Earlier this week I received my copy of Ted Dekker’s new book Adam.  If you don’t know what it’s about then here is a link to it on Amazon with a description.

http://www.amazon.com/Adam-Ted-Dekker/dp/1595540075/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206645271&sr=8-1

Well I finished it last night and while I’m a newer fan of his work (I plan on catching up on all his novels this year) I’ve got to say it’s one of my favorites of his.  Of course I’ve only read 3-4 of his so that may not mean much.

Anyways I’m not here to do a book review.  I’m not going to spoil anything but actually want to just make a brief comment about a quote that was put on the back pamphlet of the book.  It reads:

“The detail is stunning, pointing to meticulous research in FBI methods, forensic medicine, and psychological profiling.  We have to keep telling ourselves that this is fiction.  At the same time, we can’t help thinking that not only could it happen, but that it will happen if we’re not careful.”   –   David M. Kiely and Christina McKenna authors of The Dark Sacrament

The book focuses on demonic possession.  And as I read what I just posted above I thought to myself.  They’re right.  I mean there has been cases about demon possession and some can be easily cast aside as bogus but others have to be seriously looked into.

And I think what really sparked my interest with this book was that this was not just another book that had a villain that just didn’t seem real.  While this does.  I’m no expert with demon possession or anything (and on that matter I wouldn’t want to be.  I probably wouldn’t be able to handle watching an exorcism take place.) but I know that this is something that has happened and will happen again.  We’re warned in the Bible that Satan’s minions are all around us.  Waiting.  And what I liked about Adam was that it showed just how worried we should be about demonic possession and the sort.

Not to mention it’s really got me interested to learn more about real life cases and the effects that it’s had on people.  Throughout the book there are references to another book called.   Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans.  References were made to the book and to the author and I didn’t think it was real but turns out it is.  Which makes me want to read that book now.

And lastly I’m left with this as I finished that book last night.  I really truly am happy to know that Satan loses in the end.  

Today my group in programming class finished our game that we have spent the past 5 weeks making.  If you’ve read my previous post about programming then you know a bit about how I view programming.  If you haven’t then go ahead and look at that.  Anyways we completed our game  today. (Just a simple 2d side scrolling game with 5 levels)  As with anything else I had a great feeling of achievement.  I could go into a long story of how we finished our game but I’ll just say that with four days left to finish we had very little done.  And what could only have been called a miracle we pulled through and completed everything.

The feeling of having not given up and completing the task set before us was amazing.  It brought me back to late October.  For those who don’t know me I love writing and write almost everyday.  While I have not gotten anything published I do hope to one day.  I’ve written two novel length stories and the first of which was completed last October.  Completing that left me with one of the most amazing feelings.  I was finally able to sit back and read a story that was all from me and it was complete.

So what am I getting at anyways?  It could be seen as a lot of things.  In this I could be telling you to never give up.  Or to relish those moments where you feel on top of the world.  Or maybe I’m just telling you to never be afraid of what task it is that lies ahead for the reward is much greater…..wait.  Let me repeat that.

Fear not the task ahead for the reward is much greater.   Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

I know I’ve heard many people say it.

2Ch 15,7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.

Well what do you know.  It’s in the Bible too.  In the past few weeks I’ve begun writing my third novel (with hope that I may have the courage to send this off to a publisher).  While it is still a very long ways from being finished I have begun to see a theme of sorts expose itself.

As stated before I believe that everyone has a purpose and thus this reigns true with my story.  It seems as if the underlying message is turning into one that shows that everyone does truly have a purpose for being in a certain place at a certain moment and that there will be a reward in the end.

I think a lot of people overlook that verse and many verses like it.  It’s so very simply yet I wonder if many people even think about it often?  We are all faced with daily challenges that test our abilities.  And yet so many people just give up or give in.  They think the mountain is simply too hard to climb.  People tend to forget about perseverance.

We’ve all heard people say.  Don’t give up.  And remain faithful.  Here’s why giving up is so bad.  Yes that means you quit but it’s so much more than that.

–  Giving up is failing God.

–  Giving up is failing yourself.

–  Giving up is telling yourself that you CAN’T do it.

–  Giving up is keeping you from realizing that not only you could do it but that the challenge was not nearly as hard as you thought.

It’s these reasons why we can’t just give up.  And so with that I think we should make that verse.  Verse of the week.  Or at least something to remember as you go through your daily life.  We a challenge presents itself think long term.  Think of the greater reward that is waiting for you.

