Jake Wasdin

"The just soul and the just man, then, will live well, and the unjust man will live badly. — So..."

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:26:35 -0500

“The just soul and the just man, then, will live well, and the unjust man will live badly. — So it seems, according to your argument.
Surely the one who lives well is blessed and happy, and the one who does not is the opposite. — Of course.
So the just man is happy, and the unjust one is wretched. — So be it.
It profits no one to be wretched, but to be happy. — Of course.
And so, my good Thrasymachus, injustice is never more profitable than justice.”

- p 27 Plato’s Republic trans. Grube (1974 Hacket)

Won my first tennis match 6-2 today.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:43:31 -0500

Won my first tennis match 6-2 today.

"Can a doctrine be “horrible” and “dangerous” that gives God His true place,..."

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:15:20 -0500

“Can a doctrine be “horrible” and “dangerous” that gives God His true place, that maintains His rights, that magnifies His grace, that ascribes all glory to Him and removes every ground of boasting from the creature? Can a doctrine be “horrible” and “dangerous” which affords the saints a sense of security in danger, that supplies them comfort in sorrow, that begets patience within them in adversity, that evokes from them praise at all times? Can a doctrine be “horrible” and “dangerous” which assures us of the certain triumph of good over evil, and which provides a sure resting-place for our hearts, and that place, the perfections of the Sovereign Himself? No; a thousand times, no. Instead of being “horrible and dangerous” this doctrine of the Sovereignty of God is glorious and edifying, and a due apprehension of it will but serve to make us exclaim with Moses, “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Ex. 15:11).”

- A. W. Pink, Sovereignty of God, ch 12 (last paragraph)

"Speaking hypothetically, but reverently, be it said, that if God had done nothing more than given..."

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:45:39 -0500

“Speaking hypothetically, but reverently, be it said, that if God had done nothing more than given Christ to die for sinners, not a single sinner would ever have been saved. In order for any sinner to see his need of a Saviour and be willing to receive the Saviour he needs, the work of the Holy Spirit upon and within him were imperatively required. Had God done nothing more than given Christ to die for sinners and then sent forth His servants to proclaim salvation through Christ, leaving sinners entirely to themselves to accept or reject as they pleased, then every sinner would have rejected, because at heart every man hates God and is at enmity with Him. Therefore the work of the Holy Spirit was needed to bring the sinner to Christ, to overcome his innate opposition, and compel him to accept the provision God has made.”

- A. W. Pink (ibid, ch 4)

"The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed..."

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:26:34 -0500

“The conception of Deity which prevails most widely today, even among those who profess to give heed to the Scriptures, is a miserable caricature, a blasphemous travesty of the Truth. The God of the twentieth century is a helpless, effeminate being who commands the respect of no really thoughtful man. The God of the popular mind is the creation of a maudlin sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence.”

- A. W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, chapter 1

"The most interesting thing about objective truth is that there are people who deny that it exists...."

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:34:00 -0500

“The most interesting thing about objective truth is that there are people who deny that it exists. One might wonder how anyone could deny that there is such thing as objective truth. For some people, I am fairly sure, the explanation is something like this. They are deeply hostile to the thought of anything that in any sense stands in judgment over them. The idea toward which they are most hostile, is, of course, the idea of there being an objective universe that doesn’t care what they think and could make their most cherished beliefs false without even considering them.”

- Van Inwagen, quoted p. xliv The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell

"King James…despised the weed he’d made popular at court. James even penned a tract..."

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:11:03 -0500

““King James…despised the weed he’d made popular at court. James even penned a tract called ‘A Counterblaste to Tobacco,’ which described smoking as ‘a custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmfull to the braine, daungerous to the Lungs, and, in blacke stinking fume thereof,’ resembling the smoke of hell.””

- p 319, A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horowitz

"From Marilynne Robinson’s The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (Picador, 2005), page 117:..."

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:10:41 -0500

“

From Marilynne Robinson’s The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (Picador, 2005), page 117:

“Good theology is always a kind of giant and intricate poetry, like epic or saga. It is written for those who know the tale already, the urgent messages and the dying words, and who attend to its retelling with a special alertness, because the story has a claim on them and they on it. … Theology is written for the small community of those who would think of reading it. So it need not define freighted words like ‘faith’ or ‘grace’ but may instead reveal what they contain. To the degree that it does them any justice, its community of readers will say yes, enjoying the insight as their own and affirming it in that way.”

