Numbers surround me

- I'm working on converting a CALCULATOR to a new codebase at work.
- Sherri and watch the show NUMBERS frequently.
- I'm reading the book of NUMBERS in the Bible.
- I'm shopping for the best mortgage RATE and deciding on a good home PRICE.
- I'm watching stocks and ETFs falling in VALUE.
- Sherri and I were reminiscing about MathNet and Square One.
- Numbers keep coming up in our conversations.

I'm not complaining. :)

In the month I was born...

Thank you Ronald Reagan. 

9th Circuit allows pro-life license plates! YES!

I can't believe I'm saying this. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals made the right decision! Reversing the federal district court's decision, they ordered Arizona to allow the "Choose Life" license plates. The Arizona License Plate Commission had rejected the application based on the controversial nature of the message, but the court ruled correctly that such a decision represented unconstitutional viewpoint descrimination in a limited public forum. Now Arizonans will be able to proclaim their pro-life views on their license plates and help fund a pro-life organization at the same time! YES! For more information, see http://www.azpolicy.org/ff.php?id=973#article1 and the case.

Hitman on YouTube!

 

Have some extra cash to invest? Get returns of 9% or more by lending to other people who want to start a business, need to consolidate debt, etc.

I'm back and the trip went well. For details, see the blog at http://www.sovgracechurch.com/blog/index.php?cat=58&paged=2

Now, I'm focused on working, advising the resurrected Chandler/Gilbert YMCA Youth & Government program, and planning a wedding. :)

As some of you know, I am going to Bolivia on a missions trip with other members of my church in three weeks. The August 7-17 trip will be my first international missions trip. I'm writing to let you know where I will be and also what I will be doing with the hope that you might pray for me and the trip as a whole. I am very excited that God has called me to this opportunity because I want Him to be glorified in all the nations. He has forgiven my sin and I want to spread His love to those in need of His powerful gospel.

We will be working with the Sovereign Grace church in La Paz doing service projects, street evangelism, and encouraging troubled teens. In addition, we will be ministering to children at an orphanage in a more rural part of Bolivia. I would appreciate your prayers for the following:

- Personal growth in godliness and boldness in evangelism
- Effective and fruitful ministry
- Grace to communicate across the language barrier
- Increased love for people who need to hear the gospel
- Health and safety in the high altitudes and cold of August in the Southern Hemisphere
- Sufficient financial resources

On that last point, I have been personally paying for my expenses so far but would appreciate your help if you can give a small amount. Unfortunately, any donations would not be tax-deductible since they would go directly to me. You can give with a CC online through PayPal to my email address.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

The Wedding Date

January 19th it is!

Bookmarks and favorites? Why?

I virtually never use IE's Favorites or Firefox's Bookmarks. Other people in my family use them all the time, and I just realized why I don't. When I need to get to a site I go to often, I go to the address bar and start typing the URL. The browser provides me with a list of the sites I've been to, so I simply select the desired site and I'm there. Does anyone else do this, or am I the only one?

Watch this

http://www.hollywoodblasphemy.com/ Wow, this video is very convincing. It certainly changed my mind. Watch to the end - it's good.

Listen to this

 I like talk radio. But I've never heard it quite like this before. If you need a laugh with some encouragement and gospel-centered commentary on current events, I highly recommend that you listen to this:

Subscribe to Way of the Master Radio Podcast

I'm ENGAGED! Sherri said YES!! Glory be to God alone for the success of our courtship! Email me for the story.

What's going on in Paul's life?

- Job/internship as applications developer for The Center for Arizona Policy
- Job as software developer for ESS, a Microsoft-partnered provider of Emergency Health & Safety and Crisis Management Software
- MacBook Pro, free after 18 online offers, $116, and a lot of hassle (don't tell ESS I have a Mac...:)
- Trips to PHC to visit Sherri in our last semester
- Joining SG-Gilbert and loving twentyfour-seven
- Trying to build some muscle weight
- Thanking God for His grace and enjoying Him more and more

Right now I'm actually in VA, and tomorrow is the Faith and Reason lecture with Dr. Smith. It's so good to be back and hang out with everyone, but I'm very glad I'm done with school, at least for a while. God has been blessing me immensely, as always, and I'm doing my best to trust and wait on Him for what's coming next.

I would never claim that a person's heart can be changed through politics. But just as we ought to step out in faith to talk to someone about Christ who may oppose us, we also ought to step out in faith to try to enact laws that protect life despite any opposition. It's the loving thing to do. Before a child's heart can be changed, it has to be born. Before an addict's heart can be changed, he has to be sober. Before a poor child's heart can be changed, he has to hear the gospel. Society is important to God because people are important to Him. Laws that keep society just, free, and protected enable lives to be changed. God uses the transportation worker who gets you to church on time just as much as He uses the pastor who preaches.
--exerpt from email debate on the church & government

Mr. Clooney on Tolerance

I can't resist posting about this. Nicholas Clooney's latest article is about Dr. Farris and his supposed "intolerance." Like so many in our culture, he equivocates between the word "tolerance" and "acceptance" in his argument that democracy and dogmatic religions can't mix. According to Clooney, unless you affirm that everyone's beliefs are equally valid, you are at odds with democracy. He even tries to argue that America's founders would agree with him, again equivocating between modern liberal "tolerance" and the "tolerance" of the founders (i.e. religious freedom).

