Hey guys! As you can see, my name is Callie. I hate bios because they are extremely awkward, but here we go. I am a junior at Wren and even though junior year is pretty awful, I love my school and the people in it. Well... most of them (just kidding). I am a member of Mt. Airy Baptist Church, where I am a worship leader and very involved in my awesome youth group. I love singing with all my heart and I am obsessed with music. I don't have a favorite band; I am pretty much open to all kinds of music (within reason). I also have two big brothers whom I look up to and find myself acting like more and more each day. Most importantly, I am a Christian and love living my life for the Lord.
Random fact about me: I love the country and people of Costa Rica. I went there for the first time on a mission trip last year, and I hope to be a missionary there one day. Most people have learned not to ask me about Costa Rica unless they want to be hearing about it for a while. :)
Thanks for reading!
Reader Response for February 26th:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This verse is always so amazing to hear. I have grown up in church and have always heard this verse, but I don't know if I have truly and wholeheartedly thought about how awesome this verse is. I am a firm believer in creation and God as the creator of the universe. To me, it is crazy to look outside and not be able to see that it comes from something way more powerful than evolution. However, because I have been taught about Creation all of my life, it has just been something that was 'normal' to me. God creating the whole world in seven days is anything but normal! Before God created anything and everything, He was there. This is very hard for my human mind to comprehend, but that's where faith steps in. God was and has been there forever in His perfect world, and yet He wanted to bring human life into the world. If He knew that Adam and Eve were going to sin and eat from the tree of good and evil, why would He even make them?
Love. One word, four letters, huge meaning. Love is a word that is thrown around in society today. However, God's love was and is so great for us that He traded His perfect world to have us- sinful, evil, wretched sinners- in it. How amazing is that? I believe that God knew exactly what was going to happen with Adam and Eve even before they made their choice. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if Adam and Eve hadn't messed up and eaten from that tree. I wonder how their lives would've been different and how this world would've been different if they hadn't taken the first bite. On that day, sin entered the world and everything changed forever.
I think it is so cool, however, that through the mess of sin entering the world, God still knew what He was doing. He knew exactly what choice they were going to make, exactly what would happen as a result, and He also knew that later on, He would have to send His only son, Jesus, to die for the sin that came into the world on that day. God had a plan through it all.
No matter how many times I read different scriptures, I always learn something new. At this point in my life, I think that through these three chapters, God is showing me that I can make the biggest mistakes, but He will always love me and He will always know what to do next, even when I don't. That's what's so cool about God. He always knows exactly what He's doing.
That is an interesting question you have, about Adam and Eve's creation. I think that God, despite knowing exactly what Adam and Eve would end up doing, he created them anyway, knowing that the world would flourish because of their mistake. God knew that Adam and Eve would screw up, but he also knew that this would lead to the wonderful world he created growing, and being filled his children.
Also, I think that if Adam and Eve hadn't taken a bite out of that apple when they did, when Eve was tempted, they never would've sinned. So, I personally consider this first, original sin to be a good thing. It has given birth to world we live in now. There are terrible things in the world, but there are also so many good things in the world, that I consider the first sin to be a great thing. - Tyler
Reader's Reponse for March 8th:
When we first started reading this story, I wondered what in the world it had to do with anything. Dancers? What does that have to do with God and what we've been learning about? However, as I kept reading, I made the connection and thought this was a neat passage. The author starts out by comparing dancers and marionettes. He writes about how marionettes are more graceful than humans when they dance and how they don't mess up because they have one person controlling them and every limb on their puppet bodies are attachd to each other. At first, I thought it was a little odd that he was comparing the two in such depth. But once I read it over again, I kind of thought it sounded like what we talked about the other day with Adam and Eve and humans today. We are all sinners because of Adam's and Eve's first sin, and we are all imperfect people. We go through life in our own ways, messing up just like human dancers. Of course we will mess up; we are human. But, we have Someone who is willing to guide us along in this metaphorical 'dance,' and Someone who is willing to direct which way we will go. I'm not sure if this is what the author meant by this illusion, but that's what I got out of it. Also, the next stories about the fifteen year old boy and the bear really didn't make sense to me. I'm sure there's some significance but I didn't really catch it. I also think it's weird that when the guy asks if the other one believes him, he is positive that he does, even though the story seems strange to me. At the end, the author talks about how we must eat of the tree of knowledge again to regain innocence. I'm not sure if I agree with this, but I guess it is an interesting point to state. Overall, to me this passage shows just how dependent on God we are in this world. Since we do mess up so very often, it is helpful for God to be there, guiding us along, just like the pupeteer guides the marionette.
