Jan
30
A quick biblical tour of TULIP
Awhile ago a friend of mine asked me about T.U.L.I.P., the acronym used to describe the 5 main points of Calvinism. In answering his question I put this quick biblical reference together outlining some of the major scriptures used to backup the doctrines laid out by TULIP. So with out further ado here they are:
T – Total Depravity
Genesis 6:5: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Jeremiah 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil."
Romans 3:9-10, 18 “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; … There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 7:18 "I know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh."
Romans 8:7-8 "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Romans 14:23 says, "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."
1 Corinthians 2:14: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
U – Unconditional Election
Acts 13:48 "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
Romans 9:11-12 "Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, [Rebecca] was told, 'The elder will serve the younger.'"
Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He predestined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.”
Romans 8:28-33. “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose, For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.”
L – Limited Atonement
John 6:64-65 says, "'But there are some of you that do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that should betray him. And he said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.'"
John 10:15, "I lay down my life for the sheep." The sheep of Christ are those whom the Father draws to the Son. "You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep."
John 17:6,9,19 Jesus prays, "I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest me out of the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to me...I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom Thou hast given me, for they are thine...And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth."
Revelation 5:9, "Worthy art Thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for Thou wast slain and by Thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation."
I – Irresistible Grace
Daniel 4:35 “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”
Romans 9:19 “You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’”
P – Perseverance of the Saints
l Thessalonians 5:23-24, "May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."
Philippians 1:6, "And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
l Corinthians 1:8-9, "Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end; guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."
Jan
28
All about circuit breakers
Electricity is an amazing thing. I tend to take how incredible it is for granted. It makes our entire lifestyle possible. Without it we would still be stuck in the dark ages, literally :)
If you have been reading my blog lately you will know that I have been having some electrical problems with my house. I was nervous that it was going to cost a fortune to find and fix. I had visions of tearing all the wire out of my house and having to rewire the whole thing. Fortunately it did not turn out to be that.
It turns out that the problem was the circuit breaker that covers most of the house--a two pole 100amp circuit by Federal Pacific Electric (FPE). The breaker was loose and had burned the contacts such that a tight connection was not possible. It turns out that FPE went out of business a number of years ago because their circuit breakers do not reliably trip when they are supposed to. So this adds another item to the list of things one should check for when purchasing a home. If the home is older (1985 or older) then check if the circuit breakers on the house are by FPE. If they are then you should be aware that if any of them need to be changed then it will be expensive because only one company makes a circuit breaker in a similar shape. And you should also know that they probably are not going to provide much protection to the house. If you can get the owner to change them out with newer, more reliable circuit breakers that would be a very good thing!
Jan
25
The joys of being a home owner
I've owned my home for nearly 2 years now. It's been a fun experience to own but it's also been a lot more expensive than I imagined. It seems like there is always something going wrong. In November the thermostat on the stove went out, unfortunately the stove was so old they no longer made the replacement part. That was one brand new stove which also sparked a kitchen remodel. Then in December the pipes started backing up. Not to mention the disgusting nature of the backup it took two visits from a plumber (of whom are not cheap) to straighten out. Now it is January and the electric has decided to act up. Who knows how much an electrician is going to cost to straighten it all out.
They say when it rains, it pours. I definitely feel the truth of that statement right now. I'm not sure how homeownership is going to work out in the long run. I have to believe that in the long run it is the only thing that makes sense because landlords are in the business to make money and they have all the expenses a homeowner does. But, it sure does feel like it is costing me a fortune to own this place.
If nothing else it has been an educational experience. Before I bought my home I read that owners should plan on having about 1% of the total value of the home in annual maintenance costs. This number seemed high to me but so far has been fairly close to the true costs of ownership. To be on the safe side I would budget this amount for maintenance. If it turns out to be less then your happy. If it turns out you need that much then your happy you had planned for it!
Jan
18
The Economics of Scarcity and Abundance
Recently I have been reading a bit on the economics of scarcity vs abundance. The basic idea is that as we progress technologically economics as we know it will fundamentally change because nearly everything will be abundantly available and thus free or nearly free. Since we do not live in an infinite universe it is obvious that we will never do away with scarcity but what if we get to a point that for all intensive purposes scarcity didn't exist? What would business look like? What would our personal lives look like? Would there still be hunger and disease in the world? Would there still be a great divide between the haves and have nots? As we progress as a society and continue to make technological strides we will be forced to answer these questions whether we like it or not.