I am what many would call a Nerd.  Which by the way I take pride in this fact.  Hence my name here being Nerdboy.  Anyways since last August I began taking up programming.  I started with Visual Basic.  Then started learning HTML and CSS.  Now first off you don’t need to know anything about programming to understand what I’m about to say so please continue.  As the months went by I began to notice a common thing in every programming language.  They all have their differences but there were a few things that stayed the same.

No matter what language you use you have to be very organized.  I’ve found out the hard way many many times that if you are not organized then the entire program can fall apart before your eyes.  Another thing is order.  If you have just two little pieces of code switched then just like with organization your program will not work.  And the third thing I noticed is that no matter what you are making there is always more than one way to do it.

I then began to make a connection between programming and us.  You see we, as you all may well know, are very very complicated structures.  And as we all know if one little piece of coding in our DNA is out of place then something could very easily go wrong.  Kind of like a baby with a birth defect.  As I learned more and more about programming and began to see just how long it takes to not only learn a specific programming language but also to make something with it I realized just how amazing life is.

In school I have a project in which I must build a full website in HTML, CSS, and a lot of other languages that are used to make websites.  I’m not yet done but a simple 15 page website has taken me from the end of November up to now and there is still one month left to work.  You see I realized that even something like a website takes an enormous amount of time and then I think about this.  A human is so unbelievably complicated that I will refuse to believe that some kind of evolutionary glitch made our DNA change in such a manner that instead of being apes and what not that we are now human.

You see the idea that all of these things just happened keeping in mind that, just like a program, had to be in perfect order and perfectly organized is just simply untrue.  The chances of this happening are so slim that there is no way that this could have possibly happened.  The way that our “coding” was put together so well makes me believe that it took a true miracle to pull off.

So what am I trying to get across here?  I think after many months of experience with many different programming languages and making a few different programs I think that we are, in a way, walking programs.  We are all made up of this highly advanced coding and even though each of us came to be by different sets of code we all came to the same conclusion and that is life.

So on this Easter weekend where we celebrate the fact that Jesus loved us so much that he would die for us just so he could spend eternity in Heaven with us.  Remember this.  Be thankful that not only do we have a God who loves us and sent his only son to die for us but be thankful that we also have a God that put together the most amazing “program” of all.  Life.

Happy Easter everyone!

So as this series reaches it’s in it is time to bring this all together.  Whether it’s television, music, video games or even movies we all have been drawn into the media.  It is here to stay and will quite possibly get worse and worse as the years go by.

Now is all of the media bad?  No, not at all.  And just as well watching tv and listening to music and playing video games and going to the movies are great ways to enjoy life.  That is what they are here for after all.  But what we must be careful about is to not let these things control our life’s.

Looking back on this first series there have been parts I thought went well (the music part) and then there were other sections I didn’t like how they turned out at all.  (TV and Movies.)  Expect another update tomorrow.  Tomorrows update is something I’ve been planning for a while.  Until then goodbye and have a very Good Friday! 😀

Movies, we’ve all seen too many to count.  Whether it’s based off a book, game, tv show or even a brand new idea we’ve all seen movies and many times we can relate to them as well.  But as time passes and as we all more and more sex, and violence into the media the movies follow.  Once there was a time when a girl with a skirt not reaching to her ankles was horrifying and now here we are with ESPN swimsuit edition and much much more stuff.

But with movies it’s everything.  If there is one type of movie I completely and utterly dislike it is horror movies.  And heres why.  The premise is always the same.  They always have a group of teenagers in which there is always a “dumb blond”.  And the “most appealing” girl always finds herself in a scene where she just has to have as little clothes as possible.

Last year 300 came up and I went to see it a few weeks later.  It was quite possibly one of my favorite movies I’ve seen.  But heres the thing.  The amount of violence in it was insane yet realistic.  You see if 300 was simply a made up story then things could have been very different for I think people may have reacted a lot worse to the violence.  Just like another movie that’s just a few years older.

The Passion of the Christ when first released was very very controversial.  People complained about the violence and more.  But as I told my mom last night.  The movie is historically accurate.  They did treat him like that and in a way I find it just another way to show just how amazing of a sacrifice Jesus had made.

