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i’ve been reading through the minor prophets this week and have been enjoying these rarely-read (by me) sections of scripture. i thought i’d just post a couple of thoughts that really stuck out to me the last few days.

and it shall be, in that day, says the LORD, that you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’
hosea 2.16

it really blows my mind that a God who is lover and friend never made it into popular philosophy or world theology. though i understand that all religion (and the legalist branches of Christianity) is based on guilt and compensation for wickedness, i find it so amazing that only the Bible teaches a philosophy of a romantic God who betrothed His Son to the people of earth.

reading the “classic” authors of philosophy or politics like plato or machiavelli or confucius, locke, larson or watterson reveals that all of the revered human thought is hopeless at worst and ill-conceived at best, especially when dealing with the Almighty.
i find myself regularly thinking unfair things about the “God of the Old Testament” as we call Him. that He was harsher or less passionate toward His people than He is now. even in an incredibly low point in the spiritual life of God’s people, who had been divided into 2 nations, who had rebelled against their Lord, who had abandoned true worship, even then He is concerned with their love relationship. He tells them through the ministry of Hosea that He is still planning the wedding, still making the preparations.

i love what my father often says…that the life we live, the community, the location, the earth, the cosmos…it’s all just a backdrop so that our God can interact with us. though He has had to adjust the ways He interacts with mankind because of our sin, He still simply desires to meet with us in the garden, in the cool of the day and interact with us…to be in love with us.

what a deep love, what an unthinkable romance Elohim has for us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, and while we were yet adulterers He readied the wedding feast! selah.

but I will remove far from you the northern army, and will drive him away into a barren and desolate land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his back toward the western sea; his stench will come up, and his foul odor will rise, because he has done monstrous things.

fear not, o land; be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done marvelous things!
joel 2.20-21

there’s a song we’ve been singing at Calvary Hanford for a few months called Glories of Calvary. it isn’t one of my favorite songs but there is a line in it that i really like. it says: “where Your boundless love conquered my boundless sin.” those words are lovely, like these words from joel. the world can be a monstrous place. and i know deep in my heart i can be a monstrous man. but from those place, from our world and from the heart of a surrendered man our Lord God can do marvelous things. things that make all of humanity pause and reflect on that great sacrifice that was made for us.

i read joel and do not feel depressed or saddened, but instead feel the desire to rejoice as commanded here because of the continued work for good on the earth. not just good, but the atonement and sanctification that God continues in every single day in my heart and all over the globe.

surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
amos 3.7

why does God wait to act until He reveals Himself to the prophets? why does God send us the Word that we might know Him? why does God send a city like Nineveh message after message that they might be saved from destruction? why did Jesus Christ leave the entire plan for human salvation in the very incapable hands of 11 fishermen?

He is wonderful. He is wonderfully pleasing. those questions do not have answers other than that God is good and He is personal. no clock-maker or indefinite force. He is Friend and Helper. and He does reveal the whole plan of salvation, the whole timeline of human history for me to read and re-read and question Him till i understand Him better and better.

i am constantly stopped by the thought that i could spend the rest of my life studying one verse from the Bible and i still would miss the depth and consequence that God has so beautifully weaved into it. a verse like amos 3.7 or hebrews 1.1 or revelation 22.20 could consume my entire thought and being. hallelujah!

in closing,
never again do i want to mistreat the minor prophets (or any of the less-read books of the Bible). never again do i want to misrepresent the nature of my God to an unbelieving world. He is the God who saves and woos. He is the God who fills and speaks. He is my God and there is no other.

blessings and happy Christmas to you.

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my beautiful wife substitute teaches here in our county. her favorite level to teach is grade 3 because of the balance of sweetness (or maybe just the lack of cynicism) and ability for the kiddies to do their own work.

yesterday she came home with a fantastic piece of entertainment (for me) that one of the ‘litluns drew for her.

