Consistency

The word of the day is consistency.

First of all, I admire the consistency of Christianity. Despite objections, criticism, etc. from skeptics: we have an answer to every facet of life. If we base our answers off of biblical principles, we remain wholly consistent in our world view. Atheism cannot make this claim. Their world view shifts from person to person and is largely subjective. Objective truth can only be found through God.

So why the Christian God? Why not the god(s) of a different religion? Do they not all have the same truth? It is politically correct to accept all religions as true. This is beyond stupid. Religions are mutually exclusive, they denounce one another. It is a fool's dream to believe that all of the religions can live side by side in perfect harmony. Someone ends up compromising their beliefs.

Despite the number of authors, the Bible is remarkably consistent. The Bible has stood the test of time and stands as truth (despite all of "science"'s effort to prove it unreliable). People may differ on interpretation, but objective truth can be found there. Archaeological evidence continues to demonstrate that the Bible is true.

And what of you? It is funny. Despite knowing all these things about Christianity, the Bible, and God... I still find myself immature as a Christian. My faith is so lacking. I need to become a more disciplined, consistent disciple of Christ.

Bible Reading Plan

Anyone want to take part in a Bible Reading Plan with me for the new year?

Perhaps in the ESV?
Or maybe chronologically?

Lemme know,
Richard

Need Time to Think

Need to slow down. Hope Monday and Tuesday are good slow days.

Three kinds of people.

I want to be a sheep dog.

The New Face Of Socialism?

Justice used to mean that you reap what you sow.
Now it means that the weak and lazy are given a share of the pie.

Fairness used to mean that if you earn something you keep it. Now it means that nobody misses out, including those who did nothing to earn it.

Compassion used to mean that you feel sorry for somebody who screwed up and you showed them how to CHANGE. Now it means a free pass for delinquents.

Cell Phone Plans: The Aftermath

From Telus: (for bragging rights)

LG Dare ($99.99 on a 2 yr contract - yes I spoiled myself)
250 Minutes
Per Second Billing
CID, CFWD, CW
100 outgoing text, unlimited incoming
6pm Eve, Wk

$23.05 per month (Taxes, SAF IN)

Friendship

I have been thinking about the fellowship a a lot. (What else is new?) My talk with Jeff Chan allowed me to realize once again, how blessed I am to have a team and not wing it out on my own. Hat tip to Allan, also.

Kelly - I am very thankful for your servant heart and your unwavering faith. When you speak about God it reminds me to appreciate God for who He is. Your words stir the heart.
Vicki - I have always viewed you as the responsible and sensible one. Only recently have I discovered a new dimension: your faith and prayer-mindedness.
Eleasa - I have always admired your willingness to learn and take in new things. I think you only recently started coming out of your shell! (With all the silly sayings). You should come back soon! We need your task-orientedness.
Felix - You're my brother. I can't say much more than that. :)

Sunday

I realize I don't remember sermons. I think it has to do with listening instead of writing things down. I think I will start writing notes down again. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything worth writing lately. This may be more on me, than the quality of sermons.

Lunch was quality time with my main man, Jeff Chan. Jeff is always a great person to talk to. He has a wealth of experience in a number of different areas, so it is always a pleasure to have his company. We talked about church, our spiritual lives (mostly mine), girls, etc. I think we tease him a lot, but he is always a good sport.

We had our fellowship dinner for Christmas. We need to plan a new years get together, too. :) I realize we didn't take a group picture, as we are always fond of doing. Vinci wasn't there. There was a lot of memories that night, which I have included in point form below.

Highlights of the Night: (in no particular order)
Surprise leading up to Birthday Cake
Kat's "My dad..." link to previous surprise party
Chewie losing his toque
"MMmmm what you say" on the tv... and while I was blowing out candles
Kelly's gracious forfeit of a flush to my 3 queens
Alex's poker hood
Eddie and Sherry's super settlers team
Lights flickering on and off as I approach the Chan residence
Cheeken Mahjong
Winning non-Cheeken Mahjong :P
Chewie finding his toque

How to Live Life

"The secret to occupational happiness is tricking others into paying you to do things you would probably do for free." - Mike S. Adams

Mike is my new hero.

Read the "How to Live Life" series here and here.

Heart.

My heart was broken today.

Infantilisation of our Culture

Read about it here.

I'll add my own thoughts another day.

Holidays

Thinking about taking some days off.

Anyone want to go on a skiing/snowboarding adventure with me if I do?

Books

-- The Library --
Updated: April 11th 2010

(IOW, books you can borrow!)

Warning: I have many books listed here, they are each good in a specific context. For instance, I may like a certain writer's stance on a certain issue, but not agree with his theology. It is best to ask me personally.

