random

One more month and I'm done working here at Environment Canada. One more month, and then I'll have to hit the books again and start studying. I'll be starting my 3-a term which means I'm over half done. Where does the time go to? The looming approach of a new term made me stop and think about where my life is going. What do I want to do when I graduate? How do I want to apply the skills that I'm learning and what career do I want to get into when I graduate? Do I want to work in the oil industry, or water treatment, or pharmaceuticals, or do I just want to be the guy who gets paid to make your life miserable when you try to go across the border?

Well those are some pretty big questions and I don't know all the answers yet, but I'll lie awake at night in bed for the next few night and let you know when inspiration hits and all the worlds problems are solved.

In other news…..OUR PLANET HAS BEEN INVADED BY THE FIERCE AND RELENTLESS ALIEN TRAFFIC CONES!!!!!!!

click here to find out more!

it time to PANIC folks. We only have 2 more days until complete cone domination. Does anyone have an underground bunker I could use?

Don't worry...I"ll be alright soon. I just suffering from mad human disease.

and don't ever forget those wise words spoken by Mark Twain: "it is better to keep you mouth shut and let people think you are a fool then to open it and remove all doubt"

Another weekend

So I put over 600 kms on my car this weekend. yup that's right 600 kms (abour 400 mi for you Americans) from Friday night til sunday night.

First off Friday night I picked Peter up at the Go-Station in Burlington and then we headed to Dundas to see an art show that Tammy was in. Then it was off to Welandport for the conference there. Jeremy Veldman spoke on controling our minds and how we need to be careful of the sins of the mind. Then after a boxing match with all the guys that slept over at veldmans and a bunch of crazy times and about 3 hours of sleep we were back at it with another speech from Jeremy Saturday morning and then a time for discussion. after that it was time for the floor hockey tournement in which my team lost every game we played. Hey it takes talent to be that bad!!! :)

That night we went to hear a couple of choirs sing in Burlington. (Mattaniah Mens choir and the Hosanah Choir) It was glorious to listen to (especially the lady on the panflute...she was just amazing) then after stopping for a bit at a Timmy's in Dundas we headed to knors for a bit of (much needed) shut-eye. Sunday was church of course...and a good refreshing nap and then sunday night we played some roller hockey in brantford and then I took Peter back to Toronto and headed home to burlington.

Wew....just telling you about it has worn me out and so I'm off to bed. Have a good week y'all and watch out for fuzzy purple monsters (I'm feeling weird ok)

Pictures

A few pictures for your enjoyment.


Have you ever thought your job sucked?

Or maybe its not so bad after all?

Speaking of crappy jobs:

They have finally done it. They have managed to come up with an emissions free car. *drummmm roolllll* and here it is:


















Time to buy a truck?

Who needs a minivan when you've got a motorbike?

Church Government

The Church which I am now attending (Living Water Reformed Church) is currently an independent church. However, we are having a vote on March 20th on whether to federate with the URC (United Reformed Church) or with the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). This reason for this vote is that the elders feel that it is not good to be independent and that therefore we should federate. This of course raises the question, why should a church federate? What (if anything) is wrong with being independent? What does the Bible have to say?

Well, First of all I think we need understand what the church is. The church is an assembly of believers. Its a gathering together of Christians to worship God. Go through the New Testament and every time you come across the word 'Church' replace it with 'Assembly of Christians' and you will invariably find that it fits in perfectly. It doesn't refer to a building or place but rather to the people of God. The church is more than that though; it is also a Kingdom, the kingdom of Christ. This of course means that it has to have some form of government and therefore that is has three things: 1) rulers 2) ruled 3) laws. (see Heb. 13:17) These three things would have applied in the time of the Apostles and writers of Scriptures as well as they do to us, which means that a determination of the Apostolic form of Church government should give us a good idea as to the principles that we can use in our church government.

