Really, cars run by air? (PS)

I really like technology. Thus, I have been looking for new innovations to blog about. I found some interesting information on what they are calling air cars. I first encountered these things through a video through fox news’ website being pushed by Pat Boone. Initially, I thought this would be awesome, though, some doubts came to mind. My main question referred to how could a car run on air and still be as powerful as regular gas powered vehicles. Supposedly, a French engineer named Guy Negre is behind the invention. Basically, Guy has been working on an engine that runs on compressed air for several years now. I really didn’t get too much of the mechanics, but they seem somewhat true. The only thing with this is it doesn’t have a very long range at high speeds. Negre’s answer to this is to do a dual powered system that uses gas to heat the air. I am guessing this causes greater pressure allowing for pressure, which I suppose results in longer range per tank of air. However, all of this seems too good to be true. There wasn’t too much more information to be conclusive about much. Though, they are claiming to have models that are produced in India produced by Tata Motors. For more information I would suggest checking out the website for the company backing this production called MDI.

After, finding out about this I kept scouting around the web. Eventually, I started reading some comments about the subject that got my brain going. I figured on my own intuition that it would be tough to integrate such a product into society when so much of our economy revolves around oil and gas. Though, I think it is possible to do this. At the very least, if they can get such vehicles to compete with the main companies in the nation there would be cause to start to recognize the potential. (I feel more or less indifferent on this matter. Honestly, my idea of economy isn’t one that can be fulfilled as things are now.) However, all of this is yet to be seen. I found an article about the air car coming to the states that had some interesting comments. Most of these were addressed at the particular article and its claims. This made me question the reliability of these products. (One particular comment that specified some causes for concern was posted by the username karenrei.)

In my opinion, I think we need revolutionary technology that will preserve the earth. After, all God commissioned us to subdue the world. To me this means to maintain it and respect the environment. Quite frankly, I do not think that this is being done with diligence. I’m sure ingenuity can help our society move towards this, but in the end it comes down to what is desired. Does society desire pollution free cars enough to start the process of eliminating the need for fossil fuels? Is it necessary to do so? Maybe and maybe not.

A question I think about (OP)

As of late I have been feeling rather odd, mostly because of the world and its inhabitants. I have been thinking a lot about how to share the Love of Christ with everyone. I once heard a comment from a person in passing that bothered me. This person posed the question, “Why is Christianity the only religion that advertises itself?” This was actually several years ago, but this rhetorical question I heard in passing has stuck with me for all that time. I suppose there are a couple of reasons for my being disturbed.

The first being, the question itself lacks understanding of Christianity. Christianity is an active voluntary relationship with God, but the question posed assumes it is a set of rules and regulations that is imposed on believers. I have come to the conclusion that most people do not really understand this about Christianity. Other belief systems try and tell people how they must live in order to obtain salvation, nirvana, oneness with the universe, etc. I can see how people might think that it is same with Christianity, especially because of how it is “advertised” by almost all of the church in the west. However, people who display Christianity in this way miss the point of what Jesus was (and still is) saying, doing, and wanting. He did not want everyone simply to do as He said in order to become worthy of eternal life. He came so that everyone might have life and have it in full. Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God and Himself. I don’t know about others, but to me that doesn’t seem anything like the thoughts in different beliefs. Basically, Jesus meant for people to stop trying to be worthy of eternal life because no one can do this, but simply to come into a relationship with Him for that is eternal life. From the Garden to the Cross to the here and now, true life has always been to know and be with God. Also, one particular point of clarification that I think many people miss is that a person does not need to be or act in a certain way to have a relationship with the Lord. God will meet everyone where they are at, and when He encounters them they will start to become like Him. When a person encounters Christ they want to become like Him, and they seek to be changed by Him. Thus, people do act a certain way when they meet Christ, but this is not through a list of rules. Instead, people realize they cannot change without the help of Christ, and they let His Love change them. This is what happened to me, and I wanted to do this. I wanted to obey what Christ said, but I realized that I could not do such without living with Him everyday, and letting Him change me by showing me Love and Truth. Through this relationship I have realized true life.

