First off, I am sorry for not posting in almost two weeks... Brendon complained to me on thursday... So my apologies to those who are desperate to read my ramblings...

Anyways today I was talking a friend about how some Christian Bands were unbending in their faith of Jesus, they didn't care who knew... But then there are so-called "Christian" bands that try to distance themselves unless its beneficial to themselves...

Those who don't know, I really like music, I can't sing, I can't play, so about all I can do is listen... And I had for a few months gotten into a lot of praise music. I like it, but not as much as more rocky type music. So after a few months of listening and enjoying it, I decided to see what Christian bands were similar to the secular bands I like. Supertones came up... I think I really like the horns in unison with the rest of the music, it almost makes it bouncy. They sound a lot like Reel Big Fish, but not secular. Almost every song I have of them singing is about Christ. I especially like this song: , and this one too: , and this one:

well anyways... I am really feeling blessed by this music, Audio Adrenaline is another one I am currently liking.

Well me being one to want to listen to new music, I had heard of a band, The Fray, that my boss liked. I didn't particularly like the songs they sang, not that they were bad, just not my taste... well one day I heard someone say that they were Christian, I was like cool... Maybe I misjudged them... So I went looking around the interweb. and saw an article on Christianity Today, I was reading it and then I didn't want anything more to do with The Fray... Here's why:

The band avoided Christian record labels, saying God called them to the secular market instead. "I feel he would be disappointed with us if we limited ourselves," Wysocki says.

Slade says he used to "write all Christian lyrics" until he had an epiphany while working a shift at Starbucks: "None of my friends outside the church understood any of my songs; we had a different set of vocabulary," he says. "So I went home and threw away all those songs."

He adds, "If I handed somebody a double grande mocha latte and told them, 'Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,' they might throw it back on me. (So what! At least you tried).

"If we grow up in the church, it's easy to think it's our Christian duty to preach to every single person because God is the most important thing. And he is, but I'm a musician first. This is my job. We're not pastors. We're not preachers. We're not even missionaries."

Slade likens his job to any other. "If you're a painter, paint, but you don't have to have Jesus in every picture(Why not?). Paint well, and if you paint well enough, they might ask you why you do that."

See how this would make me upset... What they are saying is totally opposite of what we should be doing. We should make Christ part of everything in our lives. Not just do it when we are comfortable, or when it is convenient. That way people aren't just wondering "Why do you do that?" Making Christ the focus of everything you do, People will ask "Why do you do this for Jesus? How can Jesus work through me? How can I have Jesus in my life just like He is in yours?"

Why would you claim to be followers of Christ and then hide your faith when you have the greatest opportunity to share it? This angers me, but also shows how I am a hider of my faith when it is inconvenient.

I dunno why this made me angry... I'm not even a fan of their music... its too sappy...

Stop ripping off Nikola Tesla!! It's getting annoying.... see what I mean, Brendon will agree... jerks...

Today I was driving around for deliveries and started thinking, for me this can be dangerous... I am not very good at doing too many things at one time...

I was thinking, "You know how people ask you, 'So who's you hero, and why?'" I thought to myself.

My grandpa(passed away January '06) is my hero. He was a man who found God in everything. Taught that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That no one goes to the Father except by believing in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. He taught Sunday School, he helped my grandma in the church library, he used his engineering talents to build and fabricate many different things around the house. Everything he did he gave to the Glory of God. At Christmas Eve every year he would read from the 2nd chapter of Luke, then would explain the scripture and what it meant/means to us. I regret never really listening, I will never hear it again. But thats alright, he is in heaven having a fantastic time. And one day I hope we will both be there to praise God together with all the others who have gone home to be with Christ.

Then I was thinking, "Gee... Grandpa was a lot like John the Baptist. He proclaimed God's grace and mercy and forgiveness, all that was needed was repentance and faith." Then I thought, "John the Baptist is my hero." John's unashamed proclamation of salvation in the coming Christ. He didn't care how he was dressed, how dirty he was(but with a name like Baptist, he was probably pretty squeaky clean, and pruney), he didn't care that he couldn't cut his hair, ate locusts and honey for food. He didn't care that he was blunt and to the point, no dancing around it... I admire that. His only goal was to reach the people to get them to repent, and to realize the Messiah was coming(and had actually come).

