Ah yes. I see your point. And it makes sense to. NOT.

Bob you CANNOT approach the Bible thinking..."God prove me wrong." God doesn't have to prove anything to you...do you believe by faith that the Bible is true? the bottom line is God doesn't need you!! choose what you want to believe by faith. thats the only thing anyone can really argue on and faith for everyone is differe...

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Yesterday at 9:16am · Comment ·

Brent Russell Merrill

I guess you and Jacob ( the one that wrestled with God) and Abraham ( the one that bargained with God) and Moses ( the one that changed Gods mind) have slightly different opinions on the subject. Then there is that guy that asks Jesus to help his unbelief. A quick perusal of Romans would seem to indicate that on some level God pursues an Humanity that is unwilling and not capable of faith. Or, for instance, God does not have to love me. But he does. It seems God is in the habit of doing things he doesn't have to do. You can't force God to do anything, but if we can trust that the Psalms are actually from God, David seems to question God rather persistently and yet he was a man after Gods own heart. All thats to say is that you can approach the Bible however the heck you'd like, the power is not in your perspective but in the fact that this is Gods word, and the Holy Spirit has the bad habit of working through the text, with or without your consent. Man does not constrain God, nor dictate to him what he can and can not do. Thats just silly. Mankinds one true moment of exercising Free will forever tainted the gift almost to the point of our not being able to use it. Martin Luther had a nifty way of summing it up in that we are all "saddled asses". We might have a little say in whose saddle we wear, but in the end, we're still saddled. Humility I think, in the ends proves more key than faith ( Micah 6:8). I can have all the faith in the world, but if I'm to proud to listen when God speaks my faith is of little value ( God even has a solution for this, its called the "Road to Damascus" ). My only proviso on 'daring' or asking God to do something is he might just do it, and chances are it might just be terribly uncomfortable. But that is more from personal experience than anything I can point to in the text.

Yesterday at 10:40am ·

Were Bob becomes a heretic- brent...the point is...god doesn't need us to accomplish his purposes. he is huge and we are nothing. he could use anyone he wanted to...people get too stuck on thinking that they are the only way God could accomplish what he wants to accomplish through them. thats not true...God's will is going to prevail. a quick perusal of Revelation will tell you that God wins and my name and your name and the names of anyone else alive today arent in there...im not looking for a debate. i read my bible this morning and thats what i got out of it...my only point was that you and i are not god's gift to humanity. Life is god's gift to us. we need to use it to say thank you to Him and we need to give it back to Him to use however He wants. you see what im saying?

Yesterday at 11:40am

Not Bob

i agree with Brent, actually... why is it such a bad thing to ask God to "prove himself," "show himself," etc??? those men of faith DID wrestle with God--and don't we all, at least mentally???

Yesterday at 2:08pm

Bob Again

the point is God doesn't need us...i think i said that at least a few times. think about the point of what i said...not the one thing you can try to find to argue against. serve God and have a relationship with him...make it real in your own life then what I say doesn't matter. and trying to become so smart by questioning everything and questioning Him until we fit Him into our box is going to end up in disappointment. seek to know Him by learning about Him not questioning Him.

Yesterday at 5:30pm

How you know they are ga....in touch with their feminine side

Sorry, I know some people in the closet. And they amuse me.

1. Scarves- Not because it is cold, but with t-shirts.

2. Uses beautiful not to describe say art work or girls, but people.

4. Weird high pitched Voice often coupled with a slight speech impediment. Don't ask me why, I don't know why. Somehow you know they are batting for the home team if they have a thirteen year old girl voice they use all the time. I used to think this was funny in highschool. Now I don't. One wonders if its an after affect of Kalvin Klean undergarments.

5. They have the mannerisms of a five year old. This could be just a pet peeve, but a lot of the guys...I mean people I know who suffer from....gender confusion also suffer from an inability to grow up. I'd love to see a psychological study on just why this is so.

Don't get me wrong, I'm in a artistic community. Artistic people are strange. But they also suffer from this idea that they are good enough actors that the rest of us don't see right through them. And they think its normal. I'd be much more permissive of the 'gay movement' if people didn't have to become the same sort of person. They seem to give up personality in this queer quest for uniqueness. In the very breaching of societal rules they become all exactly the same. They defy stereotypes by becoming a stereotype. I chose the word suffer specifically because if they all dropped this gay ( yes I'm using this in a derisive sense) insecurity and let themselves be who they are, as apposed to who they think they should be to be non-gender conscious accepting individuals, they wouldn't be these odd neutered 'its' they force themselves to become. Whats sad is I think they'd be happier to.

Coming Next Week

So its been a while. I need a plan if the Duck Cave is just not going to be deleted because of its arch nemesis Facebook. This is that plan. Next week, I'm going to start treating this blog as a sort of online fitness journal. This means next Sundayish I'm going to post my measurements and weight, as well as a food journal (i.e. what I've ate for that day). Probably going to slip in some podcast reviews because that is what I listen to whilst I work out. My goals for next week are mostly to work my legs. I've been hitting my chest and shoulders pretty hard on the bench because my school's annual round 'em up and take their money event ( Spring Sing) involves a lot of hard leg work ( and will be done this Saturday night) as well as a couple slight injuries ( sprained foot and bonked knee). Long term I'm shooting for five more pounds in muscle, after that, I think I'll be content. Chances are I'm eventually going to move this blog to a new blog I have on wordpress as the format is much nicer. Probably just keep it going for a few months just be reposting. But I haven't decided yet. Toodles.

Weak A Theology

So I'm taking Systematic Theology. Mostly because I've been a student of Theology my entire life. If you read the bible you are practicing Theology. You will relate what you read to what you have read, and what you believe about what you read. Just because I'm a student doesn't mean I'm a particularly good one, or clever one. Just means I study when I can, and that I think Theology is important because it concentrates on who God is, and what God does as apposed to whether or not we should have a contemporary worship service or associate with you because you don't use chairs. That being said I often get the feeling that most people don't think in a critical way about what they believe, nor engage in any species of debate over what they believe. Generally when I hear God talked about its people agreeing with each other, and if a person brings up a possibly dangerous flaw, such as God as your girlfriend being a deficient understanding of God, they look at you like you've stepped on someones baby. All of which results in a wet fish theology. Preachers become psychiatrists, Elders become accountants, and the Holy Spirit becomes butterflies in your stomach as you sing a song that talks about having sex with God are all the results of not critically approaching the text as the Holly Inspired Message given by an all powerful being that is beyond human comprehension. We don't take care with what the bible says so it becomes a nifty book of proverbs ( i.e. context-less trite generalizations that allow me to live the way I've always lived while getting a neck cramp from patting myself on the back , which coincidently is not the Book of Proverbs at all). I hate it. It makes me sick. I think its partly because we've lost the fear of God. This, the bible tells us, is the beginning of knowledge. Fear is awe, respect, humility, as well as gut wrenching absolute terror at the mystery that is the Creator. If this is not our foundation God becomes a de-clawed muzzled lion. We should not stay there, for it is only the beginning of knowledge. But God can not be Abba father if he does not have the power to both protect and punish his children. It is Yahweh, Creator and master of the universe that we serve, not some long haired hipster. The Holy Spirit is a helper and a guide not a feeling.