Tyler’s Blog

So here it is, to my right a hard back copy of "the Divine Comedy" by Dante Alighieri fully illustrated from wood carvings. Fantastic gold encrusted pages. $19.95 at Borders, it was on sale. I know, fantastic, right? Anyways what is new with me?

Well tomorrow is Friday and that means Spring Break officially starts at 4PM after my last class. A lot of people have saved up a class skip to use tomorrow for a travel day in order to spend more time with family and friends back home. Luckily my family lives an hour away so I have an easy commute to bug... er... um... show my family how much I love them.

My Mom came up to visit me last night to check in on me since I was sick for 4 days. I decided to show her a little of the town I am living in (Yardley) and I took her out to get some Italian food. It was a great chance for us to catch up and for me to share with her a little bit of what God is doing in my life.

Neither of my parents are as strong in faith as I am so its a struggle for them and they seems to be encouraged by hearing what God is doing in my life. We had a great time and had some deep conversations that I really appreciated. After she left I scooted back to the library to finish up my paper which I got a 95% on (yeah I am pretty stoked too).

So now, I am sitting in the library reading the Divine Comedy, which is written in Old English so its a little difficult. I think I will probably drop my Lit & Arts prof (Dr. Bancroft) and e-mail asking if I can meet with her and discuss it after I finish one of the major sections of the book. It is fantastic to read this and really understand the theology that they had back then. And I just really enjoy reading too. But I am going to wrap this up.

It is going to be a pretty busy break, I am going to NC for two days and visiting a lot of different friends all over. I am also planning to get a lot of work on the 1953 Chevy Belair done, hopefully start chopping the roof (5"). It is my first chop job so I am actually extremely excited to get started. We are also Frenching the headlights and taillights as well as shaving the door handles. The gas tank door is being removed and we are dropping it to the ground with zoomies coming out of the front fenders. We already welded the hood to make it a one piece and shaved the trunk lid. If you didn't understand what I just said feel free to just nod, its cool. But if you understood then you know why I am so excited.

A few PBU friends of mine are always ready and willing to come over and help its a pretty awesome time when you can be customizing a hot rod and be talking about God and theology at the same time. I hope you all have a great spring break, later.

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 7:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alright, today was awesome. Classes were good and friends are good. It was a beautiful day out also. After my World Civ 2 class Jesse and I drove down to Pendel dorms to go find Brian. We found Brian and got his attention using a P/A system that I installed on my car. After hanging out for a bit we decided to go to my house in Yardley and cook some burgers. On the way out of Pendel we passed Tini and opened up the offer to her and with a shrug of the shoulders she jumped in.

There is nothing better than a beautiful day, good friends, good burgers, and the George Foreman Grill. Not only that, but at my house there is a large play thing that the family before me had and I was getting ready to remove it... but first, Jesse, Tini and I had to regress back to 6 year olds and play. Nothing like seeing a 22 year old 6'4" guy swinging on a little blue wing or finding a way to sit on the baby's swing.

Everything is always more fun with friends around, specially three people I consider some of the closest friends I have had ever.

I just got done with my Group Dynamics class with Prof. Fink so I am about to head back to the house to do home work and then enjoy my late start tomorrow. SWEET.

Oh and I will get pictures up, A.S.A.P.

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is great, a good day I would say. It’s a lovely overcast day in Langhorne, PA. My Jeep passed inspection after one of the CRAZIEST days every yesterday. Let me give you a quick break down:
1 – Got pulled over because the Jeep wasn’t inspected, but I had to use the Jeep to drive back to my Mom’s house to pick up my welder to bring it back to my house to finish welding the exhaust and the front bumper before it could go to inspection.
2 – Start building front bumper, get weighed down with multiple papers and exams and had to push the fabrication off.
3 – Get back to work on the bumper that Friday, run out of shielding gas (needed for a clean weld), supply store is closed Saturday and Sunday.
4 – Get gas on Monday, finish tacking bumper and get final weld done by Tuesday Morning (about 4 hours of welding, you can’t weld for 4 hours straight because you will melt your welder and warp the steel so it took more time than that). Grinding welds to make them clean takes another couple hours. Etc. Etc.
5 – Decided to forgo making bolt on mounts since this Jeep is used for towing and off road only, bumpers were welded on.
6 – Exhaust was welded up in a matter of minutes
7 – Everything was finished Tuesday morning with the help of my buddy Brian working the Plasma cutter for me while I welded.
8 – 1 hour before class, on my way to get the Jeep inspected the car in front of me kicks up a rock and takes out my front right blinker. No local shops carry that part and its order only, I am now set back ATLEAST 1 day. AHHHHH!!!!!

So needless to say I was a little frustrated and I had home work on top of it. The coolest thing though, a good handful of my friend’s knew that I was struggling and approached me to pray and talk about it. I was stoked. God has really blessed me at PBU with surrounding me with friends like this who care enough to step out of their busy lives, walk to the side and check in on you.

Even cooler than that, one of them knew I had to finish cleaning up the apartment so she helped me clean my apartment so I wasn’t SUPER stressed out. Ah, man that was so cool.

Today is just awesome. In my time with God I finished writing chapter 3 of Philippians, when I write out Scripture it helps me to see small details I wouldn’t normally catch while just reading. I have hung out with a couple of my friends today in a more laid back session and its been truly a blessing. I am relaxed, enjoying my home work assignment actually on 2 Timothy, and I am blessed.

Oh, the Jeep passed inspection this morning and I will be on the trails this Saturday with my 4x4 club and will be preaching at a Church in WV with my 4x4 Ministry on Sunday. Praise God.

