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gelatinemonkey
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Name: Scott
Country: United States
State: New York
Metro: Ithaca
Birthday: 6/8/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: --Passions--God & everything about Him. Letting God prepare me @ GCTS--Activities--Soccer(indoor & out), Ultimate Frisbee, video games, & drawing --Phillipians 3: 8-12-- What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ & be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God & is by faith. I want to know Christ & the power of His resurrection & the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, & so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Expertise: An expert at nothing but receiving grace for messing up and failing miserably, being broken before Him and letting Him put me back together, and becoming a relearner of everything I forget so easily.
Occupation: Student / Disciple
Industry: Comp. Sci / Transforming Lives
Message: message me
AIM:  gelatinemonkey
MSN: Xonia@live.com
Member Since:
1/30/2004
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| Awed by Sight
Isaiah 31 [link]
I'm not so sure how big a deal it is when it comes to this life.
We look at large numbers of things and go, "Wow!" in this life. I may not personally be wow-ed by lots of soldiers, but I'm wow-ed by lots of food! It all depends on the numbers of "what."
I mean, let's be honest -- if you have a Van Gogh original, it only takes one of them to wow most people who know something about art. You don't need several to wow the people. The number doesn't matter as much as the inherent "worth" or "quality" of what it is. For example, in warfare -- one functional tank is better than 10,000 boomerangs. As far as travel goes, one Porsche would be better than 100 unicycles, but only for some!
Numbers help, but it is the worth of the item that matters most. When it comes to people (or even living creatures), we must be quick to not lump them all into one category. To say, "Scott is equal to his wife, Amy" is true in an overall respect, but in chess you would perhaps not be so hasty to say that. If you were measuring us by our strength or military value, the fact I have shot several types of guns before in Boy Scouts would weigh heavily into your decision once you knew Amy's basically never even touched one before. When it comes to humans, or things with different strengths or weaknesses, then we must be more careful in our judgment. Much like how you would much rather have Amy as a cook than myself, or you would much rather her proofread your paper than me (THAT'S for sure!).
Israel, in this chapter, is wow-ed by Egypt's numbers and Assyria's might. They see something huge and impressive, and then they turn to it for aid. They turn from God because, while they understand He can take on all those people -- they can't see just how big God is, really. It's all cognitive.
It's much like a conversation I had the other day with a guy at work. He's looking to become a marine, and we got into a mini-debate over whether brawn or brains would win in a battle. He then divided it into a preemptive attack, the actual fight, and the post-attack. Ultimately, brains will win, given enough time and resources. My argument was simply that if he came at me right now... it wouldn't matter how smart I was if he was armed and I didn't have time to formulate a plan and prepare for him. Even then I might fail. It's a case of "winning the battle, but not the war." Smart people may win, but no matter what -- I'm going to die right now even if I'm smart!
All that to say that we are quick to lose sight of the war and get caught up in the battle. In the heat of the moment, we think that our lives are the final and most important things. IT's about being on the winning side AND being alive. It's not about following God, but following Him enough to both have our cake and eat it, too. We know Christ wins, and we want to be on His side, but we don't want the suffering or death which may come about "en route" to the end of this age. So we're willing to switch sides (for now at least, if not permanently) to stay alive and keep going, because ultimately... we tend to value life over God.
It's a tricky subject, because if you get it wrong, you don't get a "do-over." Even if you get it right, your family and friends may have adverse reactions to your death. Even in death, things are not quite so simple -- this side of heaven, at least.
I look forward to the day when I'll get my spiritual eyes. Then I'll be able to truly see God. To look past the physical truth as the greatest one, and see the spiritual one as the greater power. Then I'll be able to discern and act as I should now, and my eyes will no longer play a part in fooling me. Sight isn't everything, but once we reach Heaven we'll finally see the one thing we can't in full right now. We'll see God, and we'll finally get it.
Heavenly Father, I anxiously await the day when I can finally be with You as I was meant to be. I await it with anticipation, for then I will finally be able to focus on You the way I should be right now. I will be able to praise and glorify You infinitely better than I am right now (or so I imagine, though upon further thought I'm not so sure). Help me to live abundantly for You. Help me ot glorify You with every action I take. Help us all to praise You, Lord. Help us to thank You properly for all You give to us. Help us to not place ourselves as judge over You, but allow You to be the One over us. Help us to cast aside our idols and petty ambitions, and take up our crosses and follow You. Help us to "die that we might live." Help us to choose You, Abba. I love You. Thank You. May all the glory, honor, and praise be Yours, Daddy.
Amen.