I think it is interesting, the connection you make between puppets being guided by the puppeteer when they lose their path. However, I think this could have a darker implication. If a puppeteer, or God in this case, could lead the people when they go astray, why ever let them go astray? Instead of letting them go astray, and then tugging their strings back onto the right path, why not just keep them from ever going off the past in the first place? If God is a puppeteer, and we are the puppets, surely he has complete and total control over us. He could simply control everyone, leading the world down the path of righteousness.
Also, about eating from the tree of knowledge to regain innocence, I think that we would not just regain innocence, but progress to a state beyond that, where innocence has no meaning. A higher state of being. - Tyler
Reader's Response for March 13th: Okay, I hope it wasn't just me, but I feel like a lot of this went over my head. Maybe it's because it's so late at night (just finished my other homework!), but anyways, I have a few comments on things I read in Book 1. Also, I'm not sure if we were supposed to respond to the Cave thing, so I guess I will respond to that, too. On line 163 of Book 1, the author says, "Out of our evil seek to bring forth good." This line stuck out to me because it relates to the other things we have been reading lately. I don't know if this is what he meant by it, but I took it as he was talking about the fall of Adam and Eve. Obviously, Adam and Eve sinned and brought sin/evil into the world. I thought he meant that out of that evil, God still brought something good. I'm not sure if that was actually what he was trying to say, but in many of our discussions in class, we have talked about how there needed to be someone to mess up in the world, or else there wouldn't be a need for a Savior. Obviously sin is bad, but God allowed Adam and Eve to do what they did so that He could later send His Son to die for the world (isn't that cool?!). Also, on line 254, the author says, "the mind is its own place." I really like this quote. I completely agree that the mind is its own place, and it's very cool to think about. We live our lives knowing people by the things they say aloud, but to think that the mind is completely different than what we actually say out loud is pretty neat and weird at the same time. Do we really know the people we are talking to? Most people have a problem with always saying exacty on their minds, so with the exception of those people, the mind is almost like a secret thing about you that no one knows about. I probably didn't say anything that wasn't obvious about the mind, but I thought it was a cool quote. About the Cave: I think the whole thing about 'what we see is merely just a perception of what is really there' blows my mind. It is a pretty cool thought, though, that I have never thought about. This also goes back to the whole thing about time that we talked about in class. I'm not going to try to explain it because I won't be able to. :)
Oh, and one more thing, I really like how he points out that maybe Satan is getting revenge on God when the serpent in the garden tempts Adam and Eve. I have never thought about it this way and I really think that sounds pretty logical. Anyways, I just wanted to add that in there because it really made me think. I like what you're saying about the mind. I agree, if you view the mind as having an outer and an inner side. Everyone shows the outer side of their mind, it is their public personality, but the inner side of the mind is totally secretive. Some people expose their outer minds, and that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Also, about the line 'what we see is merely a perception of what is really there' reminds me of a book I read, called IT. In IT, the monster's physical form was seen as a spider. The monster claimed that the only reason it looked like a spider, was because it was the closest that a human could come to understanding its true form. I think that is what that line is saying, that what we see is only what our minds can comprehend. - Tyler
Reader's Response for March 22nd:
Even though I didn't like this book as much as book one, I still learned a good bit from it. Satan and the other fallen angels are talking about another war. Moloch, the first one to speak in response to this, expresses his opinion on wanting to have another war and becomes mad. Belial doesn't agree with him and thinks that God could punish them worse for going against him in another war. The first punishment (being kicked out of heaven) was bad enough. After a couple of other fallen angels speak, Beelzebub talks about how he has heard rumors about a new world with man, who God will love more than the angels. They plan to seek revenge by preying on the people whom God loves and adores, Adam and Eve. They also think it would be best to send someone to find out about this new world and Satan volunteers.