I want that unabashed faith in God, to proclaim His plan for our salvation through Christ Jesus. I want to be more John the Baptist like in my ability to talk to others about Christ. I want to be bold for God. Unwavering, unashamed and shouting God's grace and mercy to all those around me.

If any of ya'll have actually talked to me, you know that I am very much the opposite of John the Baptist in terms of openness to others about anything.

So today my prayer is that God would give me the strength to overcome my fears of others, and my fears of expressing my faith, and give me the strength and knowledge to share with others.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a difference in a hero and The Saviour

So am I allowed to have two heroes? Grandpa and John the Baptist?

I only want one Saviour.

Thanks for reading.

For those who don't know yet... Yesterday I was arrested...

Yes that is correct finally Paul was arrested. Except that it wasn't for doing anything wrong... Here goes...


Yesterday I was writing an e-mail, and all of the sudden I hear my mom screaming bloody murder in the backyard, "Sam! Sam! Sam! Sam!, etc...(about a thousand times)" I'm in my room which over looks the back porch where she was... and can hear her loud and clear. I thinking she has hurt herself... So I go running down the stairs, Sam is right in front of me... Then I hear "Paul get your cat out of the window..." I thinking, "Whats wrong with my cat?" so I go back to my room and snatch my cat out of the window... Well turns out there is a hole in the screen, and my mom thought he was going to jump 15ft to his death, so at 7:30 in the morning she starts screaming bloody murder... about a cat... a cat that has in the past done, what she saw him do, a million times before... a cat that is over 15 years old... But apparently she had first called my brother Sam on his phone to remove the cat from the window. He said he would but didn't. Reminds me of this.

Well anyways... after all that I look at the clock, I had forgotten I was supposed to deliver something to Buena Park at 8am. So I run back to my room shut the window, grab most of my stuff... and run out to the truck and drive off. Well, about halfway to the freeway on-ramp I realized I left my Bible and cell phone at home. So I turn around and go back home, park halfway into the driveway. And run up and get my Bible and phone. As I am heading back down the street, I see a cop. Cops are not my friends... They tend to single me out. So I make sure I am driving correctly, not speeding, etc... as I get closer to the corner he pulls his car out in front of mine blocking the street. Then he jumps out and points his gun at me telling me to turn the truck off...

Once I see the gun, my hands are in the air... He tells me to put my hands out the window and open the door. Problem is the outside door handle of my truck is non-op. So he was yelling at me to open the door and keep my hands up out side. I had to open it. I used the inside handle. I didn't get shot. Yay!

Now I am outside the car and he tells me to turn around, and walk backwards... I shout to him, "What did I do?", he says "Get on the ground now!" Keep in mind the gun is still pointed at me... I get on the ground and he says "Cross your legs!" I cross my legs. He says, "Put your legs out to the side!" I uncross my legs, and spread them. He yells "I said cross your legs!" I say to the asphalt, "But you just said spread your legs." This goes on until another cop arrives with gun drawn on me. I finally get it figured out that he wanted my legs crossed and my "hands" out to my sides... Buffoon.

heh... take that jerk. Now face down on the street, legs crossed and arms spread out to my sides. The new cop that just arrived moments ago, comes walking over to me, still with gun drawn... I say, "What did I do?" He says, "We'll tell you what you did, you (expletive deleted)." Ok, I stopped talking, they were being ridiculous. They cuff me and then roll me over on my right side. And start searching my pockets... In my left pocket were two packets of Pop-Tarts, like I said I was late for work and grabbed food and ran. Well, as he is about to reach into my pocket I say, "Wanna Pop-Tart?" So then they stood me up and walked me over to the cruiser, and finished searching my pockets. I thought it odd they never asked if I had anything sharp in them... And they only searched 4 of the 7 pockets the shorts have.

