Virus

You have just received a virus courtesy of The Matthew Never Knew. Your computer will stop working at some point in the next 10 years. The truth is, though, that YOU are more of a virus than this virus is.

Sweet

Your Final Score:
100%

Even though you are visiting the Matthew 'Never Knew,' it seems you do know me pretty well (either that or you looked at the URL's for clues). If you've made it this far leave a comment so I know who my true friends are.

Sour

Your final score:
80%

Close, but no cigar. I would never work in a kitchen. And I was in the computer lab all the time. Some weeks I even got close to 40 hours in there (and we were paid by the hour!). It was surely the best job on campus. Bonus Question: What other job did I sometimes do very late at night?

Play

Your Final Score
60%

I haven't done any dating in the past 3 or 4 years, but before that it was probably hard to keep track of. I tried the best friend switch & the roommate switch. I dated one girl twice and many girls zero times. Your score is quite bad. It's as if you never knew the Matthew Never Knew. Of course, I can hardly fault you since I sometimes forget who I've dated too. Bonus Question: Will you go out with me?

Dating

Your Final Score
40%

You get detention for not knowing more about my High School graduation. I finished 11th out of 87. Finishing 11th stunk b/c only 11 of us graduated with honors, but only the top 10 got to sit in the front row so I was the only 'honor' student not showcased. Shux. Bonus Question: What 2 significant activities did I do during the ceremony?

Detention

Your Final Score
20%

Nah, nothing really significant every happened to me at Youth Camps. You failed miserably. Bonus Question, who was the speaker at Family Camp the year I dedicated my life to Christ?

Why

Your Final Score
0%

Why did you guess incorrectly? I was born on June 13th. You probably picked 9/4 because of my blog/email address, but 94 is simply my favorite number. Bonus Trivia: Why is 94 my favorite number?

Work

Where did I work at BBC?

Kitchen
Computer Lab

Girlfriends

How many girlfriends have I had?

5
7

Graduated

What was my High School graduation rank?

11th
27th

Where

Where was I was I dedicated my life to God?

Camp Li-Lo-Li
Houghton Family Camp

Birthday

On what date was I born?

6-13-81
9-4-81

Matthew (away)

I'm in China April 18th - May 5th

While I am gone...count!

And there are prizes!

If you reach...
5- I won't feel lonely
10 - I'll post about my trip
15 - I'll post pics from my trip
20- I'll post a photostory of my trip
25 - I'll post me singing a chinese song
50 - I'll send you all* Chinese cash via mail

*all ='s only those who comment

DVR

I really like my DVR (digital video recorder). Very affordable and practical. Instead of flipping through channel after channel of nothingness, I just turn on 1 of the 3 things on tv worth watching. Also, since I'll be gone for the next 2 weeks, I have set it up to record everything that I don't wanna miss. Here's what I'll record:

17 episodes of the Gilmore Girls - I'm in the middle of season 5 and they'll be 3 new episodes showing while I'm gone.
3 episodes of American Idol - I've followed this season pretty well, so I'll record them. It's a great show to tape b/c you can fast forward through all their stupid banter.
4-7 Buffalo Sabres playoff games - This is the tricky one. If my plan works I'll get to my room after the China trip and have no idea how the Sabres did in the 1st round. In fact, I won't even know who they played b/c the season ends tuesday evening after I'm already gone.

Of course, this implies that when I get home I'll have up to 41 hours of television to watch. Sounds depressing. But since I can fast forward all commercial, episodes I've seen, and intermissions, I'll be more like 20 I bet. Okay, still depressing. Oh well.

Who?

If it weren't for the resurrection, I doubt that I would have ever heard of Jesus of Nazareth. There were quite a few guys in that day making outrageous claims, but they all died. Some historians know their names, but the rest of us have to dig to identify them. Only 1 rose from the dead and rendered his claims noteworthy. Almost a couple thousand years removed and his fame is still spreading round the world today, April 16th, 2006.

Hebrews

Finished a 19 week Wednesday Night Series through Hebrews. Definitely one of my favorites. Check out the Knew Kingdom Blog for more sermon notes and study guides

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4:1-13
Chapter 4:14-5:10
Chapter 5:11-6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9-10:18
Chapter 10:19-39
Chapter 11:1-7
Chapter 11:8-19
Chapter 11:20-31
Chapter 11:32-40
Chapter 12:1-13
Chapter 12:14-17
Chapter 12:18-29
Chapter 13:1-9a
Chapter 13:9b-25

New Feature

I tend to THINK this will be fun

Almost every day I spend some time on message boards because I love a good debate. Once in a while I'll come across a great quote or a hilarious quote on these sites. When I do, I'm going to publish them on my blog. Maybe they'll start a discussion. They will be called QUOTES of NOTE.