The second reason for my frustration with the question came from the negative connotation of the word “advertise.” In a sense, I suppose you could describe the great commission in that way. However, it seems to say that Christians are trying to sell their beliefs. Thinking on this, I have to say that unfortunately many believers think about it in the same perspective. Perhaps this justifies the attitude of the question. However, this is not what was intended. Think about this for a second, if someone knew the greatest bit of news to ever come to the planet and kept it a secret the world would be no better off than before. Usually, if someone finds something that is awesome they go and tell everyone what they found. This is the intent and attitude of the great commission. Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to and for the world. Why would anyone keep that quiet? I mean, the word gospel literally means “good news.” That is why the first four books of the New Testament that tell the story of Christ are called the Gospels.

One final thing that I have thought about in response to that question is a counter question. It was apparent that the person disliked people “advertising” Christianity. Thus my question would be, “Why are you bothered by Christianity being advertised?”

The iPad? Interesting. (PS)

I personally, have only owned Dell merchandise before, and this was purchased right after I graduated high school in ’05. Thus, when I looked at the enormous amount of increase in consumer computers specs, I thought maybe I would like to get one. However, while choosing a brand to go with might be a trivial aspect of choice, I always come back to apple. Obviously, you cannot simply go to a local store in Joplin, MO. Actually, I think the closest one is in Springfield. So, I go to apple.com today and I see this awesome picture of something called an iPad. When I see this thing I think to myself, “What is this sweet-action-looking piece of equipment that my eyes are gazing upon?” At this point I decide to check one of the videos linked to the page. Apparently, the iPad is apple’s attempt at making a mobile product that creates a third category of device between smart phones and laptops. I think this is a pretty novel idea. In the first part of the introduction of this product they talked about it needing to be better in specific fields some of which being internet browsing/streaming, e-mail, music, photos, and videos. In the demo it looked pretty capable of doing all that and more. I almost forgot to mention that you do all this on a touch screen, no mouse/touch-pad or external keyboard. The words, “Very nice,” come to mind.

This makes me wonder, would people really prefer this type of item. I do not know all the specifics, but how practical would this thing be in everyday life. Other than the cool-factor, why would anyone choose this over a laptop?

The features seem to be good, and it can easily download applications just like on an iPhone. Mostly, I believe the biggest advantage of this device is its mobility. The iPad looks to be about as big as a spiral notebook and as thin too. However, if apple doesn’t think of a convenient way for transport, the possibility for damage could be a setback. Though, I am sure they have already thought of this occurrence. Personally, when I see this thing I think of a step forward in the mobility of technology, and of science fiction becoming reality.

I believe most people would say that apple is definitely more advanced than most of their competitors i.e. Dell, HP, etc. However, how convenient they are is another matter, because they are expensive and monopolize all their products. Another point is most people do not want to learn a different operating system (OS.) Luckily though, the OS for the iPad is very similar to the iPhone/iPod make. This item may very well encourage people who are not familiar with Macs to open explore. Also, I think this device opens up a new avenue of possibility. For example, say someone just wants to browse the web and look at pictures on a large screen, but they do not want to go through the entire process of getting out the laptop, powering it on, and logging in. The iPad would appear to be a faster and lighter alternative with a comfortable viewing screen, unlike the tiny screen of a phone.

Oh yeah, the price of this thing starts around $499. I think that is pretty decent, considering that you could get a low-end laptop for about the same price, and this thing doesn’t appear to be low quality at all. Though, I don’t know much about the tech specs.

Satan to destroy or not to destroy? (OP)

I frequently go to a place called IHOP (International House of Prayer) to be with the Lord. Through this place I have met a variety of people from interesting backgrounds. While giving one particular guy a ride home I brought up a subject that a youth from the group I help lead asked me about. Basically, the young man had asked me about why God had not destroyed Satan when he first betrayed the Lord. This is a legitimate question. However, the answer is never directly addressed in the Bible. Thus, the answer is left to reasoning and deduction from what is presented about God’s character through the Bible. The reason he posed the question was because a good friend of his who followed wiccan beliefs had originally asked him, and he had not known how to respond. Therefore, his love for his friend had caused him to seek out some answers.

