Superhua

Don’t waste your summer!  Read a book and change your life!  Below are 10 books on a wide variety of topics (indicated in the parentheses).  A star (*) indicates that while I have not read every book below, people I trust have recommended that book.

1. Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper (Life)
2. When Sinners Say “I Do”: Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage* by Dave Harvey (Marriage)
3. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney (Spirituality) [note: I really appreciate Dr. Whitney's practical yet deep writings on spirituality.  Check them all out!]
4. Questioning Evangelism* by Randy Newman (Evangelism)
5. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions* by Gregory Koukl (Apologetics)
6. Building a Healthy Multi-ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments and Practices of a Diverse Congregation by Mark DeYmaz (Church; Race; Leadership)
7. A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther (Spirituality; Old Book)
   
8. Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney (Life)
   
9. Stop Dating the Church by Joshua Harris (Church)
   
10. For the Love of God by D. A. Carson (Devotional) [update: PDFs of both volumes available for free here and here]

Want more?  See this overwhelming list of lists that I’ve collected over the years.

Playing before surgery

Before surgery; waiting

Playing with her gown

Putting on her gown

Waiting before surgery

You all betrayed me

Not very happy with IV post-surgery

Resting in Mommy’s arms

Resting post-surgery

Video of playing before surgery

a quickr pickr post

… the church is not dying in America; it is alive and well, but it is alive and well among the immigrant and ethnic minority communities and not among the majority white churches in the United States.

via The End of Christianity? – Soong-Chan Rah – God’s Politics Blog.

[source]

The last of my grandparents stepped into eternity this morning.

It wasn’t unexpected: years of Alzheimer’s had foreshadowed her earthly end.  As Carson said in an interview with Driscoll [video here], when someone has Alzheimer’s, you say your good-byes much before their actual death.

Although you did not (probably) know her, you would have appreciated her tenacity and persistent pleasantness.  That is, not only was she was enduring in life (she is, I believe, the last of her friends to pass away), but she was ever pleasant and never bitter — despite the challenges of her life including losing a brother at a young age and living as a widow for nearly a decade.  Whether the latter was a quality of her era (where politeness was more cherished) or a characteristic bestowed by the Lord I do not know, but I am thankful for her presence in my life.

The vibrancy of life she exhibited is now eclipsed by the utter magnitude of life she currently experiences through the One who gives true life, the One who said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” (John 11:25 NIV)

Youth Ministry Today – YMToday.com – Top 10 Improv Games – In the spirit of Whose Line Is It Anyway?!

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I still remember when I first read about Linux.  It was an article in the New York times in the Spring of 1999.  “A free operating system with low requirements?!  Amazing!” were my thoughts.

As a result I gathered some old Pentium 75s and ordered my first distro of Linux.  While everything didn’t really work out that well–even a simple GUI needs a little more horsepower than a P75, I was hooked on the idea.  [btw, here are some resources for lightweight Linuxes: one, two]

Over the years I’ve enjoyed watching the maturation of Linux, and I feel that for most people Linux is a very viable choice.  However, there are three reasons I don’t use Linux (and, trust me, I’ve tried).

1. DevonThink – I use this information manager to plan series and archive resources.  I like the fact that I can throw everything from documents to movies in it.  I wasn’t able to find anything similar on Linux (and, yes, I did look at LinuxAppFinder.com)
2. Accordance – I know  about the Sword project, but there is no way copyrighted materials (like good commentaries) will ever be free.  Also, I know I could run a good Windows Bible program in Linux, but I’d rather keep everything in one OS to keep things simple.
3. Keynote – I present one to three times a week and like to use multimedia.  As of yet, I haven’t found the OpenOffice suite to be as equipped to handle such multimedia.

I’m open to switching, but just can’t find suitable alternatives for these cornerstone programs.  But for regular web/email/word processing, I’d heartily recommend Linux.