Snocap

Snocap previews of my music store are not showing up. I'll give it antoher day or two and then delete it. Oh well... :(

Snocap/Myspace Store

ETERNAL LIFE

I just started a new artist Myspace page. Check out my stuff!
Snocap is a cool service that allows artists to sell their music independantly.
My tracks are only 50 cents a pop and they're pretty good (I think), so go buy em up!

First Picasa Creation

I created this guy using all the pictures in the "my documents" folder. turned out kinda trippy.

Picasa

I just downloaded Picasa so I would have a place to store images. I usually use flickr, but I'm wondering if picasa might be a better workflow, considering its part of the Google family.

XP Silver Theme

I just recently switched my Windows XP theme over to the silver one that comes default. I am constantly amazed at how much better it looks and I wonder why Microsoft didn't make it their default theme.

New found finances

I just realized today that I had some money in a retirement account that I forgot about when I was in the service. I owe the service about the same amount that is in the account, so I am (unsurprisingly) super stoked. My payments to the government are currently 400 bucks a month. So this should provide some much needed relief

iTunes podcast listing

My podcast is now accessible by iTunes at this link.
It should be added to the searchable directory within a few days.

New Podcast

I'm creating a new podcast for my music so you can keep track of all the little stuff I release and don't decide to post to an actual forum. Enjoy.

Heres the web link

Heres the link to add to podcast programs

Clubbing

Last night I went to a local dance club (I think the only one on the island). It's been the first time I've been to one in a long time. I was surprised that I actually pulled out some fairly decent moves. I got there around 10:30 and danced until 1 something. I had to get up early so I could setup things around the church. I got a good 5 hours, not too bad.

New Song

I just added a new song to my music profile at virb. It's a dance remix/mash of "I shot the sheriff" by Bob Marley. Be sure to check out my other music on there.

pandora.com

Pandora is a free music player that plays a "radio station" of songs based on a user inputted artist or song name. You can click the thumbs up or down button to tell pandora which songs you would like it to play more or play less.

hulu.com

Check out hulu.com. They offer full, free TV episodes and feature films. There are minimal commercials (less than "real" tv)

Photo Posting

You may have noticed that I started including photos with my blog posts. I think this catches the reader's attention and makes it more likely that they will read an article. The majority of the images are under Creative Commons license. You can find them on flickr using the advanced search feature.

1st Corinthians Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is where we get the idea of baby Christians.

Paul says that he can not talk to them like spiritual people but as worldly people. This "milk" he is talking about is worldly things.

Solid food is a spiritual thing.

They are not developed enough in their walk for him to talk to them about spiritual matters. He says that he knows that they are not mature because of the "fruit" that they bear.

He calls them jealous and quarrelsome. these are two attributes that are opposite the fruits of the spirit.

In verse four, he references the division he discussed in chapter one.

verse 6 is deep:

• I planted the seed.
• Apollos watered it.
• God made it grow.

It wasn't Paul or Apollos that did anything

they were just doing a servants job.

It was the power of God which caused any growth what so ever.

Our leaders don't directly cause us to grow.

They just tend us as servants unto the Lord.

It is the sole responsibility of God to help us with our actual growth.

Paul warns us about the type of material we should build with on top of the foundation of Jesus Christ. He gives a list, it starts out with the most important material and then goes down from there.

• Gold
• Silver
• Costly Stones
• Wood
• Hay
• Straw

He says that "fire" will test these materials.

These materials represent the quality of our ministry and the amount of truth contained within it.

You'll notice that the materials towards the bottom of the list are more suseptable to fire.

He is saying that if we build upon the foundation of Christ with material that is not worthy, they will be burned up in the End.

People works will be devoured, but the person will be saved, only because they built their foundation on Christ in the frist place.

verse 16 talks about how God will not tolerate people damaging His temple. We are that temple and we should not damage ourselves.

Sin damages the temple.

in verse 18 he references chapter one by talking about how you mst become foolish in order to become wise.

in verse 21 he says to stop boasting about men, because all things belong to us as christians. We all, as christians, belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Therefore everything belongs to God ultimately and therefore we should only boast in Him.

1st Corinthians Chapter 2

Starting out chapter 2, Paul prides himself of knowing little of worldly knowledge

in verse 2 he says "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

Thats pretty simple. I know there was a man named Jesus. And I know he was crucified.

He is telling the people that this is all you need to know to have true wisdom.

He tells them that he came to them trembling and with fear, and the point of his visit wasn't to prove how charismatic he was, but to demonstrate to them the power of God. which we remember from chapter 1 verse 24 is actually Christ himself.

In verse 7 he says that God's wisdom is a secret.

