The Jgoosdh Hut

Check it

2008-01-16T09:11:00.000+11:00

NEW! she is rose blog:

http://sheisrose.blogspot.com/

check it out!

BOO!

2007-12-04T10:37:00.000+11:00

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh...

thats all

Day 6: Vlad is so Terribly Lonely

2007-08-15T19:22:00.001+10:00

I hope this isnt considered an abuse of my blogging privelages, but i'm so desperately lonely

Introducing Count Chocula

2007-08-14T22:11:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone, as Josh has mentioned, my name is Count Vlad Chocula. I live in downtown Transylvania and enjoy chocolate breakfast cereals and the blood of mortals. Generally I’m a pretty easy going guy, though I’ve been known to occasionally have a bit of a temper. I enjoy romantic candle lit suppers and dank basements, and my favourite colour is black. Or red. Both are good.

I look forward to contributing to this fine blog, and you’ll be hearing form me again soon!

Until next time scrawny mortals, and remember, don’t eat garlic!

much love,
Count Vlad Chocula

Day 5: Welcome the Count!

2007-08-14T22:06:00.000+10:00

Guys, fantastic news, we’ve got a new blogger joining the jgoosdh hut today, everyone make Count Chocula feel real welcome!

Day 4: Logic? No, Perspective.

2007-08-13T22:46:00.000+10:00

Something I’ve been learning slowly over the past few years is that my logic is far from unassailable. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realise that things that I previously thought to be absolute truths are really nothing more than my view on a situation. But why am I telling you this, and how do I know its the case?

First, lets try to get a working definition of logic going. I looked up logic on Dictionary.com and I my summary of the definitions would be something along the lines of:

"methodological deductions and reasoning based on inferences
from past experience and knowledge of facts"

Too much gobbledegook? Ok, hows this:

"How we make sense of the world based on what we know, and have learnt."

So what exactly is it that I’ve been learning about logic? Mostly that its far from objective (as I’d previously thought) and hence far from infallible. All our logic is, is our own bias perspective on a situation. Choices to us that may seem simple may be excruciatingly hard for someone else. Decisions that others make that may appear to be incredibly foolish to us, may make complete sense to them, why? Because logic is, "based on what we know and have learnt", not simply on plain facts. Sure our logic takes into account facts, but perfect logic requires a perfectly complete knowledge and understanding of every militating circumstance surrounding any given event.

What then is the use of logic? Well in most cases we can trust our logic. We know that if we throw something up, it will fall back down because of past experience. We know that when the traffic lights turn green, then we can go because that is one of the methods of traffic control instituted by our government. But when you begin to involve another person, and their own subtle motives, views and knowledge, our logic becomes far less reliable, hence the importance of clear and effective communication in any form of relationship.

Having said that, perfect logic does exist; only not in humanity. God’s logic is perfect. God’s logic is completely and totally unassailable. This is so not only because God is omniscient (which is clearly the case), but because He actually dictates what is so. God IS logic; not logic as we know it, but perfect, true logic.

What does all this mean for us? Two things:

1. Be humble (James 4:6,10, 1 Peter 3:8, 5:5-6)
No matter how clear cut something may seem to us, it pretty generally isn’t. Be "quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19), be ready and willing to accept rebuke, and give everyone the benefit of the doubt in preference to jumping to conclusions. It is better to be quiet and avoid conflict then to spark off an unnecessary fight and cause hurt that may affect a relationship long into the future. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but it seems to me that most of the time that’s the way to go.

2. Trust God! (Mark 11:22, 1 Corinthians 2:5)
God has blessed us with a tiny smattering of his perfect logic, but if that gift shows us anything its that we are far from perfect! Instead of relying on our own flawed logic, rely on God and his perfect will and justice and you can never go wrong.

Much of this is still half formed in my mind and this has been me thinking out loud as much as anything else so please offer any constructive criticism you have to give!