(this photo has not been doctored in any way)

now, i am no psychologist. i’m not in tune with the child brain (despite what you may have heard). in fact, i am not even a student of art. BUT as a boy i believe i can shed some light in the explanation of this image.

the structure on the left is clearly a castle…pretty� much the coolest place for a little guy to live. i mean…what’s better than a castle?!?!? you’ve got moats, hidden passages, big rocky walls not to mention a barrage of unseen booby traps that are placed strategically for maximum surprise and maim-ability.

unfortunately, alien ships with extensive force fields (the squiggly circles around the landing alien craft) are not very susceptible to the archaic weaponry of a castle. apparantly the lord of the manor has had to resort to a more conventional defense…the handgun. from the looks of it and the scale of the gun and the man’s hand (and body for that manner) we can see that it is in fact not a revolver and a rather large handgun. perhaps the pop-culturally famous Desert Eagle is the model we see here…there’s really no way of knowing.

worse yet, is that a further study of the alien ship on the right reveals that the potent bullets are simply bouncing off of the much more sophisticated force fields. Godspeed Sir….Goodspeed….(i suppose i should’ve named him earlier). our thoughts are with you.

on a more serious note, children today seem to be becoming more agitated, even violent. now, as a boy i do admit that i have drawn little cartoons just like this one (even into my college years) but the stories my wife often brings home are unbelievable.

at the same classroom kelly said that there was a young man who mumbled incoherently non-stop, fell out of his chair and generally acted like a person under the influence of narcotics. sadly, this may be true if he is to be believed when he repeatedly told her “i didn’t take my medication today.”

some sad statistics:

1. More than 2.5 million american children are currently being medicated for adhd. (*1)

2. One of the most popular drugs (if not the most popular and certainly the most well-known) is Ritalin.

3. Here is some of the things that the Drug Enforcement Agency had to say about ritalin:

- Ritalin^� is a Schedule II stimulate, structurally and pharmacologically similar to amphetamines and cocaine and has the same dependency profile of cocaine and other stimulants.

- Ritalin^� produces amphetamine and cocaine-like reinforcing effects including increased rate of euphoria and drug liking. Treatment with Ritalin^� in childhood predisposes takers to cocaine�s reinforcing effects.

- Ritalin^� substitutes for cocaine and amphetamines in scientific studies.
- Children medicated with Ritalin^� who tried cocaine reported higher levels of drug dependence than those who had not used Ritalin^�.
- Ritalin^� abuse is neither benign or rare in occurrence and is accurately described as producing severe dependence.

(for the rest of this report and the reference to this information go here)

4. Since 1991 the number of prescriptions written for adhd has risen 500% (*2)

5. Though not directly related to the previous statements but very alarming still is the fact that in 1999 inhalants became the most popular drug of choice for 12 year olds. 12 YEAR OLDS!

“There were 56,000 teens 12-17 dependent on inhalants in 1999, and 2,118,000 intentionally huffing.” (*3)

our kids are losing the battle. whether they be alien ships or pop-psychology, our defenses are not holding. how beautiful that our precious Jesus ministered so faithfully to the young and old alike. we can do the same today.

“child-like innocence” is pretty much a thing of the past. let’s be praying for our kids, for our teachers and for the future of our communities because one day all these kids are going to grow up…and i hope they know Jesus.
*1 reference
*2 reference
*3 reference

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hey kids. it’s been a while since i posted anything worthwhile…so this shall be a worthwhile post indeed! and by worthwhile i mean more than 2 sentence fragments and a link to some other internet jewel…

first things first, i did in fact change my blog layout. it seems the kiwi v10 theme was….less than professionally coded, and thus, after i thoroughly mangled the code myself it was proving to have problems in its old age. so, with great sadness i abandoned the old layout for this new one, but i am quite happy about the new one. let me know what you think.

second things second, check out the E-Books page over on the right…there are some excellent books available to read or print online for free! there’s always time to enrich your Jesus-life.

and now, for the purpose of the post, the mrs. and i recently took a trip to the magic kingdom, disneyland. the trip to anaheim was splendid.

lots of folks like to make fun of Disney’s California Adventure, which in years past i could understand, but currently it is quite a mrad place to visit. they’ve really added a lot of excellent attractions.

here’s a favorite spot of mine, the entrance to the back lot:

that is the gateway to kelly and my favorite ride the Hollywood Tower of Terror! if you haven’t spent some time there, you should.

there was an especially fun aspect to our trip because my parents got us a brick at disneyland and it had been installed and was simply waiting for us to find it!

don’t know what a brick is? well, i mean, i know you know what a brick is, but don’t know what a disney brick is? here’s one.

isn’t it lovely? i thought so. the walkway between the entrance gates of Disneyland and California Adventure is full of these. lots are already take (most actually) but a few blank spaces remain.
and in case you think i just used my incredible prowess to doctor up this photo take a look at this!!!!!!!

so there you go!

we were on holiday thursday and friday. we were blessed to spend some time with our friends the Whitmores who currently minister full time at USC for campus crusade.

on the way out on thursday night, after a rousing fireworks show we trudged down main street with about 1 hundred billion million people. of course, we stopped the whole lot of them in order to take this picture….

what’s that crazy lanyard around my neck? if you have to ask you’ll never know. unless of course you ask me later, at which point i will happily explain it to you. it’s a disney secret!

finally, no trip to disney is really complete without a ride on the teacups…enjoy.

