Quiz Time, Yo.
So I broke down like Luke and made a quiz… See what ya know!
Take my Quiz on QuizYourFriends.com!
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Life in the Windy City.
So Sarah and I just got back from Chicago on Friday. I knew the traffic in Chicago was bad before we got there, but dang. We ended up not going to the Sears tower or to Navy Pier for three reasons…
1) The weather was nasty (20 and snowing all week)
2) The traffic was nasty (especially in that weather!)
3) Parking and drivng was freaking expensive! (it’s about 12 bucks to park anywhere in the city and there are toll booths like every 4 miles)
I’m sure we could’ve taken the train or something… but we just weren’t familiar enough with the system to be confident enough to use it. Besides, we did a TON of stuff anyway. Wednesday we got there and went to Willow Creek’s New Community service. The auditorium is ginormous. It seats like 7,200 people and is just amazing. Words don’t describe it until you can see it for yourself. So… have a look! 
CRAZY!!! After that we went to a pizza place and had Chicago-Style Pizza. I had the waitress bring out a birthday pizza cookie thing for Sarah and I gave her her presents there too… A ring and a necklace… I’d post pics of them here, but I don’t have any! So… 
So anyway, Thursday afternoon we went to Medieval Times for lunch. That was fun. Our knight won… heh heh.
Then Thursday night we went to the Blue Man Group at the Briar Street Theater in Chicago. We stopped at a small food place called, “Eat A Pita” and had dinner… just some burgers and fries… Cool place. Then it was on to the show:
Let me explain something to you… I laugh a lot. I have a good sense of humor. I love making others laugh. I have never laughed so hard in my life. I thought I was going to lose my voice from laughing. My throat hurt. I went expecting a concert…. I found a concert and the funniest comedy I’d ever seen in my life… No movie, skit, drama, song, show, comedian…. nothing ever made me laugh this hard. If you EVER get the chance to see these guys… DO IT! The tickets are like $54.00 a person… but that is by far the most well spent money for entertainment purposes you could possibly spend. It was an experience. Not just a show… but an interactive experience. They walk the audience, use volunteers, make you feel like one small community of people. We sat in a theatre of 700 people and it felt like it was 50 people.
Before the show they have these LED screens that scroll text like, “No photos please, no videotaping, etc…” But when the show is about to start they start scrolling text that the audience just rolls about…. One such line was, “Let’s all take time to say Hi to Brent Pirolli. Brent is an ordinary guy. He’s done nothing to distinguish himself from anyone else… Which is all the more reason we should let Brent know how much we love him. Let’s all tell Brent we love him. Brent, please stand up so everyone can know where you are and tell you that they love you. Ok everybody, ready go… ‘We love you Brent!'” By this time I was standing waving to everyone telling them thank you… ::sigh:: Little did I know it was just the beginning of a very funny night.
So then Friday we went to eat lunch at Maggiano’s Little Italy. I had expected a romantic small atmosphere itallian restaurant… The prices sure reflected that… $37.00 just for lunch… but the atmosphere stunk. It was so cram-packed with tables that we felt like the guys sitting next to us were having lunch with us… Seriously… Taco Bell gives more distance between seats than this place did. Kind of a bummer. (And the food wasn’t amazing either…. bah.)
But in the end we had a great time and the Blue Man Group made the trip worth every second of it if nothing else…
So the moral of the story is… GO SEE THE BLUE MAN GROUP!
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Solving this jigsaw puzzle and posting about this sweepstakes for Big Red makes me eligible for free Xanga Premium for life… 
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I am no Cory Stevenson…
Therefore I must post again. So life has been interesting lately. I’ve not faced any massive stress-out times, yet I’ve been extremely busy at work. I’ve not done much of anything really. I’ve been coasting for the past month.
