Monday, December 21, 2009

A bit of encouragement for you

When the aggravations of day-to-day life get added to the larger problems we face it is very easy to start feeling insignificant, or as Chip Ingram put it "a nobody going nowhere". Speaking of Chip Ingram, I am re-reading his book Finding God When You Need Him Most, and came on a passage that I wanted to share.

You Are Desirable To God!

Are you ready for this? You are desirable to God. He's pursuing you, but not to point out all that's wrong with you. He's pursuing you because he desires an intimate relationship with you. God is pursuing you every moment of every day. This idea is staggering.
The Bible is filled with references that show that God values us so much more than we think he does, especially when we're feeling like a nobody. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus explains his reason for coming to the earth: "to seek and to save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). Elsewhere God calls his people "the apple of his eye"; believers are called the object of his affection. In the New Testament, God calls those who are his beloved, chosen, holy, dearly loved. We are told that nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing.
When you feel like a nobody you need to remind yourself that God understands how you feel because he knows you completely. You need to remember that you are wanted in a very special way.


This touches on something I think gets lost sometimes when people talk about God. Yes, you need to go to Him in a spirit of humility and repentance; that is, you have to own up to him that like everyone else you've screwed up in relation to His law, and you have to be willing to accept what He has to say about that sin. The point of that isn't to drive us into the ground and condemn us, however. God's not pursuing us to merely wag the finger at us and say "Shame, shame! I know your name!", but because he wants to fix our broken relationship with Him. We have to come clean about our sin because that sin grieves Him and drives us away from Him. Our mental image of Him shouldn't be that of some Cosmic Cop who's waiting to bonk us on the head with his billy club when we do something wrong, but our Heavenly Father (and a loving, intimately-involved Father at that; the original word used in the Lord's Prayer for "father" is "abba", the Aramaic equivalent of "daddy"). Like a father, He will punish us if we willfully disobey him, but he's always ready to make things right and restore our relationship with Him. As Chip put it, "He's pursuing you because he desires an intimate relationship with you."

Anyway, I hope that's an encouragement to you, should you have chanced to read it. :o)

Friday, August 21, 2009

Quote of the Day

"Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn't understand it. It'll be passed by Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that's nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?" -Rush Limbaugh

Like him or don't, you have to admit that's pretty funny stuff. At least, I think it is. :o)

Sunday, June 21, 2009

I Had A Dream...

No, this isn't about Dr. King. This is about the dream I had last night about what looked like a pretty cool SNES-era RPG. I have no idea what the game's title was, but it had crisp, brilliantly-colored graphics (like Tales of Phantasia, but with brighter colors) and a real-time combat system similar to the Secret of Mana games.

Anyway, the bit I remember was some kind of a boss battle; one of those which is semi-scripted in that you don't so much defeat the boss as you survive and damage the boss to a particular degree before a cut scene kicks in. It was fairly early on in the game (I remember thinking that it was the first boss battle), so I only had the main character to use; a typical RPG main character (fighter with some magic/special abilities/whatever). The fight took place in this deep well, and was with a dragon so huge you could only see its head peeking in from the top of the screen. The dragon would periodically change colors from red to blue, and its attacks were elementally keyed to its color (i.e. it breathed fire when it was red and water when it was blue). When it was blue it would try to deluge you with a torrent of water; if you got caught in the stream you'd have to hit the attack button repeatedly in order to keep from being held underwater and drowned, but its attack raised the water level somewhat and made it easier to hit the dragon (which was good, since it was vulnerable to the main character's fire sword thing). When it was red, though, it would try to roast you and your sword didn't damage it in the least. Suddenly I had a flash of insight during one of the times it was red: I could target the water, which caused a geyser to shoot up and hit the dragon, which damaged it a lot! After doing that a couple of times, the cut scene kicked in: the dragon turned gold and it sucked up all the water (my character included). I think the dragon spit the water out somewhere and my character was in the next chapter's area map.

Overall, a cool dream. I'd love to see an actual game made in the style of it.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Poetic food for thought

"Creed" by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin.
We believe that everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy's OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes,
UFO's and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher although we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same—
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, the dead have lied, then it's compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.

We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is not absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds
and the flowering of individual thought.

"Chance" by Steve Turner

If chance be
the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man
worshiping his maker.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Long time, no blog

Yeah, I've noticed that it's been close to 2 years since I've blogged anything. I finally decided to do something about that. I don't know how often I'll post anything, but I intend to make at least some posts.

Oh yeah, Mrs. Mobius and Honkey Magoo are doing just fine. Here's a pic of the three of us from Christmas 2008:

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Baby Mobius is HERE!!!

Baby Mobius was born yesterday at 6:31 pm! He is 19 1/2 inches long and 6 pounds, five ounces. He and his mommy are both doing very well. Here's a pic or two:



My wife and I are very happy he's finally here. Give baby Honkey Magoo a warm welcome, won't you? :oD

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Baby Mobius update 5/3/07

My wife and the baby are doing okay, but the induction is going slower than we had hoped. At this point, it looks like the major part of the induction may take place tomorrow (Friday, 5/4), provided my wife's body cooperates and her and the baby's health are not endangered.

Keep us in your prayers, please.