Sunday trip with the wife

Spring is in the air, and my wife and I had a lot of fun stretching out legs a little on sunday. And we cracked ourselved up putting together a little vlog about it.



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Does this picture offend you?

As a child, I remember watching, with great facination, a TV show about heart transplants. In spite of the degree of blood and gore, nobody felt that I needed to be shielded from that. I didn't feel particularly violated by it either. And I don't carry with me any lifelong scars from the experience.

This picture shows a kidney. If you browsed by this post with your child sitting on your lap, I doubt that you would feel any need to hastily cover their eyes while you browse away from it. If I put this picture on a sign, or on the side of a truck to protest kidney transplants, I doubt i would create much disgust among the general public. Although we usually prefer kidneys to be inside of our bodies, this picture simply isn't offensive enough to create any puplic outrage.

But what if it was a fetus?

Many try pass aborition off as just another surgical procedure where a piece of tissue is removed from a womans body. If that is true, than why would a picture of that piece of tissue offend you more than the picture if this piece of tissue?

Maybe because no matter how much we are able to decieve our minds there is something in out guts that says that piece of tissue is not much different than the piece of tissue I call my body. It's not a kindney, it's not an appendix, it's a murder victim.

How I met my wife

I promised in my post earlier today that my lovely wife and I would share a bit about how we got to know each other. And here it is. Our love story






If you want to keep up with our vlogs, follow us at for-ever-his.blogspot.com.

So what does she do for a living?

There were a number of questions I dreaded during my courtship with the wonderful young woman who is now my wife. One of them was "how did you meet?". With her being from the States and me from Norway, I guess that's an obvious question. But you can only explain that "we met through the internet, but it's not like that" so many times before you eventually just try to avoid the topic. On that note, we'll be posting a video on my wife's new blog where we share our story in the very near future.

Another question I dreaded was "what does she do for a living?". My answer, that she was staying at home working with her mom to learn the skills of homemaking, isn't exactly kosher in our feminist culture. And in most people's ears it largely synonymous with "nothing". Some, still looking for a good spin on the situation followed up by asking, "well, does she have an education?" When I explained that she didn't see education as a worthwhile pursuit for herself, their looks got even more puzzled. You see, in our culture women are valued in terms of careers and income. And in those terms, the wife I had chosen was worthless. Yet I knew that I had found a true treasure.

My wife has taken much heat for her stance against the subtle feminist attitudes that prevail throughout our culture. She has risen above the stigma of being a homemaker, and take great joy in adapting to her her new role as a wife, and hopefully soon a mother. If you ask her she will say that those are her highest calling. And I would add that it's the highest privilege for any husband and any child to be loved by a woman like that. It's worth so much more than the vacations, cars and other materialistic goods that we can't afford on a single income.

I've talked to several men who, though they're unwilling to depart with the extra income she provides, gets a certain look in their eyes at the thought of their wives staying home. Yes they discard it as completely unrealistic, but still they desire it. Several women too have disclosed to me that they wish they didn't have to work away from their husband and children. Yet materialism has them in it's grip.

My wife has started another blog, about being a homemaker. It's our hope that if you are carrying that desire this will help push you over the edge. You can find it at homemaker-by-choice.blogspot.com.

Satan is a carnal Christian

There's a certain odor that has been making its rounds in my general vicinity lately. Namely the preposterous idea that someone can be a Christian, and yet keep living in sin. That if you just have confessed faith in Christ with your mouth you are saved, no matter how your life looks. This couldn't possibly be further from biblical truth. Yes, the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9) But let's be a bit more exact when we define our terms here. Nowhere does the Bible allow us a definition of faith that does not express itself in righteous living.

Even in the very next verse we find that this faith in the heart must be one resulting in righteousness. We learn in the book of James that faith not resulting in works is dead. (Jms 2:17) Then in verse 19 he really beats the final nail into the coffin of said dead faith:

You believe that God is one You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.

There's not a demon in all of Hell that doesn't believe in God. Even Satan believes in God. Yet they live in disobedience against him. So anyone who expresses belief in God, and yet disobey him are actually placing themselves in the same category as the devil and his angels. Yet with one significant difference:

At least the demons have the fear of God to shudder at the thought of their rebellion against his holy throne.

How to glorify God by parking in stupid places

My workplace is a bit short on parking spots, so when I took advantage of my flexible hours yesterday and came in a bit later, there was no room for my car. So I decided to park by the distribution warehouse next-door. They had lots of room, and I made sure to park so that I wouldn't be in anyone's way. All in all, I was pretty happy with my newfound parking spot until that same afternoon, when I was going to head home. That's when I noticed the fence around the warehouse. And the gate. Which of course was securely locked.

Now I believe in a God who is sovereign. And that nothing in this world happens randomly or without purpose. And I know that my choice of parking spots most certainly is not exempt from his sovereignty.

I mumbled a quick prayer for help as I headed back to the building where I work. If I had stopped and listened for his answer, maybe this would be a post about success in stead of failure. Maybe I would have heard his Spirit whisper to my soul that he knew this was going to happen, and had a purposely allowed it. And that I was to look for an opportunity in it to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

Perfume does no good as long as it stays in the bottle.

One of the girls who work at the front desk were really helpful in tracking down the owners of the warehouse, and finding a guy with a key who was kind enough to come open the gates for me. As far as I could tell, she is not a Christian. But she went the extra mile for me, even though I caught her on her way home. She was in that instance more Christlike than many Christians sadly are. She's what most would call a good person.

