For some reason or other, I decided to go and clean out my fridge today because we had a LOT of junk in there taking up space. If any of you know my dad, he's the type of guy who doesn't believe in expiry dates. For him to throw something out, it has to have things growing off it, and even then he'll probably just cut them off. So anyway I came across many items that have been expired not for weeks or months, but for years! Here's the record holder:



Yep, that's right. It expired on the 5th of March 1998! Not only that, but it's a bottle of vinegar and that stuff takes ages to go bad.

From bash.org:

Well, I had church tonight, and like usual I left feeling upset about how my church is conducted, and like usual a group of friends and I went to get something to eat at this restaurant after, and like usual I eventually made it home. This time, I had such an urge to poop so I went straight upstairs and lo and behold, we have no water. Great. Now I get to hold it in until someone decides to fix our water problem.... this is going to be fun and a half!

Today Daniela finally communicated with me for like the first time in a month. I sent her another text message and she replied. I had sent her about 3 before that and even left a message at her house to call me, but she never did. Well finally she did today. So anyway I messaged her back again and said that I miss our friendship and I miss her etc etc. So she said that she didn't want to talk about it by text messages, so she is going to call me tomorrow. Man... honestly I feel so bad. I can't believe that someone would be so willing to throw a friendship of like 8 years away for some guy, for any reason. If my friend bahb ever objected to one of my girlfriends (should I ever get one, hahaha) I would definitely wait until we got everything completely cleared up with him before doing anything else with the girl. Man, sometimes I wish that people would just trust more in God and less on their emotions. Wouldn't it make everything so much more easierly? vegetables... WHAT???

Last night I was talking with one of the people I know from church and he was debating the point that we shouldn't listen to any music that isn't Christian. The argument that he used is that when we listen to non-Chrisian music, we are being ministered by it and this is a bad thing. He used the passage from the bible (Proverbs 25:19-20), which reads a bit different in English than it does in Spanish.

Here it is in my bible:And in Spanish:Ok... so after I read this again I see that they are actually the same, just the order that threw me off completely.

Ok, I think that we can all agree on one thing; something is only wrong if it causes someone to sin. I read this very interesting website on listening to secular music and the guy seems to make some very good arguments in favor of listening to secular music. Firstly, God created all things, including music. He gave us the ability to create any type of music that we want, whether it be a song of praise, a song of hatred, or a song that has no lyrics at all. He says the following: Not all the music we listen to needs to be music of praise and worship to God. However music can also be used as a medium to spread hatred or any sort of worldy false belief, such as the many artists now that promote fornication and exploitation of women, false religious cults such as satanism, hatred or racism (know what i'm saying nigga), etc etc. This music in itself it not evil, i.e. the musical notes they play and the sounds they make with their voice are not evil things; the message that they convey is where the problem is. But is it a bad thing to listen to a song about something, such as satanism? In the bible there are many times where it talks about kings doing evil things or satan influencing people or tempting Jesus, etc. The bible talks about many sins. When we turn on the TV, we are bombarded with how many Iraqis decided that they would blow themselves up for their religion, how many students were shot in school that day, how many Catholic priests raped altar boys the day before, etc etc. But does that mean that we shouldn't watch the news? Well in my opinion, it all comes down to how it makes you feel and what it makes you do. Does it make you feel upset after seeing these things happen? Well then don't watch the news. Does it make you want to sin when you watch these things happening? Does it make you hate people or wish they were dead? Well then don't watch it. I would apply the same reasoning to music. Does the music you listen to make you feel upset after you hear it or does it make you want to sin? Well then don't listen to it. Listening to the music is not a sin. It is only a sin when you turn around and start sinning.

The website also made another very good argument and actually coincides with the argument against it that the guy I was talking to yesterday made. When we listen to the music, we learn the lyrics and often go around singing them. Even if the song doesn't contain any curse words, you may:

• not be projecting a good Christian image.
• cause others who view that listening to secular music to be bad to follow your example. Even though it is not a sin to listen to secular music, if they believe it to be a sin, it will be a sin to them because they are disobeying what they believe God expects of them, even if those expectations are wrong.