Day 3: Ninjas were promised…

2007-08-12T23:41:00.000+10:00

and ninjas will be delivered. But first something of significantly more import (hard to believe I know); Evangelism. This weekend has been something of an evangelistic bonanza for my church, starting Friday night with ‘Double up’ for youth group (every invites a friend; double numbers), Café Del Freeo on Saturday (relaxed café format evangelistic meeting, lots of coffee), and then a guest speaker tonight (Toby Neil, Moore College student). With all these official evangelistic activities going on, It’s really got me thinking on how I evangelise my friends and family.

The conclusion I came to was that I wasn’t doing near enough considering the stakes. I have immediate and extended family that don’t know Christ, and many, many uni mates in a similar position; and there’s me not speaking up when I should. The more I thought about this the more convicted I’ve become that I must change, after all how would it be if my brother or one of my mates dies tomorrow not knowing Christ? I tell you it would break my heart!

So let me urge you all, if you know Christ: tell everyone! Who cares if its hard, who cares if you feel like you don’t know what to say? The bible says in Hebrews 4 that the word of God is "living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword", just cause we don’t know exactly what to say doesn’t mean we shouldn’t say anything, because God himself works through his word to achieve his ends! Trust God to do his will, and love your friends and family enough to tell them!

And now, for the ninjas.

What is it exactly that makes ninjas so darned cool? Is it the black clothes and all that sneaking around? The awesome, gravity-defying backflips? Is it the cool swords and smoke bombs? Personally I think its all these and more. It seems that a part of why we love ninjas so much is not only because they’re cool, but their incredible potential to be funny. That might sound like its at odds with the traditional view of the stealthy assassin, but think of teenage mutant ninja turtles, white ninja, Dr McNinja, need I go on?

And so, in the spirit of bringing ninjas to the world, here are links to two of my favourite ninja comics, and two of my favourite ninja games. Enjoy!

White Ninja
poorly conceived and drawn = hilariously funny!

Dr. McNinja
He’s a doctor, AND a ninja, how could this possibly not be good?

Darth Lupi games
Here you’ll find "Legend of Shadow" and awesome (if short) remake of an old arcade ninja classic

’N’
A great flash ninja game: hours of entertainment!

Day 2: Robomania awareness day

2007-08-11T10:26:00.000+10:00

DID YOU KNOW: Every day a uni student or electrical engineer somewhere succumbs to robomania.

DID YOU KNOW: Side effects of robomania include observation of imaginary robotic holidays including Robonnakkuh and Robomodan.

DID YOU KNOW: Often robomanics can be easily diagnosed with the correct knowledge. Symptoms include often dancing the robot, and thanking people with the phrase “Arigato, Mr. Roboto”

Robomania - a curse that many live with, but few actually know about. The term ‘Robomania’ refers to two distinct diseases, one that exists in the human population, the other is exclusive to robots. The robot variety of the disease is akin to kleptomania in humans, but the issue I want to bring to everyone’s attention today is the human version of the disease, more properly known as Roboticus Obsessius Maximus.

I’ve recently been struck down with this horrible affliction thanks to one of my uni assignments. The course is called ‘IT Applications’ and seemed to be a regular kind of computer course (occasionally interesting, mostly boring) that is until the first assignment was handed out. Brace yourself for this… I get to play with lego at uni! Legitimately! Yeah you heard right, LEGO! Awesome hey! What’s more is we have to build and program a robot out of this lego! Man I feel as if I’ve died and gone to little kid heaven…

But in all seriousness, robomania is a horrible disease; eventually reducing the poor unfortunates who suffer it to little more than R2D2 obsessed lunatics. Today is you chance to stand up for those suffering robomania, today YOU can do something to halt the spread of this terrible disease! Just send a check or money order of $20 or more to my home address made out to me, and I promise I’ll pass it on to researchers looking for a cure for robomania. Honest I will. Why don’t you trust me?