”

- Reading Good Theology « Miscellanies.

All of Grace by Spurgeon

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:56:00 -0500

This is a wonderful book that I got used. I began reading it some months ago but had since lost it. Upon finding it, I started over and read the book in a couple of hours. I would recommend it to all believers and searchers alike.

Spurgeon begins this book by making his plea clear from the first statement: “My intention in writing this to you is that many will be led to the Lord Jesus.” Indeed, this is a great presentation of the Gospel that I believe the Lord has likely and will continue to use to bring others to himself. In the book, each chapter goes through and explains a simple Scriptural truth relating to salvation so that the common man might understand. He goes through texts such as “God justifieth the ungodly,” “by grace are ye saved,” and “ye must be born again.” He explains these verses and ideas such as faith very simply and uses many illustrations to help his point. His illustrations are brilliant, as is expected of Spurgeon.

As a believer, the book was still a great comfort and joy to read. I recommend that you read it first and loan it then to some unbelieving friends who are receptive to the gospel.

The book is available as a free audiobook as well. I listened to a couple of chapters, and despite being machine read, it is quite understandable. If you prefer that, you can find that there. Many different books are availalbe, but I read from the slightly edited version shown below that I got used.

"Much of the theological framework needed to understand the significance of Jesus’ coming, life..."

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:09:52 -0500

“Much of the theological framework needed to understand the significance of Jesus’ coming, life and death was put in place by Moses in his writing, and perhaps above all in Deuteronomy. For it is here that the theology of blessing and curse which lies at the heart of Jesus’ sin-bearing work is first articulated. It is here that the hopelessness of humanity trapped in sin, even when chosen by God, is exposed. It is here that the prospect of a divine intervention so radical that it changes people at the very core of their being first appears. (New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, pp. 164-165)”

- Don’t Stop Reading in Exodus :: Desiring God

It’s as close to a Georgian winter wonderland as we ever...

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:46:38 -0500

It’s as close to a Georgian winter wonderland as we ever have! Here where I am we usually only get snow once a year, if that. It’s never much.. right now there is about 3/4 of a centimeter, but it has only been snowing for a couple of hours. Nonetheless, school was called off preemptively and it was all in all a big deal. Here is a shot out in our woods where there isn’t too much uncovered ground. Thankfully it’s enough to be fun and picturesque without being a hassle as it is so much of the country right now.

I got the brilliant idea to set up Facebook chat on bitlbee as it is now possible to use Facebook...

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:27:00 -0500

I got the brilliant idea to set up Facebook chat on bitlbee as it is now possible to use Facebook chat with any XMPP-compatilbe client. It doesn’t work too well though if you were thinking of trying it. The aliases aren’t there… I get several score of u_____ names that I cannot make sense of. I’ll just have to wait for people to message me first I suppose. Still, I am quite glad to see Facebook switching to an open standard!

"Dr. R. C. Sproul has read many books in his lifetime. The following titles are some of the most..."

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:53:51 -0500

“Dr. R. C. Sproul has read many books in his lifetime. The following titles are some of the most influential books that have helped to shape his thinking and ministry:
1. The Freedom of the Will, Edwards
2. The Bondage of the Will, Luther
3. Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin
4. God in Modern Philosophy, Collins
5. A Time for Truth, Simons
6. Charity and Its Fruits, Edwards
7. The Person of Christ, Berkhouwer
8. Gospel Fear, Burroughs
9. Gospel Worship, Burroughs
10. Institutes of Elenctic Theology (3 Vol.), Turretin
11. Principles of Conduct, Murray
12. A Christian View of Men & Things, Clark
13. Thales to Dewey, Clark
14. Here I Stand, Bainton
15. A Simple Way to Pray, Luther
16. The Coming of the Kingdom, Ridderbos”

- Reformation Theology: Most Influential Books

I think I’m going to plan on reading these, as I have actually not read any of them except the condensed version Calvin’s Institutes.

I never knew that it was once attempted to ban football in the...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:34:00 -0500

I never knew that it was once attempted to ban football in the state of Georgia! Back in the 20’s the bill was in fact made. Sadly it didn’t pass. ;) Seen at the Georgia Capitol Building.

Caption: “As Gov. Hoke Smith used this pen to sign the...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:31:00 -0500

Caption: “As Gov. Hoke Smith used this pen to sign the prohibition bill on August 6, 1907, the crowd around him sang the Doxology.”