This is a good argument against listening to secular music and it definitely sounds like a valid answer to me. However what would the solution be? The author of the website proposes that we try to abstain from listening to secular music around those Christians who are weaker in their faith so that we don't cause them to stumble. To me it seems like an okay answer, but at the same time almost hypocritical. God wants us to be people of integrity. I believe that we should be the same person in church as I am when I hang out with my worldly friends and when I'm in my room alone at night. I shouldn't have to change who I truly am so that I can please certain social groups.

One of the things that the guy I talked to last night was talking about was this dance that they made for the youth of the church. Personally, I didn't really see anything wrong with it, but he made a good point. Dancing is something that the people of the world do when they go to clubs or bars or whatever. When Christians go out dancing with each other, even if they are dancing to Christian music, it is like they are bluring the lines between Christianity and the world, and this shouldn't exist. There should be a strong distinction between the two and when someone sees us, they should know that we are a Christian from how we act and what we do and don't do. I'm not sure if I entirely agree with him on these points though. Personally, I no longer enjoy going to bars or trying to find the best looking girl to dance with or drinking, but as long as the dance is not vulgar, I don't see any problem with a Christian couple to go out and dance together. Actually I think it may even be something healthy for them, provided they are in the right environment. Maybe if it is in a bar, they may be tempted into getting drunk or smoking or whatever, but if a Christian couple were to find a secluded place and throw on some romantic music and slow dance the night away, holding each other in their arms, I don't see anything wrong with that.

So... yeah I dunno how I got off onto this tangent, but it's just been bothering me lately. I don't want to be a hypocrite and listen to secular music at home and Christian music when I am at church or when I go out with my friends. The bible says: It is just hard. Does anyone actually live up to these expectations? Do you give thanks to the Lord every time you poop for the ability to have the privelage of using toilet paper? Do you give thanks every time you look at the sky for the beauty that God created? Do you give thanks every time you bang your thumb with a hammer for the ability to learn the hard way to be more dextrous? I know I would have to answer "no" to every one of these questions. In fact, I don't know if I've ever given thanks to God for toilet paper. Man.... honestly.... thank God for toilet paper! haha... ok, but honestly, can we still listen to secular music and give thanks to God at the same time? I suppose we could extend this question to further things... could we watch a music video and still give thanks to God? What about a non-Christian movie? What about reading non-biblical books? What about viewing a non-Christian website? Using a non-Christian search engine? Using a computer monitor created by a company that sacrifices babies to an imaginary god? Where do you draw the line?

k.... comments please... especially you Alicks!

I forgot to mention something important that happened to me. Well, most nights before I go to bed, I try to dedicate some time to praying and reading the bible. I have been very confused about the whole Daniela issue and how our friendship has pretty much gone to the pooper these last few weeks. So anywho, one of the ways that God speaks to me is through his word. Often I will pray that he will lead me to the passage that will give me the answer that I am looking for, and that's exactly what happened last night. So there I was, lying on my bed praying and giving thanks to the Lord for all the blessings that he had given me for the day and I picked up my bible and for some reason I felt that God was leading me to the book of Esther. It was weird because he made me think of this stupid forward that one of my friends sent me about how people take advantage of women by pretending to offer some perfume for them to smell, but instead of being perfume it's a bottle of ETHER! Man, honestly, I love the guy who sent it to me (in a very non-homosexual way), but he really needs to think for himself sometimes. Anyway I was thinking about the effects of ether and then I see the book Esther and God tells me to read it, so I started reading it. And holey, I would be willing to bet that there is no other passage in the bible that could be more accurate to my situation than that one. It's about King Ahasuerus and how he threw a huge party for everyone and let anyone who wanted to come to have whatever they wanted for free, and they were all treated like kings. Then while the king was sitting around he was so proud of his queen (Vashti) and how beautiful she was that he summoned her and told her to come into his presence wearing her royal turban so that he could show everyone how beautiful she was, but she refused to listen to the king. So he got really mad about the situation and summoned his counselors to come to help him decide what to do. They all decided that queen Vashti would be stripped of her crown and the king would look for another queen who is more deserving than she (Esther 1).

This fits almost perfectly with my situation. There's this girl that I like that I ask her to do something for me and instead of doing this little favor for me, she decides to just do what she wants to do instead. And just like the king, I wasn't thinking of anything wrong or asking her to do anything sexual or whatever, I just wanted her to pray. Similarly, the king wasn't asking her to come and strip for him or anything, he just wanted to show everyone how beautiful his queen was. But the verse that speaks to me the most is Esther 1:19, which says "... Vashti may not come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and let the king convey her royalty to another who is more deserving than she." Holey, after I had read this I understood the whole passage and how it applied to me. To me, this essentially says that since Daniela didn't pray and ask for God's advice for who to choose as a boyfriend that she is not worthy to be my queen.

