[Leboman]

Originally Posted by benj

I say we play with "The Price is Right" rules. Lee went over. I get to play in the Showcase Showdown.

Just like a Texan.

[Nate]

Catherine bought me Rich Mullins' biography (written by James Bryan Smith; I'm not really sure who he is) for our anniversary thingy. I'm not really too stoked about the biographer's own words or interpretation of Mullins' life all that much, but I really like that there are tons of quotes from Mullins himself and from other people that knew him well. He really was an amazing man. I want to be like him, when I grow up, seriously... of course, rumor has it that he never grew up himself.

In His love,
Nate

[Nate]

My cat is squirmier than my girlfriend... and that is saying alot.

She (the cat) likes to crawl up into my lap when I'm on the computer. She (again, the cat) then proceeds to dig her claws into my thighs and crotch until she feels comfortable. Then, she (once again, the cat) bites me on the arms as I am typing. When I try to reposition myself to reach the keyboard without her biting me, she squirms around again, claws my legs again, and bites me on the other arm.

That is all.

In His love,
Nate

[Leboman]

Originally Posted by Nate

My cat is squirmier than my girlfriend... and that is saying alot.

She (the cat) likes to crawl up into my lap when I'm on the computer. She (again, the cat) then proceeds to dig her claws into my thighs and crotch until she feels comfortable. Then, she (once again, the cat) bites me on the arms as I am typing. When I try to reposition myself to reach the keyboard without her biting me, she squirms around again, claws my legs again, and bites me on the other arm.

That is all.

In His love,
Nate

That sounds a lot like....um....uh....nevermind.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by Lee Modlin

That sounds a lot like....um....uh....nevermind.

LEE!!

Go to your own blog if you wish to be nasty.

I was only sharing the strangeness of my cat.

[Nate]

Still working on figuring out how to transfer tapes to computer to CD. I just can't seem to get a signal out of any tape player (stereo, handheld, boombox, whatever) into my computer... at any quality level whatsoever. All I get is hum. I think the problem is that the signal levels of all the headphone outputs that I'm using are drastically different from what my computer's microphone input is expecting as a signal level. I'm going to retrieve my little RCA I/O to USB thingy that I loaned to my girlfriend's dad and see if that will do the trick.

In His love,
Nate

p.s. I don't know if the rumor is true or not, but I've using a crappy old tape for testing because I heard a rumor that tapes lose sound quality with each play. I haven't even opened the Mark Heard tapes yet.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by Nate

LEE!!

Go to your own blog if you wish to be nasty.

I was only sharing the strangeness of my cat.

That posted sounded way too much like Gwen. I'm sorry, Lee. :shame:

[Leboman]

Originally Posted by Nate

That posted sounded way too much like Gwen. I'm sorry, Lee. :shame:

It's okay....I understand.

[guitarfan01]

Originally Posted by Nate

Catherine bought me Rich Mullins' biography (written by James Bryan Smith; I'm not really sure who he is) for our anniversary thingy. I'm not really too stoked about the biographer's own words or interpretation of Mullins' life all that much, but I really like that there are tons of quotes from Mullins himself and from other people that knew him well. He really was an amazing man. I want to be like him, when I grow up, seriously... of course, rumor has it that he never grew up himself.

Never growing up is something I've been afraid I would do, but I wonder now if it is such a bad thing after all.

Which biography was it?

[danalyn]

Originally Posted by Nate

My cat is squirmier than my girlfriend... and that is saying alot.

She (the cat) likes to crawl up into my lap when I'm on the computer. She (again, the cat) then proceeds to dig her claws into my thighs and crotch until she feels comfortable. Then, she (once again, the cat) bites me on the arms as I am typing. When I try to reposition myself to reach the keyboard without her biting me, she squirms around again, claws my legs again, and bites me on the other arm.

That is all.

In His love,
Nate

I can identify. only Oreo doesn't bite so much as lick till your arm is raw...

[Art]

Originally Posted by Nate

Still working on figuring out how to transfer tapes to computer to CD. I just can't seem to get a signal out of any tape player (stereo, handheld, boombox, whatever) into my computer... at any quality level whatsoever. All I get is hum. I think the problem is that the signal levels of all the headphone outputs that I'm using are drastically different from what my computer's microphone input is expecting as a signal level. I'm going to retrieve my little RCA I/O to USB thingy that I loaned to my girlfriend's dad and see if that will do the trick.

In His love,
Nate

p.s. I don't know if the rumor is true or not, but I've using a crappy old tape for testing because I heard a rumor that tapes lose sound quality with each play. I haven't even opened the Mark Heard tapes yet.

With most out ports you are going to find out non-professional tape decks, you are just not going to get the quality. It would be far better to just mic it. Even that is not going to be great.

