Jesus for President

By the way, i picked this up this last weekend while in Santa Barbara. I had been looking forward to this for a bit and am enjoying it so far. It has set up a lot of the Jewish culture in the Old Testament. It has really put a lot more of the bible in the context to understand that when Jesus arrived what he was really walking into. You may have remember a post that i did on some parables in Luke. 19 and 20 i think, and in this book they discuss them briefly. It is the parable of the 10 minas and how at the end of the passage he says

27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me."

They write about in the book that the Kings of the time were Herod's three sons Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip and they were pretty power hungry kids. (these kids are remaining after he killed his other sons that were threatning) Some of the jesish people didn't want these sons in power and went to protest and later got murdered. So all to say that this is most likely the kind of story that Jesus is referencing and he uses his political satire. His character doesn't represent the charachter of God which is why he doesn't start the parable out "The Kingdom of God is like..."

So i got my question answered in a different way that i had thought and am thankful for those who know a lot more that me! Go pick up the book and read through it as well. it is pretty exciting.

Newt Hunting

Jenny and I went on a hunt for newts last weekend at Pine Flat Lake. I realized that it is little over a half and hour away and so we made it a short little sunday trip. It was super beautiful and we had success out at the lake. At first we went down to the dock and then followed a river up and after 15 min or walking up it, Jenny spotted the bright orange specimen. I got pretty excited and went further up and saw like 8 more! it was spectacular. She wanted a playmate for her current newt Hector. And since she is a biologist she loves to study the creatures. So here are a few pictures. We had a blast and are inspired to go Backpacking in Yosemite soon. If any of you are interested we would love for you to come along!!!

Homeless

Well i dont' feel like i know too much about the homeless and if i will ever figure it all out. But living in the Pink House has risen the ideas for me and last night was one of those nights. As a house we discussed the issues of giving cash to men, judging them or not judging them, being a hindrance to them, and just being there for them. Ivan and i had learned a lot of Jay the other night and it has been on my heart ever since. Later in the evening, Ivan and i were talking out on the balcony and he said something that really struck home. To sum it up it was basically saying how in homeless and the poor and marginalized we are called to be a presence, not just some people. That we kinda write 'gods gifts' off as if that person over there is called to it and i am not. we are all called to compassion on each other, no partiality as Paul and John and James state. In the poor we have connection w/ them wether rich or not, because there is something lacking in us all, but society covers it up w/ material things or appearance or whatever it is. But in each soul of ours we need to be made whole and complete in Christ. I will end this with a very blunt statement from James

17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

let us set apart time to be w/ each other and get moved by God and see his love in all.

ummm....

Well, life has been very busy lately but amazing. This weekend has
been great, on Friday evening we had a Pink House Fundraiser which was
a black tie bunko night. With a lot of work it turned out to be a
success, over 50 people showed up to it and all said that it was an
enjoyable evening. I will post some pictures soon, we emptied the top
two apts and the ladies of the house decorated it beautifully. People
in the house gathered up gifts for the prizes and many people left
satisified. We had some incredible desserts made by Jazz and Nate,
cheesecakes, peanut butter balls, creme puffs and italian sodas. It
was great Saturday was another terrific day full of many great people
and events. Started the morning w/ Habitat doing some roofing, then
went to do some sorting at the wherehouse of the future thrift store,
and then had lunch at doghouse for Ashley's b-day. It was terrific to
hang out w/ friends and then continue to hang w/ dave and paul at a
little football match w/ Travis, Ryan and Austin. After about 35 min,
we were huffing and puffing and way out of shape. I ended the night
watching Planet Earth with some housemates, which had never seen it or
heard of it before. I couldn't hardly believe it so i put it in the
DVD player w/o hesitation.
Sunday came and it was nice to sleep in until about 11am. Jenny
(lives under my apt) had talked about going hunting for newt's at Pine
Flat so i thought that what better day to do on a beautiful Sunday
afternoon. WE made the 30 mile drive or so (which was so incredibly
gorgeous) and found a little streaming coming up out of the lake. She
decided to follow it and we walked up it for about 15 or so minutes,
and low and behold, she spotted a bright orange belley newt. I got
pretty excited and walked up stream to see if there were any others
b/c she said they usually travel in hoards. So i saw like 5 or 6 more
and wanted to grab them but it wasn't needed.
Later sunday evening, ivan (my roommate) and i were sitting around and
didn't have much to do. Well actually he was doing homework and i
didn't have anything to do. He proposed the idea of grabbing our
guitars and playing down on G street. On G is where the 'tent' city is
and where ivan and his buddies go down and skate and hang out w/ the
homeless at. I thought that it sounded like a great idea, so off we
went. we started playing on the street across from tent city. There we
were playing some guitar and a lady across the street from us started
grooving to the music. It was beautiful, she then came over to us and
wanted a cigarette, and offerred some misc. services to us, ivan asked
her if she thought it would be possible for us to go and hang out w/
the guys who had some sweet bonfires and play some music for them. She
heavily advised otherwise so and said they woudl most likely charge us
rent and probably steal from us because we were outsiders. So we moved
down the street a bit, (watched some drug deals happen) and met
another guy who sat down and introduced himself as Jay. So we ended up
spending quite a bit of time w/ him. He enjoyed listening to some
music and i played some AC/DC that he rocked out to. Ivan was pretty
hungrey and so was Jay so we decided to go to Rallys for a bit to eat.
In the truck Jay explained his story of homelessness and how is wife
had cheated on him and it was all downhill from there. He was a super
brillant guy and understand a lot of the systematic issues w/
homelessness and how there is a lot of scandel in it all. He informed
me of a lot that i had no idea about. He was very driven to pick
himself up and was waiting on a check from the gov't for the two
tourrs of wars that he served in. He definitely knew the gospel and
said some pretty profound biblical messages, said he attended
'cornerstone' church and the fact that the preacher was an ex ganger
member and could help those like them and relate to them. He discussed
miracles that he had seen God perform and explained how he prayer in
'cuss words' because he was so over joyed w/ how much God loved him.
We never mentioned much about God but agreed a lot w/ him about how
lovely he is. This happened to be his birthday and he felt truely
blessed that we crossed each others paths. He explained to me in the
car that he just wanted to talk about some stuff that was on his mind.
I haven't stopped thinking about Jay since and he shows me why we need
to seek justice for men like him. I dropped him off at his area of
tents and as i feel asleep in my warm bed i wondered how he was doing
in the cold in his tent w/ his buddy Gino. He said next time maybe him
and i could jam together on guitars...

