The knowledge of God is an incommensurable good. To know God, the locus of infinite goodness and love, is an incomparable good, the fulfillment of human existence. The sufferings of this life cannot even be compared to it. Thus, the person who knows God, no matter what he suffers, no matter how awful his pain, can still truly say, "God is good to me!", simply in virtue of the fact that he knows God.
The birth certificate has been released to the press, and I'm getting extremely tired with these accusations that I purposefully defrauded the American People with a made-up birth certificate. I most certainly did no such thing. In all fairness to the average voter, I have commited so many frauds during my campaign that I can easily undertstand why do much doubt about my legitimacy is flying about.
I can't sleep. I feel sick. If I could pick a color to describe my insides right now, it would be brown.
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take my counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.
Enlighten my eyes, or I drink the sleep of death.
I am extremely happy right now, which makes me extremely paranoid.
My wife has just landed the perfect job. My own is exceptional; I love preaching God’s word, studying God’s word with people both publicly and privately, and I love listening to people empty their soul to me when they need someone to talk to. But my wife’s job is infinitely better than mine-- She gets paid to watch movies. I am extremely happy for her, and I am relieved that she has finally found what she’s been looking for, for about two years now.
The congregation where I work has grown, both in numbers and in spirituality. They’re a small congregation in western Pennsylvania, and they’ve not seen growth in seven years. They hired me two years ago, and with God’s help we have brought three of our own young people to Christ, and seven others from the community as well. That may not sound too impressive, and it’s probably not. Still, I am proud of this group, for when we started we had only about fifteen members.
These people have also recently become receptive to the teaching and preaching that I’ve been conducting. I preach only once per Sunday, but I teach six classes a week, private studies and group classes. We also have made sure to spend time with one another away from worship, so we can ensure that our best friends are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We have picnics, we go to lock-ins, and we also do community service at least once a quarter.
They have frequently attributed our burst of success to me. I am unsure as to how to react. Obviously it is God, not I, who has brought success to our group. When I tell them this they are quick to point out that until I arrived nothing was happening. I do my best to place emphasis on “We work,” and “God delivers our success.” The allure of praise is a very appealing one, and I find myself liking it. Which is exactly why I need to not have it.
As a preacher, I have really come out of my shell very recently. When I first decided to become a preacher, my goal was to eventually get to a point where my sermons were as provoking, bizarre, and energetic as my normal dialect. I’ve always wanted to be different from the typical preacher, and not for the sake of being different, but because, as any of you who really know me are already aware, I am a different person. My sermons are actually better this way, because I’m speaking to the people in my own particular style, not some homogenized technique. The people come into the building, and I use my zany tactics. They are sometimes shocked. Sometimes very, very afraid. But they always come back begging me for more. When I was little I imagined that my grotesque mind would one day be making billions of dollars in the bizarre-comedy industry. Instead, God put me here. I think His idea was much better, and much more entertaining.
Finally, my own personal life is great as well. Julie and I have so much fun together. We go to parks, we go to the mall, we go to movies… when we walk we see all kinds of animals, a group of cats who live in a barn, a trio of horses who simply cannot pass up an opportunity to show off to us, and lots of other wildlife. There is an animal carcass that has been sitting at a particular point on our trail for well over a year, steadily decomposing. We call him Mr. Skullet, and we say hi to him every time we cross his path. I don’t know what he looked like when he first shoved off this mortal coil; maybe it’s more fun to imagine than to know.
Our friends, Brendan and Alberta, are fantastic. It’s almost as if when the four of us get together, we swap spouses. And by that I mean, Brendan and I, and Julie and Alberta. Brendan and I have a deep friendship, common goals, and related hobbies. At the unveiling of Blizzard’s Diablo III we were together. I felt… good. And I know he did too. Brendan and Alberta are friends with whom we can just sit down and talk… about anything. It could be the most mundane topic conceivable and the four of us would find a way to make it interesting. We love going out there to visit, and we love having them over to visit. Gas is pretty expensive, but it could be $5.00 a gallon and we‘d remain undaunted.
I have lost 35 lbs in two months. My weight trainer tells me in terms of actual fat I’ve lost closer to 40-45 lbs, because according to his BMI measurements I’ve put on quite a few pounds of muscle. I’ve accomplished this feat through a diet provided by my beautiful wife, and a weight and aerobics routine to which I strictly adhere. I run for fifty minutes, six to seven times a week. This comes to an average of about 42-49 miles per week, and it has been slowly but steadily increasing as my heart rate and stamina improve. I also lift weights three times a week, and stretch before and after each segment of training. My trainer is a brilliant and noble man, who guarantees me that in a few more months he’ll have me looking like Sawyer from Lost. I don’t know about that, but the guy certainly knows what he’s talking about when it comes to fitness. I feel so much better now, physically. I look so much better. I can do things I couldn’t do before, and sometimes I’ll run for over an hour and still feel like I could go forever. None of my rings fit anymore.