T4G2010 (kept here temporarily til I sort it out):
"The Holiness of God" - R. C. Sproul
"The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation" - Michael Reeves
"It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement" - Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence
"The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything" - Colin Marshall and Tony Payne
The ESV Study Bible
"The Gospel for Muslims: An Encouragement to Share Christ with Confidence" - Thabiti Anyabwile
"What Is the Gospel?" - Greg Gilbert
"The Jesus You Can’t Ignore: What You Must Learn from the Bold Confrontations of Christ" - John MacArthur
"Dug Down Deep: Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters" - Joshua Harris
"Finally Alive" - John Piper
"Jonathan Edwards on Beauty" - Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney
"The Plight of Man and the Power of God" - Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
"The Essential Jonathan Edwards Collection" - Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney
"The Priority of Preaching" - Christopher Ash
"He Is Not Silent: Preaching in a Postmodern World" - Albert Mohler
"Fear Not! Death and the Afterlife from a Christian Perspective" - Ligon Duncan
"Proclaiming a Cross-Centered Theology" - T4G
"Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus" - D.A. Carson
"Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God" - J.I. Packer
"The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline" - Jonathan Leeman
"Marks of the Messenger: Knowing, Living and Speaking the Gospel" - J. Mack Stiles

Bought at T4G:
"Jonathan Edwards: A Life" - George M. Marsden
"Counted righteous in Christ" - John Piper
"The Death of Death in the death of Christ" - John Owen
"The Bruised Reed" - Richard Sibbes
"The Valley of Vision" - Assorted

If anything, ask for:
"What is the Gospel?" - Greg Gilbert

"The Cross-Centered Life" - C. J. Mahaney

"Basic Christianity" - John Stott

"Why I Still Believe" - Joe Boot

Christian Living:
"What is the Gospel?" - Greg Gilbert

"The Cross-Centered Life" - C. J. Mahaney

"Basic Christianity" - John Stott

"The Cross of Christ" - John Stott
"Why I am a Christian" - John Stott [on loan - KL]

"Heaven" - Randy Alcorn

"The Cost of Discipleship" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer [on loan - KL]
"Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer [on loan - KY]

"The Grand Weaver" - Ravi Zacharias [on loan - VM]

"Signature Classics" - C. S. Lewis

"God is the Gospel" - John Piper [on loan - HN]

"The Imitation of Christ" - Thomas À Kempis

"The Holiness of God" - R. C. Sproul

"Knowing God" - J. I. Packer

"18 Words" - J. I. Packer

"Atonement" - Leon Morris

"The Cross and Christian Ministry" - D. A. Carson

"The Discipline of Grace" - Jerry Bridges
"Nine Marks of a Healthy Church" - Mark Dever
"Foxe's Book of Martyrs" - John Foxe (2007 update)
"Discovering The Power of The Cross of Christ" - Spurgeon

"Martin Lloyd Jones: The First Forty Years" - Iain H. Murray
"Martin Lloyd Jones: The Fight of Faith" - Iain H. Murray

Christian Fiction:

"Safely Home" - Randy Alcorn [on loan - KY]

Bible Study:

"Getting the message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible" - Daniel M. Doriani
"How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth" - Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart

Electronic: (A short search, and you'll find the book online)

"The Mortification of Sin" - John Owen

"Practicing the Presence of God" - Brother Lawrence

"Confessions" - St. Augustine

"The Pursuit of God" - A. W. Tozer

"The Treasury of David" - Charles Spurgeon

"Pilgrims Progress" - John Bunyan

"A Serious Call to Holy Living" - William Law

"Orthodoxy" - G. K. Chesterton

"Religious Affections" - Jonathan Edwards

Christian Apologetics:

"Why I Still Believe" - Joe Boot
"The Reason for God" - Tim Keller

"Jesus Among other Gods" - Ravi Zacharias

"Always Ready" - Greg Bahnsen

"Case for Faith" - Lee Strobel [lost?]

"Case for Creator" - Lee Strobel

"Case for Christ" - Lee Strobel [lost?]

"When Skeptics Ask" - Norman L. Geisler

"Misquoting Truth" - Timothy Paul Jones

"Reasonable Faith" - William Lane Craig

"The Irrational Athiest" - Vox Day

"Counterfeit Gods" - Tim Keller

Theology Resources:

"Systematic Theology" 4th ed. - Wayne Grudem

"Institutes of the Christian Religion" - John Calvin
Calvin's Commentaries
"Church History in Plain Language" - Bruce Shelley

"Introduction to Old Testament Theology" - J. H. Sailhamer

Ask in person.

