hardcore?

i'm amazed at hardcore music. when i first was testing it out (was interested in trying to understand the music the students listened to) i was thinking, "Ok, i'll listen to this for a while. maybe it'll grow on me 'cause that's what music usually has to do. i wonder if i'll get more angry--people do call it angry music."

but right now i'm packing for Mexico and listening to Stutterfly ("Bury Me (The Scarlet Path)") and i remembered that thought i had as i was just beginning. and then i thought, "nope, actually i've had more joy since i've started listening to this kind of music." i would definitely not attribute it completely to harder music, since my walk with Christ has been growing deeper lately. but those of you who listen would probably agree--there is a measure of glee in hardcore music.

thanks for listening...

give me Jesus

give me Jesus, give me Jesus
you can have ALL of this world
give me Jesus

...is that my heart's song?

warning

so...i thought it could never happen to ME. no, other people complain about it, but I wouldn't ever loose a blog or anything i just typed up. hey, i majored in computer science! computers wouldn't DARE mess with me!

oh no my fellow blog readers...it DID happen to me. i am not immune from such tragedies. i'm telling you, i was proud of this post (literally). i even thought a few times "self, you better save this post, you don't want to loose it" so i did, well kinda, you know i selected all of it and hit Ctrl+c so that it was copied onto the clipboard. that's a good enough backup, isn't it? sure, it's a good back up as long as you don't copy anything else to the clipboard! that was my fatal mistake. see, i lost it...i hit "Publish Post" and it said "the blog you are requesting cannot be found". my mouth dropped open, my breath went out of me. i thought "no matter...i'll just hit the back button and it'll be there"...no dice. hey, no prob, i had copied it to the clipboard. well sure, i had, but after that i copied something else to the clipboard. here's what showed up on my screen when i hit Ctrl-v:

dextrous

that's it, folks, that's what's left of the blog i just wrote. dextrous. that's a good thing, you know, being dextrous. though it's not quite as cool a concept as i had written about in the entire blog. though it did have the word dextrous in it.

the title of this blog is not so much regarding the possible loosing of freshly-typed-up blogs etc. instead it is a warning against praying for God to stretch and grow and mold and shape you. this is what i did a while ago and guess what? He's been testing me and putting me through trials. This loss-of-blog episode is not so big in itself, but after a long week of working nearly 40 hrs when you're only supposed to work 20 and having other things besides work seek to distract you and bring you down...a loss-of-blog might push you over the top. i was writing the aforementioned blog on our deck outside. after i lost it i closed my laptop came inside and flopped down on my bed in a depressed paroxysm. shortly after that i began laughing. that's right, laughing. real laughter containing joy and astonishment. i realized God was answering my prayer. He was bringing trials into my life to stretch me, to grow me, to shape me, to mold me, to sculpt me. I had asked for it. and He (true to His modus operandi) was answering. i can just imagine Him looking down on me, seeing my thoughts about how i would never loose my blog and how i was prideful about what i was writing up, and as I hit "Publish Post" He trans and juxtaposed some 1's and 0's and made the page show up that said "The blog you are requesting cannot be found. Return to dashboard."

"you said you wanted to grow My son. count it all joy, My son, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. don't worry about your blog, My son, especially because you were proud of it. instead worry about the development of your character. that is what I am concerned with. you should be too."

I'm famous!

Wow, here it is, the long-awaited news!

The local newspaper, the Sierra Star, published a story about me. Here's what it said:

Oakhurst Evangelical Free Church has appointed Elias Fairfield of Coarsegold to the position of Student Ministries Intern.

The position focuses on the importance of a Christian-based ministry to high school and jr. high School students in the greater Oakhurst community. He is a graduate from Master's College in Santa Clarita, with a bachelor's of science degree where he studied computer science and the Bible. In his new position he is responsible for all student ministries at EV Free including Bible Studies and special mission trips.

Elias has experience as a lay-missionary helping others by sharing his computer technical skills along with his Biblical knowledge. For example, he spent time in Papua, Indonesia with the Mission Aviation Fellowship researching and solving technical computer problems. He also spent time in Sumatra, Indonesia, as a satellite communications technician, working to build a secure and stable computer network in this third world country. During this stay he helped respond to the needs of the victims of the tsunami disaster as well. Elias recently returned from Iraq where he worked for Global Resources for Computing serving such companies as the UK's Department For International Development, the 82nd Airborne and numerous other companies helping to rebuild the country's infrastructure.

In his new role as a student ministries leader he plans to continue missions work. In October he will be leading a group of EV Free students to help with the rebuilding of a church in Tecate, Mexico.

The high school ministry, called Phase 2, meets on Tuesday nights from 7- 8:30. The jr. high school group, Vertical Life, meets on Wednesday nights from 6:15 - 8:15. Both meet at the church Ministry Center located at 40148 Enterprise Drive, Suite B in Oakhurst. All of the student activities are open to students in the greater Oakhurst area. For additional information regarding EV Free student ministries contact Elias Fairfield at (559) 641-6772 or the church secretary at (559) 683-2254.

A new EV Free church facility is under construction on the corner of School Road and Big Oak Flat Road South (across from Yosemite High School).

"The congregation plans to be in the new church by the end of the year," Elias said. "Our new church facilities will allow us to greatly expand student ministries along with many other ministries to better serve the greater Oakhurst community."
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There you have it.

questions

we had a Q&A night this week at P2. We didn't get to answer all the questions but overall I think it was a good night. Afterward I received this question from a student:

when we die do we go straight to heaven, or do we have to wait until judgement day, because doesn't it say somewhere that on the day that the Lord comes here, horns will be sounded and the already dead people will be called up from the grave or something?

Here's my reply:

That's a good question. And here's what I think...though I should research it more to be sure:

Read 2 Cor. 5 (especially focus on vv6-8).

A logical deduction of what that says is that when we are absent from the body then we are present with the Lord. The question then is, "Is that Abraham's Bosom or Heaven itself?"

Luke 16:19-26 talks about Abraham's Bosom (or 'side'). Some think this is a place where people go on their way to Heaven and then they actually get there when Christ comes at His second coming.

I would say that Abraham's Bosom is actually Heaven itself. Luke 16 is actually the only place in the Bible that the phrase "Abraham's Bosom" is found. Though the same expression is also found in the Talmud (which is basically the Jewish commentary on the Old Testament), and in the Talmud it is used to talk about heaven. So it makes sense that this would also be talking about Heaven.

So...if people go to Heaven when they die then how does that work that they are raised at Christ's second coming?

This is the part I don't have Scripture for but I believe it works like this: (well, okay, I'm thinking up some Scriptures)

Philippians 3:21 talks about the new bodies Christ will give us (there are other passages about our glorified bodies as well). Basically I believe that when someone dies their soul goes to Heaven immediately, but they do not yet have their glorified bodies. THEN at the Second Coming their old bodies rise from the dead, are re-united with their souls and Christ will "transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory" (see Phil. 3:21).

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By the way, the passage you were thinking of is I Thess 4:16

Also, the website I've been linking to is an awesome site. It's got the Bible in ALL KINDS of versions and even different languages. And it's got a cool search feature that's a lot quicker than looking things up in a concordance. Check it out!

hope that helps.

keep seeking,
elias

white markers

are there such things as white markers? that'd be nice. not white-out pens...too globby. i need a white marker. anyone have one?