I wish I could say that my heart was forever true, forever loyal, forever seeking out the heart of God but I can't. I am an adulterous believer and certainly one who needs the Grace of a Father who loves me like nothing else in the world.
But how do we respond when we realize we've been living in a period of sin and emotional rejection of the Father? First, repent! Second, ask the Father to change your heart and help us be conformed to Jesus!
I know we all struggle with this but putting my struggle into words, it's like I'm fighting my very sense of self because the sin and the desires of the flesh seem to be the entirety of my existence when I am not close to God. The enemy uses all that is bad that I love and uses it to slip a wedge between me and God and I've got to realize this more and be unrelenting in my desire to be connected back to the Father — to trust Him, to seek Him, to live by Him.
Repeatedly crawling back to the Father seems to be a faux pas in the Christian world (that believes you are to have your life together always) but in reality, it is one of the things that separates us from the rest of the world. We are to live our lives by Christ and as he instructed, we must repent and turn toward the Father. Faith and the Christian life is hard, messy, and sometimes an emotionally difficult and sometimes even a sad venture but it is the only way to find and experience true life. Such is the life of someone who endures dying to one's self in order to find life in Christ. The answer is to be humble and submitted to Christ and count every blessing as a gift of God, Salvation being the most amazing and life-filled gift you could ever receive! When I figure out how to do this completely, I'll share the secret with the World!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Notice:
Like Paul, I am not ashamed of the Gospel. Where Jesus will lead, he will only know. In response to his call, I will go, I will say "yes" to him, his call on my life — whatever it shall be. If he calls me, I will leave my fishing nets, my computer and my degree and I will follow after him. I died to this world so that I may find life in Christ, to be completed upon my final breath.
This time is now stoppage time and I will fight still harder to serve my master and help our team to win the game. I know not when the ref will blow his whistle but I will not stop serving my master until I hear that sound, "child come home."
I am not ashamed of the Gospel, the Gospel that gives me life. Without I am damned to death now and death in an existence without God where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I am a sinner and this is what I deserve for failing to uphold either the Law of which I know about or even the law as it was written on my conscious. Jesus invited me to die to sin and this world and I have. In Jesus, the source of true life, I find refuge and I find a reason to live, to love, to fight for the oppressed and the lonely. In Jesus I find the reason to life its self and no one shall take this away from me. My destiny is hid with Christ Jesus and I am forever thankful.
Romans 8:
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This time is now stoppage time and I will fight still harder to serve my master and help our team to win the game. I know not when the ref will blow his whistle but I will not stop serving my master until I hear that sound, "child come home."
I am not ashamed of the Gospel, the Gospel that gives me life. Without I am damned to death now and death in an existence without God where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. I am a sinner and this is what I deserve for failing to uphold either the Law of which I know about or even the law as it was written on my conscious. Jesus invited me to die to sin and this world and I have. In Jesus, the source of true life, I find refuge and I find a reason to live, to love, to fight for the oppressed and the lonely. In Jesus I find the reason to life its self and no one shall take this away from me. My destiny is hid with Christ Jesus and I am forever thankful.
Romans 8:
28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
The Need for Jesus
Can I just say that it's cool to know that people from India and Brazil (or Portugal) are reading my blog. Maybe it's isolated and maybe these are people who know me somehow but I still think that's really cool.
GIFT OF PROBLEM SOLVING?
I'll also comment about the last blog. I am a problem solver, this is one of the things God has blessed me with, and I am really interested in planning. I love figuring out how to fix things, all things including broken laptops, highway congestion, wasted energy, etc. It's a blessing and I am thankful for it. I write this explanation because I'm sure people may wonder why I'm writing about such things.
RECONCILIATION OF CREATION AND HOW I FIT INTO THIS
My pastor, Rich Nathan, talked about how he believed that Jesus didn't just come to reconcile man to God but to reconcile Creation to God (of which includes mankind) and I think this is true. Christ is the one who does this but I believe he has called Christians to help him achieve this task in whatever capacity we can and in this vein, if I can help house homeless people, feed hungry people, and improve the quality of life for those who are suffering or even just normal people, that's awesome. If that's as a planner, that will be a pretty cool thing, to be able to be used by God to bless people like that.
I do wish to point out that I don't believe all of the power to change things is in our hands. Planners want to think that they can change four or more things and thus fix the world or a large problem in it. Certainly planners can help the situation by illuminating problems and recommending action but our ability to help is limited by our knowledge of the situation, position to implement change and power to make it work. In other words, we're not God. Don't be deceived — mankind, including planners and many other pompously prideful professions (like medical doctors), are weak and by definition lack the knowledge and power to fix all (or even some) of the world's problems. Man is weak and must depend upon God, namely Jesus, for strength.
