Girls

It's becoming clear that once every three months a post about girls seems to show up. Guess I shouldn't stop now =). After all, there are only two topics worth discussing: (1) God, and (2) girls.

I'm still trusting God that He will bring me the right girl. In the meantime I've really appreciated Dashboard Confessional, The Format, and Mae.

I remember some excellent adivce that Eddie McKee gave me a while back: "Be busy about the Lord's work until He provides a girl." Thanks Eddie.

"I've written a note,
it's pressed between pages
that you've marked to find your way back.
It says "Does he ever get the girl?"
But what if the pages stay pressed,
the chapters unfinished,
the stories too dull to unfold?
Does he ever get the girl?"
-- Dashboard

The Single Guy,
CoB

My Psycho "I'm a Feminist Who Enjoys Shoving My Feminism Down Your Throat" Professor

Tuesdays/Thursdays I'm taking Asian Civilizations. Honestly, this wasn't a class I was looking forward to. Asian history just doesn't interest me all that much.

Anywho, my little tale brings us back to the first day of class ... everyone is scrambling into class, satisfied that they know the room location, and settle down into their seats. Conversations break out all over the room (including me). The professor didn't appear to be in the class, so my convo was getting pretty in-depth. Five minutes goes by ... no professor. Ten minutes. TWENTY MINUTES - still nothin. People start to whisper, "Isn't there a five minute rule or something? After five minutes if the professor doesn't show up, we go home?" Right then about half the class gets up to leave. Not two minutes later they all march back in, followed by the professor =).

She apologizes for being late and starts class. She looks like a young lady, maybe 27. Just finishing up her Master's degree. Overall nice person, or so I thought.

Her specialty is over French history (yea ... great - please, sense the sarcasm). So she's telling us about the French Revolution (keep in mind that this is ASIAN CIV) and about how people were in an uproar over women joining the workforce. People thought the world would come to an end if women started working. There would be no difference between the male and female genders, etc. Well, some guy in class was nodding his head (probably sarcastically), as if to say that he agreed that women shouldn't be working.

Unfortunately my professor caught sight of this guy and burst out at the top of her lungs: "NO! NOOOO! I WILL HAVE NONE OF THAT IN MY CLASSROOM!!!" (She points at him while taking steps in his direction). "I AM A FEMINIST, AND YOU WILL NOT BE TOLERATED ... I GET TO LECTURE YOU, AND TELL YOU MY IDEAS, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND! ANY MORE OF THAT AND YOU ARE GONE FROM THIS CLASSROOM, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!?!"

In utter shock, I turn to the girl on my left and ask what the heak that was all about?

Anywho, just thought I'd share this little outburst with you =).

Cali-fone-I-A

Last weekend Adam and I joined the MD crew in San Diego. We drove over Friday night, hung out all day and drove back Sunday after church.

The White's (not DrO ... you crazy kids, I know what you're thinking =)) were kind enough to take in our entire crew of like 8 into their home!

The weather was gorgeous! Mid 70's. Ocean was ... colder than I woulda preferred, but that's the ocean for ya =).

Isn't this a great shot of the Meesh?

Dre and Becca manning the front seats:

Da boys at In N Out - how many patties did Dre have? 18?

Of course, the Jankster:

I posted all the Cali pics/vids here. w00tage!!!

Sometime this week I'll post more pics/vids from the good times in Zona. Janks, Dre and Becca flew in town from San Diego on Wednesday. Dre and Becca went home this morning. Janks is here 'till Wednesday.

It has been a wonderful gift from God to know and spend time with these friends. We have good times (great oldies). Fellowship with the saints is a blessing.

Until we meet again,
The Rusted One

Site Updates

My blog links were in desperate need of being updated. I split them into 3 categories: Apologetic Blogs, #Pros Blogs, and other Friends blogs.