For some reason this trinket of history struck me as interesting. Seen at the Georgia Capitol Building.

It would be interesting to see how these statistics have since...

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:28:00 -0500

It would be interesting to see how these statistics have since changed. Seen at the Georgia Capitol Building.

Just saw advertisements in Atlanta about wi-fi being offered on all Airtran and some Delta flights....

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:31:48 -0500

Just saw advertisements in Atlanta about wi-fi being offered on all Airtran and some Delta flights. What a great benefit!

Reaching the World

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:27:04 -0500

What is it that we can do to make a difference? How can we ever expect to make a change in the dead and dying world around us? When I read and hear about the conditions outside of the smalll bubble that usually contains my own existence, I often leave depressed and discouraged: I will want to do something but I will not know what. I don’t just mean physically but also spirtually—the sheer number of people even around me that are unsaved is astounding. Evangelism is only possible if we keep in mind the promises of Jesus. While he tells us to go into all the world, he also gives promises that he will call his sheep unto himself. Hope is given for the end. May this day and the rest of my life be fruitful for the reaching of souls with the Gospel, as so far as the Lord wills, for it is all to his glory. May I not be at all ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes!

Here you see an iPhone that I made for a school project for my...

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:01:06 -0500

Here you see an iPhone that I made for a school project for my Honors English class. I’m not proud of how it appears by any means, but I think it’s respectable considering my and my partner’s artistic abilities (or lack as it would be better termed. Nonetheless, it is the nature of the project that bothers me a little.

This is a class that leads up to AP Language and AP Literature. This course itself is called World Literature. So far I have been less than fond of many of the book selections such as Maxine Hong Kingston’s Woman Warrior. I did feel that for that book in particular the project was a good and balanced project: it involved practice with AP writing prompts, discussion of vocabulary, and a creative portion (which can be seen if you are so inclined).

My teacher had to leave for a grading period because of her newborn child. This left us with a substitute teacher for this period who is currently in school and wishes to be a teacher in the future. However, this project and what else we have done is what bothers me: we have not had any real tests or quizzes. For quizzes she prefers to do take home quizzes (save one quiz that was slightly more of an actual quiz) for both reading and basic vocabulary. When we write she encourages us to not write very much in order to save her time reading. Indeed, the first day we had her was the day of the final exam where she basically asked us to write little and we would get full credit if it made basic sense. Our test was this iPhone.

For the iPhone, all we needed to do was choose applications that characterize our character (we had Simon), that speak of the general themes and so forth of the book (Lord of the Flies), and then provide the user tools. We then had to write and speak about these choices and design an iPhone. Regardless of what she expected, judging from the presentations today I do not think this qualified as a test over the book. I also doubt that it will help prepare us for what we will need to get out of English in the future. But I digress.

If anyone is interested, here are the applications that we chose.. some of the justifications are stretches I’ll admit, but here is a picture of Simon’s 256GB (just for fun…) iPhone:

Binaural Beats
The Weather Channel
iCookBook
Stanza
Modern Warfare 2
Quotionary
Solver
SimCity
Heyway Pro
Google Earth
Holy Bible
Teach Me: Kintergarten
Six Pack App
Compass
Smart To Do

I can say I rather enjoyed the book. It was strangely reminiscent of works like of Orwell though the underlying themes were far different. I would have given it a different ending from about the second half on, but I enjoyed reading it still.

"Internalizing the work ethic of the industrial age, professional men dedicated themselves to..."

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:54:00 -0500

“Internalizing the work ethic of the industrial age, professional men dedicated themselves to self-improvement even in their leisure hours. They avidly read books and attended lectures on business or cultural themes. […] through their support for Sunday schools, factory owners sought to persuade workers to adopt middle-class norms of respectability and morality.”

- — p 832 Traditions & Encounters by Bentley and Ziegler

This account of how the middle class was fueled in part by intellectual endeavor is indeed encouraging, but it seems to be falling away in some respects. Their is less interest now in reading and more toward less intellectually-stimulating means of filling free time (read: television and Youtube). While I believe the Internet has in part helped to save us from a Fahrenheit 451-esque society where nobody desires depth in knowledge anymore, it is interesting how much of what we in the middle class of the industrialized world do in spare time. Going to lectures sure isn’t something you hear about people doing very often in their leisure hours anymore—that much is certain.