Another Step

It is hard to believe that I have been down here for two years already. I have three weeks to go until this quarter is over. Last night we had our Vicarage assignment service. In a meeting a couple months ago, I asked to go to St. Paul, Mn. Then Dr. Neilson asked me If i wouldn't mind going closer to home. I figured I was going to Detroit or Chicago. Right before the Call Service, Neilson told me my supervisor was going to be here. So, I naturally thought I would be going to Chicago, because every other place would be too far to drive from. The whole service I am thinking how cool it is going to be to live in Chicago. Then as they get to the end of the alphabet, I stand up, move to the front, and await my assignment. Then I hear my name: "Georgia-Florida district..." I was so stunned I just moved up, shook hands, and smiled at people. President Meyer asked where I was going and I couldn't tell him. I am going to Largo, Florida, right outside of Tampa. It should be real cool.

Shades

This was fun. I have been messing around with a free image software called gimp. Its pretty cool. It can do most of the stuff that Adobe Photoshop can as well as many of the tools of illustrator. It is still taking me a while to learn all of the tools, but I am happy with what I can do right now. Either way, it is fun to mess around with this stuff again.

Jakos Grandrock

Jakos Grandrock is one Bane's most trusted Generals. He is the Dragon Rider and was responsible for the destruction of the Nexus League's mountain base north of Meldui. He killed the great Elvin archer, El Cinder, and has since been Yhhric's arch nemesis.

The Soulless

I must also say, Good job, Shedu! Check this out, Pete.

Finrax, king of Zerintoc

Rifftrax

Ever wonder what happened to the guys from MST3k? Well, Mike Neilson and Kevin Murphy(the mad doctor) now run this website. They sell MP3 "riffs" that you can run simultaniously with your favorate movie. Sure, you don't have the nice silouettes of Mike and the robots, but still. I think I will need to watch the LOTR or starwars

Addressing a post from some time ago

You know, I have been really wanting to respond to this post for a very long time. However, since you address so many things, I never knew where to start. Since I have a test tomorrow and I do not yet know the material at 1 in the morning, I figured now would be a good time to respond.

I guess I would say that I do indeed feel God in my life, at least much of the time. Though sometimes he feels very far off, almost absent, other times I feel Him next to me and in this I am more certain than anything else in my life.

I know you mentioned the "euphoria" as being the catalyst of your religious experience. If I understand you right, you believe that you were somehow tricked into feeling this way, in believing something that wasn't there. While much religious music and architecture it meant to affect the person, it is never meant to deceive them. Generally it is supposed to inform the worshiper/visitor that they are in a special place, a place set aside(holy)for God. In essence, it is supposed to quite all the distractions in your mind so that you can reflect on the holiness of God.

I do not know about the alter call stuff and all that entails, since I am Lutheran and we do not do that sort of thing.

I would like to address your post-experience reaction. You discount your experience because in the aftermath, the joy or emotion or whatnot faded as time goes on leaving you feeling mislead. I want to ask you a question: what indeed did you do to foster the faith that was apparently started at those times?

Many people will have a fervor for faith in God but then they do nothing with the gift that they were given. If you do not believe in double predestination and if you believe that you have free will, that means that you have to do something to seek God. He is not always going to be in your face. He is not always going to make things great for you, because he wants you to seek Him. He is not going to radically change the way you think because he values your free will. If you want to know Him and if you want Him to change you, you need to hear what He has to say. You need to stay in his word, seek his guidance, and pray for his spirit.

Some people say they don't need someone else telling them how to view and understand God. What arrogance! Didn't you need someone to tell you how to understand science, math, the English language? No one would say,"I don't need someone else to tell me what happened in the past. I can know it on my own without archaeological, eyewitness, and historical information." That would be ridiculous. The same goes with God. You can have a vague idea of what God is by observing nature, but this is but a shadow. You can't truly know God unless he reveals himself to you. He does this through his Son, Christ Jesus. And we read what his Son had to say and, most importantly, what he did, in scriptures.

You say you wonder why you why God hasn't touched your life. Well, I gather from what your wrote here and our conversations in the past that He has. Yet the question remains, what did you do in response?

