R's Commonplace Book

Author: RNDL (page 1 of 70)

  1. Give an inch, take a mile. That’s what one person is doing with the good will of another.

  2. And what will we do with such sayings as the one above if America goes metric? Would be easier not to have to do conversions, however.

  3. Posting by email is one of WP’s best ideas. It’s how this site gets updated, every time.

  4. Busy good week that passed. Had a bit of everything in good measure. Including two baptisms.

  5. Besides English and Spanish, what language does each U.S. state speak most? Surprise!

  6. Had my FMag article well on the way, just needed some additional touches. Even deals with the month’s them.

  7. A Bible verse, and a serious question: “Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord?” 1 Sam 15.19a.

Two days without opening up my laptop. Must be an all-time record. I did check email on the iPad, watch notices flow by (without response) on the smartphone, but no serious engagement with anyone. Motive: a bug in the old organic system called the body. Not completely conquered as of today, but at least said system is up and about, anxious to live and move and breathe.

Breakfast with Douglas at 7.30 am was great. May have a study with Sidney at 2.30 pm. Baptism of Eliseu and Fabiana at 3.30, but they’ll probably be here around 3. Vicki has a study with Malu at 6.30. All good.

Tomorrow is a holiday, so we’re going to get together at 9 am, learn some new songs (Douglas’s part), have something for couples (my part; our Valentine’s Day was the 16th), and have a brunch (everybody’s part). Will be another good one.

Why not shut down all social media accounts and go only with online presence via websites? The thought pummels the mind, dares the will to decide. The act would achieve simplicity in this area. There are people who have done this and survived. Would it hurt outreach, or focus it? Maybe consider starting a webring. There’s an open-source option. Would have to find someone who knows how to use the command line in order to do it. Some days you just want to get away from it all.

Footnote of the NET Bible on 1 Cor 3.4, “For whenever someone says, ‘I am with Paul,’ or ‘I am with Apollos,’ are you not merely human?” —

6 tn Grk “are you not men,” i.e., (fallen) humanity without the Spirit’s influence. Here Paul does not say “walking in accordance with” as in the previous verse; he actually states the Corinthians are this. However, this is almost certainly rhetorical hyperbole.

Paul’s comment seems straightfoward. Whenever someone says such things, such a person is not spiritual. He is carnal. He reverts to his fallen humanity without the Spirit’s influence. Now perhaps the writer of the NET Bible comment says, “I am a Baptist,” or “I am an Assembly of God member,” or “I am a Catholic,” and himself falls within this category. Of course, he’d want to consider Paul’s statement as “almost certainly rhetorical hyperbole.” When you participate in a division far worse than than in Corinth, you’d rather not think of yourself in such terms.

Anybody who denigrates obedience in any way does not have the spirit of Christ. It is one thing to attempt salvation on one’s own merits; quite another to lovingly submit to God in obedience to the Lord’s commands. By obedience are we all saved, Heb 5.9. A large set of religious folk have confused the two with their damnable doctrine of salvation by faith only.

The research surveys what people actually die from and what they search for information on, as well as news in the NYT and Guardian. It did not include deaths caused by alcoholism, neither directly or indirectly (such as traffic accidents), wonder why?

Homicides are also very overrepresented in the news, by a factor of 31. The most underrepresented in the media are kidney disease (11-fold), heart disease (10-fold), and, perhaps surprisingly, drug overdoses (7-fold). Stroke and diabetes are the two causes most accurately represented.

Perhaps we don’t like to admit how much we are killing ourselves.

  1. Commitment to truth means popularity is not a goal nor a possibility.

  2. Have found two places that make cappuccino with alternatives to cow’s milk. Happy!

  3. See this photo of what I see outside my living room window these days.

  4. Those who seem to feel most sorry for the sins of their ancestors appear to have little remorse for their own lack of discipline and diligence.

  5. Numerous posts to sites recently, is good, but all on English side. Now to move to Portuguese.

  6. An original verse: The world is populated with wiselings / Whose torrent of words are naught but piffling.

  7. A Bible verse: “He plans ways to sin while he lies in bed; he is committed to a sinful lifestyle; he does not reject what is evil” Psa 36.4.

Good description of “dogs” in Phil 3 by Stephen Bradd:

Paul first declares – “Beware of dogs”. Obviously, he’s not warning them about any literal four-legged dogs, but he is warning them about humans who were behaving like dogs. From the other warnings in this immediate context, we know that Paul was referring to the Judaizers (i.e., certain Jews who had been baptized and who were determined to force Gentile Christians to keep the law of Moses, particularly regarding circumcision). They were like dogs in that they were constantly barking out their false doctrine, hounding Paul, and biting and devouring others with their error.

  1. What is legalism but trust in one’s own powers to be what God approves? And what is progressivism but arrogance to imagine that God approves of one’s own ideas?

  2. The rhyming pair love/above can be used in a poem only so many times before it grows old. It grew old centuries ago. I’m a latecomer, but even I feel that.

  3. Read this prayer. And say amen. And let the Lord work in your life to bring it about.

  4. When people feel free to confess weakness and ask for prayer, much progress can be made, both individually and as the body of Christ.

  5. Growth and strength come slowly, most of the time. Leave off your good habits, however, and see how quickly they wane.

  6. An original verse: The universe has limits but not its Creator; / Creation or the Maker, which is greater?

  7. A Bible verse: “No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known” Jn 1.18.

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