This is some very valuable information. I listened to this podcast from the Whitehorse Inn today.
Here is a link to additional information.
I think just about anybody would benefit from this discussion of how electronics, digital communication and all that goes with it are frying our ability to focus and learn. If not us, then our kids.
I don’t think I need to comment. Listen to the discussion.
I started a short series of articles over at HC2. Here’s a taste of the first one:
Web-Based Ministry for the Local Church
A Web ministry should be an extension of that which goes on within church ministry. Many para-church organizations take great advantage of the Web. To name a few, Desiring God, Grace To You, Sovereign Grace, The White Horse Inn, Ligonier, Sharper Iron, 9Marks and many others produce media that is used far and wide in the Christian sphere of the Web. Local churches can make great impacts on their congregation using the same tools as these organizations as well as some that more specifically appeal to the more intimate setting.
s promised, the introductory article on HcSquared. HcSquared is dedicated to providing technology and material support to churches and ministries through web product packages, graphic design and corporate identity packages. I have a great interest in HC2 since it’s my brother’s dream and I have committed to helping the business.
Here’s the link to HC2:
I sent an email interview off to Ben with just a few questions. I wanted to get the particulars out to the public.
Q1: What brought you to come up with HC2 in the first place?
HC2 was originally designed to help churches. Thus the name HC2. I originally saw a great need for churches to do a better job with there technology and publications and wanted to provide a way for churches to get quality work done at low to no cost. My own ministry and jobs have put some of that on the back burner but the pilot has never blown out. So I decided it was time to kick into gear again and give it another try.
Q2: How do you envision HC2 in its full capacity?
HC2 in it’s full capacity in my mind would be having enough businesses to support the cost of the ministries. Business are more willing to put out money than most churches and thus they can provide for the ministries. I also would love to see some of the churches that are larger begin to support the smaller churches by providing some of these basic needs for them.
Q3: In what ways do you see HC2 as a witness to the gospel?
HC2 is a means for churches and even businesses to share the gospel. It is not the direct goal of the business to do that work or we would be strictly a ministry. It’s the work of individuals in the churches to evangelize and we just want to provide good quality publications and technology to do just that.
Q5: What ministries are you targeting to benefit from HC2?
The local church. It is God’s tool for today and all Christians should be a part of one. That’s why we are aiming at helping them.
I’ve been in touch with Ben since the infancy of this idea and he’s been extremely busy during the past years, ministering full time and working on his IT skills in the background. Ben has shifted his main focus to IT work recently, though he is very involved in his local church. He lives in Michigan with his wife and two kids.
On a personal note, I’ll admit that HC2 is a daunting sort of thing. I’ve committed to support in the production of images and editing, which means I need to get good at consistent artwork. It’s something I’m sure I can do, but it’ll take some dedication. I’m sure Ben is probably feeling a similar crunch but we’re both faithful that if the Lord sees fit to grow this project he’ll grow the workers to fit the field.
HC2 accepts donations as you’ll see on the site and is always willing to hear comments on products or questions about the business.
This is just a preliminary note about HcSquared. My Brother’s dream to.. Well, I’ll just steal the buzz from the website (http://www.hcsquared.com/)
“HcSquared’s desire is to provide ministries a means to produce high quality publications and technology without costing a fortune. Our goal is to allow ministries a place where they can come to get the information they need to make the right purchase, produce t he right technology, or publish the best possible publications.
We do all this for as little cost as is possible. That’s why we also provide services for businesses. That way we can support do the ministry side without breaking the bank.
If interested in what we can do for your ministry, please head on over to the contact page and send us a note. We look forward to talking with you.”
I’ll be doing an interview with Ben in the near future to add some detail and testimony about what I think is an awesome ministry and something I’m really interested in watching (and maybe helping) grow. Ben has been working on this for a long time and has had several opportunities to work on websites, publications and technology help for churches around the country. He’s well qualified and has a couple of fairly resourceful brothers who are waiting around to back him up in his endeavor whenever he calls.
Paper Screams was condemned to the ether-trash a little while ago. I have uploaded the last backup from March 25th of 2009. All poetry is on LAH now as well as whatever postings were on PS. It’s organized by dates of original posts. Poetry is still sorted as was on PS (category/book). Many of the images were lost because of dropped links (outside the home site) and I’ll fix those I can. Some may not come back.
I have applied the category “Paper Screams” to all the poetry. Additional categories that apply to Paper Screams content include:
NOTE: My work in Paper Screams spans about 20 years of my life and there is material that is not suitable for youn-uns (primarily in the Sunrise department). I have made efforts to notify readers of sensitive material in such cases. You’ll see them with the headline
“This poem is classified DRUNEO for Don’t Read Unless Not Easily Offended.”