Certainly under the concept of universal goodwill (e.g. both the sun shines and the rain pours on those who believe and those who don't, etc.) of God we can achieve somethings but we must recognize at the beginning of the day, not at the end, that "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights..." - James 1:17. If real change is going to come, it will be initiated and empowered by Jesus.
TANGENT ON NAZISM, WWII, AND THE ANSWER TO TYRANNY
This is not where I will say vote republican or democrat. I could care less who you vote for as long as they aren't dictators who believe it's okay to persecute Christians or other groups (of which to my knowledge does not include any of the candidates). On this...
I just watched Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants and it is stellar. This comes just a month since I finished reading Elle Weisel's Night. The movie (au revoir) is about a children who attend a Catholic boarding school in France during the Nazi occupation of WWII. It's a powerful movie and having Jewish heritage, it's something personally significant to me. I read Night and I watch this movie and I question, is this going to happen to me? Will I be persecuted like the Jews were? Could I be someone who helps starts a government or revolution that ushers in the kind of tyranny that we see from the Nazis. Furthremore, would I have the resolve to follow in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's footsteps and join the resistance even if it means I'll die in a concentration camp next to those who are oppressed? It's hard to understand how WWII happened just over sixty, sixty-five years ago — the world seems to be a much different place now!
The answer to tyranny and the fear of it is Jesus and the perfect love he brings to a world that seems, at least in America, to not want it. I would pray that all would come to know Jesus for who he is and what he has done in our lives but I doubt this will happen in my lifetime, if ever. Similar to Hitler, there will be a man who comes to power and will resolve to break moral and civil authority like no others have before him. He will demand worship as he believes himself to be God and will produce counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. Many people will worship him as God, even Christians of who many will fall away from the Faith. Rich Nathan says we need to ask ourselves and more importantly ask God "could I be this man?" The only way we stand a chance of staying loyal to God through this is to become a lover of Truth and a lover of God - the father, son, and holy ghost!
FINALLY, ON THE MATTER OF SIN AND THE NEED FOR A SAVIOR
Do you lie, do you lust? Do you hate, do you use the Father's name in vain? Certainly we are all guilty of at least one trespass and as such, we are law breakers (aka sinners). As the penalty and result of sin is death and since we all sin, we all will die for our sins. Please know this - everyone sins, especially the Christian. In an act of love, Jesus died on a cross as an atonement for this sin and this is "The Gospel."
Our sin is atoned for when we place our faith in and follow Jesus. In this, faith in Jesus allows/leads us to die to our sin now, rather than when our bodies die here on the earth. In dying to our sin now, leaving our life of sin and death and turning toward the Father, the Christian embrace the life and eternal destiny that belongs to whose lives are being hid with Jesus Christ. To embrace this life, Jesus begins a process of the transformation of our hearts to make us more like Him. In this, Jesus may heal or help us look past our temporal problems such as sickness, sin habbits, or troubles and this is certainly a great thing but not the most important being that he is first and foremost the ONLY atonement for our sin. This is why he is know as the the Savior.
When we place our faith in him, we are to die to our own lives and to the ways of the world and live as new creations! In this, we must recognize others as new creations as well as Paul says this is what Jesus has done in reconciling the world to himself through his death, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5:
14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
GIFT OF PROBLEM SOLVING?
I'll also comment about the last blog. I am a problem solver, this is one of the things God has blessed me with, and I am really interested in planning. I love figuring out how to fix things, all things including broken laptops, highway congestion, wasted energy, etc. It's a blessing and I am thankful for it. I write this explanation because I'm sure people may wonder why I'm writing about such things.
RECONCILIATION OF CREATION AND HOW I FIT INTO THIS
My pastor, Rich Nathan, talked about how he believed that Jesus didn't just come to reconcile man to God but to reconcile Creation to God (of which includes mankind) and I think this is true. Christ is the one who does this but I believe he has called Christians to help him achieve this task in whatever capacity we can and in this vein, if I can help house homeless people, feed hungry people, and improve the quality of life for those who are suffering or even just normal people, that's awesome. If that's as a planner, that will be a pretty cool thing, to be able to be used by God to bless people like that.
