The Things you learn on youTube: PART 3- How to track someone for under $20!

this actually horrified me.

not gonna lie.



yay for invasion of privacy!

-Josh

did you have trouble in Geometry?

great graph, except for the "have 6 drinks" part.. dont do that.

'cause a small town is a small stage for teenagers and their drama....

my life the past few days could definately make the context for a pretty dang good daytime soap opera.

its wierd, but i kinda feel like my life is heading in a certain direction and i have no way to make it change course, and no way of knowing where i am going, and this innate fear welling up inside of me consisting of primarily a fear of losing control.

i found a quote from a movie that i thought was appropriate. a woman comes out of a hospital crying, and is greeted by Elder Aaron Davis, a mormon missionary, ad they start a conversation. mid-way through, Aaron finds himself at a loss, and begins the following:

Elder Aaron Davis: Do you ever read the Sunday comics?
Lila: [confused] I beg your pardon?
[changes her mind]
Lila: Yes, of course the Sunday comics.
Elder Aaron Davis: Well, when I was a little kid, I use to put my nose right up to them. And I was just amazed because it looked like this mass of dots, and none of it made sense until I pulled back. Life looks like that mass of dots to me sometimes. None of it makes any sense, but I like to think that, from God's perspective, life, everything - even this - make sense. It's not just dots. Instead we're all connected, and it's beautiful and funny and good. This close we can't expect it to make sense, not right now.


this is an AMAZING quote... i cant even tell you.

so right now, im simply hoping that life realy is more than a bid mass of dots, cause for a few minutes, it starts to feel that way.

Grace and peace! and Happy New Year!

-Josh

a repost of an important request:

ok, so i dont usually do this (i.e. repost other peoples blogs) but i thought that this was incredibly important and moving.

within the context of my day-today life, i come across a lot of people who struggle with the issue of homosexuality and sexual identity. many of these people also struggle with depression that realates to it. i came accross a blog about this that hit pretty hard, and i thought i would share it.

The following is NOT my work, and remains the property of the author.


------------------------------------------------------------------
Christmas suicide.
December 25, 2008 |

While you are exchanging gifts today and celebrating the festivities, remember this: Today, like every day, 4 gay or lesbian youth will commit suicide.

Statistical estimations by the U.S. Health and Human Services show that 1,488 gay or lesbian youth will kill themselves in the new year. Moreover, 30% of gay or lesbian youth have contemplated suicide.

If there is one thing that pushes my heart to the breaking point, it is knowing that someone feels so alone or so scared or in so much pain that they take their own life. In a world so full of love and light, it hurts knowing that their are people in such darkness.

Today, I’d like to share a suicide note with you. It is a real note. It was written by a 16-year old high school student named Steven. He overdosed on medication. I’ve shortned the note for purposes of reproduction, but the grammer and spelling have been left intact. Here is Steven’s suicide note:

I am sorry to the people that I love but I cant fucking take it anymore. So I am gay. Why dooes everyone hate me becaus of that. Fuck them. I have been punched and spit on andcalled faggot, queer, loser, pussy, fag boy. Some asshole painted faggot on my locker. Some people do not talk to me. Fuck them, fuck everyone, I hate this fucking life know. I am so fucking tired of the shit. I hve receved hate letters telling me to leave school telling me that faggots aren’t welcome and that I am a fag.

I have wanted to be dead for so long. I don’t really know how I made it as far as thisbecase i jujst think about being dead. I am never happy. Why did so many people lie to me. I wish I never told anyone I am gay.why the fuck did I do that.

I love you mom and dad.because even though you did not undertand maybe you loved me and said I was fine and you would help me.but at school it was like being in hell. Iwas burning in hell eery day. I dould not tell you edeverythin thatwas happening. I did not want you to worryaboyut me. I coulnd not do that do you. I hope that youwill forgive me.plese forgive me. And rememberme when I was happy. And I am not a faggot I am a person that is all. Why was I a gay though, why me, why whey why why I always ask. I will never know. God must have wanted me to be with him now because he is tlling me to kill myself. I think that anywayse. And I know I need to commit suicide soon. But you need to know why. Don’t be sad. You wont have a faggot son anymore.

