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This blog is in serious need of an update. The only problem is that I don't remember everything that happened these past couple of weeks! It would come to me in time but I want to read a little this evening :)

I had some three exams the week before this past one, and one this past week. I did all right in all of them but there were a few silly mistakes I made. Ones which I really, really shouldn't have made! They weren't conceptual mistakes at all, nor would any amount of additional preparation have corrected those, it's just as dumb as writing down someting as Watts when it should be in Amperes. *sigh

As some of you may know, I had been asked by a boy named Will, to meet with him once a week. He told me that he wanted someone who could disciple him, something like a Paul and Timothy relationship. I told him outright that I was no Paul, but I would be glad to meet with him and we could sharpen eachother! He has a hunger for more knowledge, and a passion that would be great if pointed in the right direction. He is the type of guy who stops people on the sidewalk and says "how can I pray for you this week?" Very upfront, very vocal. He wants to go on a mission trip to Africa and we spent some time talking about that. His father (a professing Catholic) has said that he doesn't want him to go into a situation like that and he told him "Dad, though I think this is right and this is my life and I'm old enough to make these decisions, you're still my father and I feel I need to honour you and I won't go without your consent." He says he prays that God would break his heart down.

Will himself comes from a Catholic background obviously, but he has seen the problems with it. I asked him if he would mind going through the Westminster Confession of Faith, a chapter a week, and he said that he would like to do that. I did warn him that the Roman Catholic church would come up more than once in the discussions and he asked if they were "bashing the Catholic church?" To which I responded with a "Yes, pretty much." And he said "sweet man!" So that was encouraging. At least it's not something where he is still very defensive of them. I was encouraged and hope not only to help him grow, but to gain a lot myself as I try to read up and prepare for these weekly study times.

I finished Charles Hodge's "The Way of Life" this past week and I have to say that I highly recommend it. It's well-deserving of the title of a Christian Classic. There was one point that struck me on the last few pages. I got so excited about it that I wanted to mention it to the people in the hallway next to me (waiting for the class before ours to let out). The section (which was short) went like this:

"Jesus is a Saviour, because he saves his people from their sins. Those, therefore, who are not sanctified, are not saved."

He went on to talk more about that, but even that is hard-hitting in itself. Something I /know/ and have known, but never before shown in such light to my heart. It was as though suddenly I realize "OH! So THAT's the difference in people today!" You see, so many people, including the men I was with at a prayer meeting today with Dan, see salvation more as something physical. "Thank you Lord for giving us eternal life." Yes, that is something to be thankful for, but that is neither the object, nor the most important part of salvation. Most tend to view salvation as being saved from hell. Being thankful that now they don't have to be in hell for all eternity, or that they get to be with Christ (which is closer toward the true mark). I myself, when young, used to imagine heaven as pretty much just the opposite of hell. Being saved was "not going to hell."

The biblical view of salvation is much more than that, but for the believer it is salvation from sin. From the very presence of sin. It is the complete opposite of sin and a conformation to Christ! Many people today are apparently saying that one can be a Christian and yet still live completely in sin and never be sanctified. They can even deny the faith and turn to Buddhism, yet because they "said the prayer" at one point, they are truly "saved." But as was pointed out, Jesus was called Jesus because he would save his people from their sins! Someone who is not saved from their sins then, is not saved at all.

As a note, we cannot confuse sanctification with justification though. Sanctification is a necessary outcome of salvation, a necessary "stepping forward" of it (thus Paul can refer to believers as those who are "being saved" 1Co 1:18) but it is by no means a work we perform. We are justified when we believe on Christ, sanctification follows and is intrinsically bound to our salvation. We cannot be saved without it! A man whose passions do not change and who is still set again God, would be be ill-suited to spend an eternity with Him. I just want to be clear to draw the fine line between saying that "sanctification is necessary to salvation" (as though it were a work) and saying that "sanctification is necessarily bound to salvation."

Anyway, I was glad for the opportunity to muse upon this. I had the good fortune to run into Jon N. shortly thereafter and spoke with him about it. As well as F.B. later that night. And I plan on mentioning to Jonathan yet again. The more I learn, the more I realize how important and how central is our union with Christ.

And realizing that everyone else around me seems to know this already, and I did too, but I'm still excited about it!

Last Saturday, Elizabeth, Sarah, Dan, and myself went out to Gus' house to do a little work for her. We washed the car, swept out the garage, cleaned the wheels on a wagon, and raised birdfeeder so the squirrels couldn't knock it from below, among other things. We finished much earlier than expected!

Last night I went to see some basketball games that the Stephen, Laura, Philip, and two of the B. girls played in. I enjoyed all of them, especially the older boys though. The Kirby brothers are impressive to watch, and all of the N's hustle to their destiny and put their hearts into the game. There was this one lad on Stephen's team as well who always seemed to get the rebound, his arms were always in the right spot. I don't recall his number however. Most of the time I spent actually talking to F.B. in the back though. Relating muddled stories of a mission trip to the Philippines about 12 years ago, hearing about school and upcoming classes. I enjoyed the time very much. Laura stopped by for a little while and I pulled out a little bit of chocolate. Her jaw dropped and she stared, gaping for a long while. Then made a grab for it (and missed). Then she proceeded to tell me that the NBA players had to wear tuxedos while playing. I nodded along with "really! I didn't know that!" until F.B. exclaimed "Oh, don't believe a word she tells you!" I'm not /that/ gullible though, and I do know a little bit about sport. I do have a father who liked to watch the Laker's games when he had the chance ;)

Personally, I thought they were all "hotdogs" as our friend Mr Savage used to say.

Today I spent a little time finishing up some Statics homework for Monday, and Calculus homework for next Wednesday. Then I decided to download the manual for my TI-89 calculator and read it for a while. After spending about 45 minutes reading it, I was just shocked. It could do far more than I had realized. I played arround with three-dimensional graphs, directional fields (for differential equations) and polar coordinates. I then went online again and found a webpage that had very brief tutorials on various funtions. Again, I was flabbergasted! I was actually so excited about my calculator that I messaged my brother (who was online) and told him about it! This thing could solve second order ordinary differential equations! And Euler-type Differential Equations too! I sent three e-mails to my fellow classmate, Garret, telling him about my finds and bubbling over with excitement. I paced up and down the camper saying "Oh....Oh WOW!" to myself. I just couldn't stop.

Perhaps that's really nerdy, perhaps I don't get enough excitement so that's why I was excited especially about these things I've made mention of, but I don't care, it's amazing to me! If anyone want to see how to do a Taylor expansion, solve a differential equation, or even factor a number, I'd be happy to show them! I told my brother that I felt like sleeping with it under my pillow from now on. I don't know how I got on without this thing! I was dying here all alone, wanting to share it with someone (not that anyone would care to listen). I just needed to tell someone! I almost sent an e-mail to my calculus instructor, I wanted to see if my differential equations instructor might happen to be in the office today, oh, a number of things. It's hard being alone when you're just dying to share something! That's one thing I liked about being with my brother at home. Neither of us really talked much, but I have to say that he's been my "best friend" and it was nice to share things with him from time to time, even if there was silence in between. And it sure is nice to have someone to tell something to when something comes up. Instead of reading something (like one of my books I'm working through) and saying "whoah! Listen to this!" as I repeat it to dead silence :D

And on that diverging thought.....
it makes me think that it's not really necessary to be talking all the time to be good friends. Just being there to listen counts a lot sometimes.

Well goodnight, and sorry I don't have much more of an update.