Only in human eyes, though. And as sure as the fact that she's breathing, is the fact that she has sinned against God on countless occasions, either in thought, word or deed. And that unless she finds atonement for those sins, she will be punished for them eternally in hell. Yes, she was good to me. But good deeds don't wash away crimes against the king of the universe. And even if her sins are such that we would take lightly, because we've done many of the same sins ourselves, God is holy and pure. And he sees sin through other eyes than we do.

So this girl did her very best to help me in any way she could. Did I do my best to help her in any way I could? We stood around and talked for 10-15 minutes, and I had ample opportunity to share with her the knowledge that Christ could take her sins away. The fact that I didn't makes no sense, and there's no excuse for it.

I wasted an excellent opportunity to glorify ma savior. And it would be no exaggeration to say that this girl acted in a more Christlike manner than me yesterday. Yet on judgment day, through the undeserved grace of Christ, I'm the one who will go to heaven. And unless she comes to a saving faith in him, she will go to hell.

May I never again waste my fragrance by keeping it bottled.

Check out my wife's vlog!

My wife has started a vlog to keep her family and friends back in the US of A updated on her life in Norway. I've embedded her latest video here, and you can find the rest on her youtube channel WhatADayInNorway

The mighty intercessor

In keeping with the spirit of my last blog post, I came across this clip of a sermon by Eric Ludy. I hope you'll take a moment to watch it.



Okay, now get back to doing good deeds!

Do good deeds!

The avoidance of legalism, is to many Christians little more than a convenient excuse to hang on to patterns of behavior that are displeasing to God, and avoid patterns of behavior that are pleasing to God. By defining any inconvenience taken to please God as legalism, we have found an elegant way to even make our indifference sound spiritual. Extended prayer, avoiding ungodly entertainment, witnessing, or basically anything considered "excessively spiritual" can be the subject of this sinful tendency.

So before I introduce you to a Biblical pattern of behavior that is deeply pleasing to God, this ungrounded and suspiciously convenient fear of legalism needs to be questioned. Paul does the same in his epistle to Titus, yet in another way. Here's how he sets it up:

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently... (Tit 3:3-8a)

Paul, with his deep understanding of the workings of the human heart, makes the brilliant move of pointing out the undeserved kindness of God as the basis for what he is about to say next. He tears down the legalism excuse by saying please God because he was kind enough to save us not on the basis of our pleasing him.

So now that you're all rid of any ungrounded fear of legalism, and eager to please God in any way, regardless of how inconvenient it might be, you're probably dieing to hear how you can do it. So here it comes:

...so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.(Tit 3:8b)

That's it. Be careful to engage in good deeds. Make good deeds a common pattern of behavior for yourself. Why? Because you have to in order to be saved? Not by any means. To the contrary, do it because it is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. The spirit of him who poured himself out to do the best deed ever done to you is now living and working through you. And when you let his goodness be expressed through your dealings with the people around you, he is pleased.

So don't be satisfied just by not doing evil deeds. Aim higher! Go do good deeds!

March 8: International contempt for women day

Today, March 8, is ironically called the international Women's day. Ironically, because it's the celebration of the most anti-woman movement that has ever existed: Radical feminism.

Oh you thought that feminism was pro-woman did you? Stop and think about it for a moment. What is the goal of feminism? It can all be summed up in one sentence: There should be no difference between women and men. Or to say it in another way; women should be like men... What is the never spoken ending to that sentence? What is the presupposition of feminism? Why do they feel like women need to strive to be manly?

... because being a man is better than being a woman!

How to log in to Facebook: An study of tecnological illiteracy

One challenge that every web developer needs to take into consideration is that of technological illiteracy. The fact that some of your users really have no clue what they're doing, and probably don't even know why they're on your site in the first place. Let me illustrate this with the example of logging into facebook:

The moth

Here's a little poem I wrote to encourage you to live in the light, and let darkness have no part of you. I pray that it may bring conviction and hope of freedom to those who find themselves always going back to the same sin and getting burnt once more.

A sin concealed in darkness
and a moth are much the same
One's drawn towards temptation
as the other to the flame

Though often burnt, the faith of moths
is like the faith of men
They both think they will get there
if they try it once again

A moth can't stop from flying
to the only light it see
Nor can the man in darkness
ever turn from sin and flee

But in the light of day the moth
is no longer enticed
Nor he who brings his sin into
the blazing light of Christ

PS: I found the picture at this blog post.

Geeky nostalgia, plus home schooling idea.

Hearing about a new IDE from Microsoft put my mind on a slightly nostalgic path today. Back to the days when the DOS prompt wasn't started from windows, and 25 MHz was a perfectly fine processor speed. Back to the days of floppy disks and 8 MB hard drives. Back when a mouse was an optional attachment to your computer. Back to the days of QBASIC.

When I was your age...

You kids have it too easy these days. Back when I was your age, this is how we googled. And we had to walk with it to the post office, in the snow storm, uphill both ways.

I found this at flickr.

Did Jesus go to Hell?

My friend Canyon recently gave a lecture on 1 Peter 3:18-22. One of those passages that has puzzled most Bible readers, myself included. In this post I'll consider verses 18-20, here from the NASB:

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.