Hope or Frenzy?

It was a long day at work. It started with a few meetings and ended with... me writing this post. As I watched the stock market today, I couldn't help but wonder what will happen with the future of the economy. At the point where it's at right now, it's difficult to foretell what will happen by year-end. Some say it'll recover, others say it won't. In the beginning of the year, some said it would recuperate by June, others - by July. But some of us know that the end of June and beginning of July proved otherwise. The markets dove hundreds of points into the red, causing an outcry of panic. So maybe the markets were not ready for a recovery? Now, through the week of the 12th, the Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq, and any other fancy acronym out there, was shining green. Reading the news today, guess what I found? Yup, "hope for the economy".

So the moral of my post today is this: have faith in God, not man. From my experience with the market this year, it seems that man really does not know what he is talking about. No matter his title or accomplished college degree. The predictions made are okay if people accept them as mere predictions. But we don't. We listen to "the experts" and expect certain results. When true results arrive, we get disappointed, cry, and kick. Of course, professionals know what they are talking about. They know their stuff. But I also know my stuff: "as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me." Micah 7:7 (NASB)

Whether the economy goes up or down, I know not. But I know that I have the Lord with me whichever way it goes.

Windows Live Writer

I just downloaded this neat program called Windows Live Writer. It is created for bloggers in order for them to have quick access to their blogs. Aside from just being able to write a blog from this program, you can add all sorts of cool features such as videos, photo albums, etc straight from the program. I attached the below sample video from YouTube to demonstrate how this works.

I created this video in 2005 after my missions trip to Russia.

Since I’m still getting to know the program, I don’t know all of the bells and whistles but looks like we’ve got a lot here! Of course, like any other Windows application, Windows Live Writer comes with the abundance of text editing features. This makes creating blogs quicker and more fun. Right after I finish typing this sentence, I’m going to click the preview tab and it will show me how my blog looks even before publishing the post. This was a bit tricky to do from Blogger’s web editor. I’m really starting to like this app!

Anyway, all you bloggers out there, if you’re interested, you can download it from the Windows Live website.

Time to Think

It's July 6th, two days after July 4th (duh!) and I'm sitting here analyzing how I spent my weekend. The reason for such an analysis? Well, it was a three-day weekend since my office was closed on Friday in recognition of Independence Day. So I thought maybe I should sit here and think about how I spent (and spend) my time; wisely or not? Someone once told me that after the age of 20, time will fly! Ever since I 'rolled' over that hill, I'd say I completely agree with whoever that was. See, it seems like it was so long ago I cant even remember who it was.

Take a moment and think how long ago you celebrated the New Year. Would you agree that it seems like it was just yesterday? For me it does. And it seems like this upcoming New Year is nearing so quickly that we might as well start preparing for it now. Well, now try to imagine this: the time you lived between last summer and this summer went by so quickly... how many more of these short years do you have to live? 60? 40? 15? Maybe 0.5? We don't know. Even if it's 60 years, time will fly by so quickly, you won't even realize it. And this brings me to my reason for posting.

Sometimes God wants us to stop and think; to think about where we are headed. And that is what I am doing today. Out of my entire weekend, my most precious moments were those spent with God in prayer and reading of His word. Those were the most useful minutes/hours of my weekend. All else? Vanity.

My friend, use your time wisely.

John 3:16

Many of us have heard of the arguments about Calvinism. Some of us are probably even annoyed by all of the discussions. Everywhere you go, someone's talking about it. Nevertheless, I'd like to share what seems to be a pretty good summary of the entire teaching. As we know, John 3:16 clearly states that whosoever believes in Christ, receives everlasting life. Though the verse summarizes the salvation theory as clearly as possible, some like to distort its meaning. Therefore, it comes out to sound something like this:

Иоанна 3:16 по кальвинистски:
Ибо так возлюбил Бог мир кальвинистов которых Он любил извечно и возненавидел Исава и остальных некальвинистов которых Он ненавидел извечно что отдал Сына Своего Единородного дабы всякий кальвинист которому Бог дал насильно веру не погиб потому что он никогда не может погибнуть но имел жизнь вечную которую он уже и так имел прежде сотворения мира