If you wanna be up to date in the world of apologetics, you'll stay pretty informed by reading James White (director of Alpha and Omega Ministries), Phil Johnson (director of Grace to You, and an elder at Grace Community Church), Eric Svendsen (director of New Testament Research Ministries), Tom Ascol (director of Founders), and last but not least: Steve Camp (director of Audience One Ministries).

#Pros Blogs is a blog section dedicated to my friends in #prosapologian, AOMin's internet chatroom. This section is not yet complete - if any of my fellow denizens are missing, lemme know.

Friends Blogs is basically the rest of ya'll - RL friends at church, friends at other churches, out of state buds, and anyone else I missed =).

I've recently discovered (thanks to Dre) that FireFox has a "live bookmarks" option which functions as an RSS reader. w00t. RSS helps me to read everyone's blog except xanga's - and yes, I am resisting the urge to make further comments *evil grin*

If you have nothing better to do you might discover that there are currently 35 blogs linked (so far!). Yes, I hope to read each one every day. What can I say? ... I'm addicted!

Rustytheblogaddict

Welcoming Back a Brother

Many of you know that just two years ago a handful of my friends embraced a damnable heresy known as Hyper-Preterism, the belief that ALL eschatology is completely fulfilled (including the final return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the new heavens and earth).

After many late night discussions at Starbucks and some sougt counsel from my elders, I broke fellowship with these friends. It has been two years. And with the exception of Scott, I hadn't spoken to any of them.

Then last week, Mark gave me a call asking to meet with me. He expressed a desire to "clear up what's happened in our past." Mark could have meant any number of things, so I was pretty nervous about the meeting. Was he gonna ask me to pretend like nothing happened so we could be friends again? Or would he really make things right?

We ended up meeting Friday morning at Starbucks. 25 minutes was spent catching up, then Mark directed the conversation to the reason we were meeting. How he began set the precedent for the entirety of our conversation - Mark began by informing me of his repentance from Hyper-Preterism, then apologized for being deceived and deceiving others. It was at this moment that a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. If you know me at all, you know how much this whole ordeal has really been a burden to me. It felt wonderful to feel resolution for everything that has happened! The rest of our time was made up of sharing our stories with each other since departing company. He told me how God has been working in his life. I was greatly encouraged!

One of the memorable things Mark said was how he viewed me for so long as his enemy, but now as his friend. I came very close to tears for much of our time together. I cannot express to you how much that meeting meant to me. Mark has demonstrated true repentance and I praise our God that He has answered my prayers for him. Isn't our God a merciful God?

Mark and I hugged as we left, and I have not stopped thanking God for such a blessing that was bestowed upon me. Thank You Lord! Thank You for granting repentance to Mark. Thank You for giving Mark and I true peace.

(I'll post on Cali as soon as I get my pics/vids loaded =))

"There's something 'bout the Midwest honey, oh that makes me miss you more than life"
Rusty

The God Who Justifies

"And we all are all wrong with him because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Far too frequently we fail to entertain the gravity of this fact. Hence the reality of our sin and the reality of the wrath of God upon us for our sin do not come into our reckoning. This is the reason why the grand article of justification does not ring the bells in the innermost depths of our spirit. And this is the reason why the gospel of justification is to such an extent a meaningless sound in the world and in the church of the twentieth century. We are not imbued with the profound sense of the reality of God, of his majesty and holiness. And sin, if reckoned with at all, is little more than a misfortune of maladjustment" (Murray, John. Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Pg. 117).

Dr. James White includes this in his book: The God Who Justifies (TGWJ). The first time I went through TGWJ, I was in the process of embracing Reformed Theology. This meant that a lot of the content flew right over my head. I just did not grasp it. Years later, I am rereading this wonderful work by James in the hopes that I retain more of the material being presented.

Adam and I are reading this together and discussing every few chapters. I'm already in the fifth chapter, and once more my passion towards justification has been renewed.

