…how tired I’ve been.

I get off of work at 6:30 am. I usually go to bed fairly soon. I was running for a while, but then I discovered that running allowed even less time for sleep – so I haven’t done it in a while.

I tried to blog, for some reason, this morning – I wrote a small post for Vox, and added a few people to the Aggregator, and a small post for my own blog – while reading all of those blogs I promised I would check back to, to see if they were, in fact, blogging apologetics. Some I’m still checking, some I liked – and added.

However, that put me to bed about 9:30 am. I was supposed to get up at around 1:30 pm, so I can be up, take a shower, check comments/email, etc., and meet my girlfriend for lunch a bit past 3. I don’t know if my alarm didn’t go off, or I got up, went across the room and shut it off, or what – I got up at 6:30 pm. I was supposed to be at McDonald’s at 3:30 or so, and choir starts at 7. It’s a half hour drive to church, or thereabouts – so I’m late just waking up.

Gotta love it.

So, I actually got 9 hours of sleep today. Which is the highest in 3 weeks, by about 4 hours – sans last Friday (where I actually stood my girlfriend up again, because I just didn’t hear the alarm).

Why, oh why, do I feel like sleep is something I won’t discover again until I’m married and settled down, and in a 9-5 job? I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to sleep 8 hours. It feels just like 5 hours – except you are more refreshed, and it takes longer. Which is often diastrous. (The latter, not the former.)

*sigh*

All because I did something *else* I said I was going to do…

I DO have a reason for most of the blogs on my blogroll.

For instance: “This is not for you…”

Once you check out this post – take a look through some of Matthew’s other stuff. He is a phenomenal writer.

Maybe this is a dumb question – but first, why is noone submitting anything to Vox? Second, why is noone visiting? Third, why don’t you email me to become a contributor? Fourth, how the heck do I fix the comments on Vox? I broke them, somehow…

It’s annoying me.

Basically, I want a few people to spend 5 minutes a day, and link to a few apologetics posts or articles apiece. That’s at least content. I’m having a severely hard time keeping up with it, and it seems like the existing contributors are pretty much up to their eyeballs themselves.

So, if you are listed in my apologetics section (see top right of my massive blogroll), or think you should be – and would like to help – talk to me, please. That’s one thing I CAN do faithfully, regardless of how limited my time is – answer email.

Introduction

Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world.
– Archimedes

I’m not going to deal with evidences, or proofs, or anything of the sort, for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. That isn’t the question. The question is as follows: “Was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ a lever long enough to move the world?”

The answer? A resounding “YES!”

Why is this? Well, that’s what I’m here to talk about. Contrary to the beliefs of many non-Christians, the most important concept in Christianity is NOT His birth, His teachings, His death, His healing, His moral authority, or His claims.

The central tenet of Christianity lies here: That Jesus died, He rose from the dead, physically, and promised to do the same for everyone that believes in Him, and serves Him as Lord. On that basis, everything else in Christianity rests. The incredible spread of Christianity, its well-nigh-impossible staying power, and its far-ranging influence all stem from this tenet.

This is not the extent of Christianity, or the sum total of it – but therein lies it’s uniqueness. A historically verifiable claim, resting in space-time, and a promise, made in an equally verifiable space-time, that the same thing will be done for those who follow Him.

Jesus died, and He was buried – then rose from the dead, was seen by His disciples, and hundreds of others. That is the testimony of people who died for claiming it. They wrote about it, preached it, and the constant message of the Gospel is that exact same thing.

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Blogging

All about blogging: General, Conceptual, or Technical

(Ignore this post – it’s for navigation/organizational purposes)

Joe’s new Geisler Bio!

Bets are on: How many comments until we get a scathing character assassination of Geisler by Joe’s resident troll brigade? Who will it be?

It’s currently at 0 comments, so I can do some prophetic utterances…

I give it <5 – Larry being the obvious choice, with mumon coming close behind.

At most, 10 comments in. Now, it’s the waiting game. Feel free to join in.

Which gives me an idea – this could be a fun meme. “How many comments at EO till you get to the slavering troll remark?” Because, after all – EO just isn’t EO if it doesn’t have slavering trolls. I wish we wouldn’t keep feeding them, though…

Well, mumon isn’t ALL troll. He just lurks in the vicinity of trolldom – especially when it comes to EO. A large, large percentage of his posts are Joe-stalker material 😀

(I think mumon is the president of the Joe Carter anti-fan club! If he isn’t, I nominate him…)

Anyway, just something to look at, since I haven’t posted jack lately.

Via Google Alerts, and the Chicago Tribune.

Joel Osteen stands behind the lectern in stylish suits and preaches in a soothing Southern drawl and a big, easy smile. His sermons speak less to Gospel and Scripture than to staying positive and praying for a better life.

Critics have labeled his talks “cotton-candy theology”–sweet and sugary with little nourishment for the soul.

Some religious scholars say Osteen’s simplistic message presents a dangerous, watered-down version of Christianity. His sermons often sound more like motivational speeches than Biblical interpretations.

Michael Horton, a professor of apologetics and theology at Westminster Seminary California, said Osteen trivializes the Christian faith by viewing God as a being who exists solely for our personal happiness. Osteen is part of a growing “prosperity gospel” movement, he said, where followers are instructed to pray to God for health, wealth and happiness.

“In this religion, God is not worshiped. He is used,” said Horton, a minister in the United Reformed Churches of North America.

“Joel Osteen uses the Bible each week like it’s a collection of fortune cookies that can be opened to suit any of your needs or goals in life. The Bible is a story about the redemption of Christ, not a timeless set of principles for success.”

Ooooh. Goooooo apologetics!

Osteen said such criticism unfairly fails to look at his message as a whole.

“When I talk about prosperity and better things, I’m not just talking about financial success,” he said. “I’m talking about prosperity in your marriage, prosperity in your health, and with your kids. I don’t think God wants us to be at the bottom of the totem pole. He wants us to have a better life than our parents did.”

Gag me with a Buick. I’ve started a tradition. Every bookstore i get into, where I see his smiling face looking at me from a book cover – I turn it around. I do it constantly, because I’m in bookstores constantly. Petty, I know… but he annoys me.

Really annoys me.

Go read the article. Typical “religion reporter” fluff. At least they got a good quote in from the apologetics professor.

Satan loves it when we’re weak. He buffets, torments, and tempts us – precisely when we are least equipped to resist. That is his plan – and we should beware. When circumstances, and their effect on us, render us as weak as a newborn kitten, insofar as vigilance goes – that is when he strikes.
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In my life, I have experienced sorrow. Not the sort of sorrow you experience when someone dies.

The kind of sorrow you experience when you know someone is alive – and you cannot see them, love them, or be with them. The type of sorrow a father experiences when he is separated from his children. I wrote a bit about it on June 21st of last year – and I transferred it to this new blog, when I moved. I got to re-experience a bit of that just this morning.
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My response to Mumon’s 5 questions, as posted here.
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Check this out, from Wittingshire: On Boys and Bikinis. It’s absolutely great.