manuscripts, gradutation, birthdays and weddings

hey everybody

so It's been a long time since i posted anything on here.
Since I last posted, I finished my last 4 classes and graduated University! I have a Bachelor of Commerce in Operations Management now. A bunch of my family came up for my convocation (grad ceremony) and we had a big bbq and gathering at my house in June, once the rain managed to let up! it was awesome, and we also celebrated my sisters graduation (she is finishing her social work degree this fall!) and my cousin's graduation this year, as well as my neice Abigail's birthday.
Later in the month I turned 23 on the 23rd, and celebrated my birthday with my small group as well as 4 other birthday parties that week!
I have been looking for a full-time job in my field since April, which has not been fun. I have had some interviews, and even a recruitment day, but no job as of yet.
I have also had football start again for the summer, and its over halfway over now (sadly). Our team is 5-4 now after losing our last 3, but it has been fun and we should be able to turn it around and get into the playoffs.
I also attended 2 weddings so far this summer. two of my friends from Capernwray (Colton and Stacia) got married in Seattle, and since I am unemployed, I drove out there. It turned into a great reunion, as there were 20 of us from Capernwray at the wedding, and Mark and I hung out a fair bit which was great.
later in the summer I attended the wedding of Jason and Kristen, driving to a small town, and hanging out with a few of my friends from Bonavista that went too.
Also I have been attending young adult events, one got cancelled so Jake, Holly and I went anyways (to Banff), we are doing the actual Banff trip this month!

I have also continued to go to my small group (well, they now come to my house!) and we finished up the truth project. It was was an interesting series to go through and discuss as a group. since it has finished, we decided to do a manuscript study of Acts. So last week we discussed the first chapter. It was great discussion. here is a recap I gave to a few of the guys from our group that missed out (the guys thought this pretty much summed up our discussion last week):
Greg went through the details of a manuscript study, things we can look for, basically its indepth as you make it. you can pull many things out of it. so for next week, print out the section we will be doing without verse numbers or titles and just read it first. then grab some pencils/colours etc and go nuts! (look for things such as numbers, repetitive ideas/words, themes, who is speaking, mood...and on and on - the idea is to print it out so you can draw lines, boxes, pictures, whatever)
oh and when reading through, come up with your own titles for the sections.
hope that makes sense, Greg said alot more than that but thats the gist.
also, bring one observation and one question with you, this is our homework.
So, we looked at Acts chapter 1, which had much more than we expected.
we started discussing vs 4-8. we discussed the back and forth with Jesus, the people possibly getting impatient and wanting answers and Jesus redirecting them to not needing to know the future. Jesus said to wait also, then gave them a promise of recieving power. the disciples were showing their confusion as Jesus was talking about the kingdom of God while they were thinking kingdom of Israel.
another thing we discussed was the men looking into the sky(vs 10) when 2 men dressed in white. some of our versions said heaven, basically they were looking up. we were wondering if heaven and sky were the same word in Greek. also interesting that Luke points out there were 2 men. repetitive about heaven in vs 11.

in vs 13 it mentions all the disciples, but not luke, who wrote Acts. we assume he was there for it, but he didn't name himself, maybe cultural, or he was passed the story on.

in vs 14 - constantly in prayer, joining together, it was good having several versions as we were able to figure that it was as one, one accord etc.

in vs 15, Peter stood up among the believers, we don't know how long after Jesus went to heaven, but it must have been some gap in time as they numbered around 120.

one question was Judas info in vs 18-19, everything in scripture is there for a reason, we questioned the need for it. we crossreferenced and figured it is likely just discussing that he got a reward for his wicked deeds, interesting that he chose to turn jesus in, then chose a nasty death

we discussed for awhile how they chose Matthias. in vs 20 it discusses leadership, in another version, it said role position, sort of like a job. still leadership though, as the disciples were the leaders. it was necessary to choose someone who had been with Jesus, maybe the first prerequisites for being in a position of leadership within the believers. we discussed 'witness' and the differences between it in vs 8 and vs 22 and what this word was supposed to mean. would be interesting to do more research on the word. it seemed witness was someone who was there with Jesus, but also someone who was able to share or lead. we can't be witnesses in once sense because we weren't actually there with Jesus, but we can be witnesses of what we believe and of Jesus' story. really we should be witnesses and that means to know what happened and have no doubts, easier said than done.

