More updates

Wow, this is my One Hundred and Thirty-Seventh post, let's all have a celebration! >_>

It's come to my attention that some people have problems posting comments. I apologize for this but it's probably because I'm part of the "testing community" for the new Beta Blogger. I like the control panel but I can't post with my account on non-beta bloggers, and non-beta bloggers apparently can't post on mine. I do appreciate comments though, so if you have one, you can always leave it as "Other" instead of logging in with your normal user name.

Well, this blogger deserves an update but we'll see how much material I can remember!

Last Friday the church put on a picnic dinner for the International students here at OSU, I had talked to some young Indian men at the Mayor's Welcome a month ago and had seen some of them again at Lights on Stillwater and they assured me they were looking forward to it, yet they didn't show up. There were three girls (possibly four, I wasn't sure if one of them was new to the States or not) who came to the dinner. I had forgotten but I remembered that a lot of Indians especially try to stay away from meat. In particular, beef, since they consider cattle to be sacred for some reason.

Sunday was very good, I am so thankful for the encouragement each week in the sermon, and the lectures that Mr C gives on "Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices" is so very applicable. If only I would apply them to my life! Captain Thunderbolt made another appearance in Enid. Sightings have been increasing. That night, Jon, Jon, and I had a "debate" against Philip. We were Arminian "Non-Denominational Baptists" (who didn't "interpret" Scripture, we just read it like it was) and Philip was arguing against the views from Scripture. I found out, when I got back home, that there really IS such a thing as "Non-denominational Baptist." I had no idea! It sounds contradictory to me!

Monday night the Bible study at the Jon^2 place went well. We actually got into the first chapter! I'm curious to see how the next chapter, on Man's Depravity, goes.

This last week has been going well for me. In fact, tonight I have finished my Physics homework for the week, my Calculus Homework for the week, and also my Circuits (and Statics for the day). I need to get busy on Differential Equations (due next Monday) but other than that, things seem to be going very well. I have a couple of tests coming up this week and a couple more next week, but I don't think they should be a problem, I've been keeping up with the homework and think I understand it fairly well. A lot of other students are stressing out and saying how they should be studying, so it makes me wonder if I should be studying for it as well. I will probably work out a few more problems as practice, but other than that, what more can I do at this point? I really don't know.

I just went to the campus a few minutes ago in order to get help on a Statics problem, only to find out that I had done it correctly, I was just thinking I hadn't completed it. So.... I guess that's nice.

I finished Hodge's Systematic Theology on Sunday, it took me longer than it should have but I finished about a half dozen books while reading that one. And I'm working on about six right now (the three paperbacks shouldn't take too long, they are for the three weekly studies). Right now, the main book I'm reading is a compliation of Josh McDowell's books "Evidence that Demands a Verdict."

In my Bible reading, I've been up to Jeremiah. Just the other day I was reading in Jeremiah 33, where God restates his promise to David. He says:

"David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel."

I stopped there and pondered it for a little while, imagining how it must have sounded to a Hebrew back then, who would think literally of this happening, the physical line of David, generation after generation, forever and ever. But obviously (as Hebrews makes clear) this was fulfilled in Christ, and he reigns forever, he does sit on that throne. I continued to the next verse:

"And the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever."

My jaw just dropped! This was fulfilled in Christ too! I mean, I've known about this, but seeing it predicted in the Old Testament, and then seeing the fulfillment in the New, just made me excited! I tried sharing this with a few people but I don't think it bubbled over for them like it did for me. I felt like a little kid pointing his finger at the passage "Look at this. No really, LOOK at it! Look at it!" Christ did offer one sacrifice for us, yet he continually functions as a priest (which is what I take the gist of this verse to mean) in the presence of God, on behalf of His people, on behalf of me! To think back then that this would be fulfilled in a continual line of priests and then to realize that it was ultimately fulfilled in the "great priest" just made me excited. Anyway, I had to share.

Lastly, there has been a program that I've been testing out for a little while. It's called "Page Update Watcher."

What you do, is make a list of all the webpages that you frequently check, or want to keep tabs on (such as bloggers). As you enter each page, you can set the frequency with which the program checks for updates. I set mine for a day yet I check manually.

When I get home from school, or whenever I want to check, I just click the "check all" button and it runs down the list, comparing the html code on the page with the last time it checked and notifies you if the page has been changed at all. For bloggers, this means that you'll be notified when there is a new comment (because that changes the number of comments on the page) or a page layout change, or whatever.

Instead of closing the program, I minimize it and it runs in the system tray (the lower right corner of your taskbar). This is how I save time on checking everything. All the pages that show up as having something new, I double click one at a time and view them. So instead of visiting every page and seeing if there is an update, this program does it for me and I can just look at the ones that have actually been updated. It saves time and keeps me notified! I hope someone else can find it useful as well.