My initial response was the concept of choice. That is, God wanted Adam and Eve to be able to choose Him over anything else, and, because God is the only one who is good, to choose anything else is to pick that which is not good. Thus, Satan was allowed to continue existing in order to present the rest of creation with the ultimate choice. I believed this to be a viable explanation, but it did not seem to satisfy the interests of my young friend. He did say he understood more about the subject, but he was unsure about his friend’s response.

It was because I felt like my friend, whom I was giving a ride home, might have something more to add to the subject that I asked his opinion. This particular person has experience in occult beliefs, and in fact had been part of such a group before coming to know Christ. However, He actually had the same perspective as mine on the issue. This was conformation to me because I had not explained my stance before asking him what he thought. One thing he did say that I had not thought about was that God is not regulated by time. Therefore, God knew about Adam and Eve before creating them and what was going to happen with Satan. This of course opens the question, "Then, why did God create anything?" I just say Love is the answer.

While my friend was explaining his view I thought about another reason why God did not destroy Satan. This idea came from the perspective that the spirit is eternal. Thus, all spirits will live eternally and have an eternal destination, i.e. heaven or hell. Actually, this idea adds on to the original thought of choice. This is because God gives every spirit a choice in their everlasting residence. Basically, I thought about how creation is never actually destroyed, it is simply rearranged. This caused me to address the idea of eternity brought up in Revelations describing the smoke of Satan’s torment rising forever and ever. I really don’t know the differences between the physical and the spiritual realms, so I am just guessing about all of this. However, it seems to me based on the idea of spirit having eternal presence that God will never actually destroy Satan. This idea is assuming that God created all things to last forever in one way or another. Thus, God will not actually destroy anyone, but He will separate everyone/everything into two distinct groups, those who love Him and those who are against Him. My hope is that everyone comes to know and love him as He Loves everyone. Frankly, I am sad to think that anyone would take the second option and so is He.

Buckets of Hope

A really awesome mission has been initiated called Buckets of Hope. This undertaking has been presented by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) for the sake of relief in Haiti. I heard about this from the youth pastor of my church, and it is something I plan to help out with. What we are doing is making up a five gallon bucket filled with specific food items and paying for the shipping of it to Haiti. To get involved is not hard at all; anyone can make up a bucket. However, if you want to take the easy route just send in cash, and someone will make up the bucket for you. If this tickles your fancy, just go to the NAMB website to download a pdf format of the instruction, and watch this instructional video. Also, you can check out news footage on youtube.
I think this is a pretty cool way to actively get involved with disaster relief in Haiti. The food items that will be sent are sufficient for an entire family for a whole week. That in itself is awesome, to be able to feed that many people for a week on about forty bucks. I mean a family of four would spend about that much to go out and eat just once. However, while the food stuff will expire the bucket will not. In reality, the bucket is probably the most important item that is being sent. Such a tool can be used to get water and clear wreckage debris. Such an act is an excellent way to show that we want to help people out in their time of need. Even more so, is the Love of God that is displayed through such a helping hand. You do not have to be involved in a congregation to get involved; simply having a compassionate heart is enough.

The list of food items is pretty basic, but extremely specific, and so is the arrangement. The items include two bags of rice, two bags of black beans, vegetable oil, two boxes of spaghetti noodles, five pounds of flour, a canister of sugar, and a jumbo jar of creamy peanut butter. These are all to be the Great-Value brand that you buy at Wal-Mart, but they need to be the specified size to be able to fit in the bucket. The buckets themselves are supposed to be plain white buckets. This is so all the buckets are uniform. Apparently, mass riots could break out if someone believes that a bucket has something different or more items inside. They say this because of the desperation of the people. In order to enhance the uniformity of the buckets a decal will be placed on the side of the bucket.

My congregation has set a goal of eighty-five buckets. We hope to surpass that though. I would encourage everyone to let their fellowship know about this, and I challenge you to some friendly competition to see how many buckets you can raise. If you do not have a congregation of believers that you fellowship with it is not a problem, do this with your family. I think this is a great way to teach young children about generosity and helping those in need. Even the youngest person can help.

