He is THE BEST GIFT that will be given or received this season.
Isaiah 9:6 NASB
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Merry Christmas all!
I'm currently using a free utility called AeroSnap that mimics the drag-n-drop ability to resize your windows and snap to one side of the screen (also supports hot keys). This feature comes with Aero visualization or something like that in not-yet-released Windows 7, but someone made this utility so that you can do it in Windows XP and Vista!
This feature is super useful especially if you have a widescreen monitor, so you can work in two different applications side-by-side.
Check it out!
As I see the day drawing near,
"Well done, good and faithful,"
Are the words I long to hear.
-----
update 2009.01.30:
alternately,
As the day is drawing near,
"Well done, good and faithful,"
Are the words I long to hear.
"Why wait for a mythical day?" is a subheading under Ramit Sethi's post from yesterday, Dec 16, announcing the scholarship he's giving away and briefly discussing his personal philosophy on philanthropy. If you didn't already know or read him, he's the author of a personal finance blog, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, where I've learned a few useful tips on financial stewardship that I can apply to my life personally.
As far as I can tell, Ramit isn't a Christian, so this post isn't so much an endorsement for him as it is more to share about how his post today was another gentle nudge and reminder, and giving credit where credit is due merely.
I often thing of becoming a lifelong overseas missionary, but the reality of the risk and danger of wasting my youth and prime years is... more real and common to men than I'd like to think. It's not likely that someone immersed in one environment will likely overcome the odds to shift and change to a new one. I must remind myself that my home is not here in this world.
Without further ado, excerpt from Ramit (who also cites Philip Greenspun):
Why wait for a mythical day?
When I first launched this scholarship in 2006, people thought it was ridiculous for a 24-year old to start my own scholarship. My friends said stuff like, “Wow, I wish I could do that.” They said that while wearing $100 jeans and eating a $20 dinner.
One thing I never understood was the idea that “I’m just doing this for now, but later I’ll do what I really love.” I always get suspicious when people defer what they “really” want to do until later — whether it’s finding the job they love (”I’ll just work in investment banking for a few years”) or giving back to the community that helped raise them.
In a depressing yet bitingly honest post, Philip Greenspun writes:
Ask a wage slave what he’d like to accomplish. Chances are the response will be something like “I’d start every day at the gym and work out for two hours until I was as buff as Brad Pitt. Then I’d practice the piano for three hours. I’d become fluent in Mandarin so that I could be prepared to understand the largest transformation of our time. I’d really learn how to handle a polo pony. I’d learn to fly a helicopter. I’d finish the screenplay that I’ve been writing and direct a production of it in HDTV.”
Why hasn’t he accomplished all of those things? “Because I’m chained to this desk 50 hours per week at this horrible [insurance|programming|government|administrative|whatever] job.
So he has no doubt that he would get all these things done if he didn’t have to work? “Absolutely none. If I didn’t have the job, I would be out there living the dream.”
Suppose that the guy cashes in his investments and does retire. What do we find? He is waking up at 9:30 am, surfing the Web, sorting out the cable TV bill, watching DVDs, talking about going to the gym, eating Doritos, and maybe accomplishing one of his stated goals.
Retirement forces you to stop thinking that it is your job that holds you back. For most people the depressing truth is that they aren’t that organized, disciplined, or motivated.
The comment I left:
Bravo, Ramit, bravo. No, seriously. Thanks for the Greenspun quotation, and also your take on the situation:
[...] (already cited above)
I'm in my early 20's right now. I don't want to see these years go by without doing anything significant besides the futility of padding my bank account and buying more toys and gadgets for myself to enjoy.
Thanks for the wake-up call and timely reminder. The 30's and 40's will pass by quickly [also], and soon I'll be 50 or 60 if I live that long. Even if I'm more financially able to "make a difference" or "do something" or "give back" then, I will likely be less physically able. The principle of compounding efforts and exponential ROI--start small, contribute regularly--perhaps one individual you touch will go on to touch 5 other lives... If I start when I'm "at retirement age," there's a whole lot of catching up to do, if by that time I've not already become so engrossed in myself and interested in my pleasures and interests to be concerned for others around me at all.
This website is so gangster... missionary quotes
http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/msquotes.html
They are all so money.
Oh. That means... the God of these missionaries is ULTRA gangster.
Read them... and be blessed and encouraged.
LOL, Go Bears! From @Cal Blog
doesn't take a genius to figure out...
but i learned.
kinda the hard way.
the best way to save money (like, physical money, not spiritual wealth) is to save.
seems intuitive? what i mean is:
For example, a relatively disciplined saver and conscious spender probably has, after 2.5 years of graduating college, savings worth 20% of his current annual salary.
Let's say, at the next performance review, he does an average job, meeting expectations. He does his job well, and there are no complaints. Usually, that's a 3% raise, easily.
100 * .03 + 100 * .20 = .23
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks, because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son
And now, let the weak say, "I am strong,"
Let the poor say, "I am rich,"
Because of what the Lord has done for us
Trip Lee is sickkkkkkkkkkkkk
Who is like You among the gods, O LORD?
Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?
- Exodus 15:11, Moses praising God after He annihilates the Egyptians in the sea
Psalm 76:6 NASB
(6) At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep.
