Discipulus Scripturae

Heaven & Hell

Nathan Stitt — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 16:42:24 +0000

So I finished Rob Bell’s Love Wins yesterday. The main thing I took away from it was that he thinks we misinterpret the word “eternity,” and that the proper meaning is more like “the age to come.” He is promoting the idea that your decision to go to heaven or hell does not end with this age, but that you may still have that option after death, in the age to come. I can’t say that I agree or disagree with him, as I don’t have the energy for theological investigation at this time. I am going to borrow Francis Chan’s response next Sunday and read it in January. Anyways, I highly recommend reading Love Wins if you haven’t already. It is a compelling look at what the future may hold, and does so in Rob’s usual questioning approach. I honestly can’t believe that Rob Bell felt compelled to resign his pastorate over the uproar…

Filed under: Books, Christianity, religion

Christmas Break

Nathan Stitt — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 17:40:27 +0000

The fall semester is finished and I have ten days of holiday left. I’m going to enjoy time with my family and start preparing for next semester. Among other things, I plan on finishing Love Wins today. I hope to pick up Francis Chan’s response later this week and read it as well. Today marks the last Sunday of Advent and I have thoroughly enjoyed our daily candle lighting and prayer time each evening. I am pretty certain that my family will participate in Advent each holiday season from now on. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Filed under: blogging, Books

Love Wins

Nathan Stitt — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 02:27:06 +0000

I’m going to borrow this book tomorrow. I had always intended to read it but never got around to buying it. Anyways, I’m getting a copy at church tomorrow and hope to have it read by the end of the week. Does anyone who has read it have any thoughts for me before I start reading? I am familiar with the controversies already, but was just curious if anyone had a comment on the book.

Filed under: Books, Christianity, religion

Three New Books

Nathan Stitt — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 01:05:53 +0000

I’ve picked up a few new books this month. One is more for school, how to make soap, and I hope to do this in Chemistry next year. Our school secretary has goats and makes goat milk soap. So hopefully I can get some goat milk and lye from her this winter and try my hand it this. The other two are about relationships, diet and food. One is called Date Your Wife and it was an impulse buy from Amazon on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. I just started reading it this afternoon and its really interesting. I like that it is a small book and cheap as well. The other book is about making different types of food at home that you would normally buy at the store. A few examples are pop tarts, butter, and cheese. Anyways, my wife and her best friend love the book. I haven’t read any of it yet, but I did notice that it is really well bound and the layout and design is top notch! Here are the links to them on Amazon if you are interested.

Milk Soapmaking by Anne Watson

Date Your Wife by Justin Buzzard

The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila ( she blogs at Eating From The Ground Up )

Filed under: Books, Food, marriage

Old WordPress Update Question

Nathan Stitt — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:54:55 +0000

I think it was a year or two ago, but I remember WordPress releasing an update or something which had a cool feature that I never got around to using. If I remember right, there was an option when drafting a post where you could quickly search for images that aren’t copyrighted or free to use. I’ve looked for about 15 minutes and I can’t find any information on this feature anywhere. I can’t find it in my dashboard, and I’m wondering if I simply remembered this wrong. I think there are some blogs that are in my reader that use this feature and that is what prompted me to start looking for it tonight. Anyways, if someone could shed light on this for me I’d appreciate it.

Filed under: blogging

Advent Candles

Nathan Stitt — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 00:51:36 +0000

I bought five candles at Wal Mart today. Little cheap votive candles: three purple, one rose, and one white. They even smell pretty good. I’ve never observed the Advent season before, but I will be doing so this December with my family. This all came about because we are studying traditions and holidays in Sunday school this coming month. Tomorrow kicks off Advent so I thought it would be interesting to talk about it tomorrow. Anyways, if anyone has any family traditions related to Advent, or know of some interesting links about it online please leave a comment.