After groping around in my pockets they decided to ask me some questions...

"Where are you going?" I'm late for work.

"Why in such a hurry?" I said I'm late for work.

"Whats all the screaming about?" Now, I am totally lost, I had forgotten what had just happened 20 minutes ago. Then I remembered and told them, "It was my mom screaming because she thought the cat was going to jump to his death."

They said "That's it?" Yes.

"Is you mom home?" I see her car and say Yes.

"Will she verify that thats all that happened?" I hope so.

So one goes down to the house and I look in my corner neighbors window and see she is on her phone watching this whole thing... Nice. They stuff me in the back of the cruiser, and I say, "This is the first time I have ever been in the back of a cruiser with cuffs on." The first cop, says to me ,"Lets hope you're not lying about the screams." I say, "I assure you I am not." Then he takes my info, and then has the nerve to make small talk with me...

"Oh... you have a motorcycle license?" Yeah...

The cop who went down to the house called back and said, no one is answering, does he have a key to the house? We are going to have to "make entry." I say try calling her cell phone... They call my mom, tell her the deputies are at the door and she need to speak with them... Turns out she was in the bathroom before they called.

Back to the car, after hearing them talk to mom the guy has the nerve to make small talk with me again...

"What kind of bike are you gonna get?" I want a Yamaha V-star 1100, but will take what I can get...(jerk)

"Your not gonna get a Harley?" No. (jerk)

Then some fat cop comes over and says, "I've never pulled Pop-Tarts off a guy before, hee- yuck hee-yuck." (jerk) Got all your giggles in on my behalf?

Anyways they call back saying my story is legit... So ten minutes after I hear them say to let me go, they finally decide to let me go. As they pull me out of the car I say to fatty, "Mind taking a picture?" He ignores me... Maybe hes eyeballing my breakfast... They un-cuff me, and say "Your stuff is all in your hat. You can leave now." Alright... no apology, no sorry about all this but its standard procedure.

Nice job guys... you really made me like the LA County Sheriffs Dept.

So apparently when my mom was waking the neighborhood, people called 911, then someone saw me run out to my truck and take off, Then I guess the same person saw me comeback. People thought I had hurt her and ran off then came back.

So here's what I have learned from this, mom needs not to scream bloody murder over a cat. Possibly murder, but not a cat. Sam needs to do what mom tells him to do in the first place. Not just go "uh huh". And I need to leave the house at a more reasonable time... If I had left sooner maybe they would have arrested Sam instead...

Ok, thats the arrest story that I will pass down to my kids and grandkids (Lord willing).

Thanks for reading.

I was out at an install today (those who don't know I am a Sign Installer, ask me later and I'll try and explain), and was talking to one of the underlings of the person I was supposed to meet. As she was trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing (I already knew what I was supposed to do, but they don't want to listen to the sign monkey), She finally told me what trucks I needed to work on.

I said to her, "Ok, so those two trucks that have no decals on them(just humoring her, it was pretty obvious which ones needed decals), well ya'll have all the leftover decals from the time we did the 20 other trucks, so I'll need those."

And she says, "'Ya'll' huh? I don't know anything about the decals, I'll go check."

So I walk back into the lobby, and she walks past and says, "I'll be right back. Where are you from?" I said, "America's Instant Signs." Thinking she needed to know what company I was with, typical question. She says, "No, like what state were you raised in? Why do you say 'Ya'll'?"

That kinda flustered me... I dunno why I say "ya'll", I was born and raised in Long Beach, CA. Just about as far away from the country one can get, and yet some of the words I use are very much not "SoCal lingo". Like some times I'll say "woursher" instead of "washer" or "'wourshing machine", or "couple three" instead of just three.

I can speak normally(if you think what I say is normal in the first place). I can say "The washer is done washing the washables, I'll put more washables in for washing.", I can say "You all need to stand here", or "Can I have three days off work in August?". My parents are from the mid-west, but moved out here when they were middle school aged. You hear a little bit from them, mostly dad, but I think I may use it a bit more than them.