Ain't nobody like Him
Rap music is incredibly hard to listen to and understand unless you pay careful attention and listen to it repeated. I found this line incredible:
"You think you amazing because you make cash / But look around the Heavens and Earth, homie He made that"
Full lyrics to the song, "Who is Like Him"
I recently started reading Safely Home by Randy Alcorn. Check it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't finished yet (only about 1/3 way through), that's why this is a pre-book review.
This is my first Christian-fiction book (novel). It's really fun to read... I haven't read novels in ages, and this one is about two fictional characters: Ben Fielding and Li Quan. The two are Harvard-educated men, but since their days as roommates twenty years ago, they have gone on to lead very separate lives.
Li Quan, the Chinese man who denied his father's faith as a child who miraculously gets accepted to Harvard and later becomes a Christian in America, returns to China with a Harvard PhD, but not as he intended. He is kept a close watch on, and endures much persecution and suffering for his faith.
Ben Fielding, the "casual" Christian who works his way up the corporate ladder, vice-president of an international semiconductor company who finds his faith being choked up by the weeds and deceitful riches of this world. I can definitely identify myself with Ben, who struggles and ultimately gives in the world, compromises his integrity, marriage (ends up in divorce), and forsakes his own family (fires his cousin for complaints filed against his verbalization of his Christian faith). Ben returns to China for the nth time, only this time, looking up his old college roommate, Li Quan. He's embarrassed in many situations--Li Quan's selflessness and faithfulness to Christ a rebuke to Ben's own faithlessness and people-pleasing, self-loving nature.
I recommend every Christian to read this book, especially Christians in America--because I think we all, to some degree, can identify with Ben. I definitely find myself doing so--unless I am vigilant, I can be easily distracted by the things of this world and get caught up with pursuing a career here on earth, rather than building up God's kingdom by sharing His good news to a dying world. I haven't gotten to the point in the story yet where (I suppose) Ben gets put at a crossroads of staying on his track to become a 50-something year-old CEO, or being encouraged and challenged by his friend Li Quan to count the cost of denying himself, taking up his cross, and following Christ. I only hope and pray to God that I would not end up where Ben is at this point in the novel, in 20-something years--a wrecked marriage, a man-pleasing, money-loving, "successful" executive--anything but faithful to Christ.
So far, I find that Ben and Li Quan resemble two characters in the Bible. Ben, a combination of the rich man from Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus and the rich fool who tore down his barns to build bigger ones (yet given warning before it was too late), and Li Quan, a true Moses.
Here is how Moses was such a gangsta for the Lord.
You see, a lot of the time, we think too highly of ourselves--we think that because of our Berkeley education, we're too good to work at a retail job or a blue-collar job. That's why we, especially men, might want to pursue careers in engineering, law, or medicine. We are so good at lying to ourselves that we manage not only to believe but even fully convince ourselves that such lucrative careers are fitting for a Christian, that we won't be tempted by the riches that have caused so many who once proclaimed faithfulness to stumble and apostasize, or that we'd be able to be better witnesses or that "Yes, God can use me as a doctor/lawyer/engineer/CEO/you name it..." Maybe this is true for some people out there, but I know that it doesn't look that way for me.
We deceive ourselves into thinking that because we get Berkeley-caliber education, we ought to have Berkeley-caliber careers to go along with it. Why not drop everything and become a missionary to a third-world country? To Asia? To Africa? South America? To China? I know, that when I initially say, "No," to such things, it is because I think I am too good. It is pride. I think, "God can use me as a sender, especially when in a couple years I will be making six figures. He can send the people who majored in history, sociology, or poli-sci."
But... whoa there. Hold on. Check out what the Bible says about Moses.
From v. 21-22, and also Hebrews 11:25, it is apparent that Moses wasn't a nobody. He wasn't some un-educated shepherd, or in today's terms, a janitor or custodian. Some scholars believe that the Pharaoh at that time had only one direct descendant, the daughter who raised Moses, and that Moses, being her son, was the heir-apparent to the throne--the crown-prince of the most powerful nation of the ancient world. Not only that, Moses was educated, like Li Quan--but probably way more. Moses, being raised in the household of Pharaoh, ate the finest and best of Egypt, and also received the best education (Harvard) of Egypt.
I find myself identifying with Ben Fielding, but I want to be like Li Quan. I want to choose to rather endure suffering with my people--the Chinese people, rather than enjoy the passing pleasures of sin and temptation in America. I say this, not out of "ethnic affinity," but because I do see them as my people--and they are God's creation also, yet they are not God's "chosen people." How will they be, if they don't hear about God?
I am currently 23--turning 24 in four-and-a-half months, and I am looking face-on at the next 20 years of my life--the "prime years." What will I do with my life? How will I live it out as an thank-offering to the Lord? Will I bury it in the ground like the unfaithful, wicked servant? Or will I carry His gospel to the nations, while looking forward to my future heavenly home?
A humorous point in this novel for me is that in the preface/introduction, Alcorn mentions he spent a lot of time asking for help with Chinese PinYin transliteration... yet I still find a lot of misspelled phrases. Oh well. I wonder how he got all the information to write such a realistic story. I'm amazed at how so many non-Chinese or non-native-Chinese writers can write vivid stories that accurately China (Pearl S. Buck - The Good Earth; Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan...).
After that random interruption, I leave you with this quote:
Songs:
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