John Murray declares an excellent point in the above citation - that the great doctrine of justification by faith alone is deemphasized in our day. Naturally, this raises the question: "Why is justification, the doctrine at the very heart of the gospel, hardly given any attention today? even in the church?" Murray argues that it is because men today do not consider the Holiness of God, and the sinfulness of man. It is only when these two truths are considered that sinful men then wonder how their relationship with God might be restored.

Dr. White writes a little later: "We need a Reformation in our day that will again draw the line clearly between those who embrace the gospel of God's grace in Christ and those who do not. And how one answers the question "How is a man made right with God?" determines whether one embraces that gospel or not" (Pg. 26).

If you are like me, after reading that you couldn't help but shout out a hearty "Amen!" Every so often the men at our church pray for reformation and revival in our land and our world. Might God be merciful to us and grant these things. How marvelous would it be to see Christ's churches again preach the absolute Holiness of God, the total depravity of man, and then the great doctrine of justification by faith alone!

James continues: "Justification should and must again be a word that thrills the heart of believers, that is often on their tongues, always the object of their thanksgiving, the subject of their singing. This is my goal. I truly desire to see this awesome life-giving truth revived in the hearts of God's people again" (Pg. 40).

Again, AMEN! Dr. White states his heart's desire from the get-go: he wants Christian people to love this doctrine once more. So do I! I am thankful Elder James invested the time to write a work such as this, encouraging Christians like me.

Welp, that's all for now. You can expect more on Justification later.

Justfied by free grace alone, through faith alone,
Rustyrust

Sunday Skewl

Pastor Fry has asked me to help teach our Wendesday night junior high class. I said yes, of course =). Not only did I lead a group of junior high boys in the youth group at my old church, but I've been working with junior highers for the past year. Oh yea, I do hope to teach junior history pretty soon here =).

I sat in a couple classes to observe how our church does things, then taught last night!

Before I began, I passed out notecards to each student. On their cards they told me a little about themselves - questions I asked them: Name, age, school, favorite subject in school, favorite movie, and one other unique thing about themselves. As I was collecting their cards I skimmed over their replies - half the class had as their favorite movie: "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith"!!! I was so proud of them! It gets better people ... one of the girls had written down her favorite song instead of a movie: "I want to break away." I asked her: "Is this 'Break Away' by Kelly Clarkson?" She nodded yes. My night was made =).

For my first lesson I was told that I could teach on any subject. After considering some options I decided to teach on the Second Coming of Christ. Instead of covering HOW everything will work out (not that I have this figured out anyways!), I went over how we ought to live as Christian people until His return, then what follows His return. The primary text was Matthew 25:14-30. In fact, we first acted out a modern version of this passage.

Next, we briefly discussed the Final Day of Judgment - Matthew 25:31-46. I emphasized the dividing of the sheep from the goats; believers led onto eternal life, unbelievers cast into Hell.

I concluded with the gospel.

The class was attentive. Very enjoyable. We have a rotation of four men teaching this class, so that we don't continually miss the men's prayer meeting.

For two years now I have been at PRBC, and I finally have the opportunity to serve in the church. I am honored.

An aspiring teacher,
Case of Base

Adventures at the Gym

John and I have been using our free personal training sessions with a guy named Kylie. Before we get started Kylie has us do cardio for 10 minutes as a warm up. For our first session, John and I hop on these "stride" machines. Your feet are locked in and your steps go in an oval shape, front to back. After 3 minutes on this machine my thighs were tired. I looked at John (who was on the next machine) and he seemed to be doing better than me. Five minutes goes by, now Im exhausted! I could not believe this was soooo difficult! Thankfully, Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone" came on, which at least gave me the strength to finish strong. Even though I'm running every day for 30 minutes at about 6 mph, this machine was killing me. I was perplexed that this Machine of Death could punish my legs to such a degree! Yes, the official name for that stride machine is now The Machine of Death. In case you're wondering, I used The Machine of Death today, and regretted such a foolish decision the moment I started =).