Anyway, if you guys get real lucky I might just post some photos of my robot in action up here later on. Now all I gotta do is convince the lecturer to let us do robots wars with them…

SNEAK PEEK: Tomorrows post will involve, and I kid you not, NINJAS! Yeah! Freakin awesome! Until then…

State of the Nation Address

2007-08-10T08:49:00.003+10:00

My fellow internetians,

It has come to my attention that an unfortunate incident has occurred. In fact, perhaps unfortunate may not be strong enough a word. This is a problem that has made babies cry, brought families to their knees, broken friendships, shattered international alliances, and in fact devastated much of the planet itself. I'm referring of course to the fact that I haven't posted a blog for a fairly long time.

But fear not! No longer must you tremble and hide at mere mention of the lax updating schedule of the jgoosdh hut! No longer will mothers fear for their baby's online safety! No longer will sherbet lollipops be a scarce commodity only enjoyed by the wealthy in society! HEAR ME TODAY MY DIGITISED FRIENDS!

THE JGOOSDH HUT IS BAAAAAAAAACK!

A new layout, a new colour scheme, and a new (lemony) zest for life are all a part of the relaunch of the jgoosdh hut. So make sure you stay tuned for an exciting launch week of more fun, wacky, and potentially insightful posts, that (if nothing else) promise to contain words! YAY!

2007-06-24T23:06:00.000+10:00

Life isn’t fair. You would think that after 21 years that would be a concept I’d have a firm feel for, but recently I’ve had the dubious pleasure of experiencing this simple fact in a way other than I had before. As per the usual this was a lesson learnt the hard way, possibly due to my increasingly thick skull and proportionally shrinking brain. Point of Advice: When mature Christians offer you advice, listen! It’ll save you a whole bunch of heartache! (I’m not just saying that to lend credibility to my blog either)

Now before you get the wrong idea this isn’t about me having a whinge about how unfair everything is, but an attempt to look at how a Christian should prepare themselves live in such a world. Really it’s just a fancy intro to looking at how I’ve been thinking about coping with a fallen world. Fair warning, a lot of this is just me thinking out loud.

1. Rely on God
First and foremost, as Christians we have to trust the Lord our God! At some point, every single person you know and trust will let you down to some degree or other. Its just the simple nature of who we are as human beings. Equally, we are going to stuff up and let other people down. A lot. Its unavoidable again because of our nature. God, however, is perfect, and hence perfectly reliable. No matter what craziness is going on in our life, no matter how alone or abandoned we feel, no matter how confused or lost or hurt we are, God is always there to support us, teach us, and love us. (That doesn’t necessarily equate to make things easy for us)

2. Lower your expectations (not your standards)
It’ll do us no good to walk around in this life expecting fair treatment, swift justice, and equality for all, because the world doesn’t work like that. Actually, let me clarify: ultimately, justice will be done, but usually it won’t be done in the way we see it or desire it now. Ultimately Jesus will judge everyone and will justly determine their fate. However this doesn’t mean Jesus is gonna be looking over you brother’s shoulder when he’s dividing up the mnm’s into equal piles for the two of you, making sure he does it fairly.

Generally speaking, in this life we can expect to be unfairly treated, abused, dismissed (not just from work you political bloodhounds), admired, trusted, etc… this is the norm we are to expect for this life, so don’t be surprised when it happens! I’m not saying that we shouldn’t desire more, because clearly desiring God’s justice is a fundamental part of what being a Christian is all about. Rather, expect to be treated unfairly, then if for some reason the opposite occurs, it’s a pleasant surprise, instead of a devastating blow.

By the way, this isn’t about being a pessimist, its about being a realist, and recognising that as a part of fallen, sinful creation, life isn’t gonna be all peaches. Oh, and the whole being unfairly admired / trusted thing; when its like that, it becomes less about someone else hurting you and more about your potential to stuff up and hurt someone else, so tread very carefully! (and prayerfully!)

