if i had one wish...

...i'd ask for one of these

the sessy "slanket" ... in apricot

too bad it's sold out...for now

and now, some Real Talk.

so i was talking with MasterNate last night and he told me he listened to this one pastor's sermons online...and that pastor's name was Francis Chan. and i was like "hold up! yo i've heard him speak before!" which is the stone cold truth! so nate sent me this one sermon and i listened to it at like 3 am, but it was really quite good. quite memorable and thought provoking...

so here's our man, franchan... if you google him this pops up somewhere...

i guess he makes videoblogs too.

and so somewhere in his message he was talking about james 1 and trials. and he used this metaphor of "testing" silver, which i really liked. so i wrote it down for you, fans...read it:

"...when you're surrounded by trials, you're being tested. and he says that's the only way you're going to build perseverance. this is how you can consider it joy because you realize that during that painful time you're being tested by God. and that phrase, i'm sure some of you have heard before, that the testing comes from the idea of the silversmiths, and how they would test silver. they'd put a bunch of silver in a pot and they would light this huge fire and then the silver would heat up and boil and get hot. and what happens when you heat up silver is all the impurities rise to the surface- all what they would call "the dross." all the junk, all the dirt, all the impure metals would rise to the top. and then the silversmith would take a scoop..er. i dunno what he used, but he would take that top...like i know...he just used...scuba gear. and he took that top layer off and he took the layer of the dross off. then what he would do is he would heat up that same silver again. again a little more dross would rise to the surface. he'd scoop it off. he'd do this over and over again. each time less and less impurities would rise to the top. and the way a silversmith could tell that his silver was pure or tested is that he would look down at the silver and he could see his own reflection. then he would know the silver's been tested"

so i guess you need to listen to the sermon to get some of the things (like the scuba gear)...so i guess tell me if you want me (or nate) to send it to you, then i'll know i actually have weblog readers. 

basically francis, or err PastorChan...? uhh MasterFrancis is saying that every time we're going through ridiculous or difficult times, it's God working in us...helping us to become more "mature and complete, not lacking anything" so that afterwards we're closer to God and closer to being like God...that way at the end when God looks at us, if we were de-drossed silver, he'd see His reflection and see more of Him in us. and he mentions that Christians have a tendency to want to feel happy all the time and we don't embrace the hard times that leads us towards holiness...so embrace the fire cause that's when you get your beauty from pain! [heard here, featuring mulan!]

YO. there are some Pearls of Wisdom right there.

so you can imagine how awed i was when my daily bible reading was about Job...and this here verse just echoed all of francis' sermon for me:

"He replied, 'You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?'..." job 2:10

ooh to the whee, my friends. 

so i know my blog is pretty inane [and that supah sick curious case of mastersamuel banner isn't helping it out (shoutout to ed)], and the only time i was really serious was when i ranted about faybook birthday comments (but i think only clifton saw that before i uhh deleted it), but i think i'm trying to live a less inane and more meaningful life...so i might try to write more substantive things...amongst the inanities (i wonder how many times i can use the word 'inane' in one paragraph). and even though today i basically relayed what francis chan had to say, it's a start. 

aite. go subscribe to francis chan's podcasts. and forreals watch that beauty from pain mulan song. and go buy a slanket.

outtiezzz