrying the specific practices of communion that a church I had visited had implemented. According to their own understanding of scripture, they asked me to refrain from communion because I did not meet their requirements to take it.

I feel that the position I took in my paper is still correct and biblical, but the manner in which I shared it showed a lack of love on my part. Instead of communicating with the church directly to seek reconciliation I allowed the public to witness our dissension first hand. A better way would have been for me to simply ask them why they didn't want me to partake. Instead, I wrote a position paper which is rarely the way to have a dialogue or change hearts. This was wrong of me and I have remedied the situation, not by taking down my previous blogs, but by removing the names and churches of those I wrote to. I will also be calling the pastor I mentioned specifically and asking his forgiveness.

May you all be blessed,
Evan

Time lapse photography of the LA Station fire.

After watching the video again and considering nature's power I recalled a passage from Hebrews 10:

26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Our world is an unpredictable and terrifying place but it is only the dimmest shadow compared to the wrath of God and His burning anger towards sin. In a very real way, our Father in Heaven is infinitely more terrifying than "Mother Nature" and He demands justice for our sinful law-breaking. Thus, in Christ alone is there no room for fear for He only has taken our sins and our punishment upon Himself. He has eternally cast them into the lake of fire with our adversary Satan to be burned up forever. We find this hope in the prophet Micah's words in chapter 7 of the last book of the Old Testament:

¹⁸ Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.

¹⁹ You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

It is always good to put these truths to song so please listen to Audio Adrenaline's song about how God has forgotten all our sins and buried them on the ocean floor:

Psalm 100:5 - "For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

Runaway Christian Convert to Temporarily Stay With Florida Foster Parents - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

Runaway Christian Convert to Temporarily Stay With Florida Foster Parents - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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