3. Where is your Joy?
This point is very similar to the first in principle. Life for the non-Christian is usually composed of bad/average times that fill in the gaps between good times, depending on what the individual values. For example, a father who loves his family very much goes to work each day (his bad time) then comes home to his family (his good time) the mindset is, (whether consciously or not) ‘no matter what happens to me, I’ve always got my family to rely on’. You could easily replace family with money, friends, xbox, car, stamp collection etc. The problem with this mindset is that it’s a lie: chances are, eventually even the thing you cherish the most will let u down, and when that happens it’s gonna be like someone’s just pulled the rug out from under your feet because there will be nothing left to fall back on!

There is only one thing that we can rely on that will never let us down, only one person we can find our joy in who will never stuff up and hurt us; God. So don’t waste your time relying on anything less!

I’m well aware there is little logical flow for all this and its entirely possible that chunks of it don’t make sense, but like I said its me thinking out loud so feel free to cut it apart (gently!!)

Date friends not un-friends

2007-06-06T15:31:00.000+10:00

Yes, I know, my grammar is impeccable. Try not to be so jealous. Yes it is that obvious.

Anyway to clarify; first by ‘Date’ I don’t mean American ‘date’ where you grab a random and have dinner and never call again. Nor am I saying ‘DATE NOW; just with a friend’ cause it seems to me that there are only a few particular times in a Christian’s life where they should consider dating (may cover at a later date). The main thrust of what I want to say is: Don’t date someone who isn’t already a good mate! I’m aware this is hardly a hard and fast rule, and probably sounds like a pretty arrogant thing to just come out and say like that, but let me elaborate on the reasoning a bit before being too heavily criticized.

1. You know each other

One of the most important things about a successful, Godly relationship is being able to understand your partner. It’s true that part of a relationship is getting to know your partner better, but when you already know them well already it largely removes many of the early relationship problems that normally exist. Note I said early problems, that is the ones that generally arise from mis-communication or simply misunderstanding your partner’s perspective.

Another aspect of this is that only certain people are suitable marriage partners, for various reasons. In other words you can’t just pick up a random stranger off the street and expect them to be marriage material. Since all Christian relationships should be looking towards this ultimate goal, it’s definitely something worth considering. If you already know a person, then you can far more accurately predict whether or not they are suitable marriage material, and potentially save yourself a lot of heartache than if you didn’t find out until much later.

2. You are on about the same thing.

Friends have things in common. Friends know what they have in common. Christian friends that go into a more serious relationship know that each other’s top priority is God, and so there are no misplaced expectations right from the get go.

3. Friends know how to communicate

Similar to no. 1, friends already know how to express themselves to each other comfortably and confidently. This is crucial and means that there is a firm foundation to the relationship. It means that whatever occurs to affect the relationship (whether internally or externally) both parties are better equipped to deal with it.

4. If worst comes to worst, your still friends.

It seems a horrible cliché to hear the line “I hope we can still be friends” when a relationship breaks up. Oftentimes it does occur that they two people involved do become friends but it’s seldom straight away, and never happens without causing some kind of heartache (beyond that already caused by the break up). But if you already have a long history of friendship with someone, it can be much easier to slip back into the role of just being friends, and you may well find that since you’ve shared something much closer together previously, that you are a lot closer than you used to be in the past.

I gotta be honest with you all, this is just me spitballing, but I’m pretty certain that it’s the way to go. So what do you do if you meet a great girl/guy who you wanna pursue a relationship with, but you don’t know them so well? Be their friend first, and look for a closer relationship later.

Anyway, I’m clearly not anywhere close to being the final authority on this; I’m only a relatively naïve 21 year old guy, but these are some observations I’ve made. Please comment regardless of whether you agree or not, I’d really like to know what the general consensus on this is, and If you think I’m wrong I’d love to hear why.