I do wish to point out that I don't believe all of the power to change things is in our hands. Planners want to think that they can change four or more things and thus fix the world or a large problem in it. Certainly planners can help the situation by illuminating problems and recommending action but our ability to help is limited by our knowledge of the situation, position to implement change and power to make it work. In other words, we're not God. Don't be deceived — mankind, including planners and many other pompously prideful professions (like medical doctors), are weak and by definition lack the knowledge and power to fix all (or even some) of the world's problems. Man is weak and must depend upon God, namely Jesus, for strength.
Certainly under the concept of universal goodwill (e.g. both the sun shines and the rain pours on those who believe and those who don't, etc.) of God we can achieve somethings but we must recognize at the beginning of the day, not at the end, that "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights..." - James 1:17. If real change is going to come, it will be initiated and empowered by Jesus.
TANGENT ON NAZISM, WWII, AND THE ANSWER TO TYRANNY
This is not where I will say vote republican or democrat. I could care less who you vote for as long as they aren't dictators who believe it's okay to persecute Christians or other groups (of which to my knowledge does not include any of the candidates). On this...
I just watched Louis Malle's Au revoir les enfants and it is stellar. This comes just a month since I finished reading Elle Weisel's Night. The movie (au revoir) is about a children who attend a Catholic boarding school in France during the Nazi occupation of WWII. It's a powerful movie and having Jewish heritage, it's something personally significant to me. I read Night and I watch this movie and I question, is this going to happen to me? Will I be persecuted like the Jews were? Could I be someone who helps starts a government or revolution that ushers in the kind of tyranny that we see from the Nazis. Furthremore, would I have the resolve to follow in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's footsteps and join the resistance even if it means I'll die in a concentration camp next to those who are oppressed? It's hard to understand how WWII happened just over sixty, sixty-five years ago — the world seems to be a much different place now!
The answer to tyranny and the fear of it is Jesus and the perfect love he brings to a world that seems, at least in America, to not want it. I would pray that all would come to know Jesus for who he is and what he has done in our lives but I doubt this will happen in my lifetime, if ever. Similar to Hitler, there will be a man who comes to power and will resolve to break moral and civil authority like no others have before him. He will demand worship as he believes himself to be God and will produce counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders. Many people will worship him as God, even Christians of who many will fall away from the Faith. Rich Nathan says we need to ask ourselves and more importantly ask God "could I be this man?" The only way we stand a chance of staying loyal to God through this is to become a lover of Truth and a lover of God - the father, son, and holy ghost!
FINALLY, ON THE MATTER OF SIN AND THE NEED FOR A SAVIOR
Do you lie, do you lust? Do you hate, do you use the Father's name in vain? Certainly we are all guilty of at least one trespass and as such, we are law breakers (aka sinners). As the penalty and result of sin is death and since we all sin, we all will die for our sins. Please know this - everyone sins, especially the Christian. In an act of love, Jesus died on a cross as an atonement for this sin and this is "The Gospel."
Our sin is atoned for when we place our faith in and follow Jesus. In this, faith in Jesus allows/leads us to die to our sin now, rather than when our bodies die here on the earth. In dying to our sin now, leaving our life of sin and death and turning toward the Father, the Christian embrace the life and eternal destiny that belongs to whose lives are being hid with Jesus Christ. To embrace this life, Jesus begins a process of the transformation of our hearts to make us more like Him. In this, Jesus may heal or help us look past our temporal problems such as sickness, sin habbits, or troubles and this is certainly a great thing but not the most important being that he is first and foremost the ONLY atonement for our sin. This is why he is know as the the Savior.
When we place our faith in him, we are to die to our own lives and to the ways of the world and live as new creations! In this, we must recognize others as new creations as well as Paul says this is what Jesus has done in reconciling the world to himself through his death, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5:
14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Friday Freedom
Today I upgraded to 10.5 Leopard, finished some work, did some laundry, cleaned up, and wrote this blog. Yes, that's right. I did nothing today and it was great!
What to write about? Yesterday, I was thinking about some of the reasons why people are leaving Ohio. Certainly our state is a nice place - it's cheap, there's fresh food in the summer and some snow in the winter. The people are generally friendly and it's a pretty good place to raise a family - what do people dislike?
Well, as a twentysomething here, I'm thinking about where I'll get a job and though my graduate school degree choice will help me stay in Ohio, I still might not have a choice. In order to stay, we need jobs and you must remember, young people need jobs because they're paying more than ever for college - one of the largest factors working to increase inflation in the US and certainly in Ohio.