Filed under: Christianity, family, religion

Classroom Redesign Moving Along Nicely

Nathan Stitt — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 22:00:39 +0000

With the re imagining our our classroom, the need for some technology was front and center. Mark and I were able to score a 32″ TV on Black Friday for only $127. I just got off the phone with my mom and they have an extra TV wall mount lying around new in the box that they never got around to returning. She’s bringing it with her tonight and I’ll bring it to the church tomorrow. I’ve already arranged for our resident carpenter to hang the TV next week and I’m just feeling really good about how quickly and cheaply this has all come together.

Last week I bought a new laptop. I have been overwhelmed with several things going on simultaneously at work. Mainly things that will require a lot of data/text entry. The additional need for a laptop for the Sunday school class drove me to the decision to buy one now. I also ordered some cables so that I can hook it up to any TV or projector and those came in the mail today. So… a week from now I will be using the new TV and laptop in class as part of our new direction we are taking. No paper resources; all digital and personal.

The only major decision left to make is what color to repaint our classroom. We’ve talked about painting a single wall an accent color, such as red. However, I took all of the wall hangings down and the walls are in horrible shape. Lots of paint scraped off and it really needs to be completely repainted. We even looked for remnants of the old paint color but couldn’t find it for touch ups. Maybe I’ll post some pictures next month once it is completely finished.

Filed under: technology

Tradition

Nathan Stitt — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 05:06:45 +0000

In September my wife and I began teaching our church’s young adults Sunday school class. It is for post high school people in the 18-25 age and we are wrapping up our first and final book of study this Sunday. I’ve been spending time talking with my wife, another friend, and our associate pastor about what to do in the future in regards to curriculum for the class. We’ve decided to forgo printed books or lessons and will instead be using digital media for most of our content.

The idea is to select a theme for each month and then teach lessons that are based around that theme each Sunday. We’ve chosen the theme of “Traditions” for December. I expect we will be talking a bit about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. As part of my preparations for teaching I will be exploring articles, sermons, and the like on the internet as part of my source material.

We have also established a Facebook group for the class. The plan is to post links every day or two about interesting articles or other things related to our theme. As an example, I’ve linked a Youtube video of our theme song for December. Here are a couple of other example links as well: link one and link two. I already have some material selected to read through, but I was hoping that anyone reading this blog might post some links to interesting and relevant material related to Christianity and tradition.

I’ll probably make posts on a weekly basis requesting links about specific topics. I would like to use the blogosphere as another avenue of gaining material for discussion. I will attempt to contribute to it as well through blogging updates as well as my personal thoughts. More soon.

Filed under: Christianity, religion

Back to Blogging

Nathan Stitt — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 01:03:50 +0000

I’ve been contemplating a return to blogging for a few weeks. In addition to my busy family life, I have some pretty fundamental changes happening at work and at church. I’m wrapping up a complete redesign of the way I teach science, and it is exciting to have a clear road map for the future. Essentially what I am doing is a full implementation of standards based grading (SBG) which has involved redesigning the way I approach science content and assigning grades.

Two months ago I took on a new role at church. My wife and I have restarted the young adults Sunday school class. We are wrapping up our first, and probably last, book which provides lessons for each Sunday. I have been meeting with my best friend, the associate pastor, and we have decided to meet our 18-25 year olds where they are at; not using a book. Instead we will be posting to a Facebook page during the week, which they can check on their phones, and then discuss current events and faith issues on Sunday. We are still working out what this will look like, but I believe blogging will help with the process.

I miss blogging and the discourse of the last few years. I frequently find myself in conversation and referencing discussions from the blogosphere. So, I’ve decided to revisit an old goal of mine. I will be attempting to make shorter posts on a daily or regular basis. I imagine a few people still have me in their feed readers. I am almost done culling my own, and am eagerly anticipating future discussions.

Filed under: blogging, education, religion

Lukas Turns Three

Nathan Stitt — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:33:10 +0000

We are preparing for Lukas’ birthday party tomorrow. He will be three in a few days and I used him as my model to practice some photography techniques. I loved this picture of him.

Filed under: family, PENTAX, photography, photos, pictures