World Cup Woes

the last two days of world cup action have seen two very unfortunate outcomes. netherlands lost yesterday to portugal in a terribly officiated match. 16 yellow cards and 4 reds. the match official did not keep the game under control and netherlands paid dearly for it. from where i sat they controlled the game and deserved to advance with the win. the netherlands coach did not do the team any favors by leaving on the bench one of the worlds best strikers in rudd van nistleroy.

the other great tradgedy was today when australia was knocked out by italy. australia dominated the game and deserved the win. italy won by a penalty kick in the last minute. the aussies deserved more.

Quote I have always liked

'The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowlegde Jesus with their lips, walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievebale.' DC Talk

so true.............and what i dont want my life to be.

Permissible

lately i have been wrestling in my mind, what is permissible or acceptable in terms of Christian living. Dave R. touched on this somewhat on the subject here http://dumbjock.blogspot.com/2006/06/non-negotiables.html
interesting take, i can see the point but something still seems off to me. not sure if its because its wrong or if its my conservative background rearing its ugly head.

i am leaning towards a combination of both. maybe whats most important is to focus on what the Bible says we should be doing as Christians. if we focus on what our lives should be looking like, maybe the peripheral issues that have so long plagued and marred the church will fad into the background.

although i find solace in my above reconciliation with my dilemma, another still looms in the shadows. at what point do you confront another Christian about sinful decisions they may be making? recently i have read Galatians 5 and 6.
the beginning of chapter five Paul talks about freedom in Christ and not being burdened by following the legalism so prevalent in Christian circles. verse 13 then says not to use the freedom given to indulge the sinful nature.
chapter 6 begins by talking about restoring a fellow believer if they are caught in a sin. but then goes on and tells us to be careful not to fall into sin ourselves and to test our own actions.

so where is the line between freedom in Christ and restoring a fellow believer?.........

maybe i have those chapters all wrong? hopefully more study will make it more clear.

World Cup

once again dissappointment, not at the USA team but at the referee. not to sound bitter but the ref practically gave italy the points for the draw and did his best to give them the victory. one of the worst performances by a ref ever, well maybe not ever but its up there in the caliber of high school refereeing. on the up side, the US played fairly well and actually looked like a world class team at points. we will just have to keep our fingers crossed on thursday but i have confidence they will come out on top. hopefully it will be enough to advance to face brazil and find out how good they really can be or how bad they are.

Dave Ramsey

i just finished a dave ramsey book. it was pretty good. not sure if i am going to do everything in the book but it has definately changed my perspective on alot of stuff. hopefully it will change my behavior in the long term not just as a passing fad.

World Cup

dissappointing so far. the USA lost today 3-0. England looked utterly impotent and Sweden was unlucky. hopefully bruce can light a fire under the USA teams behinds and get them to play up to their potential. if they dont beat the italians or atleast tie them its going to be a short trip.

My space

my space is okay. my one pet peeve is that i have been recieving alot of 'requests' for someone to be added as a friend. the only problem is that the person is someone i dont know. i have gone to a few of the profiles and they are all similar, usually a late teen/early twenty pretty girl that is wearing something suggestive. i dont know how but i think i got on some list. my guess is its a ploy to get people to go to prono sites.

Volleyball

i played beach volleyball last night, it was pretty fun. even though i dont play very often, i like to play volleyball, even my sister was surprised to hear that. my team won most of the games, which probably goes without saying, but i thought it was worth mentioning.

after i got home, i soon realized how old and out of shape i am. after checking my email i decided to take a shower. i could barely do it. my forearms were so sore from setting the ball that i could hardly put any pressure to wash myself. it was like torture to try and wash my hair, which had sand in it so i was trying to get that out by washing even harder. its a little better today but still sore.

What to say

the other day one of my friends was talking about going to a kenny chesney concert. he said one of the reasons was for the view(ie. the pretty girls that are there to see kenny). another of my married friends had this to say 'it doesnt matter where you get the appetite as long as you come home to eat'. obviously saying its okay to look at other people but as long as you stay faithful to your spouse everything is okay.

it makes me sad to hear such comments. i am worried about my friends marriage. it is a very dangerous and slippery slope to accept such logic as sound and factual. what do i say to that? do i say anything at all? i feel like i should say something but not sure what.

MySpace

i havent converted but got one just to keep in touch with friends. does not seem to be as user friendly to change and add stuff to my personal page.

The Watchtower

i recieved my first watchtower today. i read through some of the stuff and it sounds pretty good. it all sounds like everything i believe, except i went to their website, a few of their beliefs are interesting. i didnt have a chance to read through everything but most of the stuff surprisingly sounds theologically what i would believe. more later on this.

World Cup

i am very excited the world cup will be starting very shortly. so many games, so little time to watch. after the united states makes it out of group play, they will play brazil, croatia/japan. if they play brazil chances are not so hot, but i think they definately have a chance against either of the other two, whomever it may be. lets all keep our fingers crossed that everyone stays healty and kasey keller has the best four weeks of his goalkeeping life.