Here's my favorite quote from today:

"There were no revisions of the KJV, but there were editions where there were word and spelling changes."

~kjv-onlyist

Spirit Filled Jesus

The idea of Jesus being fully God and fully man is something I'll never quite grasp, but I think I've made some progress in the past year. I think I've overemphasized, in the past, the divinity of Christ at the expense of his humanity during his time on earth (it's even hard for me to NOT capitialize 'his', but maybe I need to stop capitalizing it when I'm speaking of Jesus' time on earth, at least for a while as a reminder of what I sense God is teaching me).

You see, I don't think Jesus was all-powerful, all-knowing, or everywhere-present when He was on earth. I believe that everything that He did was done as a fully obedient and Spirit-led man. Sure he did miracles, but so did Spirit-filled Apostles. Sure he had great insights into future events, but so did Spirit-inspired Prophets. I think Jesus let go of those divine characterists b/w the conception and the cross.

Jesus did all sorts of things that He wouldn't have been able to do had He been grasping His divine status. God can't be tempted, but Jesus was tempted. God doesn't grow weary, but Jesus got tired. God can't die, but Jesus died. Does this imply that Jesus ceased to be God during this time? In my mind it doesn't imply that at all. He certainly did, though, cease to exist as He did prior to the incarnation.

*please ignore the mixed used of H's and h's

Sneaky Pastor Tricks

If you can convince yourself (and your congregation)
that the following 3 lines are truths,
then you may be a pastoral ministry guru:

Running into church members at Wal-Mart is a legitimate source of pastoral visits for your next LBA report

Blogging is so personally edifying that it's a necessity for office hours

It's important to keep one's schedule empty so there is plenty of time to delegate

These statements are intended for comedic purposes and do not represent my actual understanding of effective pastoral ministry

Looking for Certainty

I, like most people, like certainty. I want to know for sure that I am saved, that I'm doing what God wants me to do, that I'll marry the right person, etc. But I've seen this desire for certainty go awry. For instance, in my observation it is the desire for certainty that keeps many Roman Catholics in the RC Church. They can feel certain that they are in the right institution. When the Pope speaks, they can rest assured that he's speaking truth. Many protestants do the same thing. They find a teacher that they fully trust or, perhaps, a particular version of the Bible that they just know is the true word of God.

Complete trust should never be placed in anything or anyone but God alone. Everything else changes. My level of faith changes. My feelings change. Pope's change. Translations get revised. I pray that, in my natural quest for certainty, I'll never find security in the people or physical props of this world, but only in the invisible God.

Another Festivus Miracle

Alright, so this isn't about 'Festivus'. And it's not a 'miracle'. But it is 'another' since something very similar happened last Palm Sunday. In fact, I posted about this 'coincidence' a year ago. Here's the quote:

On Sunday nights we've been going through the book of Revelation. Today being Palm Sunday, I wanted to somehow connect Chapter 7 to the triumphal entry. How in the world was I gonna do that? Well, it just so happens that the waving/laying of palms is only mentioned twice in the whole New Testament. John 12:13 at the triumphal entry and, you guessed it, Revelation 7:9

This year I wasn't anticipating another coincidence because I had Sunday night off due to a concert, but I got one anyways. I've been teaching a Sunday School class and we recently started a study through Luke. I was wondering how I could tie Luke 3:1-20 in with Palm Sunday when I read the words of John the Baptist "out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham" and was reminded of similar words from the mouth of Jesus. He was asked by the pharisees to rebuke His disciples for being joyful (go figure) and replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out".

And the context of that quote? You guessed it again. The Triumphal Entry. Coincidence? Not sure. But 2 for 2 ain't bad.

Shows that Start with G

Here are all the shows that start with G that I have watched more than twice. Why? Who knows

G.I. Joe Not nearly as good as Transformers Garfield A show about a lazy cat, not very exciting General Hospital I remember it was on when I got home from school Ghostbusters Not a very good cartoon Gilligan's Island So stupid, but I watched it a lot Gilmore Girls This is currently my favorite show Golden Girls I actually found this show funny Green Acres Didn't like it but my dad watched it Growing Pains Super average Gummi Bears Great theme song and one of my favorite cartoons

Best of the G's ='s Gilmore Girls

Shows that Start with...

