Quotable on A Geek's Life

3 Day Quote Challenge - 3

Sun, 20 May 2018 22:13:54 +0000

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 4:18–20).

Spring Cleaning..

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 21:07:51 +0000

They say the good is the enemy of the best or something to that effect. I am learning that this also applies to people. The worst kind of those has to be those who are happy to take one’s time without making any commitments in return. Over the last few days of reflection it has become apparent that I have a number of those (as well as being that sort of friend to some other people also).

Of Creatives and Their Work

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 16:30:42 +0000

The quote above had only been posted to a Whatsapp group I’m part of for all of an hour before it set off a firestorm. The bone of contention was Anais Nin’s body of work, (probably rightly) deemed inappropriate for the context in which it was posted (it’s a group filled with the super spiritual folk I serve alongside on my church’s tech and media team).

I made a spirited attempt at defending the value of her body of work - risque subject and bohemian lifestyle notwithstanding - a position which left me just short of getting my knuckles rapped. I started typing a lengthy response in the group but did the sensible thing and backed off, taking the time to ponder what I felt was a wider philosophical question: can an artist’s lifestyle be decoupled from their body of work? Or even certain elements of that body work?

#72 - Quotable, On love and 'Rightness'...

Mon, 14 Mar 2016 08:38:00 +0000

Image Source: Challies.com

To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to loved and cared for by God the Father is greater- J.I. Packer

#Perspective

#69 - Notes to Self

Fri, 11 Mar 2016 23:08:27 +0000

[tweet https://twitter.com/EugeneCho/status/708128160949243904 ]

#NoteToSelf

#66 - Borrowed

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 20:59:19 +0000

Borrowed @ MindBodyGreen

#NoteToSelf

The Writer Is....

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 21:26:42 +0000

…Neither saint nor Tzadik nor prophet standing at the gate; he’s just another sinner who has somewhat sharper awareness and uses slightly more precise language to describe inconceivable reality of our world. He doesn’t invent a single feeling or thought – all of them existed long before him… He’s here, at our side, buried up to his neck in mud and filth.

The Seven Good Years: A Memoir, Etgar Keret

Freedom Is...

Sun, 01 Mar 2015 18:00:00 +0000

.. A deep work (what happens in you is greater than what happens to you, and is deeper than the workings of the circumstances and situations that frame our daily life), a quick work (God takes a long time to do something quick - as long as it takes for us to turn away from what ever else we look to for help on to Him) and a lasting work (what happens through you is meant to outlast you, and true success is measured by how much it empowers the next generation to extend the work that we do). Or so says the phenomenal Joel A’Bell whom I stumbled on in today’s Hillsong London pitstop..

Quotable.. Francis Chan

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 21:39:13 +0000

Francis Chan at Passion 2013:

Do you believe….That God is looking at you regardless of what you’ve done going ‘I’ll buy you back? I know you’re faithless but I never stop being Faithful, pursuing you, loving you… And as long as it is still called today, as long as you’re still breathing, right now you’ve got a chance. I’ll buy you back right now. I’ll take you back… You just lay it at the cross.

5 Tests of Compatibility

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 18:00:54 +0000

From my current read, Ben Young and Dr Sam Adams’ book - The One: A Realistic Guide to Choosing Your Soul Mate.

Is there chemistry? Are you sexually/ physically attracted to your partner?
Is your relationship natural? Do things flow naturally or are you spending a lot more time resolving issues than demonstrating a natural fit?
Would this be a good friend? If the chemistry was removed, is it someone you’d want to be with, whose company you enjoy?
Can you accept his or her personality as is? Could you spend the rest of your life with the person as they are?
Would you want your kids to be like him or her? Could you envision a future in which your children turn out like him or her?

Oh and to pass the test, it must be ‘Yes’, 100%…

Arthur Ashe on God and religion

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:18:22 +0000

Arthur Ashe’s moving memoir ‘Days of Grace’ ends with a heartfelt letter to his (then) six year old daughter Camera in which he unpacks all the things he suspects his illness will deny him the opportunity of telling her in future. Covering a range of categories from the importance of family, racial discrimination, loss, marriage, money and even faith, it reads like a distillation of many years of living and learning. The section where he talks about faith and religion reads like a primer for a balanced, liberal, yet essentially Judeo-Christian worldview. Excerpts below:

On Reality

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 02:52:46 +0000

Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems..

…so said Salman Rushdie. The corollary is that memory is deceptive, and nostalgia can skew our recollection of things so much that it becomes an alternate reality far removed from the cold, hard facts as they occurred.

Sometimes clarity hits you suddenly like a blow to the solar plexus, at other times the bleeding obvious slowly becomes apparent. All told, some day a bloke has to decide – what’s important, what’s not, and what to leave to fight another day….

Half-full or half-empty?

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:47:41 +0000

Breaking up has its perks - especially when there was the small matter of a six hour difference and 3,000 plus miles. On the plus side, the need to remember birthdays (I sucked majorly at this, which probably added to my being kicked to the kerb), answer phone calls at odd hours of the day and be a pillar of strength to someone finally vanishes, and one is free to pursue other interests. On the flip side, the months of getting to know someone from the ground up are then tossed away, as though all meaning were trivial. Only after a while does the real cost register - long periods that were once filled with sharing the minutiae of life are suddenly filled with solitude; solitude which has the potential to bend one’s mind and numb it into a stupor.

Al Mohler on Vocation

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 08:00:36 +0000

A few weeks ago, ‘Jane Doe’ prompted some deep thinking by Single Nigerian, leading him to ponder if trying now and then was enough when others had sacrificed things (even their lives) to ‘get the word to the common man.’

I was listening to an old message by Al Mohler - Being Men and Raising Men [ mp3] - whilst walking to work today, and a section [begins at 51;11] struck me as being a very apt answer to that question.

Wilberforce.... On Social Responsibility

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:05:00 +0000

If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

William Wilberforce (Abolusionist & Member of Parliament)

Jim Elliot on what really matters....

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:55:00 +0000

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Jim Elliot (Missionary to Ecuador and Martyr)

Piper on why we do not hunger for God.....

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:24:00 +0000

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife