It’s not yourself. Not even for a second. Although you do have a chance to choose who you will give that control to.

Hi folks,

Hey I’m actually writing an a new post here! Just came back from Chicago land. Went there to be rebooted, ended up with a new perspective.

As much as I hate driving downtown, overall it wasn’t too bad. Now what can I learn from the experiences gained in the past week? Remains to be seen.

Hey, this notebook actually works really well for recording. Here’s myself playing around on my mouth organ.

Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee

Well I went and bought myself a Macbook Pro. First I checked every Staples and Bestbuy store in the local area. When they didn’t have the one I wanted in stock. (They were either bought-out or didn’t carry them.)

So I ordered one from Staples.ca. They deliver next day but since I ordered after 6pm they delivered two days later. But it was the wrong machine. Inside I found  a white Macbook 2GHZ little thing. So I call them straight away and the next day they drop by and pick up the delivered book dropping off the one I wanted and paid for.

Overall I would continue to recommend Staples.ca. So long as someone is there to receive it as they’ll try twice and cancel the order otherwise.

But now to the good stuff, I like the trackpad. Use two fingers to scroll/zoom. Tap with two fingers to do a right click. The keyboard is great once you get used to it, especially how it lights up automatically as the lighting decreases. I setup an 802.11n network with WPA2 security and it works great.
It’s amazingly fast, especially coming from a PPC machine.

I wouldn’t mind if the battery lasted a little longer. But you probably could say that about every laptop currently in production.

Bootcamp is incredibly easy to use. I’ve installed Vista along with Mac OS X.
Talking about operating systems I pre-ordered Leapord yesterday. Haven’t used it yet so we’ll see how good it really is.

The Wissmann Family was over here for a few days.  I’ve recorded and edited each session and we will probably make them available on lighthousegospel.net in the coming days.

Awhile ago I said in the future I might post about the root cause of every conflict between fellow humans.

It’s something that I’ve been pondering for some time. A few answers from some friends include our lusts (James 4:1-2), walking in the flesh, selfwilled (2 Peter 2:10), and our sin nature.

Well the Lord showed me through certain things and scripture that the cause is selfishness. Seems so simple now. If we simply put the other persons interest ahead of our own, there would be no unrest.

But we will always have conflict in this world, there will always be fighting. But the good news is we don’t have to be the cause.

Just read the first conflict ever recorded in Genesis chapter 4 and you’ll see how this is true.

I figured maybe I should simply write for once about what is going on in my life. Don’t talk about that a whole lot. Maybe because I don’t consider it of importance.

Well first of all, last week my sister and I went to Toronto along with a few other Canadians (first all CA team) to work with children at a Children’s Institute.  It was certainly something I’ll remember and might even consider doing again. Here’s a photo of our team.

And from there I came home and it was back to work. Install roofs for builders and home-owners.

By the way we are switching to the CertainTeed XT25 & XT30 for 3-tab shingles from the GAF Royal Sovereign. The shingle is of better quality but also smaller which means more costly to install. Time and effort. Now I’ll have to work even harder to go straight!
But it’s not like if you care what kind of 3-tab shingle I install, so how about full laminated? Well the majority of our roofs are done with the GAF Timberline 40 which is a special Canadian version. But we also offer and have installed the Landmark 30 from CertainTeed which is also a very good shingle but the cost is too close to the Timberline.

What did you say? You don’t care what I do at work at all? Ok, well then what else is there to write?
How about I ask a question. What is the cause of every conflict between fellow humans ever initiated? An answer might come in the next post if nobody replies with a good one.

That’s what I’ve heard, religion contradicts progress. And now I’m wondering, what kind of progress?

You know my God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And you know absolute truth does not change. If you are one of those who deny absolute truth and turn to a theory that cannot be true, you probably believe progress means evolution. People are becoming better as time goes on. You also probably believe we humans all are good deep down inside.
But the opposite it true! The only progress that has been going on over the past few thousand years is people becoming deformed, diseases becoming ever more rampant, our environment is slowly turning for the worse, and that which was understood as evil not too long ago is now accepted as the norm.

Now tell me what progress is! Is it the human race degrading with each passing generation? Today you can commit murder and be let off with a “mentally ill” plea. Yesterday a man who committed murder was executed unless granted mercy by a family member. Is that progress? Towards what? Tomorrow a man can kill your wife and be recognized as normal. That’s just how things are, deep down inside he is a good person.