I'm not sure if Satan's plan to 'get back at God' by targeting His beloved people is a good strategy or just a sick game of revenge. I think it is a little of both. I know from personal experience, that if someone tries to get back at me by making fun of someone I love, it gets to me. I know God and I are not anywhere near the same in our actions and responses to these kind of things, but I can relate to when Satan talks about this. Obviously, God knew this was going to happen (and still knows today who Satan will test), but I can't imagine how He feels every day when it actually happens. I think this was the ultimate form of revenge in the worst way.
There are other things I learned but it is getting late and I would rather not list every single thing. Like I already said, I didn't like this book quite as much as the first one, but Milton always knows how to write to get me thinking, which I love. Can't wait to see what is to come in Book Four! Partner Response for Book 2: I agree, Satan's plan to get revenge on God by going at Adam and Eve was both a good strategy and a game of revenge. To Satan, I think it is a way he can do something fun and evil, while messing with God's own creations, and to that extent, God himself. I think there was absolutely no better way for Satan to get his ultimate revenge than by getting humanity tossed out of the Garden. - Tyler
Okay so...I totally forgot we had a reading assignment due tonight so I'm sorry this is a little later than the deadline! Anyways, I liked these books better than the last ones because they had a quick overlook at the beginning, and they also made a little more sense than the others. In book nine, I thought it was interesting how Adam seems willing to do whatever Eve tells him (today, I would call this 'whipped'... not sure what it was called back then). When she tells him she wants to work separately, he agrees. When she eats of the fruit (after he told her not to), he goes ahead and does it because he thinks he cannot live without Eve. In book eleven, Adam and Eve both seem to be really upset about what they have done. In book twelve, Adam is pleased to hear that God will bless a portion of humankind a little ways into the future, and he also wonders how this is possible, later to learn that humankind will need a bigger sacrifice to come (Jesus- I assume). I'm just wondering..why does the author make Adam look so desperate in these books? I have never thought Adam to be this way, but I always pictured him as a strong leader, who messed up in letting Eve influence him. However, the author describes him as basically doing anything Eve wants him to. I wonder why the author does this? Maybe someone can answer. :)
Hey guys! As you can see, my name is Callie. I hate bios because they are extremely awkward, but here we go. I am a junior at Wren and even though junior year is pretty awful, I love my school and the people in it. Well... most of them (just kidding). I am a member of Mt. Airy Baptist Church, where I am a worship leader and very involved in my awesome youth group. I love singing with all my heart and I am obsessed with music. I don't have a favorite band; I am pretty much open to all kinds of music (within reason). I also have two big brothers whom I look up to and find myself acting like more and more each day. Most importantly, I am a Christian and love living my life for the Lord.
Random fact about me: I love the country and people of Costa Rica. I went there for the first time on a mission trip last year, and I hope to be a missionary there one day. Most people have learned not to ask me about Costa Rica unless they want to be hearing about it for a while. :)
Thanks for reading!
Reader Response for February 26th:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This verse is always so amazing to hear. I have grown up in church and have always heard this verse, but I don't know if I have truly and wholeheartedly thought about how awesome this verse is. I am a firm believer in creation and God as the creator of the universe. To me, it is crazy to look outside and not be able to see that it comes from something way more powerful than evolution. However, because I have been taught about Creation all of my life, it has just been something that was 'normal' to me. God creating the whole world in seven days is anything but normal! Before God created anything and everything, He was there. This is very hard for my human mind to comprehend, but that's where faith steps in. God was and has been there forever in His perfect world, and yet He wanted to bring human life into the world. If He knew that Adam and Eve were going to sin and eat from the tree of good and evil, why would He even make them?
Love. One word, four letters, huge meaning. Love is a word that is thrown around in society today. However, God's love was and is so great for us that He traded His perfect world to have us- sinful, evil, wretched sinners- in it. How amazing is that? I believe that God knew exactly what was going to happen with Adam and Eve even before they made their choice. Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if Adam and Eve hadn't messed up and eaten from that tree. I wonder how their lives would've been different and how this world would've been different if they hadn't taken the first bite. On that day, sin entered the world and everything changed forever.