Right now we are just in the early stages of what a world like that might look like and so far our response has been less than encouraging. As media becomes more and more available it appears that business and government are taking measures to create a false sense of scarcity. In the end this will only serve to stifle innovation and widen the gap between the wealthy and destitute. A good example of this is the telcos attempt to regulate bandwidth and create a tiered access network. This would in effect create an artificial scarcity in the system and in the long run even the execs of the telcos are hurt by these practices.
In the past, the very underpinnings of our economy are based upon the scarcity of materials. This is rapidly changing and businesses need to recognize that an economy of abundance opens new doors for them to innovate and make peoples lives better while still making money. In an economy where scarcity is irrelevant the businesses that succeed are the ones that are capable of providing the highest level of customer care and trying out the largest number of ideas.
I think this is a tremendously interesting topic and I would very much like to hear others thoughts. Here are some links for further reading:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061026/102329.shtml
http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2006/10/abundance_and_f.html
http://p6.hostingprod.com/@www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2006/001260.html
http://www.longtail.com/
Enjoy!
Jan
18
It's an ajax revolution :)
Ajax is a pretty cool technology as it allows developers to create cross platform applications that run in the browser. It also happens to be the buzz word of the year and lots of companies are buying on. Here are some of the cool ajax apps I've heard of so far:
http://www.geni.com/ - An online family tree builder.
http://www.weebly.com/ - An online site builder.
http://www.gliffy.com/ - An online diagramming tool.
Check them out if you get a chance, they are pretty cool.
Jan
13
Being a good leader
Relationships are a difficult thing to maintain; at least for me. I wish I could say that developing them and making them work came with ease for me; but, it doesn’t. I feel like they are something that I have to fight for. I wonder if everyone feels that way or if it’s just me.
One particularly difficult part for me is understanding how a position of authority works. It’s not something that I ever remember being taught. My personality is such that when I see something being done that I believe is wrong it is not difficult for me to speak up and say something. As I’ve learned the hard way too many times this can be a problem in relationships.
Continue reading "Being a good leader" »
Jan
10
Accelerando
I've recently finished a pretty decent book recommended by a co-worker, Accelerando, by Charles Stross. It's a SciFi book about the impending singularity and how humanity has to adapt to the changing world around them. For about the first half of the book I didn't care all that much for it. I felt like the author was a decent author but he spent a lot of time bashing the United States and Capitalism, not a sure way to win my heart. But as the book goes on this tones down and I started liking it much more.
One of the more intriguing questions of the book is what it means to be human. It's asked throughout the book but is never directly addressed. For example, in the book humanity has figured out how to completely map the human brain into a computer (the book assumes that if you could do this you would capture the essence of a human) or into other bodies (like animals or whatever). At one point the main character spends a number of years as a flock of pigeons (no, not one pigon, but a whole flock) as an experiment in collective consciousness. IF that's not challenging traditional ideas of what it means to be human I don't know what is.
Overall the book is worth the read and presents many challenging philosophical questions and the possible outcomes of the current technological race we are competing in. I'd recommend reading it. If you want to order it you can get your copy from amazon here.
Jan
09
Selling out
I guess some would call it selling out; giving into to the "man." In case you haven't noticed I have signed up for google adsense and placed three ads on the each of the pages in the site, one at the top, one on the side and one on the bottom. I don't think they are too intrusive and I am intrigued by the revenue earning potential.
My primary focus for this website is not to turn a profit but to have an avenue to publish my thoughts and maybe someone will find them useful. However, I don't see any harm in making a few dollars along the way. If it turns out to be a disaster, no big deal, I can take the ads off anytime I want. On the other hand if it turns out to provide some slightly useful information to users by showing them alternative content they may be interested in and can generate a few extra dollars a month then I think that's awesome.
I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on the subject--positive or negative.
Jan
08
Heart still beating and a new look
Yes, I am still alive. It's been a long 2 months since my last post. I have finally decided to devote some time to this site so I can post some videos I really like but also so I can put up some tutorials I've been planning to write.
Be looking for the changes, and oh yeah, how do you like the new look? I was sick of the old one, so we usher in the new year with a new look.
