December 2009

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Don’t Expect a Perfect Repentance

December 25, 2009 in Spirituality, Videos by Andrew | 1 comment

I thought it’d be nice to start throwing some YouTube videos on here. Everyone loves YouTube right? Although many people use YouTube for just laughs, it is actually a really amazing source of sermons, debates, interviews, and other educational content. It provides one way to hear about Scripture more than once or twice a week.

This video is Paul Washer, one of my favorite preachers, speaking about repentance. Many Christians delve into the Gospel to learn more. They learn that a true Christian repents. He doesn’t just feel sorry for the sins he commits, but turns away from his sins. And so born-again Christians try to repent, only to find that it’s hard, it’s difficult, it even seems impossible. And these born-again Christians become discouraged and may question whether they truly are born-again Christians. This video addresses those Christians.

And Merry Christmas! :]

Wrapping up our first semester

December 21, 2009 in Miscellaneous by Ruthie | No comments

0808-0711-0615-3863 In November, we launched this website to provide a forum for discussion of spiritual issues. Since then, we have published 22 new pieces (approximately one every three days). The site has been visited about 1,000 times. Not a bad start.

Our goal is to provide a place where students can engage in open discussion about spiritual issues that matter to them. We welcome non-students and want them to join in the discussion. The world is a diverse place, and people of different ages and backgrounds need to learn how to listen to one another. We need each other, more than ever before. Because we are an undergraduate student organization, we need to focus on issues relevant to students and campus life. Yet we recognize that there is a huge world out there beyond the boundaries of the campus, and that world — some would call it “the real world” — matters to us as well.

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Tags: Seed

This American Life at PSU

December 16, 2009 in Events, Miscellaneous by Ruthie | No comments

Ira came to campus and episode 396 of This American Life, “#1 Party School,” will air this weekend on WPSU 91.5. The episode will also be available streaming online at www.thisamericanlife.org.

The sypnosis from http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=396:

This year, The Princeton Review named Penn State the #1 Party School in America. It’s a rotating crown—last year it was University of Florida, before that it was West Virginia University. So we wondered: What is it like to be at the country’s top party school? This American Life producers spent a recent football weekend at Penn State to figure this out. There, we learned the definition of “fracket” (think frat plus jacket); the best way to clean up beer cans after a big party (snow shovel); and how hard it is to get college kids to drink less (really hard).

I’ll be listening.

Dating, R.I.P. – So Now What?

December 13, 2009 in Relationships by jls | 2 comments

Dating on campus is officially dead.

But dating served a real purpose. Criticize it all you want, but in its heyday, it was the socially accepted pathway to American marriage. Dating allowed young men and women to explore the possibility of a life together without diving headlong into a unbridled sexual passion. The rules of dating were understood. Yes, the rules were sometimes broken. But they were strategically placed like guardrails along a highway which keep inexperienced drivers from careening off the road into a ditch.

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You Can Kiss Dating Goodbye (Part 2)

December 11, 2009 in Relationships by jls | 1 comment

couple

In the last article, we mentioned a report about attitudes and behaviors of American college women regarding their relationships with men. The practice of hooking up — a sexual encounter with no expectation of commitment — has become widespread.

Not everyone is hooking up. In fact, most college women are not. But the practice and acceptance of hooking up (whatever that means, and the vagueness is often deliberate) has profoundly impacted the social climate.

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Tags: Marriage, Romance, Sexuality

You Can Kiss Dating Goodbye (Part 1)

December 9, 2009 in Relationships by jls | 9 comments

The book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, written by Joshua Harris in 1997, has been a source of lively debate among Christians in America. Harris makes a case that young people should exercise great caution in dating, and consider giving it up altogether, until they are ready to seriously consider marriage.