Eric's Thoughts

Today was good.  Tom, Jacob and I split a bunch of wood for the stove in the student lounge.  I got to work outside, and it was really fun.  Then I spent the rest of the day working on the BMCR website and the ABC website.  Both are now up to date.  This evening I played Medieval Total War some more, and I’m finally starting to like it.  Other than that nothing is new.

Psalm 51. Wow. The whole thing is just wow. David wrote it after Nathan confronted him about Bathsheba (at least so the non-inspired part of my Bible tells me).

Proverbs 14:3 In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise shall preserve them.

My foolishness is in direct proportion to my pride. That explains a lot.

14:14 The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself.

Satisfied from himself. I’m pondering what this means. Frankly nothing is coming to mind.

14:16 A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

What a way to look at evil. I have often thought that a lot of Christians (at least some of the ones I know) take much to flippant of an attitude towards evil/Satan. Often times there can be an in your face, bring it on, arrogant attitude. Yet here it says a wise man feareth evil and departs from it. So how does this work out with the whole “perfect love casts out all fear” and “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” thing? I think perhaps there are different kinds of fear. It seems obvious at least that the fear of God and the fear of evil are two different things.

14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

Ok.  It’s been a few days.  I got Marvin’s animation done.  It basically took all week.  I never want to have to do that again.  It was horrible, and even now the thing isn’t perfect.  I’ve got much more respect for those guys who used to do those Disney cartoons by hand.  I caught a cold and was fairly miserable Thursday and Friday.  It got a lot better Saturday so I spent the day in Billings with the students.  That was fun, but rather expensive.  Two meals, a movie (Avatar),  a new computer game (Medieval Total War II) , some necessities , and I’m out just over fifty bucks.  Ouch.   Like I said it was fun, and I haven’t done that with the student’s yet this year.  Today was of course the Super Bowl so we had a party up at Schieldt’s place.  That was also fun, and the food was great.

Psalm 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

God doesn’t mind us asking for help.

Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

I had to look up the word deferred. It means to put off, post pone, to delay. I have seen this happen to people. When my hope is misplaced it will often be deferred, to my detriment.

II Kings 2 is the story of Elisha getting a double portion of Elijah. That in and of itself is interesting. What really surprised me was at the end of the chapter where Elisha gets mocked for being bald. I’d always read/heard that they were teenagers (the people who mocked him) but the KJV says “little children.” Because they mocked him 42 of them died. This is something to remember when people are trying to justify the “little” sins in life. The super bowl commercial that only showed a little bit of skin, or who’s humor was only a little crude. Those children only made a little fun of Gods prophet. God takes sin very seriously. It’s scary considering how often I do it.

I was given a new assignment today.  I’m supposed to make an animated discipleship wheel.  I’ve never done an animation before, so I tried it out.  I’ve found I can do simple .gif animations.  Now I’ve got to try and make a more complicated one.  That should be interesting.  For sure it will take a long time.  Working with graphics is time consuming detail work.  I got hit pretty hard yesterday by a cold, but I went to bed real early, and have felt pretty good today (though I still plan on going to bed early).  I’ve found sleep is the best thing I can do when I’m sick.

Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.

I always believe I’m right. Does this make me foolish? Or am I only foolish if I am unwilling to listen to others counsel? An unwillingness to listen to others counsel is often an indicator of a hard heart.

II Kings 1 The king hurts himself and is sick, sends people to ask some foreign god if he will live. Elijah meets these guys on the way and tells them the king is going to die. The guys go back to the king and tell him. The king turns around and sends 50 guys to tell Elijah to come see him. The 50 guys get burned up, so the king sends another 50 and they also get burned up. Yet again the king sends another 50 and this time they beg for they’re lives. God tells Elijah to go see the king. Elijah goes and tells the king the exact same thing he told the original messengers that the king sent. Because the king didn’t listen to God the first time 100 men died. How often do I ignore God the first few times, finally submit later, and how much damage does that cause?

Ok, I’m pretty sure this is the last time I’ll change my blogging software.  So once again I’ll start from scratch.  I haven’t anything exciting to report.  After spending a lot of time with Google, I have decided it is not possible to track bandwidth usage by user name.  I set camps server up to track what computers are using it the most, and I helped Grant run the sound for ministry team practice.  That was my day.  I’ll stop now before you become comatose.

I Kings 21 Two things stick out to me in this chapter. One God was very ticked off that Ahab abused his power, and two when Ahab humbled himself God had mercy on him. Humility. How often does so much hinge on humility? Out of humility comes obedience, and from pride flows rebellion.