still on Matthias, they wanted God to show them, but how. they engaged in a game of chance, trusting that God would influence it correctly. this was how they had to decide. it is important to note that this is the last time casting lots was recorded in the bible, and it happened in the passage immediately prior to the pentecost! this led to some talk in our group about decision making and asking God for direction, sometimes he might speak to us or give us guidance in some way, but like the disciples, we shouldn't just sit around waiting for an answer. the disciples prayed then took action. it doesn't mean we should just do whatever, because we should still go to God and ask him to guide us, but we should trust that he will nudge us in the direction he wants us to go, and if we still go in the wrong direction, he won't turn his back. it just might take a little longer to get where he wants us.

I hope that sparks some thoughts

Adam

the Pernicious Lie

Hey everybody,
A quick post that I meant to write a few weeks ago.
lately I have been getting together with some friends in a small group on tuesday nights. It has been great, encouraging and challenging. we started getting together and catching up on our weeks then discussing a passage from the Bible. lately we have started a video series called "the Truth Project"
It looks at truth from different angles, from a Christian perspective. anyways the last week we watched it, it looked at "who is man?" and discussed the pernicious lie. the pernicious lie is a fundamental lie about who man is
its hard to replicate what was said as each episode is a packed hour of discussion/points, but here is a little tidbit

the question is who is man? there are 3 facets to look at: his essence, his moral state and his need.
the christian perspective (or truth) is that his essence is being in the image of God, both flesh and spirit.
the lie is that he is material, has no purpose, a goo man
the truth about his moral state is that he is fallen.
the lie about his moral state is that he is good, Maslow says we have no instinct for evil (say what?)
the truth about our need is that we need redemption
the lie is that our need is self-actuallization, basically that it is all about us.

now the biggest thing here that stand out is saying that we are basically good or basically evil. well we are not basically good, we are selfish. when we look out only for our interests, we take from others, we don't respect others, we are evil. but the world thinks self-actuallization is what we need. if we only focus on ourselves, the bad part, the selfish part comes through. whereas if our need is redemption, we let God work through us and the hope is that the good outwieghs the bad.
some people say we are good on our own and don't need God. then what influences the terrible things we see? Hitler and the Jews, countries nuclear bombing each other, rapists etc (you can think of more examples i'm sure). why do these things happen? because we think we are completely right to do what we want, often for selfish reasons. sure bad things have happened in the name of religion, no doubt. people can take the part of a religion that benefits them and miss the redemption, the God part, they take scriptures out of context to benefit whatever they think is right.

there is the question of why is there evil? if we are inherently good (as the world would suggest, humanist etc) then how can there be evil. of course there must be some distinction for something being evil, otherwise why does it bother us? how can you feel about about something being bad if everything is right for the person doing the action. there has to be something that governs what is good and what is bad. if are are truely here to self-actualize, as Abraham Maslow suggests, then why are we bothered by evil or bad things. as long as we are self-actualizing, we wouldn't care what happens in Africa or that sort of thing would we?

Did you know in the UK the leading cause for women and 2nd leading cause for men to end up in hospital is suicide attempts? kinda sad, but if we ignore God, we focus on ourselves, and the selfishness can be a dangerous path. we need redemption, and Jesus offers that. we are in the image of God and also ahve a sinful nature. our sinful nature can push out the truth.

I am going to leave it there, hopefully it has provoked some thought, and comment if you want to. We are watching the 4th episode tonight, which is on who is God.

thanks for reading as always,

Adam

March Madness

Hey everybody

Ok, so I’m not really into the march madness basketball tournament, but the title seemed fitting.