ALL WE WANT ARE JOBS AND SOME WALKABLE, SAFE PLACES!
Second, and related to planning, there really aren't a lot of walkable places and young people seem to like dense, walkable places as opposed to the suburbia they grew up in. People ask me, would I ever move back to my hometown, Dayton, Ohio and the answer is always "no" because there are no jobs and it is so alien a place from the wealthy, diverse, and walkable Columbus, Ohio I am familiar with. Columbus is great becasue there is more choice in where you shop, you eat, you find entertainment, and the best part is that you could decide to take it all in on foot or with the help of the bus system. It is civilization and it is ours.
EASTON - SHRINE TO COMMERCE
One of the best (or worst) parts of Columbus is Easton Town Center. Easton is a fake small town made up of top 100 retailers, restaurants, and "Snow Village" like street-scapes, storefronts, public spaces and fountains. I love it and I hate it. It's fun, it's cool, it's different but it is a mall just the same. Easton is the definitive shrine to commerce, patrolled by security and devoid of graffiti. Parking, aided by two 1,000 space parking structures, is difficult during peak times but once you've parked, you can walk throughout the serene landscape and enjoy - even perhaps without buying anything.
THE GREENE - A MINI EASTON
When I heard someone was building a new mall in Dayton, I freaked. There are too many malls in Dayton, why the hell would someone finance more retail in a place like that. Then I heard it was going to be a copy of Easton. Some said no one would like it but it has actually been a great hit from what I've heard and I'm not surprised. It's walkable and it has choices, new choices. Unfortunately, these "choices" are just new and different brands making their way to Dayton from the hundred-plus other markets they've already entered. The reasons why they are successful are that they're different, they're creative, they give people what they want and this is verified by their success and of course, this kills local businesses and ships income to corporate offices in New York, Chicago, and California.
I want to shop at the entrepreneur's business and eat at the local food place - and in Columbus, I can. When I'm in Dayton or other places, it's more difficult. Why? Because good places are really hard to find in Dayton and some of them are either too expensive or down-right horrible and I guess people there can't tell the difference. This gives you a bad rap and makes people like me think you are not living in "civilization." The entrepreneurial spirit is a great thing and we'll need more of it if Ohio is ever going to come back from it's current decline. Creativity and ingenuity is what made our state an industrial powerhouse and now we are in decline. Something must be done and it starts with entrepreneurs and it can't succeed without solid planning from planning professionals.
Planners need to create walkable places that are friendly to entrepreneurs. Do this and there will be jobs, walkable places and Ohio's money will stay in Ohio! Cities need to think outside the (big) box (store model) and consider themselves players in the local marketplace. When companies go out of business and close their doors, the city is left holding the bag and citizens are left with the burden. Governments need to take steps move us back toward a more economically and environmentally sustainable model toward crafting retail experiences. We need downtowns, parks, fountains, plazas, etc. To achieve this, we need lawmakers and we need local government to cooperate or MSA regional governments. Something has to change because no one will want to live in horrible inner-cities ensnared by endless suburbia. How could have our lawmakers allowed this to happen?
What to write about? Yesterday, I was thinking about some of the reasons why people are leaving Ohio. Certainly our state is a nice place - it's cheap, there's fresh food in the summer and some snow in the winter. The people are generally friendly and it's a pretty good place to raise a family - what do people dislike?
Well, as a twentysomething here, I'm thinking about where I'll get a job and though my graduate school degree choice will help me stay in Ohio, I still might not have a choice. In order to stay, we need jobs and you must remember, young people need jobs because they're paying more than ever for college - one of the largest factors working to increase inflation in the US and certainly in Ohio.
ALL WE WANT ARE JOBS AND SOME WALKABLE, SAFE PLACES!
Second, and related to planning, there really aren't a lot of walkable places and young people seem to like dense, walkable places as opposed to the suburbia they grew up in. People ask me, would I ever move back to my hometown, Dayton, Ohio and the answer is always "no" because there are no jobs and it is so alien a place from the wealthy, diverse, and walkable Columbus, Ohio I am familiar with. Columbus is great becasue there is more choice in where you shop, you eat, you find entertainment, and the best part is that you could decide to take it all in on foot or with the help of the bus system. It is civilization and it is ours.
