What has God done in your life lately?

One of the things I have always struggled with is sharing my faith in Jesus with others. Yes, I have told other children about Jesus through CEF, but I tend to freeze when I am around a group of adults, especially people who are my age! Since I have been convicted by this to a certain extent, Daniel and I have prayed about this in the Bible study we have been having.

So check this out....I was on my way out the door and over heard two people talking how the engineers they work for are such jerks! Of course, I had to get a piece of this conversation! When I was able to get in a word, I told them that I agreed that most engineers are jerks and that I also had first hand experience with this! I continued by saying one thing that keeps me humble about being an engineer is that I know God is the one that gave me the ability to get through the engineering program in the first place. I can't take credit for that!

Second, I was working yesterday, when I talked to a guy and his girlfriend. I asked him what kind of music he listened to and he said classic rock along with Contemporary Christian music! I told him I listened to Christian music as well and asked him some specific questions on what kind of Christian music he liked and what church he went to. I suppose that this does not technically count as sharing your faith; however, you could call this a "moral victory" since I was not embarrassed to ask him these questions and answer many of the same questions he had for me. After our conversation, I noticed that this guy and his girlfriend were talking to someone else while pointing their finger in my direction.

While I can only speculate as to what they were talking about, I am almost certain that they were saying something like....we were talking to this dude and guess what? We found out that he is a Christian! How cool is that? And most of us know that when you randomly meet people, the percentage of those people who are serious Christians is pretty low! :D

So while I am certainly not an expert at sharing my faith, I honestly hope that this is the beginning of a good change.... when I feel like saying something Christian that I would say it and not be afraid!

How could God send a good person to hell?

I often hear about how hateful it is that christians believe that God would send someone like Gandhi to hell. After all, Gandhi was a good man...probably better then most of us...so how is God justified in sending a man like that to hell?

The problem with our society is that we use the wrong yard stick to measure if a person is good or not. We have a tendency to use the human yard stick in which we compare ourselves to others around us. For example, I don't smoke pot or have premarital sex like these other people are doing, so I am a good person. By comparing Gandhi to the other people around us, yeah, he is a pretty good person.

However, if we use God's yardstick as defined in the Bible, even Gandhi comes way short. There is no comparison if one were to try to compare Gandhi to a righeous and holy God. When we use that yard stick, we see that God is justified. Using this yard stick in our own lives will allow us not to be satisfied by being better then the people around us...but to never be satisfied because in this life, no one will ever be as perfect, righeous, and holy as God.

I thought I would end this post with a few of my favorite quotes form Gandhi!

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
"I like their Christ but I don't like their Christians"

Beware of the jedi mind trick!

My visit with Joy

Carrying stuff for our picnic!

We discussed the physics of this marble ball suspended by a cushion of water!

Getting White Coated


Joy and Joy (aka Bundle of Joy)

All the fish....

Well...since Joy has posted twice about my visit with her....I suppose it is my duty as a brother to post something as well....

All sarcasm put aside, the visit was very very good. Joy was not with me the first couple of days because she had to go to a conference in Virgina. Therefore, the first couple of days were a mite boring; however, I did bring my xbox with me and my computer and a couple of DVD's. So....I got through that stage ok. In addition, a few of Joy's friends invited me to eat ice cream with them one night which was very nice! I must say that meeting Joy's school friends was a pleasant suprise. Some of them are believers or seem to have some kind of moral standing which is really great compared to most of the engineering people that I had to deal with going through school.

In Joy's blog, Joy points out that I made friends with a friend of her's husband (say that ten times fast!). That is because he is an engineer and (if you will permit me to insert a little more sarcasm here) he can actually talk on my level! As a matter of fact, several of Joy's church friends are engineers! I even met an aspiring rocket scientist! Now that is a first for me....going to a church where there is more then one rocket scientist!!!!

On Sunday, we went out to eat with many of these people where you could get a steak sandwich with just meat and bread. I have since discovered that Texans do not have sophisticated taste like we North Carolina people do! One of Joy's friends rightly pointed out that barbecue in NC is the best; however, when presented with the idea of putting coleslaw and chilly on his barbecue sandwich, he said he would not try something like that! Therefore, the tastes of Texans have not yet evolved to that of us North Carolina people!

Later, we did more shopping because Joy lost her cell phone, because I need to eat, and because Joy wanted to get more fish to add to the ones I had gotten her. At the end of our visit, we went to a butterfly museam. While waiting for Joy to take a picture of every single butterfly, I couldn't help but think that Noah would really enjoy something like that! Just an idea for you Martha.... I think the best part of the visit, was the time Joy and I spent talking about how things are with her and about our family in general! It was very nice to get to do that.

Cars Cars Cars!

Aston Martin Vanquish

Jaguar XKR (old model)

Audi TT

Jaguar xkr

Those of you who know me know I love cars! So....here is something fun I thought I would do! Here are some cars I like....you guys can tell me which one looks the best or if you have your own car you think looks good. The cars in the pictures above have simple curves yet they still look stunning, which is typically the kind of car I think looks good...simply beautiful! A complicated look would be like a Lamborgini Murcelago....the back end just looks too complex....or a Ferrari F50.

A couple of basketball stories!

Well, tonight I played basketball (thanks Martha and Mike for letting me play!) and there I met 2 much older people...someone brought up what I was doing this summer (working on my master's thesis) and soon the information came out that I am indeed a rocket scientist.

I often get a lot of praise from older people for sticking with school and doing something so difficult. I think seeing kids accomplish a lot in their education is something older people hold dear because they see the value of education in terms of getting a job that has true meaning and impact instead of working at a restaurant or working outside constantly. I suppose when your young, those kind of jobs are not too bothersome but if you do it for 30-40 years....that can be pretty tough! I think what is even tougher is just barely getting bye and not being able to enjoy money or have a difficult time saving for retirement! So I figured I would share that observation...for whatever it is worth :).

On a more humorous note, Mike, the reason why I wanted to play basketball tonight was because at Georgia's wedding, I invited some people to play basketball where I play every Thursday night! Well, a couple of weeks went bye...a couple of months go bye, and today they finally called me up and told me they wanted to play! Because they knew no one there, I felt obligated to go and help smooth things over in terms of them meeting people! :)

Now, I start playing with these guys (most of them are homeschooled I THINK) and it turns out that these guys are REALLY REALLY GOOD! They easily crushed the team I was playing with and eventually they started playing with the "brothers" (yes, a lot of black people play with us!). So, the first two games against the "brothers", my friends won. Now you have to understand that there were so many people there tonight, that after 2 wins, you needed to get off the court and let another team play. Well, the "brothers" were so determined to beat these white kids, that they told them to stay on the court! Unfortunately, my friends lost the third game...so the chaos could not continue...nevertheless...it was interesting to observe!

To fully appreciate the humor here, you have to realize that a bunch of white home schoolers BEAT a bunch of "brothers"! After all, black people are supposed to be very good at sports and white men can't jump! Apparently, memorizing bible verses and obeying our parents are not the only things us homeschoolers are good at!

Superheros quiz!

Ok...for those of you who like quizes, here is one for you to tell you what superhero and supervillan you are!

I apparently am most like superman: "You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others".

I actually think that is pretty accurate! Here is the link: http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/
There is also one for supervillians: http://www.thesuperheroquiz.com/villain/

I got Mr Freeze...apparently "You are cold and you think everyone else should be also, literally"!

Let me know your results!