(Notify me immediately if I’ve missed one)
There are NO instances of inappropriate imagery or other media on the site.
I was going to delay-post this and have it show up on the 9th. For undisclosed reasons which certain people already know, I’m going to release it now.
It’s a happy 32 years on the 9th of this month for my MIL and FIL. I also owe my FIL an article from way back, and MIL’s birthday is this week too. I thought a good way capture all this at once is with a little research paper on the things that have enabled the longevity of marriages throughout the ages. Many of these are things I’ve encountered in the years of my own marriage.
Mom, Dad, I thank you for the gift of your daughter. Our marriage is a result of yours. May you enjoy many more years together, loving each other, facing the challenges of life together, serving our Lord together. You are in our thoughts and prayers.
he US has a really neat way of going about things that are challenging. Maybe Americans in general. Many people I know do. Here’s how it goes…
“Hm. That didn’t seem to work…” –perplexed but unmiffed expression–
“Let’s try it with a little different approach…” –more concentrated, squint and deliberate expression–
“So…Is that how you want it to be?… –extracting from bag of resources a large, imposing, destructive implement–
Well,
Then…
Take…
THIS!“
So, in response to my short and sweet introduction to Francis Chan and Bible study tonight, just a simple and peaceful reminder of things I forget too often:
To my frustrations and worries…
Take
This:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Philippians 4:4:
“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
I don’t know everything about this preacher. His websites are pretty flashy. I do like that. I like his sermon about loving God. I didn’t come away with some revival tempest feeling or other nonsense. I’ve heard what he preached on before, but he did present the material in a way that provokes serious thought. Loving God is a command. I keep forgetting this, though I ran through all of 1st John with that message and again it’s in Deuteronomy. Just another whack with the reminderstick, I guess.
The peace of God is that peace of knowing, completely, that everything is taken care of. God has peace because He knows and created and is in control of everything. That means if we have the Peace of God which Surpasses All Understanding we have the peace that comes as a result of knowing God has Everything squared away, even if, to our human perspective, it doesn’t usually look like it.
My little innovation for the night:
The Bad circle and the Good circle. In each the motion and dynamic is the same. You move around in the circle. One thing can lead to another or you can experience it separate from the precedent. Notice that wherever you are on the circle, only two points at most are always close and all the rest get farther and farther away. What does that interesting effect imply in each circle? Which circle seems more appealing?
Okay.
These things we create for ourselves……………..And these are the ones we find in God.
Look how the points can react together (though I just brainstormed them and then stuck em in no particular order). Look at how, no matter where you are in the Bad Circle, you’ll never get close enough to defeat or deal with all the other 6 or 7 points because your position is dominated by the closest 1 or 2. Funny, though the two seem equally designed as far as points and motion and all that, the two circles have very different effects as they are traveled.
Look how, no matter where you are in the Good Circle, you have a whole deluge of great stuff right ahead.
This isn’t a great graphic thingy. The list of points is neither comprehensive nor exhaustive. It’s not really inspired or intended to produce oohs and aahs. It’s a quick, logical attempt to promote thought about this: Choose your target. If you focus on Godly things, His gifts, qualities, promises, ways, you engage in the Good Circle and they link together.
If you focus on worldly things, the stresses, the troubles, the wants and needs, the impossibles and the tediousness, you’re taking pot-shots at single targets and the whole time you’re surrounded by the rest which you’ll never manage to face down altogether.
So the point is give the Bad Circle to the Lord. Hand Him your shadows and switch to His circle. We cannot overcome these worldly things, but He can.
There’s a key point in the Good Circle. Challenge. In the diagrams, I’m not trying to introduce the idea that we just leave it all to God and not work at our troubles and lives. We need to look at challenges as just that, Challenges. Work is a gift and a functional design element from God. We were designed for work.
So we need to look at the challenges as mental and physical puzzles; feats to face and work at. The moment we treat them in the worldly way is the moment they cease to become challenges and become a “slap in God’s face” for then we have glorified our problems and made them something unto themselves and we betray the trust we have for God, we make our Benefactor into a weak fairy tale rather than THE CREATOR. God didn’t put the fight in front of us for the sake of the fight. He put the fight in front of us so that HE can be GLORIFIED. So if we keep that in mind, the problem ceases to be in the Bad Circle, and is now in the Good Circle, surrounded with the myriad other goodnesses He has provided.Also, the speed with which we move in each circle affects us too. If we run from the problems, where do we end up?
So I think this might be a neat thing just to keep on a little card, maybe the Good Circle and the Bad Circle each on a side. Just a little graphic reminder of what we could be doing with our time.
One last note. Look at the points again. Not one of them can be found in the opposing circle. My favorite one is COMPLETION. I cannot find completion in the Bad Circle. That’s just my current favorite. I’ll move around the circle and find another really great one to contemplate later on.
