Gearing up for another great month of reading for July. I picked this man of God - RC Sproul to be my teacher by reading his work. I definitely would love to discover some intellectual nuggets from his Godly wisdom through his writings. Great stuff!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Book 4 To Read for the Month of July 2010
Another work by RC Sproul - "Essential Truths of the Christian Faith."
Book 2 To Read for the Month of July 2010
Picking the brain of one of our generation's man of God. RC Sproul - "What is Reformed Theology?"
Book 1 To Read for the Month of July 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
News Feed, Friend Requests and Hours Spent on Facebook
News Feed, Friend Requests and Hours Spent on Facebook
Since Facebook open it gates to everyone ages 13 and older with a valid email address in October 2008, there has been millions who are currently using the services of this social networking site. Many users have integrated this site into their daily practices and for some, their day is not complete without taking a peek on their account’s main page or clicking on “most recent” to post their “likes” or comments.
Wikipedia (online free encyclopedia) defines social networking sites as a service that focuses on building and reflecting on social networks or social relations among people who shares the same interests and/or activities. This allows the user to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks. It is also a way to communicate with friends and relatives through messages and real time chats. There is no doubt in my mind that Facebook caters to a diverse group of users all over the world and in different languages that connects people together. While I do not question the benefits of using this site, I just wonder if one user should use discipline and discretion on the amount of time he or she will spend navigating through this site.
In January 2009, Compete.com, an online site that analyzes online company’s data and use them to help their clients in their marketing strategies, ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users. With its easy to use features and real time updates on user’s news feed page, no wonder it is the mostly used and most popular social networking site for this generation. There is no question that people continue to gravitate towards this site. In August 2009, Nielsen Online, an online research company that provides measurement and analysis of online audiences as one of their main services, reported that users spent 5 hours and 46 minutes on an average every time they sit in front of the computer and open their Facebook account. I can equate this amount of time to 2 trips to the grocery store, a complete cleaning of a 2 storey house, a complete round of golf, one-way trip to California, several chapters of reading on my favorite book, watching 2 movies on DVD back to back, and more.
There is no doubt in my mind that millions of users are benefitting from using Facebook to connect with their friends and families every day. It is also a great means to get updated on what your in-network friends are up to now a day including reading about their inner thoughts sometimes, but let us not forget of some of the issues that plague large online networking services such as; too much personal information can pave the way to the threat of sexual predators, data theft, and computer viruses. Also, one of the common misuses of social networking site is that it is sometimes used to emotionally abuse individuals. This is called trolling, where confrontation in real world are translated online. Since there is not many limitations what an individual can post when online, whether offensive words or pictures, these can cause a great deal of emotional pain for another individual.
In conclusion, as far as individual users limiting their use of Facebook, it is really up to their discretion. Facebook is supposed to bring people together by being a tool to communicate with friends and love ones, but when a user cannot balance the use of Facebook and family life, ministry, and school, one need to re-evaluate his or her priorities - my humble opinion.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition. The spirit of war is at the extremely opposite point to the spirit of the gospel.Yet nevertheless, the church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the church militant, the church armed, the church warring, the church conquering. And how is this?
It is in the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth in this world if it were not a warring thing, and we should at once suspect that it were not true if error were friends with it. The spotless purity of truth must always be at war with the blackness of heresy and lies.
----- C. H. Spurgeon
John Macarthur's book - "The Truth War" opens up with the above quote from Spurgeon.
"Who would have thought that people claiming to be Christians - even pastors - would attack the very notion of truth? But they are." Macarthur's introduction for his book titled -"Why Truth Is Worth Fighting For."
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