“The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs – pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course? He tries in your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors.” – C.S.Lewis
Category: Quotes
Psalm 27
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.
4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.
7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.
13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
“From Here”
Artist:
Big Daddy Weave
Album:
v1:
My child, I’ve hoped and I’ve prayed for this very day
Since you were just a little one
And oh how my heart swells with pride
As I watch the man that you’ve become
But this life offers no guarantees
And though my time on this earth had to end
I’m sure that your heart would know peace
If you could just see where I amc:
From here, the race has been run and love’s already won
I see clearly the end and the start
From here, I’m cheering you on
So live out each breath with all that you’ve got
And know until I hold you close
I’ll be holding you dear in my heart
From herev2:
I’ve seen your tears as you’ve waited alone
Longing for that special one
And now all the waiting is done
As you gaze into her eyes
Seeing the reflection of love
Life’s road may seem rough up ahead
And for now you see only in part
So hold onto each other and know
That there is an end to the darkbr:
Heaven is calling and my heart keeps longing
Looking so forward to the day
When we’ll be together forever in eternity
Just you wait and see
i’ve had this song in my phone for a while and i just paid attention to the lyrics yesterday… ahhh! can cry! i just don’t really agree with the second verse but other than that, awesome song!
this was told to us by our accounting lecturer. i think it’s quite hilarious!
the story goes, that the owner of a company wanted to retire and was looking for a chief executive officer (ceo). he had shortlisted 4 candidates – a journalist, an engineer, a lawyer and an accountant. he decided to choose his ceo based on the answers they had for just one question
with the journalist.
owner: what is 2 and 2?
journalist: you put 2 and 2 together, you get 22!
owner: thank you.with the engineer.
owner: what is 2 and 2?
(engineer takes out a calculator and after a while)
engineer: the answer is between 3.99999… and 4.09999…
owner: very precise, thank you.with the lawyer.
owner: what is 2 and 2?
lawyer: based on the case of X vs. Y, 2 and 2 was proven to be 4. so 2 and 2 is 4.
owner: really smart, thank you.with the accountant.
owner: what is 2 and 2?
(accountant stands up, closes the door, comes back and whispers)
accountant: how much do you want it to be?
1 Answer me when I call to you,
O my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer.2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?Selah
3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.4 In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.6 Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.7 You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.8 I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety
(We aren’t) willing to just skip happily down the path to (our) heart’s deepest pain. We fight this part of the journey. The whole false self, our “lifestyle”, is an elaborate defense against entering our wounded heart. It is a chosen blindness. “Our false self stubbornly blinds each of us to the light and the truth of our own emptiness and hollowness,” says Manning… Ah, how convenient that blindness is. Blissful ignorance. But a wound unfelt is a wound unhealed. We must go in.
- John Eldredge, Wild At Heart.
And so God’s initiation of a man must take a very cunning course; a course that feels very odd, even cruel.
He will wound us in the very places where we have been wounded.
- John Eldredge, Wild At Heart
the brain is like a muscle. you need to work it for it to be stronger. i’ve been thinking about that since we had a guest speaker who’s the creative director of the largest creative agency in Singapore.
i would say i’m a creative person, but how much exactly do i create? not a lot actually. which really makes me feel bad cause if God’s put something in me, i’ve got to use it!
the guest speakers tips are as follows:
- keep a notebook
- the ’60 boxes’ rule
- have a life (e.g. do fun projects)
- imitate greatness
- question everything
i do keep a notebook. but i hardly use it… he’s point of keeping a notebook is so that he can jot down whatever ideas come to him. but how often do ideas jump into my head. i don’t know. maybe cause i’m always preoccupied with other stuff like work and plain rushing from place to place.
the 60 boxes rule is scary. he said that when his team receives a brief, he’ll make them come up with 60 ideas. one per box. and out of the 60 there’s bound to be 1 or 2 good ones. honestly? i really don’t know if my brain can churn out 5, let alone 60!
have a life. here’s what really hit me. wow. i don’t have a life.
hahaha i know it’s painfully obvious right, but i guess i always knew i’m super busy with work i don’t have time to do fun stuff. but for it to affect creativity like that? i don’t know man. i’m feel like a dead boring person. man. this stinks. haha
imitate greatness. this is rather comforting though, cause who else greater to imitate than God right? we should all be imitating Him, growing in Christ-likeness.