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 9:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sermon went really well this morning and it was good to be back at my home Church after being away for so long. God really used the sermon to impact people and I am constantly amazed at His glory and power.

At the end of the sermon I asked the congregation to close their eyes and to stand when they heard something they could relate to (all things related to some type of suffering), by the end they all opened their eyes and looked around. The whole congregation was standing and God was just there and it was powerful.

Well, I am always tired after preaching, I feel like I am out of all energy after preaching and allowing God and the Holy Spirit to use me. But it’s a good tiredness feeling. God is great… Time for a short nap and then time to wake up and start writing papers!

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is pretty crazy. I preach tomorrow morning (in 11 hours to be exact) on the problem of evil and suffering. I have been preparing this sermon for two months now. I met with a couple of my professors for assistance because this sermon is extremely important. Both my parents are coming (not real strong Christians and have asked me about this very topic), a couple guys I have been sharing my faith with are coming and there will be other people there that I have been praying for by name for a long time.

I am nervous because no matter how many times I preach, no matter how prepared I know I am… I still feel unworthy of this calling. God has been good though and His love endures and He sustains… but I know my sinfulness and I know my inadequacies. Therefore I know… I KNOW that all things, are because of Him. If this sermon impacts the lives of those I have been praying for it is because of God. If it were me I would stutter and stumble. I would be lost. But God is good, and all things are possible with Him.

I was reading an article about Lt. General Hal Moore (he turned 87 recently) and about his surprise birthday celebration at Ft. Bragg. In his speech he quoted Pope Clement XI and I thought I would end this blog entry with that quote.

“We should all think of the shortness of this life, the nothingness of this world and the greatness of heaven.” – Pope Clemen XI

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The day before Valentines day and I am sitting in the library doing an inductive study on Philippians and its talking about... love. Sheesh, can't a guy get a break? ha ha.

Right now I am in the library as I said and something that I love about PBU is that I am looking straight across the room at Dr. Hirt (my 4 Gospels Prof from Soph. year) lingering around the shelves looking for books. He then proceeds to pull up a chair at a table, WITH STUDENTS. This is a man so high up on the educational chart that he has earned a "Dr." before his name! And he sits, researches and studies around us commoner undergraduate students. That really amazes me and makes me able to connect with my professors.

I also feel the need to share a bit of advice, number two pencils are great but a mechanical pencil is the way to go. Not only is it readily available but you constantly have a sharp point, where a regular number 2 dulls out. This is extremely important because I took an exam this morning and was highly impressed with my mechanical pencil.

Well that is it for today, I need to finish this inductive study (which rocks, I love this stuff) and then it is off to World Civilizations II and then...

I guess you have to wait for tomorrow.

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was interesting; I was challenged in class (Prof. Fink – Cultural Anthropology) to fill in 4 generations of my family on a family tree.
This caught me off guard, I mean, I know my parents and I know my grandparents (on my Dad's side) but anything else I am at a loss! Woah ez me! It really made me realize that I do not know where I come from. I know I am English, Irish and Scottish (the best of the best) but other than that I do not know my family except a few stories.

So, after being completely convicted by one of the first people I have ever been able to look eye to eye with (I am 6'4" and he is around 6'5" or
6'6") I decided that tonight (Friday) I am going to drive home and sit my
Mom down and ask about her side of the family.

You see, her side of the family (besides one of her sisters) died in a car accident when she was a freshman in college, I know very little about her Dad, Mom and little sister. But I hope I get to know about her parents, grandparents and their parents if possible. I want to know where I come from and who these people were. Then I will stop by my Dad's house and so the same thing.

Now before I finish this blog off I will leave you with a quote from Prof.
Fink's class this morning to think about and ponder and perhaps even reflect upon.

"There is great value in knowing who I am and where I come from. I am a story."

Enjoy,

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I definitely started off today and finished yesterday thinking that today was a week from now. I am supposed to be preaching on the 17th (which is two Sundays from now) and some how I thought it was this Sunday. It completely had me freaked out because I have three exams this week and I was writing a sermon on the Problem of Evil and Suffering! YIKES!

But I feel more relaxed now, the sermon is outlined and ready to go. Let me give you a little back ground. I am a 4th year student at PBU, I am Pastoral Ministries and I have preached in multiple occasions, in Churches, in class, and on the 4x4 trails. But this sermon was the toughest I have ever written.

I am currently discipling two young gentlemen from Penn State University Delaware county, and their main question that they ask is "Why, if God is so great and good, is there suffering in the world?" These two guys told me they were coming to hear me preach on the 17th so I really focused on answering their question, to the best of my ability.

So not only is it an incredibly hard, sensitive topic that most people do not want to attempt in a Church setting. With hope and prayer I researched and prepared so that hopefully these two young men can overcome their speed bumps and dedicate their lives to Christ. But it will only be by the Grace of God that the sermon impacts them.

While spending all my free time in the library I have made friends with multiple computers, the library workers, and many other regulars such as myself. Every night as we frequent the library until closing time (11PM) we do our work while joking, laughing and sharing information. This library is fantastic! Why did I wait until my 4th year to really harness the power of the scholastic collection of literary works of art? And technological benefits (i.e. computer resources).

Woops, I need to run home to walk my pup (being a commuter has its advantages,) I am 10 minutes away and get to go home to a large mutt wagging its tail and usually chewing on something of value to me like a shoe or my favorite hat (R.I.P. Padres Hat - thank you for your years of dedication to the cause of covering my head).

Then its back to school for night class (Intro to Web Design) and studying for my Pauline Epistles II exam on Thursday.

- Tyler

Posted by Tyler at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)