-- Want to own/read in varying degrees --

"The Potter's Freedom" - James R. White

"Pilgrim's Regress" - C. S. Lewis and Michael Hague

"The Path of Prayer" - Samuel Chadwick

"God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God." - Alvin Plantiga

"Can Man Live Without God?" - Ravi Zacharias

"Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend" - Ravi Zacharias

"Created in God's Image" - Anthony Hoekema

"God's Smuggler" - John Sherrill & Elizabeth Sherill

"The Heavenly Man" - Brother Yun & Paul Hattaway

"Knowing the Face of God" - Tim Stafford

"The Five People You Meet in Heaven" - Mitch Albom

"The End of Christendom" - Malcolm Muggeridge

"Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics" - Norman L. Geisler

"The Forgotton Trinity" - British Council of Churches

"Future Grace" - John Piper

"KJV Only Controversy" - James R. White

"The Fight" - John White

"The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World" - Alister McGrath

"Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People" - Esther Lightcap Meek

"A Francis Schaeffer Trilogy: The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, He Is There and He Is Not Silent" - Francis Schaeffer

"Naming the Elephant: Worldview As a Concept" - James W. Sire

"Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense" - N.T. Wright

"What's So Great About Christianity" - Dinesh D'Souza

"The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism" - G.K. Beale

"What The Bible Says About God the Ruler" - Jack Cottrell

"Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts" - A.W. Tozer

"Counterfeit Revival" - Hank Hanegraaff

"Charismatic Chaos" - John McArthur

"Of God and Men" - A. W. Tozer

Cross Examined

"We’ve failed to recognize that what we win them with we win them to. If we win them with emotion, we win them to emotion."

Source

Cross Examined is a group dedicated to solving the youth leaving the church crisis in the States.

Sea of Faces

Mike S. Adams

Late one morning in May of 1996, I stuck my head out of the window of James and Stephanie’s Manhattan apartment to get some not-so-fresh air while I drank my morning coffee. We were just getting up before noon after a long night of talking God and politics at an Irish pub called Peter McManus’ located somewhere around 20th Street. I looked down at the droves of people flooding the streets for the noon lunch break wondering whether it was possible for God to have a plan for each one of their lives as well as a concern for each one’s well-being.

Those questions may seem odd for one to ponder over morning coffee but they aren’t so strange for one who just weeks before had broken the chains of atheism that had bound him for so long. Just because I renounced atheism one day on the way out of a damp prison in Quito, Ecuador, did not mean I instantly became a Christian. That would not happen until years later when I recognized that a personal relationship with God was not only a possibility but an indispensable aspect of Christianity.

Since that time I’ve had the opportunity to share my faith with a lot of people. In fact, many people who read this column tell me to stop doing it. My awareness that it gets under their skin is the principal reason I continue. Christianity is not always comforting and those most annoyed with it are often the closest to conversion.

It should go without saying that I’m always pleased to hear when a reader turns to Christ. There’s no greater joy than hearing the good news that someone has accepted the Good News. By the same token, there is nothing more devastating than hearing of a reader turning away from Christianity. That happened to me recently when a fellow I once witnessed to said, “I still believe in God but I feel like he only intervenes in my life when he wants to (expletive) with me.”

The fellow who told me that also said he was not a “conservative Christian” like me but instead a “more liberal Christian.” He may or may not know that he’s on the verge of no longer being a Christian at all.

Perhaps the most accurate thing my reader has recently said about Christianity is that I am a conservative Christian. That conservatism is reflected in two things I believe to be absolutely certain about the life of a Christian:

1) I believe that - because we live in a world broken by sin and occupied by fundamentally flawed individuals - storms are inevitable. If all hell has not yet broken loose in your life it soon will. Chaos would not be so pervasive if people were as fundamentally good as the so-called liberal Christian deems them to be.

2) When all hell breaks loose in life, each individual is faced with the choice of moving toward the Cross or away from the Cross. Every person in every tumultuous situation chooses one or the other of these two options. A man has no one but himself to blame for the consequences of making the wrong decision – though the so-called liberal Christian probably dislikes my emphasis on free will.

When one responds to tragedy by moving towards the Cross it is impossible to believe that God only intervenes in men’s lives when he wants to (expletive) with them. The closer one moves to the Cross, the more one understands that God really is willing to intervene in the lives of men. One also understands that God does it because he loves all of his children and wants to have a real and permanent relationship with them.

That is why I am so irritated with self-proclaimed liberal Christians like John Shelby Spong. Those like Spong who either deny the importance of the resurrection or deny its occurrence altogether share a transparent political motivation. If you get too close to the Cross, you get too close to the reality of sin and its consequences. And then you alienate valuable political allies.

Some may believe that the liberal Christian’s willingness to cut out portions of the New Testament prohibiting sexual sin makes it easier for him to cut out portions dealing with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Maybe it is more accurate to say that the removal of the crucifixion and resurrection story makes it necessary to delete all of the commandments that make the liberal Christian feel uncomfortable.

Seldom has the so-called liberal Christian’s discomfort with the Cross been as evident as in the aftermath of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. Reviews in magazines like The Nation showed unbelievable hysteria from the so-called Christian Left ending with a chorus of accusations of anti-Semitism directed towards Gibson and his movie.