Bit by bit
State: Good
Time moves on, and we try to keep up with it... or something like that. Time's an interesting thing.
Work was good today. I got asked if "gambling" was a sin (in regards to, say, lottery tickets). That was interesting. Unfortunately, the ask-er wasn't so interested in the "why" as much as the "is it, or is it not?"
The rest of work was rather... the same as always. Tomorrow's my long shift. Woo-hoo, or something.
What else... we watched Heroes after supper tonight. I posed the question of what happened to Amy about 1/2 way into the episode. There's still quite a few questions to ask, though. I just think some of the stuff is a little... ridiculous. It's still pretty good, but there are some plot-holes I'm not such a fan of. C'est la vie.
What else? Not much else, really. Things have, overall, been quite good. We do, however, think there are still a few more house-guests (mouse-guests?) here. We can hear them scuttling across the walls occasionally.
Well I suppose that's about it for now, then. God bless, all!
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| Save yourself! ... wait a minute...
Isaiah 30 [link]
For whatever reason, I wish we all didn't think like that.
Something bad happens. It doesn't even need to be something big. Let's say we get a paper-cut. What do we do? We run to save ourselves. We grab the Neosporin bottle, slap a band-aid on, and then just wait for it to heal itself. Do we even talk to God about it? Perhaps only to say, "Why, God, did I get a paper-cut NOW!?"
We have worked hard to become independent. To become independent from our families, from our friends, and from even God. We have our own cups of sugar now, thank you much. We all have cars so we can get to the Super-Mega-Wal-Mart which is our one-stop shop so we don't waste time. Where else can you get paint, new car tires, a gerbil, and 10 pounds of "fresh" lobster? After all, it would be inconvenient to go so many places. Let's make sure to use the "self checkout" line, too, so that we don't have to wait on others in front of us or get caught with that one really slow bagger/checkout station worker.
So naturally, when larger things happen, we panic. We micro-manage ourselves to a healthy degree after awhile (no one's going to fault you for buying a tube of toothpaste a week before you run out, come on now); however, when someone gets hospitalized, laid off from work, or every one of your credit cards has finally maxed out... where do we run?
We find that we have no friends. We did everything on our own, and to do so quite often it meant telling other people no. We couldn't volunteer because we had to work 60 hours a week to afford our daily double-mocha cappuccinos and rare coin collections. We spent all our money, time, and effort trying to fix our own problems, and so when things go wrong there's no one to help us. We then result with the desperate attempt to remedy things by going to whatever means possible to get what we need. We'll do things we'd never have done before in order to fix it, and then we'll be so bold as to try and justify our own actions as if they were okay.
This Scripture says otherwise. It says that those who wait upon the Lord are the lucky ones.
So what does that mean? Well here's what it doesn't mean:
- Those who "wait" are NOT the ones who are sitting there saying, "Okay God, WHEN are You going to move? I'm WAITING here! It's been 3 days and I've already asked You once for my wo/man of my dreams and s/he's not here yet!" They're not the ones saying that they're being put out by God making them wait. Those who actually ARE waiting are the ones who realize things are done on God's time, and not theirs. It's God's schedule, not ours, that runs the universe.
- They're also somewhere close to, but not over the edge of, being the one who says, "Okay God, if You want me to get that wo/man of my dreams, then I'll be right here in this room, and I won't do anything until it happens. I trust You, and so I want to show You how much I trust You by sitting in this room forever until she walks in and announces, 'Here I am!'" They are not the ones who do nothing, "wait"ing on God to do everything for them.
These two examples seem far fetched, but they're closer to home than we'd like to admit. I am constantly in the second camp, being very selective and making sure that the things I want God to fulfill, but I don't want to put the effort into -- those are the ones I say, "Okay, God -- You want it, then you do it. In the mean time, I'll 'wait' on You." I did it on some projects in college -- and I heartily believe that sometimes I called it right; however, we still have to be responsible for our own actions. The first I fell prey to, as well. I would ask God for help on a project that I felt completely unable to do. The night before, I'd get upset that I was so stuck, so I'd try to "force my way" into fixing it. LAter I'd find out one of my friends was free, and my project would get postponed or it would end up that no one else knew what to do, and so it'd all be rendered moot. I was expecting God to have to abide by not only my schedule, but the schedule set down by my professors.
So... will we reach out and try to save ourselves from disaster, or embrace it and live through it (instead of simply trying to dodge and avoid it)? Will we accept the hand God "deals us," or will we attempt to slip an ace out of our sleeve and cheat our way into a "better position"? Will we wait on God, or will we attempt to "make our own destiny"? Intellectually we all would say we want to wait on God. Now... the key is making that the real choice in our lives -- when there's more at stake than "what will my friends think of me if I say I'd have actually chosen otherwise in this hypothetical situation?"
Heavenly Father, help us to follow after You. Help us to glorify You ina ll that we do. Help us to bring great glory, honor, and praise to You. May we give to You all that You are so very worthy of! You are so amazing, Lord. Help us to do all that You would have us to do. Help us to do it without complaining. Help us to accept it, and to cry out to You, but still accept Your Will. Help us, Father, for without You we are helpless. Abba, I love You. We love You. May our love be shown to You in all we do, and may Your love for us pour out from us and onto those who live and breathe and move around us. May they then be inexplicably drawn to You. Abba, You are the reason we continue to exist. Help us to exist well, for You.
Amen.
Get your groove on
State: Good
Well then, the last two days or so have been pretty stinky as far as things go for "posting something." Last night Amy and I did a QT together (albeit short), and thus why I didn't post on here.
Tonight we're getting it done after supper, just like good boys and girls do. ;P Well... I mean the good ones who said they'd try to keep a schedule by always doing it after supper, and not like, "Everyone MUST do it right after supper, or they're doing it wrong!" You get my drift. ;P
Oddly enough, the message at church yesterday had a bit of it anchored in Isaiah 30 (tonight's text). If I'd have kept up with my QTs, I'd have done this on Saturday night and it might have added something even better to whatever I'll get tonight. Now I'll just have to augment with the passage, instead.
I don't remember if I've posted anything specific, but we caught ourselves 2 mice. The second one ended up dying on the sticky trap, so we disposed of him today in the trash. Can I just say something about this? I'm unsure why I'm asking, since it's my blog and I can basically write whatever I want to, though. x3
It bothered me. It bothered me a lot. It still does. I just... don't like it. It's a lose/lose situation (minus having one of those sphere/box traps I've just recently heard of). Personally, I think that mice are ridiculously cute, usually. Rats, no freaking way, but mice... ADORABLE! I am not such a fan of the, "Ha! Snapped your neck!" trick that was par for the course before, but it seems far better than the "stuck on fly-paper and starve to death" which our second poor mouse had to endure. Apparently, some people recommend taking it outside and whacking it with a shovel~!? WHAT THE HECK! Seriously!? I don't think I could EVER do that to a mouse, or anything living for that matter. It's death... it's killing something. I... don't have the heart for that. I don't see how people could do that and then go on like NOTHING just happened. It's horrible... ._.
Where else could I have taken it? I have no good ideas, and I'd still feel horrible for moving it so far away from any of it's little mouse relatives or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I know a mouse is NOT a human, and thus they shouldn't be treated the same; however, they're still living, breathing creatures that God has allowed life to enter into and He has sustained them.
I guess all this is just to say... I fear that I will become "okay" with allowing a mouse that I need to get rid of from my residence... that I'll be okay with either whacking it with a shovel, or essentially letting it slowly starve while it's glued to the floor. The very act of removing it causes burden/pain/or death to the mouse, pretty much no matter what. I just don't want... I don't want to have to do it to another mouse. I am NOT okay with how this mouse died. Not even close... but I fear that I one day might be...
I had today off. It was a good day off. I got some things cleared up with my student loan and my "free insulin." They sent 4 bottles for my 6 month supply. Apparently they calculated it via the "daily amount of insulin" I take, and 4 bottles should be enough (even though I had a prescription for 2-3 a month). Also, it will be a bit harder to get my insulin sent here than expected. They only send it to pharmacies if they're a part of a clinic or hospital, so getting it sent to Amy's pharmacy instead is likely to not happen.
As for my student loans, I got the payment lowered for now, so that's nice.
I've been playing Chrono Cross on a PS emulator (a game I own at home) for a bit, which has been fun. Also, Amy and I are starting through the anime series "Samurai Champloo".
Well that's about it for now. God bless, all!
PS - This was funny:
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| Yeah, this pretty much settles it -- I need to get back into a groove for getting my posts up, otherwise it'll keep getting "put off."
We had 2 sticky traps for mice. We've caught one on both of them. The first one went out this morning with Mrs. Rolfe. The second one we got later today (we're assuming it's a second one, and not the first one after being released... we don't know what Mrs. Rolfe did with it). Now we just need to figure out what to do with the mouse. He's stuck to the trap, underneath a little tin-foil box-thing so he doesn't have to worry about anything else. It's about the most "dignified" type of death we can think of for it at this point.
I went in early for work. The members' class is actually next week, lol. That's about it for now, I think. Oh, and tonight we also finished all our work VERY early. It was awesome.