But please, remember, the most important thing to think of when considering a relationship, as with and decision big or small, is whether or not it will glorify God. If the answer is ‘no’ or even ‘maybe’, then just don’t go there!

Now go do as I say, not as I do. ;)

the 'Christian-other' rant

2007-05-02T08:43:00.000+10:00

WARNING, INCOMING RANT!

I've been noticing a lot lately how Protestant friends of mine list themselves on My Space as being 'Christian-other' instead of 'Protestant'. There are a few possible reasons why this is so that come to mind:

1. They just wanna be known as a Christian - cut the jargon:
On the surface this is definately a worthy aim. Many non Christians will just be confused by reading 'Protestant' on someone's space. However, confusion is not necessarily a bad thing if it leads to curiosity...

2. They accidently clicked the wrong thing:
pffffft...

3. They aren't a Protestant:
can't really argue with that then can I? Mind you, the only non-Catholic, non-Protestant Christian church that i can think of is the various Orthodox churches and there aren't many around where I live. I'm sure there are others, just cant think of them :P

4. They don't know what a Protestant is.
and this i believe is the crux of the problem! Its an awful thought, but i believe that most young Protestant Christians today either haven't even heard of Protestantism, or they dont really understand what its about. As Protestants we have a heritage that has been bought for us with the lives of many hardworking, dedicated Christian men and women who desired to glorify God above all things, it would be a terrible thing for their acts to be forgotten!

These Protestants of old: Luther, Calvin, Smith, Tyndale and many others, devoted their entire lives, and in some cases, lost them, in order that we today might be better able to know and serve our Lord. To forget what they achieved (through Christ's strength) for us would be a horror second only to forgetting our Lord and his word themselves!

If it weren't for God's grace and mercy demonstrated through the cross, we would be lost and without hope. However, if it weren't for the sacrifice of these early Protestants, then today we could potentially have a completely misplaced faith that instead of relying wholy and soley on God's grace, would rely instead on our own efforts.

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me"

John 14:6

To put our faith in anything but Jesus will lead only to our condemnation!

So the crusade against 'Christian - other' has begun. I'm not entirely sure what that means practically at this stage, but if Christians do indeed not understand what it means to be a Protestant, then someone must tell them!

Prayer points:

Praise the Lord for his grace and mercy in sending his son for us! pray that we would never lose sight of this great truth!
Thank the Lord for the many Protestant men and women who fought and died to bring us his word in our own native tongue so that we may know God in a personal way, not just through the heirachy of the church.
Pray that we would be just as bold in proclaiming the truth of his word.

Quotes on God

2007-04-29T14:27:00.000+10:00

Was looking at some einstein quotes the other night, and noticed he made a few passing comments on God. I followed up some of those quotes and found some very interesting, often insightful, quotes on God, his character, our weakness compared to him, etc. Not all are about the one true God so much as the concept of a god in general, but are nevertheless interesting, and some are just a bit of fun. here is a few of my favourites:

"Any fool can count the seeds in an apple. Only God can count all the apples in one seed."

Robert H. Schuller

"Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God."

James Weldon Johnson

"You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list.

The longer your list, the smaller your God."

Author Unknown

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

C.S. Lewis

"As the poet said, 'Only God can make a tree' - probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on."

Woody Allen

"When I saw others straining toward God, I did not understand it, for though I may have had him less than they did, there was no one blocking the way between him and me, and I could reach his heart easily. It is up to him, after all, to have us, our part consists of almost solely in letting him grasp us."

Rainer Maria Rilke

plenty could be said about each of those but I think i'll just let you mull them over (read: I've run out of time ;) ) might revisit some of the ideas they present at some stage. until next time sports fans

Living as God's children in a fallen world

2007-04-28T19:16:00.000+10:00

This is just a repost from my old blog. wanted new material but that stupid thing called life got in the road :P promise ill have something new soon.

