All clear? Yes.

So… through a course of fortunate events, the person who I wrote of last time read my post. So I want to thank the person that read this and told the person, you helped my relationship with him… honestly, no sarcasm. The person, showing a better part of his character, came to me on Friday and asked me why I had been attacking him (not just on my blog, but also in snide comments that I have made to him). As he spoke, I realized that what he said was true. I had been attacking him with my words, whether meaning to or not, and for this I was wrong. After he was done, I apologized, and then, to my surprise (a pleasant surprise), he also apologized to me. I realized that I had been misjudging him all along, we hugged, we did the show… we’re friends now. Later, someone else apologized for an argument that I had had with them. I then apologized for engaging, and so, now I am at odds with no one at theatre. Seeing as we have one show left today, that is a good thing. Yes, the show is coming to a close, I am not very happy about this fact, acting is so much fun, as are the people in this show. Now that I have no controversies with people, nor do they have them with me, I feel much better, knowing that I am leaving the theatre tonight with nothing to make right. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing.

Simeon.

2 Cor. 5:17-21

End of Year... end of show :(

Well, I am coming to the end of the production "A Christmas Carol" and am sorry to see it go. This has definitely been a wonderful show... I've made some good friends. But, sadly, with my personality, I have made enemies... or at least one. And I wonder if I did wrong to cause this or if it was because I did something right. In the years that I've been a Christian, I've come to believe that my faith is a part of me, it's what makes me who I am. This person, who also claims to be a Christian, is not happy when I bring any sort of moral code into the equation, telling me, "You don't bring religion or politics here, Simeon. You don't make friends that way." Well, _____, I don't agree. And honestly, I felt like giving that person something to chew on... like some of their own teeth. Refraining severely tested me. At the moment, I am still struggling to love that person like Christ would want me to... loving an enemy is very difficult. So pray for me... please. That I would continue to show the love of Christ to this foe and attempt to make him an ally. I must pass this test, whether now or later, and I would much rather that it be now. 
                Moving on, I am extremely excited for the 22nd of December... why? Because I am going to see some good friends in California for Christmas and New Years!!!! Piles of snow, shovels, gloves, hats, and boots, Asher and Ezra, I'll be set for vacation. Graduation is coming quickly, less than half a year away and I am incredibly pumped to be done with school....


God Bless, 
Thanx for reading,
and Merry Christmas!!
Simeon
2 Cor. 5:17-21

Change?

It's been a few weeks since I blogged last and it's given me a long time to think about what I am doing, especially why I'm doing it. I am not ultra-religious, in fact I hope that I'm not religious at all. Though it may seem like it, I am not consumed with making everything a spiritual object lesson (good thing or bad thing, I don't know) But as I read the Bible more and more (which to my shame hasn't been a lot lately) I realize what a horrible person I really am. in Proverbs (I believe the verse is 17:5, don't quote me) God says that the haughty are an abomination to Him. Ouch! I am abomination to my Savior. That one really hurts. It never ceases to amaze me how the very one who hates what I am is the very same person who loves who I am and I can only change if I ask this person for help. Pray for me please. Not only do I need to change, I want to want to change (if you follow me). I want to reach Paradise, the REAL Paradise and have Him say "Well done." If I am to be humbled, then I'd much rather that it be here as opposed to there. Please pray that God puts His joy back inside this rotten mind, the humility into (for it was never there) this wretched soul, and the love into this blackened heart. Please also pray that I come to show respect for my elders in actions, tone of voice, and countenance. I don't want anyone to be able to look down on me because of a sinful habit.

Thanks for reading,
Simeon
2 Cor. 5:17-21 (God let this be me!)

A Christmas Carol?

So, for those who care, I am wrapping up week 2 of Bye-Bye Birdie today, and I just found out that I am to play "Young Scrooge" in "A Christmas Carol" at Paradise Theater in Gig Harbor. Rehearsal starts on the 4th of October, and I am already really pumped to do this show. The acting bug has come around to get me again. (I think this might be a sign... who knows?) I also turned 18 today, which is pretty exciting as well. God has been good to me all these years and I know that He won't change. School has started up again, my senior year. Just a few more months and I will graduate (but never from the School of Life)!

So long and farewell chaps!
'Til next time,
Simeon

Musicals among other things...

So right now, I am house-sitting with my brother. It's pretty fun, lots of time to think. God's been really good lately, I got a part in a musical called Bye-Bye Birdie, based off of the movie of the same name. So far I've been in two rehearsals and I am enjoying getting back into the chow business. Well, folks, besides the fact that I am starting my senior year soon, there's nothing new. See you next time.