EASTON - SHRINE TO COMMERCE
One of the best (or worst) parts of Columbus is Easton Town Center. Easton is a fake small town made up of top 100 retailers, restaurants, and "Snow Village" like street-scapes, storefronts, public spaces and fountains. I love it and I hate it. It's fun, it's cool, it's different but it is a mall just the same. Easton is the definitive shrine to commerce, patrolled by security and devoid of graffiti. Parking, aided by two 1,000 space parking structures, is difficult during peak times but once you've parked, you can walk throughout the serene landscape and enjoy - even perhaps without buying anything.
THE GREENE - A MINI EASTON
When I heard someone was building a new mall in Dayton, I freaked. There are too many malls in Dayton, why the hell would someone finance more retail in a place like that. Then I heard it was going to be a copy of Easton. Some said no one would like it but it has actually been a great hit from what I've heard and I'm not surprised. It's walkable and it has choices, new choices. Unfortunately, these "choices" are just new and different brands making their way to Dayton from the hundred-plus other markets they've already entered. The reasons why they are successful are that they're different, they're creative, they give people what they want and this is verified by their success and of course, this kills local businesses and ships income to corporate offices in New York, Chicago, and California.
I want to shop at the entrepreneur's business and eat at the local food place - and in Columbus, I can. When I'm in Dayton or other places, it's more difficult. Why? Because good places are really hard to find in Dayton and some of them are either too expensive or down-right horrible and I guess people there can't tell the difference. This gives you a bad rap and makes people like me think you are not living in "civilization." The entrepreneurial spirit is a great thing and we'll need more of it if Ohio is ever going to come back from it's current decline. Creativity and ingenuity is what made our state an industrial powerhouse and now we are in decline. Something must be done and it starts with entrepreneurs and it can't succeed without solid planning from planning professionals.
Planners need to create walkable places that are friendly to entrepreneurs. Do this and there will be jobs, walkable places and Ohio's money will stay in Ohio! Cities need to think outside the (big) box (store model) and consider themselves players in the local marketplace. When companies go out of business and close their doors, the city is left holding the bag and citizens are left with the burden. Governments need to take steps move us back toward a more economically and environmentally sustainable model toward crafting retail experiences. We need downtowns, parks, fountains, plazas, etc. To achieve this, we need lawmakers and we need local government to cooperate or MSA regional governments. Something has to change because no one will want to live in horrible inner-cities ensnared by endless suburbia. How could have our lawmakers allowed this to happen?
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Final Tuesday - AU07 IS OVER!
Well, minutes from my last final, I take a few minutes to recap the quarter. I do this to hopefully decompress my mind from all of the stuff rattling around up there.
LIGHT RAIL IN COLUMBUS? - a GIS project
For the past four days, I've spent a combined 30 to 40 hours in a computer lab trying to finish a way to ambitious ArcGIS analysis of where to site a fixed-guideway transit project in Columbus. It was crazy because I was dealing with a parcel map for Franklin County with over 100,000 parcels connected to database file with over 20 attributes and I attempted to spatially join these into a census block map. After I figured out how to do this without crashing the lab PC I was using (which took about 3 or 4 hours), I finally was able to get the simplified map for analysis - this lab was like six in one. The worst part was that it was due last Friday and I just turned it in today! I am so freaking numb from days of starring into a computer monitor.
The project result is the product of really rough research but it basically favored adding transit to dense, cheap and blighted neighborhoods near downtown. This will help them gentrify, be rehabilitated with pockets of large scale, dense redevelopment around station sites. The concept driving the proposal was a desire to increase the efficiency of people moving between office jobs and the entertainment and commerce opportunities downtown. Though a percent of the housing could be subsidized, such a proposal would likely raise the cost of living in Columbus as a whole and further marginalize and isolate the city's poor to neighborhoods that were in decline or are already blighted. This isn't an okay side-effect however, if enough areas are available for redevelopment, banks will probably not drop enough credit into the market to facilitate the massive gentrification effects that could force the displacement of tens of thousands in the city. Phasing may help reduce the sudden jolt on the cost of living, specifically rent, in the areas serviced by the system.
The increase in efficiency and walkability would hopefully reduce the need and cost of automobile ownership, saving people as well as the city, state, and federal government money in maintaining and expanding automobile infrastructure. Housing and transportation usually account for 50% of one's expenses so paying more for housing in an area that is walkable and connected to mass transit may be preferable to some. In most cities, it wouldn't necessarily cost a lot but because Columbus has such a low density, the success of Light Rail, Streetcar, or BRT service would be dependent upon creating pockets of high density residential and commercial activity near station sites — an expensive proposition on top of the $1B investment of the first phase of a Light Rail transit system. But in the tradition of land speculation and speculative development, a possible development for the future of Columbus.
