Update on the finer things in life..you know "Fine" Arts

Okay so I have been getting guitar and piano lessons for two months now. I am doing okay. It's awesome-fun! 

I am in the second semester of CHEFA choir, which is also really fun!

In Art class we had a Valentines party. It was no big deal. We basically did our project while eating junk food shaped like hearts in shades of pink. It was still fun though.


Dave


 

Dentist

Last week Billy & I went to the dentist. It was the first time in like five years for both of us. My parents don't bring us unless we are like dying or something. It's the same with the regular Dr. We do go to the eye Dr. more though.
I basically have awesome teeth and gums, amazingly after not going for so long. The dentist did say I might need braces and that I might have a microscopic cavity. Not sure on how the Dentist doen't KNOW if it's a cavity, but that's what she said. I'm ignoring the braces thing..lalala I can't hear you..........
Eric David Vincent

Philosophy - Doctrine - Faith

   O.k so I am going to be writing an article that is on a more traditional blogging subject. My thoughts...... scary stuff there! I will be writing on Philosophy, Doctrine, &  Faith . I believe that if you aren't grounded in these 3 subjects that you cannot live a Godly, Christ-centered life. Also without a healthy knowledge of all 3 evangelism is impossible! So anyway here goes....
   Philosophy- Many Christians believe that philosophy in of itself is evil. They quote Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.". I disagree with this idea for one reason. THE VERSE DOESN'T SAY PHILOSOPHY IS EVIL! It merely states to beware of "philosophy & vain deceits". In other words beware of bad philosophy.
    Now that this issue is cleared up I can move on to the definition of Philosophy. The word Philosophy comes from two Greek words. Philo meaning love & Sophia meaning wisdom. So Philosophy is simply the love of wisdom. I go back to my previous point and ask " Is the love of wisdom evil"? I would assert an emphatic NO. Proverbs 2:1-6 clearly states that the love of wisdom is inspired by God!

1	My son, if thou wilt receive my words,          and hide my commandments with thee;
2	so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom,          and apply thine heart to understanding;
3	yea, if thou criest after knowledge,          and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4	if thou seekest her as silver,          and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5	then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD,          and find the knowledge of God.
6	For the LORD giveth wisdom:          out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

 I state again " Philosophy is NOT evil"

  Now I will get into the many uses of Philosophy. First & foremost Evangelism is practically impossible without philosophy. To evangelize is to recruit unbelievers to the Christian faith. How do you tell someone that they need to accept God into their hearts if they don't believe in God??? You have to prove to them that God must exist! The easiest way to do this is to meet them halfway. Secular authorities love to discuss philosophy so let them! It is far easier to prove God exists through Philosophy then prove he doesn't! Look at the works of Socrates. Known as the founder of western philosophy this man proved that God must exist, but that before we could know about him we must have someone sent by him to tell us. Socrates was Christianities first martyr.... this man who knew almost nothing about God died for his refusal to honor the traditional Greek gods!
 
     Now to get on to Doctrine-  Doctrine can be a believers most powerful tool! Repeat =A believers most powerful tool. Which is  Not a tool for evangelism!!! Many strong Christians go out to call unbelievers with zeal for Christ, but they consistently fail. Why? Well in part due to the sin curse and non-elect men & women that cannot accept Christ, but I believe there is a second reason. I believe that we( Christians ) are approaching these people the wrong way. We beat them over their head with their sin. Let me ask you a question " Would YOU accept a person you don't know walking up to you and pointing the finger of shame at you"? If so you are a very rare person. I believe that doctrine is meant to exhort & strengthen already believing Christians! 2 Timothy 3:16 states "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness". This verse places doctrine among other things such as "instruction in righteousness" which are relating only to born again Christians. We must use the tools God gives us for the purpose they were designed for. We do not have the authority to use his gifts for whatever we want. In the same way we must use our spiritual gifts for his purpose not our purpose. Use his gifts as they were meant to be used!

Faith- Again a very powerful aspect of our Gods religion. If you don't have faith then you are not a Christian. Christ calls the disciples "men of little faith", but not men of NO faith. To be a christian you must believe in Christ. You must have faith to believe for faith is just another way to say you believe in something. Faith is what brings us through the hard times of life. It gives something to lean on when their is nothing else. God is ALWAYS here & will never leave us. He will always encourage us & will help us to conquer every piece of sin that we have.

  So there is my thoughts on Philosophy, Doctrine, & Faith concerning Evangelism & the Christian faith.
Billy :D

All Nations Church

 I had the opportunity to attend and also practice percussion with the All Nations Church. I went there after attending my own church last Sunday. The congregation is made up of mostly Nigerians. I loved everything that I saw, The prayer, the songs, the benediction of the babies. It was awesome! The pastors prayer was even rhythmic! He would say something either about God or asking something of God & finish in time with "In The Precious Name Of Jesus Christ". It was sooooo cool! The baby benediction was also spectacular.  They had the elders of the church dress up in traditional African garb & dance in a circle around these babies while singing praise to Jesus Christ! Even after the benediction the pastor kept a baby in his arms while he finished preaching.... I thought it was all very cool.
Billy :D