What is so amusing is that he would use Michael Farris, a staunch defender of religious freedom, as an example of "intolerance." At the end of the article, he says that his Protestant grandmother "smiled on her beloved Jewish son-in-law, laughed at her agnostic neighbor, [and] welcomed Muslim visitors..." Here, he describes tolerance here in the old sense, a willingness to recognize the freedom of others to believe differently. Dr. Farris is very "tolerant" if this is what it means. But Clooney redefines tolerance with the claim that his grandmother "did not judge anyone." I find it hard to believe that Mr. Clooney's grandmother was a relativist to the extent that he apparently believes democratic people should be, but even if she was, that relativism is not the same as the religious freedom our founders sought to guarantee.

Relativism, in fact, is a denial of religious freedom. For how can Dr. Farris's beliefs be "tolerated" if they are "at odds...with the tenets of American democracy?" Where is the tolerance of non-relativists like Dr. Farris and myself? Religious freedom allows differences in truth-claims, while relativism excludes ALL truth claims, except its own. Relativism, therefore, is one of the most exclusive, "intolerant" and nonsensical beliefs in the world today.

You know you live in Phoenix when...you adjust your speed and lane position in order to drive in the shade of a semi.

I'm praying for Sierra and Danny. I think they were saved tonight on the street before my eyes. Glory to God!

Weddings (July 17, 2005)

Bogert-Shippy
KITTERY, Maine - Rebekah Shippy and Timothy Bogert, both of Fall River, Mass., were joined in marriage at Faith Baptist Church by the Rev. Daniel Moore. A reception followed at the Lions Club.

The bride, daughter of Dennis and Kathy Shippy of Kittery, was given in marriage by her father, to the son of Rich and Pat Bogert of Yarmouthport.

Tiffani Shippy was the bride's maid of honor. The bridesmaids were Kouri Hastings, Rachel Starkey and Jen Byron. The junior bridesmaid was Téa Shippy, and the flower girl was Tatyanna Shippy.

Peter Raymond served as his nephew's best man. The ushers were John Bergman, John LaMontagne and Chris Terrell. The ring bearer was Timothy Paul Shippy.

The bridegroom graduated from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School in 1994, from Cape Cod Community College in 1999 and from the New England Tractor Trailer Training School in 1996. He is employed by Brockton Hospital as a certified nurse's aide.

Mr. and Mrs. Bogert honeymooned in San Francisco. They are residing in Fall River.

(from http://www.capecodonline.com/archives/7days/mon/weddings.htm, emphasis added)

.................

No, it wasn't me.

"By a narrow 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court struck down this portion of the Violence Against Women Act and second-guessed the judgment of Congress on this remedial cause of action...Sadly, it was not enough to save this important aspect of our legislative program from a declaration of unconstitutionality by an activist Supreme Court." --Senator Patrick Leahy

I just love it when liberals twist things around. The pejorative term "activist Supreme Court" is commonly used to criticize the court's tendency to create new laws by substituting their own judgment or the judgment of the "international community" for the rule of law. But in this statement, the honorable Senator accuses the conservative side of the court of being "activist."

The case was United States v. Morrison (2000) . The law under consideration was the Violence Against Women Act, in which Congress attempted to impose harsh penalties for gender-based crimes under the interstate commerce clause. Congress argued that since women affected commerce, they could regulate violent crimes against them. The conservative/moderate side of the court (Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, O’Connor, Kennedy) struck down the law and denied Congress's ability to regulate whatever it wants. The law was clearly unconstitutional and by striking it down, the Court made a small step toward affirming the principles of federalism laid down by the founders.  Thank you Supreme Court. And thank you President Bush for appointing an "activist" judge yesterday who probably would have joined the majority in limiting the power of the federal government in Morrison. I hope the Court continues to be "activist" in limiting federal power, if "activist" means upholding the Constitution as written.

The End Can Justify the Means

The ends justify the means. This statement causes shivers down the spine of most thinking Christians. Why? Because it is often used to validate deplorable actions. The end of eradicating poverty does not justify the means of communist totalitarianism. The end of perfectly healthy and wanted children does not justify the means of abortion. And the end of conquering the world for Allah does not justify the means of terrorism. But there a sense in which the statement, "the ends justify the means," is true. It all depends on what kind of means you mean.

If the means are evil, wrong, and/or sinful, then they can never be justified. But if the means look foolish, sound crazy, seem insane, involve pain, bring suffering, or even cause death, they can sometimes be justified by the ends. This is because ends reveal the motive for means. In order to be morally good, action must be done for the right reason. If the ends are wrong, the means, no matter what, are wrong. But if the ends are right, the means, however bizarre, can be justified by them.

