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Garmin Forerunner 301

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. The Garmin Forerunner 301 combines a GPS with a heartrate monitor. You can use it for running, walking, bike riding, working or whatever. This seems like a pedometer on steroids. It keeps track of your distance traveled, speed, heart rate, and calories burned. So basically, after going running, I can have a record downloaded via a USB port to my computer showing me how well I did. What really seems cool would be to track improvement over time and to challenge myself to go further faster with fewer rests. A major positive is that it claims to be water resistant which is a must for me because of the massive amounts of sweat that regular pour out of my body when I exercise.

But based on the customer reviews, it seems like I should maybe wait til the next implementation when they can work out the bugs of an inconsistent heartrate monitor and apparently an inaccurate GPS (That's wierd seeing as how it's from Garmin).

So if anybody is looking for a birthday present this might be it. Just kididng. If anybody wants to spend that kind of money on a birthday present, this would be much more appreciated.  I might be looking into getting of these in a future version.

Discount :: Dentalplans.com Discount Dental Plans

Dentalplans.com offers an amazing number of discount dental plans at pretty affordable prices. We looked into getting a regular checkup and a cleaning for the two of us. For less than the price of an exam and cleaning, we were able to sign up for a one-year dental plan which included a free exam and cleaning. So we figured it was a win-win situation. It's not an insurance plan, it's a discount plan. Each different plan has their own dentists. What I would recommend you do is look into what dentist you would like to have, then click the link to the right. You then enter your zip-code and from there you can search the various doctors available and what plans cover them. You will also want to compare the various plans to see which ones best cover the services you will be wanting, but no matter what, the way that I see it, if you are going to even get a checkup and a cleaning, you can't go wrong if you buy a dental plan. At the time of posting this review, Dentalplans.com is offering a free three-month extension to your plan. If you have any experience with dentalplans.com or if you sign up and save, please post your comment below.

"Blessed Are the Meek" by Lloyd Jones

When we realize truly what we have to be, and what we have to do, we become inevitably 'poor in spirit'. That in turn leads to that second state in which, realizing our own sinfulness and our own true nature, realizing that we are so helpless because of the indwelling of sin within us, and seeing the sin even in our best actions, thoughts, and desires, we mourn and we cry out with the great apostle, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But here I say is something which is still more searching -- 'Blessed are the meek'.

Now why is this? Because here we are reaching a point at which we begin to be concerned about other people. Let me put it like this. I can see my own utter nothingness and helplessness face-to-face with the demands of the gospel and the law of God. I am aware, when I am honest with myself, of the sin and evil that are within me and that drag me down. And I am ready to face both these things. But how much more difficult it is to allow other people to say things like this about me! I instinctively resent it. We all...prefer to condemn ourselves than to allow somebody else to condemn us. I say to myself that I am a sinner, but instinctively I do not like anybody else to say I am a sinner.

Audio English Standard Version (ESV) by Max McLean

My favorite English version of the Bible, the ESV, is avaible as the Listener's Bible, to learn more about it. But I would recommend doing what I did and buying it from Amazon. At the time I purchase it and wrote this review, they are each listed for the same price $49.95, but you get Free Shipping from Amazon. Anyway, on to my review:

> Max McLean's voice takes a little while to get used to. I'll be honest, at first it kind of annoyed me. But to have my favorite Bible version in audio makes up for any personal issues I may have with the reader's voice. In fact, after getting used to some of his mannerisms, I appreciate the way that he reads. He reads slowly, which I have read some others complain about. But the way that he reads allows the listener to contemplate and think about what is being heard. In my opinion, the reader is very effective.

In case you might be wondering how you will use this product, let me tell you how I use them. I have put the mp3-format audio files on my iPod and use them for half of my read-through-the-Bible program. I never want to have my only regular exposure to the Bible in audio form and not in written form. So I am always reading/listening from different portions of the Bible at the same time. The way I have it set up, I will read through the Bible at least once in a year and listen through the Bible at least once in a year. I listen while I walk or jog in the morning. If that doesn't give me enough time it is very easy to listen in the car as well. I love listening aloud with my wife because it gives us the opportunity to be exposed to the same scripture at the same time.

These are just suggestions which I hope are helpful. Do it however you like. I do strongly recommend, nevertheless, that you make an audio Bible of whatever your version-of-choice is (I commend the ESV to you for many reason, contact me if you'd like guidance in this) a regular part of your Bible reading time. Inform your conscience with the Word. Why listen to the radio and inform your worldview from a worldly view. Let's fight hard to have God's perspective shown to us in His Word our perspective. The only way that I know to do that is to be prayfully and humbly exposed to massive amounts of Scripture. This is one tool to help you in that regard. I hope this helps.

Libronix Personal Book Builder Books FTP Site

The greatest Bible software in the world, Logos Bible Software, released a nifty little thing called the Libronix Personal Book Builder (PBB) last year. Basically with the book builder, owners of the software can port their own work or public domain works into the Libronix Digital Library System. When I had heard about the release of the book builder when it was still in pre-publication, I thought that surely it would result in an immediate rash of free Libronix books spreading like wildfire throughout cyberspace...no such luck. I was sure that with the wealth of public domain texts already organized formatted in html format at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library a few industrious souls would revolutionize the Libronix world. Nope. Pretty much, until now, the Logos newsgroups were the only centralized place to find the various PBB that are out there.