Sarah got a job offer from Marathon Oil Corp. in Findlay…. full-time with benefits if she wants it… But the fun is just starting really… Turns out that a lady I work with is married to a guy that is a recruiter for IT/IS companies. He gets paid to find IT or IS workers by companies. So we’re talking to him now to see if he can get her a better offer in the Toledo area. That would allow us to move closer to where I work as well as closer to our church and my family. So, we’ll see how that goes… IF all goes well, we could pay off all of our debt by the end of this year then start saving for a house… and if kids don’t come too soon… literally pay off a house or build and pay off a house within three or four years. How sweet would THAT be? To not have house payments??!?!?!? at the age of 25?
I’m lucky I married a smart woman who can make fat cash… she’s my sugar momma… 
Other than my dreamworld finances, I’m currently engrossed in a few online games… www.lotgd.net and lord.nuklear.org as well as www.runescape.com of course. The first two are related. The second is an exact copy of a BBS (bulliten board system) game that Luke and I used to play in Jr. High. The first is an updated version of that fit to work on PHP web pages… They’re entertaining. The third of which you should all know about if you don’t already. Luke, Sarah, Josh, Jerry and myself all play… along with a TON of others. It’s free if you want to play… or you can pay for membership access at a later date ($5 a month). I just hit combat lvl 85 today…. woot.
If you’ve got nothing better to do on Xanga today… Check out Luke’s Xanga-War with his sister Bethany… or try to solve Greg’s riddle of the day. He’s a goofball like no other.
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The Nation From Which I Come…
I stumbled across and interesting passage of scripture the other day. It’s not that I haven’t heard this story a bajillion times already, but I got to thinking. I was reading in 2 Kings 17…. I know, it’s your favorite book… But when I got to verse 32 it got interesting. Here is the story from the “Message” translation (as it’s easy to follow…) then I’ll show you the NLT which I was originally reading it in.
They honored and worshiped GOD, but not exclusively–they also appointed all sorts of priests, regardless of qualification, to conduct a variety of rites at the local fertility shrines. They honored and worshiped GOD, but they also kept up their devotions to the old gods of the places they had come from.
And they’re still doing it, still worshiping any old god that has nostalgic appeal to them. They don’t really worship GOD-they don’t take seriously what he says regarding how to behave and what to believe, what he revealed to the children of Jacob whom he named Israel. GOD made a covenant with his people and ordered them, “Don’t honor other gods: Don’t worship them, don’t serve them, don’t offer sacrifices to them. Worship GOD, the God who delivered you from Egypt in great and personal power. Reverence and fear him. Worship him. Sacrifice to him. And only him! All the things he had written down for you, directing you in what to believe and how to behave–well, do them for as long as you live. And whatever you do, don’t worship other gods! And the covenant he made with you, don’t forget your part in that. And don’t worship other gods! Worship GOD, and GOD only–he’s the one who will save your from enemy oppression.”
So tell me, if you had to take one thing out of this passage, what would it be? What do you think the message is that God is trying to send to the Israelites? Could it BE any clearer? But they didn’t listen. In fact, they never stopped worshipping other Gods as well as the Lord… Now let me take you back to the translation I read this in originally (NLT). The first two verses are awesome.
These new residents worshiped the LORD, but they appointed from among themselves priests to offer sacrifices at the pagan shrines. And though they worshiped the LORD, they continued to follow the religious customs of the nations from which they came.
The nations from which they came… gave them their customs… their beliefs… their traditions… their behavioral patterns… yes… even their Gods. And when the rubber met the road, only ONE GOD saved them from their enemies… They witnessed it first-hand! Yet they couldn’t obey when that same God said, “SEE??? I’m the ONLY real God… I LOVE YOU! Please stop cheating on me.” They didn’t get it. And they continued to slap him in the face with their actions.
“The nation from which I come” is a human heart full of sin. And although I worship Him, I still tend to my desires and customs of the nation from which I come… and it hurts. Maybe not physically, but mentally, spiritually, relationally…
What are the customs of the “nation from which you come” that YOU honor… maybe despite God’s desire for your life?
Later I was reading in 2 Kings 23… See, 2 Kings is a record of all the kings of Israel and their surrounding nations… It’s a history book really. But anyway, there are a LOT of kings that it talks about… some in great depth, some in a single sentence. Verse 25 talks about a king named Josiah. It says, “Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.”
If God decided to write “the Bible 2” in the year 2150… And you were going to be in it… What would it say? Would it say, “Never before had there been a person like that of _____, who turned to the LORD with all their heart and soul and strength, obeying all I have commanded… and there has never been anyone like them since.”
What will be said of you when you’re home with God? How will you be remembered? What did you live for? WHO did you live for? Are your knees to the earth? Are your crowns at his feet? Is your heart full of pride, your mind full of lust, your time wasted on your own agendas? Are you living God’s will for your life, or your own? What legacy will you leave?
Have you severed your ties with the “nation from which you come” in order to fully obey God?
Think about it.
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Something Fun.
1. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (Name of your favorite snack food + Grandfather’s first name): Chocolate Jim
2. YOUR FASHION DESIGNER NAME: (First word you see on your left + Favorite restaurant): Xanga McDonalds
3. EXOTIC FOREIGNER NAME: (Favorite Spice + Last Foreign Vacation Spot): Cinnamon Ontario
4. “FLY GIRL” NAME(a la J. Lo): (First Initial + First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name): B. Pi
5. ICON NAME: (Something Sweet Within Sight + Any Liquid in Kitchen) Cupcake Punch
6. DETECTIVE NAME: (Favorite Baby Animal + Where You Went to High School): Naked Mole Rat Clay… (what the…?)
7. SOAP OPERA NAME: (Middle Name + Street Where You First Lived): Anthony Chestnut
8. ROCK STAR NAME: (Favorite Candy + Last Name Of Favorite Musician): Special Dark Duritz
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The Price of Disobedience.
Have you ever read 1 Chronicles chapter 21? If not, let me give you some cliff notes. David was the King of Israel. He had already fought his years against King Saul and finally Saul was dead. David had since been crowned king and had undergone many many many battles with neighboring nations, always emerging as the victor. The Lord was with David.
Yet in chapter 21 of 1 Chronicles we run into a point in David’s life where he gets a little prideful. He forgets that all he has is only because the Lord gave it to him and he orders that a census be taken of all the troops he has under his command. He wanted to know a definite number of how big and powerful his army was. His servant asked him, “But why, my lord, do you want to do this? Are they not all your servants? Why must you cause Israel to sin?”
But David insisted. He was warned. But he insisted. So Joab (David’s servant) conducted the census and was so troubled by the fact that he was doing this and knew that it was wrong, that he forgot 1/6 of the population to interview!
The Lord was furious that David had done such a thing, and David knew it. Verse 8 shows David repenting and saying, “I have sinned greatly and shouldn’t have taken the census. Please forgive me for doing this foolish thing.” Then the Lord spoke to David through his servant and said that David had a choice of 3 punishements for his sin. He could either choose 3 years of famine for Israel, 3 months of destruction by his enemies, or 3 days of severe plague. David chose the 3 day option… In the end, over 70,000 people were killed in Israel for David’s sin.
It would have been more, but just as the angel of the Lord was about to destroy Jerusalem as well, the Lord stopped him and said, “Stop! That is enough!” David looked up and saw the angel standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, stretched out over Jerusalem…. David said to God, “I am the one who called for the census! I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are innocent – what have they done? O Lord my God, let your anger fall against me and my family, but do not destroy your people.” Then the Lord spoke to the angel, who put the sword back into its sheath.
The chapter ends with David offering sacrifices to the Lord at an alter he built right where the angel had stopped his path of destruction. David looks up and sees the Tabernacle of the Lord and the alter that Moses had built off in the distance…. but he is too afraid to enter it becuase he was still terrified of the drawn sword of the angel.
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So I was reading this and I thought about how David had ALREADY repented before the destruction… punishment was unavoidable. Wrong deeds can be forgiven… but they don’t mean we are free from the consequences of our actions.
David saw the angel of destruction sent to kill for HIS sin… and he was terrified. A man “after God’s own heart” who had been so close, so blessed by, so in love with God, was terrified of the angel God had sent even after the Lord had told the angel to stand down. Why? It said that David was terrified of the drawn sword of the angel even after the angel had put the sword back in its sheath.
