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Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
Best of the web for the week of December 7, 2008
Published December 13, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a Comment-
Evangelism Through Christmas Cards
As long as you are sending out Christmas cards anyway, and as long as people expect religious themes anyway, use it as an opportunity for evangelism.
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Jesus is God’s promise fulfilled.
May you take great joy in Him and the celebration of His birth. -
Christmas Blessings…
…with a prayer that you come to a quiet place of reflection on the simplicity of Jesus’ birth and the magnitude of His purpose.
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Search and find magazines on Google Book Search
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Today, we’re announcing an initiative to help bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, partnering with publishers to begin digitizing millions of articles from titles as diverse as New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony.
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Life only matters if it’s wanted
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The question, Mrs Furedi argued, was “not, when does human life begin? but, when does it really begin to matter?”.
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She admitted that “the embryo is a living thing”, and that it “is clearly human in the sense that it’s not a gerbil”, but stopped short of according it the same status as “a born person”
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Mrs Furedi is married to Frank Furedi, the founder of the British Revolutionary Communist Party and currently Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent.
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Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:19-22)
This is a clear command from Paul speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A (very) modern paraphrase might read, “Listen fairly to peoples’ ideas, engaging your brain and thinking critically about them. Believe what is true and deny what is false.”
I believe we have slowly lost the ability to “prove all things.” Paul would take us all to task for our inabilities in this area. By contrast, see how the Berean Jews were spoken favorably of in Acts 17:11 for “receiving the word with all readiness of mind” and searching the scriptures to see whether the things that Paul was preaching were so.
We all have some blind spots. For whatever reason, the Holy Spirit has not seen fit to lead any particular one of us into perfect truth in this life. If you’ve ever been around someone who was convinced they had all the answers, you can probably imagine why. There’s a prideful attitude that such claims to perfection always bring. At what cost comes perfect knowledge? Therefore setting up other individuals as your standard of truth will always fail. It’s not enough to believe something just because your parents did, your pastor does, Jerry Falwell, or <insert name here>.
You must think critically about everything, and I believe the Bible teaches that you should take an irenic approach to truth, from the Greek word for “peace”, εἰρήνη. The wisdom “from above” is pure, peaceable, gentle, and “easy to be entreated” (Jas 3:17). In other words, you look at the facts with an open mind. You make a decision after carefully weighing all of the facts, not before: “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” (Proverbs 18:13)
Why “Mind Map”?
Published August 10, 2008 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: brainstorming, mind map, organization, software, web
This is to answer a question posed by a new comment on the About page that seems to be at least partly genuine, even if mixed with a little bit of advertising. The question may be on everyone’s mind, though, so here’s the answer.
Why “Phil’s Mind Map”? Because this site originally started out as a wiki that I was intending to use as a way to organize my thoughts in various outlines, mimicking the way proper mind maps work, at least as well as could be done with a straight, text-only outline format. I had a site on wikidot.com for awhile to handle this, and then decided to add a blog to it. As it evolved, I stopped using it so much as a mind map, and concentrated on blogging, but Wikidot is seriously lacking in blog features. So I moved it to WordPress (which has the best set of features of all of the big blogging sites) and the name stayed.
I continue to be a big fan of mind maps which are the best way to organize “brainstormed” thoughts. Here’s how to get more information…
- What are Mind Maps?
- MindMeister (Online mind mapping tool)
- Mind42 (Another online mind mapping tool)
- FreeMind (Mind Mapping tool for Windows)
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No Country For Old Men
Published July 19, 2008 Movie Reviews , Uncategorized 1 CommentTags: Movie Reviews, movies, reviews, texas
How long, O LORD? Will You forget me for ever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Well, we heard No Country For Old Men was a good movie, and finally got to watch it. Here are some thoughts (beware of spoilers!)
The most disappointing part was that it was not wrapped into a nice, tidy, Hollywood package where the good guy wins and the bad guy gets his comeuppance. Of course, you can’t always count on this, and although it’s a little unusual in a movie, I do see it happening more often (like The Happening).
The movie even goes so far as to toy with you in this regard. Many times, you’re like, “Oh, yeah, here comes the butt-kicking!” But as is sometimes the case, the bad guy is always one step ahead.
Despite what some people (particularly my beautiful wife and my parents) find to be an unforgivable flaw in a movie, I found there to be many good points. First, it reminds me of the Bible–such as Psalm 13 above. Occasionally the wickedness of man is allowed to proceed unchecked, and it seems as though God has hidden His face. But when it does, and even the smallest act of selflessness is committed at the end of the movie, it is like a breath of fresh air.
Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), the man who finds the money at the beginning of the film that sets off a violent chain reaction that destroys both the innocent and guilty is basically a good guy. He makes some surprising choices that include being faithful to his wife, and intending to show compassion to a wounded drug dealer.
The sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) assumes the mantle of “main character” near the end of the film, but is frustrated in his desire to see justice brought to an increasingly out of control and chaotic land.
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) was the best part of the movie. He’s weird-looking, psychotic, pure evil. Great dialog throughout the movie, especially when he toys with people with one of his coins.
The cinematography was also great. The desolate, sometimes stormy landscapes both at day and night… The stuffy, oppressive interiors of the trailer, rental office, etc. There was no music throughout the movie, which gave more attention to all of the details, such as the ever-present house flies, the squeak of satchel full of money in a duct, the sound of Chigurh’s silenced rifle, booted footsteps outside a hotel-room door.
By the time the movie had built its crescendo, the ensuing action scene was so intense, Monica had to cover her eyes with a pillow. Yep, it was that good!
So a typical hollywood blockbuster it was not, but if you are willing to put on hip-waders and try to find some justice in an excellently made movie, give it a try.
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