That is what’s wrong with democracy, that’s what’s wrong with liberalism, that’s what’s wrong with the saying religion contradicts progress.

Yes it does, and I’d have it that way. My God was absolutely right the first time, and to keep His commandments is a blessing. If only the world would recognize our fallen nature. No man has any good in himself. The heart of a human is desperately wicked, and who can know it?

Wake up and recognize, what we need is not more democracy and acceptance of the evil desires of this perverse generation. What we need it the absolute authority of the God of the Torah. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. My God. What we need is progress in turning back to the ways of JEHOVAH!

Job 6:24-25 - Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

As this text in Job says, right words have force. And Ephesians 5:4, “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.”

We must not use our mouth for foolish, or filthy talking, and neither for jesting or joking. These are not convenient! Rather let us give thanks and use our mouths to speak positively instead of the alternative.

As Psalm 35 :28 says, “And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.”

Let it be so.

As of today it’s been 2 years that we’ve registered the Lighthouse Gospel Church web site (lighthousegospel.net) in Port Burwell and launched it to the public.

Yesterday night I launched an major revision to the site based on the system I’ve also developed called Illumicore. It’s a complete rewrite and I am pleased with the initial results, but already see a list of things that need to be done. The design could be touched up, currently it’s too blue and almost discouraging. The administration section could be made more usable. Some content could be polished.

But we’re on our way and here’s to the next two years!

BWT, we’ve been added to the iTunes Music Podcast directory.

I read an article from the Jerusalem Post titled, “What are universities for?“

What came to my thoughts immediately is how business owners often believe having a college or university degree somehow qualifies a person.
But from what I’ve personally heard from businesses nearby, a young man who’s maybe not even completed basic education makes a better employee, than one who comes fresh from college!

A person does not need a degree to make money. A person needs to be loyal, see a problem and fix it, and strive forward. It’s not lack of education, but lack of willingness, intuitiveness, and diligence that makes rotten workers.

You know I’m not against higher education. But learning only gets you so far. Continuous education somehow burns a man’s intelligence out of him.

Personally, I don’t have a single degree, but have been working full time since the age of 17, and worked during the summer for 6 years or so. Towards the end, education seemed so frustrating because I was solving problems in a text book that were not solving any problems in the real world! Certainly education is important! But it must be taken in balance.
I believe basic education should be done at home by the parents. I’ve both gone to a public school and gone through homeschooling. I know there are cases where homeschooling is not possible, but whenever it is, it’s best to be pursued.

After basic education is completed at home, the student should take up a job, and work with the passion God gave him. Be it a doctor, learn and work. Learning without working is like eating without exercise. Completely without use. The best doctors are not those who went to school for years, but those who learned with their hands. The same goes for trades, politics, and even the factory worker.

Want to become a rabbi? Read, memorize, and study the scriptures. Go through some courses sure, but don’t spend your life in school. The words of God were spoken to regular people. It doesn’t take years of education to know what the scriptures are saying. When you learn a language you don’t do it by simply reading and writing tests. But by interaction as well. By putting your knowledge to use while you are learning.

As of February 11, 2007. I have a new brother, and his name is Eric Wiebe.

Here are some photos!

Eric Wiebe

I figured I might as well document my first experience of hitting a deer with an automobile. In this case the deer fell into the ditch and was a DOA (Dead On Arrival).

How did it happen? Well I was driving along and out of the darkness two creatures jumped out over the road so I braked and as an effect, slowed down.
My first thought was whew! That was close. And then all of a sudden, another deer jumps out and I hit it, and another deer right after that which ended up right behind me.

I feel/hear/almost-see a thud so pull to the side, turn around and look for the deer and see the damage.
We find the deer lying in the ditch, apparently dead. The left headlight on the car is damaged and there is a nice dent on the side, causing a jam not allowing me to open the drivers side door. The bumper has a nice big crack in it and one smaller one. The left signal light is out of order, but that’s all the damage to me.

Disappointingly I have absolutely no insurance coverage for this kind of thing. I pay $304 a month and still not.
So we’ll see how easy it is to fix all this. Mainly the bumper, lights, and door.

No I didn’t take the deer home for some free meat. Fitting it into the trunk wasn’t feasible and simply wasn’t interested in spending the night cutting up a deer.

Passengers? My sister Nancy, Nick and Margaret Nuefeld.

Lessons learne? Slow down as much as possible when you see even just one deer, there’s probably a lot more coming. Maybe it’s time for a deer whistle or other animal warning system?