I guess it’s been quite a while since I last posted, so I am posting now. What have I been up to?

I went to Lethbridge twice over the Christmas break. the first time I visited Nat and the kids and mom, then drove Mom back to Calgary so she could fly home. Then Dad and I went down for Christmas, spending a few days at Nat and Ryan with family, it was great.

Attending my last semester at University of Calgary for my bachelor of Commerce! (including a block week course). Also I was playing hockey in my floor hockey league (AFHL), but that season is now over (well playoffs are still going, my team missed). Still working with the youth group at my church (BEMC). Went snowboarding at C.O.P. and went to Utah with my dad to visit my mom and step dad, and do some skiing. We also stopped in Lethbridge to visit my sister and the kids.

I Also watched the Olympics, and they were awesome. I got more into them than I ever have before, and loved that they were always on, for the two weeks. It was weird to have them done. Anyways I am proud of our athletes and the fact that Canada got the most Gold medals of any country in the winter Olympics, ever, with 14!

What else? I have been reading a bit. I read two great books in the past few months, Sex God and Jesus wants to save Christians. Yes, one is called Sex God, and it is a Christian book! It’s actually an interesting take on love, and that sex is really about God, comparing things in life where one thing is really about something else. I suggest you read it. also just finished the second book, and it was good as well, read it.

I have been listening to music as usual, but in January Jake and I went to Scott’s parable in Red Deer, mostly just to get new music. I bought a bunch of cds: Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot, Awake by Skillet, Welcome to the Masquerade by TFK, Confessions by Pillar, Forget and Not Slow Down by Relient K, and The Good Album by All-Star United. So much good music. I also bought some new music from Itunes, some Kim Walker, MGMT and Owl City. Jake bought a bunch of CDs too, and one of them is a Junkyard Poets album, which I borrowed, and is also quite good. My favourite CDs recently are Hello Hurricane and Forget and not slow down.

My 14 most listened to songs in the past 3 months are(according to last.fm):

Switchfoot – Needle and Haystack life

Switchfoot – The Sound

Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane

Switchfoot – Bullet Soul

Switchfoot – Mess of Me

Relient K – Therapy

Relient K – This is the end

Switchfoot – Red Eyes

Switchfoot – Free

Relient K – Candlelight

Thousand Foot Krutch – Scream

Switchfoot – Your Love is a Song

Relient K – I don’t need a soul

Relient K – if you believe me

And over the last 3 months my top 5 albums are new ones:

Switchfoot – Hello Hurricane

Relient K – Forget and Not slow down

Thousand Foot Krutch – welcome to the masquerade

All-Star united – the good album

Skillet – Awake

For more visit : http://www.last.fm/user/calgarydude/charts?subtype=albums or look at the bar to the right!

Also I have been involved in a small bible study group on Tuesday nights with Justin, Greg and Jon, which has been great. We started the Truth project this past Tuesday, and it led to some great discussion.

I have been applying for jobs the past few days, so that I have a job come graduation in May. My Grad ceremony is June 10^th, which is also my niece Abigail’s birthday. I am hoping to go to Seattle on the May long weekend for a wedding of two of my friends from Capernwray – Colton and Stacia.

I am also hoping to go to Israel with a group from the church in October. It would be awesome to go, see the country, the history and walk where Jesus walked. I have a meeting for it on Sunday.

Also bought YC tickets for the youth group in February, that was tough, they sell so fast, something like 17,000 tickets sold in the first 6 hours!? at $140 a ticket, that is alot of money. with that kind of demand, you would think they could do something like that in Calgary.

I have been busy working on school stuff, have a midterm on Monday and two other assignments due, so it is sort of march madness. Also the Flames have been kicking butt lately, winning 4 in a row, also considering getting Stampeders season tickets with my dad.

Not sure what else to say, or if anyone will actually read this, but i hope you enjoyed!

Thanks for reading,

Adam