September 1st, 2006 Not to us, but to your name, be the glory. September 7th CUW is kind of interesting. It stands for Campbell University Worship. It's a required class for everyone that goes here, but most people sleep or don't pay attention. It's a good concept but I think it needs a little bit better structure to really reach kids here that aren't saved. I thought the same thing about Campus Crusade that I went to the first week I was here. I emailed the guitarist who played and sang and told him I could help out but he never emailed me back, oh well. My classes as a whole are going alright, some easier than others. My music theory class is a real killer, I should have paid attention in band or taken theory in high school. It would have made my life easier now. My professors are pretty nice there are only 2 that I don't like out of all my 11 classes. It is fun learning more piano and how to play classical guitar though. Rough, but it will be worth it in the end. Chorus is pretty interesting too, speaking of which, I have to run to class! September 12th, 2006 I've decided Iver is amazing. Go listen: www.purevolume.com/iver Everyone needs to listen to their music, it's great. I'm in the process of adding a few images to my design site of previous websites that I made that are no longer avaliable so you can still get a good idea of the site that USED to be there. Anyway, school is going alright. I'm still adjusting but things are going relatively well minus this huge sore in my neck that I woke up to this morning. I added a few more pictures to my facebook by request as well. That's all for now. September 19th, 2006 Well today was just like any other day except for I learned that there was a speaker at CUW that was preaching false doctrine. He is condoning the use of alcohol, drunkeness, sex befre marriage, selfishness, and having wealth. This to me is just appauling and literally it OFFENDS me that someone who calls themselves a christian and a follower of Christ would say these kind of things. Not only that, he is saying these false teachings to an entire student body of college students filling there head with this nonsense. He used the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine as an example of how Christ "knows how to party" and also that since Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines that we in that same manner should not feel bad for having premarital sex and things of that sort. The teacher, Tyler Jones, is the preacher for Vintage 21, a church located on Oberlin Street in downtown Raleigh. I am stuck in a hard place right now in my faith. I want to stand up to him and tell him why I don't believe in these things and back myself up with scripture and hit him on top of the head with a bible. But I don't think God is really causing me to make a scene, but he is calling me to stand up for what I believe and know to be true. I know my Lord and I know this is NOT in any way a good representation of him. It is really dissapointing to see what Campbell is letting filtrate their idea of a positive influential speaker for the college students well-being. It's appauling to me. Solomon is not a standard. Solomon is a sinner, not a role model and should not be considered an example for behavior and spiritual well-being. We are called as Christians to be like Christ alone? not Solomon. God also does not condone drinking or being drunk in any way. I am definately wanting to talk to this speaker afterwards and also the leader of CUW that got him to come and speak. Jesus turned water into wine to prove His real nature to the disciples. The ultimate purpose of the miracle was to reveal His Glory and deity, with the result being faith in Him. John 2:1: "This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him." There is a lot of scripture I have gathered the last few hours trying to get something together and I will post them in my next post tomorrow. September 20th, 2006 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. Romans 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. I Peter 4:1-6 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do?living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. Galatians 5:21 I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Philippians 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Luke 6:20 Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.?. Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. My favorite verse in this situation here is this: Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope?the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Also, my favorite quote: "The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian." -A.W. Tozer Please be praying for me to stand up for what I know what is right and that in all things Christ alone is glorified above all things. September 21st, 2006 Well last night at campus crusade was an interesting one. The speaker again like I said, was Tyler Jones. I did not know what to expect. He got up and right off the bat and said he wanted to clear up any confusion about his sermon on Tuesday. He started off by saying that he did his best to preach the word of God the best he knew how but that a lot of it was taken out of context and misunderstood. He wanted people to discuss and bring up (not attack) some of the issues that he spoke upon on Tuesday. There was a pause and a few people, including myself, brought up a lot of the issues he talked about that we disagreed with. Before I get into the details here, I want to start off by saying that I really like Tyler Jones and his ideas and structure of teaching the gospel, I just do not agree at all with some of the things he does as far as scripture is related, and I believe he is a strong Christian and just got a little bit out of the bounds of what I believe to be true. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because in all honesty, no one is ever going to be 100% correct and I appreciated his perspective even though I did not necessarily agree with it. There was a lot that was talked about, and he got to the point where he said he had to get on to the nights sermon so if anyone wanted to have a discussion with him to come up afterwards to talk to him (which me and about 15-20 others did). Tyler Jones is a strong Christian and his walk is right with the Lord there is no question about it. But for example: the drinking statements. He retracted a lot of what he said and said to us that he in no way wanted to convey to us that he was condoning getting drunk. However, what he said in CUW to the students was "go out to every party you possibly can and have a good time". To most Campbell students this meant "ok its ok to get drunk, the preacher just said to go party". But what Tyler Jones meant was actually meant for a very very small people group (such as an outreach group of a campus ministry). And he did not mean go get drunk, but he did mean they should go to the parties and be a positive influence to the people there who ARE getting drunk. Although he does believe that having one or two beers in a social aspect is ok as long as you aren't drunk. This is the part I had problems with because I don't necessarily agree with that in that context. Another thing he talked about was throwing stoicism and moralist ideas out of the church. A part of me, first off, said that this was straight hedonistic teaching. Because the way he made it SOUND at CUW was that morals are not important to the Christian faith. I understood what he meant, as in that they are not the basis of the religion. Just because you don't swear or drink or do these things, does not make you a good Christian. And I agree with him when he says that but the way he made it sound? is as if morals were not a part of the religion and they were not important and that if God made things like beer, and sex, then we ought to enjoy them because God meant for us to live rich lives of joy and happiness. None the less, I'm glad Tyler Jones spoke and "messed up" (as he put it). It is a good example of how we are only humans and need to submit to God and submit to scripture and scripture alone, as that there are false prophets everywhere around us. I am not saying Tyler Jones is a false prophet, so don't get me wrong. Another thing that bothered me was that he was using the fact that "this is the most talked about CUW service to date" to justify the fact that Campbell students are now discussing Christ. YES, I am thrilled this is starting conversations all over campus about the gospel, but the ends DO NOT justify the means in this case. I hope that makes sense to those of you who are reading this. Here is a good example. I was able to talk to my roommate about my faith ONLY because of this incident, and beforehand I would never have been able to. I just wish there could have been some other means of bringing it up besides someone "messing up" at CUW. Anyways, I still haven't decided if I am going to talk to the guy who runs CUW yet. I know he is aware and has heard everything that I have discussed from at least somebody. But who knows. I am glad for my brothers and sisters in Christ that were there that night at CUW to discuss our faith. It is good to see Christ-centered believers willing to stand up for what they believe in on a college campus. Please feel free to email me more about this subject if you want to talk about it. It's back to studying and playing guitar for me! Have a good weekend everyone. September 26th, 2006 Yea so blown head gaskets are no fun. I'm so ready to just have my car with no problems. Oh well, patience. I had a theory test and sight singing quiz today, I hope I did ok. Thomas (this cool new kid i met here) helped me study a lot so that was awesome. I had such a bad day yesterday, everyting seemed to go wrong, I don't even want to get into it. On top of it all I have two papers due this week so I better get to doing them. On a happy note, I might be going to Africa this summer on a mission trip, so that would be cool. But who knows. I don't even know where I'll be in the spring semester as of right now. September 27th, 2006 Lauren, happy 3 months!