That image was burned in his mind. What did that sword represent for David? Was it the death of 30,000 more? 90,000? Did he know? Did it matter?
Is it any different today? No. Our sin hurts others whether we realize it or not. It’s so easy for Satan to tempt us and tell us… no one is looking… or no one will ever know… but in the end there is always a price to pay… and it isn’t always paid by you. Your sin can hurt so many people around you… and THAT is why God said it was sin. God didn’t put rules and regulations in place to tell us “No! Beacause I said so, that’s why!” God has rules in place to protect us… to protect others around us from OUR actions.
Thankfully we don’t often see 70,000 people die for our sins (though we did see 1)… But if you realize how big of a deal this was to God back then… isn’t it still? Think about it the next time you decide to tell a “little white” lie that no one will ever know about. Heavy, huh?
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Vacation is nice, but work still abounds.
A lot has happened in the past few weeks. I’m able to stay at home and relax with only about an hour of work per day that I do online or via email/phone conversations… so that’s nice. I had a cool time with God the other day… I’ll share that later probably. Christmas was cool…. as most of you have heard from my wife’s site, we had over 7,300 people at the Christmas Eve services. Hopefully they’ll come back and make CedarCreek their home church. Most of the people we gain in attendance over the “Christmas / Easter” church days are people that ONLY go to church on those days… so they more than likely don’t have a solid growing relationship with Christ. If they stick around, maybe we can help them change that…
Sarah got me tickets to see the Blue Man Group in Chicago at the Briar Street Theater… so that’s freakin sweet! They’re “gift certificate” tickets so we can go anytime in the next year. We’ll probably go in March. They put on 13 shows a week at each location and they have 5 locations (New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston, and Berlin). So that’s 65 shows a week. How is that possible, you ask? Simple… there aren’t 3 guys… there’s 60! But they only appear 3 at a time and are all tremendous actors/percussionists and love blue grease paint.
I had to replace my Power Supply in my computer (that’s sad cuz I just bought one not too long ago and I liked it). But my new one kicks butt too…. so rock. For all you nerds out there, I got the Coolmax CX-400B (400w, black coated with a 120mm fan for silent operation). It’s a stud.
And now for my blunder of the week. We had a lot of things break on Christmas Eve at the creek…. First one of our 918’s (moving intelligent lights) blew up 45 minutes before the services started… then our overflow room’s projection system had a wiring fault in the wall, then our satellite reciever blew up, and then our left projector (one of 5) blew up during the last service…. Satan must’ve been ticked that night. But anyway, all items have been or are being fixed at this point. I ordered replacement bulbs for our two outside projectors (since you can’t just replace one, else it’ll be really bright compared to the other). I ordered them on Monday, they got shipped 2-day and should be here today… but today I realized I ordered the WRONG ONES!
So that costs 892.00 and it’s not even the right order. After looking at their website, I see a “We don’t take Sanyo products back” line and a “15% restock fee” line in their policies… yuck. Even if they DID take them back, that’s a 150 dollar restock and shipping cost. What a joke. So I spent all morning on the phone and I think that we’re in the clear… they’ll take them back without a restock fee, send the correct ones on a discount, and we’ll even get them here for less than we were gonna pay to begin with… ::sigh:: what can I say, I’m a smooth talker sometimes.
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Fresh Air…
So I’m having a new-found love for a few things. For one, I finally started playing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty again after an 8 month hiatus. I had played about 7 hours of it when I was in college, then graduated, got married, and hadn’t touched it. I played it over the last week and finished the game…. It was a great game, but the storyline took FOREVER to play out. (i.e. really long movie scenes…. up to 45 minutes once).
I’m also now listening to some music from the Flaming Lips that I haven’t heard in a few years… It’s all dream-like and I’m sure would be good if I did drugs… … but I don’t.
I finished some projects at work than now allow me to take some days off (this being the first) so I’m lounging at home in my PJs at the moment as the rest of the world bustles by… It’s nice.
I finally have spent time with God on a constant basis (2 days so far! It’s a streak!).
