May 12, 2007 | Technology
If you need something else to do: 15 Coolest Firefox Tricks Ever – lifehack.org read more
May 9, 2007 | Culture, Technology
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May 9, 2007 | Technology
Helpful tips that can save some time and frustration: How To: Save your Microsoft Office settings – Lifehacker read more
May 8, 2007 | Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Time/Life Management
Tracing one’s time is a tool I often suggest to people when they are making the first steps in getting a hold on the use of their time. I regularly suggest that one begin with keeping a record of how they have spent their time during a week in thirty-minute increments. Go HERE for the Excel file I normally use for this purpose. So, when I am wanting to reflect and examine my own time habits, I usually do a running “tick-tock” of how I spend my time. This go-round, I actually published it to the web rather than merely kept the list on a piece of paper. What I Think Went Well: In essence, the majority of what I planned to accomplish I was able to accomplish. I did not find myself forwarding many of my tasks to the next day, I was actually accomplishing them. I was able to meet with twelve people for discipleship purposes, our pastoral team in several significant meetings, the majority of my Sunday School class for a fellowship and one of our shut-ins. According to my e-mail statistics I received 63 legitimate e-mails (not spam) to my church account and sent 25 e-mails from that same account. I made or received 31 phone calls on my cell phone, and 60 text messages were sent & received. Through various means, I did a lot of talking. I was able to have significant times of Bible intake and prayer during my devotional time and consistently read from John Owen’s book, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers. I finished Augustine’s Confessions and made progress... read more
May 8, 2007 | Archaeology
Interesting news. Israeli archaeologists unearth King Herod’s tomb – Yahoo! News read more
May 8, 2007 | Miscellaneous
This is big news in our thriving metro-plex! Wal-Mart Supercenter to open in San Jacinto | Hemet-San Jacinto | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern... read more
May 8, 2007 | Christian Living
Chapter 11 [Kapic and Taylor edition] of John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers Third Direction: Load your conscience with the guilt of [sin] (103). Begin with generals and so descend to particulars: Charge your conscience with that guilt which appears in it from the rectitude and holiness of the law. Bring your lust to the gospel – not for relief, but for further conviction of its guilt. . . Descend to Particulars Consider the infinite patience and forbearance of God toward you in particular (105). All God’s gracious dealings with you, in providential dispensations, deliverances, afflictions, mercies, enjoyments, all ought here to take place (106). While the conscience has any means to alleviate the guilt of sin, the soul will never vigorously attempt its mortification. Fourth: being thus affected with your sin, in the next place get a constant longing, breathing after deliverance from the power of it (106). Fifth: Consider whether the distemper with which you are perplexed be not rooted in your nature, and cherished, fomented, and heightened from your constitution (107). This is not in the least an extenuation of the guilt of your sin. That you have to fix upon this account, in reference to your walking with God, is, that so great an advantage is given to sin, as also to Satan, by this your temper and disposition, that without extraordinary watchfulness, care, and diligence, they will assuredly prevail against your soul. For the mortification of any distemper so rooted in the nature of a man, unto all other ways and means already named or further to be insisted on, there... read more
May 7, 2007 | Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Time/Life Management
The Lord’s Day is my favorite and most exhausting day of the week: 3:00 a.m. Awoke to shower and dress, with one major change – Brie woke up and was ready to eat. She has been sleeping until 5:00 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. but not this morning. So I fed her, had her changed and back in bed asleep by 3:30 a.m. 3:30 a.m. Showered and dressed. 4:00 a.m. Devotional Time 5:00 a.m. Prepared for leading the music Sunday morning and finalized preparations for teaching my Sunday School Class. 5:30 a.m. Worked on my sermon manuscript for preaching Sunday PM. 7:00 a.m. Finished dressing and preparing to leave 7:20 a.m. Left for church 7:30 a.m. Rehearsal with our instrumentalists 8:00 a.m. Rehearsal with our choir 8:15 a.m. First Worship Service. I lead the music which included leading our choir in an anthem. 9:45 a.m. Sunday School class. I lead a group of young adults in a dialogue teaching format. We discussed how to Study the Bible inductively as we prepare to launch into a new inductive study of Genesis. 10:30 a.m. Prepared choir for our Second Worship Service 10:45 a.m. Second Worship Service. Our two morning services are identical in format. The service ended this morning about 10 minutes after noon. I stayed to talk with people after the service until almost 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. Back at home – had lunch with a young couple from our church. 3:30 p.m. In my study, I caught up on the day’s news and a few blog headlines. I then began finalizing my sermon manuscript and preparing for the evening service.... read more
May 7, 2007 | Time/Life Management
How to get the right things done effectively. Simple Productivity: 10 Ways to Do More by Focusing on the Essentials –... read more
May 6, 2007 | Christian Living
From Chapter 10 in John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers Owen’s second direction on overcoming sin: Get a clear and abiding sense upon your mind and conscience of the guilt, danger, and evil of that sin wherewith you are perplexed (97). Of the guilt of it (97). Though the power of sin be weakened by inherent grace in them that have it, [so] that sin shall not have dominion over them as it has over others, yet the guilt of sin that does yet abide and remain is aggravated and heightened by it (98). Consider the danger of it: of being hardened by the deceitfulness Can a sadder thing befall you? Is it not enough to make any heart to tremble, to think of being brought into that estate wherein he should have slight thoughts of sin? Slight thoughts of grace of mercy, of the blood of Christ, of the law, heaven, and hell, come all in at the same season. Take heed, this is that [which] your lust is working toward – the hardening of the heart, searing of the conscience, blinding of the mind, stupefying of the affections, and deceiving of the whole soul (99). loss of peace and strength all a man’s days (99) the danger of eternal destruction Consider the evils of it (101). It grieves the holy and blessed Spirit The Lord Jesus is wounded afresh by it (102) It will take away a man’s usefulness in his generation . . . many men harbor spirit-devouring lusts in their bosoms, that lie as worms at the root of their obedience, and... read more
May 5, 2007 | Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Time/Life Management
I tried to stay away from both my phone and my computer on Friday, so I did not post yesterday. I finish this evening, thinking back on the past few days. Thursday: 4:00 a.m. Up to shower and dress about an hour later than I planned. I don’t do well to get up on time if I go to bed too late. 4:30 a.m. My devotional Time. 5:30 a.m. Because I have a meeting at 8:00 a.m., I took the time to accomplish a number of normal tasks I knew I would be unable to do. I spent about 20 minutes doing some filing in my home office, reading, writing a memo I will use next week for a short meeting with Sunday School secretaries, sending a few tasks to our receptionist via e-mail, responding to e-mail, reviewing material for my first meeting of the day and I wrote a few notes to some in our church I had been praying for. 7:30 a.m. Kelly was up with Brie to feed her, so we did not have our time of reading together. I finished packing to leave for the office. 8:00 a.m. Meeting with two of our pastors regarding our Ministry Action Plans for 2008. We had a lively and very helpful discussion regarding how we will be developing and overseeing ministry next year. 10:00 a.m. Spent time reviewing and preparing for a number of financial issues, responded to e-mail, had a few phone calls and did some basic “next item” work on a number of projects. 12:00 p.m. At the gym to work out. 1:00 p.m. At home... read more
May 5, 2007 | Time/Life Management
This is a time-management tool, I will be checking out in the next few days. Rescue Time: Effortless Time Management read more
May 5, 2007 | Preaching
Video clip of MacArthur on the necessity of preaching: MacArthur on preaching – The Shepherd’s Scrapbook read more
May 3, 2007 | Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Time/Life Management
Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday are major study days for me. So here’s “tick-tock” for yesterday, Wednesday, May 2. 3:00 a.m. Awoke to shower an dress for the day 3:30 a.m. Devotional Time in my home study 3:45 a.m. Brie woke up and was ready to eat. This was a bit unexpected. She has been sleeping until around 6:00 a.m. but she did go to bed pretty early the night before, so my Devotional time was put off a bit to feed the little bundle. She was waiting for me with a huge smile, excitedly kicking, waiting to be fed. Sleep was not really on her schedule for this morning. She decided to stay awake and be fussy and playful and talkative to the tune of about an hour. She finally calmed down and I could put her back down without having to get up again too soon. 4:45 a.m. Back to Devotional Time 5:45 a.m. Checked a number of blogs and news stories 6:00 a.m. I had scheduled to do some work on my DMin project, however, I really need more than an hour to be effective with it. So, I spent the hour reading from Believer’s Baptism by Schreiner and Wright, a book I have been wanting to finish soon. I almost finished the book. 7:00 a.m. Breakfast with Kelly and spent time reading from Piper’s book, God is the Gospel. 7:45 a.m. Finished preparing to leave for work, and headed to make a visit at a convalescent home before heading to the office. 8:00 a.m. Visit at convalescent home with one of our members who will not... read more