Whatever anti-Semitic feelings Gibson may harbor, his movie was not anti-Semitic. I would like to personally thank the Jews. Because of their role in killing my Savior, they helped to secure my salvation.

But the so-called liberal Christian sees it differently. He is reminded of his sin when he sees the bloody torture of Jesus of Nazareth. So he asks why we don’t just focus on all of Jesus’ acts of kindness towards the poor.

And that is where my reader finds himself today. When he is not proclaiming that God only intervenes in his life occasionally to (expletive) with him he is out building houses for Habitat for Humanity.

Jesus did posit as his Second Great Commandment that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. But, before we reach out to do good for our neighbors, the First Great Commandment says we must love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul. We can’t do that without moving towards the Cross of Christ when things are stormy in our lives.

It is only when we focus on the horror of Jesus’ death that we realize how much he loves us. And it is only when we believe the resurrection that we know Jesus stands outside of time and hears our cries above the thunder.

Source

CCF Banquet 2009

Went downtown for CCF Banquet. I have graduated already, so I felt old. Other than general information gathering, I feel God called me there for three reasons. I will elaborate below.

1. I talked to Rini-bear and Angie's friend Jessica. She is non-Christian. She talks a lot. It sounds like she is wondering what world awaits her upon her graduation in May of next year. Could it be..... Jesus?

2. I chatted with a wonderful girlfriend of mine. Her passion for God is always something I admire. She is a "younger" Christian than I. But, in so many ways...she has matured much more. It is all about God for her. I cannot say much more. o_O

3. Phillip and I spent some time chatting about different things as his dad drove us home. I originally did not want to go with him, but God was saying I should. We talked about different things all Jesus related. I am encouraged that he wants to learn apologetics, but I cautioned him that he cannot use it to replace his devotional time.

I sang praises on the way home. It was an awesome day.

Dwelling

"For someone who dwells so much on the Kingdom of God, it is amazing how little you have done to further it."

-- Anonymous

Democracy in the Missionary Alliance

An illuminating look.

Being Missional

A new take on church planting?

Silver Lining

"If there is a silver lining in the catastrophe, it is the confidence that many lost sheep will be once more found."

-- Vox Day

Carrots

Sunday night was a pretty good night. We played "The Game of Things". It involves a topic (chosen by card) where everyone writes something that comes to mind, and people guess who wrote what item. Some people write down legitimate responses, others note items of hilarity. One topic was "Things that make you cry". Two people wrote "onions", someone wrote "watching sad movies", "chick flicks", and there was more. After realizing many people would write "onions", I scratched it out and wrote "carrots" (while giggling). That was a bad round for me.

I was floored when they brought out a surprise birthday cake for me. In fact, I saw the two with the cake beforehand, and thought it was for someone else. I went to help them turn off the lights. It was pretty funny when the cake came around to me. It was a carrot cake.

Something that has left me worried over the night is my friends' blatant opposition to God and Christianity. One claimed that they don't believe in Heaven. She also said she uses tarot cards. Another questioned the innocence of churchgoers. I did not refute their arguments. As the only other Christian there, I wish I had thrown down. Sadly, I neither think that it was prudent nor in God's plan.

On the plus side, I think there is someone that will be open to the gospel message. I think she is the most open-minded out of my friends and I will have to re-establish communication with her. Praise God for it was a worthwhile night of both fun times and things to think about. :)

Grounded

The more I read news, the more I realize and understand how much the world is against God. One has to constantly be grounded in the Bible to make sense of all this. The issues are nothing new, history repeats over time. The only thing that has stood the test of time is His Word. It is no mystery why.

It annoys and frustrates me to no end, when people are so blind to what is going on. It is such a paradigm for me, though. To retaliate in the same manner...to slander? to throw lies? to confuse? all are condemned by God.

Man, I just read it over... Imma come back to this topic another day.

Poor Reasoning

Fear is always a poor reason for doing or not doing something.

Vague much? Yes, yes I am.

Default.

I think my default mood is pessimistic and negative. I focus on those things.

I am happy though, perhaps it is the thinker in me?

Extra Extra!

Bible Knowledge at All-Time Low!

Late

The time is 7:45AM. The time I take to prepare for work is 10 minutes. I played it out wrong today, and missed the 8:00 AM bus for the first time. It is a heavy price, costing me an hour to wait for the next one. I rewarded myself with a hot chocolate from Starbucks and spent some time with God.

But wait, there's more.

The bus that arrives for 9:05 AM arrived at 9:15 AM. The bus driver says "There is a problem on the 401, we'll be taking an unusual route today to avoid the traffic, so don't be alarmed if you don't recognize anything." I drift off into oblivion.

The time is 10:30 AM. I awaken. I felt very refreshed. To my dismay, We are still on the road. Not only that, we haven't made the first stop yet. Half an hour later, I arrive at work. It typically takes 40-50 minutes to get to work. Today, the commute was two hours.

On the way, I saw the cause of the slow traffic. 401 was reduced to 1 lane, right at the exit I would have normally gotten off at. There was no way to avoid it! The bus driver was quite comical about it. "To your left, you will see...the cause of the delay."

It's all good though, I needed the quiet time.

QOD

"Let me put this bluntly, if you do not know the Scriptures, if you have not learned to handle the Christian’s spiritual weapons rightly the devil is going to shoot you in the balls with his arrows of lies! The result is that you will become confused, discouraged, immobilized and unproductive as a Christian and eventually, slowly drift away from the faith."

- Rik Fleming, Journal of a Battling Christian

Source

Headache.

ZOMG I need sleepz.

side note: updated my TFSA post here.

Heartache.

We pray for that moment. We pray for the desire to love God and follow Him. We pray for Him to break our hearts for the things that break His. We ask all these things, and then what?

My heart has literally ached these past few days. I have been only offered slight solace in prayer, but it continues on.

The truth is, I don't even know what to say about it.

I will confess that I am very tempted to try to squelch out the heartache: To willfully engage in sin. To dull the senses.

Why not stop? Why try so hard?

This world is so evil. What would the difference between ultimate good and better than the average?

I can't even answer that. I soldier on. I have to say that it has to be the Spirit. Because, my reason and my will would have given up a long time ago.

Lesson

I went to Square One after work on Thursday. Consider it a mini prayer walk. I was not really there to purchase anything, more to just observe the different sights and sounds of the busy shopping mall. A couple things I noticed, before I did into the heart of the story:

• "Merry Christmas" was one of the rotating messages on the electronic banner of the Christmas Tree in the food court.
• "Don't mess with the Fairies" sign in Green Earth. I was thoroughly disturbed. After which, I prayed against the fairies.
• Saleswomen wear revealing clothing despite the freezing temperature. Again, I was thoroughly disturbed.

So I sat myself on one of those comfy chairs outside of Walmart and decided to read my mini bible. Spend some time in prayer and just prepare my heart for the team meeting later that evening. A chinese man approaches me.

"Are you Christian?" That was an easy question. He then proceeds to tell me that his car has broken down. Granted, a lot of this is in Chinese. But, I surmised that his battery was dead and that he needed a jump. "Mo Deen". :/

At this point, a person would commonly think: Is this person someone that could harm me? With the hype of the media, it would not be difficult to imagine all the horrible things that could happen to someone in a darkened parking lot while their back is turned. I prayed to God. I did not feel a pressing answer in either direction. I looked at the man, and thought "I could take him" (in a fight). So off we went.

We went to the parking lot, and I was asking him "Where is your car?". And he said, oh that it was south on Hurontario. So we took my car and drove down Hurontario. So as we are driving, we are talking. I find out that he is Buddhist. Superb. Since, I don't know where I am driving to I ask him again, "So, where is your car?".

"Oh, it is an impound lot. The guy told me I should wait somewhere warm." My mind, "WHAT!?". "Oh...so where do you want me to take you?" "Home... in Brantford." At which point, I have to tell him that this is not doable. I have a meeting with people, which was the honest truth. I decide to drop him off at Cooksville, where he can take the bus to Union and take a greyhound from there.

I give him money. He originally asks for $20, but that amount balloons as we get closer to cooksville. He offers to pay it back, if I would give him my home address. I did not, telling him to pay it forward. He asks me when the bus will be coming, as I let him off. I told him they come within 20 minutes, which is true for rush hour...I was not sure for that particular instant. I can only hope that it comes for him very quickly.

I have to ask the inevitable question: Was I scammed or was this an actual person in need? I am leaning towards a person who needed help, but was afraid to ask fully outright what they wanted. Sort of like a person who asks for a little with the intention of getting more. This sort of comes more true with the lies and the money stuff. (It is a pretty inefficient scam to get someone to drive you to Brantford, unless you plan to beat him and take his car in the middle of nowhere. Even so, Brantford?)

The more important question is what did God want to teach me out of this? Of the things I was upset about, that I sort of lied to get him out of my car (bus schedule). And that on the way to Cooksville, he was talking about how "god" brought him to me. I was silent. The thing that embarrasses me the most is not that I could have been scammed and lied to, but that I did not say anything about Jesus.

Prop 8

I think I will stop watching Jack Black movies.

Another Quote!

"All I ask is the chance to prove that money can't make me happy."

- Spike Milligan

Quote of the Day.

Two Quotes, you lucky people:

"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity."

-- Bill Vaughan

"Perhaps one day the Indian will put down his tomahawk and the white man will put down his gun, and the white man will pick up his gun again because ha-ha, sucker."