I will respond to one more thing. Many of you have blamed Christians for acting in various ways and not always acting as they should. I must stress, Christians are sinful people like everyone else. Some do not have good instruction and believe they are better than others, but this simply is not the case. Christians are not perfect, and they never will be in this life time. That is the whole point. That is the whole reason Christ came. Anyone that claims he is perfect, or even a good person by God's standards, is fooling himself. Christ died for us because we are slaves to our sin and are, by our sinful natures, enemies of God. Yet while we were still in our sins, Christ died for us. In your baptism, you are brought into this new covenant with Christ. This is our central message. This is what we proclaim. Don't let "Christians" get in the way of your relationship with Christ.

Long post. I'll stop now. As always, no offence taken from yours or any other's views. I welcome and comments of reflections.

Krowen, son of Derkus

Here is what Shadow looked like when he was young

Today

The night before Shadow died I was trying out a new photo program. As I was speaking to my mom about what they were going to do with Shadow, I pulled up his picture. Here we were talking about this old dog, diseased and in so much pain. We spoke of how we had no choice other than to let him suffer or to put him down. Throughout all this convincing ourselves of his sorry state and his need for his suffering to end, I was looking at Shadow's portrait. I began to imagine him young again. Soon I found myself erasing the signs of age. I darkened his fur, returned the shine to his coat, and erased the pain from his eyes. It all felt so surreal. He was old and at the very end of his life, yet here I was trying to make him new again.

Tonight in church, this experience came back to me. I realized that what I was trying to do with Shadow, was what Christ actually did for us on Good Friday, what he began that day on the cross. I heard His words, "Behold, I make all things new."(Rev 21.5) On that cross, He began to wipe away all of our signs of age. He started to smooth out our wrinkles. He began to take away our pain. Yet He didn't just do this on the surface. In fact, he didn't even start there. He began at the source, our souls.

He began to make you new that day. He died on the cross for you, so that age, disease, and death might not claim you and hold you forever. He died so that He might give you life. So today, don't trust in yourself. Don't fool yourself into thinking you hold back the inevitable. No matter how how hard you try, you will grow old and you will die. There is nothing you can do to hold these things back. Trust in Christ. Only He can make you new.

Good Bye, My Old Friend

Shadow

1994-2007

Izzimeth sketch

Let me know what can be changed, Shedu. I am working on a more finished and more dynamic picture, but want to know I am drawing him right before hand.

How Precious

Thanks to Shedu for putting these up

Derkus

I don't know how this happened, but I know God's involved.

You Are 64% Gentleman

You are definitely a gentleman. You're very considerate and you have excellent manners. Occasionally, you slip and do something foolish... but usually no one notices!

Are You A Gentleman?

Great pictures

These are the best pictures ever

Dogimed

And Yhhric, don't die!

Softball

Today was a good day. I decided that I was going to play softball the year no matter how I felt and so far its been turning out alright. It was rainy and muddy on the field and we had a lot of errors. Not too many people showed up, so I got to play a little more that I have the last couple weeks. I was surprised that I actually out ran and overshot a fly ball to right. I also beat a throw to first which I thought I wouldn't make. All I could hear was my little league coach screaming "Run Torreson, Run!" It felt good.

MAN IT IS HOT!

I like humor. I think I am a pretty funny at times. But, I think God is funnier. Here is yet another poof He exists. Well, not really proof, but it must be Him or the aliens playing a joke on us.

I just think it is great that it seems every event or expedition that is aimed to showcase or record Global Warming has occurred at the same time as a blizzard or snowstorm. A handful of summits on global warming have been canceled this year because of extreme cold. An expedition to the north pole was just canceled because it was so cold that people were getting frostbite and their vehicles wouldn't start.

Now I believe that there is a current pattern of global warming right now. I am not towing the republican line or anything. Now I do think we are either experiencing the the warm end of a natural cyclical process. On top of that, I also think that the earth is still warming up from the Ice age, or "last Ice age" as scientists like to call it. So while I do think it is getting warmer, I just think it is funny that every time Al Gore opens his mouth it snows...a lot.

I wanted to say how deeply I feel for the Dave Matt and Sarah and all those who loved Suzanne. She was a very special lady who really showed the love and joy of God in her life. While we know she is with Christ, it is still hard for us left behind. She sees the resotration of things now, while we remain in this broken world. Yet our hope is that we too will one day stand beside her in the presence of God. This chapter from Romans has always given me comfort in of the most difficult times in my life. I pray that it will strengthen you now and in the years to come.

In the Love of Christ,
Ted

Romans 8
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Future Glory

18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that^[i] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

More Than Conquerors

28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.