I think it is so cool, however, that through the mess of sin entering the world, God still knew what He was doing. He knew exactly what choice they were going to make, exactly what would happen as a result, and He also knew that later on, He would have to send His only son, Jesus, to die for the sin that came into the world on that day. God had a plan through it all.
No matter how many times I read different scriptures, I always learn something new. At this point in my life, I think that through these three chapters, God is showing me that I can make the biggest mistakes, but He will always love me and He will always know what to do next, even when I don't. That's what's so cool about God. He always knows exactly what He's doing.
That is an interesting question you have, about Adam and Eve's creation. I think that God, despite knowing exactly what Adam and Eve would end up doing, he created them anyway, knowing that the world would flourish because of their mistake. God knew that Adam and Eve would screw up, but he also knew that this would lead to the wonderful world he created growing, and being filled his children.
Also, I think that if Adam and Eve hadn't taken a bite out of that apple when they did, when Eve was tempted, they never would've sinned. So, I personally consider this first, original sin to be a good thing. It has given birth to world we live in now. There are terrible things in the world, but there are also so many good things in the world, that I consider the first sin to be a great thing. - Tyler
Reader's Reponse for March 8th:
When we first started reading this story, I wondered what in the world it had to do with anything. Dancers? What does that have to do with God and what we've been learning about? However, as I kept reading, I made the connection and thought this was a neat passage. The author starts out by comparing dancers and marionettes. He writes about how marionettes are more graceful than humans when they dance and how they don't mess up because they have one person controlling them and every limb on their puppet bodies are attachd to each other. At first, I thought it was a little odd that he was comparing the two in such depth. But once I read it over again, I kind of thought it sounded like what we talked about the other day with Adam and Eve and humans today. We are all sinners because of Adam's and Eve's first sin, and we are all imperfect people. We go through life in our own ways, messing up just like human dancers. Of course we will mess up; we are human. But, we have Someone who is willing to guide us along in this metaphorical 'dance,' and Someone who is willing to direct which way we will go. I'm not sure if this is what the author meant by this illusion, but that's what I got out of it. Also, the next stories about the fifteen year old boy and the bear really didn't make sense to me. I'm sure there's some significance but I didn't really catch it. I also think it's weird that when the guy asks if the other one believes him, he is positive that he does, even though the story seems strange to me. At the end, the author talks about how we must eat of the tree of knowledge again to regain innocence. I'm not sure if I agree with this, but I guess it is an interesting point to state. Overall, to me this passage shows just how dependent on God we are in this world. Since we do mess up so very often, it is helpful for God to be there, guiding us along, just like the pupeteer guides the marionette.
I think it is interesting, the connection you make between puppets being guided by the puppeteer when they lose their path. However, I think this could have a darker implication. If a puppeteer, or God in this case, could lead the people when they go astray, why ever let them go astray? Instead of letting them go astray, and then tugging their strings back onto the right path, why not just keep them from ever going off the past in the first place? If God is a puppeteer, and we are the puppets, surely he has complete and total control over us. He could simply control everyone, leading the world down the path of righteousness.
Also, about eating from the tree of knowledge to regain innocence, I think that we would not just regain innocence, but progress to a state beyond that, where innocence has no meaning. A higher state of being. - Tyler
Reader's Response for March 13th:
Okay, I hope it wasn't just me, but I feel like a lot of this went over my head. Maybe it's because it's so late at night (just finished my other homework!), but anyways, I have a few comments on things I read in Book 1. Also, I'm not sure if we were supposed to respond to the Cave thing, so I guess I will respond to that, too. On line 163 of Book 1, the author says, "Out of our evil seek to bring forth good." This line stuck out to me because it relates to the other things we have been reading lately. I don't know if this is what he meant by it, but I took it as he was talking about the fall of Adam and Eve. Obviously, Adam and Eve sinned and brought sin/evil into the world. I thought he meant that out of that evil, God still brought something good. I'm not sure if that was actually what he was trying to say, but in many of our discussions in class, we have talked about how there needed to be someone to mess up in the world, or else there wouldn't be a need for a Savior. Obviously sin is bad, but God allowed Adam and Eve to do what they did so that He could later send His Son to die for the world (isn't that cool?!). Also, on line 254, the author says, "the mind is its own place." I really like this quote. I completely agree that the mind is its own place, and it's very cool to think about. We live our lives knowing people by the things they say aloud, but to think that the mind is completely different than what we actually say out loud is pretty neat and weird at the same time. Do we really know the people we are talking to? Most people have a problem with always saying exacty on their minds, so with the exception of those people, the mind is almost like a secret thing about you that no one knows about. I probably didn't say anything that wasn't obvious about the mind, but I thought it was a cool quote.
