OK so the Zemanta plug-in doesn’t give me the cool results on my blog that I was expecting. It does some really cool things like automatically finding and offering up some images relating to the post (these image suggestions update as you type which is really cool) and offer some related posts from third party sites that you can add below your post. I loved the images but personally the post suggestions where mostly something which I would not want associated with my blog. So let’s see how Windows Live writer compares
I have been thinking alot about the Bible lately. I know I am a Christian and I am supposed to be thinking about the bible alot but, it is difficult to stay focused enough to really spend some good time in the bible. Many people will tell you that all you need is a daily devotional passage and away you go. The problem I find with daily devotionals is that they are very shallow, I mean, take a verse like John 11:35 "Jesus Wept". This verse has the reputation of being the shortest verse in the bible (the English one). Reading from a daily devotional may not give you the full picture of what is happening here. We need to apply some sound hermeneutical principles here. So first we ask ourselves, "Who is the subject of this verse?", Jesus would be the answer, then we would ask "What is He doing?", and would have to answer that He is weeping, or more correctly He wept (since the word is in the past tense). We would look at the type of weeping, who was present, and many other questions. This type of study is called an exegetical study. You read out what the Word says and you don’t read some preconceived idea into the bible.
Most devotionals have a verse, or sometimes a small number of verses and then an interpretation of those verses. My question is, who is the writer of the devotional to tell you what scripture says? God’s Word is simple enough to understand to all but the youngest of children, it just takes a little work and yes, a little time too.
So if you wake up in the morning and already feel that your day is fully booked, force yourself to take ten to fifteen minutes to read from God’s word. Follow a plan, do not randomly open the bible to a verse you feel is good. "All scripture is God breathed", yes, even the genealogies. How are we going to learn about God’s plan if we only read selected pieces from His word. Make it a habit to read some of scripture daily and you will find the more you learn, the more you realise that you have so much more to learn.
What do you guys do for your morning / evening devotionals?
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
Well someone sent me a riddle today and I thought I would share it because it was so easy (hindsight after pouring over something for about 20 mins and then realising the answer is …. before I give it away just take a look at the riddle).
It honestly is not something which is too difficult, people who know me, know my level of mathematical ability is outta this world (ie. ability is the wrong word, disability would be more appropriate)
Well without further ado, the riddle goes like this, once you have answered the riddle open this protected post and leave your details in the comments:
Can you solve this?
Only skilled people can open this post…….
Once you succeed to openthe post, you will find names of the people who have managed to openthis…… Now it is your turn!
How to open attached post?
A man was travelling to Kasoa
At the bus stop, he met a man with 7 wives
Each wife has 12 sons and 12 daughters—–24
Each daughter of the man’s wives had 4 sons and 7 daughters—-132
Each son of the man’s wives had 7 sons and 4 daughters—132
Each grand daughter had 4 friends—-44
How many people got to Kasoa?
Easypeasy
The number of people who got to Kasoa is the password to open the protected post. Once you have opened it, addYour name and challenge others.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
So I totally messed up on Blog Action Day, I thought it was the 15th already and posted my Poverty post on the 14th. Oops
Anyway I don’t think it is too major a trainsmash, I still took part and showed my support for the initiative. That doesn’t mean that poverty goes away, it just means that life goes on and I will now try and think more towards how I can help.
I am now sitting at home in bed, having gotten really sick yesterday at work. I am not sure what brought it on, probably some random bug, but I was not feeling great at all yesterday. Problem is you lay in bed cause thats what you are supposed to do when you are sick and you get unbelievably bored. And in your boredom you start thinking, hey I feel good, not sick anymore, so you hop outta bed and bam, your head starts spinning your legs are aching and you feel extremely weak. So much for feeling better.
So in my boredom I start on the You Tube videos and reading random blogs and one video in particular gives me this giggle. Its a video about a guy preaching on a verse in the bible that says “I will destroy him that pisseth against the wall”. Now I couldn’t find the exact verse but my Libronix tells me that the word “pisseth” actually occurs 6 times, no kidding, here are the verses 1 Samuel 25:22, 1 Samuel 25:34, 1 Kings 14:10, 1 Kings 16:11, 1 Kings 21:21, 2 Kings 9:8. Now other translations show these verses with the word “male” but King James Version has the interesting phrase mentioned above. Now I wouldn’t base my theology on this guys isogesis but it is a pretty funny video so I will give you a chance to view it now.