When it comes to movies there are many different genres to choose from.  And not all movies have bad things in them.  These are often times called family films but there are some that really are great movies.  Movies if you look at it are much like tv.  The things in them continue to get worse and worse.  But if there is one thing I worry about with movies it is this.  The pornography industry is huge.  And I’m sure will continue to get bigger and bigger as time goes by.

You see (and I’ll touch more on this tomorrow with the series wrap up) when it comes to movies it is much similar to all other types of media.  Theres the good and theres the bad.  A violent movie or a horror film isn’t going to do much at all to you but if (like music) you allow it to influence you in bad ways then we see bad coming out of movies.  Do I have anything against violent movies?  For the most part no.  I see a lot of violent movies myself but what my friends and I both show is that we can watch these types of movies without becoming violent ourselves.  I often wonder what would happen if others would be able to have self control and not allow influences like that in.

Remember to come back tomorrow for the series wrap up!

Whether it’s Tetris or the latest game out on the market we’ve all played them.  Games go back a very very long time.  Although video games haven’t been around as long playing games has always been an activity for many.  But as we enter an age where the line between reality is slowly becoming harder and harder to see are video games a bad thing?  Many would say yes.   I however would disagree.

After Columbine had occurred a man by the name of Jack Thompson stood up and said that video games were the cause.  And he has continued to do so with every school shooting.  But he’s not the only one.  In fact recently there have been people trying to pass laws in certain states to ban some games or M rated games.

Now I’ll come out and say as a teenager I am naturally very much into playing video games.  In fact I’d say everyone I know play some kind of video game each day.  But is it a bad thing?  Are these video games hiding secret messages making us want to be more violent?  Are the game companies trying to turn us into murderers?  I for one doubt it.  If the game companies are trying to do anything it’s to make more money.

Heres how I see it.  Do video games turn us into serial killers?  Not quite.  But are games perfectly innocent?  No.  Some people are definitely more prone to losing their selfs in the game but for the most part what you see in video games will only be as bad as the movies or television.  I don’t think that video games caused school shootings or other crimes.  In fact when it comes to school shootings most of the kids who carried out the shootings actually didn’t play games or very rarely did.  Which comes to my other thought in which that no matter what it is there can’t be just one thing to blame.  If you take a school shooting for example it could have been a lot of things.

It could have been games, neglect from parents, they could have been beaten by their parents, maybe they had no friends, people could have made fun of them too much, and the list goes on.  I hear a lot of people put the blame on one thing when it comes to crimes but if you break it down there are multiple factors in each case.  Each thing contributes just a little bit but never is there a single cause.

Now there are others who will just say that video games are bad.  An “unchristian” thing to do.  Which this I’m sure probably adds to the fact that way too many people look down upon Christians as a whole.  First lets break this down to just the word game.

If you have a pet then just watch it for a few minutes.  Any animal for that matter.  They play around.  Cats, dogs, whatever the animal is they play.  Why do they play?  For the fun of it.  You see I told a friend of mine the other day that I think there are things in this world that are here for the sole purpose of us being able to have fun and just enjoy life.  Movies, television, music, video games.  They are all here for our enjoyment.  We don’t need them but they are a nice added bonus.

When it all comes down to it.  Video games are good things to be able to busy yourself when theres nothing else to do.  But just like the other categories in this series we have to be very careful not to let it become a way of life.  We have to be careful not to let it to control us.

A few years ago as I listened to the radio I finally became fed up with what I was hearing on what was once my favorite station.  Every song I heard talked about sex, drugs or it couldn’t go a line without cursing.  I became sick of hearing things like that in music.  I wanted to be able to hear music without hearing about that stuff.

It was then that I began to listen to Christian music.  I knew little about it and as a matter of fact had only heard of Casting Crowns, Sonic Flood and FFH.  As time went by I discovered some very amazing bands with not only great music but an even greater cause.

In the world of music today the majority seems to be some form of rock or rap.

First off when it comes to rap, I fail to see why this is entertaining to anyone.  When the majority of the lyrics are about getting high and having sex why would you want to listen to this?  Not to mention the music videos that go along with this.

Then there is the rock music that my friends listen to.  This ironically enough is the same story as with rap.  Drugs, alcohol and sex.  Although from the videos I’ve seen they are more of jumping around and head banging.

So what’s so bad about listening to this then?  First keep in mind this goes for any music.  If the music has sinful acts in it such as drugs and alcohol then whether you admit it or not you will be affected by this.