LIGHT RAIL IN COLUMBUS? - a GIS project
For the past four days, I've spent a combined 30 to 40 hours in a computer lab trying to finish a way to ambitious ArcGIS analysis of where to site a fixed-guideway transit project in Columbus. It was crazy because I was dealing with a parcel map for Franklin County with over 100,000 parcels connected to database file with over 20 attributes and I attempted to spatially join these into a census block map. After I figured out how to do this without crashing the lab PC I was using (which took about 3 or 4 hours), I finally was able to get the simplified map for analysis - this lab was like six in one. The worst part was that it was due last Friday and I just turned it in today! I am so freaking numb from days of starring into a computer monitor.
The project result is the product of really rough research but it basically favored adding transit to dense, cheap and blighted neighborhoods near downtown. This will help them gentrify, be rehabilitated with pockets of large scale, dense redevelopment around station sites. The concept driving the proposal was a desire to increase the efficiency of people moving between office jobs and the entertainment and commerce opportunities downtown. Though a percent of the housing could be subsidized, such a proposal would likely raise the cost of living in Columbus as a whole and further marginalize and isolate the city's poor to neighborhoods that were in decline or are already blighted. This isn't an okay side-effect however, if enough areas are available for redevelopment, banks will probably not drop enough credit into the market to facilitate the massive gentrification effects that could force the displacement of tens of thousands in the city. Phasing may help reduce the sudden jolt on the cost of living, specifically rent, in the areas serviced by the system.
The increase in efficiency and walkability would hopefully reduce the need and cost of automobile ownership, saving people as well as the city, state, and federal government money in maintaining and expanding automobile infrastructure. Housing and transportation usually account for 50% of one's expenses so paying more for housing in an area that is walkable and connected to mass transit may be preferable to some. In most cities, it wouldn't necessarily cost a lot but because Columbus has such a low density, the success of Light Rail, Streetcar, or BRT service would be dependent upon creating pockets of high density residential and commercial activity near station sites — an expensive proposition on top of the $1B investment of the first phase of a Light Rail transit system. But in the tradition of land speculation and speculative development, a possible development for the future of Columbus.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Finals Week and Stoppage Time
LIFE: unscripted
Hey friends, it's Eric and this is the last weekend before Finals Week. I should study today but instead I'm finishing a project that was due yesterday. Why? Because I procrastinate and I have a more clear understanding of what is important in my life. That doesn't mean I follow it but it does mean I understand what is not important and this gives false justification to not get a project done on time. Well, what is done is now done and no sense stressing over it now as the events of yesterday are now recorded into the history of man.
The project, for GIS class, was one where we make up a question and try to use GIS to answer it. I didn't realize how much time this was going to take so I worked a little on the project throughout the week but really started yesterday, when I felt like coming in to work on it. Needing more data, I went downtown to the Tower of Justice to get more data and came back only to find out that the data wouldn't work and then later to find out that we already had the data on our server that no one really told us about. Anyway, I didn't eat lunch and languished away in a lab with noisy people and bad music - yes, bad music. Somehow I survived and left for a birthday party then a going away party and got home last night and went to bed. I know you love the detail of my life - j/k
LIVING LIFE IN STOPPAGE TIME
For those who care, life is okay. I'm breathing and I praise God for it. I'm not really being inspired by the Word, probably because I'm not reading it. Same for spending time with God... and this is because I am still distracted by several key things: 1) An addiction to using technology, 2) porn, and 3) my loneliness.
So where does this leave me? Certainly my life, in fact, isn't much better than it was when I wasn't a Christian. ...Thoughts like why do I try and why do I care run about, doing laps in my mind... and this is now a fundamental problem for the frame of which I try to understand my faith within.
Jesus will eventually change me and be patient and be persistent in seeking the change and seeking Jesus... but this is only part of the Gospel! Certainly it is a big thing that Jesus will reconcile creation (including me) but the biggest part of that is that he answers for the Law on our lives. Concerning the law, I am a sinful creature - destitute and rotten sinner who breaks commandments, who is an idolater, who is a bad steward, who does not take Jesus' death and resurrection seriously. There isn't now and there never has really been a sense of death on my life and so the question should be asked — how will I really value Christ for who he is, the one who saves me from an eternity away from the Father!
This is the question that must be reconciled. I came to the faith with a vague understanding of this and yet as I grow in the faith and fall into sin (or become more conscious of it when it happens), I have to reevaluate what is this faith really about? I was wooed to the father by the hope that he would reconcile me with creation but I had no idea of what that meant. Now, seemingly someone who acknowledges Christ but can't be completely faithful and is not remorseful enough about my transgression is left with this question, what is my faith in?