About the Cave: I think the whole thing about 'what we see is merely just a perception of what is really there' blows my mind. It is a pretty cool thought, though, that I have never thought about. This also goes back to the whole thing about time that we talked about in class. I'm not going to try to explain it because I won't be able to. :)
Oh, and one more thing, I really like how he points out that maybe Satan is getting revenge on God when the serpent in the garden tempts Adam and Eve. I have never thought about it this way and I really think that sounds pretty logical. Anyways, I just wanted to add that in there because it really made me think.
I like what you're saying about the mind. I agree, if you view the mind as having an outer and an inner side. Everyone shows the outer side of their mind, it is their public personality, but the inner side of the mind is totally secretive. Some people expose their outer minds, and that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Also, about the line 'what we see is merely a perception of what is really there' reminds me of a book I read, called IT. In IT, the monster's physical form was seen as a spider. The monster claimed that the only reason it looked like a spider, was because it was the closest that a human could come to understanding its true form. I think that is what that line is saying, that what we see is only what our minds can comprehend. - Tyler
Reader's Response for March 22nd:
Even though I didn't like this book as much as book one, I still learned a good bit from it. Satan and the other fallen angels are talking about another war. Moloch, the first one to speak in response to this, expresses his opinion on wanting to have another war and becomes mad. Belial doesn't agree with him and thinks that God could punish them worse for going against him in another war. The first punishment (being kicked out of heaven) was bad enough. After a couple of other fallen angels speak, Beelzebub talks about how he has heard rumors about a new world with man, who God will love more than the angels. They plan to seek revenge by preying on the people whom God loves and adores, Adam and Eve. They also think it would be best to send someone to find out about this new world and Satan volunteers.
I'm not sure if Satan's plan to 'get back at God' by targeting His beloved people is a good strategy or just a sick game of revenge. I think it is a little of both. I know from personal experience, that if someone tries to get back at me by making fun of someone I love, it gets to me. I know God and I are not anywhere near the same in our actions and responses to these kind of things, but I can relate to when Satan talks about this. Obviously, God knew this was going to happen (and still knows today who Satan will test), but I can't imagine how He feels every day when it actually happens. I think this was the ultimate form of revenge in the worst way.
There are other things I learned but it is getting late and I would rather not list every single thing. Like I already said, I didn't like this book quite as much as the first one, but Milton always knows how to write to get me thinking, which I love. Can't wait to see what is to come in Book Four!
Partner Response for Book 2:
I agree, Satan's plan to get revenge on God by going at Adam and Eve was both a good strategy and a game of revenge. To Satan, I think it is a way he can do something fun and evil, while messing with God's own creations, and to that extent, God himself. I think there was absolutely no better way for Satan to get his ultimate revenge than by getting humanity tossed out of the Garden. - Tyler
Okay so...I totally forgot we had a reading assignment due tonight so I'm sorry this is a little later than the deadline! Anyways, I liked these books better than the last ones because they had a quick overlook at the beginning, and they also made a little more sense than the others. In book nine, I thought it was interesting how Adam seems willing to do whatever Eve tells him (today, I would call this 'whipped'... not sure what it was called back then). When she tells him she wants to work separately, he agrees. When she eats of the fruit (after he told her not to), he goes ahead and does it because he thinks he cannot live without Eve. In book eleven, Adam and Eve both seem to be really upset about what they have done. In book twelve, Adam is pleased to hear that God will bless a portion of humankind a little ways into the future, and he also wonders how this is possible, later to learn that humankind will need a bigger sacrifice to come (Jesus- I assume). I'm just wondering..why does the author make Adam look so desperate in these books? I have never thought Adam to be this way, but I always pictured him as a strong leader, who messed up in letting Eve influence him. However, the author describes him as basically doing anything Eve wants him to. I wonder why the author does this? Maybe someone can answer. :)