Now I still have a ways to go. I need to lose five more pounds of fat to be at my optimum proportions, and those will of course be the most difficult to shed. Essentially I will have to shock my body into those confines. This means lifting in the morning, running in the evening, and never eating after six, for if I eat so much as a single grape, it can hinder the metabolism. But I can do it as long as I stick with it. It’s all a matter of endurance, and if I keep that in mind, I think I’ll be okay.
All this scares me to death, because I can honestly say my life has never been this good before. Things are too good. Job had a lot of wealth, property, and happiness before somebody dropped a hydrogen bomb on him.
I’m okay with adversity and difficult times. They remind us of who we are, and what we’re supposed to be doing. I just hope that when God decides it’s time for me to hurt, He doesn't take Julie away from me.
Sounds like good things. It might not be you who changed things per se, but you may have been the catalyst. Sometimes we all just need a new outlook on something. :)
You’re probably wondering to yourself, “What ramifications?” And I would agree with you; although anyone who knows me knows that I like to play video games, I feel a bitter mixture of bewilderment and depression when I hear or read that something like a video game actually impacts society. It’s certainly an indication of what our society places value upon, and where it is undoubtedly headed. But that’s not really why I found this article post-worthy.
I am exceedingly amused to find that Will Wright’s SPORE, a PC game in which you assume the role of a Creator who moves the gears of life by Darwinism, has generated much criticism not by creationists, but atheists. That those who ignore God and cling to theories that have been generated for the purpose of erasing God, are showing outrage at this game, is a perplexing and surprising development to me, but probably much more perplexing and surprising for Mr. Wright.
“I didn't expect to hit hot buttons on the atheist side,” Wright said. “I expected it on the religious side. But so far I've had no critical feedback at all from anybody who is religious feeling that we were misrepresenting religion or it was bad to represent religion in the game. It was really the atheists.”
As I’ve already stated, SPORE is a game where you control the evolution of a single-celled creature. You watch as it changes and adapts, and from what I understand you have the freedom to introduce the creature to environments and situations of your choosing, allowing the creature to develop what and how you like. It sounds reminiscent of E.V.O., but from what I’ve been told, it’s on a much, much bigger scale.
I didn’t really understand how anyone could misconstrue this as a nod toward Creationism. Not, at least, until it was explained to me that as your creature becomes more advanced and more intelligent, it eventually gains the ability to look to the sky and worship you, the creator. What I found to be even more amusing was Wright’s response to the criticism: “In order to really satisfy those who’ve recently spoken out against it [SPORE], we’d have to design it so you don’t play the game. It would have to just play itself. But that’s not fun, and it’s not possible either.”
Some people feel the irresistible urge to throw a rock at a beehive, and then some of us feel the necessity to throw a rock at it, knock it down, and then poke holes in it with scissors. Although it was clearly unintentional, this is exactly what Will Wright has done with his apologetic. One might say he has in one sense proved that Darwinism is fraudulent, by stating that even its electronic equivalent cannot be wrought. I personally don’t think he has “proven” anything, but whether he has or not, atheists will certainly see this statement as further attack upon their religion.
And atheism is exactly just that, a religion. Of course atheists don’t call themselves atheists. They call themselves “realists,” or on some occasions of especially heightened arrogance, “truth seekers.” This is what I find to be truly entertaining, and really what gels everything together.
The banter of atheism is that the evidence points toward the theory that there is no God. If the atheist really pursues absolute truth (a claim I believe to be false), then as a “truth seeker,” he wouldn't care about any kind of evidence that might point toward the existence of God, and he certainly wouldn't care about a stupid little game that (in jest) includes fictitious characters worshipping their Maker.
That atheists get so tightly wound over something like THIS (of all things) is indicative of some insecurities they have with their religion. They feel their truth needs to be protected, and any truth that needs to be guarded is a very suspicious truth indeed.
I'm a religious person, a Christian, and I'm not crying over the inclusion of evolution in the game. I’m sure that many religious people ARE upset over the Darwinistic aspects of the game, but before I would ever be upset over a game exhibiting the joke we call macro-evolution, I’d be much more cautious over the notion of sitting in God’s seat, having creatures worship me, be they real or synthetic. Of course, that’s assuming I have any reservations at all about the game, which I don’t.
Maybe atheists just aren't used to being oppressed. A sting is excruciating for the one who has never felt pain before. Maybe that's why Mr. Wright has heard nothing but crickets from the religious folk; people who are used to searing whips aren't really concerned about beestings. Of course I should probably shut up-- insinuating that we Christians today have somehow developed thick skin as a result of all our "sufferings" is more blasphemous than playing any kind of little God simulator.
Anyway, this game is tons of fun already and it doesn’t even have an established release date.
And yes, I know “Darwinistic” isn’t a word. At least it wasn’t until I coined it.
how are you and julie doing? dude i met the french version of you..he works at my restaurant..i think if you spoke french you would get along and play WoW together...or perhaps im over reaching a bit