Lately I've been challenged greatly as to how it is that we christians should live in a world that see's God's teachings in his word as "foolish" (1Cor 1:18)

On monday, my church had a youth leaders meeting to plan youth group for the term. We looked at a chapter from a book that discussed how important it was for leaders in the church to live Godly lives. It occurred to me then that my whole life as a christian, I had only been passively pursuing the Godly life. That is, I knew in my head what was right and wrong, but when confronted with a descision where one choice was clearly wrong, I just as often chose the wrong descision as the right because I didn't have the mindset of reflecting on my sinfulness, and being prepared to resist sin when temptation arose.

Since that meeting, I've been thinking a lot about how i can better be prepared to resist tempatations to sin. As i thought on this more i realised that my whole life I'd been living unintentionally. What i mean by that is I've been happy to just sit back and take life as it comes, I never really think too far ahead, and generally if I see an opportunity for some kind of pleasure or satisfaction, I'll take it no matter how short term a thing it may be.

I've determined now, however, to live life on purpose. God has called us to live a life that brings glory to his name (1 Pet 1:7, Heb 13:21, 1 Tit 1:17, 1 Thess 2:20, Php 2:11, & many, many more) and since we are such self centered and foolish creatures by nature, if we truly want to glorify him we need to concentrate on it, plan it and strive towards it.

But how do we actually bring glory to God? In Philippians 2:9-11, God reveals to us that he is glorified when people bow their knee to Jesus. This verse, of course, is not meant to be only literally interpreted, although the literal bending of the knee in deference to Jesus' kingship is certainly merited, but more than that it means living a life that constantly acknowledges Jesus as supreme ruler, saviour, and Lord above all.

Our faith in Jesus is us acknowledging him as king, our faith is us bending the knee and glorifying God, but how can we tell that our faith is true? In James 2, it talks about being justified not just by faith, but also by works. I encourage you to go and read the chapter, because it is an interesting and confusing one that seems to be at odds with other parts of the new testament. But it isn't saying that our works are what saves us, rather, as James says in verse 18:

But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

We glorify God by having faith in him and his son, and trusting that Jesus' death and resurrection alone is what saves us. We show that faith by living our lives in a way that demonstrates the world around us the love God has shown us.

Let me encourage you all to closely examine yourself frequently. Identify areas in your life where you are constantly giving into temptation, and work hard at fixing them. Pray to God for help, because it's only by his renewing of our hearts that we can become more like him. We should live our lives on purpose!

Praise the Lord for his incredible love and mercy shown in sending his son to die, and rise again so that we may have a relationship with him. Thank the Lord for calling us to bring glory to him, and pray that he may give us the desire to serve him and him alone.

Numero Uno

2007-04-26T17:25:00.000+10:00

mmmmm... blog... the only place selfish humanity cant rant about their own problems and feel they are truly being listened too... isnt the cynicism disgusting? hehehe, nah, i should possibly lay off considering I'm only incrimintating myself.

Well a bit about myself to kick off:
Name: Josh
Age: 21
Gender: yes please!... uhhh... male
Hometown: G to the O to the SFORD... yeah i got lazy
Species: Homo Sapiens Sapiens (go on, look it up)
Reason for Living: My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who saved me, a wretched sinner, from eternal condemnation and brought me into a right relationship with the ruler and creator of the universe - God
Likes: food, movies, friends, warhammer, computers, nerdy things, a girl named Kimberly (shh!)
Dislikes: food, movies, warhammer, computers, nerdy things (love hate thing going on), drinking, clubbing, tomfoolery... ok, i actually kinda like tomfoolery...

... yeah its not as if anyone is reading this too closely so I'll leave it there.

But in all seriousness, I want to use this blog as a tool to help do a few things:
1. Think out loud (figuratively) about life and my struggles in it, particularily how they relate to my relationships with others and God.
2. Preach God's word to anyone who'll listen
3. Encourage other Christians to be bold in life - live differently because we are different!
4. Have fun!