He doesn't tell them this because he wants them to hide the reality of who Christ is, he is simply saying that not very many people knew who Christ really was.

He says in verse 8 that if the rulers of this world truly understood who Christ was, they never would have crucified him in the first place.

verse 9 says "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"

This means that nobody has seen what God sees, nobody has heard what God hears and nobody knows what God knows.

verse 11 says "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."

No man can understand another mans thoughts or plans, let alone Gods.

A man's spirit knows a man's thoughts. God's Spirit knows God's thoughts.

verse 12 says that we do not have the spirit of the world but the spirit of God, therefore we can know the thoughts of God because the Spirit of God searches the depths of the "Mind of God".

What is the spirit of the world?

I think he is saying that we no longer think, or see, or hear things the way the world sees them.

Upon receiving the spirit of God, we understand where God is coming from and we start seeing things from His perspective

Verse 14 says that a man without the Spirit of God can not accept the thoughts of God that come from the mouths of men, they are foolish to him because he can not understand them.

Without the spirit of God to "interpret" the thoughts of God, you are left with a meaningless bable, kind of like if you went to a country where you did not understand the language. People would make perfect sense to each other, but it would seem like nonsense to you.

Verse 15 says "The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment"

This does not mean that we don't judge things wrongly sometimes.

It simply means that we have the ability to judge things because we understand them as God understands them through his Spirit.

If we are not using the spirit to judge things and we are judging things from our own perspective, we are wrong.

Men without the Spirit can never judge things correctly because they forced to judge things from their own perspective, therefore forcing them to always be wrong.

They can not judge the judgement of the spirit, because they can not judge God.

1st Corinthians Chapter 1

Paul opens his letter by thanking God for the church body at Corinth.

Why does he do this?

He thanks God for the grace given to them in Jesus.
If it were not for sinners (the church body), Jesus would not have had to come and therefore couldn't have saved Paul.

He says that in Christ our speaking and our wisdom is enriched in every way, meaning that our wisdom and our speaking ability is complete in the belief of Christ.

Meaning, that if we abide in Christ for our speaking ability and our wisdom, we will fully possess the means necessary to deliver His word to other people

He then exhorts them by telling them that God is faithful and Christ will keep them strong so that they will be blameless on His day of judgment.

In verse 10 Paul appeals to the body that they agree with each other so that there won't be division among them.

Baptism was a very big deal in the early church and people tended to put high esteem on the people that baptized them.

In verses 14 and 15 Paul says "I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name."

Paul is referring to verse 12 where he says "What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ.""

They were missing the point that Christ is the head of the church and everyone else is below Him.

Paul asks them in verse 13 "Is Christ divided? Was I crucified for you?"

He is telling them that only Christ was crucified, not Paul, or Apollos nor Cephas.

Therefore Christ is the only one they should follow.

in verse 17 he says "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."

Meaning that if he were to teach the people to follow him, or human wisdom, instead of Christ, he would be deflating the crucifixion event of all its power. making Christ's death a pointless action.

In verse 18 Paul stops talking about the division issue and goes on to talk about the wisdom of God compared to the wisdom of man.

In verse 21 Paul says "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe."

He is saying that it was God's idea that the world though its own version of "wisdom" could not know God.

Therefore we must be "foolish" in the ways of the world in order to accept God,

therefore God is pleased with the foolishness of the gospel because it saves those who believe.

in verse 24 it says "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God"

we can use the word Christ interchangeably with Power of God and with Wisdom of God.

in verse 26 Paul says "Think of what you were when you were called. You were not wise by human standards."

Think about what you were when you were called.

Think about it.

Where were you?

What were you doing?

Maybe you're not presently walking with the lord

Maybe this is the most foolish you've ever been in your entire life

maybe that's why He's calling you.

Paul says they were not wise by human standards when they were called.

He was talking about the moment immediately after they had chosen to follow Christ.

They were now foolish by the world's way of thinking. (If they hadn't been already)

This implies they they were wise by not human standards.

You see the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man are not the same.

referring back to verse 21, we see that the wisdom of God, which is Christ, is foolishness to the world.

in verse 27 he says "God chose the "foolish" things to shame the wise so that no one may boast."

Paul is meaning here is that God chose people who were foolish to the world before they were called, to be foolish to the world after they were called to show that they didn't need man's wisdom to be truly wise.

Initially they were foolish to the world and to God, but after they were called, they were only foolish to the world.

He chose the foolish to keep them humble so they couldn't say that it was anything they did themselves.

It was solely through Christ that they had any wisdom whatsoever. Therefore they could not boast of themselves, but as verse 31 says they could boast in the Lord.