Interestingly or oddly enough my gmail decided I might be interested in this story about a boxer who uses his three year old sons soiled nappies to keep the swelling down in his hands… Go figure.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
So I have this friend who is studying anthropology, now I have never gone into detail with her as to what exactly anthropology is, but today I found a video which is really interesting called “An anthropological introduction to YouTube”. The guy presenting has done a really good job describing one of the elements of Web 2.0. He speaks about how the second version of the web is less about the technology of the internet and more about the people of the internet.
It started me thinking about the people that read my blog, I have had quite a few of my friends comment on my writing and this has sort of convicted me that I don’t spend much time on my blog. It is fairly difficult coming up with new unique content so I want you guys to help. I would like you guys to comment on my posts and let me know what you would like me to write about or if you read something you enjoy, then let me know to give you more of it.
Well here is the video for your viewing pleasure, remember to comment if you enjoy it.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
I sit here on what South Africa is celebrating as Heritage Day, a public holiday which many people call national Braai day. The government reason for the day is to allow South Africans to celebrate their own cultural background and recognise other people’s heritage at the same time.
I got to take some time and manage the various blogs that I read through sometimes and clean up my RSS subscriptions in Google Reader, and found one post on what a Christian is to do on holidays like today or even annual vacation time. It was quite an interesting post and I can see where the writer is coming from but I do disagree to some degree. His idea is that what better way to serve your God than by serving others while they are attending a Christian conference. I truly believe that there is a place for holidays in which nothing significant gets done. You have no plans for the day or even the week and you just take one day at a time. If you don’t have to be somewhere at 8AM then doesn’t that mean you don’t have to stick to a quiet time schedule? How many times have you felt guilty about going 5 mins over time in your quiet time because you have to get to work? The bible tells us to work as if working for God and not man, would God not expect us to be on time then? And I am not talking about waking up 15 mins late today and therefore your quiet time is shorter, I am talking about “I am only supposed to read till verse 25 in my bible reading plan but I just feel that I want to read to verse 40 today”. If its a holiday, then feel free to do that, but if its a work day…
This public holiday I have a whole list of things I need to finish but I am still taking some time to catch up on my blog and make this post, I know that there are at least 2 people who appreciate that
I have been getting very depressed at the number of friends who are initiating the emigration process, some to the UK but most to Australia or New Zealand.
My mood today though has been one of “God is good, all the time…”. Not only was the sermon today excellent, and beautifully applicable to thoughts of emigration but I was just blown away at how God can use a message from Habakkuk to such a modern predicament.
I have always heard how relevant the Word of God is to us today as it was to those who read it for the first time since it was written.
“Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing? ” (Hab. 2:13 ESV)
I would recommend taking a trip down to http://www.midrandchapel.za.org and downloading the sermon for a listen.
So the question begs, Why do I remain in South Africa? What is it about this country which makes me overlook all the negatives, the negatives which the entire world is putting in their newspapers? Well I am not too sure, after today’s sermon I can safely say that every decision that I have made so far in my life has been without real worry. I have always had the notion that things will always sort themselves out. Over the last couple of months I have been through some very interesting times and learned allot, but one of the major realisations that I have come to over this time is that God is totally sovereign, and as long as I have faith in His sovereignty, the Will of God will play out in the end. No matter what mistakes I make in any decisions that I may take. So no, things will not work themselves out, but God will work them out in my life.
So that is pretty much what keeps me here, I know God is working in my life and at the moment I am just on a roller coaster ride. At times I do feel that I am not in control and it does stress me out in times of weakness. I guess the past few days has been a time of weakness but from this morning I have been tempted to quote Philippians 4:13, however I would be using it very charismatically and totally out of context. The truth is though that I do feel strengthened by the power of God and even though verse 13 is Paul talking about his own weaknesses and how God strengthened him, I feel that if God could strengthen Paul in his time of need, then God is more than capable to strengthen me as well.
