My Heart is Not Set on You

                        One of the things that I love about Scripture is that I can read through it countless times and still read something that hadn't noticed before. Like Psalm 131 for example. Verses one and three have been my prayer for some time now and here I find that David prayed the same way. It's similar to what the Apostle Paul says in one of his letters, and I paraphrase, “I do what I know I shouldn't and don't do what I know I should.” In Gethsemane, Jesus told his disciples, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Isn't that the truth? I know it is for me. I will continue to strive to put my faith, gain my joy, and find my assurance in Christ. What about you? 

Lessons from Thor (i wasn't sure what else to call it)

I thought you dead./ Did you mourn?/ We all did. Our father.../ YOUR father! He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?/ We were raised together, we played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?/ I remember a shadow, living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss, I who was and should be king!/ So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No, the Earth is under MY protection, Loki!/ [laughs] And you're doing a marvelous job with that! The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you ideally threat. I mean to rule them. And why should I not?/ You think yourself above them?/ Well, yes./ Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill./ I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, Odin's Son, in my exile! I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it.../ Who showed you this power? Who controls the would-be-king?/ I AM a king!/ NOT HERE! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!... You come home.

I love the heart of Thor. He continually extends reconciliation to Loki. His heart is for his brother to repent. No matter what Loki does. Even in Thor: The Dark World, after he says, "KNOW that WHEN you betray me, I will kill you," he says, "I wish I could trust you." After everything that happened, after Loki killed him, he still forgives. While on Pinterest the other day, I saw something that I thought was quite profound. It said, "Watching Thor, I find it sad that Loki spends so much time wallowing in the fact that he's not Odin's favorite, but he completely misses the fact that he's Thor's favorite." It's most obvious when Loki dies*, Thor's grief is real and heart-rending.

Similarly, I think we, as Christians, spend much of our lives wanting to be popular or the cool friend or the favorite, and we miss the fact that Jesus is there loving us... Even after we killed Him. Sure, I may be stretching the example, but I hope you get the point. Jesus wants us to "give up our poisonous dreams" and come back to Him. To what matters. *side note: Yes, he didn't die and I was so upset that Loki didn't ACTUALLY die. He died so well. There was reconciliation. There was closure. Aaaaand they had to screw it up by letting him live

Bend

There are those moments in life where my pride says “Be stubborn, ‘cuz we all know you’re right” but my conscience says, “Yeah, um. No. No, you’re wrong. And you know it. You need to submit. Suck it up. Do the right thing.” It’s like the angel/demon on the shoulder war. And you want so bad for the demon to be right, but you know deep down that the angel’s spot on. You know you’re gonna have to humble yourself before you’re humbled, but it’s so hard. And you know it’s gonna be worth it. That you’ll look back on this and think, “Why was I such a blockhead?” But in the heat of it all, in the thick of it, your pride, the flesh, it just holds on so tight. Yeah. This is what we call life. Maturing. Growing up. Sometimes life sucks. But we have to get over it. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves and change. The right thing is the right thing. No matter how we feel about it. Deal with it.

Flight of Time

So, time flies fast. Like really, really fast. It seems like yesterday was my last post, but it's been about a month. What's happened in between? Well, I took a trip to Nevada with my father (strictly for work) and while driving back up, we hit black ice and rolled his work rig. Yeah, that's about the closest to death that I've come. But we are fine, no injuries. Like, at all. God has been very good to us. We celebrated a wonderful Christmas as well as ringing in the New Year. The most recent news, however,  is that I will be auditioning for an acting agent on Saturday. This Saturday. Needless to say, I am very excited. Very, very, VERY excited.

Happy New Year, everyone!
Remember in all things, no matter how far we fall,
Jesus never, ever, ever gives up on us.
Be true to Him because, most assuredly, He is always true to us.
In fact, He is truth.

Simeon.

The Screwtape Letters

Have you ever wanted to know what the demons think? Have you ever wondered how they go about tempting you every day? Well, many years ago, C.S. Lewis penned a book that might give you a little glimpse into the other side.

            The Screwtape Letters is a fictitious assortment of letters written by Undersecretary Screwtape, a retired tempter, to his nephew, Wormwood, a beginning tempter. These letters are filled with tidbits of advice that are supposed to help Wormwood “secure” the soul of his “patient.” Although the reader never hears what Wormwood says or does, the attitude of Screwtape’s letters convey what is evidently happening. He is a blundering, clumsy idiot of a demon and Screwtape has much fun in telling him so. Whether or not the soul is captured I will leave up to you to find out…

         Although it is, as said before, a fictitious writing, C.S. Lewis brings up many good points throughout these letters. The wisdom written here should be heeded and spread so that less and less of Christians will fall into the devil’s clever, imperceptible traps.

Hunter Brown and the Eye of Ends

Hunter Brown and the Eye of Ends, written by the Miller Brothers, is the thrilling conclusion to the Hunter Brown Trilogy. This book is entertaining, original, and packed with biblical truths. Although the message that “the Author writes everything for a purpose” still seems to be an overriding theme, the main theme seems to be “Trust that God want the best for you.”