[quicktime]http://www.genepensiero.com/video/teacups.mov[/quicktime]

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whatever you’re doing…no matter what responsibilities you have or tasks you must accomplish, they all fall short of the need that you, my readers, have right now to go and watch this.
if you didn’t like the Bush’s before, that’s your problem, but if you don’t like them after this…then i don’t even know what’s wrong with you!

The video links are on the right hand side a small ways down the page.

Watch It Now!

blessings

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check out this article. i am looking forward to number VI even more now.

blessings and maranatha

PS – also, still go listen to Worth.

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hello small-but-faithful blog community. because people who use the internet are cooler (in my own mind) than people who don’t i’m posting the link to the first draft of a new song (from OLS) right here on the ole’ blog.

hope you enjoy it.

Listen To “Worth”

blessings and maranatha!

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God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
- C.S. Lewis

Blessings and Maranatha

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because, really, by then this post will have long expired…

well, i’m sick. which isn’t a big deal, but doesn’t make me happy. what it DOES offer is a chance for me to post silly pictures on my blog. just one i think.

in the mean time, i’m once again in the middle of Windows Armageddon…my term for the semi-annual-week-long-PC-troubleshooting-extravaganza that i have experienced ever since i’ve owned a computer. this time, it is the studio computer that is giving me trouble. do not worry. my years of microsoft-fever have taught me many valuable lessons. the chief of which is BACKUP YOUR DATA! which i have…several places. so i have not lost any of the work i’ve done on OLS, the zach rees project, the Until April project or the Luke (or Luck….let’s refer to him as Luck) Mundy project.

i was slated to record with until april today, but my recent fray with Mr. Gate’s technology has rain-checked that for at least a week. luck mundy has booked some time in the studio (which, by the way, i am trying to think of a name for…suggestions???) but severed his finger…sort of…which rain-checked that.

so…onward and upward. i’m trying a couple things and, if there is not a 180 degree turnaround, then it is time for the dreaded FORMAT of drives C, D and….well just those 2. that which does not burn down will make me stronger.

and speaking of funny pictures, here is what i look like right now (or, what i WOULD look like if i was french and animated and meeting someone for the first time). cheers.

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read this article. it is only 3/4 of a page and will probably interest you in this book which is topical and timely.

besides, anything that gets us (us being we, and we being followers of Jesus…pagans need not worry) away from the petty squabblings of the branches of evangelical christianity is time well spent in my opinion.

enjoy

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well, i was all set to track one more acoustic guitar part (on a song that only my wife has heard BA HA!) but…discovered that my recording rig, namely my computer, needs a thorough scouring of the registry and harddrive. so…that’s what’s happening right now as i post.

mrs. kathy mundy said that blogging is good “if you think people care about what you ate for dinner.” so, since that is 50% of my demographic studies, i will comply with the populous’ demand.

last night kelly and i had tostadas and enchiladas left over from staff infection appreciation day at calvary hanford. it was great. afterward my lovely and i went to dollar scoop tuesday at the local baskin robbins.

the other half of my demographic studies is actually a wonderful tool called Google Analytics. google, in its continuing push to take over the world is offering a free statistic gathering/analyzing system that you can attach to websites, blogs, podcasts (though, for podcasts i highly recommend Feedburner above Google Analytics).

i haven’t deciphered everything yet, but the main features are pretty fun for someone who likes to stare at information online like me.

so this is the map of the world as we know it (who knew it was so green!). and the dots represent unique hits to your website.

it catalogues all sorts of things…how many page visits…how your visitors got to your page (via a search engine, a link on another page, etc.), where they went once they were inside your site. it’s really quite fun.

and don’t worry, no personal information goes in or out. after all…it’s google!

anyway, here are some other screenshots.