This post is turning into quite a large one so I think I should start to conclude it now. But I will say this one final thing, if you have found this post and are thinking of emigrating from South Africa, I don’t have a definitive answer for you whether you should leave the country or not. There are many people who would offer their advice and tell you how bad this country is. They site things like Power cuts (Germany is saying that power cuts are coming for Germany soon because of the lack of generating capacity), Zuma (God places all leaders into power and we are to submit to their authority), or crime (my sister has been robbed more times in 4 years in the UK than our family has been robbed in 28 years), but I don’t have any advice, the reason being that I do not make decisions for you, you need to make them yourself. Your situation is unique to you and your family and no one can make any decisions on your behalf. Whether you emigrate or not is something between you and God, so take the decision to God and let him deal with it, and stop worrying about it. If you continue to worry yourself sick about it then you need to hand over everything to God so that He can deal with it in His way and in His timing.
Well that’s me, I am out
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
Wow what a sermon this morning. I really recommend taking a trip to http://www.midrandchapel.za.org and downloading the message.
As Christians we tend to get complacent with our lives. We read our bibles, pray about our friend’s and our own problems and we live our lives happy in the knowledge that God sent His son to do all the hard work for us and all we have to do is accept it. Well there is a commission given to us by Jesus Himself. Check out Matthew 28:16-20 and get yourself a copy of the sermon.
Here is a pretty good video as well, from a movie called The Most, which translates to The Bridge.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
Well it is already 13 days into the new year and I am now only making the first post of 2008. I have been doing a lot of analysing and trying to determine the lesson that I should be learning through the situation I mentioned in previous posts. Let me just say that there is a bundle of lessons that I have learned. I am coming back on track with my recovering introvert status but I still have to work on some areas which are taking longer to sort out.
Anyway since this is the first post of the new year I would like to give you a few tips to handle your money bette. Everyone knows these three easy steps but very few people actually put them into action. With prices increasing all the time, saving money can be harder and harder to do.
1. BUDGET – Get one and stick with it! And set aside at least a small portion for savings while you’re at it; savings for your future, your retirement, your education, your vacation, whatever. Head to your local office supply store for planning workbooks or budget sheets to use. Or head to your favorite search engine and type in, “budget planning” for hundreds of sites with articles, free downloads, tips, ebooks and other resources to help with your budget setup and follow up.
2. PLAN AHEAD – Make sure to plan for emergencies and the unexpected, like an appliance break down or garage door malfunction. Even if you can only set aside $50 or so each monthly, place it in an account and earmark it for this “Miscellaneous” fund. Then when things go wrong, and they will – nothing’s perfect – you’ll be better prepared.
3. NON-MONTHLY ITEMS – Work out a monthly payment for items that you don’t pay monthly and set this up in your regular monthly budget. For example, for items like annual home owner or renter insurance, quarterly water bills and automobile insurance payments and annual trash bills, take the amounts and determine what they would be monthly. Then list the items on your budget log and pull these amounts aside, saving them in your account for those purposes. This way, when the bills hit, you won’t be caught off guard and have to scrounge for the payments.
What works well, instead of handling multiple savings accounts for each company owed, is to use index cards and one savings account. Create one index card for each bill. Then simply log the amount you’re setting aside on the card and deposit it into your savings account. Keep the index cards with your savings passbook to remind you what the balance covers. The total of all your index cards should equal the balance in your savings account. (Make sure to create an index card for your regular funds that you are saving each month in step one above and a card for your Miscellaneous fund in step two above).
So next time you get paid, take three giant steps forward. Grab your index cards, follow your budget and invest in yourself and your future. Get a grip on your money handling.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
Wow what a Christmas to remember. I hope all my readers had a great one and a happy upcoming new year too.
My Christmas unfortunately is not one which I really care to remember but it will probably stay with me forever, I placed myself in a situation in which the end result bounced me back a few steps in my recovering introvert status. I think it zapped me back by about a year so there is a lot of ground to cover to try and catch up.
Anyway I think I need to keep this short as I do not feel comfortable really talking about the situation. I will say this though, anyone who thinks life is easy is going to come in for a landing soon and will realise that life doesn’t issue any landing gear so get ready for a real bumpy landing.
Sometimes someone comes along and simply makes the world look very wrong. This 13 year old named Logan is one of those people. Listen to his call made to a Christian radio station.
I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com
I have been thinking alot about the Bible lately. I know I am a Christian and I am supposed to be thinking about the bible alot but, it is difficult to stay focused enough to really spend some good time in the bible. Many people will tell you that all you need is a daily devotional passage and away you go. 
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