Broomball

  Last Friday I played broomball with CHEFA youth. Broomball is a game in which you use plastic sticks to smack a ball down an ice-skating rink. You do this while wearing normal everyday shoes not ice-skates. I had a lot of fun hangin out with my friends, and playing 5 games of broomball.
Billy :D

KLONDIKE

This weekend I went on a boyscout camp out called Klondike. I had a fun time gathering all the new backpacking stuff and figuring out how to pack it all into the army back pack I borrowed from Papa. It turns out I didn't really need all that stuff and it really weighed down my back pack. It was my first time going and I was told if I didn't have all that stuff I couldn't go.
We were hiking down hill in the snow, in the dark, with a heavy backpack and also pulling a sled with all the troop equipment. We hiked 2 miles, which is not much, but it feels like 1000 considering...
We played games along with other scout troops at Chawanakee. Then we packed up camp and hiked up hill back out to the parking lot. It's no easy task but I'm already looking forward to going next year!

Ricky

12 Things To Do In Snow Season

1. Climb A Glacier
2. Snow Camp
3. Snow Ball Fight
4. Snow Bike (Montecito Lodge)
5. Ride A Snow Mobile
6. Ice Skate
7. Ride A Sled Or Tobaggan
8. Build An Igloo
9. Snow Board
10. Snow Shoe
11. Ice Blocking
12. Ice Fishing

  Dave

12 Things To Do While It's Raining

1. Go Mud Boarding
2. Drink Tea While Reading and Every Now and Again Look Out the Window
3. Go Mud waring
4. Put Together a Puzzle and Then Glue & Frame It
5. Go Mud Sliding
6. Pop Some Popcorn, Boil some Hot Chocolate and Watch a Movie
7. Play Video Games or Board Games
8. Make Up A Skit & Act It Out
9. Have A Pillow Fight
10. Listen to Music
11. Play Nerf Football or Basketball
12. Lift Weights

Ricky Vincent

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sierra Summit and Danny's Party

I went snow boarding with our homeschool group. No one in our family but me was free to go, so I went with Cedric's family. We were snowing boarding from 9:50-3:50. After that we came down the mountain and went to Danny's house for his birthday party. Cedric was going to that too, so I road with them. We ate pizza, played video games and played air soft. It was fun. I was wearing my plain black hat at Sierra Summit, but when we got to Danny's and changed our clothes I put on the hat Aunt Ceci made me. It's kinda cool to have an Aunt who can knit like that. Everyone at the party was all like "that's an awesome hat" "Where did you get that" Your Aunt made that?" ...Yeah.

Eric David Vincent

Tamerack Ridge & Winter Awareness Program

I went on a day trip with my boyscout troop to Tamerack Ridge snow park up by Shaver Lake. It was a trial run for the Klondike camp coming up soon.  We went sledding, had a snowball fight, dug some tunnels and went on a snow hike. I had a good time with my friends.

All the local area scout troops got together for a Winter Awareness program to prepare for the Klondike camp out trip. I'm glad I went because I learned some things about camping in the snow that I didn't know. I also got a shopping list of things I need for the trip. It's going to be awesome!

Eric

Bookcases & chicken pot pie

The last week my brother and I were busy washing, puttying, sanding and painting three bookcases. We took some funky furniture pieces and made them into shiny new furniture, if I do say so myself, and I do. Of course we did have the help of our Mom & Dad, but mainly they just gave us advice because they wanted us to do this ourselves. So I say much thanks to them for it.

Also last week, I made a huge chicken pot pie. My top pie crust came out mutated but it was really good,. I also made a double portion of the inside stuff because we like it so much. It was basically like a thick soup. We didn't have any leftovers from the pie or the extra inside stuff.  My brother and I poured tones of the soupy stuff right over the top of our piece of the chicken pot pie. I will definitely make that again.

Dave

Art Co-op with Mrs. Mag.

Well we are in an Art class this year with BEST. We have done some painting, sketching, drawing and other things as well. We have fun learning art types and doing the projects. It's cool to be with our friends.
Ricky

Winter retreat!!!

  Last weekend I went on the Riverpark High-school groups winter retreat. We got to go up to shaver lake, we stayed in some amazing cabins. We also rented the community center so we could all meet somewhere. A friend of Pastor Kevin's came from so-cal to give us the weekends message which was on leadership. We went tubing.... and played a lot of blink! I played once or twice for the morning worship services. The meals were awesome & I had an amazing time hangin with my friends!
Billy :D

Chili

  O.k so if you don't know I like to cook, now you know. About a week ago a made some chili. Here the recipe I used. It is the combination of a couple different recipes. It's really a simple recipe so you should try it. Cornbread is great to eat with it too. My family all liked it and best of all I didn't use any tomato products, it can be done.

Ingredients

• 2 cans of kidney beans( unless you want to cook the beans yourself which I didn't have time for )
• 2lbs of ground beef
• bacon( put whatever you want in.. I put in an entire package )
• beef stock/water
• chili powder
• cumin
• cinnamon
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• celery salt

Methods

• Brown the beef
• Add seasonings to the meat
• Dump everything into the crockpot
• Add more seasonings to the mix (by taste and only if needed)

Billy :D