The Thoughts of Ryan-C

I came to this world with nothing
And I leave with nothing but love
Everything else is just borrowed

-The Streets, Everything Is Borrowed

Me and my buddy Nathan were talking and he came up with the ultimate heretic/anti-Christ presidential ticket of all time. I felt it was necessary to take it this far. Enjoy the false signs and healings!

Vote For Healing This Election!

(full size graphics available on request)

1. Uggs are still ugly.

2. Leggings still aren’t pants.

3. UCF girls know neither of these things.

4. The weather is perfect here in Orlando. Right now it is 49* as the sun is rising and will probably reach a high of 70* today. Thanks Jesus

#5 after the jump…. (more…)

Here are some of the books I really think everyone should read…

By Mark Driscoll
Radical Reformission
Death By Love
Vintage Jesus

By John Piper
Desiring God

By Tim Keller
The Reason For God

By J.I. Packer
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God

By Craig Gross
Starving Jesus

I have about 30 books on my wish list and a few more on my shelves. This list will surely grow.

A list of things that are going on in my life…

1. I need to be selfless instead of selfish. I need to be slow to anger and quick to hear. I need to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer.

2. I got some 11×17 prints of some of my photos done on campus thanks to a helpful word from my friend Jeff. The on campus print center has really good prices for good quality prints. I got 8 prints on 80lb gloss for $18. If you ever come over to my place you can take a gander at them.

3. I have 2 mid-terms tomorrow. Hooray!

4. Making friends with Starbuck’s Baristas is always a good thing. Hooray for discounts.

5. I need to be selfless instead of selfish. I need to be slow to anger and quick to hear. I need to be a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. It needed to be emphasized again.

I know it seems like I am in love with Mark Driscoll, but in our day and age we need a male figure who is radical about his hatred for sin and his love for Jesus. That is why I love pastor Mark. He calls you out on your sin and tells you to repent (not in the ‘bullhorn guy’ way though [oh snap, Rob Bell reference]). The importance of guys being called out on their sin is so large that we cannot even fathom it. Commonly in modern Christian circles evangelical pastors preach to their congregation in a loving and effeminate manner that only produces a false hope of man’s ability to be happy and live their ‘best life now.’ That is a lie. The truth is that God hates sin and hell is very hot. Our lives are ones of selfishness in need of redemption that comes from repentance and faith in Jesus.

This is one thing that gets me pissed at most Christian guys (including myself sometimes)…. our selfishness and proclivity to forget our First Love. So often we pray to the idols of fast cars, Madden ‘09 (which is a retarded game), and lust instead of listening to the Holy Spirit that guides us. We need to repent of our selfishness, and not the crappy type of repentance, the real kind that turns from sin and towards righteousness. I know I often find myself in a trial and giving into my own sinful desires (James 1:14-15) but I understand that in my failures I am giving into sin that I should be turning from which leads me to growth and maturity. I am not endorsing sin, but after the fact, repentance leads to growth in Christ.

I think Driscoll says it best in his ‘Good Soldier’ video when he says (paraphrase) “Guys need to stop looking at porn, playing hours of World of Warcraft, sleeping with their girlfriends, and trying to fit bigger subwoofers in their retarded car, and realize than Jesus is Lord and demands respect and allegiance.”

I hope that punches you in the face.

I just realized that Evil Knievel wasn’t really that good at jumping motorcycles. But he was very good at crashing them and shattering his pelvis.

It has been three days since my last post and I felt obliged to get something up. well… right now I am sitting in Starbucks enjoying some free intarwebs and reading some good books. I have discovered that the online ESV study Bible that comes with the hard copy is incredible. Honestly if you just drop $30 on the hardcover edition, it is more than paying for the online Bible let alone the actual book. It is all fully searchable as well which is a nice feature. Another great feature is the ability to virtually highlight text and to save notes that you type in online, which would be a great help if you only want to carry around your laptop with you instead of your 10lb Bible. Once again, if you need a study Bible, you should pick this one up.

I have also stared reading The Reformed Expository Commentary on James which is very well written. There are only about 8 commentaries in this series so far, but they are expanding their volumes just about every month so hopefully they will have a full set within the next few years.

I guess that is about it for now… I’m gonna get back to reading.

I just got mine in the mail and all I can say is… Wow! Here is a breakdown of the stats on it:

-2,752 pages
-2 million words
-20,000 note
-80,000 cross-references
-200+ full-color maps
-40 all-new illustrations
-over 50 articles
-more than 200 charts

It is a really impressive book. If you order it from WTS Books you save 43% and it only costs $28.49. Also it comes with an online access code so you can access the Study Bible online. Its awesome.

So today I went to Starbucks and read Evangelism & The Sovereignty Of God by J.I. Packer. I must say that this is a very helpful book for all Christians, Reformed or not. Packer outlines what evangelism is Biblically and how human responsibility and God’s sovereignty coincide in evangelism. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who actually cares about being a Christian.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“It is God who brings men and women under the sound of the Gospel, and it is God who brings them to faith in Christ. Our evangelistic work is the instrument that He uses for this purpose, but the power that saves is not in the instrument; it is in the hand of the One who uses the instrument.”

“For where we are not consciously relying on God, there we shall inevitably be found relying on ourselves.”

“The right to intimately talk to another person about the Lord Jesus Christ has to be earned, and you earn it by being his friend and really caring about him”

“The desire to justify the meetings by reaping a crop of converts may prompt the preacher and the councilors to try and force people through the motions of decision prematurely, before they have grasped what it is really all about, and converts produced in this way tend to prove at best stunted and at worst spurious and, in the event, gospel-hardend.”

“Some fear that a doctrine of eternal election and reprobaion involves the possibility that Christ will not receive some of those who desire to receive Him, because they are not elect. The ‘comfortable words’ of the gospel promises, however, absolutely exclude this possibility. As our Lord elsewhere affirmed, in the emphatic and categorical terms: ‘whoever comes to me I will never cast out.’”