Joie de Vivre A Wretched Man’s Quest To Follow Jesus Christ

It’s a busy, busy week here so I think it’s only right if I let you in on what’s happening and how it might affect my blog schedule for at least a few more days.

First off, it’s the beginning of client acceptance tests here for a solution that my company has completed the delivery of on Monday. As the account manager, I’ll be spending a good part of my days in meetings both in the office and at the client’s.

Continue Reading

I came across this great story that talks about procrastination so I decided to shelf it and read it only next week.

No, seriously, I actually read it immediately because, well, as I said in my “About” page, I can procrastinate a lot, and it’s one bad habit or should I say lifestyle trait that I really want to change.

I do identify with the girl quite a lot but there are periods when I am much alike the guy in the story. It all depends on what it is I am doing.

Like, when it comes to blogging, I am the guy.

I can go on for hours on weekends networking in blog communities, reading other blogs, researching information for my next post, etc. I have even drawn up a schedule of things to write on, and already I have a backlog (deciding when to publish a particular topic can kill, trust me).

But when it comes to finally getting my ass off on, say, actually clearing my hard disk of junk, I procrastinate, and become like the girl. Start clearing a directory, and “ooh! there’s a file I haven’t seen for the longest time! Let me email/post/flickr it first…”. Nothing gets done by bedtime even if I started early in the morning. Yes, sigh, again…

If I have to really give a straight answer, I’d say I identify more with the girl, sadly.

How about you? Do you identify more with the girl or the guy?

Photo by *betenoir*.

In the Gospel of Matthew, our Lord Jesus Christ said:

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

– Matthew 5:13 (KJV)

Have you ever wondered what it means to be the “salt of the earth”?

In examining what being the “salt of the earth” means, we need to first examine what the primary uses of salt are during the time of our Lord’s earth ministry as well as what salt was used for through the ages.

I can think of three at this point in time.

Continue Reading

I have never been a fan of country music, but this song by Carrie Underwood is especially endearing for me because of my journey to trust in God and submit to His will in all things. I love how the song talks about someone who simply surrenders to God’s will and lets Jesus take the wheel.

The second song ties in really well with the first, reminding us that when we do surrender our lives to His will, it is His arms of love that envelope us and hold us. Yes, we’ll be warm and safe there in our Lord’s arms, Amen!

Have a good week ahead, everyone.

God bless you and Shalom.

Interesting reads from the week past:

• The Odex saga comes to a favorable close for those worried whether they will be prosecuted for downloading anime when a judge threw out the case and ordered the company to pay legal costs. Now I am not pro-piracy, but from the way this case was handled and how arrogant the man behind Odex was, I am going to say “serves you right!”
• There is NO way a person can survive on S$260 of welfare money a month in Singapore, and certainly not old and destitute folks. With the increase in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to 7%, all prices have rocketed sky-high. Any Singaporean can tell you that after paying for rent, utilities and other bills, what’s left is as little as $2 a day, which is less than sufficient to even get a proper meal anywhere nowadays! What I am most disgusted about is the government’s retort to the concern raised. These people have no hearts, I tell you.
• Still on Singapore, a few sites have appeared criticizing the government and here I’ll share two that I find rather good — Cirque de Liberte tells us that we have the bestest (sic) political entity on earth, while the Young Pay-and-Pay blog is rather funny because the blogger addresses political issues by writing satirically about them from the other side of the fence as a Young PAP member.
• Which is better, Nuffnang or Advertlets or Google AdSense? Quite a number of local bloggers expressed their views that Nuffnang wasn’t any good because they weren’t getting any ads on their blogs. Some also were of the opinion that Nuffnang only served out ads to a privileged few. While I don’t agree that the company does that, I personally have been quite disappointed with Nuffnang’s customer service and have decided to drop them for good.
• Speaking of ads, I have done a little re-design of the site in terms of layout and removed many ads to allow content to shine. I totally agree with Dumb Little Man on his point about advertising and have therefore also followed his advice.
• The discussion at Paddy Tan’s blog on being honest with titles for blog posts saw one blogger — Eileen — bringing up a valid point on bloggers who just copy and paste content, slap on a title and call it a post. I agree with her totally. When I visit a blog, I want to read original content, not what I can easily find at places like Digg or Netscape. And when someone refers to content already posted, I’d like to read your views on the issue, and that’s where a blog becomes interesting to me.
• I simply love this little piece at Complete In Christ! What a great reminder it is for all of us busy people about how we should fit God into our daily grind. The part about “More of Him, less of me” really spoke to me as I try to pray more and submit to God’s will more willingly in my Christian life.

My favorite video this week is “What If” by Nichole Nordeman. Thank you, Shalene, for sharing it! I am praying for you, sister.

I have just finished watching the entire three-part special by CNN called “God’s Warriors” which takes a look at “warriors” in the three major faiths — Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

The series aired here in Singapore at 9pm, and started with a look at “warriors” for Judaism on Wednesday, then Islam on Thursday and lastly Christianity just earlier this evening.

While I feel that the series did a pretty decent job showcasing the stories for each faith, many misconceptions were still propagated in the name of being politically correct.

Like how they still referred to land that Israel captured in the 6-Day War as “occupied territories” and the like. Moreover, they had interviews with Karen Armstrong that, in my opinion, was the key letdown in the entire series.

Continue Reading

This song stuck with me through the 80s till today, simply because it is such a victorious song reminding us of our victory over death through Christ Jesus our Lord.

I finally found it again and had no second thought about immediately sharing it with you.

Where is the sting, tell me
Where is the bite?
When the Grave Robber comes like a thief in the night
Where is the victory?
Where is the prize?
When the Grave Robber comes and death finally dies

It is the only song from Petra I listen to and like, since I don’t really buy into the genre of Christian rock. Let’s just say that it just isn’t my cup of tea.

Shalom.