I need towrite a poem
i will name iti am not a fag

I am not a fag
You are the fags
Remember that
I am a person
You say faggot faggot queer queer but you don’t know anyting
I know that you are stupid assholes and that is more than you know

What is heavenreally like mom and dad. I hope it is all that not here. And don’t be sad because you will be with meagaoin. I know I know.

I am getting happier now. I am becauseit is all ending now. I want you to know that I feel good now. I think I feel really good now , yes I do. I am not crying anymore and I am rfeeling happy. I think I will be happy in heaven no longer a faggot just a person. The real faggots are tthem

I have to say goodbye now so don’t be sad. Please never be sad. I am happy. I am really happy now. Everying will be fine I am happeire that I have ever been because it is all over.

Goodbye I love you mom and dad but I hate almost everyone else. Don’t be sad.

I am happy now.

Steven survived. He was hospitalized and treated. He moved with his family to another state. Steven was lucky. But today, 4 people won’t be.
Perhaps, this Christmas, you’ll make a donation to The Trevor Project (by clicking the orange donate button on the top of the right-hand sidebar) so that they can continue to operate the nation’s only 24-hour suicide prevention helpline for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth. And please, if you are considering suicide, call 1-866-4-U-TREVOR.
All of us can do something to light the darkness.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and yours.

Copyright © 2008 break the illusion www.breaktheillusion.com

---------------------------

I believe that hope is to be inspired in people, no matter what.
we, as the Church specifically, and as the majority of Americans, hav done a pretty bad job of offering hope to people who need it. today, think about people you know that need help - whether its a hug or an hour of your time, try to be hope for someone.

please.

their life may depend on it.

Love all. worship one.
-Josh

looking at desperation and onset of vomitting.

fun found by Randall Monroe

:)

someone stole my idea!

haha... how great is that?

if only i would have copyrighted it.

dang.



from FFFFOUND!

this guy might just be my hero...

love him.

love him a lot.
from ffffound.
-Josh

The things You Learn On YouTube: PART 2- How to run the Naked Mile

what does it take to be a first-rate naked-miler?

i found out.

thing ive learned #2- how to deter a telemarketer

i saw this and thought it was worth posting.

how to deter a telemarketer.

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

merry christmas

-Josh

"Gems" found in photo's by Gary Barnes

A friend of mine is an EXCELLENT amateur Photographer, among MANY other talents. here is a few GREAT pictures from his Black and White album.




Taken during a Candlelight Equality Vigil in Oceanside, California on the pier. Hosted by the North County LGBT Coalition. Shot on a Pentax K10D with a f1.4 50mm prime lens, edited in Adobe Lightroom 2 and Nik Silver Efex Pro.








Photo of the Harris Fire in San Diego county as it burned south of Mt. Helix. Taken with an Olympus XA rangefinder camera. Film processed in Diafine.








AIDS Walk 2007







For a look at more of what Gary does, check out HERE

peace be to you for christmas!
A Savior is born to us, a people in desperate need of saving.

-Josh

The Things You Learn On YouTube: PART 1- How To Beat Your Wife

wife/animal beating- the things you learn.

:)

wow.

once again this makes me smile.

dramatic reading...

ok, ok... just saw this and thought i was going to crap my pants i laughed so hard. a dramatic reading of an actual breakup letter.



http://youmakemetouchyourhandsforstupidreasons.ytmnd.com/


SOO GOOOD!!!


thanks to darin mcWatters for findin that one!

this is hilarious... what if Starbucks marketed like a church...

to funny.