New Project of Tulips

After thinking and talking i finally did it! i planted my very own flowers. i thought that i would show you all the process of these beautiful plants. I wanted to plant them as seeds but i guess it is too early for that. So after some help from the OSH lady she directed me to this wonderful flowers. Everyday they seem to change, which is pretty dang exciting if you ask me. check em'. I also have a plant of cilantro that i haven't even used yet but is growing marvelously. The last picture of the three is the tulip before it started showing any color and the top picture is them getting ready to break through.

Shaver Lake

So because i work for the man....the school system....the state. I was forced to not work on Monday b/c they were closed so, i went on a little journey up to Shaver Lake. I discovered that it was only 45 miles a way and just thought i would hike around a bit (which made it very difficult in several feet of snow) and just chill. So here are a couple of pictures that i took. The beauty was unbelievable. All of the snow along side of the lake was simply breath taking. I hope that you enjoy a few of them. I listened to God for a bit and it was amazing. He seems to be on pretty good terms w/ me lately and i Love Him.

Harsh words?

So currently i am reading through the book of Luke and am in chapters 19,20,21. As i read some of jesus's words and the stories that he tells, they are not very comforting and peaceful all the time. I know that this is something that we hear quite often about how Jesus's words weren't always reader friendly but it is totally true. Especially to the culture that we are in where we don't want to offend people or not being 'loving' in the way that we think of (acceptance). I am not sure if this makes sense but check out the passages:

***His master replied, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow? 23Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?'

24"Then he said to those standing by, 'Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.'

25" 'Sir,' they said, 'he already has ten!'

26"He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. 27But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me."*** Luke 19.

This has a bit of a twist from my usual interpretation of the parable of the Ten Minas. The master is requiring that when he gives his servants money that interest is made from it, and that we should not fear him to the point of being afraid of having to deal w/ the authority. He wants us to deal well w/ what is around us and move forward to him and to others. But the end seems super harsh "bring them here and kill them in front of me" wow that is intense. It seems like he could have ended the parable much earlier but this is here for a specific reason. Any ideas?

The second parable is such:

***14"But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. 'This is the heir,' they said. 'Let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 15So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

"What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others." When the people heard this, they said, "May this never be!"

17Jesus looked directly at them and asked, "Then what is the meaning of that which is written:
" 'The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone[a]'[b]? 18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

19The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.*** Luke 20:9

Another twist as Jesus says, they what they will do is kill the tenants and give the vineyard to others. I think that my reaction was the same as the Chief Priests. But he brings the heat again. This is something that has been on my mind since i read it. "i need more grace than i thought"

Verrrrtex

Here are some pictures taken by David Rickett of Stepsonday at the Vertex in Arroyo Grande.

Brilliant Rock Album

Nada Surf

New Album "Lucky" i recently got it up in seattle and haven't stopped listening to it. Well occasionally, but not too much. It is really great.

The Road