--Jack Handey

Tax Free Saving Account

So I will stop talking about it in person. Accounts can be opened in January 2009, here are some helpful links:

Bloggers:
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/02/26/tax-free-savings-account-tfsa
http://www.four-pillars.ca/2008/11/07/tax-free-savings-account-tfsa-refresher/

TD FAQ:
http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/invest/tax_free.jsp

Remember:
It is not a savings account per se, it is an INVESTMENT vehicle. You can buy stocks in it (that produce dividends which ARE NOT TAXED).

UPDATE!
http://www.canadiancapitalist.com/2008/11/17/which-tax-free-savings-account-tfsa

The Financial Crisis

...a simple illustration to convey what is going on in the states.


Original Source: Jesse's Cafe Americain

thinkings...

Hat tip to Vicki for both the Sunday Night convo and the scrapbook.

I was reminded of something when we were talking. Sadly, I don't remember the exact quote but I know it is from Vincent Cheung. A paraphrase:

"We must drag the unbeliever kicking and screaming, for he will not come to the Lord willingly."

We often talk about God drawing the sinner to repentance. (John 6:44) I do not dispute that. I do think that we tend to minimize our role in the process. It is God's job to bring the unbeliever. We eliminate the possibility of us being the means to accomplish that end. It reminds me of Romans 11, when Paul is telling the believers in Rome,

"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?" Rom 11:14

Where is the boldness in the proclamation for God? Someone says something insulting to God, we look down and shuffle our feet. Someone brings something that supposedly deflates the existance of God, and we get all flustered. Is not truth on our side?

Oh, but you know Christians aren't supposed to argue. We have to be loving. Is it loving to withhold the gospel message to people? Did not Paul and Barnabas argue with Greek philosophers in Acts?

Oh, well unbelievers are not idiots. They can weigh the information and they'll find God. Romans 1 says otherwise. People do not find God, God finds them. Most people are unwilling to change if left to their own devices.

Oh, well I don't want to look like an idiot. What if I get it wrong or say something misleading? I think this is the most common problem that prevents believers from sharing/arguing. I also think it is a very faulty, very self-oriented excuse. Maybe we're not supposed to win the argument? A temporary loss in battle, to win the overall war?^{1 2}

Whatever the reason, this can go on no longer. We have to put aside the false notions of the day: tolerance, mutual respect, fake love. These things stem from the world and not from God. They will pass away under scrutiny. I know that if athiests, muslims, hindus, etc. were put under the same criticism as Christianty, they would not last a week.

2 Tim 3:12 promises persecution for the godly follower. If you do not see the persecution towards yourself or your Christian brethren, you should seriously examine yourself. It is better to find fault now and repent than arrive at the gates of heaven to learn that God does not know you.

^{1 This is hardly a petition to be ignorant about God. Paul exhorts Timothy to be ready in and out of season. You should be ready at all times, as well. 2 Tim 4:2.
2 In fact, most arguments levied towards Christianity are the same over-used arguments that other Christians have answered. It is out there on the web. The hardest questions I have ever faced have come from other Christians who wanted to understand God more.}

Grow Up!

My latest major contemplative thought is the concept of "growing up". This was further pronounced by my mom's disparaging remarks regarding my Left 4 Dead marathon gameplay. (This will be the last post about L4D). In my frustration, I asked her if I should be spending my time trying to bed foreign women as that would seem more adult-like? She was not amused. Neither was God.

But, what I want to focus on is this: When is someone grown up?

What were the traditional markers? Being married? Owning a home? Kids? These are things that have been pushed back further and further in Western countries. Instead, we have this period of extended adolescence from graduation to high 20's and low 30's where young adults pursue hobbies, careers, loose men and women, etc. It is a time of "soul-searching" which typically involves unbridled hedonism. I do not think it is wise to base any idea off of tradition. It is merely a form of peer pressure.

So are we an adult at 18? or 21? Legally, yes. But, we have all met that special person whom it seems God has shortchanged in the "maturity" department. As well, there are some kids who are more composed than many adults! Furthermore, we still base our assumptions off of subjective criteria that someone somewhere developed!

Where else do we have to go, but the Bible? The first nine chapters of Proverbs is set out like a father teaching his son. Paul speaks to Timothy as a father and mentor in His letters. Some say that Jacob offers a poor example of instilling values upon his sons. Daniel offers an excellent example of a young man who was mature in his dealings, and rose up to become very useful to the various Babylonian kings he served.

BUT! Are we not looking at this with the wrong perspective?

"When will you grow up?" is language designed to "shame" the person into acting a certain way to the approval of the questioner.¹ Are we to modify our behaviour for the praise of men? Do we take value in what we own, who we're married to, and what we're capable of? Or is there something else...?

Our life should be lived for the approval of God. Our value should be derived from knowing that we are sons and daughters of God. And we should grow knowing that faith and maturity are intertwined. We are only "growing up" when we strive to know God.