            After saving Cranton from the school fire, Hunter is sedated by two “hospital” workers, and when he wakes up, he can’t remember anything that happened the previous night… except the fair. His whole memory of his second trip to Solandria has been erased, not that he knows that. A big black detective named Vogler comes to him at the hospital and gives Hunter his backpack, which was found at the scene of the fire, and Hunter finds his things in it: his Author’s Writ, his Veritas Sword… and someone else’s, but he can’t remember whose it is. To make matters worse, when he tries to use his sword, he gets incredibly painful migraines. After being let go from the hospital, he is visited by another stranger, a girl named Desi, who gives him a card that says he has an overdue item at the library… only he’s never had a library account. Through mysterious circumstances, he gets a call from Desi, who tells Hunter that Vogler is looking for him and is there at the library. She saves him from the detective and takes him to her uncle, who informs him that Vogler is actually an evil Watcher named Tonomis and that he (the uncle), a man named Simon Ot, knows Hunter’s father, Caleb. He also knows that Caleb was the last human in possession of the mysterious Eye of Ends…

            Why can Hunter not remember his visit to Solandria with Trista? Is Vogler really who Simon says he is? Is Hunter’s father still alive? And what exactly is the Eye of Ends? Find out for yourself when you read Hunter Brown and the Eye of Ends. 

Hunter Brown and the Consuming Fire

Hunter Brown and the Consuming Fire, written by the Miller Brothers, is the sequel to Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow and is the second book in the Hunter Brown trilogy. The Brothers have outdone themselves in making this book better than the first. New characters are brought in, an original story is weaved, and the Gospel is still presented smoothly.

            It has been three months since Hunter has returned from the alternate universe of Solandria to his home in Destiny. Summer break is over and he is back in school, beginning to doubt his experience was real, and not just a dream. Then the school klutz, Rob Bungle, stumbles into his life, knocking over the school bully, Cranton and leaving a trail of napkins in is wake. As Cranton bullies Rob, Hunter sees a mark written on one of the napkins, a mark that makes him realize that his experience was real… the Author’s mark. When he gets home that day, he finds the house a mess. The cause? A little monkey-like creature with glowing blue eyes that as an aversion to light and more importantly... it’s from Solandria. Hunter decides to take the little thing to the fair that night, to show his two friends, Stretch and Stubbs, that Solandria is real.  As he waits at the spot that Stretch and Stubbs had agreed to meet him, Trista, his older sister Emily’s friend, strikes up a conversation with him. Stretch and Stubbs never show. A commotion draws their attention to a boy a had walked into a display… Rob. As Trista and Hunter help Rob pick up the mess he made, Cranton sees Rob and makes his way over through the crowd to finish the beating that the principal cut short. Guilty by association, Hunter and Trista flee with Rob. As they hide in the fair stables, little Shadow beasts attack the trio and Rob pulls out his Veritas sword to protect the others. Through a series of unfortunately fortunate events, they end up in a gondola. Dispirits (huge insect-like things with nasty, stinging tongues) attack them and Rob bravely defends the little gondola, but, also severs it from the cable. The gondola plunges down, not into the fair, but off to Solandria.

            The Miller Brothers do a fabulous job authoring this book to glorify the master Author. I would recommend this book to anyone, no matter their literary tastes, although I think they should read the books in order. The story is quite captivating and makes for hours of good reading.

Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow

Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, written by brothers Christopher and Allan Miller, follows the story of a teenage boy named Hunter Brown. Although written for teens and children, the Millers make the story more than merely fun to read. Through the course of the book, they let out biblical truths that their audience can understand, while not giving the feeling of being preachy; mainly, that God is in control, and that whether the circumstances be good or bad, He always has a purpose for them.

            The story opens as Hunter is running for his life. The reason? He just pulled a prank on the school bully, Cranton, who isn’t too happy about. Hunter and two of his friends hide in a dumpster… that locks itself. As they begin to panic over their situation, a kind janitor named Evan opens the dumpster and helps them out. He promises not to turn them over to the principle… as long as they do him a small favor. The favor is to run to the local bookshop and get a book, then bring it back to him. It sounds simple enough, so they agree. When they return to the school, Evan is nowhere to be found, and the principal has never heard of him. She believes their story though, and asks them to take her to the book shop so that she can verify with bookshop clerk if in fact they were there. Only, when they get to where the bookshop is supposed to be, it, just like Evan, has vanished. The boys are given detention and the book is confiscated. When he is allowed to go home, Hunter is upset and a little disappointed… until he sets his backpack down. Looking inside, he finds the book and a key to unlock it. Little does he know that opening this book will be the worst and best decision that he will ever make.

            I would recommend this book to anyone who loves reading, especially if they are a Christian. The allegory in this book is well written, the characters believable, and the story captivating.  

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!)

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