Speak friend and enter.

plant 

To quiet a certain southern baptist vampire vegetarian goth runners' requests for comparison pictures, the first picture is at "regular" resolution and the second at "fine" the next two are also at "fine" for comparison with previous pictures, one is this cool plant that someone threw away, the second is my cat, the superglue kitty. 

So, I went home to visit sick relatives this weekend. While I was there I got a chance to play with my new birthday present (my precious)! This is my Bert! 

This is the house that Bert and Carol built (with a little help from their friends).

Life is going fairly well, if at a blinding, break-neck pace that will soon leave me ragged and panting in the dust. But I applied for my passport today, and thats super-exciting. I'm going to get to go to Scotland with my good friend Jake, and maybe bring home a wee bonnie lass from that grand country :-p (joking) But Scotland should be awsome none-the-less.

A special devo for Good Friday.

The Crucifixion

Humanity’s darkest hour.
In all places where people unite for the common good, in all places that dare to call themselves civilized and many places that don’t, one rule, one common theme is this: the suffering and death of innocent people is unacceptable. Very few and very depraved are those people who kill without justification. Even the most brutal invent laws that their victims have broken, seek to rationalize their actions, and disown their guilt. This behavior crosses religious and political boundaries, Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, Middle Eastern, European or American, all hold the shedding of innocent blood to be an evil thing. And yet, how readily we condemn those who offend us.

Good Friday, a day of remembrance of the greatest and only true Hope of mankind, and our lowest, darkest hour. On that day we remember that we, I, you, all of us, condemned the only perfect, pure, truly innocent being to ever walk the earth to torture and death. Its heavy and its harsh, we are all stained with innocent blood. Yet, we call it Good Friday. Good it is. For the perfect, pure, innocent being knew that it was going to happen. He did it all willingly, out of love, just for the chance that we might love Him back. Good Friday is somber, yes, but not out of guilt, Christ did not die that we should live in guilt; rather He died that we might be free in Him.

Not too long ago a film was produced called the Passion of Christ. Most people have heard of it, and there are a lot of different opinions about it. For myself, I hate that movie. I saw it once, and as long as there is an ounce of free will left in me I will never see it again. It makes me sick. My entire being cries out against it, “Make it Stop!” Echoed in my mind over and over again. The pain and suffering it shows is too real. That is what Jesus chose to suffer for us, for you, and for me. It is too much. The price He paid for me is far too high, I can never hope to repay it. And to think that He could have walked away at any time; that He knew from the beginning where the path He walked would lead. It blows me away. All I can do is to return the love He first gave me, and try to follow where He leads.

The story of Jesus on his way to the cross is found in all four gospels (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 22:66-23:56, John 18:28-19) and is summed up best (in my opinion) by Philippians 2:5-8. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!”