^{1. I am speaking when it is most often deployed. I am sure there are situations with loved ones who question you for your own well being.}

Great Depression

In case, anyone is wondering why we're not seeing the Depression.

The Coming Great Depression: Leaving Fantasyland

Wall Street Journal commentator Peggy Noonan is undoubtedly not alone is seeing no evidence of Depression in America--yet: Turbulence Ahead:

"One of the weirdest, most perceptually jarring things about the economic crisis is that everything looks the same. We are told every day and in every news venue that we are in Great Depression II, that we are in a crisis, a cataclysm, a meltdown, the credit crunch from hell, that we will lose millions of jobs, and that the great abundance is over and may never return. Three great investment banks have fallen while a fourth totters, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 31% in six months. And yet when you free yourself from media and go outside for a walk, everything looks . . . the same.

Everyone is dressed the same. Everyone looks as comfortable as they did three years ago, at the height of prosperity. The mall is still there, and people are still walking into the stores and daydreaming with half-full carts in aisle 3. Everyone's still overweight.

But the point is: Nothing looks different.

In the Depression people sold apples on the street. They sold pencils. Angels with dirty faces wore coats too thin and short and shivered in line at the government surplus warehouse."

Peg would be well-served by reading up a bit on the Depression's timeline. As noted here last week, (The Coming Great Depression: Scapegoats and Exploitation) the Dow Jones Industrial Average actually recovered in early 1930 to early-1929 levels. (Look for the same this time around, too--DJIA 12,600 is in the cards a few months out, despite all the structural damage to the market and economy.)

Breadlines didn't form in November 1929--the structural damage took years to play out then, and it will take years to play out now. So don't rush things, Peggy--we'll get to a visible Depression soon enough.

Great Depression: (Wikipedia)
The Great Depression was not a sudden, total collapse. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April, though still almost 30 percent below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business actually spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the corresponding period of the previous year. But consumers, many of whom had suffered severe losses in the stock market the previous year, cut back their expenditures by ten percent, and a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the USA beginning in the summer of 1930.

In early 1930, credit was ample and available at low rates, but people were reluctant to add new debt by borrowing. By May 1930, auto sales had declined to below the levels of 1928. Prices in general began to decline, but wages held steady in 1930, then began to drop in 1931. We can already anticipate "ample credit at low rates" in 2009, just as we can also anticipate wages holding steady for awhile even as sales fall. The wheels will fall off later in 2009 and deteriorate further in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Here are the structural realities which have yet to play out:

1. You can't force households or businesses to borrow more money and spend it. Japan's central bank has flooded that nation with liquidity and low interest money for 19 years to little effect.
2. U.S. consumers and corporations are already burdened with staggering debt. Not only can't you force people to borrow more, you also can't force lenders to loan more money to insolvent households and businesses.
3. Whatever money people get their hands on is going to paying down debt and savings. Studies of the first "stimulus package" checks which went out to taxpayers in 2008 revealed that 2/3 of the money was not spent but used to service debt or saved. Future "stimulus checks" will also fail to boost spending; people already have more stuff than they know what to do with.
4. The FIRE economy is dead. Finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) all prospered for one reason: the velocity of transactions and debt instruments. With the volume of transactions off by 2/3 (real estate) or 99% (home equity loans), the FIRE economy is shrinking fast, with no barriers to further declines. With lending standards rising even as real estate values plummet, there is nothing to stop transaction and debt velocity from falling much further.
5. Governments and corporations alike are living with Fantasyland expectations of revenue. I recently pored over the 2009 fiscal year budget of my town of 120,000 people (general fund spending is $135 million, which doesn't include capital projects or bond-funded spending) and was dumbstruck by the insanely unrealistic revenue expectations.

The city expects to reap the same amount of easy money from real estate transfer taxes (1% of any real estate transaction goes to the city) in 2009 as it did in 2007 and 2008: about $11 million.

Huh? As transaction volumes decline by 2/3 and the sales prices plummet, then how can you possibly expect to rake in the same transfer tax revenues?

The downtown shopping district was eerily quiet on Black Friday; empty storefronts are everywhere, and sales are falling even at the town's sales-tax heavyweights, the Toyota and Honda auto dealerships. Yet the city expects to haul in the same sales tax revenue as in 2008. Based on what?

The entire nation is in the grip of massive, total denial that revenues will drop in a recession. Companies are trimming travel costs, as are consumers; San Francisco International Airport was virtually empty on Wednesday, once one of the busiest travel days of the year. Airports almost empty day before Thanksgiving.

"The dreaded Day before Thanksgiving was not so dreadful after all. Bay Area airports were eerily empty for much of what traditionally has been among the busiest travel days of the year.
"There's nobody here," said Deborah Vainieri, who was waiting at San Francisco International Airport with her husband, Humberto, for a flight to Portland. In a plot to beat the crowds, the Vainieris had arrived at the airport four hours early. They walked right up to the check-in machine and were done in less than a minute."

