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bigsteve216
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Name: bigsteve216
Interests: getting to know God, family, photography, videography, recording/performing tech, books, almost every sport just for fun (favorites: tennis, racquetbalball, soccer, ultimate frisbee, and basketball)
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/2/2003
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| A Culinary Step ForwardTonight I made a dish which did not involve rice or noodles. It's been a long time since I've done that, excluding frozen pizza. I cooked pork chops, sweet potatoes and boiled okra for my brother and myself. I used seasoning salt and garlic on the pork chops, butter and sugar on the sweet potatoes and salt and pepper on the okra. It was tasty-tasty.
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| A Trip to See Loved Ones (cont'd)Second Stop: Minneapolis,
MN
After four days in Seattle,
I flew out to see my dad, stepmom and stepsister. They moved to Minneapolis last summer. My brother Chris also flew in to join in on the
fun. My favorite part was when we went to see a sculpture garden.  
Below is a metal wall that was stamped and painted to make it
look like bricks.
As you can see, we were inspired by the art.
   
We also went to a Twins game, walked around downtown for a
bit, and ate lunch in the Mall of America.
The Mall of America is the biggest mall in the US. It even has roller coasters in it. It’s kind of ridiculous. I don’t particularly like malls. To end the trip, we visited Bethlehem Baptist
Church and then flew
home. I went to sleep around 1 AM and
then started my Wal-Mart internship the next day.
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| A Trip to See Loved OnesJust prior to final exams, I found out that I was accepted
as a Wal-Mart pharmacy intern. With my summer plans shaping up, I
requested a start date that would give me ten days of vacation. This is
the story of that vacation.
First Stop: Seattle, WA
I went to visit my friends Chad
and Tarah. I consider Chad
as my first mentor (not including my parents). He taught me a lot about
following Jesus during my junior year of high school. I hadn't Chad and Tarah
since their wedding three years ago. I had wanted to visit them for a
while but did not have the means. The fact that they moved from Chicago to Seattle was an
added bonus because I was more interested in Seattle
than Chicago.
The adventure began before I even got to Seattle. I was busy studying for finals so naturally I
decided to put off packing for my trip until with them I was done. Packing quickly was not difficult since I
have taken so many weekend trips to visit home over the past seven years since
moving out. After my friend Matt picked
me up, we stopped by an end of the year party for a few hours before Matt
convinced me to leave in order to catch my flight. On the plane, I sat beside a woman who was
looking for a place to live in Seattle
for her family. She taught me about
housing markets and her job as an internal auditor.
Chad
picked me up from the airport and the next day we set out to do some hiking. Chad and Tarah promised to show me
some mountains.
And a waterfall.
Joking aside, we did catch some great views.
   
Besides hiking, we played some board games, visited Mars Hill
Church, and ate the best
sushi I’ve ever had.
 
It was really great seeing my old friends again. The best part of the trip was the
conversations we had. It was fun joking
around and I was glad to hear how they’ve grown in faith. 
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| For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free "The Corinthians emphasised the (biblical) principle that Christ had set them free. Paul retorted that freedom is not the only principle in the Christian life. Freedom is for something. God has set us free for holiness. He has set us free from the guilt and bondage of sin-- but not in order that we might become enslaved to the very sins for which Christ died to redeem us!
This is powerfully reinforced by the apostle (in 1 Cor. 6:9-11). Paul provides a long list of the kinds of sinful conduct which are contrary to membership of the kingdom of God. He does not mean that these heinous sins are the unforgivable sin. Some of the Corinthians had indulged in these very sins before they were converted. Yet they had been washed, sanctified and justified through Christ! But they had to be radically converted in order to be fitted for the kingdom of God. No anarchy is present there--it is a kingdom, a monarchy, and is governed by the great and holy commandments of God.
What is Paul's point? It is that no action which is contrary to the plain word of God can ever be legitimate for the Christian. No appeal to spiritual freedom or to providential circumstances can ever make what is ethically wrong anything else but sinful. For the Christian is free only to love and obey the law of God. Therein lies his true freedom."
-from Discovering God's Will by Sinclair Ferguson
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| Eve CarsonToday is the day of Eve Carson's memorial service here on campus. The traffic is really picking up and thousands are expected to be in attendance. I'm wearing Carolina blue along with many others in remembrance of her. For those of you who have not heard, Eve Carson, UNC's student body president was shot and killed just before spring break.
The reaction to Eve's death has been huge, from the national media coverage to the student paper to the memorial website to the murals on campus filled with memories to the candlelight vigil that filled the common outdoor area called the pit with more people than I have ever seen there. The day I heard about Eve's death I remember sitting in silence in the computer lab with sorrow. It's good to be affected by such things. I don't want to be callous toward the things going on around me. I didn't know Eve personally but I saw her around campus some.
The situation just made me think of what really matters in life. I thought about things with an eternal perspective and about others such as Eve's family and friends instead of just being focused on myself. I was really excited about that day's intramural soccer game against our rival pharmacy school team, but I was reminded that what really matters are God and the relationships I have with other people, like my teammates. Eve's life was cut short, but our lives, too are so short. Let's not waste them. Let's not waste them running after empty pleasures or worldly gain, but rather let us seek true joy with our eyes on eternity--a joy that can only be found in God and is only made possible by the reconciliation Jesus bought with his blood to bring sinners (like me) to God.
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