A few sites had collected their own works (Concordia Theological Seminary, John McComb's site, and others), but nothing centralized. Thomas Black has set up an ftp site (a little hard to access sometimes) that has a compilation of all the personal books he knows of so far. This is the closest thing that I know of that we have to a centralized repository of PBB books. Thanks, Tom.

Business for the Glory of God by Wayne Grudem

I had never really thought about it, but I guess--even though it is contrary to my longing and belief that God can be and is glorified through all of the Christian's life--that I had always just assumed that business wasn't good in and of itself. In fact like Grudem asserts of those who are like I was, we believe, "that from a moral perspective [profit, competition, money, and business are] 'neutral' at best." I guess that when I was pursuing a degree in engineering, I thought that I could glorify God through it by sharing the gospel at the work place, earning enough money to free my wife up to be a stay-at-home mom, and being able to give more money to the church. But Grudem's view is so much balanced and biblical than these views, exposing my blindness that would have kept me from obeying 1 Corinthians 10:31, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do (including business), do all for the glory of God." (On a side not to 1 Cor 10:31, read "How to Drink Orange Juice to the Glory of God," chapter 5 of John Piper's book, Pierced by the Word.)

The topics in which Grudem covers in this book, with a chapter devoted to each one are:
How God is glorified by...
1. Ownership
2. Productivity
3. Employment
4. Commercial Transactions
5. Profit
6. Money
7. Inequality of Possessions
8. Competition
9. Borrowing and Lending

and he then includes two chapters on
10. Attitudes of Heart
11. Effects on World Poverty.

Grudem is not blind to the abuses of business, the ways in which we idolize money and success and become gracious losing sight of the fact that we are operating with God's stuff not ours. He regularly comments throughout the book on concerns to balance the view, but the real wealth of attitude-changing information comes from not-often-talked-about fact that business can in-and-of-itself be glorifying to God. We don't have to feel "vaguely guilty" about business but can use it to both glorify God while we're doing it and advance the Kingdom through it.

My only complaint is the size of the book, and for that I wish I could give it four-and-a-half stars. The book is really small (83 pages of text) and oftentimes when it seems like he is just beginning to develop a thought or when a proposition could use a little more defense, he needs to move on to the next topic of discussion. However, he can be excused because he has let the reader know that he is working on a larger edition saying in the preface, "The Bible says much about these topics, and a thorough treatment deserves a much larger book than this, one that I am still in the process of writing."

In summary, if you are in business or are a student studying or considering studying business, read this book. It should have a profound and God-glorifying effect (if read as it is written and not taken as a license to idolize business or success and withhold God's grace from people) on your life, studies, and career.

Soli deo gloria.

Sex And the Supremacy of Christ!

Piper said, based on the conviction that beholding, seeing, and savoring Christ as the blazing and glorious center to our solar system of existence, holding all of the planets—including the planet of our sexuality—in place in their perfectly designed orbits. We distort God’s gifts, especially our sexuality, when we do not consider Christ supremacy in all things. He claims in the first sermon that knowledge of God guards and guides our sexuality. He says that for a small heart satisfied with small things small lusts will have large power, but for a heart satisfied with the supremacy of Christ in all things, small lusts will have small power.
Therefore, in his second sermon on Sex and the Supremacy of Christ (the conference site can be found here; I strongly recommend that you go and get all of the sermons and prayfully listen to them) he says:

Meakness by William Hendriksen

Expounding Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are the meak for they shall inherit the earth" Hendriksen says,

"Yet meekness is not weakness. Meekness is not spinelessness, the characteristics of the person who is ready to bow before every breeze. It is submissiveness under provocation, the willingness rather to suffer than to inflict injury. The meek person leaves everything in the hand of him who loves and cares."

Matthew 5:3-11 :: Do the Beatitudes Describe All Christians or Just a Select Few?

The Question

Are the beatitudes a description of all Christians or just a select few among the Christians? There are two questions underlying this question:

1. What defines a Christian?
2. To what degree must these qualities / characteristics / traits define a person before they are "blessed" in the Beatitude way?

Almost free Pampers Diapers, Buy diapers on Amazon.com get $30 back

Simply spend $79 or more on Pampers products offered by Amazon.com between June 1 and June 30, 2005, and they will e-mail you a promotional certificate for $30 between August 11 and August 25, 2005. This offer applies only to single orders of $79 or more consisting of products offered by Amazon.com. It does not apply to products sold on our site by third-party merchants or through third-party areas such as Amazon.com Marketplace, Auctions, or zShops.

The promotional certificate will contain a code good toward the purchase of products offered by Amazon.com. After receiving the promotional code by e-mail, you will have 30 days to apply it toward a purchase. Your promotional code will expire on September 26, 2005.

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4. Important: All purchases must be made in a single order placed between June 1 and June 30, 2005.
5. If you do not cancel your order or return items that qualified for the promotion, they will e-mail you a promotional code between August 11 and August 25, 2005, redeemable for $30 off your next purchase of products offered by Amazon.com. The promotional code will be sent to the e-mail address with which you placed the order.