Is it bad to talk like this? Does it make one sound "slow" or "dimwitted" or even just "plain lazy" for not attempting to pronounce the words correctly. Everyone knows I'm the first person to hassle someone for misspeaking. Its all in good fun though. Should I try and stop? Would I even be able to stop? Or would stopping be me denying where my family has come from? Would that be trying to distance myself from the mid-west in which my grandparents were raised?

I'm not embarrassed of my family, or where we come from. Dad's side is part Russian, part Swedish, living in Missouri, moving to California. My grandpa explained it to my dad in a great way when he was growing up.

Your quarter Russian, quarter Swedish, and all the rest is poor white trash from the south.

And my dad was proud as can be with that explanation. And I like it to...

Mom's side is... who knows a little bit of this a little of that, in know some Irish is in there, I looked it up. My grandpas great, great, great grandpa(follow the Clark line) was born in Ireland. So there my red headed sisters. You can no longer say you are not any part Irish. The green eyes and red hair had to come from somewhere. I wonder if he fought in the Revolutionary War. He lived forever too... 88 years... basically the same age as my grandpa when he died.

So anyways... I don't think I'll stop. If you don't like it, tell me, then get over it. There are more important things to worry about.

Like the coming onslaught of killer ladybugs. They eat babies you know... Think about it.

I love the Bible re-accountment of Elijah, and his work as a sole surviving prophet of Israel. I love how God did so many amazing things through this wanted man. He wasn't wanted because he had broken some law, no he was wanted because he loved God.

I would love to be a person so on fire for Jesus, that everywhere I went people would say, "There goes that Christian... He's crazy because he believes that the only way to go to heaven is through the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, I just hate him so much, that intolerant jerk. We should make it illegal to for him to be like that. We should kill him, so that there wont be any more like him."

That would be great, to be able to stand for Christ in the midst of any and all oppression. To declare aloud "Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and NO ONE gets to the Father except through Him." And for people to hear that and think it intolerant, would be correct. Christianity is not a belief of tolerance. Its a belief of faith in Christ Jesus that He died as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (past, present, and future), allowing us a relationship with a Holy God, instead of complete and udder destruction and eternity in hell. That belief is the one and only way for someone to get to Heaven, it is very intolerant.
Instead of the more common belief of the world that as long as your a "good"(what constitutes "good" in this fallen world?) person you can go to Heaven. Well the heaven that they are going to is not the Heaven I would like to go to. A heaven where there is no glorification of God in all His splendor, no endless praising of God, no New Jerusalem, just hangin' out with all the "good" people, who did "good" things according to their own opinions of "good." With no real belief in anything, no care for others eternal security, not wanting anything except for themselves, and for others to say "What a good person. I hope to chill with them in heaven some day, playin' my harp." Bleh...

Back to Elijah, In I Kings 18:20-40 Elijah is talking to King Ahab, and King Ahab says,

"Is that you (Elijah), O troubler of Israel?"

Elijah's response is,

"I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals."

No fear in Elijah, he's talking to the king of Israel, he stands firm in the truth of God. Whomever he talks to. Then he issues a command,

"Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table."

First you think, why is the king even listening to this guy still, he just totally bad mouthed him directly to his face. This king has already killed most of the prophets of God, why not one more. This just shows how great God is, in that one could stand in front of a king and tell him he is wrong.

So all the false prophets were gathered together, along with all of Israel on Mt. Carmel (great name by the way, we're going down candy cane lane next time). And Elijah said,

“How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.”

He's like "Dude, ya'll can't be like 'I worship the LORD', and then the next minute turn and start worshiping Baal. Ya'll gotta choose." Thats like the people who are like "I'm a Christian but I believe in evolution too", or "I'm a Christian, but I like some of the Buddhist beliefs too." That's basically saying, I don't really trust in God to be my one and only, He's just not "big" enough to have created the earth in 6 days, or He's just not wise enough to think of this philosophy. Guys(gals too), God made it all... how is it so difficult to read the first freakin' verse of the Bible you "believe" in and still say evolution is the truth.