That Works

I often hear that we are saved 'by grace' or 'through faith' or more often 'by grace through faith', but I only rarely hear that we are saved 'by grace through faith that works'. But I think those two words are too important to forget (that's the first time I've ever used two/too/to in the same sentence).

We are saved BY GRACE. But how do we access this grace? THROUGH FAITH. But what kind of faith? Faith THAT WORKS. Is it possible that leaving out those last 2 words has created a mindset that faith is just a cold set of beliefs instead of an action word?

Footnotes
1. it is by grace you have been saved (eph. 2:5)
2. you have been saved, through faith (eph 2:8)
3. James 2:14-24

Your Job

Anyone visiting this site today is obligated to help me prepare for my missions trip to China. All I'm asking is that you think of a question that could provoke a spiritual conversation. For example, "what is your favorite holiday?" could provoke a discussion about Christmas & Easter. The questions shouldn't be too obviously pointed.

Crash

Just finished watching the movie 'Crash'. Very well written movie. Hard to argue with the awards it received in my opinion. This movie had lots of good acting and a wonderfully intertwined storyline. Almost certainly the best movie I've seen on the race issue.

It has a bunch of swearing in it (obviously, given the context). And it's fairly hard to keep track of all the characters. But if you can get past those 2 aspects of the film, I think you'll be glad you saw it.

Rating: 8.0
Status: Must own

Harmonica

I bought 7 harmonicas. I am just assuming that's the plural for harmonica. I can't be sure because I've never spoken about multiple harmon... those things... before. That is why I also bought the Idiot's Guide to Playing the Harmonica. I'll admit 3 things. 1. I don't have any musical ability (apart from my imitative vocal skills*). 2. I actually really enjoy the sound of a harmonica. 3. Playing the harmonica is the closest thing to kissing in my life right now, so I'll take it. 4. Oh wait, I said 3.

*Truth be told, I do not know what my singing voice sounds like. I only imitate what I hear. When I sing a Third Day song, I try my best to sound like Mac Powell. When I sing a Matchbox Twenty Song, I try to sound like Rob Thomas. When I sing a Jesus loves me, I try to sound like me when I was 7. In my opinion, I can do a decent job of imitating the following singers: Randy Travis, Johnny Cash, Jewel, Garth Brooks, Mac Powell, Rob Thomas, Michael W. Smith (maybe not anymore, but as a teen I could sound just like him) and the lead singer of the waiting (brad olsen?). When I sing a song that I didn't hear from someone famous, I just try to sing it with one of the above voices and see how it comes out. I've used this method for 15 years and have honestly no idea what my regular singing voice sounds like.

Tucker is a Joke

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff is not too pleased with Leaf forward Darcy Tucker. Click HERE to hear his reaction to Tucker's cheap shot on Jochen Hecht.

Prison Break?

I had a dream that I was arrested and had to go to jail for 2 years. It was common knowledge that I was innocent of the crime, but all the evidence pointed to me so I didn't even try to fight the judges decision (I don't really remember what the supposed crime was).

The strange part of the dream is that I wasn't upset. In fact, I was kind of looking forward to the break. I remember very clearly thinking, 'this ain't too bad, I'll have plenty of time to read'. After I said goodbye to my family, a bus came to pick me up and take me to the prison. I sat down next to a guy that was reading the Da Vinci Code and had a great conversation with him about faith. Then I woke up.

All day I have been thinking about how jail wouldn't be that bad if I had my own cell and the prison had a good library.

Tattle Tales

Tattle Tales have gotten a bad rap for years. They are actually just honest kids. Agree or Disagree?

Fool's Gold

Click HERE for a list of the 'Top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes of All Time'. Here's a brief mention to my personal favorites from that link:

#1 The BBC news convinced many of its viewers that spaghetti grew on trees
#2 Sports Illustrated tricked Mets fans into believing that their team had signed a new pitcher who could throw 168 mph fastballs
#4 Taco Bell angered patriots by claiming they had purchased the liberty bell and were renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell
#14 An Alaskan man started a tire fire to convince residents a local volcano was on the verge of erupting
#24 PC Computing Magazine said congress was passing a law to stop drunks from using the information super highway