1) Is my faith in a get out of hell free card that doesn't really exist?
2) Is my faith in a God who will be patient with me abusing his Grace?
3) Is my faith in a Father who is a hard master who expects me to get it or else he will punish me for eternity?
No, I think my faith is in the second example... as the other two are not biblical.
Everyone (but Jesus and God) has made mistakes, has sinned as recorded in the Bible and so do I — so I know I am with good company! Just as many of them were asked, I am asked the same: do I still want to consciously try to screw up or do I want to now make even more of a conscious effort to try to abstain from breaking the law as much as I can with a heart condition that effectively says "sin is abhorrent to the Father and I want to be more like Jesus!"
Sin leads to death and I think I keep forgetting this. Is it any wonder that when I sin, especially deliberately, that it leads to death. Is it any wonder that I feel disconnected and with a heavy sense of malaise over my life. Maybe I'm more aware of it now but I think that just may be a taste of what it's like to be away from the Father and it is uncomfortable. Ultimately sin leads to death, spiritually and often physically in this world. To revel in sin is to revel in death and this causes me less of a pause than it should.
Jesus is the answer to reconciling you of sin that leads to death in the current life, though this won't be completed until you die, and he is the answer death sentence I have been given as a law breaker.
How does one respond (of which includes me)?
1) Take stock of your life and realize you are a law breaker, one who lies and hates and lusts and realize that these things are not pleasing to God. Realize these things, sins, will eventually lead to death.
2) If you're not a Christian, place you faith in Jesus who died on a cross so that those who that those who would die from their sins could find life in him, eternal life with the Father in Heaven. Jesus is the way, truth and light to a dark and dying world.
3) Pray that God would change your heart — help you fall more and more in love with Jesus and the Truth that He is God. Placing your faith in Jesus, your old self and its desires are to die and you are to find life in Jesus, and eagerly submit to His authority, instruction, and Word. From experience, this is difficult but it is worth it because Jesus' "yoke" (a harness animals use to pull things) is lighter than any other, especially considering the weight of sin and the challenge of trying to uphold God's law in our lives without the help of God.
4) Live every day as if you'll die that day - we are living in stoppage time*. With the sense of time fleeing, try to live a Jesus centered life as much as possible. This is easier (possible) when you try to do this as a part of a group of other Christians, i.e. church, as the Christian life has been lived for over 2000 years. Certainly, you'll make mistakes in your life but realize you are following a good God who knows you better than you know yourself (you sin more often than you realize) and yet He will still love you and extend his Grace to those who's destinies are hidden with Christ! Praise Jesus for his Goodness!
*Stoppage Time (soccer): The referee is the official timekeeper for the match, and may make an allowance for time lost through substitutions, injured players requiring attention, or other stoppages. This added time is commonly referred to as stoppage time or injury time, and is at the sole discretion of the referee.
Mighty To Save
Everyone needs compassion / A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me / Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior / The hope of nations
My Savior / He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save / He is Mighty to save
Forever / Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave / Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as You find me / All my fears and failures
Fill my life again / I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in / Now I surrender
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus
Hey friends, it's Eric and this is the last weekend before Finals Week. I should study today but instead I'm finishing a project that was due yesterday. Why? Because I procrastinate and I have a more clear understanding of what is important in my life. That doesn't mean I follow it but it does mean I understand what is not important and this gives false justification to not get a project done on time. Well, what is done is now done and no sense stressing over it now as the events of yesterday are now recorded into the history of man.
The project, for GIS class, was one where we make up a question and try to use GIS to answer it. I didn't realize how much time this was going to take so I worked a little on the project throughout the week but really started yesterday, when I felt like coming in to work on it. Needing more data, I went downtown to the Tower of Justice to get more data and came back only to find out that the data wouldn't work and then later to find out that we already had the data on our server that no one really told us about. Anyway, I didn't eat lunch and languished away in a lab with noisy people and bad music - yes, bad music. Somehow I survived and left for a birthday party then a going away party and got home last night and went to bed. I know you love the detail of my life - j/k
LIVING LIFE IN STOPPAGE TIME
For those who care, life is okay. I'm breathing and I praise God for it. I'm not really being inspired by the Word, probably because I'm not reading it. Same for spending time with God... and this is because I am still distracted by several key things: 1) An addiction to using technology, 2) porn, and 3) my loneliness.
