j.monger.cc

Cold. (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 12:05:25 -0500

Cold. (Taken with instagram)

Chef Matthew (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:26:04 -0500

Chef Matthew (Taken with instagram)

My little bud turns two today. Happy birthday, Matthew. (Taken...

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:12:12 -0500

My little bud turns two today. Happy birthday, Matthew. (Taken with instagram)

Thomas Tent (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:50:46 -0500

Thomas Tent (Taken with instagram)

Fun at the park. (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:13:34 -0400

Fun at the park. (Taken with instagram)

Some cool old cars at the park.

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:43:03 -0400

Some cool old cars at the park.

Sweeping the driveway with cousin Isabella.

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:39:27 -0400

Sweeping the driveway with cousin Isabella.

Matthew’s hair says, “Good morning.”

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:21:06 -0400

Matthew’s hair says, “Good morning.”

The Prodigal Son

Mon, 09 May 2011 12:21:40 -0400

This is a story that gives me great comfort: God as forgiving Father. The expectation of repentance is judgment, the response is embrace.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20

He is risen. Happy Easter.

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 08:10:03 -0400

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.

"At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness..."

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:08:56 -0400

“At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.”

- Clyde Kilby

Email from a Thundercat

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:07:00 -0400

Understand that when you send me an email or text, it will be saved forever. I started using Outlook in 2000. No matter what email solution I’ve migrated to since, I’ve always backed everything up to the same PST file. You can imagine in 10+ years there are some gems. However, this is one of my favorites.

Somehow in 2001, I found the email address of the actor who played Lion-O on ThunderCats, one of my favorite 80s cartoons.

I sent him a quick note basically saying how much cooler he was than He-Man (lame). He was super kind and wrote me back, although, I’m sure in his mind was thinking, “Freak.” Here’s his response below.

Sent: Sat 9/29/2001 9:33 PM
From: [omitted]
To: mongerj@pop.belmont.edu

Jared:

Thanks for the kind words; it’s always great to hear from nice people like you who still enjoy THUNDERCATS!

Sincerely, Larry Kenney

"You are the music / While the music lasts."

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:17:00 -0400

“You are the music / While the music lasts.”

- T.S. Eliot, The Dry Salvages

Conehead.

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:38:03 -0400

Conehead.

This is a video my college roommate made in 2002, and for some...

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:28:26 -0400

This is a video my college roommate made in 2002, and for some inexplicable reason it has 2000+ views on YouTube. We pretty much created the knitting-comedy subgenre…

Best shirt ever.

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:21:37 -0400

Best shirt ever.

Inherited Guilt

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:36:45 -0400

Been reading the Heidelberg Catechism as part of my morning devotion. It’s my inner-Presbyterian coming out. In today’s reading one of the questions had to do with inherited guilt.

Q: Where, then does this corruption [sin] of human nature come from?

A: From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden; whereby our human life is so poisoned that we are all conceived and born in the state of sin.

This is a concept that could easily keep people from Christianity. In fact, it does. On its face, inherited guilt does not seem fair, and yet it’s all over the Bible.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:12, 18-19

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Psalm 51:5

It feels like we should be given a choice in the matter. But, then I am reminded that Adam was given a choice, and everyday I am given a choice. Usually, I don’t choose God. The days that I do, I know that inclination is not from inside myself.

Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:15:11 -0400

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see

And now after some thinking
I’d say I’d rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me

But I don’t, I don’t know what that will be
I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see

What’s my name, what’s my station
Oh just tell me what I should do
I don’t need to be kind to the armies of night
That would do such injustice to you

Or bow down and be grateful
And say “Sure take all that you see”
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls
And determine my future for me

And I don’t, I don’t know who to believe
I’ll get back to you someday soon you will see

If I know only one thing
It’s that every thing that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable
Often I barely can speak

Yeah I’m tongue tied and dizzy
And I can’t keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I’ll come back to you someday soon myself

If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m raw
If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m sore

And you would wait tables
And soon run the store

Gold hair in the sunlight
My light in the dawn
If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m sore

If I had an orchard
I’d work till I’m sore

Someday I’ll be
Like the man on the screen

Audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mR8Z-gmK1g

"I find the concept [of eternal conscious punishment in hell] intolerable and do not understand how..."

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 10:59:14 -0500

“I find the concept [of eternal conscious punishment in hell] intolerable and do not understand how people can live with it without either cauterising their feelings or cracking under the strain. But our emotions are a fluctuating, unreliable guide to truth and must not be exalted to the place of supreme authority in determining it. As a committed Evangelical, my question must be — and is — not what does my heart tell me, but what does God’s word say?”

- John Stott, Essentials: A Liberal-Evangelical Dialogue, 314-15.

You can’t watch this and not laugh.

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:49:21 -0500

You can’t watch this and not laugh.