question everything. there’s another thing that hit home. i don’t. i don’t ask questions. i just take things given to me and run with them. i’m a product of the system, if you will. i don’t know man. i guess it could be a good thing, look where it got me thus far. but again. i’m a square, la. haha. i sometimes get really stressed in bizlaw tutorial cause we HAVE to ask questions. it’s almost compulsory!
here’s one of the projects the speaker is working on. pretty cool right? i reckon i wanna do something like that. but see, then it’s a lack of creativity.
so here’s something i thought i’d do for starters.
i’ll tweet/blog a reflection from devotions each day. i’ll try to make it sound as cool, interesting and poetic as possible. i don’t think i’ll draw something on a post-it like he does. but it sure is cool to do something like that, or fun-ner.
in the meanwhile, i gotta figure out what to do to get a work-life balance.
The Straits Times
Sep 10, 2009
Bed sharing ‘bad for health’
COUPLES should consider sleeping apart for the good of their health and relationship, according to a study reported by the BBC on Thursday.
Sleep specialist Dr Neil Stanley told the British Science Festival how bed sharing can cause rows over snoring and duvet-hogging and robs precious sleep.
One study found that, on average, couples suffered 50 per cent more sleep disturbances if they shared a bed.
Dr Stanley, who sleeps separately from his wife, points out that historically ‘we were never meant to share our beds.’
He said the modern tradition of the marital bed only began with the industrial revolution, when people moving to overcrowded towns and cities found themselves short of living space.
Before the Victorian era it was not uncommon for married couples to sleep apart. In ancient Rome, the marital bed was a place for sexual congress but not for sleeping, said the BBC report.
Dr Stanley, who set up one of Britain’s leading sleep laboratories at the University of Surrey, said the people of today should consider doing the same.
“It’s about what makes you happy. If you’ve been sleeping together and you both sleep perfectly well, then don’t change, but don’t be afraid to do something different,” he told BBC.
“We all know what it’s like to have a cuddle and then say ‘I’m going to sleep now’ and go to the opposite side of the bed. So why not just toddle off down the landing?”
He said poor sleep was linked to depression, heart disease, strokes, lung disorders, traffic and industrial accidents, and divorce, yet sleep was largely ignored as an important aspect of health.
Dr Robert Meadows, a sociologist at the University of Surrey, said: “People actually feel that they sleep better when they are with a partner but the evidence suggests otherwise.”
He carried out a study to compare how well couples slept when they shared a bed versus sleeping separately.
Based on 40 couples, he found that when couples share a bed and one of them moves in his or her sleep, there is a 50% chance that their slumbering partner will be disturbed as a result.
Despite this, couples are reluctant to sleep apart, with only 8 per cent of those in their 40s and 50s sleeping in separate rooms, the British Science Festival heard.
to be honest i’ve actually never thought about it. i guess i always thought bed-sharing was a part of married life you know, like intimacy and what have you. and that it’s something to get used to. and sleeping in separate beds almost always seemed as something bad, like couples do that only when they’re on the verge of divorce and their married is in shambles so they cannot stand even being in the same bed together. yikes.
what do you think?
i came across an awesome quote from rory noland’s book “the worshiping artist” about holiness. i dunno what else to say about it except, ‘wow’.
“Now the concept of holiness can be difficult to personalize because the word itself has become increasingly pejorative for us today. When we hear the word holy, we might imagine emaciated monks sitting cross-legged all day on a mountaintop or pale-faced old ladies in long plain dresses with their hair up in a bun. To most of us, a holy person is regarded as suppressed, boring, uptight, hypocritical, and prudish – a Goody Two-shoes. It’s an affront to be labeled a “holy roller” or “holier than thou.” So holiness is not something many of us aspire to. Yet, the Bible teaches that God “chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Ephesians 1:4).
Perhaps we need to redefine personal holiness. According to Richard Foster,
Holiness means the ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. It means being “response-able”, able to respond appropriately to the demands of life. The word virtue … means simply to function well. Virtue is good habits we can rely upon to make our life work …. So a holy life simply is a life that works.
Holiness, therefore, has more to do with internals than externals. Though holiness is a lifelong process and not something we fully attain this side of heaven, it is clearly not a matter of following a list of “dos and don’ts”. A “life that works” is free from the bad choices, the dysfunctional behaviour, and the selfishness that characterizes sin. Instead, we are free to be who God truly made us to be.”
