Seth is still hurting... keep praying.

I spent too much time reading other people blogs that i dont have time now to write in my own... dag

I was gonna fast today, and pray for Seth, who is hurting big time, but I forgot dang it and ate breakfast... oh well, I'm gonna go now and spend some lengthy time in prayer anyway. God knows I didn't forget on purpose. And I guess I can still fast from second breakfast, and elevensees, and lunch, and tea, and dinner, and supper.

For those of you who don't know Seth, he is a young man in our youth group at church who was just in a serious motorcycle accident, and has some serious head trauma... today is the hump day as far as the swelling in the brain. We all have no idea how his brain is doing, and whether it will be bad or good when he wakes up. The doctors say that the pressure is the worst on day 3.

Seriously, I am really concerned, and know that Seth is really hurting, and his family is nervous, and some friends are downright scared. Im nervous myself, but feel helpless... i guess thats how everyone feels. So here we are, praying for a miracle.

you know the whole world is going to pot when this happens. no more smiling for passport photos

new pics just like i promised... click the pictures link to the left

im finding the dicussion based around the random blog and Jamies blog to be quite thought provoking. Although these blogs are not very good discussion boards, enough people go there to check it out that we still find the discussion and the humor and randomness, and checking in on friends worthwhile.

the reason it is so thought provoking for me is that I think what Jamie wrote originally about Madonna and Brittney kissing - would be pretty typical of many christians, lamenting the days of yonder year.

anyway, it has me thinking that I need to go back and look at what the bible says about how much should we really judge others? and whether we should judge Christians differently than non-Christians, and what about judging fruit. (and after jons rant, whether we should own slaves:) just kidding. ANYWAY, I put in on the list of topics for us to hit at "Deeper: the bible study" at our house thursday nights. (which is open to all ages officially) the next available slot is for 10/23, so it give us all time to research the issue.

Man, the deeper bible study has been going really well. Its fun to be in a place and not feel like I have to have all the answers... in fact, I usually have more questions than answers. Tonight we studied the Holy Spirit in the old testament, and all the places He pops up. Like in the second verse in the bible etc. Everyone had good stuff to share, and although we did hit some major offroading, and some wierd theorys about some stuff, it was mostly pretty cool discovering the mysteries of the scripture. So what exactly is the Holy Spirit? I have no idea... but I know it is the power of God in my life, indwelling me, and speaking through me etc. And it is the same spirit that indwelt the prophets of old who fortold the coming messiah. Pretty cool.

afterward the discussion went haywire, without focus or reason into all sorts of speculative and finding wierd scriptures about satan, and demons, and angels, and supernatural things like nephillim, and dragons, and wierd stuff like that... its time we get some real solid teaching on demonology or something. Anyway, it was sort of fun I have to admit... sort of like the deep discussion Jon, Andrew, and I had at work earlier - relating to abortion, and killing abortion doctors, and killing people who kill abortion doctors, and all that. whoa... hard stuff. Anyway, for the record, I am against abortion, but can't find a scripture to logically prove when a person receives his soul or spirit (the part that makes us different from animals.) I think there is more mystery than my mind can keep up with. But its good brain exercise anyway. I love debate. I feel stretched and my faith is built up through it, even if I have to admit that there is no satisfactory answer this side of heaven. It usually gets me in the bible too... which is a great side effect.

labor day weekend... nice for family picnics... We went to my sisters place in NJ for a nice cookout, wiffleball, volleyball, and sitting around shooting the breeze. Its nice to catch up with family. Its nice to be across the street from mom... we picked her up and took her along in the car. She entertained maria (or maria entertained her) the whole way.

i was just recently inspired by all the photos from a friends trip to africa... amazing photos. Lin & Jo are good friends from back in the day. We've been a bit out of touch in the past year or so. Lin and I got to know each other at Hopewell youth group. After that, I worked with them helping with Jawbone Hill (the rockinest christian band to ever come from Lancaster) - anyway, i remember many a night coming back at 1am from a show, and keeping each other awake with some deep (or so I thought at the time) theological conversation. He graduated with his masters from Gordon Conwell Theological seminary, and now He is at Harvard pursuing higher and higher education - his doctorate. anyway this is their web site www.fisherkids.net they have a cute little girl eden.