An "X" marks the books I've read.

33 constitute a position in the Nerd Hall of Fame. I perfer the Well-Read Hall of Fame.

1984:
Walden:
The Grapes of Wrath: X
Of Mice and Men:
The Old Man and the Sea: X
Wuthering Heights: X
Pride & Prejudice:
The Sun Also Rises:
Brave New World: X
Slaughterhouse 5:
For Whom the Bell Tolls:
The Catcher in the Rye:
The Great Gatsby:
Lord of the Flies:
Animal Farm: X
To Kill a Mockingbird:
Antigone: X
Hamlet:
Macbeth: X
Night: X
The Jungle:
Tender is the Night:
Romeo & Juliet: X
A Midsummer Nights Dream: X
The Crucible:
Wicked:
Emma:
Sense & Sensibility:
Lolita:
The Hiding Place: X
The Bible: X
Catch-22: X
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: X
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl: X
Jane Eyre: X
Eragon:
The Chronicles of Narnia: X
Great Expectations: X
A Tale of Two Cities: X
Oliver Twist: X
Death of a Salesman:
The Odyssey: X
The Iliad: X
Persuasion:
The Secret Garden: X
David Copperfield: X
Ivanhoe: X
The Scarlet Letter: X
Fahrenheit 451:
Woodsong:
The Hatchet:
A Wrinkle in Time: X
Elsie Disnmore:
Little House on the Prairie: X
The Pearl:
Candide:
Rob Roy:
Nisa:
Guests of the Sheik:
Little Women: X
The Last of the Mohicans: X
The House of Seven Gables:
Moby-Dick:
Uncle Toms Cabin: X
Call of the Wild: X
The Court-Martial of Daniel Boone:
The Frontiersmen: X
Blue Jacket: X
The Savage Journey: X
Voyage of the Frog:
Alidas Song:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: X
The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman:
Star Wars Trilogy: Episodes 4-6:
Walden and Civil Disobedience:
Pygmalion:
A Comedy of Errors:
The Age of Innocence:
All My Sons:
Cannery Row:
The Importance of Being Earnest: X
War and Peace: X
Crime and Punishment:
The Oedipus Cycle:
Gone With the Wind:
The Return of the Native:
Robinson Crusoe: X
The Tell-Tale Heart:
The Raven:
Gullivers Travels: X
The Canterbury Tales: X (Most of them)
Silas Marner: X
The Caine Mutiny:
Kim:
My Antonia:
The Hobbit: X
Fellowship of the Ring: X
The Two Towers: X
Return of the King: X
The Silmarillion:
The Cat in the Hat: X


Total: 47

According to Jake http://www.xanga.com/followtheway/  I must be a nerd.

In other news, I'm getting my wisdom teeth out tomorrow...hmm...good thing I waited until after finals, huh?

So I guess I'll be incapacitated on the floor for a couple days.

Mom is stockpiling bananas..... 

::Edit::  I think maybe I should clarify that bit of French that I used. You can't read that like it was said by some gentleman from Paree. You need to read it like you're some crazed revolutionary on his way to The Bastille with a pitchfork in your hand.

I was thinking about what I want to do with my life....

I want to talk to people and meet new people and help them work through their problems. I want to see new places and do new things and think new thoughts, but most of all, I want to die knowing that I made a difference. 

So...can you tell me?  What do you think I should do with my life?

Which is better...

To not be completely sure of what you think and yet present the impression that you know what you're talking about

OR

To know exactly what you think and allow that you are not completely sure that you're right   

Junto got me thinking...

I will admit that I was stumped last Sunday night at Junto. (The discussion was on freewill vs. predestination) Hence this post.

It is not a disgrace to be stumped, but it is a disgrace to be stumped and not look for the right answer.

Does God control our every action?  No, not every action.

After a bit of thought and some more thought and some other conversations this has been my conclusion.

Have you ever met that person that God just put in your life at the right time? Have you ever been in a situation where you know that it was God's timing or God's guidance that made things turn out the way they did? I have. I think most of us have. But if God is only a benevolent deity up in the sky who loves us and has a plan for us that he, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, wants to impart to us, than how can he intervene in the actions of man in order to make these perfect "coincidences" take place. And when he does intervene isn't he restricting or totally annailating out freewill on the subject?

Basically I think that we do have a degree of freewill but when exercising that free will we, like that dog, always, and predictably, choose to sin. So that it is though the grace and love of God that he breaks us free from the bondage of our freewill and we be come a slave to Christ. His will becomes our will, and we are a new man.

God does not force us to sin that would be against his nature. (this is where I was wrong) Besides how then could he hold us accountable for our sin since he would be the author of it? All of the sin that we do, anything bad, is of ourselves. All good that we do is of God. ALL good. That includes salvation. 

We are fallen creatures and we cannot help ourselves. We are not dying in our sins, we are dead. Dead people can't help themselves. When you're dead you can't really do much, you're kinda inert if you know what I mean.  So to be dead in our sins means that we can't help ourselves just like the dog (love that analogy) we always run counterclockwise. We tell ourselves that we'll never do that one again and next thing we know we have.

God, seeing our depraved state, knows that the only way that we will do good is though his grace given to us so that we can beat that sin nature. Outside of that grace we would only sin.* This is also why we do not choose God but God chooses man. (predestination, see John 15:16)

This is my reasoning. (and please tell me if, and why, you disagree.) 

* Now don't blow a gasket. I know what you're thinking. What about all those people who do good things but aren't Christians? This is where common grace comes into play. Common grace is the theological term that refers to the grace that God bestows on all living people, saved and non-saved alike. The grace that allows the world to function.