Let me provide an obvious example. A man pushes his way, almost violently, through a crowd. This action on the surface, seems, well, pushy and may even hurt the people the man is bumping into. Without knowing the end for which the action is taken, it is impossible to discern whether the means are justified. If, for example, the man is a sports fan trying to push to the head of a crowd to catch a glimpse of his favorite player, the violent pushing is probably not justified. But if the man is a doctor rushing to save the life of an accident victim, the violent pushing is very justified.

Another example is actually a real life situation that in some ways prompted this writing. My sister and I spent the evening last night practicing an evangelism technique on a public sidewalk in our city. Yesterday afternoon, we took a crash course through a ministry called The Way of the Master led by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron. The technique was to show people how they have violated God’s law and deserve to go to hell before sharing the grace of the cross with them, and I am convinced that it is a Biblical and effective method. More specifically, we were taught by example to use Gospel tracts as a way to attract attention and start meaningful conversations. The primary tract we used was the "million dollar bill." It is printed in the shape, color, and features of a real bill but is actually a tract with the gospel printed on the back. As we stood on the street corner, we would go up to pedestrians and say, "Would you like a million dollar bill?" or "Did you get a million dollars yet?" and proceed to hand them the tract. Then we would say, "and here’s the million dollar question," and hand them another tract with the words, "Are you good enough to go to heaven?" printed on the front. This was meant to spark their interest and if we were quick and persuasive enough, we could start a conversation with them. We had a great time and some very powerful, maybe even life-altering conversations. But as I was thinking about this afterwards, I was wondering whether the trickery and deception involved in handing out fake million dollar bills was OK.

I thought about whether our questions and tracts were, in fact, lies. They were certainly deceptive, as we had no intention of actually increasing each person’s net worth by one million dollars. But were they lies? I decided that in order to be a lie, a falsehood has to be presented with the intention of deceiving. While we did mean to attract attention, we did not mean to deceive. It was obvious to everyone on the street that we were not really passing out million dollar bills. While people may have perked up their ears when they heard us and saw the tracts, no rational person would actually believe that the pieces of paper were really that valuable. And when people would ask us what the "million dollar bill" really was, we would gladly admit that it was a gospel tract. After all, our entire reason for handing them out was to open the door to preach the law and share the gospel. Let me be clear. I’m not saying that the end of sharing the gospel justifies the means of lying. Lying is always wrong. The reason that the questions were not lies had nothing to do with our motives. The questions and tracts were not sinful and then justified by the end of sharing the gospel. That would be good ends justifying bad means. But were they lies? No, they were a clever trick meant to divert attention. Is it wrong to use this kind of deception as Christians? I don’t think so. The question goes beyond my purpose in this writing, but I would point to passages like Matthew 21:23-27, Acts 23:6-10, and Luke 16:1-9 to show that the Apostle Paul and Jesus Himself both used and recommended using shrewd means that involve deception and diversion. I could very well be wrong on this, and am open to further discussion. But assuming I am right, using the tracts in this way is not wrong inherently. At the same time, going out on the street and handing out tracts like this may seem foolish or confusing, and the actions would be wrong if the motive was not right. But since our motive was to plant seeds of the gospel of Christ, our actions were right. In that sense, the end justified the means. While right ends can never justify wrong means, right ends can justify strange means.

The ultimate example of this is the cross. God allowed His perfect Son to endure unfathomable pain and suffering even to the point of death. That seems strange. More than strange, it is awful. Scripture even speaks of the cross as "foolishness" in 1 Corinthians 1. But no matter how strange, awful, or foolish it may be, the means of the cross is justified by the end of our salvation. To justify is to prove right. The cross seems wrong but is proved right when we know why it had to be. The incredible pain and suffering Christ experienced was worth it because of the incredible joy and blessing it brought to us whom He loved.

In following Christ, we must be ready to endure tribulation, trials, and temptations on the path to gaining Him. Paul said that he "suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that [he] may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8). The actions of a faithful Christian may sometimes look foolish, silly, or even insane, but they are made right by right motives. And the pain and suffering involved in the Christian life is utter foolishness to the world but the power and wisdom of God to us. Why? Because it will all be worth it in the end.

"If the burden seems too much to bear
Remember
the end will justify the pain it took to get us there."
--Relient K

Call me crazy. I'm learning Python. It's a high-level interpreted programming language named after Monty Python. Why? AOP is building yet another author tool, and the Python guys are putting it together. Since I built the last two author tools (and I'm not very busy) I volunteered to help with the project. I'm excited. This is really the first time I've jumped into the open-source non-MS world. It's scary, but there are some pretty cool features to the language and according to the homepage, Google uses it. It seems to me that whatever Google does is cool, so it must be cool. So it's going to be a mix of VB.NET Windows Forms (I'm still on the SOS 2.0 team) AND Python for the next month.