I finally got my skates sharpened… that only took a year. But sharp goalie skates are definitely a plus.
Life seems to be looking up lately. My wifey got an A in her Operating Systems class…. which was like the bane of her existance for months. She really studied and tried hard in that class so she could keep her 4.0 in college… and I gotta hand it to her… she cares way more than I did when I was in school. I got a 3.75 and didn’t care….. she could’ve easily done the same thing… but she’s smarter than me…. … … … which is probably how she got me to marry her…
Ok, gotsta go do stuff. ::slow deep breath:: I love not having the world on my shoulders for once.
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Sometimes Being Openly Insecure Is The Only Security We Have…
I feel weak. I feel weak spiritually, weak mentally, and sometimes even weak physically. No, I’m not sick. The weak physically part is good actually… I was able to get on the ice and play for an hour and a half Monday… on top of that I’ve been exercising every day trying to lose some weight…. it isn’t working. I haven’t lost a pound. But my muscles are taking shape again, which is nice… and muscle weighs more than fat…. so maybe I have and it’s just been a wash.
Mentally I’m just wiped. I think that’s becuase of my weak spiritual life lately. I have left work in a daze the last week feeling …. not overwhelmed… but just … apathetic I guess…. which is pretty bad when you work in the ministry. I’ve got one of the most important jobs on this planet and I have had a hard time seeing it as such lately. I know a lot of people look up to me as a “pillar” of sorts…. I make decisions… I give assignments… I am a voice of reason… but lately I just have been on cruise control for too long. I’ve got 63 hours of vacation time left this year…. maybe I’ll take a few days and try and relax…. recreate.
Spiritually my devotional life has sucked. Seriously… I’m pathetic. My biggest weakness must be discipline becuase I am such a dork when it comes do devotions… I’ve struggled for YEARS to set a regular devotional life schedule… I’ve now set rules in place that I can’t play runescape or do other things until I’ve done my devotions…. If I’m lucky I’ll get 3 days a week in…. It’s like I’m freaking 5 when it comes to attention span…. and THAT’S why I feel so drained. I can’t focus on life because I’m missing focus on what’s really important!
It’s amazing how easy it is. We can so quickly pass by our thoughts of “Oh… I should spend time with God today.” And pass it off as a prayer in the car… or a few minutes talking to God as you eat breakfast or lunch. But that’s not going to suffice. I mean come on… If we have a personal relationship with God… the creator and savior of our universe…. Can we really pass it off as, “Hey God….sup?… Sorry bout my sin and all… thanks for your Son… uhh… I gotta go…. I’m at work now.” If I had that kind of relationship with my wife for the past six months I’d be getting served divorce papers right now! A relationship takes WORK! It’s not easy… in fact it’s ironic that we can dread spending our time in devotions, becuase once we do, we realize what we’ve been missing and it can knock us to our knees in sorrow and repentance of our pride and “lack of time.”
So anywho…. life’s been crazy. Our home group had a white elephant gift exchange on Monday…. I almost made it out with a Gold Plated Record of Jars Of Clay’s album “Much Afraid” for having sold 500,000 copies…. Josh White stole it as the last gift and I ended up with a HotWheels Kyle Petty model car kit, a baseball, and two packs of sparklers. … … … nuts. But I can’t blame Josh, I’d have stolen it from him in a heartbeat without thinking a second thought.
Don Dotson (one of my volunteers at work) gave me an Eastern NHL All-Star Jersey that he won in some contest…. it’s a throwback jersey to the old style with the pull strings in front. It’s freaking sweet. He said that neither him nor his sons like hockey so he was wondering what to do with it…. …. …. Uhhh…. …. …. me?
Christmas shopping is just about done for us. So that’s nice. I got new shoes too. A pair of boots and a pair of slip-on type shoes for 50 bucks. Gotta love 70% off sales. I gave my old stinky, ripped up, wet from snow, nasty, dirty shoes to Ed Bellner as a white elephant gift on Monday…. … so… rock.
Aight, I gotta go spend time with God, exercise, get a shower, and get to work. Now I’m late thanks to the force that is known as XANGA!