According to my fellow SoCal Blogger, John Schroeder of Blogotional, it is futile to cultivate multicultural churches because any such attempts will only result in heartbreaking failure.

For one thing, merely calculating the racial compositions of congregations is misleading since “[i]f integration is to matter it must be a matter of the heart, not merely the head count.” Secondly, congregations are segregated only because of social forces causing people to drift to those with whom they relate more than anything else. Finally, any effort to unite people along racial, or any other, lines end up being artificially contrived. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I have been thinking about this for a while, but circumstances and other diversions have sidetracked me quite a bit.

Now, I think I am quite ready to finally make the move from blogger. Especially after witnessing both Messy Christian and djchuang migrating their respective blogs, it all seemed oh-so-easy. And I am jealousimpressed.

I think I am going to choose WordPress as my blogging software, which by all accounts, appears to be the most flexible without having to learn to re-create the wheel, like MT. I am going to have to find a host that will let me install WordPress or better yet, which has a free installation service. Those of you who have made the move, I have a few questions for you if you don’t mind Read the rest of this entry »

This week’s Best of Me Symphony is up at The Owner’s Manual with the Kinky Friedman as the gues host.

My submission this time is Fundamentalism and Fanaticism in Any Religion is Wrong, which is in response to what I thought was a sweeping generalization in criticism of Islam.

Go have check out this week’s fare at the The Owner’s Manual!

It is just right there - albeit verbally. After two greulling days of negotiation, I think this long drawn out process (beginning with even before I lost my job, and the ups and downs of the subsequent job search process) is finally drawing to a close. The smoke, however, hasn’t cleared.

I received a firm written offer on Wednesday night. It was just too fast, I tought.

I had just barely come back from the interview - in fact, I received a call about three hours after the interview (it was an hour and a half commute from the office to my house), and was told by the hirer that he had sent me the offer by e-mail.

When can I start?

I told him I needed time to read the offer and talk to my family, consider my options and then come back to him. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s getting closer people!

I want to thank all those of you who have offered me prayer support, a word of encouragement and an insight into life’s ups and downs and the assurance of God’s care and providence.

On Monday, I woke up with the resolve that I will get a job finally by the end of this week.

On Tuesday, my phone seemed not to stop ringing!

I had two further face-to-face interviews and a couple of phone interviews.

By Wednesday afternoon, I have one firm written offer and one verbal offer Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently by the time this post is up, Jim Nutt of A Nutt’s View is fast asleep, but the guy has been laboring most of today to put up this week’s Christian Carnival. There are 51 posts in all, so there is probably something for everyone to savor.

As Jim puts it he labored hard to put the carnival together for this week. With much pomp and enthusiasm, he presents the carnival for your “amazement, amusement and edification” for you …”to watch”, “to gasp”, “to marvel” and “to weep”.

My own submission this week is a Read the rest of this entry »

From DJ Chuang: Rick Warren is going to spend the whole of Tuesday AND Wednesday on not one, or two or three but ten different shows nationally! Wow!

I can feel the heads shaking and the chins wagging already.

But I join DJ in asking that all those who see this as an opportunity for the gospel to pray for our brother.

Moreover, perhaps we need to see this an opportunity for all of us to talk to our friends and neighbors about what he wrote about, to pray that we are able to use this as a means to talk a little more about our faith with our friends. Read the rest of this entry »

Just received a personality profile report from one of the job opportunities that I am chasing.

It is a 27-page manifesto-like report on my personality trait profile, and the potential match between what I am as a person and how I might perform in a sales position.

Very interesting read.

Here is what it says in part:

…consistently meets the challenge of persuading people to his point of view. Some buyers may desire less talk and more facts…Inclined to talk smoothly, readily and at length, he loves the opportunity to verbalize… He becomes highly excited about selling something that he really likes. He can become emotional about the product or service that he provides to his clients or customers.

Perhaps I should be a preacher? Read the rest of this entry »

A few days ago, I wrote about some criticisms, unjustified in my view, of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life.

Apparently there are many who share such critical assessments of the book, and some are even questioning his teachings, his beliefs and that of his church, the Saddleback Church.

It seems that people are also finding further evidence of his theological non-orthodoxy in the column that he has begun to write in the Ladies Home Journal Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I was musing about whether or not it is right to negotiate the highest possible price for a commodity when one is selling on EBay.

At the time that I was asking the question my daughter had come to me to inquire about a situation in which she was offered a price much higher than what she had paid for an item which she was auctioning off. She was wondering if it was morally right to sell an item so much above her asking price.

Although we decided that the selling price of an item at an auction was totally negotiable with the both seller and buyer attempting to get the most value for their money, I had some doubts about morality of the whole process/system Read the rest of this entry »

The Best of Me Symphony for this week is up, and this time the cacophony of posts, quotes and graphical accompaniment are guest hosted by “the best British columnist you never heard of, Julie Burchill.”

My submission for this week is Showing Mercy to the Poor, a post that was inspired by a sermon my pastor delivered, and also written in response to the fracas that was the debate about stingy-ness and helpfulness to those who are less fortunate and going through suffering.

Talking about some of the other posts include comments about the age-old argument against God’s existence in light of the inscrutable suffering present in the world, as well as the usual political commentaries and other posts.

Go visit Gary Cruse’s The Owner’s Manual and enjoy!

My daughter is currently caught up in the craze of selling through eBay (Note: Selling, not buying; thank God for small mercies!).

Last year, she went on an unchecked spending spree (she calls it her “retail therapy”) when she was able to earn quite a bit of money. Finding herself without many bills and having just discovered the supposed “wonders” of the consumer credit system, she amassed for herself “bargains” from such brand-names as Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Now that her credit card bills are catching up on her she is beginning to see the errors of her ways and have begun to let her prized-collection go via eBay auctions.

Because all of the items she is auctioning off are genuine brand-name articles that she picked up at so-called “discounts”, she is getting bids that are now equaling or surpassing what she originally paid for the items, even though the retail prices are even much higher Read the rest of this entry »