So where does this leave me? Certainly my life, in fact, isn't much better than it was when I wasn't a Christian. ...Thoughts like why do I try and why do I care run about, doing laps in my mind... and this is now a fundamental problem for the frame of which I try to understand my faith within.
Jesus will eventually change me and be patient and be persistent in seeking the change and seeking Jesus... but this is only part of the Gospel! Certainly it is a big thing that Jesus will reconcile creation (including me) but the biggest part of that is that he answers for the Law on our lives. Concerning the law, I am a sinful creature - destitute and rotten sinner who breaks commandments, who is an idolater, who is a bad steward, who does not take Jesus' death and resurrection seriously. There isn't now and there never has really been a sense of death on my life and so the question should be asked — how will I really value Christ for who he is, the one who saves me from an eternity away from the Father!
This is the question that must be reconciled. I came to the faith with a vague understanding of this and yet as I grow in the faith and fall into sin (or become more conscious of it when it happens), I have to reevaluate what is this faith really about? I was wooed to the father by the hope that he would reconcile me with creation but I had no idea of what that meant. Now, seemingly someone who acknowledges Christ but can't be completely faithful and is not remorseful enough about my transgression is left with this question, what is my faith in?
1) Is my faith in a get out of hell free card that doesn't really exist?
2) Is my faith in a God who will be patient with me abusing his Grace?
3) Is my faith in a Father who is a hard master who expects me to get it or else he will punish me for eternity?
No, I think my faith is in the second example... as the other two are not biblical.
Everyone (but Jesus and God) has made mistakes, has sinned as recorded in the Bible and so do I — so I know I am with good company! Just as many of them were asked, I am asked the same: do I still want to consciously try to screw up or do I want to now make even more of a conscious effort to try to abstain from breaking the law as much as I can with a heart condition that effectively says "sin is abhorrent to the Father and I want to be more like Jesus!"
Sin leads to death and I think I keep forgetting this. Is it any wonder that when I sin, especially deliberately, that it leads to death. Is it any wonder that I feel disconnected and with a heavy sense of malaise over my life. Maybe I'm more aware of it now but I think that just may be a taste of what it's like to be away from the Father and it is uncomfortable. Ultimately sin leads to death, spiritually and often physically in this world. To revel in sin is to revel in death and this causes me less of a pause than it should.
Jesus is the answer to reconciling you of sin that leads to death in the current life, though this won't be completed until you die, and he is the answer death sentence I have been given as a law breaker.
How does one respond (of which includes me)?
1) Take stock of your life and realize you are a law breaker, one who lies and hates and lusts and realize that these things are not pleasing to God. Realize these things, sins, will eventually lead to death.
2) If you're not a Christian, place you faith in Jesus who died on a cross so that those who that those who would die from their sins could find life in him, eternal life with the Father in Heaven. Jesus is the way, truth and light to a dark and dying world.
3) Pray that God would change your heart — help you fall more and more in love with Jesus and the Truth that He is God. Placing your faith in Jesus, your old self and its desires are to die and you are to find life in Jesus, and eagerly submit to His authority, instruction, and Word. From experience, this is difficult but it is worth it because Jesus' "yoke" (a harness animals use to pull things) is lighter than any other, especially considering the weight of sin and the challenge of trying to uphold God's law in our lives without the help of God.
4) Live every day as if you'll die that day - we are living in stoppage time*. With the sense of time fleeing, try to live a Jesus centered life as much as possible. This is easier (possible) when you try to do this as a part of a group of other Christians, i.e. church, as the Christian life has been lived for over 2000 years. Certainly, you'll make mistakes in your life but realize you are following a good God who knows you better than you know yourself (you sin more often than you realize) and yet He will still love you and extend his Grace to those who's destinies are hidden with Christ! Praise Jesus for his Goodness!
*Stoppage Time (soccer): The referee is the official timekeeper for the match, and may make an allowance for time lost through substitutions, injured players requiring attention, or other stoppages. This added time is commonly referred to as stoppage time or injury time, and is at the sole discretion of the referee.
Mighty To Save
Everyone needs compassion / A love that's never failing
Let mercy fall on me / Everyone needs forgiveness
A kindness of a Savior / The hope of nations
My Savior / He can move the mountains
My God is Mighty to save / He is Mighty to save
Forever / Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave / Jesus conquered the grave
So take me as You find me / All my fears and failures
Fill my life again / I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in / Now I surrender
Shine your light and let the whole world see
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)