Simeon

Captain America: The First Avenger

Wow, what a movie... now that Disney owns Marvel, it looks as if the superhero movies will get cleaner, and better. I am not going to say much because I don't want to spoil it for those of you who have not experienced the  amazingness. There is some mild language (though it is used "appropriately" if you follow me), a guy gets buzzed in a propeller, but other than that, it was really clean.  For some reason, the trailer appears grainy, but when you click on it and it begins to play, it is clear...

Don't you just love that patriotism... Heroes are made in America!

If you do go see it, make sure you wait until the VERY end before you leave the theater. You don't want to miss the ending scene.

Simeon

2 Cor. 5:17-21

Spoiler Alert!

Wow, I have not been on here for a long time. A lot has happened since then. I went and saw THOR 3D and was very impressed with its redemptive message.  I have to admit, I was skeptical when I went to see it (him being a Norse god and all). I expected it to be full of superstition, magic, and a pagan worldview.  I titled this post “Spoiler Alert” because I am going to discuss the movie and how it relates to us as Christians and want to warn those who have yet to see this amazing movie. Although it may look like it will be fuzzy, the trailer is clear.

The movie is about a boy becoming a man, finding out what it means to be a good king, and showing that suffering, seen in the right light, will produce good fruit. For those who have seen the movie, it is interesting to see the different shadows of Christianity sprinkled throughout the film. While Thor is on earth and Odin is in a coma, Frigga tells Loki that Odin “never does anything without a purpose.” (Was that Branagh’s shot at sovereignty?) Thor approaches the Destroyer and offers his life instead of the humans and the Destroyer smacks him with his spiked arm. As Thor lies dying, he asks Jane if they are safe, then he dies and it is in the moment of apparent loss, that Thor wins his greatest victory. Does that remind you at all of Someone else who died but won? Even after returning to Asgard, Thor again sacrifices what he wants to save others by destroying the Bifrost to save Jötunheim (pronounced “yodenheim”) the home of the Frost Giants, even though it means he won’t be able to see Jane Foster again. All this to say, I really enjoyed the movie and I hope you did or will enjoy it as well.

Thanks for reading,

Simeon.

2 Cor. 5:17-21

Another good review is: http://www.pluggedin.com/movies/intheaters/thor.aspx 

School, work, and other things.

The snow is gone, replaced by days upon days of rain, that's a Washington winter for you. The other day, my older brother and I had to roll these massive logs into our backyard and stack them. Talk about tough! So lately I have been splitting a ton of  wood (literally!).  My blogging will have to slow down a bunch because of school, and the fact that I might be starting a job, so bear with me.

'Til I blog again,
Simeon.
2 Cor. 5:17-21

Long time, no blog.

Yeah, I know that the post title is dumb, but it was the best that I could come up with for right now. It's been a few weeks since my last post. Sorry about that, I was sick (superbad headache, weakness, DOUBLE ear infection! God proved  His goodness through it all, though, as He always does). Something unbelievably weird happened on  Friday. It snowed! Quite shocking because it actually stuck. My grandparents (who live in Tacoma) had FOUR inches. So, yeah, the weather is being weird. God really doesn't care about being normal. Although I like snow, I miss summer. So that is about all that I have to say right now besides the fact that life is good. Wait, we watched Robin Hood (Ridley Scott's) It was very entertaining, Scott threw a cool twist on it, not necessarily historically accurate, but good nonetheless.

Thanx for reading, y'all.
Simeon.

Not-so-ordinary people

You may wonder why I say that we Christians are not-so-ordinary people. Allow me to explain... in the Bible, Jesus was talking to the disciples about miracles. He had just cast a demon out of a little boy, "19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, 'Why could we not cast it out?' He said to them, h 'Because of your little faith. For i truly, I say to you, j if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, k you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move, andl nothing will be impossible for you.' [1] (Matthew 17:19-20, ESV) I don't know about you, but I haven't seen any amazing miracles lately. We (Christians) have the spiritual power of the Hulk, but are afraid of the little mouse called Failure and his brother Scorn. We are NOT ordinary. We have a "Superhero" Who lets us use His power to do good, but we don't act on this. Imagine how the world would be shocked if all of the not-so-ordinary people rose up and did something. I know that there would be a BIG difference in the way that Christians are viewed. Right now, most people think that we civilized Christians talk big, but walk little. Now I know that there are a lot of us that go unnoticed, so the world is a little misled, but they do have grounds for this assumption. Let's change what they think of us, all of the not-so-ordinary people. Let's DO HARD THINGS, and make a change. Whether it's one conversation, one tweet, or one act of kindness at a time, you never know how God can use you. 