That's about it for now. God bless, all!
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| "Our Place"
Isaiah 29 [link]
We forget it too easily -- our place. We are quick, like those here, to try and tell God what's best. Like characters in a story, we love to say, "Our Author never wrote us!" We like to make up our own facts and say what we think is right. We ignore the author as much as possible.
We forget who we are with respect to Him. We forget our place.
So let's strive to not do that. Let's strive to remember how big God is. To remember who we are compared to Him. That indeed, He does have it all under control, and nothing happens which He has not already seen. He's got things under control, and He can write in whatever He wants to in the next chapter. All we need to do is make it from this one to the next. We don't have to write it or make it up ourselves. He's the one in control.
So let's stop pretending like we know it all. Let's stop pretending that we know how things are going to go, and how we should move, and on and on. We push God out and try to maneuver our way into the control seat in a very sneaky way. We push God out while making it seem like He's in control. Instead, let's let Him actually be in control.
Heavenly Father, thank You for being so wonderful. Thank You for being so fantastic! Help us to glorify You in all we do, and help us to praise, worship, and honor You, too. Please, Lord -- don't let us continue to think we've got things all under control. Help us to remember who we are before You. Help us to not push You out, but let You settle into the center of our lives. Let all we do center around You, Lord. Help us to follow after You whole-heartedly. Thank You, Abba. May Your Name be given all the glory, honor, and praise, Lord!
Amen.
Score!
State: Good
Work tonight was long. I worked with the girl who essentially is the kind of person you may know as "the one who gets nothing done, ever." Tonight I think she got even less done than usual. I got to play "do it all anyway."
Otherwise, life's good. We found out they're selling off the old Halloween candy for super cheap now. We got like... 100 mini Snickers / 3 Musketeers for about $4. It was sweet. Actually, it still is. ;P
And here I am writing this. We've been having a mouse-guest in our apartment occasionally. Our landlord came over and gave us some mouse traps. They're more like sticky-traps, really. We also changed the light bulb in our bedroom, too. That was good.
I guess that's about it for right now. Tomorrow morning I'm hoping to go to the "new member's meeting" at Christ Chapel.
I'm still trying to get the last few things to fall into place for my Semlink, though. I have responses to do, and people who need to get my e-mails, yet aren't. Oh boogers.
Well, God bless, all!
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| One-trick Pony
Isaiah 28 [link]
I'm not entirely sure that this idea is Biblical; however, I will admit that there's nothing explicitly against the idea of it being right or wrong. Read v. 23-26.
One single thing is not the only thing. We may major in something, but it's not the only thing we're supposed to do. As a body, we have tasks, and we need to fulfill them. We're not supposed to simply say, "No idea!"
So what about the farmers mentioned? What are they to do? They're supposed to do quite a few things. How do they know? "Their God is their teacher." Interesting. So what they know how to do has been shown to them by their God.
Even after the planting and the harvesting, we see that the gathering and prep are also known. It's very interesting to me. So many I know say, "That's just not what I'm called to do." We make it up and go along. We hide behind our "one trick."
Instead, we should be asking God what to do next. We should be letting Him show us what to do. We should still be learning from God. That should never end.
God knows it all. He's in charge -- He thought all this up. He knows it inside and out. So why don't we run to Him more often for advice and help? Interesting question, indeed.
Heavenly Father, thank You for everything. Help us to learn from You. Help us to sit at Your feet and learn. To shut up and listen to You. Help us to direct our focus and energy upon You. Help us to glorify You in all we do. Help us to not try to get through life with "one trick." So please, Abba, help me to get it all figured out. Help us all. Let me learn from You, Daddy. Let me not attempt to stay a "one trick pony," but learn how to discern and move on that which You give us to go with, Abba. We love You, praise You, and thank You for being so amazing, God.
Amen.
Randomness
State: Here
Life's interesting, I suppose.
Had another night of "man, should have eaten a bit more before leaving work". I drove home low again. So now we're going to make sure I have at least a snack at break at work -- to ensure maximum "no more of these" achieved. 
Otherwise, life's okay. No post last night because of the late-ness of things.
Amy's making croissants right now.
I'm a bit sleepy right now, but I'm not too bad.
If you're bored and want to watch some random YouTube videos, here are some links:
1.) Muppet Beaker sings "Ode to Joy"
2.) Domino's Pizza "Techno Chicken" Commercial
Isn't it amazing what we can find on the internet?
I may need to help move pianos soon. I may also be working a bit at Time Horton's, but we'll see.
Honestly, though, that's about it for me right now. God bless, all!
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