May 3, 2007 | Christian Living
Chapter 9 in Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers Continued from his first point on how to mortify sin – Consider what dangerous symptoms your lust has attending or accompanying it: By applying grace and mercy to an unmortified sin (92). To apply mercy, then, to a sin not vigorously mortified is to fulfill the end of the flesh upon the gospel. Frequency of success in sin’s seduction, in obtaining the prevailing consent of the will unto it. This is that I mean: When the sin spoken of gets the consent of the will with some delight, though it be not actually outwardly perpetrated, yet it has success. (92). When a man rights against his sin only with arguments from the issue or the punishment due unto it, this is a sign that sin has taken great possession of the will, and that in the heart there is a superfluity of naughtiness (93). . . . if a man be so under the power of his lust that he has nothing but law to oppose it with, if he cannot fight against it with gospel weapons, but deals with it altogether with hell and judgment, which are the proper arms of the law, it is most evident that sin has possessed itself of his will and affections to a very great prevalency and conquest (93-94). If your lust has driven you from stronger forts, it will speedily prevail against this also (94). When it is probable that there is, or may be, somewhat of judiciary hardness, or at least of chastening punishment, in your lust as disquieting... read more
May 2, 2007 | Presidential History
Here’s some ineresting tidbits on President Reagan’s copious diaries (for those who enjoy Presidential history). Reagan was intense diary writer – Yahoo!... read more
May 2, 2007 | Pastoral Ministry, Personal, Time/Life Management
Tuesday is generally a day I devote to administrative issues. Because one of the areas of oversight I have on our team is the church’s finances, much of the time I spend revolves around making sure our records are kept up and are accurate – especially at the beginning of a new month, as I close out the previous month and prepare a detailed account of our finances to present to the congregation. So, here’s the ‘tick-tock’ of this average pastor’s average Tuesday: 3:00 a.m. Awoke to shower and dress for the day. 3:30 a.m. Devotional Time in my home study. 4:30 a.m. Began work on my sermon for Sunday. I spent time translating Romans 5:15-17 and put together a block diagram of the text and spent time observing parallel and contrasting phrases in the text. I then put together a rough exegetical outline of the text and formatted my exegetical notes to begin lexical and syntactical work tomorrow. 6:00 a.m. Our daughter, Brie, awoke. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, I take feeding duty in the morning. What a joy. I heard her making her typical ‘waking-up’ sounds and went in to check on her and she greeted me with a big smile, wide awake, ready to eat. So I prepared her bottle, fed and changed her. 6:30 am. Kelly was up by the time we finished and took Brie with her while I finished a few more thoughts in my sermon study. 7:00 a.m. Kelly and I had breakfast together and spent time reading together from John Piper’s book, God is the Gospel. We then prayed together... read more
May 2, 2007 | Christian Living
Chapter 9 in John Owen’s Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers Owen now begins to give practical guidance on how to mortify sin: Consider what dangerous symptoms your lust has attending or accompanying it – whether it has any deadly mark on it or no; if it has, extraordinary remedies are to be used; an ordinary course of mortification will not do it (89). Inverterateness [state of being hardened, habitual, deep-rooted] When a lust has lain long in the heart, corrupting, festering, cankering, it brings the soul to a woeful condition. In such a case an ordinary course of humiliation will not do the work (90). Secret pleas of the heart for the countenancing [approving] of itself, and keeping up its peace, notwithstanding the abiding of a lust, without a vigourous gospel attempt for its mortification (91). When upon thoughts, perplexing thoughts about sin, instead of applying himself to the destruction of it, a man searches his heart to see what evidences he can find of a good condition, notwithstanding that sin and lust, so that it may go well with him... read more