-J

wow.

this is a horrible way to go about changing things...

im appalled.

act well your part

philosophical statment of the day:

"Act well your part. there all honor lies." -Alexander Pope

i was hit with an interesting predicament today... and i began to think. sometimes i feel like a puppet. no, wrong word. sometimes i feel like im an actor in a play, playing a part for some big-screen producer, eternally confined within the limits of my charachter.

forever unable to be me.

and i began to think... act well your part, there all honor lies? really?

part of me thinks that this idea was made to keep the lower-class people feeling in their place, that all honor lied in them knowing and keeping their station. thus creating apathy in the lower positions, and keeping the aristocracy above everything.

what is out part? is it honorable? is it something interesting? do i get to rule over anyone else?

i believe that the part of every human being lies in this phrase:

love all, worship One.

love all: we are people who crave relationships. all people crave things in their life, and to be loved and to love is both a craving to recieve and a craving to give. we were designed by God to love and care for all of those around us. not to judge eachother, not to crush eachother, but to love one another. and part of love is by hsaring with them the joy and hope we have, as christians, in Jesus... my best friend and the one who saves me from myself. loving all, indescriminantly, is a scary and dangerous love that requires EVERYTHING of us. don't belive me? hold hands with someone who has A.I.D.S., publically hang around with a homosexual and stand up for them as a person, bring a cross-dresser to your church. your world will explode, but it will explode in the most infinite and crazy love of all: the love of Yahwey, God.

Worship one: at hume lake, on the side of the lake, there is a sign that says simply "God Is...". i think that people get confused at first when they see this, but the truth of it is unbelievable! no matter what goes on in your life, God is...

...love.
...savior.
...warior.
...crazy in love with you.
...still on his throne.

you could put an infinite amount of things in this list. no matter what, God Is...

we worship God for who he is. be cause He is truly the center of the story, not you. because he is worthy of praise. because he is god. we worship the one god, and Him alone. meaning not money, or social status, or talent, or possesions.

there is an ancient line that is the heartbeat of ancient isreal:
"hear, oh isreal: the lord, your God, the Lord is one".

meaning there is one god, and he ALONE is worthy of all praise. because he is God, and he is One.

this is our part. this is what we are to act well. love all, wirship one.

so, act well your part. there all honor lies.

honor, and truth, and love, and fulfilment.

everything you desire in your heart, in the deep recesses of your soul that only you know about, keeping hidden from the world around you.

Love all, Worship One
-Josh

love on her arms.

i remember when i was in 7th grade,a friend came up to me and gave me a hug.

we walked, arm in arm, for a while. i always liked to play with her wrist-bands. it was one of my annoying habits, i guess, but this girl had a LOT of wrist bands, and so i made fun of her in my own little way.

i played with them.

constantly.

only this time, as soon as i touched her wrist, she jerked her arm away from me.

i looked down, and there, half hidden beneath her bright pink and neon green cover-up, were three slash-marks going sideways across her arm.

that day i learned that my friend was a cutter. but more than that, i learned that my friend was hiding a part of herself from the world because she didn't feel the love of a world that didn't seem to care about her anyway.

today is National "To Write Love On Her Arms" Day.

a day set aside to bring awareness and hope to people who suffer from depression and hopelessness.

through this organization, many people, boys and girls, have found hope and love in places they never thought were possible.

so today, i encourage you to write LOVE on your arms. and to show people all around you that, regardless of what they think, someone out there loves them and hope is possible.

love is the movement.

move.

for more information about this organization and what you can do to help, please visit www.twloha.com

to make myself clear

i hold God's truth to be self-evident... and i do not go against it.

however, i do have a HUGE problem with christ-followers presenting a one-sided view of truth.