Press on, friends, 
"Be strong and courageous" God is with us, 
So never fear to follow where He leads,
Simeon.
2. Cor. 5:17-21

I'm a Sinner

Here's an interesting thought, we should be happy that we are sinners. We shouldn't continue in our sin, yes; but, Jesus died to save sinners, this is truly wonderful.


Simeon. 
2 Cor. 5:17-21

My Hope SHOULD BE Built On Nothing Less

Have you ever heard Hawk Nelson’s song “Friend Like That”? Part of it says “I, I need Somebody on the inside. I, I want Somebody who can set me free. I’m not the only one who feels like this, I’ve got a few others around me. Hey! Hey! Let me hear you say, make some noise if you feel this way. Hey! If you got a Friend like that. Hey! Let’s scream and shout if you know what I’m talkin’ about! Hey! If you got a Friend like that.” I thoroughly enjoy this song and I feel like screaming and shouting. Anyway, to move on to my point. Sometimes, as Christians, we lose sight of where our joy comes from in life. We place our hope in things of this world and when those things fail us, we become disheartened. A good friend of mine told me recently, “You can’t rely on other humans for approval or acceptance, the only person you should care about approving you is Jesus, if you have His approval, then nothing else matters. He has already accepted you.”  This friend of mine is rarely serious and if he reads this, he would probably be surprised by the impact that his statement made on me. I already knew what he said was true, but God knew I needed that wake-up call. Christians should be the happiest people on earth, but because we place our hope in something other than Jesus, we constantly lose our joy. We need to remember that we have “Somebody on the inside” and we have “Somebody who can set us free” so we should “scream and shout” because we have a solid Rock to place our hope on. The world should know, without a doubt, who we serve because of our happiness (besides our love). Jesus has saved us and He will NEVER let us down. This should make us happy. We have a “Friend like that” and this should cause us to be extremely joyful.

Thanks for reading,

Simeon

2 Cor. 5:17-21

My Redeemer's Love

            As the shadow of the Christmas season fades, I think about our AMAZING Savior. Does it shock you that Jesus was willing to die for you and me? We can be very sinful at times and He knew this all along, but He didn’t think twice about it, He came.

            For this next section, I will use the parable of the prodigal son to help illustrate my point. At the point of conversion, God the Father takes our filthy rags and gives us a clean robe, a ring, and a new life. He only asks two things of us, #1 to not get our clothes dirty (that was a BIG paraphrase of when Jesus said “Go and sin no more, but only I use this for the purpose of illustration) and #2 to live for Him. But, we, being human, don’t listen. Then we repent of our wrong, ask forgiveness for our sin, and the Father says, “You know what, My Son died for all mankind, His blood is definitely enough to cover this sin. I forgive you.” And you know what? He does it again and again, because we sin again and again. It blows me away that He forgives again and again, without thinking twice. This is love. I have five younger brothers who I love, okay, most of them can take care of themselves now, but when they were younger, I can remember getting them ready for church and washing their face, getting them clean. Nevertheless, they were little boys, and no matter how hard I tried, they wouldn’t stay clean, so after the tenth, scratch that, the fifth time of washing them in a short amount of time, I would start to get frustrated with them, I was like, “Why can’t you just stay clean?,”  but God NEVER gets even mildly upset with us after all that we do, He just cleans us up and pushes us on. I just picture myself at the end of all things and Satan will stand there pointing at the faintest, little smudge on my white garment, perhaps a sin that I didn’t repent of, and he laughs, “Aha! Aha! Look here, he was not forgiven of this sin!” and my Wonderful Master Jesus Christ looks from the smudge to His Holy and Just Father and says, “Father, I died for Simeon’s sins, didn’t I?” and God will say, “Yes, Son, You did.”

            Jesus will continue, “And is he in my Book of Life?”

            The Father will say, “Yes, he is.”

            Then Jesus will turn to Satan and say, “Be gone, Satan, My blood is enough to cover this last sin.”

            Wow, “How Marvelous, How wonderful is my Savior’s love for me.

Hallelujah, Amen.

Simeon

2 Cor. 5:17-21

Mark Driscoll on Twilight

So here's the deal: thousands of Christians are being sucked (no pun intended) into the demonic world of Twilight. So here is some good, solid preaching on why it is wrong... This guy is amazing.
Note: If you are under thirteen, please have your parents preview this video.

My First Post

Hey to my readers, just a minute, let me count them... zero. Well, whatever, I will write until I get some and keep writing after that. I am sick with a cold at the moment, but will endeavor to write something with meaning............ Okay, I guess not, can't really think straight. But, to leave you with an encouraging note: "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." Remember that without Jesus, we are nothing.

Until next time, 

Simeon

2 Cor. 5:17-21