The ESV Study Bible

So I picked up the ESV Study Bible sunday. I'm very excited about it. It's huge, lots of maps, etc.. It also gives me free access to an online copy complete with Study Notes, my own Personal Notes and it even has Naration! Pretty sweet!

Anyway, highly recommending the ESV Study Bible right now. You should check it out.

The ESV Study Bible

"..heirs according to promise."

So, the Men's Bible Study is no more, but Elise and I are picking up where we'd left off. Last week we went through, in short, everything that the Men's Study had covered. This week, we pressed on from Galatians 3:15-29.

Paul talks about some really cool stuff here, as he is laying out the difference between The Law and The Promise to Abraham..


He starts out by Identifying what a Promise is in Galatians 3:15. A promise is finite. You can't change it, or add to it. Once a promise is made, you are bound to it or it is broken. We all know, God never breaks promises. So we have to believe that The Promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 still stands.


"I will bless (save) those who bless (honor) you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse (condemn)."

I believe the Lord is explaining to Abraham the Promise of Salvation through Jesus Christ.


Paul continues in Galatians 3:16 to explain that The Promise to Abraham was made for his offspring (singular, one offspring), not offsprings. This offspring was his distant grandchild, Jesus Christ. And in Galatians 3:17-18 he breaks it down for us. Salvation comes to us through The Promise to Abraham. The Law, which was given 430 years later, cannot add to, or take away from the original Promise because that would break the promise and God never breaks a promise.


So why do we even have the commandments? Why do the Jews have so many rules if they are already saved?

Galatians 3:19-20 explains that even though we had a promise of Salvation, until Jesus came, died and rose on the 3rd day, we were still in bondage to our sin. And this was told to us by an "intermediary" (the Spirit of Christ) through Angels. This is a hint to the Trinity concept of 3 Gods in One. And so, God provided us with a "Guardian" or guideline to live by, The Law.

"Is The Law then contrary to the promises of God?" Galatians 3:21-28 then begins to break everything down for us and lay it out so that we can understand the difference between The Law and The Promise to Abraham.

The Law tells us what not to do. It defines sin, but it does not save us. There is no "Thou shalt do this and be saved" law. It is entirely condemning. Paul says it holds us captive, imprisoned until The Promise to Abraham is fulfilled. Following the law is not where Salvation comes from.

The Promise to Abraham tells us that God will save us (through Jesus Christ). And by believing in the Promise (Jesus) we can be saved when the Promise if fulfilled (Jesus is born, dies, and risen).

This is how Abraham was saved and how all Jews would find Salvation until Jesus came. Others also, could then convert to Judaism, Obey the Law and Believe in The Promise to Abraham and be saved. Obeying The Law was required to be a Jew. Believing The Promise to Abraham was required for Salvation.

Once Christ came, he was the Perfect Sacrifice to Remove our sin, unlike the imperfect sacrifices of the Jews which only covered it up. The Law is no longer required. (Keep in mind, this is not a license to sin. We are still commanded by Jesus to Love God and Love our Neighbor, which really envelopes The Law and then some in two simple commands.)

Infact, Paul takes it one step further and says that they are no longer Jews. We are no longer Americans. We're not Slaves or Free, Men or Women. We are Christians, all one in Christ Jesus.

Finally Paul concludes by explaining that Abrahams Heirs were in fact not determined by bloodline. God doesn't save through Genetics. God saves through Faith by a Promise. And All of us who belong to Christ by faith in Him, are the true descendants of Abraham's Inheritance, according to the promise that was given.

We are Saved through Faith by Grace.

"The Happening" & What's Happening..

So, I saw "The Happening" last Friday evening.. it was terrible. The acting was poor, the plot was pathetic and the content was disturbing. The basic premise (I'm going to spoil it for you) is that because Mankind has become such a threat to the Earth, all the world's plants, you know, trees, grass, flowers, etc.., have rapidly evolved a new defence mechanism. Whenever large groups of people are around, they release a toxin to the air which causes all the normally sane people to decide to kill themselves in grusome, horrible ways.

So, the effects were really pretty cheesy, gross, but cheesy, and the plot was pathetic, but I did learn something interesting about myself.

I got really depressed. It reminded me of darker times in my own life and my own thoughts of suicide and death and I was completely unprepaired for it. I was distant and dispondant for days.

I had no idea it would affect me like it did. I wish I'd never watched it. My sister and her friends came over and decided to watch it. I tried to talk her out of it. I even lied to her about having not returned it yet, in hopes she wouldn't go rent it on her own.. she did. I had to go hide in my room to escape it, and trying to fall asleep, I realized I could still hear it through the floor and I ended up turning on my iPod to muffle out the sounds.

I felt pretty childish, but I don't know, I just couldn't handle it. It was a difficult weekend..

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In other news, it's been an "OK" week since then. Our Men's Bible Study was interesting. There was only 3 of us. We've been dwindling. It was a good time though. We talked about Galatians 3:7-14. It was cool to see how Paul uses the Old Testament to talk to Jewish Christians and point out the truth behind what saves us and who truely are God's children. For it is not our bloodline, but rather our Faith that determines our inheiritence. "Know that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham." (Galatians 3:7 )

So that was cool. We decided also to keep on kicking, even with such small numbers. The three of us are enjoying it and getting alot out of it. Hopefully more will show up eventually.