6. If lenders make risky loans, they will go under--and most U.S. households and businesses are no longer creditworthy risks. So there you have it: This conflict cannot be resolved. Lenders who foolishly extend credit to over-indebted, risk-laden borrowers will be paid back with losses and insolvency, yet as lending standards tighten and assets plummet in value, the number of creditworthy borrowers in the U.S. has shrunk.

As noted here many times: many of those who qualify for loans are deadset against debt. That's why they're creditworthy--they've refused to take on huge debt for cultural or fiscal-prudence reasons. They have zero interest in taking on debt, even at zero interest.

You can't force people to borrow money, especially when they're already overloaded with debt, and you can't force prudent people to borrow when they have no need for more property, nor can you force people to buy real estate even as the values continue falling.

7. The U.S. already has too much of everything: too many hotels, malls, office towers, homes, condos, strip-malls, lamps, furniture, CDs, TVs, clothing, etc. As 50 million storage lockers filled to capacity with consumer crap are emptied in a desperate move to reduce expenses and raise cash, the value of literally everything ever manufactured will fall to near-zero.

As noted here many times before, the entire U.S. housing market was held aloft by two anomalies: speculators hoping to "flip" for huge profits, and a "one dwelling for every person" mentality that confused rising population with a rising number of households.

We are already seeing how population can continue rising slowly even as the number of households declines. It's called moving back home, doubling up, renting out a room, etc. There are at least 20 million surplus dwellings in the U.S. right now; there is no need for 700,000 more a year to be built, or even 70,000 more.

The FIRE economy based on transaction and debt volume/velocity: gone, over, toast. Housing market based on speculative flipping and one-person households: over, gone, toast. Loose lending by delusional lenders to risky, over-indebted borrowers: gone, over, toast. Borrowing based on rising real estate values: gone, over, toast.

The notion that we "need" more of anything: gone, over, toast. The idea that you can force lenders to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers: gone, over, toast. The idea you can force people drowning in debt to borrow more: gone, over, toast.

Source

On Gun Control

No One Will Protect You
Vox Day
December 1st 2008

The analysis of the massacres at the Taj Mahal hotel are just getting started. It's still not yet known exactly how many victims there were or how extensive the attackers' preparations were. Some experts believe the al-Qaida bogeyman is to blame; others suspect religious elements of the Pakistani security forces, while India's martial preparations would appear to indicate suspicions of the Pakistani government itself.

But the one thing that is obvious regardless of precisely how the attacks were planned and carried out, it is that governments and their professional agents are totally incapable of assuring individual security against terrorism. This was true in the 1970s when the Baader Meinhof gang was killing businessmen and the Japanese Red Army was shooting up airports. It is just as true today. Not even completely comprehensive surveillance and security is capable of preventing the actions of individuals who do not fear legal consequences; if the reverse were true, there would never have been any crime committed in the totalitarian states of the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China.

Because the government agents responsible for responding to terrorist threats are not machines but individuals who quite reasonably value their own lives, government reactions are always going to be either more widely lethal than the terrorist actions themselves or constrained to a slow process of containment. While the Indian government could have brought the recent incident to a speedy end by ordering the Indian air force to bomb the entire section of Bombay where the attacks took place, the cure would have been worse than the disease. The only alternative was the response that Americans have seen on their televisions time and time again: A small army of police encircling a building while unarmed citizens are slaughtered before their useless show of force.

Even a physical police presence prior to an attack is no insurance of security. Military studies have shown that as many as 70 percent of trained soldiers will not fire their weapons at another human being even in wartime, so the probability is that most police officers will not either. Hence the anger of a photographer who had one of the train-station attackers in his sights, but no weapon more lethal than his camera:

But what angered Mr. D'Souza ... were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

The stories of the Bombay survivors tell of helpless victims hiding for hours before being hunted down and murdered. There were nearly as many people hiding in one toilet cubicle as took part in the attack. If even a tenth part of the unarmed masses in the area had been armed, the siege would have been brought to an end in hours rather than days, saving hundreds of lives. But instead of relying upon themselves, they relied upon the government to protect them and in doing so paid the ultimate price.

The truth is that no one will protect you – not the police, not the part-time security guard, not the staff of whatever business you are patronizing and not the national armed forces. You must take responsibility for protecting yourself, and the only means to do that is to ensure that you are appropriately armed whenever you intend to go out in public regardless of what the local laws might say.

The law cannot abrogate one's right to self-defense; to the extent that it attempts to do so, it is inherently illegitimate and should be ignored. Don't fall for the false assurances of police and others who would prefer to possess a legal monopoly on the means of violence. They exist only to contain the damage and provide the allusion of security as well as post-facto deterrence. They are not there to protect you. No one is.

Source

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Read the embedded article.