Ever hear someone say Well I just like the beat I don’t listen to the lyrics.  This is what we call bull crap.  You are what you eat.  You are who you hang with.  You are what you listen to.

And heres a secret.  You want to know the truth about music?

Ps 98,4 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;

Ps 98,5 make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing,

Like it or not the only type of music we should be making is music to praise God for what he has given us.  There is another verse that says that these instruments were granted for the purpose to bring the Lord glorious music.  Now I know what you’re saying.  I don’t want to have anything to do with one of those Hymnals.  The songs are boring I’ll stick with my music thank you.

Now some will disagree with me but I believe you can worship with any style of music that you want as long as the lyrics are Christian.  If you look you’ll find Christian pop, rap, rock, hard rock, and the list goes on.  There are so many kinds of Christian music now it’s unbelievable.  There are some very amazing Christian bands/musicians out there.  Casting Crowns, Kutless, Pillar, Stellar Kart, Starfield, TobyMac and I could name so many more.

Heres my point though.  When it comes to music we have to be very careful.  Am I saying that all secular music is bad or evil?  No.  I myself listen to a few bands that are secular but am very careful to listen to the lyrics.  But heres the thing.  When it all boils down to it music is a very big influence in a persons life.  I personally think this part of the series is the most important because of how big of an influence it is.  We have to be careful to not get caught up in music that constantly is talking about getting high but rather get caught up more for the music that talks about God.

Tomorrow is part three of this series in which I’ll cover what is now becoming a very hot topic….Video Games.  Are they really to blame for school shooting such as Columbine?  Or is this just one more thing to blame for the violence in the world?

Again if you have yet to read my post about self responsibility then I suggest that you do.  It will come into play in this series.

You turn on the tv, switch it to your favorite channel and the first thing you see is some girl in the littlest amount of clothes as possible.  Or it’s something about the war or something else that’s wrong with the world.  In part one of this series on the media I’ll take a look at television and why we need to be careful.

Television is a big part of peoples life’s nowadays.  I’m not one for statistics but I’d say the average person watches too much tv each day.  Now before I go too far I’m not saying tv is this terrible thing because it isn’t.  Television has brought about some good things.  We’re given easy access to the news and to sports and we’re entertained by different sitcoms.  I’m not a big television watcher but I do make sure to catch my three shows.  (Spongebob, Glenn Beck and Chuck.)

With that said I’m beginning to see some very disturbing effects that have taken place even within my own household and school.  Every day when my little brother (9) comes home the first thing he does is turn the tv on.  Now there are some shows he watches that aren’t too bad but then I see him watching others that stun me.

I’ve seen him watch shows that talk about things that a 9 year old boy certainly should not know about.  And what’s worse is some of the things that these shows seem to be teaching.  It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I became worried for I saw him outside yelling at a group of kids threatening to fight them.  And he did it in such a way that reminded me of these shows that he watches.  Just as well I’ve seen people at our school who are so wrapped up in their television show that it is scary.

What I find saddening however is the news stations that I go through just to see what’s up in the world.  So many stations bring up something new about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears or they just bring up something that will hurt one of the presidential candidates.  And then there are the stations that say “why are we talking about this?” yet they are the ones who continue to cover that kind of news!  It’s maddening sometimes.  Now as I’ve said before I watch Glenn Beck who’s on at 7 and 9.  I often tell my dad that it seems like he is one of few in the media today that has common since.  But I swear I watch some of these news channels and can’t help but hit my head on the desk in disbelief at some of the things said.  All I seem to be able to come by in television anymore is something about a celebrity and what they did wrong.

Now what does all this mean?  I think any one can establish that television has a lot of bad stuff on it.  And I think many would go as far as to say that we should protect our kids from this stuff.  Well I disagree somewhat with that.

Personally I think there comes a point where you can not hide your kid from the world.  However there are things on tv that a lot of kids should not be seeing.

Now heres what it all comes down to really.  Television has some good and some bad stuff although it would seem that the bad heavily outweighs the good in this case.  What we need to do is simple yet complicated.  If we can simply pull ourselves away from the tv and I don’t know go outside for a change it would be for the better.  The United States is becoming more obese.  So why not go outside rather then sit on the couch watching tv all day?  Something else we have to be careful about is to not get too into a particular show.  It can often be scary.  Say you don’t like American Idol in front of someone who is a die hard fan and prepare to face their wrath.