Oh, Permalink: My Anthology, poetry: Paper Screams
I’m finally putting the book together. You can help by visiting the site and leaving your suggestions!
________________________
has the sun at last
begun to shine
have the stars finally
decided they are mine
and will I see her rising up
like the sun that is in my dreams
for I have had only my dreaming
until now, until I saw her dreams
this loneliness has been too long
and so much have I missed her
and now this faint love song
and a sad kiss are in the air
and I shall swear
should this sun rise
or never be there
I am my beloved’s
and I shall love her
and these tears have found a home
and she shall love me
and no longer are we alone.
___________________________________________
I sang this song when I found her
I sing it to this day
I could not be happier
Here is a list of stuff I think helps computers live better on and off the web.
This is all free stuff I use. The links will take you to the home page for each.
Security:
AVAST ANTIVIRUS (My new fav AV)
AVG ANTIVIRUS (for killing the killers)
SPYBOT SEARCH AND DESTROY (for killing the killers’ helpers)
ADAWARE SE PERSONAL (also for killing the killers’ helpers. It’s better to have two)
WINPATROL (SCOTTY) (for stopping the killers’ helpers and cleaning up your messes)
WiTopia Personal VPN (for stopping Peeping Tom and all his siblings from sharing your point of view)
Files:
7-zip (for scrunching your too-big into a little less too-big)
Revo Uninstaller (for really really fixing that program you want to remove. Way good at cleaning up after the uninstall)
TestDisk (for scratching all that data back out of your busted hard drive)
Making it all work better:
WINDOWS TWEAK GUIDES (for XP and VISTA fixing)
Music:
iTunes (for your musical inclinations)
DoubleKiller (To fix all those iTunes Duplication Nightmares)
Web:
ALLTHEWEB (for your web-searching pleasure)
FIREFOX (for your web-browsing needs)
FILEZILLA (for FTP work)
GMAIL (for your email obsession)
GIMP (for your picture fiddling desires)
ARTRAGE (for your creative outlet)
A few comments, if you actually read this far without complete confusion or lack of interest:
#1 and my favorite:
When you forward email to somebody DELETE ALL THE ADDRESSES FROM THE PEOPLE WHO SENT IT TO YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE! I really don’t think your mother’s best friend’s friend’s dog’s girlfriend’s cousin would like me to know her brother-in-law’s email address and full name.
This information is PRIVATE and should be kept so, unless you REALLY think I should be able to contact the originator (and 100,000 related people) whenever I want. I would literally have thousands of people in my Yahoo Address Book if I actually kept all the addresses in emails with subjects like
FW: FW: RE: RE: YOU GOTTA READ THIS
For criminy’s sake. USE THE BCC function in your email. Send the email to yourself and BCC everybody and their grandmother. Then I (and probably a couple other people to whom you are sending) will not freak out when we find out that 2.6 million other denizens of the earth now have our email address and FULL NAME. Gee, I wonder where all this spam comes from?
#2 (another dear friend)
If your computer is really ticking you off, SHUT IT DOWN. If it was causing problems, just restart it and you might be surprised. Never underestimate the power of a Raytheon Reset.
If it was causing you to lose your temper and bash the monitor and keyboard:
1. Those two components are not usually the cause of computer problems. Punch the CPU instead (I’ll bet that’s why it comes enclosed in a protective covering, not just for looks).
2. You’re more likely the most immediate problem. Shut down the machine and go read a book or take a walk. You’ve been at the computer way too long.
If you have any doubts as to the veracity of my advice, I announce that I personally have experienced, in my own personal life, both #1 and #2 (1. and 2. in #2). I have made those goofs and am not planning on re-doing the experiences.
Here’s another thing that might help out: Yahoo Messenger has issues opening up in Firefox when you click to view email. I discovered some wiki type help today that could fix the issue. Try one of these:
- Start -> Default Programs -> Set default programs for this computer
- Expand custom
- Select the radio button for Firefox
- OK
Hope that’s useful!
ne thing you can do, as a reader, is to keep me abreast of the successes or failures of the presentation. I’ve enabled fonts and colors on this site that you might not be able to see, or may not come across looking right. Let me know if you like or don’t like something, I might be able to fix it!
Current fonts enabled: “blackadder ITC”, Georgia, “bookman old style”, “lucida console”, Arial, Sans-Serif, Verdana, Helvetica.
They will load in order of precedence from blackadder to Helvetica so if your computer doesn’t have blackadder as a font, then you’ll see Georgia (and so on).
Colors are a different problem. If something looks goofy, you’ll have to tell my where and then I can try to figure it out. I’ve tried to stick with the “Web-Safe” palettes, but most computers shouldn’t have issues these days.
