Warning: Incoming Passion

I just finished attending the great Midwest homeschool convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. After listening to speakers such as Alex McFarland, Scott Klusendorf, and Ben Carson, I can say that I have a burning passion to go out and do whatever I can to advance Christ's kingdom on this earth and stamp out evil wherever it show its face, which, sadly, is everywhere.

I may not be special and I may not have a special education, but I can write and I can speak and I am a special child of God with a special mission, just like every other Christian. I'm going to use that to the best of my ability to serve His purposes.

And so I'm bringing this blog back up. And I am going to be making a few changes. But mainly, I'm just going to start posting regularly again. And I have a lot of cool stuff planned, and be forewarned: I am going to try to involve at least a few of you in it. You'll see how in the coming weeks.

I've been praying lately for God to show me what He wants me to do, and I've been asking Him to use me. I think that He has begun to answer those prayers. I feel like a plan, a purpose, a mission is being written out and put together, piece by piece, in my heart. So I would appreciate your prayers for me in the following weeks.

So get ready. I have an obligation and an ability to serve Christ which I have not been fulfilling to the bet of my ability. That's all about to change.

Template Changes, More Gadgets...

Sorry for all of these development updates.  I have a bunch of drafts done for actual posts, but I'm not sure which one I should finish and publish first.

As you can see, I've changed up the template and layout a little bit, so now we have two sidebars instead of one.  That allows me to have more gadgets, and I've taken advantage of that by adding some info about me, as well as a poll and a list of labels.  I really like the poll, and I hope I get some good feedback on it... so how were you saved?  Go choose an option from the poll, and let me know!  The poll is on the left sidebar, if you didn't notice.

I think this blog is pretty much ready now (except for that pesky statement of faith), so I think I'm gonna start telling more people about it.  That should bring in some traffic, and hopefully I can start having some good discussions (or better yet, debates) going in the forums.  Maybe I'll get in a few more writers, or at least some people to help me in the forums (I usually get overrun and outnumbered in forum debates).

One of the posts I have coming soon deals with the ever-popular 12/21/12 end of the world prediction, so stay tuned for that!

Another Development Update

Things have been going slow lately because I'm currently on a trip in Florida.  The Statement of Faith page is going to have to wait a little longer.

In the meantime, I've pretty much finished the forums.  I'd say it's fully up and running, but it could still use some streamlining.  Go check out the forum and tell me what you think!

I've also completed the 'About' section of the About/Contact page, so you can read a little bit about myself and why I made this blog.  Maybe I should just split that into two separate pages...

I got to visit an abortion clinic today, and I tried to help minister to the people there and stop them from murdering their children.  I think I'll make a post about it when I get back from the trip.

Development Update: Contact Forms Added!

Today I added two contact forms to this blog.  One for Prayer Requests (a new page on the blog), and one for the About/Contact page.  Hopefully they will come in handy.

Installing the contact forms was easier than installing Reftagger or the forums, and those were pretty easy to install.  If you want, I can give you the info on how to install all of this cool stuff on your own blog.  I highly recommend all of them, and I've checked them all out to make sure they're 100% safe.

I might end up customizing them a little bit, because currently they're only black and white.  For now though, I'm just gonna leave 'em the way they are.

So, why do you need contact forms on this blog?

So that people can send me prayer requests, so that I can pray for them.  Or if someone just wants to have  heart-to-heart talk about Christianity, Calvinism, Creationism, etc.  You know, if they don't want it to be public, like it would be in the forums or in a comment.

So yeah.  You can go check out the contact forms on the "Prayer Requests" page or the "About/Contact page.  Just please... don't abuse them.

Development Update: Reftagger Installed!

I've just finished installing a very useful tool on this blog, called Reftagger.

Reftagger automatically turns each Bible reference I make into a link to Biblia.com, an online Bible.  So let's say I reference John 3:16.  Whoa, you see that?  I didn't have to do anything but type out the verse, and Reftagger turned it into a link.

But what if you don't want to open up a link to each verse?  Easy.  Hover over this, without clicking on it: Ephesians 2:8.  See that?  Isn't that awesome?  Personally, I think it is.  You can just read the verse right there!

The link will, if you decide to click on it, take you to the Biblia.com online study Bible.  I have it automatically set to display the NKJV, but you can change between over 50 or so different versions from the Biblia.com website.

If you're interested in using Reftagger for your website, you can get it here.  I recommend it highly, as I have found it to be very helpful on some of the websites that use it.

Now all I really have to do is set up the About/Contact and the Statement of Faith pages, and then this blog will be ready to go.

Development Update: Forums Up!

Whoohoo!  I got the forums up, running, and working.  It was a little tricky.  I still have to write up rules and maybe a FAQ, but that will be easy and done with soon.

I have several sub-forums set up already, each one for discussing a separate realm of issues; such as God, the Bible, Creationism, Calvinism, etc.  You can go there now and check it out.

If you see any problems with the page, let me know!

So, why did you make a forum?

Oh, come on.  Not you again.  You're always asking me questions.

Is there a problem with that?  Just answer the question.

No, there's no problem... Okay, fine.  Well, I made a forum because one of my favorite things to do as a Christian is to discuss my faith.  There's a certain adrenaline rush when you get into a good debate, and then there's the awesome feeling you get when you know you're doing the Lord's work.  The forum is a place where I can have edifying discussions with believers and non-believers alike; "sharpening" the former and hopefully converting the latter.  Basically, everything I already laid out in my first post.

Well, I'm glad mister bold-and-italic-questioner is gone.  He can get annoying sometimes.

Anyway, I would really appreciate it if you headed on over and checked out the forums.  Let me know what you think of 'em!

Development Update: "Resources" Page Up!

I'll be doing development updates like this until the whole site is up and running.  Then I'll post one final "Blog fully up and running" post, and delete all of the updates.

So for now, the "Resources" page has been pretty much filled out.  Ima add some more resources later, but for now I just thought I'd say that it's up.

Next is the forum...