Truth: Homosexuality and homosexual marriage is a sin, meaning it is missing the mark God set up in the beginning. like ALL other sin, it brings sadness and dis-pleasure to the heart of God.

also,

Truth: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. no man can say to another man "i am better than you are" because, truth be told, he is not. the call of Christ is a call to follow, to lift up your head toward the truth and love of a savior, a God-man that came "not for the healthy, but the sick; not for the righteous, but sinners".

do I believe that homosexual marriage is recognized by God as a "holy union between humanity and Diety"? no... and i doubt many homosexuals would see it that way either.

but i do, however, find it to be a horrible defiance of the character of Jesus to use a law as a weapon of defense; thus encouraging the church to label itself with what we are against, not what we are for.

are we against homosexuality? sure, just as we are against every other sin: lust or envy or murder.

but we cannot and should not mark ourselves with that.

we are for the winning of people over to Jesus, showing those around us that there is hope still coming: that the kingdom to come is more powerful than the kingdoms of this world.

you don't help a child excell at something by pointing out all of the things that are wrong with what they are doing and showing them how you excel so much more in those areas then they do. you help a child excel by encouraging them in their strengths, using your own experiences to benefit them in any way you can.

and sometimes, the only strength you can encourage is the desire of every person to be truly, unconditionally loved by someone and to share with them the hope of a savior who does.
-J

wicked webs weaved...

im really sad prop 8 passed.

i know, i know, but im a christian, right? im supposed to be for prop 8.

but im not... i feel that, as-so-far as the church is concerned, it makes a "us vs. them" stance on our society.

we are right

you are wrong.

you deal with it, because we are the ones that are right.

and i think that thats a terrible way to go about humanity and living. It is really hard to tell people about jesus when they first hear you defending yourself against them at every turn. people make connections due to vulnerability, not distance. i feel like we just made the wide, barren gap between "evangelicals" and homosexuals even wider, seemingly impossible to cross.

the fundamental question, then, is this:

is it right to ignore biblical right and wrong when a persons or people-groups salvation is on the line? because, if you remember, you don't go to hell for being Gay, you go to hell for not having a relationship with Jesus Christ. and i fear that we just made any efforts to reach the gay community with the love and care of Jesus that much more difficult. we are refusing to go to their level and share jesus, and forcing them to come to ours.

as if ours is somehow any better than there's.


I've heard people say that our country, in electing Obama, has taken a giant step toward equality.

i, personally, think we have simply turned our focus from one minority to another.

what heights of love, what depths of peace

i remember when i was a kid, i used ot read the ender series.

HAve you read those? its really a great series, starting with Enders Game allthe way through countless novels by orson scott card.

Ender, the main charachter and heroin of Enders Game, is a small boy who, a "third", a special case "third child" pregnancy authorized by the government in the hopes that he will be be the next GREAT COMMANDER of the Worlds forces against the dreaded bugger army.

Ender becomes all they ever wanted and more... and he goes through this period in his training where he suddenly has surpassing respect, even command, over every other student in the Battle School he attends. They Salute him in the hall. they get up when he comes in the room, they stop their conversations and jokes when he enters. they all address him as sir.

all before he's 11 years old.

this amazes me.

and ender gets so fed up with all this "DAMN RESPECT" that he literally snaps.

i feel like this sometimes. it seems like ever since i started in as the "Youth Pastor" at hbbc, and started the "least of these" group at VU... im not Josh anymore. now, im this guy who is supposed to be the very nature of Jesus in every effect. a guy who never spits, never cusses, never thinks or says things immoral.

people looka t me differently. im no longer "one of the guys" now im the "YOUTH PASTOR" or "THE GOD-GUY". you cant talk about that stuff around HIM.

im only 19. im not perfect. AT ALL. far from it, id say. but for some reason, because i love students and seeing poeple challenged to follow christ at a deeper, more intimate level, i get moved to this standard of almost being "unhuman". i know what he means when Mark Moore says "when you're a pastor, you never get to take off the mask".


the way i see it, human beings aren't meant to have to deal with all of the stress of overwhelming obsticles and hardships like this before their time. i echo the words of Meredith Grey when she said "you don't know this yet, but life isn't supposed to be like this. it isn't supposed to be this hard".

life is a roller coaster of experience. hard core roller coaster, too.

now i echo the words of Keith Getty & Stuart Townend, from that great song, when it says

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

-j