Well just like most people nowadays react when confronted with this sin, Israel "responded" appropriately,

"But the people answered him not a word."

They knew they had sinned, they knew they were in the wrong, they had no answer for their polytheistic ways.

Then Elijah challenged the people and their "prophets",

“I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”

The way Elijah phrased this, he was already secure in who would win this challenge, "...and the God who answers by fire, He is God." I think that is awesome, to be so secure in one's faith that they are unafraid to blatantly point out the outcome before the challenge has even begun. That's like me going to the first Angels game of the season and saying before the first pitch is thrown, "Hey, you pit your teams against mine, and when the Angels have scored enough runs, we'll call them the world champions." That's giving them everything before anything has even started.

And all Israel responded in a "can't wait to see this fashion",

“It is well spoken.”

Don't be too excited, your about to see an amazing thing happen, false god vs. The LORD. Saturday all-day PPV event, call your local cable provider for details. Held at beautiful Mt. Carmel, bring the kids, its a great family event. Baal vs. The Creator of the Universe. Saturday! Saturday! Saturday!

Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal,

“Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”

Nice of him to give them first go. Builds up the suspense a little bit. "This guy is nuts, Baal is gonna torch this thing and he wont even get a chance to try." Read on.

So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

Hmm... I wonder whats going on... "But there was no voice; no one answered." Maybe jumping jacks might help, you know gets the blood flowing, maybe Baal doesn't answer unless your in top physical condition. Read on.

And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.”

Now Elijah, you'll get your turn, you don't have to be rude. This wasn't necessarily supposed to be mean, he was just pointing out how some of their beliefs in Baal were goofy and dumb, for a god to be sleeping, traveling, busy, or meditating is fairly ridiculous, because how is this god supposed to be a god if he is napping. I guess you gotta get in touch with his assistant and make an appointment for some fire from nowhere.

So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention."

Baal must be commanding fire somewhere else, but we'll get ya'll some band-aids anyways. Now its Elijah's turn.

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.

Whats wrong with this guy... water won't burn. He must be trying to make a lame excuse for when his prayers go unanswered. 'The wood was too wet.", etc... Crazy old Elijah, too many raven burgers, they've gotten to him. And where does he think we'll get this water, there is a drought going on...

Then Elijah prayed,

And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

I love this prayer. He has the earnest desire for Israel to turn back to God and away from the idolatry. And that last word of the prayer is sad... again. Not just turning their hearts back to God, but having turned away so many times in the past that that word "again" has to be used. I can't believe how unbelieving a nation such as Israel could become after witnessing such great and miraculous things. It just makes me want to scream. But that wont help.

Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.

Beautiful! The fire of the LORD burned up everything, even the dust. The dust! And even more beautiful, it "licked up" all the water that had over flowed into the trench around the altar. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and see just how amazing this act was. But with the Bible, and a good imagination I can get some idea, but nowhere close to what actually happened.

Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”

Oh... so now you believe... it only took one fantastic miracle, oh no what... God currently has a drought going... oh and then theres only The Exodus, David vs. Goliath, etc... God was constantly working miracles, and ya'll refused to believe. Ya'll decided "you" knew better than God.

And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.

Fantastic, get rid of them while they're in one place. Also while the people are all gung ho for God again. But it will fade... we all know it will fade.

I look at Elijah and see how one can be a fantastic witness for God in any circumstance. I wish I had the boldness of Elijah when he stood before Ahab and spoke the truth. To proclaim God as the LORD of all to all that were there, and for all that read or hear about it later. Thank you Elijah for your love for God and your desire for Israel to return to Him. I see where John the Baptist is Elijah returned. His only desire was for Israel to turn back to God and see that the Messiah was soon coming.

We should all be like Elijah or John the Baptist, with our desire to be like Christ and seeking Him, so strong that we want nothing more than for others to have that same desire, no matter the cost, be it ridicule, embarrassment, suffering, or hatred.

Thanks for reading, I gotta get to sleep.