So what are these principles? I would like to propose 6 principles (and I got these from and excellent little book called 'The Apostolic Church - Which is it?' by Thomas Witherow)
1)The office bearers are chosen by the people.
in Acts 6:3 the 12 apostles tell all the disciples '...Pick our from among you seven men of good repute.' These men were not appointed to their office by one man or a couple of men but by all the brothers i.e. popular election
2) The words Bishop and Elder refer to the same office
Titus 1:5-7 Paul speaks of and elder in one breath and in the next calls him a bishop
3) In each Church there is to be more than one elder
Acts 20:7, Phil 1:1
4) ordination is an act of a plurality of elders
1 Tim 4:14, Acts 6:6
5) There was the privilege of an appeal external to the local congregation
Read Act 15 (its kinda long but read it anyways :-))Note several important points: There was a dispute in Antioch which was apparently a pretty big one '...no small dissension and debate...' this dispute was not getting settled so they took it to the external ecclesiastical assembly in Jerusalem which publicly debated the issue and pronounced a decision on it. This decision was submitted to by the church at Antioch and presumably those of Syria and Cilicia as well.
6) Christ is the head of the church
Col 1:18

Several of these points don't apply to the independent situation so much as to prelacy (Roman Catholics, United Church, etc.) but they are still useful points to remember. The main one would be point 5 which seems to me to clearly say that it is not good or right for the local congregation to be the ultimate and final appeal on a subject. We should be part of a larger assembly of the gathering together of elders of the church of Christ. So I for one am glad our elders have decided to go ahead with federation and I hope and pray that our church will be stronger and better for it.

Family Connection

And you thought the dutch relations were complicated...Just be glad you aren't your own grandfather :-D

Complicated Family Connections:

“So what is your problem?” the psychiatrist asked the strung-out man.

“It all stems from my marriage. I married a widow with a grown-up daughter. She is my stepdaughter.

“My Dad, a widower, came to visit one day, fell in love with my stepdaughter, and eventually married her. Now my stepdaughter is my stepmother.

“My wife and I had a son. Automatically, he became the brother-in-law of my Dad because, after all, my son is the half-brother of my stepdaughter (who married my Dad). Since my son is the brother of my stepmother, he is also my uncle.

“Then the woman my Dad married also had a son.
Naturally, he is my brother, because he is the son of my Dad. But he is also my grandson, because he is the son of my stepdaughter.

“My wife is now my grandmother, because she is the mother of my stepmother; as a result of which I am the grandson of my own wife.

“Seeing as how I am married then to my grandmother, I am not only the husband and grandson of my wife, but I end up being my own grandfather!

“That is why I am a little strung out.”

link of the post: robo-war

It was a pretty fun weekend. Friday night we had a youth group event in Brantford. We played a few games that involved having all the lights turned off and hence a few bruised shins, but it was a lot of fun. We also heard a brief talk and had a discussion on how we can influence those around us and how we are influenced by other and how to be a positive influence to our friends, family and community. Then on the way home Friday night my brother calls.
'‘Hey Dave you coming home this weekend?'
'‘well no, I'’m planning on coming down next weekend for Dad'’s birthday.'’
dude you should come this weekend cause I can'’t be there next weekend, so this way the whole family can be here.'
'‘ummm....ok'’
so Saturday I headed home and visited with the family. That was lots of fun (even the part were my 6 year old brother almost gave me a black eye. (He'’s got one nasty left hook :-) ) I played hockey there Saturday night and got to see all my St. Thomas buddies then and on Sunday. Of course we stayed way too late at young peoples Sunday night and so by the time I dropped of Peter in Toronto and got back to Burlington it was past 12:30. Oh well, working on six hours of sleep isn't that bad if you'’ve got plenty of coffee in your system.

Since this world is full of so much interesting stuff, I'’ve decide to start a little thing on here call '‘link of the post'’ I was going to call it link of the day, but I don't post every day, so that just wouldn'’t fit now would it? Basically the idea is so to post a link to a random article that a came across that I found interesting. At lot of these will probably come from the 'random article'’ button on wikipedia since I like to browse that during my lunch break at work. Today'’s link of the post:

This is why I don't want to be a doctor