Religion, church, and more. (Opinion)

I feel compelled to go into depth about my opinion of religion and church in this post, because I feel I was misunderstood in my previous one in respect to my definition of marriage. First off, I think it is most necessary to give a formal definition of religion, because when I think of this word I think of its denotation rather than its connotation. A religion is a set of beliefs and practices by which a person lives. This can be “spiritual” or “unspiritual.” Someone is religious simply by doing the things that they believe work. Thus, everyone has their own religion. When one thinks about organized religion, that is the realm of the belief sets that mass amounts of people practice together and agree upon. So, in a sense, a marriage is an act of religion, minus the orginization. There is the commitment to religiously love and be loyal to one another for life. However, I believe the point I was truly misunderstood on was when I said the only legitimate marriage is between followers of Christ. I was not referring to organized institutions meddling in peoples’ lives commanding them to do this or that. (For some reason people think this the definition of church and religion. Um, no, it is not.) I was talking about two individuals who know the Lord personally and let Him lead them to each other, minus other human beings telling them who they should marry. I said this because God knows every single detail about everyone and their prospective spouses. Without Him as the focus no one knows what true love is, because God is Love. Perhaps it is best to say that this is a religious belief, but it is not the type of religion society connotes. It seems people think of religion as a set of rules and regulations by which everyone is judged and should be forced to follow. That most certainly is not religion. The difference is that someone’s real religion includes the beliefs they willing follow and act out every day. I was once told, “Your actions are the reflection of what you believe.” After thinking on it I realized the truth of those words. (There are some issues that I brought up that could seem to contradict in light of Christ’s teachings, but that goes beyond the scope of this blog. Call them out if you think you seem them I’ll be happy to address them in detail in other posts.)

Now I’m going to share my thoughts on the word “church.” Honestly, I do not know how much of the population actually knows what this word really means. The definition of the church is the body of Christ. The church is not a building, it is the total congregation, throughout the entire world, of people who have an intimate relationship with Christ, God, Holy Spirit, Abba, Yahweh, Lord, all of the for and after, etc. The church is the bride of that will be married to Christ, the bridegroom. This is another reason for my marriage definition, because marriage is in truth a representation of this event. The union of God and the ones He Loves. (That is the ones He Loves that choose to love Him. Many are those He Loves who do not choose Him. I would like to say, to not choose eternity with the only one who is good is to choose eternity with all that is not good. I say that to enlighten not to judge.)

I would just like to say don’t take all that I say at face value, search out the truth for yourself. I know and believe what I do through doing just that. I believe in absolute truth. That means there is one truth for everything, and that a person cannot simply decided what is true simply because they want it to be true. This means people are wrong until they encounter or are taught the truth. I do not think everyone has it right and I am not claiming to know everything. I believe everyone is wrong to a certain extent, some more than others, because no one knows everything, except God. Nevertheless, people have a tendency to think their beliefs are completely correct. (Yep, me too.) I say there is a line that is drawn in existence between true and false. Until the end, no one knows what side they are on, thus, faith is the walk of life.

Ideas of Marriage (Persuasive)

What is marriage? This is a very sensitive question these days, and is contended throughout our entire society. I searched around and found “Noah Webster gives his Blessing,” written by Daniel Redman, which addresses how some dictionaries have expanded the definition to include same-sex marriage. Also, I googled for a definition on gay marriage and found some interesting information on Urban Dictionary. Personally, I agree completely with the definition given by Webster’s dictionary in 1828 that Redman quotes: "instituted by God himself for the purpose of preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, for promoting domestic felicity, and for securing the maintenance and education of children." Notice this definition implies that intercourse outside of marriage, homosexual and heterosexual, was not what God wanted. Basically, Webster is saying the only healthy sexual relationship is between two married individuals. Also, that a marriage was intended to produce and provide for children. However, I can imagine that someone would bring up the points of God and Webster’s 1828 edition being old and out dated.