I often think that if people did something productive like going outside and getting fresh air or (heres a novel idea) pick up a Bible(or even a book!) that we wouldn’t have to be hearing people talk about all the bad things go on in Hollywood.

I’m not done!  Come back tomorrow for part two of the series.  Music is on my list and I’ve got some stuff to say about that.  Also if you haven’t read my earlier post on Self Responsibility then you will want to do that because that is going to come into play in this series.

I’m sure we all have heard this before.  If you haven’t a Sunday Christian is basically a person who goes to Church on Sundays and the rest of the week basically forgets about the Bible and God.  They are the people who call themselves Christians but in no way show it.  And quite frankly I think there are way too many of these types of people around.

I know a lot of people who go to Church or go to the Bible studies but I’ve yet to see them show there beliefs.  It’s like once they leave Church they forget all about the Bible and it’s saddening.  With Easter coming up I’m sure the Churches will find that they get a large boost in attendance only for the new people on Easter never to come again.  Too many people go on the “important” days and don’t come again nor do they even try to live a Christian life.

And maybe they don’t realize it yet but that is not going to get you into Heaven.  I mean you hear about people complaining that Christians have a terrible stereotype about them but the stereotypes are just untrue.  But the thing is these same people are the ones who add to the stereotype.  I’ve heard many say that Christians are judgmental…and sadly for the most part this is true.  But what people need to realize is that that should not be the Christian way of life.  We shouldn’t be judgmental or any of these other stereotypes that are being thrown around.

So what am I saying then?  Don’t be a Sunday Christian and don’t live a stereotypical Christian life.  Break the mold and show the world what Christianity is really about.  There are people out there trying to do this but there aren’t enough.  We are told to go and make disciples of all nations so how about we go do that.

We all know who Judas is.  He’s the man who betrayed Jesus.  Traded him off for some money.  As a result Jesus was crucified.  So Judas is a bad man right?  He is probably rotting in Hell right now right?  Not necessarily.

First off if your wondering what this has to do with anything then may I inform you now.  As with the post I wrote before concerning Adam and Eve this is just as well just for a little fun.  Get off topic and talk about some different things that I think may have happened contrary to what you may think.

So what exactly did happen to Judas then?  I’d say that growing up in Sunday School or just going to Church in general most people who probably have the thought that Judas was a very very bad person and most definitely went to Hell.  But I beg to differ and here is why.

We all know Judas turn Jesus in.  But why?  Well let’s look at what happens.  Jesus is crucified.  He makes the ultimate sacrifice.  All those prophecies that were foretold in the Old Testament came true because of Judas.  I firmly believe that each and every person has a destiny.  God has a plan for everybody.  I believe that this was Judas’ destiny.  It was God’s plan for Judas.

But there would have to be more.  Judas couldn’t possibly get a free ride into Heaven for helping Jesus get crucified that would go against a lot of things in the Bible right?  Yes and there is more.

You see when Judas finally realized what he had done he returned to the people that he turned Jesus in to and threw the money back at them.  He had saw that what he had done was a terrible thing and in my opinion repented.

Jesus said that the only way to get to the Father was through him.  Judas clearly believed in Jesus and I believe that at that moment he set his beliefs in stone.

But there is one last part to this story.  After Judas returns the money and leaves and hangs himself.  Now for a very long time I could have sworn that somewhere in the Bible there was mentioning that killing yourself was basically a one way ticket to Hell.  But for the past year I’ve tried to find it and could not.  And so I can say no where in the Bible have I seen this said.

So going off that I believe that Judas did not go to Hell.  So if he didn’t go to Hell he went to Heaven right?  No.  This may be confusing but hear me out.  I believe, based on verses in Revelation,  that there is no one but God, Jesus, Angels and if I recall correctly a few people that scripture mentions being taken directly up to Heaven in Heaven right now.

Now this again is a whole different topic that I will go into at a later date but let me finish with Judas.  So I think that Judas is in a place that we know of as Purgatory.  An in between place where the dead sleep until Judgment Day.

So what should we think about Judas then?  I believe that he will end up going to Heaven.  I also think that Judas, although having done a very terrible thing, was actually a good person.  I mean if it wasn’t for him it would have had to have been someone else to turn Jesus in.  Someone had to take the blame and Judas did.