The Shadow's Demise

Not really. I'm going to try to make an update but make it short (haha) and to the point.

The trouble with updating every day is it takes up way too much time. I must say I really enjoy being able to work and come home and then have nothing really to do, I have time to read again! This past semester was extremely busy and I felt like it was non-stop school and homework every waking hour. It also made me realize that I must have had a lot of spare time the previous semester because I DID update nearly every day.

On the other hand, the problem with updating a couple times a week (or less) is not only do I forget the most important things that I wanted to share or had been thinking about, but also, the things that I DO remember seem to gather themselves into a heap and come out in one great big pile (the last post seemed a touch long in my opinion).

Speaking of school, though I did get a B in the one class, I found out that I apparently had the highest score in the Engineering Design and AutoCAD class, which was the one I was working hardest at. I know it's only because my peers did poorer because I wouldn't have said I excelled, but it was still rather comforting to know. There were about 160 students who made it to the end and that class has a huge drop rate. Everyone hates the instructor and says he is insane. I know he personally puts a huge amount of time into the class and strives to prepare his students the best way he knows how. He is extremely strict but that helps me to try harder. Now if they only would hand out scholarships for things like that.....

I want to say thank you to all of you who have been leaving comments, I appreciate them and though I'd like to reply, usually I get online for a few minutes in the evening, send out the e-mails I need to, clean out my queue for SafeRegistry and then get back to my studying or possibly to bed. There just isn't enough time in the day it seems. I do read every comment though because they are sent to my inbox and I've really been grateful to see those. F.B., I really enjoyed your description of Sunday night, I'm sorry to miss Mr. W's lessons but the description of J. Nathan's tale was especially entertaining. He does have quite a good imagination and can be quite funny!

The Pastor of the Reformed Baptist church came to visit on Tuesday, I thought that was a nice gesture, but also, their congregation is very small, they've had a number of people leave over the years. It was funny when he was talking to me personally, we were discussing a few things, the demon-possession (as mentioned by the pastor of the Velma Fellowship) and whenever I would start to say something he would jump in and interrupt me. Perhaps he didn't want that "Presbyterian" to get a word in edgewise ;) But honestly I couldn't because he wouldn't really let me. We also visited the church on Wednesday night. There are definite Southern Baptist influences as I mentioned before, but the preaching does seem good. One thing that struck me is that he does seem to think highly of their teaching in respects to other places in the area. He told me about the book he was writing on Revelation and also how one of his favourite books of John MacArthur's was Ashamed of the Gospel and he said that he wishes he (personally) had written that book 10 years ago. He also gave me a tape of his to listen to. A very nice man but seemingly very self-assured, at least that was my impression but I don't presume to judge his heart. He kept repeating that what they did they did because well, it's right! For example: Our kids don't date, they court. And to others that may seem weird but it's right! Just in my own mind I couldn't help but contrasting Bruce. He is probably the most humble and god-fearing man I have had the honour to know and I respect him very much. I was never interrupted or "shut out/down" when speaking with him but he was always very careful to come alongside rather than look down the nose. The Wednesday night study was good, he preached on James, but it just wasn't a family like at Stillwater.

On Tuesday night we had the wife of the man who died over here, along with our neighbours who are in their late seventies or early eighties, the Robinsons. Apparently Mrs Robinson was rather spunky tomboy when she was younger. She used to have red hair (and still hopes for a red-headed great-grandchild) and still seems to be quite active. She told me she has been cutting out all of the things that have been said in the paper about me (all of which I NEVER authorized). Then Mr Robinson told the story of how he first heard of her. He was reading the newspaper (many, many years ago of course) and saw that "Mary-Jane" had won the wild-cow milking contest. He decided that he'd better get to know this gal. She was his first and only sweetheart. Mrs Robinson declared that though people think it was quite a feat to have won such a contest, that she had five older brothers and she was the youngest so she had grown up doing things like that. The fellow she knew just said that he would rope the cow and asked if she would milk it so she said "sure!" as she jumped off the fence where she'd been sitting. Tweren't nothin'.

Mr Robinson is nearly deaf without his hearing aids (which he apparently refuses to wear) so the entire evening was filled with trying to get him keyed in on the conversation. When you say "yes" in answer to a question, make sure you NOD emphatically to go along with it! The younger kids, after dinner when everyone was sitting around and talking, brough in their little plastic dragons and showed him. Everyone else was talking about something else and me, like usual, was just listening to it all. He said the dragons looked quite ugly and said he'd like to stick it in his wife's side of the bed and see what she did when she pulled back the covers. "How'd she like to find that in bed with her?" He chuckled. Then he started edging it sideways on the table toward her until it was directly in front of her, where she was sitting with her hands folded. Eventually she looked down and gave a rather satisfying gasp while her hand went to her chest. I think she mainly did that to give him the satisfaction of having "scared" her. But as she goes out (or used to before the mountain lions came around) and shoot armadillos by the moonlight and milking wild cows and such, I doubt a little dragon would REALLY scare her ;)

Oh, and I put new lightbulbs in our room, that's exciting. Over Christmas break I could hardly stand it. You'd flick on the light and sarcastically observe it and state out loud "Well, that sure brightens the room." It was really bad, it reminded me of the dying sun of Charn, a dull orange that one can barely see even to read by when directly under it. They were the lightbulbs that the electricians had installed so I just got a couple of new ones and my brother and I took down the lamp from the ceiling and put the new ones in and it was amazing what a difference there was! Now I see to read by at night and can stay up later, much to my brother's disappointment!

One last thought I have for today. I was reading in Pink's exposition of Hebrews and he went on a slight tangent to say that often people will refer in their prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ as simply "Jesus" which, as he stated, is only done in the Bible when it is to show his humiliation or when used by his enemies and for Christians to do so is very irreverent. I had never thought of this before. He cited 1 Cor 1:3-10 as an example, where Jesus Christ is referred to over and over with His titles rather than simply "Jesus."

This rather startled me and at the same time made me examine. Though of course the important thing is the heart, the externals are important as well, for it reveals what is in the heart. I will often say "Lord Jesus" but rarely "Christ Jesus" and yes, I do say simply "Jesus" from time to time. It has made me wish to examine that, to study all the references and see whether this is true or not. It seems to me to be a very good point that Pink made, but any comments or thoughts on the matter would be welcome.