Wherever I looked, the idea of marriage being a union between two people who have committed themselves to each other for life was always present. Today, I would say this standard is not looked upon with much seriousness by the general population. Divorce and infidelity are common occurrences. To me it seems fairly easy for people to accept these things going on in our society. Thus, I can understand why gay couples would want marriage to be redefined in order to have legal equality. If marriage is something that can be undone so easily, then why not get married. I mean, you can always have a divorce if things go south, right? (Why does the word divorce seem to be floating around whenever people get married, regardless of the type?)

According to the W. Moran’s article, “Gay Definition of Marriage is Not the Equal of Heterosexual Marriage Facts Show Sexual Fidelity Not a Part of Gay Unions,” the homosexual’s lifestyle is far more promiscuous than the heterosexual’s. This piece examines how Canadian GLBs, Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual, interact in and out of marriage, and presents the author’s point-of-view convincingly. Mostly because, Moran’s information comes from the testimonies of GLBs. I am not trying to say that gay partners are not serious about their relationships. I am absolutely positive that they do believe in their love for one another. I am saying that the love they have is not the kind that qualifies for the complete commitment of marriage. Also, I will say that I believe many heterosexual relationships are the same way, something Moran fails to address.

Honestly, to me the only legitimate marriage is one between two people who are followers of Christ. This is because their relationship is based on glorifying God, not sexual preference or worldly advantages. Though, I think many people who say they follow Christ do not realize that glorifying the Lord is the reason for marriage. Do not misunderstand me; I do not believe that such a marriage will be without hardship or tension. However, such a bond will have the loyalty to work through such times. (“For better or for worst,” comes to mind.) Through such a relationship the fulfillment of true love is realized. I do not believe anyone will ever find what they are truly looking for through the promiscuous relationships and ideas of marriage of our society today.

"My Evil Plan to Save the World" (Opinion)

I was riding in my car the other day listening to Five Iron Frenzy on my mp3 player, because my stereo doesn't work. The song I was playing was entitled "My Evil Plan to Save the World." While I was singing and jamming out, it occurred to me that the ideas behind the lyrics were an excellent subject on which to blog.

I relate a lot with the reasons behind the writer’s inspiration. Basically, they satire people who think their own personal opinions about the world are the correct ones, and that they alone have the answers to right all wrongs of the world. Before a came to know Christ this was my exact mind set, and even for a while after having known Him. During the time before that I didn’t believe in God, and I thought if God did exist He had messed up horribly. In fact, when I started to recognize the possibility of God I started to talk to Him about how I would correct the things in which He had failed. There were even times that I entertained the idea of defeating God.

I styled myself as a philosopher at the age of thirteen. My whole thought process was rooted in ideas of love. In my contemplations I would always come back to the idea of how everyone, including God, didn’t get what it meant to love one another. Ironically, the way in which I thought about correcting this was not by spreading love in my own actions, but instead I approached it from a political science point-of-view. Though, at the time I wasn’t aware that was what I was doing. I would spend hours daydreaming about creating the perfect policy to which everyone would adhere, and strategies by which it could be implemented. Also, another point of irony occurred during this time in my life. Instead of growing to love the people and world that I was trying to help perfect, I grew to hate everything. Eventually, I came to the point where I believed the only way for everything to be made right was to destroy everything and start fresh. Of course, I would be the one doing the refreshing, because only I had the answer. Thus was my thought process throughout my first part of high school. In the end, I came to a realization of the enormity of what a task it would be to “fix” the world. This caused me to be depressed, I even thought about suicide. I thought, “What’s the point, if I can’t save the world why go on living in this messed up existence? There is no hope for it anyway.” I thank the Lord that I enjoyed reading, watching anime, and playing video games too much to really want to kill myself. (Though, now I don’t do those things much, if at all.)

Honestly, if it were not for Christ changing me and the Holy Spirit teaching me the truth, I do not know what life would be like for me now. I wonder how I would have reconciled myself with what I saw in the world. However, I now know that the only answer to “fix” the world is the love of Christ. Also, I realize the role I play is not as the mastermind, but as a conduit for that love to reach those who do not know the desire the Lord has for them. It is awesome how the Lord has created us to love Him and others. Truly, I have found this to be the fulfillment of existence.