[Nate]

Scripture passages of the moment:

Isaiah 64:4-6
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways. Behold, You were angry, for we sinned, we continued in them a long time; and shall we be saved? For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Revelation 19:6-8
Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

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That is some kind of crazy contrast, if you ask me. In one passage, our righteous deeds are compared to used menstrual rags; in another, they are compared to an expensive gown. It could probably be argued that the passage in Isaiah refers only to a select group of people, and also that the saints in the passage in Revelation are only a very small group of people who have done very righteous acts... but neither of those seems to be the traditional or most clear interpretation of the text. Paul quotes a passage from the Psalms that is very similar to the Isaiah passage when he outlines the total depravity of mankind in Romans 3, which implies to me that when Scripture says "all of us have turned aside, all of us have become unclean," it means all of us humans, not all of us small group of people to whom this passage refers to particularly. Revelation then comes along and makes a ridiculous statement. The Bride of Christ clothes herself with the righteous deeds of the saints!!! These righteous acts are not filthy rags now, however... they are fine linen! How does this happen? What is the change? I can only offer one possible explanation:

The change is faith. The change is Christ.

Like any good saint, Abraham made a crapload of mistakes. He doubted God's covenant. He took matters into his own hands and plunged the world into the crazy state of international affairs that we find ourselves in today where not only country fights country, but race fights race and religion fights religion. He was one screwed up dude. Still, Paul says that he was counted righteous and the writer of Hebrews lists him among the heroes of the faith. Why? I don't really know. Abraham must have learned his lesson somewhere along the way. He proved it when he was willing to sacrifice his own son's life. He had messed up before, and he saw what it got him; he was not about to do it again. He believed, he had faith, and Paul says that that faith was accounted to him as righteousness. Abraham himself was not righteous anymore than any of us are. He wasn't, and we're not. His faith was accounted to him as righteousness, though he was not righteous himself. This is a foreshadowing of greater things to come.

Paul expanded upon this doctrine of faith accounted as righteousness in one of his latest letters (actually, his very latest, if I remember correctly), to the church of Phillipi. Here's how it works: We can do no good on our own. The Old Testament proves this, Paul's exposition of Christian theology in the book of Romans proves this, and our own experience with our measly attempts at righteousness proves this. Christ, however, was spotless, blameless, and wholly righteous. He was and is what we were not and could never be. Paul says that he gave everything up and counted it as the rubbish that it was so that he "might gain Christ, and might be found in Him, not having a righteousness of his own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith." Faith. Faith in Christ. That is the source of the righteousness that is spoken of in Revelation. We are counted righteous not because of any goodness of our own, but because of the goodness of Christ accounted to us on the basis of faith.

Theologians use the fancy-schmancy word "imputation" to describe this process. "Impute" means something along the lines of "to reckon to the account of." In other words, Christ's righteousness is said to be "reckoned to our account" on the basis of our faith in Him. It is as if God looks at us and says "Oh, I see that you have 5,000,000 righteous points in your account because of your faith in My Son. He must have given you some of His own righteous points. Very well, you are righteous indeed!" And we are, through faith in Christ.

I think that all only tells half the story, though. Christ did not come with the intention of making us righteous, per se, but of making us not unrighteous. John the Baptist proclaimed, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Christ came to take our sin, bear it to Calvary, and thereby do away with it once and for all. "My sin - oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! - my sin, not in part, but in whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul!" He takes our sin and gives us His righteousness in return.

This process seems to be more like barter than it is like a reckoning. It is as if Christ says, "Hey, I've got some righteousness here to spare and I'll give it to you in exchange for that sin you've got." My Lord, what an exchange! My filthy rags for His fine linen! My sin for His righteousness! Sign me up! Show me the dotted line! I'll take it!

The Bride wears fine linen, bright and clean, which is the righteous acts of the saints... but those righteous acts are not the saints' following of the Law or do-gooding, but their faith in Christ accounted as righteousness and given to them in exchange for their sins and filthy rags. That is the only possible way I can see to reconcile these two passages.

Faith. Christ.

In His love,
Nate

[Nate]

Originally Posted by guitarfan01

Which biography was it?

It's called "An Arrow Pointing Towards Heaven."

[Nate]

Originally Posted by Art

With most out ports you are going to find out non-professional tape decks, you are just not going to get the quality. It would be far better to just mic it. Even that is not going to be great.

I might just get the necessary cables (including the RCA to USB thingy) and spend a day at my church doing it.

In His love,
Nate

[luvinjesus]

Originally Posted by Nate

That posted sounded way too much like Gwen. I'm sorry, Lee. :shame:

I'm offended. Or I'm not.

If you're being mean, then yes i"m offended, but if you're just saying you don't want to be as awesome and wonderful as me, I'm not offended at all, because no one could acheive this.