Vote for Huckabee and Buy a Bowflex!

Have you ever run into one of those things that you see and just HAVE to post?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjYv2YW6azE

Regardless of whether I vote for the man, I have to applaud him. He knows how to campaign to the South

~Jared

the trouble with Christmas songs.

Most of you might already know that I have always had trouble with Christmas songs, namely the fact that they never make sense to me. We hear them all the time, but have we ever actually LISTENED to what they say? Heres a few prime examples of one we never take notice of:

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

alot of you have heard me rail against this one, so I wont go into too much detail. Basically, the biggest problem I have with this song is the fact that it mentions so many nice, holiday things until BAM! Scary ghost stories comes out of nowhere! I dont know what crazy household the writer lived in, but Ive never heard of a Christmas tradition that begins with "caroling out in the snow" and ending with "scary ghost stories." Am I the only one who finds that strange?

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

the biggest problem I have with this one is the false caring involved. The song begins with happy feelings of giving, wishing you a merry Christmas and a happy new year. However, little do you realize that their greedy lust for "figgy pudding" is right around the corner. Soon into the song, you realize that they never were wishing you a merry Christmas, they were just buttering you up so they can get their pudding. Why cant they just be greedy to begin with instead of pretending to be nice so they can get food? The little twerps.

Here Comes Santa Clause

This is another song I have had a problem with for many years. Mostly the lyric I have trouble with is "Lets give thanks to the Lord above cause Santa Clause is coming to town." Now lets really think about this hard. Belief in Santa most always entails belief in some form of magic, which is the reason he makes animals fly and gives 6 billion people presents in a mere 8 hour period. So, since this song is giving thanks to God, it would be assumed that they are talking about the Christian God of the Bible. Well, in the Bible, any "magic" other than a miracle by God would be black magic or demonic. So, if you couple both the beliefs of magic sleighs and God, like in the song, then you get Santa, the sorcerer of the North. Now why on earth would you thank God for Santa the sorcerer coming to your town? Wouldnt you instead be running away? If a fur clad magician with reindeer were coming to my town, I would be getting in the bomb shelter.

Away In a Manger

I dont exactly have as big a problem with this one, but there is still something small I cant exactly accept in this song. We we're singing it in church today, and I realized that one of the lyrics was the following:

The cattle are lowing
The poor Baby wakes
But little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes

Alright, anyone who has had or lived with a baby can see what is wrong with this stanza right here. One of the basic tenets of theology about Jesus was that he was fully God and fully man. In the same respect, he was fully God and fully baby. And this is the way God made babies: THEY CRY. ALOT. Especially when there born in a cold barn and then plopped down into some hay.

Thats all.

~Jared

I Follow _________

This video was very interesting. Not really the whole video itself, but the beginning part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVU3e6t0kfk&feature=related

In case you didnt know, John Cleese is talking about the Monty Python movie "Life of Brian," which was set in the time of Jesus and openly mocked the divinity of Jesus and organized religion. At its opening in New York, a bunch of churches had come by to protest the movie. Seeing the mayhem, Eric Idle, according to this video, quipped "at least we've brought them all back together again."

Lately, I have been sitting in my class while we carry on tearing each other apart over issues of doctrine and such. Now dont get me wrong, there will always be a place for theological discussion, but it seems to me that it does nothing but tear Christians apart these days.

Take my school for example. We are a "Christian" school, that is we believe in basic Christian doctrine. However, I can almost guarantee that you can come up to almost any of the students here and ask them what religion they belong to and the words "Christian" would not even exit their mouthes. Instead, you would hear something like Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Pentacostal, or Reformed. Call me old fashioned, but what ever happened to calling yourself a Christian? Arnt we supposed to identify ourselves by Christ himself, rather than an earthly church?

Reminds me of 1 Corinthians, which is a book I have been reading recently.

10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas^[a]"; still another, "I follow Christ."

13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into^[b] the name of Paul? 14I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

I realize that its impossible for EVERYONE to be united in their beliefs, but I am so sick and tired of denominational walls in my school, where it is most apparent. My church is non-denominational, and I could probobly come up to alot of people and get some people that are Calvinist and some who are Armenian, but this doesnt divide us. We should debate these things, but we should never let us divide us. Just as Paul says, let there be "no divisions among you."

Are we forgetting the things that are really important? Like loving your neighbor? Maybe its time for us to stop following Calvin, Wesley, and Armenian and follow Christ, to be a Christ-ian

Thats all the ranting for today.

~Jared

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Why is it I can never decide what I want to post on anymore? First it was xanga, then myspace, then Facebook, now its back to this washed up blog ive had for so long. My initial reason for abandoning this blog is because no one reads it, but, true to the poem mentioned last post, "screw it all, ill do it anyways"

So here I am, back to writing on the blog that no one will read about topics that dont matter.

I cant fix the former, but I can the latter.

An interesting thing came up in Lit class today. Aside from the usual Calvinist vs. Armenianist steel cage match that goes on between the class, we came to a topic of conversation: God's love. Most of the people in the room were of the opinion that God does not love unconditionaly, otherwise he would not be sending people to Hell. It was strange for me to be told this when I have been told all my life that "God so loved the world" and loves everyone, even if they do end up going to Hell, so it sent me for a bit of a loop. Does God love some and hate others? If you read the Old Testament it would seem so, but then again wasnt it Jesus that ate with all the sinners? And we are supposed to emulate Jesus, it would make since that we would love even the sinners, despite their shortcomings while at the same time encouraging them to go in the right direction. However, if God doesnt love everyone, than it seems like we have to earn his love and it isnt something freely given to us. If God completely hates sinners, than, givin our fallen state, he has hated us from the beginning. In my opinion, this seems to go completely against the nature of God.

usually I would ask you, the reader's opinion on this, but it seems futile since none of you will read it and therefore the reader is non existent.

And now for something completely different. More and more people seem to come to me with problems, but I dont really mind. In the end, I dont trust in my own words but just leave it to God, because he knows what to say and I dont. I wonder everyday what my calling is, but I hope that someday its right here:


Speaking of which, I still need to raise money for going there over Spring Break. Unfortunately, getting into my job is alot slower due to school delays and I havnt made the money yet. But im trusting in Jehovah Jireh.

Nothing else to say now. I now have to call my boss to inquire why I havnt been trained yet.

~Jared