It's funny because before I would pray, even after she had a boyfriend because when God wants something to happen and he says that that's the way it's going to be, he's not going to later change his mind and say the opposite. So God would always tell me that his word is un-changing and when he told me to come here for Daniela, he still means it. She is still the person for me, or more accurately, I am the person for her. But since I was disobedient back in December and now she is being disobedient to both God and I, the title that God had given to her has been taken away and given to someone else. There is someone else out there who is more deserving than she. So I'm not going to spend my entire life waiting for her to get her act together. God will provide me with someone just as good as her, if not better, and I will be the perfect man for her too.

How long can you survive the impending doom of your imminent death!?

haha this is a pretty cool answer to a common question that people ask (source):

I found this great website on supposed Bible contradictions. Some of them seem to be pretty valid, so I wanted to take it upon myself to try to dispute every one of their "contradictions" because I know the word of God is infalliable. It looks like there's about 40 there, so it might take some time. When it's done I'll have a new article in the menu.

Something the pastor said in church today:
Actually church was pretty good today. The 'predica' was entitled "Follow the Instructions or Pay the Price" and it was about how the Bible is our instruction manual. First, humans (especially men) have a tendency to NOT follow directions very well. When we get our E-Z Assemble Barbecue I think most men try to put it together on without the instruction booklet first and 90% of us end up getting it wrong. Women do a better job at pulling out the instruction manual and reading it cover to cover before even unpacking any of the pieces, they tend to be the ones that ask for directions when they're driving, but even still, women are not perfect at always following directions either. Wow, the pastor definitely did not talk about any of this stuff, but it just came to my mind. So... yeah anywho he was saying that humans just don't follow directions. Usually we're fine if we do things on our own using our own judgement, but if an emergency ever happens, we'll be lost. He used the example of being on an airplane. How many of you have been on an airplane sometime in your life? I'm assuming most people have been on at least one. Before the flight they give you those instructions of what to do in case of emergency. How many people do you see not paying attention to the people, but instead they are reading the "duty free" magazine from the seat in front of them? How many of them would actually know what to do when an accident comes? How many of them know where their personal flotation device is located? How many of them can easily locate the nearest exit without thinking twice? I'm assuming not many of us would get it completely right. And obviously there's consequences for our inability to follow instructions. In the case of the airplane, it could lead to our death. Well you know what? Not following the Bible can lead to death as well. The four points he made about someone who follows the instruction of the Bible are:

1. They know who to respond to - Both the devil and God try to influence us, but we need to close our ears to the devil and only pay attention to God's voice of truth
2. They know who they can trust - We need to trust in the protection that God provides us since he is our shield. But just because he is protecting us, doesn't mean that the devil won't keep trying to attack us. A shield doesn't stop the attack, but it blocks it and prevents it from causing damage. Therefore we need to get out there in the font lines of the battle and fight. And I don't mean we need to go around killing or even hurting people, because our fight is not against people (Ephesians 6:12), but we need to fight the evil influences of this world by always showing love to everyone. Sometimes we put our trust in our friends or relatives and they end up betraying us, but we shouldn't let that get us down because God will lift us up again (2 Samuel 15:30-31 - talks about how King David's son, Ahithophel, betrayed him)
3. They know where they are safe - Obviously we are safe when we are being held in the hands of God. Sometimes something may happen during the day that upsets us and keeps us awake at night. God will never keep us from sleeping. If ever we are lying awake at night it is not because of God because we are safe while we are sleeping in his presence (Psalms 4:8). We need not be afraid because God is the one that will fight our battles with us (Psalms 3:6-8).

I have been thinking lately about my church and how it tends to be unbiblical at times. Actually I like everything about it except how they view the "dones del Espiritu" (gifts of the Spirit). Since my church is very charismatic, there are people there that burst into uncontrollable convulsions and fall to the floor. So, I just did a quick search in my bible search utility on the word "convulsions" and here's what came up:



It's funny how at my church they see falling to the floor in convulsions as "anointing of the Holy Spirit". I'm kinda glad it's never happened to me.