Whats next? ...

When we're done with our workout we always wash our hands. Now, you need to understand that their soap has been this liquidy, light bluish color okay? So today, we walk into the locker room, and up to the sink. When I push the dispenser for some soap, out pops this thick, dark red, slimy, snot-like, goop! "Oooooeeeeeeeeeeeew!" I screamed! John looks over and yells, "What the heak is that?!" Immediately I rinsed it off and left without washing my hands. Disgusting! Someone's gotta complain about that soap - it seriously looks like someone's stomach. You can thank me for the mental picture later *grin*

I love my gym. Really, I do. Yay for weights.

Its time to pump *pounds his chest then points to the audience* you up!
Rusty

Burn Baby Burn!

Updates, shmupdates.

Time to inform the blogosphere about some recent changes in the life of CoB. First off, John and I have been lifting weights for about 6 or 7 weeks now. I've been running for 30 minutes (about 3 miles) every day. And yes, I have been keeping a close eye on my diet.

Obviously, this means that I no longer drink coffee, because if I ordered a size Grande at Bucks, I need to add 6 packs of sugar. Mmm, Starbucks. So delighlicious.

Also, no Coca-Cola Classic! Let's face it, one can of soda undoes everything I accomplish in 30 minutes of cardiovascular. (The Dark Knight is trying to get me into Diet Coke. But as I see it, if I'm gonna drink Coke, I'm gonna do the real thing).

John and I go to a Pure Fitness gym in Chandler. It's p. good for what we need.

Oh, I almost forgot! There is one other minor announcement: I have begun taking protein.

After seeking some counsel from the Dark Knight and Gambit, I bought some EAS Protein. It comes in chocolate and vanilla. I chose chocolate. Yummy, chocolatey goodness! It sure was odd going to health stores for the first time in my life: GNC, House of Fitness, and Hi-Health. I'm sure I'll get used to it.

You might be thinking: So it's been about two months of regular workouts. How is Casey feeling? Answer:

(click the images to view the full size)

And verily, much w00tage did thus fill the land

*Flexes for the crowd*
Case of Base

"They met on a beach..."

"They met on a beach when they were very young, brassy C. C. Bloom (Bette Midler) and classy Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey). Through good times and bad times, through broken marriages and budding careers, they still had each other. And together they would face their greatest challenge...as only best friends could. Hershey is splendid, and Midler will astound you all over again with her comedic and musical talents in this critically acclaimed box office smash. Beaches glows with warmth, humor and tenderness... This is one friendship you'll enjoy every minute of."

My friends, I have some frightfully terrifying news to share with you: I have agreed to watch "Beaches;" the whole movie, uninterrupted. I shall attempt to set aside my masculinity for a brief period of time so that I might enjoy this classic 80's chick flick.

By now you are hopefully worried and very concerned about CoB (me) - and with good reason! I mean, single, college guys ought not to watch such things. They might be scarred for life!

Why O why am I going to watch this movie? Smashing question! Weeeeeeeell, Olivia and I made an agreement at our church's prayer meeting last week. The agreement was, and I quote: "Casey, if you can watch 'Beaches' all the way through, then I will watch all six of the Star Wars films." There are two reasons why I accepted the deal: (1) First and foremost, for my dear brother Warren, Olivia's husband. I would like for Warren to be able to enjoy the glory and majesty of the Star Wars Saga with his wife. I am willing to suffer so that Mr. and Mrs. Smith can watch SW as a family. (2) So Olivia can experience for the first time that galaxy far, far away (and yes, a long time ago).

As I attempt this truly amazing feat, there is one piece of advice that will guide me through this difficult time ... any ideas what that might be? You guessed it: "No! Do. Or do not. There is no try" -- Yoda, Jedi Master. Thank you Master Yoda, I will accomplish this great task, and will become a better man because of it.

Pray for me,
Case of Base