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Also, Elise and I started up Love & Respect again. Our friends from work are joining us, which is really cool. I had hoped my parents would too, but that's too far out of their comfort zone I guess.

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AND.. we've joined a new Bible Study called The Truth Project. It's all about understanding what it is to be a Christian and showing it with a Christian "World View" by breaking down a lot of the popular world views we are bombarded with through the media and others all our lives. It's pretty cool. I think it's leading to some interesting discussions, anyway, and I'm excited for that.

I think that's all for now.

Updates? What?!

Ok, so, it's time to get serious about some updates around here, yeah?

I'm going to try to do my best to start taking better notes and transferring them to the blog. I'm involved in a Men's Bible Study with some guys here at work on Mondays which has been going awesome. We're ripping Galatians apart.

Also, you may notice, I've added a new feature to the blog. Logos Bible Software's RefTagger! It's pretty much awesome. A simple to apply java code that enhances all of my bible references automatically with tool-tip previews and links to the text itself automatically, and a special button to open your Libronix direct to the passage in your preferred bible (I use ESV).

Check it out! Genesis 6:4-8 (My favorite passage, of course)

Anyway, more updates to come, including a much needed update to my picture, and possibly some neat background graphics if I can figure that out.

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Oh, by the way... http://theclassiccrime.com/.. sweetness. I'm loving their new album. Kind of a Breaking Benjamin, hard-rock-alternative style with engaging lyrics that reflect a lot more maturity than the style usually offers. These aren't your every-day-angry-teenagers. They talk about real issues that grown people face, like addiction and loneliness. My little brother turned me on to them. Best album purchase I've made on iTunes in a long while.

It's been way too long..

Ok, new things:

Men's Bible Study
Chuck Missler - Koinonia House http://www.khouse.org/
New Computer?
Paintball Mess!

Men's Bible Study:

My new friend, Manis, at work has started up a Men's Bible Study at Logos. I'm taking part in it and enjoying it very much.

We're currently working through Galatians. It's a much more indepth book than I thought it would be at first glance. We're going in to week 4 and we're just starting in to verse 6 of chapter 1.

It's full of some incredible revelations about Paul. I'll try to post some of the information/notes soon.




Chuck Missler

Chuck is incredible. A friend of mine had been talking about something called Koinonia House. Sounded suspiciously cultish to me and I avoided it, but my curriosity got the better of me and I was amazed at what an awesome resource it is. Check it out: http://www.khouse.org/ or on iTunes, 66/40 PodCast.

Right now I've just finished his short study on Technology & the Bible for free through his PodCast, and I'm continuing his long study on Genesis that is blowing my ind on a regular basis.

Check out Ezekiel 26 thru 28

Ezekiel is sent to the people of Tyre and addresses the nation Ezekiel 26:17-21

Ezekiel is sent to "The Prince of Tyre" and addresses the ruler of Tyre Ezekiel 28:1-10

Ezekiel is sent to "The King of Tyre" and address Satan?? Holy crap! Ezekiel 28:11-19


I thought Satan was sitting on a hot rock in Hell! Why did I think that? We all think of Lucifer as a pointy-tailed, horned, red, half-goat ugly son of a--- well you know.

Lucifer was the most perfect being ever created. He was beautiful. He appeared to have some great musical talent, possibly leading Worship in Heaven. He was in command of all creation. He was placed by God on "the Mountain of God" and all was at his command.

He became proud of his grand position and his pride lead to bitterness against God. He decided he should be as God is, and his heart was corrupted with sin by his pride.

God cast him from the Mountain of God and set him upon the Earth. Here he ruled, and it is implied other nations existed which he destroyed? I'm kind of confused about it right now, still in the very beginning of this Genesis study PodCast.


Anyway, my mind is blown.

Oh yeah, and then on to computer..

So Elise bought a couple old Logos Computers for about $8. Added a hard drive, it's pretty cool. She's stoked for it. Found out today that the RAM in it is worth about $100. We may just build her a new computer and put that toward it so she can be faster and have upgrade options.

Also, I just made the switch to Vista Home Premium. I'm loving it, actually. I'm planning to sell my Case, MoBo, CPU and RAM to Manis and then I'm going to put the money toward some new parts to build a new gaming rig. I'm stoked for that. Still trying to decide on what I can afford of it.

I recently attended a Microsoft PlayTest which, of course, I can't discuss, but that's where I got Vista, and I also got Project Gothem Racing 4 which I might sell to pay for computer parts.


In other news, on the 8th, I won/ordered a couple parts on eBay for my PaintBall gun. Turned in to a huge pain. First, the guy was unwilling to work with me on a package deal, but that's fine. I ordered parts seperately, which he said he'd send as soon as he recieved payment. Payment was confirmed on the 11th..

17 days and several emails, and even an official complaint through PayPal, he finally responds to me with a BS answer about how he get's so many orders that he missed the $95 I transferred to his account and he claimed that he'd been emailing me the whole time but the emails didn't come through.

Well, he DID reply, finally and he is sending my stuff. I'm excited to be getting it, but it was a big pain. I was annoyed.





Anyway, exciting times. :)



On a side note, Elise is doing well, and she's beautiful as ever. I'm very excited for where our relationship has gone and is going.



-EDIT: Apparently Blogger wont let me use Libronix Hyperlinks. Sorry.-